So this was a rather bigger surprise than I expected, but I feel it's still the right direction for the next stages of governance. Here's a quick recap of Fred's contributions...

1. Feb 2024 - proposal for cross-chain integration (??) to $WETH, $LDO, $TON; rejected
2. Mar 2024 - proposal for community grants program ($AIR); accepted
3. Jun 2024 - proposal to lock up liquidity on Base; accepted
4. Jun 2024 - proposal to lock up liquidity on Ethereum; rejected
5. Jun 2024 - proposal to use excess tokens for R&D and $AIRDROP; rejected
6. Nov 2024 - proposal to incentivize restaking; accepted
7. Nov 2024 - proposal to incentivize airdropping; accepted
8. Nov 2024 - proposal for community governance delegation (??); rejected
**9. Nov 2024 - Governance vote**: co-founder Effendi announced retirement; accepted

Even though Fred was a key early contributor to the project, I was aghast at the amount of decisions he made unilaterally. Justifying things like locked liquidity as governance decisions, which he did. While there were some negative moments, the overall impression of his contributions (to his credit) is that they tended to be few and far between and he had a reasonably light touch with project operations. Still, an attitude of acceptance while also showing initiative and impact is a little worrying, especially when we've got a treasury portfolio of over $US20M. Glad to see he's gone, excited to see a second phase of governance. It will be interesting to see who takes his place.