19 Oct Symbol blockchain news update – 19/10/21
Hi everyone, I am losing track of the days at the moment but I think that this is Tuesday’s Symbol Blog update. Today’s post focuses on the ongoing Trust situation and the more that I read the more concerned I am about it. I don’t know any more than you guys but from what I am picking up on Twitter I think that it is clear that we need to know what has been going on and fast.
No trust in the Trust
The Trust saga continues and I am not sure if there is an end in sight at the moment. As you have probably seen from Twitter this whole story seems to be getting murkier and murkier. We reported the other day about questionable dealings and potential conflicts of interests regarding new business ventures from ex-NGL members (read the story here) and now I have read that these shadowy deals may extend to the NEM Trustees who decide what NEM and Symbol funds can and should be spent on..
If this is true then I would expect at the very least it would be a gross error of judgement and a serious conflict of interest for the parties involved. At worst it could be seen that certain members of NGL and the NEM Trust were using their position to line their own pockets. Of course I am not accusing anyone of anything here but I think that in order to restore community confidence it is essential that the full facts are made clear because at the moment it appears that the Trust do not have the best interests of the project at heart. I am not sure if the community can do anything about the Trust but for sure we would be able to give them a resounding vote of no confidence 😁
I was also shocked to learn that the trustees receive financial compensation for their roles which was news to me. I wonder if this is why they are so reluctant to disband the organisation and hand ownership of the funds and the direction of the project over to the core developers?
And if this is legit then god help us all, it’s a bunch of kids playing with millions of dollars:
Seems to me that the old boys club of NGL and NEM Trust have been taking us all for a ride here. I would like to hear some answers to some of the questions that I have in my mind at the moment whilst writing this.
- What are the qualifications of the Trustees and what makes them the best people to decide on the future direction of NEM and Symbol?
- Are they paid for their roles and if so how much?
- How much was spent by NGL and authorised by the Trust since their inception?
- What were those funds spent on?
- What is the relationship between Drops Lab, History Makr, Feel Good NFT and projects such as Kairos and the football NFT promotion which were started by and funded through NGL?
- Why was Drops Lab active and about to announce a partnership with NEM back in May of this year when it was run by an NGL member who is also now involved with the new ventures History Makr and Feel Good NFT?
- Was any IP taken from the work started at NEM when many NEM Software employees (including the MD and Head of Sales) started a similar independent business venture?
- What financial stake (if any) do each of the trustees have in each of these new projects?
It seems pretty clear that the future success of NEM and Symbol are not the primary concerns of the trustees so why do they still insist on controlling NEM and Symbol funds? I am sure that at some point in the future all of the information will be made public but from what have read so far I don’t think that the community would be overly impressed by what has been going on behind closed doors between friends.
If there’s anything that we as a community can do to help end this mess and give control back to the developers then please let me know, between us our voices are loud and hopefully we can get our message across to the trustees. We are all furious and we need to get this resolved now.
Tweaks and improvements
Looks like there are some changes on the way for the mainnet explorer next week which should lead to some speedups. Apparently these changes are already live on the testnet explorer and you can notice the difference (I have to admit I haven’t tried myself so check it out for yourselves and see).
And nem.io is down but not out. The domain has been transferred to a new registrar and the new website will be launching soon! Very excited about this! 😁
Join us at XYMcity
@HANABATA_KE has been at it again! 😁 Here’s a fun video showing off some of the new Symbol designs from XYMcity. You really need to join us there if you haven’t already! Here is the link!
Testnet nodes
As we reported on in the last update there are only just over 50 nodes on the Symbol testnet. I just set up a node (my god it is taking forever to sync – is this NFT-Drive’s fault? 😆). If you have the time and funds to do so then please consider starting a testnet node yourselves – the more the merrier 😊
Thanks!
Thanks again for reading and we will be back again soon with another update. Keep your eyes peeled tomorrow as we have a new exchange listing at GMO Coin! 💪
I’m a Symbol and NEM enthusiast and run this blog to try to grow awareness of the platform in the English-speaking world. If you have any Symbol news you would like me to report on or you have an article that you would like to publish then please let me know!
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