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Dash Core Group October 1st Funding Proposals
DCG is submitting 5 funding proposals for the October 1st budget cycle:
1) DCG Comp (Developers and Operations): $325,000 (here)
2) DCG Comp (Administration): $100,000 (here)
3) DCG Comp (Bus Dev / Marketing / Cust Support): $75,000 (here)
4) DCG Business Development: $160,000 (current proposal)
5) DCG Public Relations: $40,000 (here)

Note: Over the past 2 months finance has worked on managing, calculating and optimizing our tax liability.  We identified a number of opportunities to lower our tax burden during that time and validated those opportunities with tax experts.  We developed legal arguments to enable certain tax treatments of assets and transactions that lowered our estimated tax obligations.  Ian Rawluk, who recently joined the finance team, was instrumental in driving the effort over the finish line.
As a result of these efforts, we will not need to submit a 3rd tax proposal related to the first quarter of fiscal 2019.  We expect our current tax funds to be sufficient to cover us through both fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2019.

This proposal is cross-posted here

What is this proposal about?
This proposal funds the Dash Core Group’s ongoing business development expenses. The last time funding was requested for the Dash Core Group’s business development budget was one year ago, in October 2017. We previously planned to request $400,000 for the current funding period as per the DCG Budget Planning Update (Q3 2018) post on Dash Forum about a month ago [https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dcg-budget-planning-update-q3-2018-cross-posted-to-allow-comments.39820/]. However, in light of the current budgetary pressures, we are reducing our request and spreading the request over two months. This proposal would fund $320,000 toward current and planned business development funding needs split into 2 monthly payments of $160,000 each.

We have tried to provide as much detail as possible in our partnership descriptions below. Unfortunately many items, such as partner level cost detail is commercial in confidence and we are unable to share. This would also impact our ability to negotiate future partnerships and complicate existing ones as the commercial terms would be made public and visible for them to directly compare. Generally speaking, the integration deals we directly fund are low-cost as evidenced by the large number of integrations and promotion activities funded by the previous proposal. Larger requests are generally directed directly to the DAO for funding decisions under separate proposals.

A look back at historical business development activity
Since our last funding request, the business development budget has been used to fund a large number of integrations, promotions, and co-advertising efforts:
The onboarding in Q4 of 2017 included Alt36, SBI Holdings, eToro, Mercury Cash, Coin BR and Uphold.
The onboarding of 24 Partners year to date 2018:

• 10 Fiat ramps/Exchanges, 9 Channel Partners, 4 merchant platforms, National Renewable Energy Laboratory - U.S. Department of Energy pilot program (which has yielded a functional smartmeter product in field testing), and Kriptomobile
  • Fiat ramps/exchanges: Abra, BitInka, Morphtoken, Paycent, Uphold, ACX, Coinflip and 2 exchanges not yet announced
    Channel Partners: Alogateway, Bitgo, Bitnovo, Bitwage, Canntrade, GoCoin, Rewards, Tradecore, and TravelbyBit
  • Merchant Platforms: Abee Ride, Bitrefill, Coincards.ca, and Piiko
  • These were onboarded both directly and in cooperation with channel partners

Key accomplishments stemming from these partnerships include: doubling the U.S. ATM network overnight with Coinflip, key custody solution with Bitgo (which is needed for other integrations), positive response to new integrated partnership with Kriptomobile which also included Uphold and Bitrefill apps, earning Dash back at everyday merchants with Rewards.com, expanding to Canada with Coincards.ca. We have also prioritized integration of InstantSend into the integrations we facilitate, and have circled back with existing exchanges and services to add this feature where it was not previously implemented.
Key partners that directly support our strategy in LATAM include Kriptomobile, Abra, Bitinka, and Bitnovo. Our key gambling market partner is GoCoin.
Additional detail on how we spend business development funds

• We have reduced the average onboarding cost by 14%, from an average of $38.6k in 1Q2018 to a total YTD average cost of $33.3k.
  On average, 28% of these costs are for the direct benefit of the Dash User and to drive transactions via discounts, waived fees or a small amount of Dash. 
• In such cases, the partner also has “skin in the game”.  This can consist of matching discount levels or fee waivers, absorbing incremental direct costs of their own, negotiated permanent fee reductions, dedicated developer resources, partner supplied PR and marketing channels, etc.
• Total onboarding cost consists of:
  • Direct integration costs  (I.e. API fees, compliance costs etc…)
    Indirect integration costs (i.e. cost of resource redeployment etc...)
  • Promotional activity   
    • Variable expenses such as fee waivers, contests or discounts to promote usage
    • Limited marketing through channel partners
• Co-investment grants:
  • Integration grant programs
  • Joint marketing and promotion efforts
  • This includes Alt Thirty Six, BlockCypher and Uphold
• Fiat guarantees for Dash Core Group provided escrows

What are the funds you are requesting going to be used for?
The budget being requested in this proposal is to cover a number of initiatives. This budget will include funding for:

1. Promotional and integration costs associated with:
   1. Kriptomobile
   2. Alt Thirty Six
   3. Coinflip ATM
   4. Abee Ride
   5. FuzeX
   6. Texcent
   7. An unannounced exchange
      
2. Onboarding expenses to support up to 6 current negotiations with potential partners
   
3. A portion of the BitGo fiat guarantee

We continue to minimise the cost of integration wherever commercially possible. One way we are bounding expenses is by focusing on the top-line growth benefit of a relationship with the DCG business development function, for example through incentivizing users to drive transactions, or adding value in non-monetary ways.

• Create innovative ways to work with both existing and new partners, such as the multi-partner Kriptomobile partnership which could not happen with passive networks.
• Highlighting the value of access to Dash’s social media channels and PR services to gain exposure for their business.
• Highlighting the value of referrals and cross-sales opportunities DCG facilitates between its partners.
• Contests that reward transactions with contest entries
• End-user discounts that are both time bound as well as limited in budget
• Reclaiming unused Dash, such as we’re doing with the Kriptomobile partnership by ensuring the paper wallets expire. DCG can then sweep unclaimed funds and redeploy them to other efforts.

This approach is seeing incredible success in an environment where ICOs in particular have purchased integrations at astronomical prices [https://twitter.com/CryptoEmporium_/status/978596301385486337]. DCG does not engage in “pay to play” negotiations. We will continue recommending such offers to still be submitted to the network and provide potential partners with the resources on how to do so. Should they chose to submit a proposal, this then allows the Masternodes to have final say on whether funding is provided for that partner.
If you have any questions, please direct them to @bradleyzastrow in this Dash Forum post to ensure we are notified of your request.

Requested funding is as follows for the October 1st budget cycle with an additional $160,000 requested for the October 31st cycle:
840.00 Dash ($160,000 USD @ $190.5 per Dash)
5.00 Dash reimbursement for the proposal cost
Total: 845 Dash

Note: Should any funding remain, we will apply it toward future business development expenses.