Jeff Dorman (Arca) on asserting tokenholder rights (EP.129)

Jeff Dorman is the CIO at Arca, which is currently engaged in a fascinating standoff with Gnosis, a token project in which they have a position. Arca is asserting that Gnosis has delivered little value to tokenholders and has proposed that they perform a tender offer for GNO tokens with the assets held on their balance sheet (which exceed the capitalization of GNO). Covered in this episode:

• The original purpose of Gnosis as laid out in the whitepaper
• Why Gnosis only sold 5% of their tokens in the initial sale
• How Gnosis's dutch auction backfired
• How the original objective to create a prediction market failed
• The history of Gnosis' non-core products and expenditures – and why they don't accrue value to GNO
• Under what circumstances pivoting is permissible – and when it isn't
• The existence of obligations towards tokenholders, even if implicit and unstated
• What should a well-codified arrangement between tokenholders and token issuers look like?
• Jeff's view of whether the utility theory of tokens is still valid
• The substance of Arca's proposal to Gnosis, and their preferred resolution
• Arca's proposal around a tender offer to buy back GNO at a fixed price with treasury assets
• Why large investors exerting themselves in governance benefits smaller shareholders
• How Arca's GNO position is similar to the ESG movement
• Arca's response to the rebuttal that tokenholders have no rights
• Arca's leverage to achieve a positive outcome – and willingness to litigate
• Whether explicit security tokens like Arcoin and INX will converge to tokens with equity-like characteristics