Proposal “dash-ninja-2023“ (Completed)Back

Title:Dash Ninja Funding 2023
Owner:elberethzone
One-time payment: 84 DASH (2406 USD)
Completed payments: 1 totaling in 84 DASH (0 month remaining)
Payment start/end: 2023-05-11 / 2023-06-10 (added on 2023-05-08)
Votes: 557 Yes / 12 No / 3 Abstain

Proposal description

Preambule:
Hi everybody, I am elbereth, I was there when Dash started (with another name ;-) ), I helped as I could with testnet, explorer, etc.
Then I had an idea to create a monitoring website for masternodes : Dash Ninja.
I created it from scratch, alone. To understand better how Dash works. I
hosted it on my private server since then. I maintain it and make
evolutions myself.
I always offered my help for free, then for a time DCG helped me (thanks! It was around 90$ per month at the end), but it
ended 4 years ago.

Two years ago I asked for budget to sustain the server cost, maintenance and development for 3 months Q1-2021 in a
budget proposal that was successful, thanks to all who voted Yes.
Deployment to the stand alone server was a success and everything went OK until I had no time anymore with my real life.
Last year you all helped with 1 year budget for the cost and maintenance time, thanks again to all who voted Yes.
The server and application are still running smooth to this day with no noticeable downtime.

The goal of this new proposal is to cover server and maintenance for one year 2023-2024.
If any new development arise, I will cover it on my spare time for free or if it is a lot of work make a new proposal.

Proposal:
Dash Ninja is in a working state, it still needs polish but it works.
As indicated this proposal covers :
1. Current server hosting cost for 1 year.
2. A few hours of maintenance per month.

OVH (the server provider) increased the price of the server end of 2022) to $106.13 per month.
They also made the extra IPs paid (they were free until end of 2022) to $1.40 per IP per month.
The server was using various IPs but was trimmed to only 2 paid (+ the one that still cones for free).
could)

Resources:
The source code of Dash Ninja is readily available for everybody to check.
The code will stay licensed under GPLv3.
- Front-end: https://github.com/elbereth/dashninja-fe
- Back-end: https://github.com/elbereth/dashninja-be
- Database: https://github.com/elbereth/dashninja-db
- Control scripts: https://github.com/elbereth/dashninja-ctl
- IRC bot script (Eggdrop): https://github.com/elbereth/dashninja-irc
Annex:
- Database daily automatic dump: https://github.com/elbereth/dashninja-dbdump

Budget:
1 Person half a day maintenance per month $160.00 x 12
Server Fees $108.93 x 12 =  ($106.13 + $1.40 + $1.40) x 12
Proposal Fee $43.65 x 1
Contingency $387.14 (11%)
Total: $3657.95 for the year / $304.83 per month
In Dash (@ $43.65): 83.8 Dash one shot (for the year) / 6.983 Dash per month (equivalent)

Server details:
It is still the same as the last years : dedicated server with 64GB of RAM and
at least SSD hosted at OVH (Rise-1 model) around 100$/month taxes
included.
It works very well for Dash Ninja, performance has been stellar.

What happens if the proposal is rejected ?
I won't be able to afford to pay for the stand alone Dash Ninja server anymore.
Two options then :
1) either move it back to my personal server (most probable option)
Performance will go down but we know it works as that's where it was 3 years ago.
2) help someone deploy and set up Dash Ninja on their server (full database can be provided)

How to contact me:
- Keybase: elbereth
- GitHub: elbereth
- Dash Forum: elbereth

Show full description ...

Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

Submit comment
 
2 points,1 year ago
Elbereth can you update your nodes to v19.1?
Reply
0 points,1 year ago
Elbereth just confirmed on dash.org/forum that he updated to v19.1 and a reindex is in progress.
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
There seems to be a problem with the balance part of the masternodes list, not all masternode payments are accounted for and added to the balance of masternodes. Which means the balance is currently not always correct. I assume this is caused by the Dash blockchain halt but it does need addressing. Also the blockchain part (miners part of dashninja) is currently not working, but i assume that is being worked on.
Reply
2 points,1 year ago
@elberethzone
DashNinja is reporting 9 hours until voting deadline,
while DashCentral is showing 23 hours until voting deadline.
Both cannot be correct, would you mind checking with Rango which one of the two is right and possibly correcting?
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
Yes from me.
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
So is this for January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 or is it from June 2023 to May 2024? Thanks elberethzone
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
Got my support Elbereth!
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
I like the site, use it SOMETIMES but a definite No from me. I have no idea why in all these years you've not been able to make it self-sustainable. If people / MNOs find it so valuable, make them pay for it out of their own pocket.. dash is allegedly digital cash, can't imagine how hard it could be.
Reply
2 points,1 year ago
Hi !

