Description
Summary
This proposal aims to reimburse eth.limo for ongoing legal fees related to the operation of the eth.limo/eth.link gateway services.
Background
The Human Costs of Public Goods
At eth.limo we continuously strive to deliver a high quality ENS gateway experience. We understand the critical utility that our service provides and we have dedicated countless hours to developing and maintaining the gateway infrastructure that powers thousands of dApps and dWebsites alike.
Speaking beyond purely technical requirements, one aspect of operating eth.limo that is often overlooked is the human cost. We are a small team with limited resources who are dedicated 24/7 to ensure that we respond to support requests in a timely fashion, work with other cutting edge ecosystem projects for integrations, and provide on-call availability for any server-side issues that might arise. In addition, we are constantly handling abuse complaints and other matters that often go unmentioned.
We believe in public goods and the utility they provide, which is why we have sacrificed time with friends and family in order to fulfil our obligations to the ENS and broader Web3 communities by constantly working to ensure a stable and available user experience.
The Legal Costs of Public Goods
Operating public infrastructure comes with a unique set of challenges, many of which we were not expecting, such as enforcement and dispute-related legal fees. Being on the frontlines of bridging Web2 → Web3 means that we are often the first point of contact for law enforcement, abuse complaints, and legal and regulatory requests. As one can imagine, this quickly begins to take a toll on our financial resources and mental health.
At present, eth.limo has been labouring under US federal requests, as a third-party, that has dragged on for months and will likely continue to do so well into 2025. We are currently unable to provide further details regarding the nature of this matter, but rest assured, as soon as we are permitted to, we will provide a more fulsome summary to the Web3 community.
As a US company, we are legally required to cooperate with the US Federal Government in response to certain types of lawful requests. Such required compliance has proven to be an extreme financial burden in the form of fees and expenses from our lawyers and emotional distress not just on us individually, but to our families as well. We negotiated significant discounts from our counsel, who are well-versed in Web3, and who recognize the importance of eth.limo and the significant public good service it provides.
At present, we have no way to anticipate expected future legal costs associated with this specific set of legal requests, nor are we able to forecast any additional legal matters or proceedings that may arise as a result of maintaining eth.limo as a public good. This has the indirect effect of limiting our ability to grow and scale the eth.limo service, as well as to pursue future plans relating to additional integrations and roadmap efforts.
To put this into perspective, we have already spent close to $250k USD in legal fees over the past few months. Without additional funding, this very likely could consume our remaining financial resources, leaving us without the ability to continue to operate eth.limo as a public good.
Links
Specification
This executable proposal will initiate a transfer of 240,632.38 USDC from the ENS DAO treasury to ethdotlimo.eth. This amount represents the ongoing legal fees related to the operation of the eth.limo/eth.link gateway services.
Transaction Details
- From: ENS DAO Treasury (0xFe89cc7aBB2C4183683ab71653C4cdc9B02D44b7)
- To: USDC Token Contract (0xA0b86991c6218b36c1d19D4a2e9Eb0cE3606eB48)
- Recipient: ethdotlimo.eth (0xB352bB4E2A4f27683435f153A259f1B207218b1b)
- Amount: 240,632.38 USDC (240632380000 considering USDC’s 6 decimal places)
- Purpose: The reimbursement of eth.limo for ongoing legal fees related to the operation of the eth.limo/eth.link gateway services.
This transaction calls the transfer function of the USDC contract, transferring 240,632.38 USDC to eth.limo's address.
Calldata
{
"target": "0xA0b86991c6218b36c1d19D4a2e9Eb0cE3606eB48",
"value": 0,
"calldata": "0xa9059cbb000000000000000000000000b352bb4e2a4f27683435f153a259f1b207218b1b0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000003806ceba60"
}
Rationale
By approving this compensation, ENS DAO acknowledges the importance of providing eth.limo with reimbursement of its legal fees so it can continue to operate a free and public ENS gateway that enables users to access Ethereum-native dApps and content.
