@Kiba and I both joined Index Cooperative with the intention of becoming External Methodologists. In fact, @Kiba first proposed DATA in October 2020! When we joined, there was no conception of a “Community Methodologist” yet and it was not our intention to become employees/full-time contributors to the Index Cooperative.
Are you saying you think @Kiba and I should become Community Methodologists?
While I agree with you that the External Methodologist mechanism design creates perverse incentives (forum post incoming), I do not agree that the Community Methodologist Program incentives long-term value creation. In fact, it does not.
It’s absurd that I would receive the same amount of INDEX tokens regardless of whether the products I created generated $10B in AUM or $1 in AUM. That arrangement is extremely value extractive for the Index Coop if we do well, and leaves the Coop with almost all of the downside if we do poorly.
What the External Methodologist Program gets right - Market actors care more about the success of their products than employees.
This effectively completely decouples the success of the Methodologist’s products from how they are compensated.
This is why @Kiba and I are not interested in the Community Methodologist Program under its current form and had originally suggested compensation for DATA based on reaching AUM targets.