I understand your point on self sustainability.
But from the start I did not want Dash Ninja to be a commercial site.

It was designed to help masternode owners check everything was fine and also anybody who wanted to check the health of the Dash network.
The site can be "self sustainable" when I host it on my small personal server, but it was not as good a an experience for everybody as it is now on that beast.
In that case (which is what will end up be if this proposal don't pass) it is without problem that I pay for the cost of the server (which I use for other personal stuff).

To understand the "non-commercial" part :
- I don't want to sell access to the data or monitoring, the goal is to show how Dash is healthy or to detect problems as early as possible
- I don't want/can to sell logs (two of the ways is that the site is accessible via onion secret service and I2P, I have no means to know who access the site this way)
- I don't like ads... The only one on the site is for a hardware wallet, it is barely visible, and I made a total of 0 USD with it... I really think people should use hardware wallets anyway.

To understand the proposals to fund Dash Ninja :
It was suggested to me by various core team members when they could not help with the server costs.
With the difference in cost I preferred to opt for a very good server (without being too much neither).
If masternode owners feel Dash Ninja not to be funder I would gladly go back to my server ! :-) No hard feelings, I am still fully convinced by Dash.

Sorry for my rambling, very busy IRL but I hope I explained my position correctly.
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
Yes, I totally understand, but equally you don't have to make a profit, only to break even.

I think the benefit of being self-sustainable is that you are setting an example to others that it is indeed possible, and does not have to be run like some kind of government service that has no real world value as a private enterprise. The service is actually beneficial to it's users or not, that imo should be the standard.
Reply
2 points,1 year ago
Changing dashninja to a paid service would massively reduce its benefit to the network imo. It is a helpful community resource and is not particularly conducive to individual paid subscriptions. I consider this an infrastructure cost.

However, that being said, imo "not liking ads" is not a good enough justification for leaving that potential money on the table and asking the Dash DAO to pay for the operational costs completely. Run some ads so that you can ask for less or potentially not need to ask for supplemental funding from the DAO. I would 100% still use the site even if there were lots of ads.
Reply
2 points,1 year ago
Yes. Totally understand his pov about ads but I think you're right, should drop his pride and take some responsibility for funding.

The case for no subscriptions has not been tested and proven. Nor has micropayments for use been tested. Not suggesting he will get it right first time - probably not - but I think he should at least make a concerted effort to prove us wrong.

As in any governance system, we should ask what is the private / alternative value of services. For if the answer is unsustainable then we must question, did it really have that much value in the first place? A free market WILL pay for that which is essential.

This is similar to Ryan's idea of letting MNOs feel the pinch for funding proposals. MNOs should either feel the pinch for funding or pay for actual use directly.

If a proposal really is indispensable, then DAO funding is literally at their mercy. I believe this is not a good position to be in.
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
The main reason I strongly support dashninja, is because it can be used to crosscheck the validity of the data provided by http://mnowatch.org.
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
I assumed dashninja has much higher resources than mnowatch.

I can overlook the mnowatch proposal given how little was asked. Though it would be interesting to see if it could be funded in other ways.

I really don't understand it. Dash is perfect for micropayments yet there are no dash pay-as-you-go metered services. If these projects can't even eat their own dog food, what example does it set for others?
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
You have my strong support!
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
Thanks !
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
The codebase (links above) is a masterpiece. I bet that database is a treasure trove of historical data.

Easy yes. Thanks for all your work on this project. I've used it many times.
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
That's the idea : open source and open data.
I try to have the database content available for anybody who wants it.
Hopefully it is useful for someone. :-)
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
I will certainly vote YES on this.
Reply
1 point,1 year ago
Thanks !
Reply