Proposal “DIF_Supervisor_Election_2023_Sven“ (Closed)Back
| Title: | DIF Supervisor Election 2023 Vote For Sven |
| Owner: | TheDIF |
| One-time payment: | 2 DASH (63 USD) |
| Completed payments: | no payments occurred yet (1 month remaining) |
| Payment start/end: | 2023-02-08 / 2023-03-21 (added on 2023-02-08) |
| Votes: | 474 Yes / 11 No / 4 Abstain |
Proposal description
Full name:
Sven Rоssbach
Social media handles:
Dash Forum: Sven
Discord: @Sven#8981
Reddit: u/svener
Telegram: @telsr
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/svenrossbach/
How long have you been actively involved with Dash and the Dash community and in what ways have you helped the network previously?
I will be reusing some of my material from the previous election, so if it feels a bit like a déjà vu to some of you guys - you're not crazy! :-)
I got into Dash in 2017 as a “refugee” from Bitcoin. My crypto story begins in 2013 when I discovered Bitcoin and saw the future. "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash". Wow! Back then, I would’ve thought, by 2023, ten years later, without doubt, Bitcoin must have become an established part of people’s everyday life. How could it not? Maybe it’d even replace companies like Paypal! But then the blocksize war 2015 – 2017 happened. I was firmly in the big-block camp, the only available solution to maintain the early momentum of commercial adoption Bitcoin had, which naturally put me on the BCH side during the ultimate split of the community.
But Bitcoin Cash still struggles with the same internal governance issues that triggered the blocksize war, hence the subsequent splits with BSV, then again with BCHABC, leaving me feeling uneasy. When I learned about Dash’s onchain governance and funding solution, I was confident to have found the answer.
I started getting involved in various online communities and Philipp (@tungfa) helped broker my first swap of BTC to Dash on Telegram in summer of 2017. Later that year, I met many of the Dash community in person at the Dash conference in London.
Between my work and family I don’t have time to hang out on Reddit or Telegram all day, but when I do, I try to be helpful and friendly. That must have gotten noticed, since I was offered admin rights for the Telegram group and now help keep the chat clean of spam and foster a positive spirit whenever I can.
In 2021, I was elected as one of the supervisors of the DIF and after a few months the supervisor board elected me as vice chair. I think it's fair to say, especially after Darren left and I assumed some of his organizational duties, I have been one of the most active members of the current board.
I managed to negotiate a reprieve from Valkyrie before shutting down the Dash trust to give the community a chance to keep it alive. I guided many of our investment decisions and interfaced with the portfolio companies. I brokered the external funding deal with Crowdnode, which has given us the very popular shared masternode "staking".
What made you decide to apply for the Supervisor role?
It is a re-election for me, so the decision is more one of why would I want to stay?
I found working for the DIF a rewarding experience. Some of our investments appear to be doing exceptionally well. Although it is still too early to announce any specifics, it has been exciting to help shape this success. Expect some compelling updates in the next few months.
Especially in times when the going gets a bit rougher - prices down, development delays, "crypto winter" - I don't wanna throw in the towel or content myself with complaining on message boards. I'd like to take a more active role in the community and contribute in a way that matches my skills and experience. While I have a much deeper understanding of the technology than most average users – I like to call myself a “hobby geek”, prefer Linux and even dabbled in Javascript and Pyhton – I’m no developer. Neither am I a crypto socialite who can sway millions of followers, nor do I want to become one. What I bring to the table is experience in growing businesses and managing investments. The DIF is a great match.
What skills, attributes, and or relevant background / experience make you a good fit for the DIF Supervisor role, and why should MNOs vote for you?
I believe my career so far provided me with valuable relevant skills and experience. I launched and ran for three years the China business for a US adtech company, TubeMogul. In one of the most difficult markets in the world, I grew the local business from scratch to significant revenue, running a team and partnering with some of the world’s largest agencies and brand marketers. During my time, we IPO’ed at the NASDAQ and were later acquired by Adobe.
After the acquisition, I took a new role as CRO at a crypto-based micropayments startup in Berlin called SatoshiPay. The company had just switched from Bitcoin to Stellar and was ready to roll out to big publishers. Unfortunately, those big publishers had other ideas. Micropayments just didn’t fit their strategies and business models. Despite my best efforts I was unable to land any large accounts. Eventually, the company shrank and pivoted to a different business and I left with my employee options way under water.
