Proposal “dashnexus“ (Closed)Back

Title:DashNexus - revised proposal to be posted next month
Owner:DashNexus
Monthly amount: 755 DASH (45536 USD)
Completed payments: no payments occurred yet (2 month remaining)
Payment start/end: 2018-04-18 / 2018-06-17 (added on 2018-04-18)
Final voting deadline: in passed
Votes: 127 Yes / 366 No / 46 Abstain

Proposal description

Pre-proposal link 

Thank you for your feedback!

We are committed to delivering Nexus and will be posting an updated proposal with a revised budget in the next budget period.  


Overview:
DashNexus is a next-generation decentralized governance platform designed to support the needs of the rapidly growing Dash DAO. 

Our goal is to dramatically improve the governance experience for both MNOs and Proposal Owners by resolving problems and reducing friction in the governance process that we experienced both as proposal owners and as masternode operators.

More specifically, we want to provide Proposal Owners with additional tools to present their offerings to the network, while streamlining the proposal evaluation process for MNOs and reducing the workload involved in making well informed decisions while also providing additional tools which make running a masternode just a little easier.

We’ve been working on developing the concept for the past 6 months and we’re excited to finally share our vision for the future of decentralized governance by blockchain.

One of many mockups:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/zw0Dw7OWxN15VEVxeoUtn7c1llgZSp7cNBqHBxqAGjwVuslsjXFbhZztuiNBRl0aUjL--kaPoYMG_jU12ogDuIrQIkR9WLj7IyJHCwj6grn25jmadplBgPlVm1FDWWwd_uHTc_IG

Full Proposal (doesn't fit here)
Google Docs Link
PDF Dropbox Link

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Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

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1 point,6 years ago
@Stone We have been in talks with the proposal owner and are very open to collaborating with him and see a lot of synergy here
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0 points,6 years ago
Collaborate with dashwatch
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1 point,6 years ago
voting YES. Watched the video too. I see the focus on an A1 product. Yes, it is expensive! (the reason funding not likely) Even if this does not get funded...revise somehow. Good luck.
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1 point,6 years ago
First all, it looks great at first glance, such platform would make Dash DAO look even better towards outsiders.

Question: Is there anyway to make sure that Dash clones will not be able to copy past this web-platform ?


It's allot of money, if we had a large fiat buffer, than it would be a yes, but as it stances, their will be multiple phases, and the other phases will cost even more, which could potentially result into not being able to complete the project if the crypto market and or Dash enters a deeper bear-market. For that reason I sadly had to vote no for now.
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0 points,6 years ago
I agree also - voting no.
Also, please start small and grow, as others have commented.
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1 point,6 years ago
Thank you for your feedback and consideration!

Regarding protecting the codebase:
We will be keeping the majority of the codebase closed source, so the platform cannot be easily copied. We will be open sourcing all security related components, and are open to forming a small committee of Dash insiders that can review and vet the entire codebase.

Regarding future costs:
Our burn-rate will actually decrease as the project advances through its phases, because Pivotal's resources will be pulled back once the Nexus team is in place. Pivotal will provide the most value during the initial architecture stages and will allow us to get off to a quick start. This will allow us to deliver a functional MVP with the funds requested in this proposal. All further development can be completed at a much lower cost, allowing us to deliver the full build, even in the event we see a prolonged bear market.
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0 points,6 years ago
thanks, it's not perfect but I can live with that answer (I don't have a better non costly answer, for the copy&past problem)
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2 points,6 years ago
Hi guys, Love it!

This is the visual governance platform that Dash needs.

I hope we can fit it in the budget in the coming months, as I'd rather see a management tool like this rolled out, than fund more overpriced and poorly thought out marketing or sponsorship campaigns.

We need projects with substance behind Dash, not just marketing fluff.

We have to be honest with ourselves, Dash is not ready for mainstream end users, a tool like Nexus will help MNOs make better decisions, and will also let speculators see that serious work is being done to improve the Dash ecosystem.

Re: Costs. It's not cheap, and it's obvious this isn't a hack job. Pivotal are professionals and will deliver something incredible.

Voting YES
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-2 points,6 years ago
I like the idea, but I think we are still low on budget for something this ambitious. Voting no without evaluating the whole proposal. I also believe this is the kind of proposal that needs a long pre-proposal phase.
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0 points,6 years ago
Too expensive. Start small and expand gradually with a smaller budget.
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-1 point,6 years ago
It’s also all or nothing. Price it correctly, start small, deliver quality, then come ask us for more money.
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3 points,6 years ago
Dear DashNexus,

Transfert the tool to the DAO +10, thats why im ready to put the price ask.

