Vote on the Amaru Budget

I am voting YES on the Amaru Treasury Withdrawal 2025 with hash 60ed6ab43c840ff888a8af30a1ed27b41e9f4a91a89822b2b63d1bfc52aeec45#0.

The metadata for my vote is located here, and this blog serves as a more human-readable form of that justification.

Justification

Normally, I would abstain from this vote, due to a conflict of interest. If I believed that my vote had a material impact on the ultimate outcome of the vote in the next few hours, I would do so.

However, the budget info action passed with 80% approval, and the treasury withdrawal action has reached all thresholds and will be ratified at the epoch boundary. Therefore, I am instead voting yes, to allow myself and my delegators to participate in this historic event.

I have announced my intentions for this vote on twitter and received no objections from my delegators.

If a large whale withdraws their vote, and it hasn’t passed at the epoch boundary, I will switch my vote to abstain by the next epoch boundary.

As a reminder, you can find my values here.

Here is how I evaluate this proposal against each of my values, attempting as best as I can to correct for my inherent bias on this proposal:

Integrity - Normally, as a recipient of these funds, I would abstain. However, my vote will not have a material impact on the receipt of these funds, and I have taken precautionary steps to ensure that those delegating to me have the option to change my mind or delegate away, and I believe my responsibilities have been sufficiently met to allow me to join in 80% of voters in signalling support for this proposal.
Freedom - This proposal increases the freedom of choice available to stake pool operators and developers building on Cardano.
Social Good - Increasing the robustness of both the network and the development of the Cardano protocol helps deliver on the wider social good that I believe Cardano represents.
Technical Soundness - The collective team is technically solid and approaching the task responsibly. They have a demonstrated track record, both in other projects the team has undertaken, and in providing consistent demos for the last 6+ months of development. The team has demonstrated progress in between the budget proposal and the treasury withdrawal.
Economic Soundness - In my professional opinion, the budget is reasonably priced for the caliber of team they have assembled, and the complexity of the tax demands a team of that calibre. Notably, the $200k per developer accounts for the employment overhead of a full employee, not just the salary.
Effective Discourse - The proposal is well argued, clearly structured. The wider Amaru team has consistently engaged with the community in discussions about the value and need for the node, contributing to a healthy forum of constructive feedback.
Transparency - The Amaru team has consistently sourced their proposal ahead of this vote, and solicited feeback from the community. They are being clear about how the funds will be managed, who is responsible for delivery, and what those deliverables are. Additionally, I have exercised radical transparency about my involvement with this project and intent to vote YES.
Flexibility - This proposal has little bearing on my value of flexibility, except insofar as my flexibility to participate when my vote is not determinative to the outcome.