Matt, first, on behalf of the Prop 72 committee, we want to thank you for bringing this to the attention of Cosmos Hub stakeholders.
Prop 72 was a novel experiment in leveraging Cosmos governance for on-chain funding. Like any experiment, we hit bumps along the road and, despite the net success of the effort, there were undoubtedly shortcomings.
The decision making process and communication surrounding whether to fund EntryPoint would fall into the latter category.
We wholeheartedly agree that on-chain / multisig governance leaves a lot to be desired, and that more rigorous decision-making and communication processes need be in place for future Community Pool funding efforts.
With respect to grant funding for EntryPoint, we acknowledge there could have been improvements in process / communication. For example, when we reached out to the EntryPoint team to ask for a detailed summary of EntryPoint’s value proposition so that Cosmos Hub stakeholders could review it and offer their feedback, we could’ve set a deadline and worked closer with your team to ensure this was followed through in a timely manner.
Unfortunately, as you pointed out, EntryPoint took ~9 months to share their plans with the Cosmos Hub stakeholders in which time the market and ecosystem had evolved.
Ultimately, after reviewing community feedback (here) and re-evaluating as a committee, we didn’t feel as though there was enough support for the EntryPoint proposal to warrant a 50K ATOM grant (~$500K USD). Additionally, we believe that there are teams better suited to evaluate, manage, and carry out funding efforts related to the betterment of the Cosmos Hub, including but not limited to the Atom Accelerator DAO.
It is possible that we misevaluated the opportunity. As such, ATOM stakeholders should leverage governance to course correct, and we strongly encourage the EntryPoint team to post an on-chain proposal requesting that the equivalent funds of the Prop72 grant be reallocated to EntryPoint.
Despite the hiccups we faced with this particular grant, the committee maintains that it successfully executed on the proposals objectives and believe Prop72 was a net positive for Cosmos Hub stakeholders.
Thank you again for bringing this matter to light. You and the broader SimplyVC team have been and continue to be wonderful stewards of the Cosmos Hub and ATOM stakeholders are lucky to have a team dedicated to improving governance and building a brighter future.