Noob question: Is the community and users funding the ICF and/or the grants? (i.e. with fees)
If true, I would say those funds should be spent with consensus of the community.
If false, then it’s just some people’s money, and I don’t really have a say on that. IMHO.
This is a nice topic showing where we as Cosmos-ecosystem can improve.
As ecosystem where interoperability is already a standard, each project can have its own chain to be able to determine how they want it to work and all the freedom and cooperation which exists we are in the driversseat in terms of becoming one of THE ecosystems of the future.
Along with that potential comes the “responsibility” to live up to the intentions why blockchain was started in the first place; namely transparency, control over your own funds and decentralisation.
On all fields we can improve. Some chains already show that when shit hits the fan your funds are not necessarily your funds anymore. Decentralisation is a topic discussed by other initiatives.
For this specific discussion I think it is best to focus on the transparency part, since that also limits the pros and cons.
With respect to the validator commissions I agree with the majority here. What a validator does with the commission is something to be decided by the validator her- or himself.
But with respect to transparency how commissions are distributed is desired / a must-have. But is must also be actively managed. Remove validators who stop adding value, add new ones which start adding value, stimulate new parties, etc. And that seems to be lacking currently. This is not only bad for helping validators, but also how it looks like.
I agree with @onivalidator that a clear statement with the intention is a good starting point from where we can grow together further.
@mpg we have a nice group of interested people in here who want to think along with the information to be provided. Might be a good one to do a pre-share in here to also signal the willingness to get out of this stronger together with the community, the validators and ICF as one front.