Community wants Arbitrum Foundation to return 700M ARB to DAO Treasury

Under the proposal, the Foundation should proceed with its budget plan only after returning the tokens. "This is a symbolic gesture to show that the governance holders ultimately control the DAO, not the Arbitrum service provider or the Foundation," said a community member.

Voting will end on April 14. At the time of writing this report, 55% of voters supported the proposition, 42% opposed it, and 2% abstained.

Screenshot: AIP 1.05: Return 700M ARB to DAO Treasury. Source: CAD of Arbitrum.

The dispute between the Arbitrum Foundation and its community began at the end of March, after the Foundation's first government proposal (AIP-1) that asked to finance its operations with 750 million ARB tokens - worth nearly $1 billion.

After the violent reaction of the members of the community, the Foundation saying in a forum post on April 2 that AIP-1 was an endorsement, not a proposal. He added that some of the tokens have already been sold for stablecoins. At the time, the Foundation noted that its first token attempt at governance failed due to miscommunication and decisions that were "clearly not articulated correctly."

A few days later, the Arbitrum Foundation launched a set of new proposals for improvement aimed at re-establishing community dialogue. The new proposals include AIP-1.1, which covers a smart contract lock-in schedule, spending, budgeting, and transparency. The other, AIP-1.2addresses amendments to the current founding documents and lowers the threshold of the proposal from 5 million ARB tokens to 1 million ARB "to make governance more accessible."

However, the efforts did not resolve the issues with ARB holders. "The Foundation has been unilaterally allocated $750 million worth of DAO tokens that were not approved by government token holders. All funds must be returned until they have been properly allocated by the DAO and only the DAO," the statement states. proposal seeking the return of funds.

The Arbitrum community initiated a new proposal asking the Arbitrum Foundation to return 700 million ARB tokens to its DAO Treasury. The move comes after the Arbitrum Foundation transferred the funds without receiving community approval in March.