The Path to JUNO's Revitalization: A 90-Day Strategic Blueprint

Since the last exploration of JUNO's state of affairs, it has become evident that JUNO lacks a clear path forward. JUNO has been operating without a leadership group, an explicit mission, a coherent vision, or an audacious voice. Decisions have appeared haphazard, driven by individual whims and the allure of novel technical advancements or the pursuit of a utopian DAO. The one question that remains unanswered is: How do we make JUNO profitable and robust, and in doing so, build a vibrant and self-sustaining ecosystem?

A Strategic Blueprint for JUNO's Revival

To address this, we present a comprehensive 90-day plan aimed at revitalizing JUNO's trajectory. This strategy targets key areas to ensure we have sufficient time and resources for the JUNO working group to develop an organizational structure capable of future-proofing JUNO.

1. Ensuring Financial Stability: Our first priority is to halt the drain on JUNO's resources. We aim to establish a long runway, ensuring JUNO thrives as a vibrant and profitable ecosystem.

2. Building an Effective Organizational Structure: We are committed to working with the JUNO working group to devise an organizational structure that promotes economic prosperity. A healthy leadership team will continually explore avenues for JUNO's profitability, ensuring rewards for the ecosystem's stakeholders: holders, stakers, community members, projects, and more.

3. Harnessing the Power of Web2 Developers: JUNO's strong point lies in its position as an affordable hub for experimentation. By attracting more traditional Web2 developers and supporting them through mentorship, financial assistance, and resource availability, we can drive innovation at a rapid pace. This step is crucial to transitioning JUNO from its current phase to a mature, self-sustaining blockchain.

Immediate Areas of Focus

To implement these changes effectively, we need to understand that time is of the essence. Every day without a clearly defined team, vision, or mission brings JUNO closer to a point of no return. To get JUNO back on track, Gelotto, as one of the active contributors, proposes the following areas of focus:

1. Reducing Gas and Increase Supporting Developers: Lower gas levels to ensure JUNO remains an experimentation hub. Study gas impact, devise gas-reducing infrastructure, and increase gas levels gradually over time. We must support builders and creators who can invigorate our ecosystem. Let's cease the habit of sponsoring and attending traditional Web3/Cosmos conferences, and instead, focus our resources on Web2 events and institutions to attract developers.

2. Re-evaluating the Validator Set: In a pressing need to reform our network architecture, we must critically re-evaluate the validator set. It's not just about size, but also the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of our operations. Most validators who aren't at the top are currently in a loss-making scenario, while our JUNO block space is significantly underutilized. The continuous token printing to pay these validators is not only unviable but also considerably shortens the JUNO runway. So, we propose to initially reduce the validator set to 100 and subsequently to 75. As pointed out by Reece, this reduction won't significantly affect the Nakamoto coefficient, yet it will help to reduce overhead and pave the way for easier, faster block times. The question remains - why should we cause people to lose money and waste JUNO when having a smaller validator set will be better, faster, and cheaper?

3. Re-evaluating validator delegation: As we embark on this change, we will also assess the current CORE delegation to validators. Our aim is to ensure that it's distributed fairly among active teams and infrastructure providers, acknowledging the efforts of many commendable validators currently placed in the bottom half:

   * Nodes Guru
   * Don Cryptonium
   * Architect Nodes
   * CryptoDungeon
   among others, has made significant contributions to our community. It's time their efforts are rewarded suitably. This unfair positioning is a malpractice we intend to correct.

4. Restoring JUNO's Purity: JUNO's credibility was hit when it took away user funds following Prop 16 (https://www.mintscan.io/juno/proposals/16) debacle. We must restore trust and ensure that JUNO's ledger remains immutable. This includes reversing prop 16. we can never move past things until we make JUNO pure again. Many people including the Whale of Prop 16, have gamed the airdrop. Unfortunately, human nature for greed is powerful sometimes but that does not give us the right to get away from blockchain ethos, an immutable chain. JUNO will never reverse the will of the ledger again.

5. Revising Core 1 Vestings: We propose a comprehensive review of all CORE 1 vestings and cancellation of any vesting for members not actively contributing to JUNO's growth.

6. Adjusting JUNO Slash Fraction Downtime: We advocate reducing JUNO Slash Fraction Downtime to 0.00%, aligning with models like OSMOs that have proved effective. Why should community funds be burnt if a validator goes offline?

7. Improving JUNO Block Times: The ultimate goal is to make JUNO block times as fast as possible without compromising the integrity of the chain. This measure will significantly enhance user experience and system performance.

Gelotto’s Role in JUNO's Revitalization

Gelotto brings to the table a profound understanding of the situation at hand and the humility to seek the right experts' advice. Our focus is on transparency, community input, and making blockchain more accessible for everyone while building robust value-capture mechanisms. Our ultimate goal is to transform JUNO into a community-owned and driven modern app store, reminiscent of giants like Google and Apple.

Conclusion

This 90-day plan is not just a survival strategy; it is a roadmap for growth and prosperity. As JUNO enters a new phase of its lifecycle, we must remember that its strength lies in its community. We need to harness this strength, focusing on attracting and rewarding contributors to the community and developing high-quality applications that add value to the JUNO network.

The question for JUNO is no longer if we can reform, but how swiftly we can initiate this change. As we navigate this course, the ultimate aim remains the same: build a better future for JUNO, its community, and its stakeholders.