Thread by @librehash

1/ This thread is going to outline some *really* concerning information about governance in the @monero community - specifically from their community leader, "rehrar" (Diego).

archive.ph/qH2m7

2/ For those that don't know, Diego is the community manager for Monero. You can catch him in their main Telegram (under the name 'rehrar'). He makes $7k/month directly from the community.

He is the *only employee* @Monero has.

3/ However, Diego also owns a company called 'CypherStack'.

Under this company, he has "hired" other 'core developers' of @Monero to work for him (strange for a community manager to hire the project's developers, right?)

4/ Since Diego is already being paid $7k/month, many in the community have wondered whether its proper for him to create his own for-profit company that makes proposals (on behalf of the core developers) for hundreds of thousands of dollars (that he takes an additional cut from).

4a/ In the proposal I linked above, Diego originally requested (and was funded with) 22.86 XMR (when the price was $350).

Since then, the price dropped. When it did, Diego threatened to *not deliver* the work to the community unless they paid the difference.

4b/ Keep in mind that Diego was demanding these funds over "research", not the delivery of any legitimate contributions to the project.

On top of that, he isn't even the person performing said research - yet he still gets a cut...on top of the $7k/month he already earns.

5/ News that Diego was a salaried employee of @monero , being paid $7k+/month (out of the community pot), was *not revealed* to Monero users until 2020 - over 3.5 years *after* the arrangement was made.

reddit.com/r/Monero/comme…

5a/ This prompted the community to demand Diego release a "monthly report" on the funds (since these are community funds after all), which he promised to do.

archive.ph/o/qH2m7/https:…

He later reneged on this promise -

6/ Given all that I've just covered in this thread so far, imagine what a slap in the face it was for the @Monero community to find out that Diego was WORKING FOR OTHER PRIVACY PROJECTS. (Zcoin / Firo)

archive.ph/o/qH2m7/https:…

6a/ Recognize some names in that last tweet? Like 'Sarang', 'Triptych' and 'Cypher Stack'?

Yup, Cypher Stack (ran by Diego) hired a Monero core dev (Sarang) to build Triptych for *both* Monero AND Zcoin (privacy coin competitor) & then charged BOTH PROJECTS!

7/ Diego only admitted this conflict of interest after it was discovered by other users and he was called out for essentially hustling both projects with identical proposals (while demanding to be paid thousands for each)

Again, let me remind you that he gets paid $7,000/month

8/ Does @fluffypony have anything to say about this egregious behavior by Monero's *only* employee? Someone whom was hired when @fluffypony was the *lead* maintainer of Monero?

9/ Are Monero investors cool with Diego working on a competitor while also paying him >$7,000/month to be a community leader and then paying him an additional several thousand dollars for the proposals he posts on CCS (which he also sells to said competitor for $$ too)?