Next, together with a fellow Wharton alumnus, I helped launch SPRK, a startup addressing food waste with an AI-driven redistribution platform. We went through a difficult fundraising stage right after the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, but ultimately secured a 7-digit seed round and won the prestigious global Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) among 2400 applicants in the process.
After successful funding, I passed the day-to-day business to the other founder and started focusing on my own investment activities. I am part of the Wharton Alumni Angels and am running my own investment company, C9 Capital.
Having experienced both success and failure in the startup world and having been on both sides of funding deals provides me with unique perspectives that, combined with significant international experience on three continents and access to alumni networks from the Wharton School and the Lauder Institute, are a great benefit to the Dash Investment Foundation.
Any additional information or statements?
I’m an avid kiteboarder and skier. Regrettably those activities had to take a back seat the last few years with two little munchkins running around the house, who for some strange reason weren’t born with a surfboard on their feet. A certain pandemic didn’t help either. But if anyone is thinking of putting together a Dash kite camp, hit me up!
More questions to Sven?
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dif-election-2023-candidate-q-a-thread.53524/
Apparently people who are neither MNOs nor proposal owners cannot comment on proposals here. Since we can't assume that every candidate is an MNO, please use the Dash Forum at the link above for more feedback.
General Election Info
As announced in our recent blog post, we are asking for community input on four candidates for DIF supervisor:
The DIF normally has six supervisors, who are elected for one or two-year terms as explained in our post here. Of the supervisors originally elected to two-year terms, Darren and Glenn chose not to extend for another year and resigned in 2022. That leaves five seats available, for which we have only four candidates.
That means at least one seat, perhaps more, will remain unfilled. This is unfortunate, but also not a showstopper for the DIF. We are legally able to fully function with fewer than six supervisors.
So we're asking the community to carefully consider the four candidates based on their merit, not on the need to fill slots. Please vote YES or NO. Any candidate with more Yes than No votes will become supervisor, candidates with a negative balance or a tie will not. The 10% threshold for funding proposals does not apply to confirming candidates. ABSTAIN votes have no effect on the tally, they're essentially wasted.
The payout address used for this proposal is the regular DIF budget address as can be confirmed in any block explorer. We are asking for 2 Dash in each election proposal in the hope that the reimbursement from candidates with enough Yes votes will cover the proposal fee for candidates with insufficient Yes votes. Should the election end up with a net funding surplus, the DIF will retain it in its general budget. Likewise, should the election not generate enough funding for fee reimbursements, the DIF will cover the expense, so no candidate has any personal financial benefit or loss from the election.
Sven Rоssbach
Social media handles:
Dash Forum: Sven
Discord: @Sven#8981
Reddit: u/svener
Telegram: @telsr
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/svenrossbach/
How long have you been actively involved with Dash and the Dash community and in what ways have you helped the network previously?
I will be reusing some of my material from the previous election, so if it feels a bit like a déjà vu to some of you guys - you're not crazy! :-)
I got into Dash in 2017 as a “refugee” from Bitcoin. My crypto story begins in 2013 when I discovered Bitcoin and saw the future. "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash". Wow! Back then, I would’ve thought, by 2023, ten years later, without doubt, Bitcoin must have become an established part of people’s everyday life. How could it not? Maybe it’d even replace companies like Paypal! But then the blocksize war 2015 – 2017 happened. I was firmly in the big-block camp, the only available solution to maintain the early momentum of commercial adoption Bitcoin had, which naturally put me on the BCH side during the ultimate split of the community.
But Bitcoin Cash still struggles with the same internal governance issues that triggered the blocksize war, hence the subsequent splits with BSV, then again with BCHABC, leaving me feeling uneasy. When I learned about Dash’s onchain governance and funding solution, I was confident to have found the answer.
I started getting involved in various online communities and Philipp (@tungfa) helped broker my first swap of BTC to Dash on Telegram in summer of 2017. Later that year, I met many of the Dash community in person at the Dash conference in London.
Between my work and family I don’t have time to hang out on Reddit or Telegram all day, but when I do, I try to be helpful and friendly. That must have gotten noticed, since I was offered admin rights for the Telegram group and now help keep the chat clean of spam and foster a positive spirit whenever I can.
In 2021, I was elected as one of the supervisors of the DIF and after a few months the supervisor board elected me as vice chair. I think it's fair to say, especially after Darren left and I assumed some of his organizational duties, I have been one of the most active members of the current board.
I managed to negotiate a reprieve from Valkyrie before shutting down the Dash trust to give the community a chance to keep it alive. I guided many of our investment decisions and interfaced with the portfolio companies. I brokered the external funding deal with Crowdnode, which has given us the very popular shared masternode "staking".
