This sort of behavior is not limited to Optimism. There are various large groups who seem to do this sorta “service” across the board. They offer influence for grants in exchange for a percentage of the money raised. From an outsider’s perspective it looks nothing short of corruption as usual but given how openly it happens I am a bit shocked that none of the large DAOs that grant funds have caught on.
I want to recommend that the DAO hire a 3rd party investigator to look into these “public goods” organization before we continue to allow DAOs to be used as cash cows by them. In particular, there has been a recent spike of recipients of “Public Goods” that have absolutely no track record of doing any good yet by some miracle and with the use of the right charm have managed to walk away with tens of thousands of dollars.
One instance in particular comes from members that are backed by ETH foundation in South America who have crafted a clever way of raising money for groups and requiring those groups to spend most if not all of it to hire them. And now it seems they are gaming the system to their advantage with no end in sight.
We should all be asking ourselves:
- What is the extent of this sorta behavior?
- What other places/ protocols are also granting them money (ENS, ARBITRUM, etc…)?
- What is their actual track record of doing public goods before and after receiving grants?
- How effective have they used their funding in the past?
I’ve kept a close eye on the ecosystem for some time now and I agree that humans make mistakes. But let us not be blind to the facts. The fact is that DAOs are systems and those systems are being played like a guitar by a select few for the long term benefit of a select few in the name of “Public goods”.
I call for a private investigation by a third party because it is hard to determine the extent of the influences and quid pro quo of the dealings. As a person who worked at an enforcement agency in the past, these dealings do look criminal in nature.