1) - About Privacy, do you have a plan for a review of your code by a trusted members of the community ?
2) - Some ask in the past, for a translation tools in that kind of tool, do you think of this posibility ?
3) - Community chat, MNO chat, can you add a privated chat MNO<>Proposal owner ?
4) - Do you plan an API, than a tool like DMT or wallet can use ?
5) - Do plan an option to not display images/videos ?
6) - Propsal content. About "Revision History", does its posible to block any modification on proposal (not on pre-proposal) at the time of 1st comment and/or 1st vote ? Proposal is a contact, if some one sign a contrat, no change can be made in it.
7) - Do you plan to put some of the Dash from this proposal in MN or MN shares ?
8) - Do you plan to add some fees for posting a preproposal ?
9) - Can you implement than only the proposal owner can answer to a MNO ?
10) - Does any contractors around this proposal accept Dash as a payment method whith discount, and publicit it ?
11) - to avoid any manipulation of the reputation system, can you make the display by up/down notation and show/hide, individual per user. In order to leave each person the freedom of his choices without it being imposed ?

Regards.
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2 points,6 years ago
Hi Jol, thank you for taking the time to read through the proposal and to ask important and relevant questions!

1. We will open source some elements of our code that require review in order to ensure Privacy and Security of the platform. We would also be open to working with a small group of trusted community members to review a larger portion of the codebase.

2. We absolutely understand the need for translation tools and will definitely be rolling out features for multi-lingual support. When we begin development, we will be able to determine whether those features will roll out with the MVP or during Phase 2.

3. This is a great suggestion and we should be able to add an option for direct, private communication between MNO and Proposal Owner.

4. We will have an API available with structured data, so it can be used with a variety of tools.

5. Yes, Proposal Owners will have the ability to leave the Media Gallery empty.

6. Versioning and managing Revision History is quite a complex task with many possible solutions. We do not want to "block" Proposal Owners from making modifications based on the feedback they receive, but will be exploring options for notifying MNOs of any changes, as well as making previous versions available to see.

7. We already operate our own MN and do not plan on using the funds to buy additional shares. The funds are going directly towards development costs.

8. We do not plan on adding fees for pre-proposals, but will evaluate other options for spam-prevention.

9. We will enable Proposal Owners, Proposal Advisors, and other MNOs to reply to MNO comments. We may evaluate the option of 'muting/squelching', so that one MNO can block another and not see their specific messages; however, our focus is on enabling a healthy discussion among community members.

10. The Nexus team will receive part or all of their compensation in Dash. However, as a company that just had its IPO, Pivotal Labs requires payment in USD.

11. We have not finalized the details of the reputation management system and will be looking at various options that give the user freedom of choice.

Thanks again for the thoughtful questions!
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2 points,6 years ago
The above reply was posted by Yuri - one of the DashNexus proposal owners.

I was logged into the wrong account when replying.
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1 point,6 years ago
Thank you for that clarification.
The fact that one of the main subcontractors does not accept Dash as a means of payment, requires to find another company from my point of view.
a more optimized price would give more credit to the project.

For this time it will be a no.
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5 points,6 years ago
Hello, thanks for the proposal!

I have communicated my thoughts to you before, and as most here, I remain of the opinion that you will need to find a way to scale back and lower the price by a lot. Even though I'm actually very excited about your proposal :)

Earlier I said that I don't see anything truly next-gen in your proposal, but I notice that you have made some adjustments (Discussion Board), which is a step in the right direction. The reddit comment moderation system is good, but I would like to see this expanded further upon, by keeping reputation scores (karma, badges, ...), and perhaps even ways to tip. We need to incentivize users to make good contributions.

An integration with Dash Boost, or a similar proof of stake mechanism would be simply amazing, to drive more community participation.

And lastly, I'm not a fan of the name Dash Nexus, which sound scary and goes against the spirit of the proposal to make the Dash treasury more approachable.

I hope you will find a way to make this work, you are on the right path!
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1 point,6 years ago
^^^ This
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1 point,6 years ago
Further note on the reputation system: the idea here is not only to incentivize, but also to distinguish reputable members whose voice should carry more weight. This will help in the decision making process.
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3 points,6 years ago
I love the idea of this proposal! Something like this is what I've been looking for - how to help evaluate proposals by presenting all relevant information (as opposed to having an 'evaluator' or committee tell you).

I really really want to support this but having sticker shock from the price tag... hard to rationalize over $500k (+ how much for future phases?) that will "just" be used by MNO's. In the future when the Dash economy/community is much larger and once everyone can vote (e.g. MN shares) I'd think it would make more sense at that time to invest more so everyone can benefit. I understand MNO's vote on behalf of the whole community but... it still seems excessive. Still undecided though.
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1 point,6 years ago
You can take a look at Dash Watch (www.dashwatch.org) we more or less do just that for proposals that have already passed. We don't evaluate as a committee, we try to report facts. We look at what the proposal owner set out to do and what he achieved so far (how many videos, views, features, etc.), whether the proposal is still on schedule, what the depreciation/appreciation of Dash did to the budget. We try to be as objective as we can and are always looking for feedback on our work.

