Aaaand here we go again. Just as hope was dawning for me again: sigh. Back to even more outrageous, unethical and blatantly dishonest dodginess. Clumsy too, since it is so easily verified.
My first question to myself was, if the ICA is meant to be representing the community as a membership organisation, how can “a small group of professionals” vote on behalf of both, Dfinity and the ICA? Isn’t that yet another even stranger conflict of interest, when Dfinity represents a single man, and a membership organisation is meant to be entirely accountable to its members, of whom I would assume Dom or Dfinty aren’t members, or it would not be “independent” or a community body?
But hey, this is Dom Williams and Dfinity of (in)famous constitutional shenanigans. Assume nothing. So I doule checked. I went to the ICA site:
“The Internet Computer Association (ICA) is a Geneva-based independent members organization that advocates for the Internet Computer network while supporting and coordinating ecosystem participants.”
Fantastic! Exciting! The IC is decoupling. We even have an independent members’ association representing the community with serious voting power. There’s a General Assembly. This is proper accountability at last. Hey, I might even join, personally or via my foundation. Then I’m not just pointing out critical flaws but can do my best to do something about them, with and for the community. This is legitimately my thought process at this point.
OK, so who would be my fellow members, and how do I join? Hmm… Lemme see.
“Members consist of geographically distributed and diverse businesses and nonprofit organizations, including data centers and node providers, startups building decentralized services and their investors, participants in decentralized finance, enterprises migrating to the open internet, universities and research organizatons, educators and many others. The ICA continues to welcome new members that support its mission of stewarding the adoption of the Internet Computer.”
Cool, that sounds like I might be able to contribute and help: let’s check their charter. Nope. Nowhere in site. Off site? Took a while, but I found the association incorporation number, in Geneva. Found their documents. Discovered
“Steering Committee: Dominic Williams, from Great Britain, in Oxford, GBR, president, with collective signature of two, with a director, and Bochsler Gian, of Neuchâtel, in Chéserex, director, with collective signature of two, with the president.”
And then a statement of institutional “mutation”:
" Internet Computer Association, à Genève, CHE-132.001.501 (FOSC du 16.08.2021, p. 0/1005271910). L’inscription no 19857 du 11.08.2021 est complétée en ce sens que le membre Williams Dominic est nommé président."
The member is being made President as mentioned above: henceforth… Dominic Williams.
It turns out, I’m sorry to say, that @paulaitubi seems to be, on a charitable reading, disingenuous. Less charitable souls might say outright deceptive.
No, from what I can see, the ICA is NOT a members organisation as suggested in the website, at least not constitutionally. No, there is no publicly available charter, and the statutes of association do not indicate any requirements for a General Assembly, any process for registering members, any accountability to them, or any members’ voting process to establish the Board.
Instead, the board of these “independent members” is, once again, Dom (and his token swiss lawyer). Who now personally controls the voting power of Dfinity, openly, and the voting power of the ICA (behind smoke and mirrors). Unless I am missing something huge (truly happy to stand corrected as I have shown a mere message ago), this is Dom’s most scandalous governance outrage yet, worryingly aided and abetted by… Dfinity’s VP of Finance(!). To paint a cartel as an “independent members” body representing the community, is Kafkaesque.
So who is this, sweetly described, small group of professionals voting on behalf of Dfinity and the independent, non-dfinity community (wut?)? Why is the independent members’ association set to auto follow Dfinity? Might it be because that “small group of professionals” report to the same CEO, President (twice over), Chief Scientist and sole board member of both boards (with his Swiss lawyer)?
And did you know that ICA gives itself the right to invest, take equity, buy businesses? And the funding from this second Dom front organisation, the advertised grants programme: where does it come from, go, who does it enrich? I wouldn’t bet on the General Assembly to inform us in its annual report to members. Because I don’t expect a General Assembly to happen at all. Because from what I can see, no General Assembly constitutionally exists.
And we now find that the defacto voting power of Dfinity, ahem, Dom, is double the nominal one, but by splitting it you manage public relations?
Can @paulaitubi show us the Charter? Can he show us where it provides for a General Assembly? Surely, at the very least, he can tell us whether Dom is the President and sole Board member (with his token Swiss lawyer)?
The fact is that if there was anyone else on the board, it would be reported as a “mutation” in the public records. The only such mutation is Dom becoming President.
For how familiar this is getting, it doesn’t stop being depressing.