In the midst of a significant development in the cryptocurrency world, Bankless, a renowned media platform, and its associated decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called BanklessDAO find themselves entangled in a controversy. The founders, David Hoffman and Ryan Sean Adams, have recently announced their plan to separate Bankless from BanklessDAO, presenting a unique governance proposal to outline this change.
The Separation Proposal
On November 26, Hoffman and Adams took to social media to share their intentions and stated that they would submit a governance proposal to BanklessDAO. This proposal aims to clearly outline the separation of Bankless and BanklessDAO as two distinct entities. As part of this separation, the founders plan to burn all of their BanklessDAO (BANK) tokens.
The decision to separate Bankless from BanklessDAO arises from community criticism surrounding BanklessDAO’s grant application to Arbitrum. The grant application, filed on November 20, requested a substantial amount of Arbitrum tokens (ARB) totaling approximately $1.8 million. The community had concerns that BanklessDAO was leveraging the Bankless brand, which they did not create, for their ambitious proposals.
Community Criticisms and Response
The lack of detailed information regarding the allocation of the grant money for content creation intensified the ongoing debate. In response to the criticisms, BanklessDAO committed to revising the proposal by shortening the grant period to three months and providing clear key performance indicators and milestones.
The argument between supporters and opponents of the proposal quickly spilled over to social media platforms, leading to more intense discussions. Criticisms from various individuals gained attention, with some accusing the Bankless founders of “legitimacy grifting” by pretending that BanklessDAO had no connection to Bankless. Others called out the founders for promoting projects like Nexo while denying allegations of being grifters themselves.
“Calling creators grifters for running ads is untenable. Paid subscribers have always funded Bankless’ mission,” stated Ryan Sean Adams, co-founder of Bankless.
Bankless, established in 2019, exists as a crypto media company with a dedicated mission to promote the adoption and awareness of bankless money systems. In May 2021, Bankless introduced BanklessDAO, a decentralized community focused on coordinating and promoting bankless media. It was during this time that the BANK token was launched.
The founders also revealed their intentions to raise a $35 million venture capital fund in April 2023. This fund would be allocated to invest in seed-stage Web3 companies, further solidifying Bankless’ commitment to the growth and advancement of innovative projects in the cryptocurrency space.
