cointelegraph.com
Web3 infrastructure developer ConsenSys, the maker of the popular MetaMask digital wallet, has cast 7.03 million votes in favor of a proposal that would see decentralized exchange Uniswap’s v3 protocol deployed on BNB Chain, according to data from Tally. The votes are denominated by the number of underlying $UNI owned by ConsenSys, which is worth an estimated $47.5 million. At the time of writing, 77.56% of participants were in favor of the proposal, with 22.07% against it. The week-long voting process will close on Feb. 10.
As Cointelegraph previously reported, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz cast a vote against the proposal. A16z, which reportedly holds 55 million $UNI tokens, voted 15 million $UNI against the move due to its reliance on the Wormhole bridge and instead supported using LayerZero as the interoperability protocol. LayerZero Labs is part of a16z’s portfolio and raised $135 million in a funding round in March, with a $1 billion valuation.
In January 2022, Wormhole suffered a major exploit resulting in the loss of $321 million worth of Wrapped Ether (wETH) tokens. Since then, Wormhole is now secured by 19 validators, has been audited 25-plus times by leading firms and has passed all security assessments.
A16z’s vote was in part controversial within the crypto community due to a voter turnout of less than 7% for the ongoing proposal, which still passed the necessary quorum. As a result, a16z was able to disproportionally influence the voting process with just 15 million $UNI out of 762 million in $UNI in circulation. Critics say that such measures disrupt the decentralized nature of Uniswap by concentrating voting power in VCs.
How can $UNI holders outside of a16z be sure there's no conditions or other hidden influences on these outside groups from a16z or related parties?
— DefiMoon (@DefiMoon) February 7, 2023
Is everyone supposed to just take your word for it? pic.twitter.com/4uGLJOsnjK