IOG Catalyst Team: Capability to deliver, trust and accountability
Catalyst has taken enormous strides towards becoming a platform built on trust and transparency. These foundational truths guide all of the development, decision making, and actions that have previously been performed by the Catalyst Team.
To maintain and build upon this momentum, it’s critical that ada holders understand how much work has gone into building Catalyst and how much more work it will take to maintain and improve upon the current infrastructure moving forward. The Catalyst Team has stood in this role since Fund1 and is passionately eager to continue operating and facilitating this open, collaborative environment for its fellow community members.
Establishing legal clarity:
As the Fund Operator, we will drive legal clarity, transparency and sound governance by creating an independent entity (Catalyst Funding Vehicle) solely for the benefit of Catalyst whose sole purpose will be to hold all funds allocated to each Catalyst fund. This Catalyst Funding Vehicle will not be owned by the Catalyst Team. As Fund Operator, the Catalyst Team will provide the required administration services to Catalyst Funding Vehicle pursuant to an arms-length administration agreement to be entered into between the Catalyst Funding Vehicle and the Catalyst Team. This agreement will be published online for the Cardano community to see. The Catalyst Funding Vehicle will also be subject to audit oversight, allowing the community to transparently scrutinize all transactions and disbursements carried out by the vehicle.
Catalyst accountability model: Milestone-based proof-of-achievement
Under this proposal, disbursements to eligible ecosystem participants, such as funded-proposers or community reviewers, will be made by the Catalyst Funding Vehicle based on clearly articulated terms and conditions and procedures that govern the Catalyst Funding Vehicle and the duties of the Catalyst Team as Fund Operator, that are spelled out in the administration agreement taking into account the following guidelines that are currently in place, and anticipated to be updated for each fund, including:
The Catalyst innovation program’s funding campaigns and grant-making activities will require the Catalyst Team as Fund Operator to manage and maintain the technical infrastructure to set up and deliver community-governance, uphold established and robust treasury management and auditing procedures, and operate a community-led accountability model so funded projects deliver meaningful outcomes in a way that all stakeholders in the Cardano community can trust.
Catalyst Seed Account transfers (outbound to eligible recipients)
As Catalyst activities result in millions of ada being transacted and disbursed regularly to approved project teams and Cardano community members around the world, financial processes must be professionally and properly administered and be delivered consistently with the highest degrees of confidence that due diligence is followed. The Catalyst Team maintains and will continue to maintain an internal record of accounts for all transactions being made.
As Fund Operator, and in accordance with the administration agreement, the Catalyst Team will execute a robust, well-established process each time a transfer of funds needs to be made from the Catalyst Funding Vehicle. This process is intended to ensure that all transactions executed by the Catalyst Funding Vehicle are carried out in a transparent way that can be trusted by Cardano stakeholders, and not dependent on any single individual.
Each month, the Catalyst Team may submit multiple requests to the Catalyst Funding Vehicle depending on its operational objectives and in accordance with the processes set out in the administration agreement . The Catalyst Team will produce reports that summarize activities of the Catalyst Funding Vehicle on a regular basis.
Our commitment to providing the expected service levels are further supported by establishing:
Administration agreement between the Catalyst Team and the Catalyst Funding Vehicle: Going forward, the Catalyst team will provide its services under a formal administration agreement. Whereby if the Catalyst team fails to deliver on expected and agreed service levels, the community has recourse to effectively fire the Catalyst Team as Fund Operator.
Milestones & Key Activities (Roadmap): These milestones will be captured in the Statement of Milestones and will include a description of all deliverables, outputs, and outcomes of each milestone.
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