As a $Stake holder (also have a small stake in GNO but nothing compared to my $Stake holdings) and dedicated xDAI Chain user I see the proposal with mixed emotions.
For sure the merger can help the chain to grow and I see the pros for the gnosis ecosystem too. But valuation is always a hard bussiness and in crypto with the huge swings even more. Therefore I would prefer not puting another conversion rate in for discussion, but like to hear your opinion of another form of merger:
Gnosis DAO receive 50% of all $Stake without any upfront payment, just for the good you offer in the proposal. The $Stake can be newly minted giving you ownership of half of the xDAI Chain and we will agree for rebranding to Gnosis Chain. Also $Stake can be renamed to fit into your System, like GNO-Stake or whatsever.
Thereby you save the 285,398 GNO, a considerable amout of money, and still get ownership of 50% of the xDAI Chain you help to grow as proposed. Also this would overcome the need to calculate a conversion ratio and all the conflicts associated with it.
The drawback is, you have to handle two tokens, but imho this shouldn’t be a big deal.
Curious about your thoughts on this.