Proposal “DCG_Infra_Mar_Apr“ (Completed)Back

Title:Dash Core Group Infrastructure Proposal March - April
Owner:glennaustin
Monthly amount: 494 DASH (10709 USD)
Completed payments: 2 totaling in 988 DASH (0 month remaining)
Payment start/end: 2022-02-10 / 2022-04-11 (added on 2022-02-09)
Votes: 1043 Yes / 195 No / 1 Abstain

Proposal description

Dash Core Group February 26th Funding Proposals
DCG is submitting 2 funding proposals for the budget cycle that pays out on February 26th:
1) DCG Compensation: 2,473 Dash per month (currently in month 1/4)
2) DCG Infrastructure: 494 Dash (currently in month 1/2)

What does this specific proposal fund?
This multi-month proposal funds Dash Core Group's ongoing infrastructure and corporate software costs. We detail these costs in the following “Infrastructure Cost Details” section.

Infrastructure Cost Details
The tools and services to be covered by this proposal are critical for the DCG developers and other staff to work productively. It also includes hosting for externally-facing services including the website, forum, testnet, devnets, etc.

Our current infrastructure costs average $20,000/month - this includes infrastructure, software licenses, tools, and applications used by DCG. This proposal, if paid out at the current exchange rate of $116 / Dash over the next budget cycle, should provide sufficient funding for over 5 months of infrastructure costs.

Funds requested for the following: :
  • Cloud computing services (for hosting ~200 testnet and devnet servers, insight API, dash.org website, forum, etc.) with AWS and DigitalOcean 
  • Software development tools, licenses, and applications (including continuous integration builds)
  • Google Suite (includes email hosting, calendar, document management, video conferencing, and a number of other productivity tools)
  • Security applications (password managers, VPN services, and custodial wallets)
  • Infrastructure monitoring tools
  • Service desk licenses
  • Accounting, finance, and expense reimbursement software subscriptions
  • Video-conferencing services (Zoom)
  • Collaboration tools such as Atlassian and Slack that collectively constitute the DCG “workspace”
  • HR systems, recruitment and interview tracking/feedback/collaboration tools, and recruitment sites (this has increased the monthly cost of operations, but will be reduced in the coming months)

The expenses for cloud computing instances constitute the largest portion of our infrastructure costs, at approximately $11,000 per month. This includes cloud computing services for Dash Platform’s presence on testnet and devnets for the platform and mobile team environments.

We continually review all of our infrastructure costs with the goal of only paying for what we need. Over the last 6 months, our infrastructure costs have increased due to:
  1. Increased demand from Platform team for testnet and devnet servers (permanent increase until Platform mainnet)
  2. Expansion of the number of staff leads to an increase in tools and licensing costs (permanent increase)
  3. Implementation of recruitment tools and recruitment website subscriptions (temporary increase in costs)

Overall, we anticipate our infrastructure costs to continue to average in the $15,000 to $20,000 monthly range.

If you have any questions, please direct them to @kot in this Dashcentral post to ensure we are notified of your request.

Requested funding is as follows for the March and April budget cycles:
  • 491.5 Dash for core team infrastructure ($57,000 USD @ $116 per Dash / month)
  •  2.5 Dash proposal reimbursement (per month)
Total: 494 Dash

Note: Should any funding remain, we will apply it toward future infrastructure expenses and related taxes.

Show full description ...

Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

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4 points,2 years ago
For the first time ever, I am voting no for the Core compensation prop (but YES on infrastructure. We have no beef with the dev team.) I think there was both wrongdoing and incompetence going on in Blackballgate. But let's set that aside for a moment. Ryan's not a bad guy, but by any objective measure (Evo progress, Dash Price, Engagement all across social media, rank on CMC, public profile, relationship with community) it has been stagnant at best. Yes, he has made important contributions in the past, but we can't just coast on previous work.

Dash is at a critical crossroads. We used to think it was terrible when we slipped out of the top 10. At the moment we are in real danger of slipping out of the top 100. If that happens, we have effectively lost the battle.
Dash has the best tech in the cryptosphere. Ryan is the CEO of Dash Core. The buck stops with Ryan. Some have called for drastically changing the structure of core. I don't think that is necessary.

Let's appoint somebody competent as interim CEO and find somebody with better skills and more motivated and understands that core and the CEO works for the MN community, not the other way around. Ryan admits he is "extremely time constrained" right now. We have hardly seen him for the last 6 months. No explanation as to why, or what he is going to do about it.

I'm sorry, but being really busy (with something....?) is not a good reason or excuse to continue to ruin Dash by inaction. If you care about Dash being relevant a year from now, vote NO on Core Compensation and YES on Infrastructure. And if Ryan convinces a few Dash whales to get the Compensation prop into the green, that is not a stamp of approval for Ryan to continue as an ineffective leader. We must get a new CEO and better communication to further assess Core. The problem is not the dev team. Let's support them by fixing the leadership problem.

