Signalling Proposal - Create an Alternative L1 Team ran by Notional Labs

MOTIVATION & AIMS:
The goal of this proposal is a simple one. To help ensure the survival of our blockchain and our community. As of recent, a multitude of grave concerns with the security of our chain have come to light, thanks to Jacob Gadikian, CEO of Notional Labs. He sounded the alarm that Allnodes was in control of the seed phrase of the validator wallets of each of it’s customers, creating a risk vector that was so big where if Allnodes were ever to be hacked by a malicious actor (or already has been hacked over the past 8 months), that hacker would be able to do whatever they wanted to the blockchain. They could drain funds, manipulate oracle prices, unbond other validators, anything. Whoever controls the consensus controls the chain, and the fact that Allnodes controlled the seedphrase of these compromised validators put the chain at severe risk of having it’s consensus violated.

That’s a big issue in itself. But an even bigger issue that has arisen from this is the fact that the L1 Task Force, particularly Tobias Anderson (Zaradar), has refused to acknowledge this as the risk to the chain that it is, and has misrepresented information to investors in an effort to try and calm the community and give them a false sense of peace and security. To be blunt, he is lying to the community.

The wider cosmos ecosystem has taken notice of this behaviour from Tobias, and they are slowly withdrawing away from involvement with the Terra Classic chain as they are capable of doing something Tobias seems to be incapable of doing: Acknowledging this for the huge risk to the chain and the wider cosmos that it actually is. Tobias’ inability to see reason and acknowledge the reality that’s directly in front of him about this risk has caused Mr. Gadikian and Notional to withdraw from the L1 Task Force and the wider LUNC community, as the security of our chain and it’s supposed “leadership” has been put into severe doubt.

In under a month, the L1 Task Force Has:

  1. Seen the departure of PFC for the Community Oversight role being nothing more then a vanity role meant to try and pacify the community and give them a false sense of control
  2. Failed to communicate properly with validators in regards to the matter of the pending 1.0.5 and provide strong details on why it is now a state breaking change when it wasn’t a state breaking change before, which has brought the integrity of the entire release into doubt and caused validators to hold back on wanting to upgrade until the release is looked at in more detail due to the current conduct of the L1 Task Force.
  3. Had leadership downplay a defacto security risk to the chain and created a mess that non-compromised validators have had to clean up as they’ve had to chase down compromised validators that have refused to remake their validator and validator wallets to secure the chain, with those compromised validators often citing Tobias’ words as reason enough for them to not take their responsibility to secure the chain for their delegators and themselves seriously.
  4. The above of which has ultimately led to the departure of Jacob Gadikian from the L1 Task Force, the second member and skilled developer and validator to leave in under a month; and caused a dramatic loss of the credibility of the Terra Classic blockchain in the wider cosmos ecosystem.
  5. Put the chain at risk of losing what is currently it’s only relayer (Notional) and has endangered our IBC connections to other chain due to the lack of credibility in regards to the chain’s security, which limits our potential access to liquidity from the wider cosmos ecosystem and harms the community’s efforts to revive the chain.

As a community, we can’t afford to tolerate a single point of failure by paying for a L1 Task Force that’s leadership not only publicly complains about their compensation and continually insults the very community that is paying for them, but also continues to push for more compensation while also providing back very little (or negative) value to the community and seems more content to continue posting on Twitter and holding pointless AMAs that last for hours instead of doing the programming work that the chain actually needs.

The only sane conclusion for us to move forward and work to secure our chain and rebuild trust that has been lost within the wider cosmos ecosystem is for us to try and create and incentivize multiple L1 teams to help work on our chain, while diminishing our involvement with the current L1 Task Force since their leadership’s actions around this security risk to the chain have conveyed an alarming lack of understanding about how Cosmos works, have brought their entire competency and ability to handle the tasks at hand into question, and have harmed our chain and it’s investors.

WE PROPOSE:
That we have Jacob Gadikian, the CEO of Notional Labs provide us with a proposal for how his team would identify and approach solving the issues that are currently present in the chain, across security, technological, and parity based vectors; particularly with a focus on helping to secure the blockchain and eliminating current technical debt to achieve parity with the wider Cosmos ecosystem and help to set up a strong foundation for Terra Classic to build off of for the future instead of arguing about the past.

If Jacob were to be interested in pursuing this route and working with the community to help secure the chain, then upon receipt of Notional’s proposal the community would review the proposal as a traditional vendor proposal, and upon approval from the community Notional would embark upon the work needed to properly secure the chain for the future and do the work that the current L1 Task Force is refusing and seemingly incapable of doing.

