Yearn is a place where builders love to contribute. Some are able to do this full-time, some cannot due to other obligations and responsibilities. Some are on recurring grants, and some are not, but everyone is doing the most they can with what they have. Yearn started scrappy, but slowly and surely we are all working to grow Yearn into the powerhouse we all know it will undoubtedly be.
A recent oversight was made that disheartened the most ardent of Yearn’s community; the bulwark of Yearn, who manage and nurture the community, the very same group that constitute the pillar that maintains the health of our ecology such that the team may continue to burn into the 21st century of finance, our community contributors.
It is most regrettable that the builders, fueled by their love of Yearn, who have worked so hard, the mods who wade into the masses of humanity as priests to the unfaithful singing the praises of Yearn, the document writers and marketers who show the way, the artists and content creators who strive to capture Yearn’s beauty within the limitations of corporeal form, would ever feel that Yearn was not striving to incentivize them to continue their great work. We are, were, and always will take care of our contributors, our community, because we are Yearn, and that’s what Yearn is.
Off of all this effort, we have formed the present day Yearn Ecosystem which was made possible by the sum total of contributions, not just contributions from any one class of contributors. Unfortunately, we now have a system of classification within Yearn: there are haves, and have-nots. Instead of all of us working together to solve problems organically, it feels that we’ve created an early payday for a set of people deemed more important than others. The feeling of one team along a continuum of contribution has been assailed.
However, this is not the truth of things. It is regrettable that this segregation was seemingly created, and so this is about more than just setting the record straight. This is about more than sharing the rest of the plan, the plan that ought to have gone out in that first allocation but was missed in the rush of the mad glory that is Yearn. This is us making it clear that our hearts have always driven our speech and action. We are not just telling our community how beloved they are, we are showing it. This is a love letter from the community to Yearn, and thus from Yearn to the community.
Yearn was the first fair launch and we set ourselves apart. Now with a retroactive mint, is it fair that Yearn appears to be mostly looking out for the developers? That Yearn would not take care of the contributors within the community as well? We do not leverage the work of the community to the betterment of the few. Andre has always taken a stand for fairness, and although he does not take on the role of dictator, Yearn follows in his values closely. At Yearn, community has meaning. At Yearn, we know that greatness springs from what at first glance appears insignificant. It’s not the team and the community. As the Yearn Manifesto reads, “Yearn is a collective of contributors. There is no difference between ‘the team’ and ‘the community’, they are one and the same.”
Yearn is an egalitarian oasis in the wild west of finance. Yearn is a healing hand to bodies bruised and bashed from the rugpulls of Ethereum’s wastes. Yearn is a glass of water to throats parched from the desert. Yearn is a safe haven to those who would brave the dark forest. Yearn has its Faithful, and faith must be rewarded.
We are Yearn, and we take care of our own.
This letter is a precursor, and an invitation, to the discussions that will follow. To the community, governance, and the DAO as whole, we ask you weigh in with your thoughts. Like all things Yearn, this must be an open discussion, seeking criticism and critique that we may all grow stronger for it.
Stay awhile, and listen.
- Your Community Contributors