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What are the foundation’s roles and responsibilities
In the crypto industry, foundations and partners are common models. The foundation is responsible for developing the blockchain and the coin, while the partners develop the use cases around/with the blockchain.
The foundation is financed by money raised at the beginning (ICO) and the block reward. The partners, on the other hand, are financed by private parties, require a revenue model, and are eligible to compete for some of the block rewards.
Ideally, the allocation of a foundation’s treasury funds happens through a DAO.
The Divi Foundation is a non for profit organization (stichting) formed in 2017 in the Netherlands for the dual purpose of guiding the development of the Divi blockchain and promoting the use and adoption of the Divi coin, $DIVI.
Since almost the beginning, the Divi Foundation has wanted a mobile wallet for its ecosystem. However, building a mobile wallet is a very expensive endeavor.
To secure enough resources to develop the mobile wallet, Nick Saponaro, one of the founders of the Divi Project, took the CEO role of Divi Labs and led the effort to raise capital to develop the Divi mobile wallet (DiviWallet).
At the same time, Divi Labs and the Divi Foundation sealed a partnership intending to get a mobile wallet for Divi's ecosystem as a target for the next few years. Divi Labs became the foundation's principal partner, helping operations progress through both good and bad times.
This however, led to some undesired consequences. Divi Labs became the sole representative of the Divi Project and its direction.
Divi Labs must focus on building software solutions that generate revenue and ensure its health over time. Divi Foundation's interests are geared towards improving the infrastructure and adoption of its open-sourced technology and coin, $DIVI. While those interests overlap, they do have occasional conflicts.
The Divi Foundation is not a private company but instead should operate as an association. Associations evolve through the work of their members, not following the lead of one individual. Associations are more diverse with competing ideas, and its direction is the result of the group’s aggregation of prime movers.
Any partner developing solutions around the Divi Project can request part of, or their entire funding through the Divi Foundation treasury.
Partners should compete for this. The Foundation, potentially through the DAO, should be the arbiter of the best solutions for the Divi Foundation and decide on the best option for the project. Having an independent foundation is critical to safeguarding the project's interests and attracting more partners.
The Divi Foundation is a blockchain project with its associated coin. This is an essential detail due to the uncertain regulatory environment the cryptocurrency field has been facing. Since the beginning and still in 2024, foundations linked with coin emission have struggled to open bank accounts, verify their profiles on social media websites, publish apps on app stores and engage in any other “official” activities; the entities offering the service do not want to take any risks.
The creation of Divi Labs allowed access to places the Divi Foundation and its coin were restricted from. It helped, among other things, to secure the LaLiga deal and publish the DiviWallet in Android and iOS stores.
Unfortunately, while the objectives of Divi Labs and those of the Divi Foundation are often aligned, they can still diverge or even oppose in certain situations. In this case, the gained accesses granted by Divi Labs, led to a lot less presence and communication about the Divi Foundation and the coin. A strong association between Divi Labs and $DIVI, the coin, risked losing these unique accesses that many projects are limited by.
Talking about the blockchain and its unique abilities and promoting $DIVI’s use is necessary for the Divi Project to reach people and grow.
The Divi Foundation's success depends on an independent voice resulting from the collaboration and actions of its members.
This is a core requirement for a blockchain project. As mentioned above, the Divi Foundation should operate like an association. In order to reach a few goals, it raised funds during the ICO in 2017, and worked to achieve the objectives set out in the initial whitepaper.
Beyond that, the foundation should evolve through the actors around it. Divi Labs is one actor in the Divi galaxy, but there are several others, and we need more.
Bitcoin is not moving forward by the actions of just one person or any one company, it is moving forward through the work of multiple actors, arguing about the best path for the future and developing extensions and alternatives all around. This is what a decentralized project should be.
We are opening the next chapter about the Side Chains with a new partner. It will also offer many opportunities for many other partners to build on it and open their own chapters with the Divi blockchain.
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