Parting with DecentralandTLDR: Decentraland's ideals have changed radically compared to the time of its original token sale, which results in the Greenpoint district to be dissolved. Contributed MANA tokens will be refunded. The Movement continues.When The Movement's vision was born in 2017, we set out on a mission to create
Greenpoint — a virtual meeting point for grassroots activity. A place collectively created from the ground up by people from all around the world with the great
aim to bring about new opportunities for all.
Believing it to be a good fit, we chose
Decentraland to build upon, which presented itself as a user-owned and truly decentralized virtual world powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Our belief remains unchanged that combining both blockchain and virtual reality technology is a very captivating idea, as well as a great challenge to work on. In the
Decentraland Terraform Event, 414,000 MANA tokens were staked to our district plan by various contributors, which resulted in the 414 LAND parcels that make up Greenpoint in the project's Genesis City. It is both unfortunate and sad that today we announce that our experience with their leadership has been the actual opposite of decentralized.
As an unchangeable consequence we are parting with their platform.At the time of district creation, there was never any mention of having to sign legal contracts or being forced to perform KYC — after all, this is in direct opposition to the very ideals of the platform itself. As time progressed, Decentraland's stance has changed radically, eventually leading to forcing district creators to sign a legal contract with their Cayman-island based company "
Metaverse Holdings Ltd.", enforcing KYC identity verification, as well as setting up very specific rules for Land transfer. Not only did we not receive any clarification as to why and how these rules were not clearly set in the first place, but any and all of our requests to talk about this were ignored.
Neither have we been able to meet their central leadership's demands nor have we been able to meet their deadlines. On top of that, the Decentraland team itself has been unable to adequately fulfill their obligations. In fact, their project's roadmap has been altered, and timeframes have been delayed. At the time of their initial coin offering — in which they raised $24,000,000 — the project promoted its "Iron Age" — including multiplayer support with avatars and live chat, custom items and scripting on user-owned land for Q4 2017, as well as its "Silicon Age", a full-fledged 3D world with full VR support for 2018. It is now early December of 2018 and except for a platform to trade Land tokens, nothing of this has been released to the public. Despite not having sufficiently developed and published the platform as promised, they are now running a second Land sale and have announced via their Discord chat channel that several districts, including our own, will be dissolved.
The entire experience reflects the worst of centralization: users and contributors have very little to nothing to say. Decisions are largely made for the profit of and by those in charge, whom it is either very difficult or impossible to talk with. We have been trying to contact the project's leaders, Ariel Meilich and Esteban Ordano for weeks to talk about the matter and understand their position, but except for one short and cynic reply by Ariel were unfortunately ignored. Sincere thanks go out to Ember Snook, their district community manager, who has been genuinely trying to help as much as possible but is (in our view) in a very unfavorable position.
On a brighter side, we feel fortunate to have realized all of this now, rather than running into deeper and more demanding issues in the future. Decentraland states that district contributor's MANA will be refunded, yet they do not state an exact date as to when this will happen. After having waited for too long we now post this announcement without this much-needed information and hope that they will make an announcement as soon as they possibly can. However, even though we are not happy about having been unexpectedly and negatively hit by these changes, and despite personal regret of having chosen the platform, we wish everyone interested in Decentraland's further development well. We also hope for both their team, as well as their community at large, to be able to realize their plans over the long term. May the Decentraland platform be released to the public and ultimately be run not in a centralized but decentralized fashion.
This is not the end for The Movement but its first big challenge. The time has come to reinvent. And as an early motto of The Movement enthusiastically described — it is time to connect and create. As a project that stands on the pillars of true decentralization, that didn't raise any money — we are still here in the same spirit, which is to build together from the ground up. Greenpoint, the meeting point for grassroots movements, as well as the fully decentralized organization "The Movement", that continues to stand behind its vision, are not designed to be subject to central control or radical mission changes that go against its own nature. It is the very spirit of decentralization and borderless collaboration that makes up its core. If you are reading this, you are likely still here because you were interested in this idea. Ideas have no borders.
Let's continue to work on the realization of something that is larger than mere individual benefit — something that aims at transcending borders and boundaries. Each one of us remains to have the power to participate. Together we can make things happen, and we can continue to strive for making a positive difference. Thank you to all who are still here. You know who you are. Please do not hesitate to share your thoughts and opinions related to this posting, and related to the project.
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