Welcome!

This is a cross-post from the Dash Forum

We are extremely excited to announce our intention to locate Dash into class A office space. The proposed space is much more than an office location - it is at SkySong, the Arizona State University Innovation Center. This proposal will fund a month-to-month lease at SkySong beginning February 1st.

SkySong is a 1.2 million square foot mixed-use live/work/play facility associated with Arizona State University and located in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is operated as a non-profit incubator for innovation and technology, ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Its
non-profit status enables SkySong to charge tenants well below market rates. The facility is in high demand, and all SkySong buildings are near full occupancy, so being accepted to receive space in the facility is recognition in itself of how far our project has come. In fact, we have secured the very last available “premium office” in the facility (more detail below).

We believe there are several advantages to obtaining office space at this time. First, as development ramps up on Evolution, we anticipate productivity gains from having some members of the development team on-site to work directly with Evan. Second, we feel that a professional environment in which to receive visitors, host events, and run our infrastructure will add credibility and legitimacy to our project with prospective business partners.

We also believe that SkySong, in particular, is an ideal location for us, because it provides a number of other advantages that are difficult to replicate with other locations. First, SkySong provides the flexibility of month-to-month leases. Second, SkySong is committed to
work with Dash to connect us with other occupants of the facility with whom we might collaborate such as Ticketmaster, PayPal, and Groupon. Third, SkySong can be instrumental in providing tenants access to the resources available through Arizona State University and other economic development programs that can meaningfully assist the project. I cannot overstate the potential importance of the relationship between SkySong and ASU, and we intend to fully explore the potential to collaborate with the university.

Arizona State University is one of America’s premier research-focused universities. In fact, it is the top producer of Fulbright scholars among research universities and is ranked #1 by U.S. News and World Report among the Most Innovative Schools in America in both 2015 and 2016 – beating out #2 Stanford and #3 MIT. It truly is an environment ripe to support an innovative project like Dash.

Potential areas for collaboration with ASU could include:

• Identifying highly qualified interns and graduates for employment in the areas of computer science, applied mathematics, cryptography, economics, and business
• Collaborating on research into various aspects of the network such as economics, fee pricing, X11 entropy, governance effectiveness, legal questions, security, block reward allocation optimization, and decentralized technology optimization (e.g., APIs and data storage)
• Introducing blockchain, cryptocurrency, and Dash into the ASU curriculum

The facility and its amenities are impressive. Or lease will provide the following:

1. A “premium office” in a LEED Silver Certification (class A) building which can accommodate up to three workstations or two workstations and a visitor meeting table
2. Locking glass door, and locking filing cabinets
3. Two dedicated phone lines and voicemail system
4. Gigabit Ethernet connectivity
5. Mail services
6. Complementary conference room access
7. 24/7 access to the building
8. Complementary copier and printer (up to a monthly limit)
9. On-site dataroom and hosting of critical servers
10. Kitchen facilities including coffee machines
11. Shared reception area with sign-in and waiting area
12. Free shuttle service between ASU’s main campus (2 miles away) and SkySong
13. Free access to a 385 capacity conference facility on site – great for hosting the first Dash conference in the future

Initially, Evan and I will begin operating from the new office. SkySong also enables inexpensive expansion to accommodate on-site interns and full-time developers. Individual dedicated workstations and non-dedicated hoteling space is readily available starting at $150 per
month per employee. These spaces are located directly adjacent to the office space.

You can read more about the facility on the SkySong website. www.skysong.com

Costs:

The “premium” office costs $2,000 per month, and is all-inclusive, including phone, utilities, (uncovered) parking, furniture, and conference space. The only other expense is that the lease requires us to hold general liability insurance. We are working on obtaining pricing through the Dash Foundation, but the required insurance amount should be less than $50 per month.

Requested funding is as follows for the January 4th budget cycle:

• 204.43 Dash for rent and general liability insurance ($2,050 USD @ $10.028 per Dash based on December 21st average rate at https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/price-dash.html)
• 5.00 Dash proposal reimbursement

Total: 209.43 Dash

Note: Should any funding remain, we will apply it toward future rent payments.