What made you decide to apply for the Supervisor role?
It is a re-election for me, so the decision is more one of why would I want to stay?
I found working for the DIF a rewarding experience. Some of our investments appear to be doing exceptionally well. Although it is still too early to announce any specifics, it has been exciting to help shape this success. Expect some compelling updates in the next few months.
Especially in times when the going gets a bit rougher - prices down, development delays, "crypto winter" - I don't wanna throw in the towel or content myself with complaining on message boards. I'd like to take a more active role in the community and contribute in a way that matches my skills and experience. While I have a much deeper understanding of the technology than most average users – I like to call myself a “hobby geek”, prefer Linux and even dabbled in Javascript and Pyhton – I’m no developer. Neither am I a crypto socialite who can sway millions of followers, nor do I want to become one. What I bring to the table is experience in growing businesses and managing investments. The DIF is a great match.
What skills, attributes, and or relevant background / experience make you a good fit for the DIF Supervisor role, and why should MNOs vote for you?
I believe my career so far provided me with valuable relevant skills and experience. I launched and ran for three years the China business for a US adtech company, TubeMogul. In one of the most difficult markets in the world, I grew the local business from scratch to significant revenue, running a team and partnering with some of the world’s largest agencies and brand marketers. During my time, we IPO’ed at the NASDAQ and were later acquired by Adobe.
After the acquisition, I took a new role as CRO at a crypto-based micropayments startup in Berlin called SatoshiPay. The company had just switched from Bitcoin to Stellar and was ready to roll out to big publishers. Unfortunately, those big publishers had other ideas. Micropayments just didn’t fit their strategies and business models. Despite my best efforts I was unable to land any large accounts. Eventually, the company shrank and pivoted to a different business and I left with my employee options way under water.
Next, together with a fellow Wharton alumnus, I helped launch SPRK, a startup addressing food waste with an AI-driven redistribution platform. We went through a difficult fundraising stage right after the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, but ultimately secured a 7-digit seed round and won the prestigious global Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) among 2400 applicants in the process.
After successful funding, I passed the day-to-day business to the other founder and started focusing on my own investment activities. I am part of the Wharton Alumni Angels and am running my own investment company, C9 Capital.
Having experienced both success and failure in the startup world and having been on both sides of funding deals provides me with unique perspectives that, combined with significant international experience on three continents and access to alumni networks from the Wharton School and the Lauder Institute, are a great benefit to the Dash Investment Foundation.
Any additional information or statements?
I’m an avid kiteboarder and skier. Regrettably those activities had to take a back seat the last few years with two little munchkins running around the house, who for some strange reason weren’t born with a surfboard on their feet. A certain pandemic didn’t help either. But if anyone is thinking of putting together a Dash kite camp, hit me up!
More questions to Sven?
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dif-election-2023-candidate-q-a-thread.53524/
Apparently people who are neither MNOs nor proposal owners cannot comment on proposals here. Since we can't assume that every candidate is an MNO, please use the Dash Forum at the link above for more feedback.
General Election Info
As announced in our recent blog post, we are asking for community input on four candidates for DIF supervisor:
| Jared | new candidate |
| Justin | new candidate |
| Rodrigo | current supervisor up for re-election |
| Sven | current supervisor up for re-election |
The DIF normally has six supervisors, who are elected for one or two-year terms as explained in our post here. Of the supervisors originally elected to two-year terms, Darren and Glenn chose not to extend for another year and resigned in 2022. That leaves five seats available, for which we have only four candidates.
That means at least one seat, perhaps more, will remain unfilled. This is unfortunate, but also not a showstopper for the DIF. We are legally able to fully function with fewer than six supervisors.
So we're asking the community to carefully consider the four candidates based on their merit, not on the need to fill slots. Please vote YES or NO. Any candidate with more Yes than No votes will become supervisor, candidates with a negative balance or a tie will not. The 10% threshold for funding proposals does not apply to confirming candidates. ABSTAIN votes have no effect on the tally, they're essentially wasted.
The payout address used for this proposal is the regular DIF budget address as can be confirmed in any block explorer. We are asking for 2 Dash in each election proposal in the hope that the reimbursement from candidates with enough Yes votes will cover the proposal fee for candidates with insufficient Yes votes. Should the election end up with a net funding surplus, the DIF will retain it in its general budget. Likewise, should the election not generate enough funding for fee reimbursements, the DIF will cover the expense, so no candidate has any personal financial benefit or loss from the election.
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Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?
