Council Members Present:
- Jeremy Sklaroff
- Jonathan Alexander
- Juan Garre
- Tomasz Stańczak
- Demian Brener
Opening
The Council meeting opened at approximately 8:00 pm (UTC) on July 19, 2022. It was noted that proper notice had been provided to the Council in accordance with the Bylaws. 5 of the Council members were in attendance and the meeting had a quorum. The Council consented to certain Foundation staff members’ attendance at the meeting to present to the Council, as well as to the appointment of third-party notetakers.
Update on Previous Action Items
The Council discussed the status of ongoing action items. The Council noted that the new node staking parameters were approved, and will become compulsory for node runners on September 30th following their signing of the respective multisig transaction. It was also determined that the FP-2 proposal FORT token holder vote would be conducted between July 26-29, 2022, and will be approved if a majority FORT token holders vote in the affirmative. The Council reviewed ongoing discussions for prospective Foundation grants and reiterated the importance of staying updated as those discussions progressed. The Council also agreed that the Node FORT reward program was effective and should remain in place, and the amount of 400,000 FORT per week for the program should continue.
Smart Contract Role Assignments
The Council revisited a discussion from a previous Council meeting regarding the current smart contract role assignments within the Forta Network and the related questions in front of the Council - including whether any reorganization of these roles should occur, and how a particular administrative multisig should be handled. A Council member presented several suggested changes to the smart contract roles, and another Council member indicated that these changes were appropriate.
A Council member asked what the main concerns regarding the administrative multisig were, and it was determined there were several key administrative functions it is involved in that could be problematic, with several specific examples being highlighted.
A Council member suggested that, before proceeding with any major changes to the smart contract role assignments, the Foundation should conduct a risk and quantification analysis of each smart contract role and provide the analysis to the Council for further discussion and deliberation, and the other Council members agreed.
Closing of the Meeting and Async Action Items
The Council members agreed that the proposals on the agenda and introduced to the Council during the meeting should be decided upon by written proposal, so that they could review the details and related agreements and so that absent members could have an opportunity to review, comment and vote on each proposal.
It was noted that certain Council discussions would be sufficiently sensitive that they should be excluded from meeting notes according to the Bylaws, such as conversations about protocol security and topics protected by NDAs. These minutes have excluded certain sensitive details concerning such subject matter.
The Council members agreed that the meeting notetakers should circulate meeting minutes encompassing both the council meeting matters and the matters to be presented and decided upon following the meeting as written proposals for Council review before such minutes are released to the Forta community.
Academic Research Grants
A Foundation staff member reiterated the importance of academic research in the Web3 space, and how the Foundation could assist this research and innovation. The Council noted that the Foundation should continue to investigate potential research funding opportunities, including the allocation of a budget for academic research grants.
Following the meeting, a Council member submitted a written proposal to allocate a budget for academic research grants and create a strategic research committee to review and approve each specific research effort. The proposal included an explanation of the research archetypes that could support the Forta Network the most, the importance of fostering and maintaining research-related relationships, and the specific avenues the Foundation could take in order to achieve its research goals in the short term. A Council member asked clarifying questions around the proposed budget for various types of research projects and what type of academic institutions would be best for the Foundation to target, and the questions were answered satisfactorily.
The written proposal to allocate a budget for research grants and create a strategic research committee was passed by Council following approval of more than half of the active Council members in accordance with the Bylaws.
Audit Firm Grants
The Council discussed the funding of further training grants with two prominent blockchain security firms that want to learn more about the Forta Network, develop Forta detection bots, and recommend security monitoring solutions to their clients.
Following the meeting, a further explanation of the two grants were submitted as written proposals which included the grant details, the security firms’ obligations, and the potential benefits that could be generated for the Forta Network.
Two members of the Council voluntarily recused themselves from the discussion and subsequent proposal vote on one respective grant due to conflicts of interest in accordance with the Bylaws. The written proposal to approve each grant was passed by the Council following approval of more than half the active Council members eligible to vote in accordance with the Bylaws.
Incident Response Process Document
The Council discussed the importance of security for the Forta Network and how the Council and the Foundation could implement security best practices when interacting with the Forta Network, including developing an incident response process, and provide transparency with the Forta community. A proposal was put forward to publish a document that outlines the security processes used by the Council, the Foundation and any other parties the Council may delegate authority to that could help protect the components of the Forta Network owned by the Foundation. A Council member proposed that a link to this document should be prominently placed on the Forta website and/or the Forta Forum.
Following the meeting, the full security processes and incident response document was presented as a written proposal. The Council reviewed the document for any sensitive information or other concerns.
The written proposal to approve and publish the security processes document was passed by the Council following approval of more than half the active Council members in accordance with the Bylaws.