Welcome!

Dash Core Group September 1st Funding Proposals
DCG is submitting 3 funding proposals for the September 1st budget cycle:
1) DCG Compensation: $600,000 (here)
2) DCG Taxes: $210,000 (here)
3) DCG Legal: $125,000 (current proposal)

This is $25,000 less than we initially communicated (https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/...q3-2018-cross-posted-to-allow-comments.39820/) due to the recent price action and the desire to free up a portion of available Dash funding to the community should all 3 DCG proposals pass.

This Proposal
This is a cross-posted from https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/core-team-legal-september.39899/

This proposal funds Dash Core Group’s planned legal expenses. DCG has been pursuing a number of legal initiatives utilizing existing legal budget funding for the benefit of the Dash network. In the immediate future we will require additional funding to complete these projects and provide funding for our regular corporate legal expenses. Current projects include:

1) Seeking a no-action letter from the SEC (in progress), confirming that Dash is not a security
2) Responding to exchange and broker requests for legal opinions on Dash’s SEC security status
3) Formation of a “Dash Ventures” investment vehicle capable of generating returns and distributing gains to the masternode network
4) Investigating potential responses to JFSA recent action around “privacy” coins
5) Finalizing the trust set-up and payment of on-going expenses related to the trust. DCG official summary communication describing the setup can be found at https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dash-core-group-legal-structure-details.39848/#post-193885
6) Fees related to engaging a tax accountant to assist in filing required federal and state taxes
7) Maintaining Director’s and Officer’s insurance to mitigate the personal risk current officers and directors are exposed to while making daily management decisions for the Dash Network’s benefit

Determining the exact costs for legal projects at the outset is impossible, and determining a likely range for many items is highly variable. For example, the project with the SEC is most determined by the complexity of the SEC’s response to our letter. Total costs could range from $35,000 to $150,000, though we will gain insights into the costs as we proceed and gauge the SEC’s response. We also believe that the strength of our legal argument already presented to the SEC is extremely strong, so this might result in a final cost at the lower end of that range. The effort to create “Dash Ventures” requires greenfield legal work, literally creating an entity without precedent. This is another example where legal discovery along the way can significantly alter the costs. Because of the uncertainty, we plan to request funding associated with our run-rate costs and provide updates on our progress rather than attempt to estimate the final costs upfront. This will prevent DCG from inadvertently drawing more funding from the network than is needed during this time to complete the scope of work.

We last funded the legal budget on July 3rd 2018. That budget is currently being used to support this run-rate including expenses for day-to-day legal work such as drawing up and reviewing vendor, partner, integration, and escrow contracts, creating one-off legal opinions to ensure DCG is in compliance with rules & regulations, etc. It is also supporting the ongoing projects related to Dash Ventures and the SEC no-action letter listed above.

Prior to the July budget cycle, the legal budget was funded in October 2016. These are the deliverables DCG was able to accomplish with those funds:

1) Legal opinion on a number of masternode-related topics (tax treatment, potential legal liability, mixing, etc.) which are provided on the dash.org website
2) Creation of a generic ATM compliance program to encourage the adoption of Dash by ATM operators
3) Formation of Dash Core Group, Inc. and establishing and maintaining filing requirements with the Internal Revenue Service and State of Delaware
4) Creation of the Dash DAO Irrevocable Trust and related trustee services in New Zealand and Switzerland
5) Initial investigation into the formation of a “Dash Ventures” investment vehicle to benefit the network
6) Day-to-day legal expenses including drawing up contracts with vendors, strategic partners, integration contracts, updating and managing corporate documents, etc.
7) Legal work for over 30 escrow contracts
8) Numerous one-off legal opinions necessary to ensure Dash Core Group Inc. is in compliance with rules and regulations
9) Creating and filing provisional patents on key aspects of functionality introduced in the Evolution releases
10) Legal opinion research, letters, and questionnaires associated with inquiries from exchanges on the securities-law status of Dash
11) Privacy policy and other required website legal reviews and content
12) Filing and defending the Dash trademark in various jurisdictions, including resolution of a legal dispute with another entity

If you have any questions, please direct them to @RyanTaylor in this Dash Forum post to ensure we are notified of your request.

Requested funding is as follows for the September 1st budget cycle:
· 600.00 Dash for legal expenses ($125,000 USD @ $208.325 per Dash)
· 5.00 Dash proposal reimbursement
Total: 605.00 Dash

Note: Any unused budget will be applied toward other legal expenses.