Full disclosure: I’m the founder of Ark Protocol. We’ve built cross-chain NFTs and contributed in more than 3 years in Cosmos, key contributors to core standards like cw-nfts and cw-ics721. I’m not active in Cosmos anymore, have nothing to gain from writing this. There’s something I need to say:
Accountability
Mag and Barry founded Skip. In Dec. '24 ICF acquired Skip - for an undisclosed sum. Rumors says around $20M each for both, the community has the right to know, when both claiming this proposal is too expensive.
Those same founders are now the ones questioning how others want to use CP funds? Imho that’s bold - looking at how much collateral they/CosmosLabs have created since:
- April 2025, ICF invested in Stride building a DEX for the Hub
- Stride were almost done. Then in July, ICL (aka CosmosLab) killed the Hub’s EVM plans. Stride could not launch and had to move away.
- their decision led to a builder exodus by many teams
- Their reasoning? “Sorry, guys”, 1
- Remember AADAO? Sunsetting and committed grants got cancelled - existing work got unpaid.
- Their reasoning? “Sorry, guys”, 2
tl;dr:
- undisclosed payout to Mag and Barry
- broken promises to builders
- lectures from the ivory tower about governance and CP funding
Again: where’s your accountability?