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| 1 | +# Proposal - Dash Hive |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +This document proposes and outlines the creation of a new organization called Dash Hive. |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +### Overview |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +> If you have limited time, **this Overview section should give you enough of an idea to cast a reasonably-informed vote**. More information is available in separate sections and documents. |
| 8 | +
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| 9 | +Overall, I'm proposing to create a new organization called Dash Hive. It would function closely to that of a traditional cooperative (co-op), and would be funded regularly by the Dash Treasury. This proposal is accompanied by a letter of intent (LOI), because Dash Hive plans to do a significant amount of work prior to requesting funding. This document sketches out a preliminary scope of work, a rough schedule, and an expected future budget, but requests no funds at this time. The purpose of the LOI is to express an explicit (obviously non-binding) partnership between Dash Hive and the Dash Treasury. It also provides us with a reasonable assurance that satisfactory work will be compensated. |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +##### Background |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +Dash's payment and governance mechanism (commonly called the Dash Treasury) has been operating for nearly 18 months. To date, most proposals involve a request for up-front payment and a promise to deliver a product or service afterwards. Many proposals have received payment but not delivered on their promises. Because most proposals use this *pre-payment* approach, the bulk of the risk (downside) has fallen on MNOs, with the bulk of the reward (upside) being left to treasury contractors. |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +Unrelated, over the past 10 months a strong community of Dash enthusiasts has emerged in Salt Lake City (SLC), Utah, USA. As the organizer of the SLC meetup, comprised of nearly 200 members, I've spoken with dozens of people eager to put their talents to work for Dash. However, most are not able to spend the time to come up with proposal ideas, build a reputation in the various forums, and navigate their way through the proposal submission process, including fronting the $2,000+ cost to make the attempt to work for Dash. |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +This is not my first proposal; I have submitted three others, two passing and one receiving majority support, but falling short of the required 10% supermajority. All of my proposals have been somewhat related to this one; they have all sought to build a community of Dash users, in a *sustainable* and *decentralizing* manner. My most recent proposal presented the general idea of Dash Treasury co-ops, *without* respect or reference to any specific group. That proposal passed, indicating a relatively positive sentiment towards the co-op scaling principle in general. This proposal takes that a step further by asking for feedback (in the form of a vote) about supporting a *specific co-op*, organized by me (@rion on the various Dash forums). |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +##### Motivation |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +My main motivation in forming Dash Hive is to **jump-start a concentrated, local economy of dash users**. The best way to promote merchant adoption is to promote consumer adoption. Consumers will spend dash when consumers *earn* (not buy and hold) dash. If someone buys dash with dollars they have already expressed their preference to hold dash and spend dollars. Even if merchants start accepting dash they will likely not have a sustainable consumer base unless those consumers are *earning* dash. A consumer who earns *only* dash *will* spend dash at merchants who accept it, providing a sustainable loop of exchange. In other words, **you need dash earners before you can sustain dash merchants**. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +We have a treasury with extra funds each month, a local community with hundreds of talented people who would love to work for dash, and a simple mechanism (the Treasury) to connect the two. **We should marry idle talent with idle money**. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +But what about the potential waste, fraud, and abuse that can come with dash 'handouts'? In contrast to the historic pre-payment approach described above, Dash Hive would work on a *post-payment* basis, shifting all the risk from the treasury to the co-op -- Dash Hive may potentially perform work but not get paid. The opposite (getting paid and not performing) is not possible with this approach. The LOI helps mitigate the newly placed risk on the co-op. |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +### Scope |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +The initial scope of work primarily involves organizing the co-op. Members will be mostly local to the SLC metro area. In addition to organizing the co-op we will also provide at least one sample project and at least one sample service to give the community an idea of what kinds of things we will actually do for Dash. |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +Initial deliverables would include the following: |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +* Articles of Organization for Dash Hive, including membership and compensation guidelines |
| 34 | +* List of initial members, recruited first from local meetup members interested in deeper involvment |
| 35 | +* List of services our members can provide to Dash (member skills and availability) |
| 36 | +* Basic website displaying information about the co-op, its key members, and current projects |
| 37 | +* Deliverable(s) for internal project(s) |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +### Schedule |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +We will commmence work on the deliverables above as soon as we see promising support during the voting. We expect to accomplish all the above in time to request remuneration in the next proposal cycle, however, it may be the cycle following that if there are unexpected complications or scope enhancements. |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +### Budget |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +In general proposal `n` will request funds for work completed from proposal `n-1`. Proposal `n` will then include plans and budgetary estimates for future work. In other words, the budget section of proposals will always include some kind of **Past Remuneration** sub-section as well as a **Future Budgetary Estimate** sub-section. The following is an example of the structure (content will, of course, change over time): |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +##### Past Remuneration |
| 48 | +A considerable amount of work has been expended in building the local community to a point we are ready to propose the creation of Dash Hive. However, no compensation is expected for past, unsolicited work. This proposal only requests 5 DASH to reimburse the proposal submission fee. |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +##### Future Budgetary Estimate |
| 51 | +In addition to not requesting any funds for this month/cycle, **we also do not expect to request (m)any funds for next month/cycle either**. There are extra funds left over from the TEDxSLC proposal from several months ago, just over **20 DASH**. Alex's TEDxSLC proposal suggested that any extra funds could be used to support the local SLC Dash meetup. So far the meetup has not used any of those funds. **We propose to re-purpose those ~20 DASH to this effort**. Dash Hive will use part of the funds to sponsor meetup costs, but that won't amount to much compared to the left-over funds available. The remaining funds will be used to compensate people for accomplishing the deliverables above. |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +### Closing |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +Forming Dash Hive would provide the following benefits: |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +* It would **put idle talent to work** for dash |
| 58 | +* It would **reduce overhead** at both ends of treasury proposals: |
| 59 | + * MNOs wouldn't need to vet fewer people for a given work force |
| 60 | + * Individuals wouldn't need to establish reputations before working for dash |
| 61 | +* It would **eliminate contractor delivery risk** (no scams or underperforming projects possible) |
| 62 | +* It would **provide a simple path to employment** for newcomers to Dash. |
| 63 | +* It would **open/expand the opportunity for MNOs to initiate RFPs** |
| 64 | + * Co-op skills and qualifications would be expanded and updated regularly |
| 65 | + * MNOs would be able to rely on a trust-less and steadily-available workforce |
| 66 | +* it would **prime SLC to be a future test-bed for pilot programs** |
| 67 | + * Merchant adoption programs |
| 68 | + * A branch office with physical, consumer-facing stores/info desks, etc |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | +The LOI below describes Dash Hive's intended role in the Dash community along with a request for remuneration from MNOs in *subsequent*, more detailed proposals. A small initial scope of work is proposed below, but **no funds are requested** at this time. The co-op would scale its scopes of work and requested budget gradually, as we deliver products and administer services successfully. |
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