Grace Team Update
Ever since we announced the GRCE token sale, we have received a lot of support and positive feedback. We would like to first take the opportunity to thank all of you for that!
Behind the scenes, the team has been working around the clock to prepare for the upcoming token sale, as well as the alpha version of the web 3.0 platform.
We would like to point out that, among all the interesting discussions about how Grace can improve the existing nonprofit sector, a question comes up from time to time: who is behind Grace?
When we first announced the Grace project, our team information was made public.
However for some of our team members, the information they could provide to the public are limited — they are still under a binding non-compete agreement with their previous employers, and we wanted to avoid the possibility that their previous employers would drag them into an audit process, to prove their compliance with the agreement.
Important note: The entire Grace team is in full compliance with all outstanding binding agreements; we only wanted to completely minimize the possibilities of having one or more of our team members go through the audit process(es) in general, because that would quite significantly slow down the development process of Grace. At this stage, being able to move full steam ahead is crucial to the long term success of the project and to the realization of our vision to change the industry. We simply can’t risk it.
This led us to the releasing of team information that are 100% true, but were also somewhat confusing to people. Therefore we later took the suggestions from some of our community members, to go partially anonymous. We understand this is a somewhat atypical approach, but it is a small sacrifice we have to make.
We would certainly love to meet you, but in light of this dilemma, the most practical approach is to remove all potential unnecessary obstacles that would hinder our progress. But fret not! As soon as the last of the binding periods end in early 2018, we will once again make all of our team members’ information public, as well as host a AMA session on reddit to address any questions you may have.
Transparency is important, but in this particular context transparency alone won’t help us deliver social impact. Some people think knowing the basic information about a team is helpful when evaluating a crowdsale/ ICO, with an assumption that the information is somewhat helpful in gauging the team’s intent and the likelihood of scams.
Reality is, other than the celebrity All-Star teams (eg. the BAT team), in most cases published team information reveal quite little. For those of you who are skeptical, your skepticism is not ungrounded. But if your concern is that we’re going to disappear with the raised funds and leave those in need suffer, do note that almost all of the known ICO scams have published their team information. And in any case, putting up a convincing fake Linkedin profile can be done in a matter of minutes.
On the other hand, we think there are much more meaningful ways to gauge the efficacy and authenticity of the Grace team. For example:
- The Grace platform is designed to be largely community governed, meaning the community drives the major development decisions.
- The incentive package for Grace developers is locked until a fully functional platform is delivered, and by that point the network will already be at least mostly autonomous. Further developer involvements are minimal.
- Most raised funds and revenue go into the community reserve, which the Grace team has no access to.
- Our proprietary smart contract source code will be made public as soon as they are ready.
We try our very best to be as responsive and thoughtful as possible in addressing any concerns you may have. We welcome all questions about Grace and the nonprofit sector, and we aim to address every critical feedback head on instead of dodging them.
Any worthy venture and attempt to improve the status quo is by definition risky. Having already committed countless hours and resources into the project, we are determined to bring Grace to fruition and we would love all of you to be part of the journey to revolutionizing social good!.
The Grace Team