The proposal he put forth should include (but is not limited to):

  • Timeline
  • Scope of Work
  • Milestones
  • Cost Breakdown
  • Roles and Responsibilities
  • Key point of contacts
  • Clearly defined goals and benefits of proposed actions

Delivery:

  1. Submit the offer to Agora for a minimum 1 week’s worth of discussion.
  2. Post amendments based on feedback if needed, keep in active contact.
  3. Submit for a governance vote (this can be expedited if Notional Team doesn’t hold any LUNC).

Timeframe:

  1. Current L1 Task Force funding lapses in 2 months.
  2. The submitted offer to be voted on before the above funding for the L1 Task Force lapses.
  3. If the offer by Notional Labs to the Terra Classic community is passed, Notional will embark on their work in parallel, separate from the L1 Task Force.

By voting YES - You agree that Jacob Gadikian and Notional have provided value to Terra Classic and will continue to do so, and that the chain needs the help of an additional L1 Team outside of the L1 Task Force to help secure the chain’s future from being destroyed by external bad actors due to the security vulnerabilities Allnodes has introduced into the chain as a result of their business practices, and to finally solve problems that have been plaguing the chain for far too long.

By voting NO - You think things are fine as they are, and you do are okay with the current level of to the chain if it’s consensus were to be violated by an external bad actor and funds were to be stolen and the chain were to be killed, and that the current misconduct of the L1 Task Force, particularly in it’s misrepresentation of the risk that currently exists to the chain has been acceptable and has been in the best interests of the community and not themselves.

By voting ABSTAIN - You have no particular strong thoughts on the matter either way, and are fine with the current level of risk that your investments are currently under.

By voting NO WITH VETO - You are vehemently against the entire premise of this proposal.

Signed,
Bilbo Baggins
Mpowski

10 Likes

I am deeply worried that the lead of the project, Tobias Andersen, is disregarding serious safety warnings and being dismissive with a sarcastic attitude. He and his supporters are disregarding any opposing opinions. I would like to question what Tobias has been actually contributing besides spending his day posting unproductive comments on Twitter. Owning 2una does not justify his actions of potentially jeopardizing the project for personal gain.

I’m all in for a competent L1Team, YES!

5 Likes

this proposal is fantastic, I agree with majority of the crucial points though I do have some questions.

did Zaradar go into any in depth detailed specifics and proving the chain is safe and not at risk to the community and investors? I could not find any details explaining why it’s safe, just only his personal viewpoints.

has the L1 task force shown any current progress? for the most part I have just seen mostly the L1 team was more focused on governance issues rather than actual L1 issues, which for me, does not really bode well, Jacobs withdrawal from the L1 task for does indeed paint a bad picture.

overall, I whole heartedly agree with this proposal, we just cannot afford to lose good developers especially at critical moment.

Jacob Gadikian is a developer who found a security breach to the chain and sounded the alarms, only to be ridiculed by another developer who has a big following in the community as well as being a favorite to some of the other bigger validators, was treated unjustly I believe.

seeing everyone working together would of course be the perfect road to take, but here we are, and if the perfect road is not an option, then I would rather have a better and more competent L1 team for the future and security of the chain.

4 Likes

Easy ‘No with veto’. I don’t think it’s even necessary to explain the reasons. Another clownish proposal. Another attempt to cling to the words and create a drama. It’s also a great idea to completely entrust the L1 development to an unstable person who can say ‘I’m leaving the chain’ at any moment. I would suggest the authors leave the chain together with Notional if you can’t stand Z(he is also an ass in this conflict).

7 Likes

NO with veto

5 Likes

So you would rather have 1 plan that has issues than to choose from 2 or more and pick the best one, right?

Could you please share the reasons behind your perspective and provide some arguments to support your point of view? I would appreciate a well-reasoned and articulate explanation instead of calling this proposal “clownish”.

Is the L1TF responsible for how validators decide how/where to run their nodes.?

2 Likes

100% No with a veto.

4 Likes

Jacob is not a L1 developer. He has experience of running/leading a team.
He also has experience running his mouth.

We already have one such L1 team, yet with the exception that besides having big mouths, they do have the skills to back it up with.

Another cheap publicity stunt for Nova val?

1 Like

@Tonu_Magi
Do you properly understand the risk that exists to the chain if consensus gets violated as a result of Allnodes’ business practices? It doesn’t matter what voting power Nova gets if the chain is destroyed. I’m not the only validator saying this. Stop assuming intent here and start paying attention to what I’m actually trying to tell you.

