Arbitrum DAO rejects early-contributor funding proposal in current form

The Arbitrum DAO has rejected a proposal to fund early community members, with those voting against it generally recommending that it be reworked.

Initially put forward on Oct. 10, the proposal recommended allocating 500,000 ARB ($535,000) to 24 early community members, known by their role in the Arbitrum Discord as "Arbiters." The funds would reward them for their work providing community support and helping to prevent scams — which are rife in Discord.

On Dec. 4, the proposal was defeated with 104.6 million votes against and just 52.3 million in favor. The largest token holders voting against the proposal were the gaming community Treasure DAO, crypto data tracking site L2Beat and airdrop hunter Olimpio.

Treasure DAO said it was unable to support the proposal because of a lack of information on the contributions and a detailed breakdown of how the funding amount was calculated. "In summary, while we share the principle of rewarding contributors, we believe the proposal requires amendments to address critical concerns raised by various delegates and the community," it said.

Olimpio expressed similar thoughts, asking for more transparency. "It would greatly help the voting and decision-making process if the proposals could outline concrete actions taken by Arbiters, with links and real-world examples," they said.

As for L2Beat, it said that the funding amount was too large. "With that in mind, and while we understand that the contributions Arbiters made were more open-ended and it’s way more difficult to measure the impact they had, we feel there’s a discrepancy between the 20,000 ARB and the value delivered in each case," it said. L2Beat noted that it would support a proposal for a smaller amount.