We're not competing with Dash Nexus. Dash Nexus is a platform for proposals, while we are primarily 4 people that take a closer look at proposals, ask questions of proposal owners and report on our findings. We'll be happy to cooperate with Dash Nexus if they pass and we are already in contact with them.
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2 points,6 years ago
Hi henrygeorgist,

We are designing Nexus in a way that we believe will be beneficial to more than "just the MNOs". Specifically, we think that a streamlined and intuitive interface for proposal creation will attract many new individuals, businesses, organizations, and enterprises to engage with the Dash Treasury, speeding up growth of the entire ecosystem.

We also believe that it is important to start building this platform now, so that we are prepared to handle the load that will come when the monthly budget grows into the tens and hundreds of millions and there are hundreds of proposals that require careful consideration from the MNOs.

Ultimately, the platform will be built to scale and we will collaborate with Core to make sure that features like MN shares make their way into the platform as they roll out.
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5 points,6 years ago
I'm undecided more than at any other proposal before. It is a huge amount of money but we also need this page as fast as possible. For me I can't decide if the costs are reasonable because I don't have the specialized knowledge in the kind of business and who from the other MNO has it? It was the same with the Estonia Electronic Festival proposal => many user screamed cheaper cheaper cheaper but they didn't had the knowledge how much a event like this really costs. Please, if anybody say it is too much please also write why he can assess it. Pivotal Labs worked for Google, Uber, Twitter and the concept seems very professional. We want and we need professional work and partners. And professional work costs money or should we go to India? What I can't understand is why you don't offer escrow? That is a important fact for me to vote no.

In general to all MNO: Please let us invest in technology like this to build up a good foundation and later we can spent our money to advertising like Ben Swann, Muay Thai Boxers or airplanes.
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1 point,6 years ago
Thank you for your thoughtful evaluation of our proposal. We would like to share some of our thinking in regards to the questions you bring up:

1. A big reason why we are proposing to work with Pivotal over a cheaper offshore developer has to do with the development process. In our experience, offshore developers perform really well on projects that require a lot of 'drone work' - something that has been done many times before and requires lots of hours and little input from the project owner.
However, a project like DashNexus requires a significant amount of input from someone who understands the needs of the network and can effectively communicate them to the developer. This is particularly important at the early stages of development when key decisions about UX and overall architecture are being made.
Having the entire Nexus team work alongside Pivotal's developers in the same office will ensure fluid communication and allow us to move much faster than if we had to deal with conference calls, timezones, and language barriers.

2. In regards to our decision to post this proposal without formal escrow - there are three reasons:
- Both the Nexus team and Pivotal take pride in our reputation and have little to gain from scamming the network. We view this as a potential for a long-term engagement and are looking to establish good faith and credibility with the network through clear and open communication.
- The project is broken down into three phases and is expected to require ongoing upgrades and maintenance, giving the community the option to reject funding at any point if we fail to deliver.

We will also be hosting a livestream QnA session with Pivotal Labs on Monday the 23rd at 3PM PST to address any other questions you may have. A link with the details will be posted soon.
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0 points,6 years ago
The proposed amount for each payout matters - far more than the number of phases IMHO. The main factors that impact my willingness to approve a proposal are:

1. The proposer's history of payouts and deliveries. The core team, for example, has a long history and a great deal to lose for flaking out. Past performance gives far more credibility than any promises from new actors.
2. The perceived value of the proposal for the money (related to the content & level of professionalism in the proposal, but also to the cost of comparable projects).

For #1, can you point us to other Dash projects the Nexus team has done that demonstrate your follow-through and justify a monthly payout that's 68% of the largest core dev proposal?

For what it's worth, I do think the community would benefit from refinements in the interface we use to read & vote on proposals, and I did read your proposal in full and like most of what it covered.
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-1 point,6 years ago
I think that something like DashNexus needs to exist but this is just too expensive on this tight of a budget. It just can't be a priority right now. I would say come back when we have a larger budget.
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5 points,6 years ago
You want to know the consequences of all those $2.4million USD Ben Swanns and $1million dollar acrobatic planes you all have been voting on? Here it is.

When you approve absurdly large proposals, many without escrow, without objectives, with no way to measure return... when the things you vote yes are ridiculously overpriced and you vote on it anyway... what kind of message are you sending to the market?

This proposal should be for $40,000 maximum, escrowed, split into $20,000 a month. But because you all have been irresponsible with your votes, we have lost all common sense and standards of comparison.

