bitbanter

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a rare serious post from me, as a treat

To everyone in the Cosmos,

I write to you today not just as President of the ICF, but as a fellow advocate for self-sovereignty. As a longtime Bitcoiner, then Zcasher, then general privacy advocate, I joined the ICF because I came to the conclusion that money (and privacy) without a foundational focus on self-sovereignty was incomplete. The Cosmos vision was the missing piece — and like many community members in the Cosmos, I have seen the Cosmos and interchain thesis prove itself…and be at the forefront of driving crypto forward for multiple ecosystems.

None of this progress would have been possible without the ardent efforts of countless contributors, and in particular, the core teams that have been the ICF’s partners for many years. Thank you, truly, for bringing us to where we are today.

But despite how far we’ve come, the status quo of the ICF is simply not tenable. If we stay on this path, pieces of the Cosmos vision may live on in other projects, but the Cosmos itself will fracture and decay endlessly…to the detriment of everyone’s future, regardless of whether they’re part of the ecosystem or not. This much has become clear to me in my short time as President of the Foundation Council.

As many people inside and outside the community have voiced: we need radical change across the ecosystem, but particularly at the ICF — which should be the beating heart of the Cosmos, but isn’t today. And I find myself at the fortunate — but difficult — position to lead by example.

It is in this spirit that I’m proud to announce that Skip, one of the most respected, execution-focused companies in our industry, is joining the ICF, and hereafter leading all product, protocol, and go-to-market strategy work for our contributions to the Cosmos. The Interchain Foundation will remain an independent Swiss Foundation, setting vision and continuing its mission of an expansive and interconnected Cosmos, but with a fully-owned, Cosmos-aligned, growth-focused subsidiary to accelerate that work.

Why Skip? Barry and Mag are phenomenal entrepreneurs and have assembled an amazing team that has worked on every single part of the stack — this is a team that is eminently capable of forging a new future for the Cosmos. They are objective contributors, having never been involved in the core teams program nor received ICF funding. They have a consistent record of shipping great products that address real pain-points for users and developers in the Cosmos. And (I can say with some degree of introspection) unlike the ICF, Skip is universally loved by the Cosmos ecosystem, and has deep relationships with teams that have been growing more distant from the Cosmos. (a trend that I hope will now reverse) I will leave it to them to discuss more of their vision in detail, but in short: the fractalization of the Cosmos is over, and the Hub will become a critical part of the Interchain Stack…but only if the community is willing to join us for a brighter future.

This is not a superficial change for the ICF. Ethan Buchman has stepped down from his role as an FC member — and we couldn’t be more grateful to him for bringing us where we are today and graciously passing the baton to new stewards of the Cosmos. Maxime and I will elect 3 new board members to the Foundation Council, and we will continue our work professionalizing it as a board, ensuring that it acts as a supervisor and fiduciary of the Foundation. A broader operational restructure is well underway here at the ICF; one that is difficult but necessary to build the future that all of us desperately want for the ICF and the Cosmos.

I cannot emphasize this enough: this is a radical re-envisioning of the ICF — one that many of you (rightly, I might add) clamored for since I joined the FC. As many of you are quick to point out: actions speak louder than words…and this is action on an ambitious scale.

As a bitcoiner, I often think about Satoshi’s intentional disappearance; he left his creation to its own devices for the greater good — one could argue his was an ego death without modern comparison. I believe we in the Cosmos should take this act to heart…it is a narrow path we chart through the Cosmos, but one brilliant and brimming with opportunity. We have a chance to unite as an ecosystem, and in the process, reclaim the interchain vision for the Cosmos. And I can honestly say I’ve never been more excited about our future.

The ICF has fundamentally changed, and will continue to change. Only one question remains: will you also leave behind the old ICF to join us for what’s next?

Ad cosmos per aspera,
Josh