Request for feedback - Conflict of interest with Steward voting

[shawn16400]

@Supreme

• Personal relationships: If a steward has a personal relationship with a person or group involved in a proposal, their judgment may be clouded by their emotions. In this situation, the delegate may not be able to make an unbiased decision, and their vote may not be in the best interest of the group.
• Career advancement: Suppose a steward has a vested interest in a proposal that could advance their career. In that case, their vote may be influenced by their desire to advance their career rather than the benefit of the group.

Just related to these last two points… your definition gets a little broad, so perhaps my clarification here adds some context to what is, or what is not a COI.

Gitcoin: who makes the decisions anyway?

Wow. Great question. The work described above focused on strategy, org design, finance, and governance. We spent less time on ongoing operations and very little time on protocol operations, which is where this kind of decision might fall in relation to grant execution and the COI (conflict of interest). But the COI is often not well understood. In Roberts Rules of Order (my go to for classic governance questions) the COI guidance is: “No member should vote on a question in which he has a d…

this, this is the gold standard:

@tjayrush

I agree wholeheartedly that, like a judge in a court of law (Clarence Thomas), even the appearance of a conflict of interest is to be avoided.

In practice, proving a COI is exceptionally difficult and time consuming. The appearance of a COI is generally what I fall back on given just an appearance of a COI is as damaging as an actual COI.