Hey folks, Eric here. I am one of the original folks on the multi-sig for the Celo Ecosystem Treasury now known as Ocelot. The origin of the CET started when I first shared an idea with Yaz about investing funds in Open Source software projects that Celo is based on (geth, js libraries etc) using funds from the on-chain governance Community Fund. The idea has since evolved quite a bit, as ideas do. We initially spoke about things like helping hire engineers on the geth engineering team, funding community programs that could drive more technical and non-technical contributions in the Celo Community, and other big funding ideas that would help grow developers in the overall web3 community. The community shared lots of useful feedback, and Sep helped to focus that feedback into actionable steps here. The Mezcal proposal seems like a departure from the original ideas that the community initially supported.
I’m a believer in investing in community and new ideas, but this proposal seems inconsistent with feedback and centralized in the decision making process. I’d personally like to see Ocelot return to its original premise. For these new ideas, I’d also like to see the Ocelot team find more productive ways to engage and rally support from the Celo community.