3 Likes

The question isn’t if a threat exists. It does.
Same as our chain would be in jeopardy if a whale or say a group of whales decided to buy up majority delegation rights.

Don’t need a validator to simply veto everything or propose their own narrative and vote “Yes” on it.

Instead of detailing the issue, JG and Zaradar both decided to start flinging poop at each other publicly, with the excuse being that the threat exists.

This proposal is apeing in on the same trend. Working on the same end goal of creating more division.
Playing out Twilight fantasies on Agora, Bilbo? Really.

3 Likes

@Tonu_Magi
Do you realize I’ve been spending the entirety of the past week chasing down compromised influencer validators that are currently refusing to remake their validators and are lying to their delegators about their validators being compromised, as a result of Tobias’ words downplaying the threat to the chain that currently exists?

The facts are simple. You said it yourself. A threat to the chain exists. Tobias is refusing to acknowledge it as the threat that it is. Jacob has left the L1 Team but still cares about Terra Classic. The wider Cosmos ecosystem is backing away from the Terra Classic chain because of this situation. Proposing an additional L1 Team to actually work on the threat to the chain since the current L1 Team that we do have refuses to acknowledge it for the threat that it is, is not creating more division. It is seeking to solve the problem and remove the threat to the chain entirely because our current L1 Team is refusing to do so.

What about this isn’t getting through to you?

3 Likes
  • You chasing down anyone is irrelevant to proposal at hand. Your first mentions of contacting Allnodes happened some few hours ago in Discord.

  • Threat does exist. Changing L1 teams mid-course changes nothing since it’s not L1 team that owns nor runs the service from Allnodes.

  • You are putting all L1 team into the same narrative you are trying to push. While each of them has their own view and opinion about the urgency of this threat.

  • NotionalDao has member(s) still in L1TF team, according to Ed. Due to your logic that if one speaks on Twitter, they speak for all L1 - then NotionalDao team (par JG) is already contaminated and “refuses to see threat”.

All in all - you are not doing any service to the chain with this proposal, since you aren’t actually trying to solve the issue of how Allnodes (and in the future - any validator!) doesn’t end up in this situation.

This isn’t solved by recreating L1 team spearheaded by a dude who:

  • Raises an issue by targeting another member. Not because of the issue itself, but since he disagreed with another members views.
  • Provides yet-another-dose-of-daily-drama and with that - harms the chains reputation.
  • A team ran by a man who vouches not to leave the chain, yet 12 hours after his own tweets reveals that this chain is not profitable enough for him and he leaves it entirely. Screw you guys, I’m out.

Then you create a proposal for Team Jacob since his views are shared by you intimately.
Yet neither of you are actually actively trying to fix the situation or come up with a solution that same situation can not come to pass, but are using multiple outlets at hand to…recreate L1 team since they didn’t show enough distress towards the issue?

It makes no sense! If a bicycle has bent front wheel - you change the wheel or you go and buy a new bicycle?

5 Likes

I agree with most of this proposal in principle but do not think there is enough understanding in the wider community to make it pass.

I believe the best way forward would be to restore the Task Force to how it was in the beginning.

I have a lot of respect for Ed and Frag_dude seems nice and sensible, I do believe Jacob should be part of the L1 Task Force.

Zaradar I do not have confidence in at all, not his skills as a developer but his attitude and conduct specifically on Twitter. He would rather go down with a sinking ship than admit he was wrong. Instead of accepting his comments were wrong which the wider Cosmos do not agree with he has consistently argued from various points, now even challenging Jacob and LUNCDAO to acts of altruism.

2 Likes

Agree. Easy no with veto for me + Redelegate away from @NovaValidator

3 Likes

Absolutely a No for me.

4 Likes

NO with veto

3 Likes

Short answer: No with veto.
Enough with politics.
Seriously, show us here all the commits made by every person you’ve mentioned in your post. Ideally, start right after the crash until today. As a side note, last month those people were paid for their work full-time, as L1 developers not tweeting 24/7.
Sorry, but leaving a 1B chain in the hands of a bunch of “kids” has no future. The outcome will be many people leave for more professional projects. No one has time for this bullshit, only people with a lot of free time.

4 Likes

What I would like to see is simply a plan by Jacob that outlines the risks he identified and how he would see them fixed from a position of an L1 developer. The L1 team did not allow that discussion to take place. It should have been. I want to see what is the risk according to him and what can we do to solve it. Plain and simple.

Imo these 2 possible approaches shouldve been presented to us, stakers straight away. It is us who should decide which way to go (governance).

Same time again, seems we paid people money and they felt empowered above the governace process and tried to take actions without

1 Like