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Lisk Community Assets will be Reimbursed to Donors

After having considered all options, we have decided to not move forward with Lisk’s community fund. Today, we will discuss the main reasons why the community fund is discontinued. Starting on Wednesday, September 18th, we will begin the process of returning all donations to the original senders.

By Lisk

10 Sep 2019

Community Fund Update

After having considered all options, we have decided to not move forward with Lisk’s community fund. Today, we will discuss the main reasons why the community fund is discontinued. Starting on Wednesday, September 18th, we will begin the process of returning all donations to the original senders.

The Reasons

The community fund was first announced in a blog post in late 2016. Its main objective was to have a decentralized funding vehicle for ventures inside the Lisk ecosystem. There are two main reasons for shutting down Lisk’s community fund — legal and strategic.

First off, the community fund was announced before the creation of the Lisk Foundation in Zug. During that time, the voluntary donations to the community fund were to be sent to the Lisk address 15841793714384967784L. After the Lisk Foundation was going to be set up, the plan was for the funds to be handed over to the newly found organization as their custodian.

Unfortunately, setting up a community fund and turning it into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) would have increased the legal requirements many times over. This would mean that time and financial resources needed would likely exceed the value held by the community fund.

It’s important to note that the Foundation never controlled the funds and remained as its temporary escrow. The funds remained intact throughout the entire duration of the fund.

The community fund was also closely interlinked with the first development roadmap for the Lisk ecosystem. Since that date, we have come up with a new roadmap which does not include the implementation of, for example, the Decentralised Voting Mechanism. Instead, it focuses on hitting important milestones on the way to the fully interoperable blockchain ecosystem.

What Happens Now

Starting next week Wednesday, September 18th, we will begin with the reimbursement process. First, we will contact all donors known to us in order to confirm their Lisk address is still valid.

If you were in a small minority of donors not using a registered delegate account for the donation, we don’t have the information to verify who has donated. In this case, please come forward and send a private message to our Community Manager Mat on our Lisk Discord. Mat will let you know the required steps to retrieve your donated LSK.

Once we have received your confirmation, we will process your donation back to the original address.

We have received multiple requests from people wishing to donate their LSK donation into the Lisk Foundation. If you wish to donate your LSK to the Lisk Foundation, please let us know when we contact you.