Proposal “DCG-SUPPLEMENTAL-JAN23“ (Completed)Back

Title:Dash Core Group January Supplemental Funding Proposal
Owner:quantumexplorer
One-time payment: 512 DASH (14730 USD)
Completed payments: 1 totaling in 512 DASH (0 month remaining)
Payment start/end: 2023-01-10 / 2023-02-09 (added on 2023-01-15)
Votes: 690 Yes / 60 No / 8 Abstain

Proposal description

Dash Core Group January 26th Supplemental Funding Proposal

DCG already submitted 2 funding proposals for the budget cycle that pays out January 26th. This is a supplemental proposal that will fund Dash Core Group with an additional 512 Dash:
1) DCG Compensation: 2,296 Dash per month (currently in month 2/3)
2) DCG Infrastructure: 459 Dash (currently in month 1/2)
3) DCG Compensation Supplemental: 512 Dash (currently in month 1/1)

What does this specific proposal fund?

Assuming DCG’s current compensation proposal passes, with the price of Dash at $50, our funding for compensation will represent a very significant gap from our actual compensation expense. This proposal will look to reduce some of the gap between our compensation revenue and our compensation expense.

Did DCG reduce staff?

Seven months ago we reduced our compensated team size by about 15%, lowering our break-even price from ~$120/Dash to ~$103/Dash. It has since lowered to ~$93/Dash due to additional departures and cost cutting measures. Our compensation reserve now sits slightly around 4 months.

Do you plan on more layoffs in the near future?

Dash Core Group is now mostly a technical organization with most of our business development and marketing staff having exited the project. The remaining staff is essential to us functioning at a high level. We have no plans to revisit further reducing our staffing in the next month.

How much of an impact do the supplemental proposals have?

A big impact. The supplemental proposals leave us in a much better state to hold off being forced to cut vital employees as the bear market lasts longer. In the case that the bear market does not last as long the funds can then be used to increase capacity and get a lot of extra manpower behind future features.

Didn’t DCG previously communicate they wouldn’t request over 60% of the total proposal system budget?

Yes. In the past, Ryan Taylor, previously CEO of Dash Core Group, made a commitment to the Dash network that DCG’s monthly ask would never exceed 60% of the total budget. This was stated after there was significant backlash against DCG requesting funding for tax-related expenses in late 2018, which caused competing proposals to be pushed off the funding list. In this cycle, the same situation is not present; no other proposals would be negatively affected by this request for supplemental funds. It therefore seems to be in the best interest of the project to remove the self-imposed 60% limit, as not doing so would effectively hurt us by having to let go of people that are providing value to the project.

Samuel Westrich (Quantum Explorer) had reached out to the Dash Trust Protectors four months ago and asked whether they would support DCG making a proposal for the rest of the available treasury this month. All responses from the Trust Protectors had come back with support for the supplemental proposal. Given this indication of support, we decided to move forward and have masternode owners vote on these supplemental proposals every month for unused treasury funds.We will continue making such supplemental proposals in the case of unused treasury funds - waiting around one week before the end of each cycle to leave time for other submissions.

If you have any questions, please direct them to @quantumexplorer at dashcentral to ensure we are notified of your request.

Requested funding is as follows for the January 26th superblock:
  • 511 Dash ($25,550 USD @ $50 per Dash)
  •     1 Dash Proposal fee reimbursement
Total: 512 Dash

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Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

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4 points,1 year ago
Looks like a Dash masternode whale (Bluewhale it seems) with 141 votes just saved the day for DCG
See : https://imgur.com/gBCcUP3
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2 points,1 year ago
''Blue
This page shows a table of Masternode collaterals belonging to a OG DASH Super Whale from as far back as October 2014. He linked his awesome fleet of nodes by spending the rewards of all of them to create a new masternode in this transaction. We almost would have missed him, for he does not vote, thankfully we discovered him through routine chain analysis.''
Source : mnowatch.org

Well, he sure votes now.
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2 points,1 year ago
Indeed, and that's a good thing, we want more MNOs to be engaged with the process.

https://mnowatch.org/bluewhale/
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2 points,1 year ago
Yep. The more MNO's participate, the better.
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1 point,1 year ago
What sense does it make to defund DCG in a critical time like this?
Especially when there are no other proposals seeking funding for the relevant portion of the budget.
DCG already had to lay off workforce, and reserves may get used up.
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4 points,1 year ago
I think people are getting fed up with all the Platform delays and are using this DCG supplemental budget proposal to signal that. I know i am.

First we hear from Sam that Dash Platform will be on Mainnet end of 2022 (with Mainnet activation a few months later, due to the hard fork). Then we hear from Sam that Dash Platform will just be feature-complete on Testnet end of 2022 + 2 months additional testing on Testnet. Then we hear nothing concrete anymore from Sam with regards to getting Dash Platform feature-complete on Testnet, just that they can't go any faster. Not being able to meet deadlines or come somewhere near promised date of release is a re-occurring theme with these group of developers.

The only way for MNO's to put pressure on DCG without actually defunding their DCG Compensation budget proposal, are these DCG Supplemental budget proposals.

Personally i would like to have that pressure remain on DCG to get feature-complete on Testnet as fast as possible and discourage any further feature creep.
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2 points,1 year ago
Also i would like to once again point to our declining voting participation among MNO's. At some point that will also make it more difficult for budget proposals to pass. Lowering the proposal fee to 1 dash did nothing to that problem, to this date it remains unaddressed.
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2 points,1 year ago
Well, lowering the proposal fee laid to rest the ridiculous FUD about being swamped with low quality proposals. And secondly, now the DAO can continue the modernization process without this poorly perceived obstacle.

