We are happy to report that core team submissions to the budget system are complete for the April budget cycle. There is one additional proposal that we were hoping to incorporate, but it is dependent on figures from an external party. If we receive sufficient details today, I may attempt to submit it if sufficient budget and time remains.
This budget cycle was especially challenging to navigate for several reasons. First, the rapid and dramatic increase in Dash's value caused tremendous turmoil to our planning. Projects that previously required funding can now safely depend on existing balances set aside in previous cycles. Second, completely new opportunities opened up to Dash, and we did our best to collect the necessary information to fund a proposal. In some areas we succeeded in quickly obtaining good estimates, and in other cases there wasn't enough time to fully adjust our plans. Thirdly, we weren't certain if the dramatic increases in Dash's value were sustainable, or whether we needed to plan for a major connection. Finally, this month a couple of the proposals were dependent on other proposals to pass. For example the recruiting proposal only made sense to fund if the core team expansion did first - and therefore the need to hire - became certain. For those opportunities that are still in-process, I am nonetheless proud of the efforts made by the team to move as quickly as we could.
You may notice that there are many categories of funding that are typically recurring expenses that were not present this month. These include the following budget categories:
1) Infrastructure / Datacenter
2) Infrastructure / Applications
3) Dash Offices
4) Business Development
5) Public Relations
Rest assured, the absence of these budgets is not a sign that the core team intends to discontinue any of these expenses. It is simply that the balances we normally keep in these categories to protect against currency fluctuations has risen in value dramatically over the past two months. In addition, funding requests submitted for the March cycle were dramatically higher on the payout date than they were on the dates they were submitted in February. The resulting windfall to many of these budgets mean that we could have as much as 5-7 months worth of expenses already set aside, so we have little reason to pursue additional funding for these categories, even after taking currency fluctuation risks into account.
As I mentioned, there are a number of potential areas we are exploring to utilize our expanded funding effectively, but they may require more time to research and develop. These include academic or professional security audits, research in partnership with ASU or other institutions, support for the Electrum wallet, and outsourcing of specific projects that would accelerate business opportunities we are actively pursuing.
Core Team Budget Requests:
Core Team Salaries
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-core-team-salaries-april.13943/
This proposal provides continued funding for existing core team resources - 397.06 Dash
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-public-relations-february.12838/
Core Team Expansion
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-core-team-expansion.13950/
This proposal seeks funding to expand the core team with 16 new full-time roles and 5 part-time roles - 1,303.55 Dash
Conferences & Travel
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-conferences-travel-april.13955/
This proposal is to fund Dash's participation at both Blockchain 360 and Consensus 2017 - 503.48 Dash
Marketing
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-conferences-travel-april.13955/
This proposal will provide funding for a number of our marketing efforts - 273.24 Dash
Professional Recruiting
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-professional-recruiting.13994/
This proposal funds professional recruiting for the 16 new full-time positions approved in the core team expansion budget - 566.06 Dash
This budget cycle was especially challenging to navigate for several reasons. First, the rapid and dramatic increase in Dash's value caused tremendous turmoil to our planning. Projects that previously required funding can now safely depend on existing balances set aside in previous cycles. Second, completely new opportunities opened up to Dash, and we did our best to collect the necessary information to fund a proposal. In some areas we succeeded in quickly obtaining good estimates, and in other cases there wasn't enough time to fully adjust our plans. Thirdly, we weren't certain if the dramatic increases in Dash's value were sustainable, or whether we needed to plan for a major connection. Finally, this month a couple of the proposals were dependent on other proposals to pass. For example the recruiting proposal only made sense to fund if the core team expansion did first - and therefore the need to hire - became certain. For those opportunities that are still in-process, I am nonetheless proud of the efforts made by the team to move as quickly as we could.
You may notice that there are many categories of funding that are typically recurring expenses that were not present this month. These include the following budget categories:
1) Infrastructure / Datacenter
2) Infrastructure / Applications
3) Dash Offices
4) Business Development
5) Public Relations
Rest assured, the absence of these budgets is not a sign that the core team intends to discontinue any of these expenses. It is simply that the balances we normally keep in these categories to protect against currency fluctuations has risen in value dramatically over the past two months. In addition, funding requests submitted for the March cycle were dramatically higher on the payout date than they were on the dates they were submitted in February. The resulting windfall to many of these budgets mean that we could have as much as 5-7 months worth of expenses already set aside, so we have little reason to pursue additional funding for these categories, even after taking currency fluctuation risks into account.
As I mentioned, there are a number of potential areas we are exploring to utilize our expanded funding effectively, but they may require more time to research and develop. These include academic or professional security audits, research in partnership with ASU or other institutions, support for the Electrum wallet, and outsourcing of specific projects that would accelerate business opportunities we are actively pursuing.
Core Team Budget Requests:
Core Team Salaries
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-core-team-salaries-april.13943/
This proposal provides continued funding for existing core team resources - 397.06 Dash
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-public-relations-february.12838/
Core Team Expansion
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-core-team-expansion.13950/
This proposal seeks funding to expand the core team with 16 new full-time roles and 5 part-time roles - 1,303.55 Dash
Conferences & Travel
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-conferences-travel-april.13955/
This proposal is to fund Dash's participation at both Blockchain 360 and Consensus 2017 - 503.48 Dash
Marketing
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-conferences-travel-april.13955/
This proposal will provide funding for a number of our marketing efforts - 273.24 Dash
Professional Recruiting
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-professional-recruiting.13994/
This proposal funds professional recruiting for the 16 new full-time positions approved in the core team expansion budget - 566.06 Dash