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Sources:
https://mnowatch.org/proposalowners/?po=TheDIF
https://mnowatch.org/proposalowners/?po=difkennedy
Could Sven explain how, from the perspective of scarcity and economics, the DIF has created more value to the network by increasing the price of Dash with its investments than it would have if we had never minted the 16,367.18 DASH into existence?
I believe that if those Dash were never minted in the first place, reducing the circulating and total available supply, there would be a better economic return for Dash holders and the network overall with an instantaneous 100% success rate as opposed to the DIF paying legal expenses and making long-term high-risk speculative investments that appear to have had no impact on improving the Dash price or market cap ranking thus far. When it comes to investing, there is unquestionably one option that involves no work and delivers an immediate reward without the chance of loss.
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dif-election-2023-candidate-q-a-thread.53524/
Apparently people who are neither MNOs nor proposal owners cannot comment on proposals here. Since we can't assume that every candidate is an MNO, please use the Dash Forum at the link above for more feedback.
Sample:
https://old.reddit.com/r/dashpay/comments/t92c4l/dfo_in_serious_distress_should_be_relieved_from/
Also a yes based on his longterm involvement with Dash.
Will the supervisor invest DIF funds into projects that have a stance on one side or another of a political spectrum or will ALL his investments be purely business as it does seem as though he finds it OK to use DASH to forward a personal agenda.
Just to be clear, if I was in the shoes of that dev, I'd of done EXACTLY the same thing (minus the calling for killing). But if thats the views of the supervisor it probably should be known?
Overall I agree though, it's certainly not the ONLY factor a MNO should consider when deciding whether or not he's fit for the role.
> Will the supervisor invest DIF funds into projects that have a stance on one side or another of a political spectrum or will ALL his investments be purely business as it does seem as though he finds it OK to use DASH to forward a personal agenda.
First of all, those are not MY investments. Investments are done by consensus of all supervisors, of which there are normally six, i.e. at least four supervisors have to be in favor. Political events or opinions have never played a role in our investment evaluations, not even in informal chats, but it's safe to assume that there is a spectrum among the supervisors just as there is in the wider Dash community.
It's also hard to imagine that we'd have to "invest DIF funds into projects that have a stance on one side or another". We certainly never had such a case. We fund businesses and they are usually smart enough to leave politics out of business discussions. Our mission is to grow value and utility for the Dash network and we stick to that.
That said, the Electrum case did show us that we should take geo-political risk more into account when we evaluate investment opportunities. Not in order to take sides, but to factor in the risk of getting swept up by potential crises and the consequences for our investment.
> But if thats the views of the supervisor it probably should be known?
Sure. I make no secret about who I am and what my views are. For the extra curious, I'll spare you some digging.
The main Dash group on Telegram, where I am one of the admins, is strictly no off-topic. We have many respected Russian and Ukrainian members and don't want the group to disintegrate into shouting matches. But there is another Dash-related group where I'm just a regular member. The admins there explicitly allowed off-topic discussions for some time and I took part in a thread there last year. The first post is here: https://t.me/DashMarkets/67080 You'll need the Telegram app to read the rest.
But I'm not into blanket judgements. I voted for the Russian marketing proposal, for example. (and before you go digging for my masternode, remember Crowdnode ;-)
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/2021-dif-candidate-announcement-thread.51706/post-227159
Don't be so quick to judge as "most of the startups they invest in now are bound to fail". First, yes, that's the nature of angel and VC investing. I touched on that on the forum post linked above. But more importantly, as I already hinted in my last DIF blog post, we may have some very good news in the pipeline regarding our current investments, but I don't want to jump the gun and make any announcements before we got everything in the bag. Suffice to say, I'm optimistic about our portfolio.
Active trading is almost certainly not going to happen for practical reasons. It requires substantial time commitment and comes with governance problems.
We are all volunteers. People have jobs, families, other priorities. None of us so far would be able to follow the market day by day and actively buy and sell - all without being compensated for that time. So we don't trade Dash, much less other coins. Remember what the D in DIF stands for. Same for the I. We Invest. Short-term trading is not investing and IMO much more risky than the long-term deals we've done so far.
On the governance side, decisions involving money are required to go through a supervisor vote. Normally, we meet once per week, much too slow for the fickle crypto market. The alternative would be to authorize one person to make these decisions alone (and again, that person would have to be doing that for free). I wouldn't be comfortable with putting so much power in the hands of one person.
There are ways this could theoretically be made to work - e.g. limited budget, copy trading, bots etc. - but I don't see it happening in the near future.