There's definitely more to be done, including more work on DAO fees. And yes, I agree, we need to get to a point where fresh new talent comes to the DAO and makes it competitive again. None of this is going to happen under Sam's leadership, he's too stubborn and monomaniacal with Platform to the detriment of everything else.

The best builders are those that work themselves out of a job, while DCG is extracting all the dash they can to keep their gravy train running.
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3 points,1 year ago
Lowering the proposal fee also laid to rest the notion that we would see an increase in budget proposals from people outside our current participants. That has simply not happened. Like i said before, if people are unfamiliar with Dash then lowering the proposal fee will do little to attract those people. Which all comes to Dash marketing and the lack of that.
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2 points,1 year ago
how can we know that? We've create side channels with incubator and dash marketing hub where people are "supposed" to submit their work.

We've bastardized the proposal system. Some geniuses were so concerned about too many proposals that they've created solutions that have led to a stagnant ecosystem
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1 point,1 year ago
The Dash Incubator is more focused on attracting dApp developers to the Dash Platform. Rion mentioned that he stopped reaching out to developers, untill Platform is feature complete on Testnet, to avoid giving them a bad first impression about Dash Platform. Which means a lot of projects with old developer activity, not recent activity. Most of the Dash Incubator concepts are also in paused status. Only Ash seems to have some recent developer action going on with some of his projects.

With regards to the Dash Marketing Hub : how are people suppose to submit their work there when they are unfamiliar with Dash in the first place ? Or don't know that the Dash Marketing Hub also has a Trello Board for bounties ? (even i did not know that, untill very recent). Or have not kept up with Dash and think Dash is still just a privacy focused altcoin ?
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3 points,1 year ago
Here Here! and we have seen some more engagement in the DAO recently with some decision proposals that help take the temperature of Dash and focus us on our goals. I love that we were able to get this change in, not only that, but it also boosted the amount of Dash available in the budget, since the proposal fee is now 4 Dash less than before, it means POs don't have to ask for that extra 4 Dash refund and instead it can be used to get things done.
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1 point,1 year ago
One possible solution is to lower the masternode rewards with -15% and then have that 15% rewarded to those MNO's that actually have a registered blockchain vote history (lets call it the carrot solution).

I am pretty sure that will increase voting participation, but perhaps at the expense of voting quality. But at least it will make it easier for budget proposals to pass the treshold of 10%. Not sure Dash is currently in a situation that is needed, but Dash could find itself in that situation in the nearby future.

Another solution would be to lower the 10% treshold, but something tells me that we could be having the same problem again and again, as it does not really address the problem that we are having with our declining voting participation over the years.
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0 points,1 year ago
A Dash saved, is a Dash earned, at least that's what my Dashy Grandma always used to say. If we are ever to get out of this bear market, we need to cut the spending (selling) and allow the price to waft up on scarcity. When it does, DCG will find they have plenty of Dash more valuable than before and can sell that.
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3 points,1 year ago
"By the end of the year" (c)
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3 points,1 year ago
Did you choose 512 Dash because it is a power of 2?
2^9.
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3 points,1 year ago
You caught me 0:) . In all seriousness though, there was 514 Dash left in the treasury assuming all proposals were to pass. I always leave 1 or 2 just in case someone wants to put out a last minute decision proposal.
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-1 point,1 year ago
How f* generous of you
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2 points,1 year ago
Dash-Ru community votes "yes"
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4 points,1 year ago
with 98 votes it seems.
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1 point,1 year ago
I was wondering how many masternodes the Russian community would have, now i know.

See : https://imgur.com/a/3KRbA0I

Strange to see them ask for 20 dash for their own budget proposal, when they are backed by a Russian masternode whale who votes with 98 masternodes and collects a huge amount of masternode rewards.
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0 points,1 year ago
Thanks for your reply and calculations!
The reality looks little bit different.
I personally do not own any MNs. Dash provides such functionality like vote delegation.
Who are delegators and if they are Russians or Indian or Canadian it is unknown.
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1 point,1 year ago
To not derail the discussions on this DCG Supplemental budget proposal any more then i already did (sorry about that), i replied on your own budget proposal “Marketing in Russian speaking DASH community“.
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2 points,1 year ago
I am currently still voting NO on these specific DCG Supplemental budget proposals, but i may change my votes to YES, once Dash Platform gets feature complete on Testnet and the 2 months testing can finally begin. The faster you get Dash Platform feature complete, the faster i may switch my NO votes to YES.
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2 points,1 year ago
With Dash Platform i also mean Dash Core v19, as they need to be integrated together on Testnet.
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0 points,1 year ago
There's nothing I can do to go faster sadly, I'm already working around the clock and I know a few others are too.
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1 point,1 year ago
Voting yes.
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-2 points,1 year ago
Dracula's Cape Group, sucking the life out of dash by obsessing over how much they can take every month.
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1 point,1 year ago
GrandMasterDouche, doesn't even have a Masternode and who only contributes trolling, critical of people who spend their life working for the project.
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-1 point,1 year ago
Pretty sure you mean working for yourself. If the treasury was working for others then it would be paying others.. except it can't because DCG is grabbing the vast majority of it. Alternatively, there are few other people applying for grants, which also does not reflect well on DCG.

If you're going to spend years bringing a project to fruition, you better pace yourself accordingly and not neglect your end users in the process. Get your priorities straight and stop playing high risk games with money that was not yours to begin with.

Trolls are people that make claims - such as no masternode ownership or voting rights - without being able to prove it. The proof of absence is a high bar don't you think? Would proof of masternode(s) legitimize my opinions?
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