Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) used the 15 million UNI tokens it holds to vote against the rollout of UniSwap V3 on BNB Chain. The bridge to be used would be the cause.
A problematic bridge
On February 2, 0xPlasma Labs submitted a governance proposal on behalf of the Uniswap community. The preliminary test vote was a success, obtaining 20 million (80.28%) yes votes and 4.9 million (19.72%) no votes. However, as reported Cointelegraph, on February 5, a16z threw their full weight behind to vote against the decision. Let us first recall that Andreessen Horowitz holds 15 million UNI tokens and therefore has a significant voting power. However, it should still be remembered that only 3.6% of the total votes, or 36.26 million, were cast. The procedure will be closed on February 10.
Wormhole, the interchain bridge that must be used for deployment, is implicated. Indeed, a16z supports LayerZero as an interoperability protocol. The firm therefore logically wants LayerZero to be used as a bridge for the deployment. The company said it would vote for this solution. ” For the avoidance of doubt, we at a16z would have voted 15 million tokens for LayerZero if we were technically able. And we may in future instant votes said Eddie Lazzarin, partner at a16z, in a forum post.
Will A16z confiscate the whole project?
The vast majority of holders voted to deploy with the Wormhole Bridge. However, with a16z holding a large amount of chips, his vote alone can tip the scales. This attitude is starting to annoy some investors. One of them said: “Si a16z oppose the community vote and try to block it i would be shocked. It would be really heinous, and I don’t think they would go that far. »
It should be noted, however, that the Wormhole bridge was the target of several successful cyberattacks in 2022. In all, $325 million was stolen through Wormhole last year.
The governance token principle was set up to prevent players from appropriating a crypto project. Allowing all holders to vote ensures that the community decides which route to take. But what to do when a single too powerful holder wants take ownership of the blockchain ?
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