1754 Factory: Proposed Legal Review and Report to Centrifuge Community

Introduction to North Lakes Legal PLLC

North Lakes Legal PLLC (“NLL”) is a Washington, D.C. based legal practice. @christiancdpetersen is the founder and principal of NLL.

While at MakerDAO, @christiancdpetersen structured, negotiated, and implemented the initial high-profile real-world asset (“RWA”) financings in the DeFi space:

  • SG Forge – DAI 30 million, tokenized French covered bonds
  • Huntingdon Valley Bank – DAI 100 million vault to acquire RWA loan participations
  • BlockTower Credit – DAI 150 million vault utilizing Tinlake for various RWAs
  • Monetalis Clydesdale – DAI 250 million to acquire U.S. treasury ETFs

@christiancdpetersen worked with Centrifuge’s General Counsel to structure and prepare an indenture trust agreement to support Maker financing of assets on the Tinlake protocol.

Also, @christiancdpetersen co-authored and publicly discussed the comprehensive guidelines for potential MIP6 applicants. Here, Here, and Here

He also evaluated numerous financing proposals, including a European “buy-now, pay-later” offering, Bitcoin mining in South America, real estate financing in the United States and Canada, power projects in the Middle East and Indian sub-continent, and several D3M proposals.

Prior to forming NLL in 2020, @christiancdpetersen led a 5-person legal team (in Singapore, Houston and Maputo) responsible for all legal work for the marketing, shipping, and $16 billion project financing of the Mozambique LNG project, a $26 billion project in northern Mozambique.

@christiancdpetersen also worked in private law firms for 15 years in Washington, DC, Hong Kong and Tokyo, where his practice focused on project finance, structured and acquisition finance, and general commercial transactions, including restructurings.

Proposal

Transparency, open-communication, and independent, third-party verification are critical features to ensure the ultimate success and longevity of the DeFi experiment.

Centrifuge and the Tinlake Protocol are critical components of this DeFi experiment.

Given the recent discussions in the Centrifuge Forum on 1754 Factory, NLL proposes to undertake a comprehensive review of the current 1754 Factory facility, the underlying performance of its assets, the nature and scope of the communications with DROP and TIN token holders, and make a recommendation to the Centrifuge community on next steps and improvements.

NLL’s legal services will encompass the following:

  • NLL will conduct a review of the 1754 Factory loan portfolio to ensure its compliance with the covenants, agreements and terms of the Centrifuge agreements.

  • NLL will prepare a report to be published on the Centrifuge Forum with its findings and recommendations.

  • NLL will hold a public office-hours to discuss its findings and recommendations.

Fee Structure

NLL proposes a flat fee of DAI 25,000 (or USDC) to undertake the proposed scope of work. NLL anticipates that, assuming reasonable cooperation, the scope of work will be completed within 6 weeks of the initial engagement. To ensure that the Centrifuge community has visibility on a going-forward basis, NLL will publish a weekly update on the Centrifuge Forum.

@christiancdpetersen welcomes the Centrifuge community’s input to this proposal.

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Hi @christiancdpetersen. Thanks for bringing this up. Just one quick note: I moved it into the subcategory here because it concerns the Centrifuge governance.

I invite every investor from the 1754-factory thread to comment on this post

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Thanks for this, @christiancdpetersen. I think this could definitely be valuable.

Agreed with @Tjure07 it would be great to solicit feedback from senior tranche lenders in the pool to see if there is interest.

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@christiancdpetersen - We love to see this type of entrepreneurial hustle on the forums!!

I suggest you hold a “Know Your MIP” type of open forum for the community to learn more about the proposal and ask questions.

@Tjure07 @Rhano @ImdioR @Kate_Bee - can you please advise on an open forum concept for this and if it would make sense here.

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I am all for it. That is an excellent idea.

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Thanks Jake. That’s a great idea as well to initiate a similar setting but again this is up to the community. First everyone who is in favor of this proposal should show enough interest in the comments and then everyone should express his/her interest for an “open forum”.

Thank you @christiancdpetersen for bringing this up, I think this is a good initiative for the 1754 and future pool, would be great to get more comments and also the snapshot voting later on!

@christiancdpetersen I think this is an interesting proposal and first of its kind. I would like to hear what the rest of the community - especially the senior tranche investors in the pool - think of this.

What do you think about presenting this proposal in the upcoming governance call (Wednesday 19th April 18.00 CET) to get more feedback?

This could be the “Know your MIP” session where people can ask questions and get clarification. (cc. @ItsJake)

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I am pleased to present the proposal on 19th April at 18.00 CET. Thank you for the opportunity to engage with the Centrifuge community.

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Sounds a great proposal. Thanks! I think it should be obvious but it would be stupid not to ask that there’s no conflict of interest between 1754 Factory and NLL, not on the corporate level nor on the individual level of all people involved.

There is no conflict of interest.

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