I was out of the loop for more than a year because my wife had cancer. That's over and we won. I'm back and it feels great. I was almost nostalgic to see realdashman and nam3 hard at it again. Almost. Ignore them, they are wrong. We have the most powerful, robust, innovative monetary cryptocurrency in the world. Period, full stop. If we crank up the marketing and get some real leadership going, it won't be that hard to turn this around.

Please vote NO on the Core Compensation prop and YES on the infrastructure prop. Let's get some shit done around here.

Solarguy
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-4 points,2 years ago
You lost your credibility and "burned your social capital" when you exposed yourself as being a censoring moderator who stood up for an infiltrator from the Monero community by banning me from reddit's dashpay multiple times. You had NO RIGHT to do that and you abused your power in doing so.

Luckily for me, by doing that you exposed the fact that you had sold our community out (there's no reason for a supposedly pro-Dash moderator to ban posters who are attacking our competition, doing so heavily implies a conflict of interest). So, your comment here has to be taken in that light. You are not here for the best interests of the Dash network, you are here for your own personal agenda which doesn't benefit the rest of us. If it did, you would tell us and include us in it.

To address your post, Dash has the most performant and capable core team out of any cryptocurrency. Indeed this is most likely the reason the infiltrator party-line has always been "Core sucks!" and "we have to fire Ryan Taylor!" Why? Because you are trying to take out your most powerful competition's leadership while pretending and gaslighting the the network that its for our best interests.

The only "legitimate" complaint you can muster is the delay in Platform's release. And that's not really legitimate either because NOBODY'S EVER DONE THIS BEFORE. So you don't know how long it would, should or could take. Which means you have NO MEANS by which to judge if Core is moving too fast or too slow. And since no other coin is even capable of this functionality, you appear to be attempting a "perfection attack".

A "perfection attack" is an attack that weak people have to use to get rid of stronger competition. When you can't compete on a level playing field as your competition, you get them to DESTROY THEMSELVES by comparing them to a perfect version of themselves and pointing out failures and flaws. So nobody is perfect, this works on even the best of competitors.

However, the "attack" part is that you deliberately IGNORE the fact that NOBODY ELSE IS EVEN CLOSE to that competitor, and certainly not you so you have no place to make judgments. Monero doesn't even have a "core team". Nor does BCH, really. They have people that lay claim to that title, BUT NONE OF THEM are beholden to their very networks. They all have messy, volunteer-based funding efforts, which prevents them from truly being decentralized.

Your comment and line of reasoning ignores this. You are a bad actor. You have no right to critique Dash or our Core Team. You sold the network out years ago and are just cashing in on your "influence" to try and do harm and damage to our coin so our competition doesn't have to feel insecure about not being properly developed. I can comfortably make this accusation because you engaged in censorship, and other actions that indicate a conflict of interest, which means you are not being honest or forthcoming with your commentary.

Your wife getting cancer would've been a good excuse for you to never show your face again, because you don't deserve to be here. Until you can point out another coin that is doing better than Dash in terms of leadership, or hell is even CLOSE to Dash in terms of deliverables, transparency in finance and accounting as well as transparency in development (i.e. a coin that matches our quarterly calls) you have NO RIGHT to criticize DCG.
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-1 point,2 years ago
How the F is open source development costing 20.000 USD per MONTH in software!?

Voting no x16. Please stop wasting so much money you grifters!
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-3 points,2 years ago
What on Earth are you talking about? Open source development with a full operating staff of 45 people including software devs getting competitive salaries costs a lot of money. It seems the latest and greatest narrative manipulation attack is to deliberately take positions based on ignorance. For example, people who don't know anything about software development are often suprised that it costs so much and takes so long.

So use that as a weapon. Deliberately pretend to not understand something like this so that you can artificially attack and defund our core team, which makes every other coin's core team LOOK LIKE TRASH!
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5 points,2 years ago
I voted yes. I support the devs.
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0 points,2 years ago
I'll tell ya, if they had not hired Chris Hough, I'd be inclined to vote no. But now, and what I can see of Mr Hough's personality, I feel confident that even Ryan won't be able to sideline his energy. I think we just got what we needed in Mr. Hough's! I'll vote yes
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-8 points,2 years ago
What a silly thing to say honestly. I felt bad when you refused to answer whether or not you had been paid for your posts on here, because I knew it meant you had taken up cause with our infiltrators. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to vote to defund our core team!! They are the most performant core team in ALL OF CRYPTO!
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1 point,2 years ago
Most definitely, hiring Chris was the single best move DCG has done in a very long time. The irony that I now find myself defending DCG and voting Yes, how times change.
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-6 points,2 years ago
Its not irony, you are using your "support" as a deflection shield so that you can't be called out for trying to defund our core team later. These are infiltration tactics and they are strong evidence that you have sold out our community and are working to defund our teams and DAOs. Like a proved last summer.
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1 point,2 years ago
Haha, welcome back.
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-3 points,2 years ago
Never left. Any response to the allegations?
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0 points,2 years ago
Let me give you another - promoting Sam to CTO position was quite good IMHO.
There were a couple of others, but let's stay on the topic of infrastructure.
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2 points,2 years ago
Yes I agree, Sam is definitely the right person for the job.
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3 points,2 years ago
How much is spent on Slack each month? IIRC it was like $6000 a month, is this correct?
Why would a free service like Discord not work?

