I would like to share DFINITY’s perspective on the motion proposal 135636 and explain our reasoning for voting.
As mentioned in this related thread, we acknowledge the value of community scrutiny on this issue. Valid concerns regarding node provider governance and the subnet allocation scheme have been raised. We also appreciate the transparency demonstrated by node providers in their responses during this discussion.
In summary, we find no substantial evidence to justify the offboarding of any node provider. Therefore, we plan to vote against this motion.
However, this discussion has been very valuable, and we believe it has highlighted important lessons which should prompt follow-up actions. In particular, node providers as listed in the registry can be connected—for example, an individual might also be the owner of a company acting as a node provider. There can be legitimate reasons for such arrangements, like certain data centers only accepting companies as clients or specific tax considerations. We started reviewing how to best capture these connections and consider them in subnet allocations, taking into account the constructive feedback received in the current discussion. In collaboration with the community we will review and propose suggested enhancements in due time.