Proposal “DCG-COMP-JAN-MAR23“ (Completed)Back

Title:Dash Core Group Compensation January - March
Owner:quantumexplorer
Monthly amount: 2296 DASH (88105 USD)
Completed payments: 3 totaling in 6888 DASH (0 month remaining)
Payment start/end: 2022-12-11 / 2023-03-10 (added on 2022-11-28)
Votes: 812 Yes / 70 No / 6 Abstain

Proposal description

Dash Core Group December 26th Funding Proposals

DCG is submitting 3 funding proposals for the budget cycle that pays out December 26th:
1) DCG Compensation: 2,296 Dash per month (currently in month 1/3)
2) DCG Infrastructure: 459 Dash (currently in month 2/2)
3) DCG Supplemental proposal: TBD on amount.

What does this specific proposal fund?


This proposal funds Dash Core Group's ongoing compensation costs - including all developers, administrative, business development, marketing, and support staff.  This is a multi-month proposal that will cover compensation for January through March 2023.

What is the proposal funding?

As of November 31st, 2022, DCG has 39 paid staff associated with the project. In addition, we have 1 volunteer who has decided to work for no compensation and 1 person who has decided to work at minimal compensation for a set defined period before returning as a volunteer.

Our run-rate for December will be around $220,000. With this current compensation proposal, we are asking for total funding of $90,679 per month. If this proposal passes, we will be consuming roughly $130,000 from our reserve per month. Our compensation reserve as of November 31st stands at slightly more than 5 months of compensation reserve. We built up reserves for the exact situation we find ourselves in today, where our compensation run-rate is higher than our compensation related revenue, due to a decline in the price of Dash. We had previously said that assuming a price of $44.5 for the balance of the year, that we could continue to operate with no changes to our compensation structure and still sit on a 5 month reserve at the end of December 2022, and this is pretty much what played out.

What does DCG's current structure look like?

DCG has evolved to primarily be a tech focused organization that can be grouped into 2 main parts, technology and technology support.

Technology:

  • CTO Samuel Westrich - quantumexplorer (making this proposal)

Core:
  • Lead C++ Software Engineer
  • Lead C++ Software Engineer
  • Senior C++ Software Engineer
  • Senior C++ Software Engineer
  • C++ Software Engineer
Mobile:
  • Lead Android Software Engineer and Principal Developer
  • Sr. Android Software Engineer
  • Android Software Engineer (Part time)
  • Sr. iOS Software Engineer
  • Sr. iOS Software Engineer
Platform Consensus
  • Sr. Go Software Engineer
  • Sr. Go Software Engineer
Platform Protocol
  • Lead Rust/JS Software Engineer
  • Lead Rust Software Engineer
  • Senior Rust Software Engineer
  • Senior JS Software Engineer
  • Rust/JS Software Engineer 
Platform Database (GroveDB)
  • Rust Software Engineer
  • Rust Software Engineer
Platform SDK
  • Sr. JS Software Engineer
Research:
  • Lead Tech Research Engineer
  • Tech Research Engineer
Technology Support:

Communication / Business Development / Marketing:
  • Head of Business Development / Marketing
  • Communication Officer
  • Business Development Manager
Documentation
  • Lead Technical Content Developer
  • Technical Content Developer
Human Resources:
  • HR Specialist
Infrastructure
  • Lead Infrastructure Engineer
  • Infrastructure Engineer
  • Infrastructure Engineer
Project Management
  • Lead SM / Project Manager
  • SM / Project Manager
Product
  • Head of Product
Quality Assurance
  • QA Engineer
  • QA Engineer
Tech Support
  • Lead Support Engineer
  • Support Engineer
Website
  • Web Developer

If you have any questions, please direct them to @quantumexplorer at dashcentral to ensure we are notified of your request.
Requested funding is as follows for the December through February budget cycles:
  • 2,295.66 Dash for core team compensation per month ($90,679 USD @ $39.50 per Dash)
  • 0.33 Dash / per month proposal reimbursement 
Total: 2,296 Dash per month
Note: Should any funding remain, we will apply it toward future compensation expenses and any related taxes.

Show full description ...

Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

Submit comment
 
1 point,1 year ago
The last Dash Core Group Quarterly Call was Q4 2021 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNiYAd2XODg

I very much appreciate other DCG departments keeping the network updated on what is being achieved:

- The developers provide frequent video updates.
- Brian posts quarterly financials to the forums.
- Marine is present and actively engaged in communication.

One area, though, has been overlooked and is not being adequately explained or reported.

According to my understanding and the proposal description, DCG currently has two dedicated business development managers, with Ernesto serving as the lead.

Could Ernesto kindly provide the masternode network with a detailed summary of the business development achievements and deliverables for each of the quarters outlined below:

Q1 2022
Q2 2022
Q3 2022
Q4 2022

For consistency, preferentially in the same format as previously reported in summary calls, so the masternode network has a way to measure those results against previous performance on what was delivered in previous quarters in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. For example: https://i.imgur.com/3bCBxRH.png

I should also note for the most part of 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 DCG had two business development managers being both Ernesto and Omar.

My reason for asking is that announcements of new DCG driven business development partnerships seem to have drastically slowed down and appear to be completely dormant.

Currently, the masternode network has no way of knowing what has been accomplished in the last year or more. Clearly, based on my comment and line of questioning, my personal impression based on external optics has not been favorable. I've also recently seen other community members on the Dash Discord server question this very topic, so I know I'm not alone in my observation, which inspired me to write this comment with the sole objective of achieving clarity.

My personal observation is that the number of business development announcements and partnerships dropped dramatically in mid-2021, which could be related to Omar's departure as a previous DCG business development manager to pursue a new venture. Regardless, my point is that it appears that nothing significant has been accomplished or delivered since then.

In terms of actual partnerships, there has been a profound period of silence in comparison to what was achieved on a quarterly basis in previous years. I'm not implying that Omar did all the work and heavy lifting but given the optics, timeline and lack of performance metrics available, I wouldn't blame other MNOs for thinking that way.

Furthermore, I'm not looking for success criteria in the form of media appearances such as podcasts, Twitter spaces, or photos from blockchain conferences. I'm keen to know about the specific partnerships formed by the DCG business development team during this time period. Also, I would like to request that any results from external entities outside of DCG such as Dash Marketing Hub or DashDirect adding new merchants be excluded because they do not count as objective success criteria for DCG.

Thank you.
Reply