Proposal: Transfer of Assets and Closure of the NEAR Community Purpose Trust

Ecosystem
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Dear Community,

As shared in the official communication from April 2024, the v1 NDC governance framework was introduced as an experimental model to support community-led initiatives within the NEAR ecosystem. Over its term, the Congress, supported by the Trust, approved and distributed funding to over 100 grassroots projects, contributing approximately 400,000 NEAR in support of ecosystem growth.

Following careful observation, participation, and ongoing evaluation, the Trustees—together with the NEAR Foundation—identified several structural challenges within the v1 governance framework. These included high operational costs, complexity of governance layers, redundancy with existing ecosystem structures, and difficulties in assessing both project outcomes and overall framework effectiveness.

In light of these findings, and in agreement with the NEAR Foundation, the Trustees committed to a responsible transition period ending June 16, 2024. Since then, the Trustees have worked to dismantle the NDC service company and have closely collaborated with the NEAR Foundation to ensure a smooth transition toward a new governance structure and use case for the Treasury held under the NEAR Community Purpose Trust.

The Trustees have followed and supported every step of the development and finalization of the House of Stake governance framework, which represents the next evolution of decentralized coordination within the NEAR ecosystem.

On June 25, 2025, the NEAR Foundation informed the Trustees of the formal establishment of the House of Stake Foundation, a new structure designed to carry forward the mission of supporting the NEAR blockchain and its community. In this communication, the Foundation confirmed the creation of a 2-of-3 multisig wallet for the House of Stake Foundation, with signers including:

  • Bowen (NEAR One)

  • John Gray (House of Stake Foundation Director)

  • Lane Rettig (Head of the House of Stake Project, NEAR Foundation) - manager only, no signing power

  • Thomas Wardle (Harris & Trotter)

  • Sol Thornton (Fireblocks representative)

Proposal

In line with the Core Purposes of the NEAR Community Purpose Trust—namely, to support and promote the operation and development of the NEAR blockchain and its ecosystem—the proposed transition clearly aligns with the intent of the original settlement. It is therefore appropriate to initiate the necessary legal steps to transfer the Trust Fund to the House of Stake Foundation.

Under clause 7 of the Trust Instrument (“Transfer of the Trust Fund Out of the Trust”), the Enforcer Return Power may be exercised, provided that:

  • The Settlor (NEAR Foundation) and the Enforcer jointly produce a Resettlement Proposal outlining how the Trust Fund will be redeployed in furtherance of the Core Purposes; and

  • The Enforcer delivers a legally binding Undertaking to use reasonable efforts to implement the proposal.

Therefore, in accordance with the above provisions, and in cooperation with the NEAR Foundation as Settlor, I hereby propose the transfer of the full balance held by the NEAR Community Purpose Trust to the House of Stake Foundation, and to formally determine the cessation of the NEAR Community Purpose Trust.

Community Feedback Period

This proposal will remain open for 14 days on the governance forum to allow for public feedback and community observations.

In the event of clear majority support and no material objections, the Trustees will proceed to cast their vote in favor of the proposed transfer and cessation, as per the terms of the Trust.

We thank the community for its continued participation and feedback throughout this governance evolution, and we look forward to the next phase of community-driven development within the NEAR ecosystem.

The Enforcer, in coordination with the Settlor (NEAR Foundation)

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Thank you, Francesco, for your excellent, fair, and independent work for the community.

After carefully reviewing the work process of the HoS Core Team, and taking into account the complete lack of engagement with the community — the very community to whom these funds belong — as well as the consistent disregard for community input and proposals, the overall lack of financial transparency, and the suppression of dissent and constructive criticism, I cannot support this proposed transfer of funds.

The absence of accountability, the lack of meaningful reporting, and the ineffective use of resources on global “meetups” without any clear outcomes further demonstrate a systemic problem.

It is also evident that several members of the HoS Core Team do not possess the necessary qualifications, considering that HoS has still not been launched after more than 555 days. Moreover, the hiring of individuals who previously misappropriated funds from NEAR ecosystem founders — even if those funds were later returned after public exposure — raises serious concerns about integrity and governance standards.

Another reason for my opposition is the duplication of scope and responsibilities described in the HoS mandate, many of which are already being handled by the Infrastructure Committee and other ecosystem nodes, making this initiative redundant and inefficient.

Based on the NEAR Digital Collective Legal Framework, the funds within the NDC Trust were donated by the community through the NEAR Foundation as an irrevocable contribution.

According to that same framework, any transfer of assets from the Trust into another trust can only occur following a community decision — and no such decision has been made.

Therefore, under these circumstances and given the current governance practices of the HoS Core Team, I do not support the transfer of these funds.

Any transfer of Trust assets without explicit community consent will be regarded as an act of misappropriation — effectively, the theft of community funds.

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Did you mean 2-of-3 here?

Also want to take a moment to thank you & the trustees for safeguarding the community treasury during the transition period :folded_hands:

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Thank you to the all the NDC trustees. The collaboration and insights I gained while works with you were invaluable. I’m truly grateful for the opportunity.

Thanks @eaglelex @bentien @gonemultichain @Primaveralina @caromintbase @riqi

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yes, thanks. Amended

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I am not in agreement with the transfer of the communal funds from the NEAR Community Treasury. As I disclosed prior, while the NEAR Foundation is the settlor of the trust they only deposited a single USDT. The funds that were deposited into the treasury where from the USN spin down for the purpose of the near community. which according to the trust instrument are the voting members of the trust. Which is any member that voted during the NDC V1 elections. In my opinion this is a violation of the Trust instrument.

In addition, the NEAR Foundation holds in its trust and treasury the funds dedicated to the community and ecosystem growth since the genesis block. these funds should be used to seed the House of Steak instead at the discretion of NEAR Foundations or another allotment of near.

Overall, while the trust instrument had an amendment for an interim phase and the election was colluded with evidence presented to NF there is still in my opinion an open item of whom the funds were intended for within the purpose of the trust and if indeed the NDC members have the rights to the funds.

Is it possible to get an external legal review on this matter as previously requested with a final opinion?

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Quick update from my side. We set up a Fireblocks vault to receive these funds at the NEAR House of Stake Foundation. This was done months ago, but we’ve been blocking on technical issues with Fireblocks. One of the account holders has been unable to fully set up the signing key on their mobile device. We completed this process multiple times, and as far as we can tell, the issue is due to a bug or other issue on the Fireblocks side. We have an open support ticket with them to resolve it, and Fireblocks has been responsive. I also sat down face to face with a Fireblocks support engineer in Singapore last week and reviewed the issue, and he advised me that resolving it through the open support ticket is the right path forward. I’ll post updates here as we work through resolving this issue.

The new HoS “Treasury” account is set up in Fireblocks and ready to go, although we’ll be unable to spend funds from this account until the key issue is resolved. I’ll advise @eaglelex and the other NDC trustees offline that we should do a small, initial test transfer to begin - and we should probably wait until the key issue is resolved before doing the full transfer.

I’ll post the new wallet address here once this is done and we know it’s working.

Lane

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You should fund the HoS treasury from the NF budget. The community has not given its consent to use the NDC treasury. If you proceed with this, it will be regarded as an act of misappropriation of community funds.

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this is really a good one and I really appreciate this