How much is being spent monthly on office space at ASU? IIRC it was several thousand a month, is this correct?
Many people work from home now and utilize temp office solutions when needed. Why would this not work for DCG? How many full time people work at that office space?
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3 points,2 years ago
We don't rent ASU office anymore.
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2 points,2 years ago
Great news thanks. Does everyone just work from home? When did DCG stop renting office space?
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2 points,2 years ago
Everyone works from home. We have canceled the office at the very beginning of the pandemic.
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0 points,2 years ago
The sad part is the last time I asked about this and if the expense was worth it I was told it was necessary. IIRC it was Ryan that answered.
It was cool at first but during the protracted bear market it seemed like a luxury we could not afford. I thought the money would be better spent on paying devs more or hiring more devs.
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-1 point,2 years ago
Good to learn that Dash Core follows the will of the mainstream propaganda, but not budgetary concerns of MNOs...
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-3 points,2 years ago
Yet another unnecessarily antagonistic comment from a potential infiltrator and fudder. Its easy to hurl this accusation because DCG is the best core team in crypto and you guys are acting like spoiled children (most likely as a form of deflection) and pretending like they're not behaving well. For shame.
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0 points,2 years ago
There is an annual fee to pay and this year, I expect to pay around 3'800 USD (in March). So it is around $320/month.
The primary reasons to use Slack are:
- it is much more stable
- it is well integrated with GSuite, Bamboo, Github, Atlassian, and a number of other tools we use on a daily basis
- it allows integrations with Slacks used by network of our partners (Slack become a standard in fact). We use Discord/Slack integration and I have to say, it is a pain in a back and doesn't work well
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0 points,2 years ago
Ok I was thinking it was way more expensive, that seems very reasonable.
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1 point,2 years ago
There is substantial dissatisfaction with how things are going at core at the moment. I get it. I am also dissatisfied. However, core contains two very different parts: the dev team and the admin/leadership team. Our grievance is with the admin side, not the dev team. The dev team is doing amazing things. Don't penalize the dev team. We have plenty of leverage to get the leadership to enter into good faith discussions and negotiations with their prop. Go vote no on that one. Voting no on this one would disproportionately penalize and disrupt the dev team. This helps nobody.

solarguy
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-3 points,2 years ago
This dissatisfaction is completely manufactured just like George Donnelly and Ed Stover's "dissatisfaction" with Venezuelan efforts.
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2 points,2 years ago
Voting no pending the results of the current inquiry into impropriety at the highest levels of DCG.
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2 points,2 years ago
UPDATE: After consulting with other MNOs, it has been made apparent that downvoting the infrastructure proposal more significantly penalizes the development side of DCG.

The MNO group currently unsatisfied with the admin level of DCG is not upset with the devs and therefore I feel downvoting this prop would send the wrong message. I for one am changing my votes on this prop to YES, while my votes on compensation will remain NO.

If you others feel the same as me and would not like to disproportionately harm the dev side is DCG, please join me in this action.

Cheers,

Tao.
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-3 points,2 years ago
Why are you and this "cabal group" upset with DCG admin in the first place?
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-2 points,2 years ago
Remember kiddies, shills don't answer questions that can expose their motives. Silence in the face of legitimate inquiry is the bread and butter of the infiltrator.
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0 points,2 years ago
Ok, we're a cabal now. I feel honored.
Still voting YES for infrastructure and NO for Dash Core Compensation until Ryan Taylor is no longer the CEO. Don't punish the devs for the lack of progress on the admin side.

solarguy
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0 points,2 years ago
You have been for years it's just now you have no choice but to come out in the open. Only shills would take something like that as an honor. Thanks again for exposing yourself in plain view.

School voting yes for all DCG proposals and exposing all liars and shills like you who seek to destroy our coin and turn it into a shell of its former self.
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-1 point,2 years ago
*still voting yes
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1 point,2 years ago
Yes from me.
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2 points,2 years ago
Voting no until there is a change of leadership at DCG.
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4 points,2 years ago
I don't see Xenforo listed as part of the infratsructure sofware budget, the Forum software, is that part of another budget or was it simply overlooked?
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2 points,2 years ago
Good catch - it was overlooked. There will be $55 fee to pay in March for the licenses.
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