[DAO:e34a5b2] District X: Contentious Leadership

Governance
1

by 0x8b257b97c0e07e527b073b6513ba8ea659279b61 (Morph)

Recently, the community has engaged in an investigation over the handling of District X, and the current leadership of RobL#4045.

This investigation has brought to light several issues:

  • @RobL became custodian of District X without contributor’s input; when the original custodians left, Rob took leadership custody, alongside Carl F via a centralized decision by original leadership who could not continue.

  • The land is sitting in a wallet with multi-sig, controlled by an LLC that is owned entirely by Rob and a ‘partner’, no contributors were given a share despite original contributor agreement mentioning shared purchase/ownership of land.

  • Rob has removed all rights from contributors, stating that he owes them nothing, and that the land is his to control.

  • Rob’s contribution to district X is believed to be 2 parcels out of 2,001 total (.099%)

  • However, the worst offense - Rob has attempted to sell the entire district (by transferring ownership of the LLC), for 7-8 figures. Rob did not consult contributors, when confronted - he states the assets are his and his partners to do as they please, including selling it in its entirety and keeping the money.

We believe this is wrong for a few reasons:

1.) - The custodians of districts were always intended to be just that, custodians. Their job was to uphold a system in which contributors could consult or be consulted - when a custodian could no longer act in the best interests of the district, leadership should return to the foundation/DAO/new leadership to continue the vision. We have seen this occur before with Rob being brought on via centralized decision by previous leadership once they could not continue.

2.) - The district has completely pivoted from its original intent, while this may be acceptable in some circumstances, the decision was made by Rob without consultation of contributors. Rob has not upheld any critical pieces of the original contributor agreement nor the district foundation agreement - after five years and lack of progress, this is a massive failure, and solidifies that Rob not only has no intent to sufficiently develop the district, but also refuses to use existing methods of tracking contributor involvement on the direction - this is further complicated by Rob banning contributors who disagree, or outright deleting history/channels/servers/accounts (like the District X twitter).

3.) - Contributors have made multiple attempts since 2019 to raise these issues, they were either silenced by bans, or outright told they had no rights to District involvement.
When raising this issue, either by contributors, or DCL’s community in general, Rob’s response has been ‘sue me’ and that he is the true ‘owner’ of these contributed lands, despite him being rumored to only have contributed 2 parcels / 200 mana himself and little to no relevant district development occurring.

So that’s where we are now, a user who had a small contribution to district X, was deputized without the contributor’s agreement, and now has outright taken the land hostage via an LLC, refusing to release it even after 5 years of failed district leadership.

I believe that we as a community should do what we can to agree on a short term solution until this can be resolved by the involved parties amicably; With the evidence linked, and the fact that Rob has maliciously acted in defying contributors & the district X agreements, we should:

MARK THE DISTRICT AS STOLEN ON OPENSEA & MARKETPLACE UNTIL THIS IS RESOLVED

We MUST protect future buyers from buying District X, only to find it comes with community baggage, agreements, and contributors that were supposed to be involved in decision making. We must prevent contributors from being silenced/banned and removed while their contribution is on-sold without their consent by a leader who has abandoned the outlined agreements and original contracts of contribution for personal profit.

Please note that this would require the DAO to work with the Foundation on submitting a proposal to OpenSea and that these changes would not prevent Rob from pursuing district X lead duties.

You can find further evidence and past discussions as well as participate on this topic in the Decentraland DAO’s #district discord channel: Discord

You can also read some shorter summaries here:

  • Mark district X NFT as stolen on OpenSea & DCL Marketplace
  • Do not mark District X NFT as stolen
  • Invalid question/options

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

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Hi all - I’ve kept my more personal thoughts separate in this comment as I’d like the proposal to be impartial for the community to decide. This is a large issue that mostly affects the districts original contributors - of which I am not.

However, it does affect us all as Rob hijacking assets that a large group of the community came together to achieve flies in the face of decentralization and actively impacts Decentralands’ overworld and reputation - making it more sparse and lifeless, and missing out on the economic/user activity that a real attempt at district X could have brought.

Looking into this situation, I could not believe what I read, Rob had plenty of good things to say about decentralized leadership and actively shunned centralized control prior to gaining it. It seems he has become what he feared most as a contributor, showing that not only are his actions malicious by his own standards, but that he is actively breaking them for personal gain.

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His own comments really highlight why this is so despicable - the fact that 2,000 parcels were put into his care to oversee the development of, only to leave the estate in a form of mishmashed simple amusement park builds that can be found elsewhere is extremely dissapointing.

I look at what real creators and leaders in this space have achieved and feel perpetually disappointed at how much potential could have been directed into District X if it had just had a capable leader who served the interests of their contributors/community - especially given how many creation agencies have spawned from and succeeded within Decentraland.

We could have brought in real capital and users from external markets, and had a flourishing metaverse district for the massive wave of adult economic activity that has already happened on legacy web.

Instead, we get 2,000 parcels locked up by a centralized entity, who forced out original early adopters from the ecosystem we will never get back, and outright toxic messages on discord about his legal right to destroy the vision of the Decentraland overworld.

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I hold no ill will towards Rob and his inability to succeed - however, his attempts to sell the land, and his responses to contributors/community concerns show that this was a hostile takeover by a centralized entity, and it’s past time that we, the decentralized community and leadership, do something about it.

5 Likes
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I voted yes @RobL has continuously displayed that in this DAO he does not vote in the best interest of Decentraland . He has displayed weak leadership and has talked down to many community members and his contributors. Not to mention he lied to his land contributors and when questioned by them he blocks them, kicks them from server , or ignores.

Behind closed doors he has tried to sell his contributors land so that he may personally profit. I have seen him mock people and attempt to make fun of their mental health. There have been some land contributors that have spoken up about @RobL and district X basically lying to them promising rewards or at the vary least a voice in how that 4 million Voting Power will be used. Instead of being a good leader and telling his contributors that the districts plans have failed and that he will do all he can to do right and get something going, instead he tells his contributors that he owes them nothing and refuses to give the land back.

Is this really something we are going to allow to happen in this space? Are we really going to allow people to lie, cheat and, steal? if so perhaps this YouTube video is right and we are all just wasting our time: The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse - YouTube

Even one of the Co Founder of Decentraland Esteban has stated that he sees @RobL as being a threat to this community and that he would like to see the DistrictX project be shut down and a way that’s best for everyone.

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If you are just learning about all this nonsense I encourage you to read to visit the #districts tread on the Decentraland DAO Discord

I encourage everyone to read the entire thread you will see everything that was said by community members, contributors that were lied to, and you will even see @RobL mocking people as well as glorifying himself to be the one that will stop the Dao panhandlers, when in fact he is the one enabling them.

I believe all District X land should be marked as Stolen and if its possible all Voting Power from that land or wallet should be stripped, until this issue is resolved

5 Likes
4

District X: Contentious Leadership

This proposal is now in status: FINISHED.

Voting Results:

  • Mark district x nft as stolen on opensea & dcl marketplace 73% 4,000,881 VP (118 votes)
  • Do not mark district x nft as stolen 1% 4 VP (1 votes)
  • Invalid question/options 26% 1,410,321 VP (8 votes)
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District X: Contentious Leadership

This proposal has been PASSED by a DAO Committee Member (0xbef99f5f55cf7cdb3a70998c57061b7e1386a9b0)

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LeezeesLounge @ -98, -71 has always been the real District X we always needed. Thanks for carrying the torch while Rob pulled his bullshit.