Unfounded Criticism Met with Resilient Response: Confio Addresses Terra Community Proposal #4743 “Halt Confio Funding”
Outlining series of events
May 2020: Terra becomes one of the first CosmWasm-integrated blockchains
Dec 2021–2022: TFL sponsored Confio $50k for maintaining CosmWasm without strings attached
Feb 2023: Confio announced to halt CosmWasm work due to a financial crisis, and one day after, the Terra community submitted a proposal to support Confio, the fastest action taken in the CosmWasm ecosystem
Mar 2023: Confio secured the funding for 2023 and resumed Public Goods work, the Terra community proposal was moving on chain and mentioned in the announcement
May 2023: Terra community proposal to support Confio $60k/month passed and moved on-chain
June 2023: Confio received 100 LUNA test payment + 46000 LUNA from Terra (worth $28k instead of $60k due to a drop in token value)
July 2023: Confio received 46000 LUNA from Terra
July 30th, 2023: We were informed about the forum post, and Simon Warta immediately explained that we were unavailable due to vacation
Aug 7th, 2023: The proposal to halt Confio funding was submitted. This day, Misang requested a call to the proposer right after coming back from 2 weeks’ vacation in the TG group chat set up by them upon invitation but received no response. Instead, they moved it on-chain directly.
Aug 14th, 2023: Above proposal passed
Confio’s Answers to the Terra Community Proposal #4743 “Halt Confio Funding”
Please take a look at the original proposal to fund Confio and the one to halt funding.
You will see the below rationale for halting Confio funding:
- Terra logo was not added to the CosmWasm website as a sponsor
- Confio is building Mesh Security, which has conflicts of interest with Alliance that Terra is building
- No specific tech support was required from the core Terra team
- Confio is sharing general tech updates not Terra-specific ones
- Responsiveness through CosmWasm Discord is limited, and Ethan Frey is taking sabbatical
And here are our responses to the above:
1. Logo: We missed the request to put Terra’s logo in the CosmWasm sponsors section of the website and are very sorry for that. This is our fault and happened during a very stressful time. We fixed this issue and announced it publicly right away, as we have felt grateful for the support from Terra all the way. However, we don’t think this small mistake should matter in a relationship between Confio and Terra which has been 4 years of a good partnership.
2. Alliance/Mesh Security: Confio is a technology provider building Mesh Security for customers coordinated by the Osmosis Foundation and Osmosis Grants Program, which means a paid-consulting work. This proposer criticizes Confio for building Mesh Security, but it is not our role to promote one technology over the other. Mesh Security pushes the boundaries of what can be done with CosmWasm and thus benefits every CosmWasm developer and chain. Most importantly, again, the project is independent of our Public Goods offering, and it is funded separately. Confio’s income has been mainly donations/grants for building Public Goods and occasionally paid consulting work. Mesh Security is one of the latter.
3&4. Deliverables: the original proposal was about supporting Confio’s Public Goods efforts while ensuring Terra’s requests are heard. Asking what we have done for Terra is not in line with the spirit of the proposal. But the answer is we
- built CosmWasm 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 for Terra and other users,
- fixed and deployed important security issues for Terra and other users,
- planned CosmWasm 2.0 for Terra and other users,
- hosted the first-ever CosmWasm developer conference for Terra and other users.
5. Responsiveness: We have a direct communication channel to both TFL and Confio Enterprise DAO (PFC — Panama Flower Company and Vini). If Terra prefers a different communication channel, they should let us know. Also, we would like to get a contact partner appointed since we cannot know who has which role in the Terra ecosystem. This had already been raised by Ethan Frey as well in May in the Twitter Spaces to gatekeep the tech requests on Terra's side, so not everyone is asking for ‘XYZ.’ But just to be clear, this was a nice gesture from Confio, a good intention not a ‘pre-requisite’ condition to break the funding.
Ethan’s leaving for a sabbatical: While it is true that Ethan is not working in Confio at this point, this cannot be the reason to halt funding for maintaining CosmWasm work. Ethan Frey was the architect who built CosmWasm, but Confio has great developers who have been maintaining it with cutting-edge tech expertise. One of the biggest benefits of setting up and hiring a company is spreading knowledge and having people who take over responsibilities and fill gaps. You can hire individual devs for small and fun, exciting projects, but Confio is here to provide production-grade quality software over a long period of time.
The proposal's author knew that Simon Warta (General Manager) and Misang Ryu (VP of Sales) were on vacation and did not take the time to have a proper conversation when they returned. Instead, he decided to proceed with an on-chain proposal.
Yes, in Confio, people take well-deserved holidays because we want to recharge instead of burning out and leaving the ecosystem.
Next Step
While we acknowledge the potential benefits of resuming Terra community funding through a formal proposal, it is essential to recognize the associated challenges and the inherent uncertainty in this approach.
At this juncture, we find ourselves transitioning into a phase of refining our business model. This evolved strategy entails clearly defined counterparties as legal entities and a robust framework for deliverables to secure recurring income for Confio.
We envision a direct communication channel with TFL and will gladly explore future collaboration. We recognize the enduring value of our partnership, which has thrived since its inception in late 2021. Despite recent challenges, we believe in the strength of our relationship and the positive impact it continues to bring to the Terra ecosystem.
