SecretDAO votes to restructure foundation after public spat between organizations

The decentralized autonomous organization that governs privacy-focused blockchain Secret Network has voted to restructure its foundation as a nonprofit with a “transparent operation,” according to the proposal’s official page.

Congrats to the #SecretNetwork community! The Secret Foundation has been restructured as an NPO, with a community-elected board & amendments requested by the founder. #blockchain #cryptocurrency

— Krypton AI (@KryptonAi) February 10, 2023

The proposal states that the new foundation “will be registered as an NPO [nonprofit organization] and provide an annual account of its activities, including key performance indicators (KPIs), budgets, and goals.” The foundation will be run by a board made up of three or more community members. No single organization will be allowed to hold more than two seats on the board, according to the proposal.

It passed with 90.13% of the vote. 9.87% of the DAO abstained from the vote, and no members voted against the proposal.

The approval came after a public feud broke out between SCRT Labs and Secret Foundation, two separate organizations supporting Secret Network. On Jan. 14, SCRT Labs CEO Guy Zyskind accused Secret Foundation CEO Tor Bair of cashing out SCRT tokens as a dividend paid out to himself and not disclosing the transaction.

Bair denied the allegation, claiming that the dividends were part of his regular salary and were disclosed as required. Even so, Bair agreed that the foundation needed to be more transparent, stating:

“I have communicated privately and publicly on multiple occasions about my desire to be a part of that change, which could include restructuring the Foundation entity, more closely supporting Secret Agency, establishing a global board, or other next steps. We firmly support this path and wish to work in close coordination with other network actors.”

Despite Bair’s public support for a restructuring plan, one major validator of the Secret Network announced on Jan. 30 that it was shutting down due to “recent events” and other issues.

The restructuring proposal was created on Feb. 2. Voting began immediately and continued for seven days. According to the proposal, the DAO intends to have the new Secret Foundation up and running within 90 days o passage.