Here's my suggestions for addressing the concerns that I heard at the meeting:
Stop spending with zero oversight.
This one should be quite simple, but if it isn't, what I mean explicitly is this: There should never be blank checks handed out for any project without verification and validation of the work done. Value Plan should be on a multisig wallet and you should need multiple signers to approve any expenditure. There should be receipts or clear documentation of expenses and results. If these things can't be provided, money shouldn't be either. This ties into the next point...Hire or designate management.
As someone that is currently contracted and employed by a DAO, I may be able to give better insight into this point than most, but pretty much anyone that's managed a business (at least successfully) would be able to confirm the necessity of management. The decentralized nature of HIVE is great and works well, but when it comes to centralized things like Value Plan, it 100% needs some sort of management beyond a volunteer level. If you have 7 figures to hand out to anyone asking with no oversight, and then go over budget every quarter and need more money, clearly there's an issue with budgeting and management of the funds.
You could spend 100k a year on a high performing manager to reign things in, which would easily save you more than that cost from the bridge proposals every time you go over budget, or preferably hire a team of people with specific goals and skillsets, such as project management, marketing and bookkeeping skills. A team would be more viable with a project the size of HIVE and you have a global userbase that could compete/bid for positions. This really requires some level of oversight and management though.Start earning via protocol owned liquidity.
The cost of hiring people could be offset with properly managed protocol owned liquidity. The SPS DAO recently wrapped HIVE onto 3 chains. You could create LPs on the chains with low fees (0.3%) and high liquidity to allow whales to bypass centralized exchanges. Pay the chain, not the centralized exchanges. Alternatively VSC is supposed to have new pools coming soon too for HBD and pairs. HIVE could have HBD:HIVE pairs with millions of dollars of liquidity there as well. Do both. Do more. Fees generated could cover any management expenses you have while providing jobs and reigning in inflation.Lower HBD interest rate.
15% for holding a token is not sustainable imo. You're going to run into problems where liquidity pools (which actually add and create value) can't compete with the 15% free money for doing nothing. I've also had several people tell me they won't touch HBD because they think 15% is scammy.
This concludes my Ted Talk.