I've been thinking about this more and I think the real issue isn't your proposal specifically. It's that the DHF was never designed for this kind of work.

The DHF is oriented toward development. Code, infrastructure, technical projects with defined deliverables. That's what it was built for and that's what it does reasonably well, debates about accountability aside. What it doesn't do well is compensate the operational, relationship, and bizdev layer that sits around all of that. And that's the work you've been doing.

So the question I keep landing on is why hasn't blocktrades stepped in? They're the stewards of the chain and have the funding to easily fund something like this as a proper role. They understand better than anyone that shipping code without someone handling exchange relationships, conference presence, and external partnerships creates a gap. You've been filling that gap for free for six years. If your work is as interconnected with core development and ecosystem health as it clearly is, then it makes more sense for it to sit under an entity that already has structure, funding, and accountability.

I think you deserve to be compensated. I just think the path to that runs through the people and entities who already have funded infrastructure and who benefit directly from the work you do, not through a treasury mechanism that's going to struggle with the precedent and the optics every single time.

This will open up a Pandora's box of people who feel like they've been doing work for free and deserve to be compensated retroactively too. But if blocktrades actually stepped in and funded you directly and committed to paying you in an ongoing role capacity, it would allow you to do even greater work and avoid the messiness of the DHF (which is quite a touchy thing lately).

My question is: has blocktrades ever offered to bring you on in a more official capacity? Because in many ways you've been the face of this chain for a long time.