Spending 755 Dash on this is ridiculous.... but hey.... it's only 55 Dash less than 1 month of Ben Swann!!
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2 points,6 years ago
Please can we pin up this post in big red letters on the dashcentral front page? Any MNO should remember this before he votes.
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4 points,6 years ago
Guys,
Dash CAN afford this - please take a look at the proposal and think about the value to the DAO ecosystem that this will add. They have chosen some pricey devs, but this takes away a lot of risk - Pivotal Labs is known to be a dev house that will get this done right first time. I'd much rather fund this, which will stand the test of time, than another dozen meetups and pizza, youtube videos, ad campaigns, sponsorships...these things last for a day to a few months. This project will give us something to be proud of for the long term, adding to the decentralisation of the DAO and a different angle to how projects are presented. DashCentral has been great so far and suits a certain more technical demographic. We need something more accessible and modern now to go forward with, and I feel this project is on-point with what it is going to achieve.

C'mon guys let's get behind a project that will have solid impact for Dash, and drive further engagement with MNO's! We can afford it, it's a YES from me!
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3 points,6 years ago
Just because it can afford this, it doesn't mean we should pay 10x more. If anyone has doubts of what I said below, about the consequences of irresponsible voting, just read what this masternode owner said:

"I'd much rather fund this, which will stand the test of time, than another dozen meetups and pizza, youtube videos, ad campaigns, sponsorships".

He is willing to vote Yes not because it's reasonable and well priced, but he is comparing this to ALL THE CRAP we have approved before, and when you do that then suddenly this proposal is "not so bad".

It doesn't matter how good this proposal is, the price doesn't even come close to being reasonable, and we should all obviously vote no.
Whether you can afford it or not is the f*cking last question you ask on a purchasing decision!
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1 point,6 years ago
If you have any pre-conceived ideas around the cost of such a project should be, I suggest sending an enquiry to pivotal yourself and finding out how much professional work actually costs. If you are used to hacking away with small time contractors you will be surprised at the difference (across the board) when you deal with the big guys.

They say if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

I'd love to see the addition of MNO profiles to Dash Nexus, so we can get a chance to learn more about the background and experience of each MNO commenting on a proposal.

I know lemonysnicket is Drako (from Kuvacash), so I can trust his opinion and evaluation. The guy has real world experience managing and rolling out large-scale projects.

When it comes to selecting which proposals to fund,.. if we rely on monkeys to choose between a banana and a gold nugget, we will get the banana every time.
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4 points,6 years ago
What I am missing is plans for integration with other projects like dashboost for smaller proposals and also dashwatch.org. Also it is quite expensive. Lets see if this fits in the budget considering all other proposals
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0 points,6 years ago
Hi reasonably,

We have been in active communication with both the DashWatch and DashBoost teams, and are open to collaborating with any other organizations or community members looking to improve the DGBB system.

Dash-Al from the DashWatch team left a comment on our pre-proposal going into more detail about how our proposed Proposal Creator feature would directly benefit the work they are doing.
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2 points,6 years ago
At current prices for Dash, this proposal is requesting a total of USD$528,000 paid over two months. I cannot imagine any website offering that much value to the MNO community, especially one that hasn't been created yet.
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5 points,6 years ago
Oof, that's a hefty ask, but this is something we've been sorely lacking. MNOs and the DAO as a whole have so many different resources, but they're scattered across numerous sites with fading relevance and maintenance. Having them all in one place--especially a new, updated, functional, well-tested place with many extra features--would be ideal and would help us do our jobs much easier.

I suppose my only questions are how you'll be handling security, encryption, moderation, etc (sites like this represent a pretty considerable honeypot for hackers or bad actors or trolls), and how you plan to update the site and its functionality in accordance with future protocol changes due to Evolution's development?

This is the next step in pushing the DAO governance system to the next level. When Evolution rolls out, we're going to need a next-level system to keep up with all the changes.
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0 points,6 years ago
with Pivotal on this – they literally wrote the best practices on how to handle security and encryption. We are hosting a live Q&A session with them next Monday, the 23rd at 3PM PST and we can address these questions in further detail during that session.

Moderation is a tough nut to crack. We propose splitting the comments into a MNO discussion and a separate community discussion and then following a Reddit-style approach where we rely primarily on user-driven moderation to handle trolls and nasty comments (with anti-abuse algorithms as well). If a comment has enough down-votes it will be hidden but not deleted. We want to make sure we strike a balance between minimizing spam and silencing dissenting voices.

As to how we plan to update the site and its functionality in accordance with future protocol changes - we have been in regular contact with Core in the lead-up to submitting this proposal and already have in place a plan to implement Evolution features as they become available.

Going beyond the near-term protocol changes, Phase 3 of the project is designed to handle long-term support and any necessary updates to the system. We will hold any left-over funds from previous phases to apply towards Phase 3 but anticipate coming back to the network from time to time to fund upgrades and protocol tweaks to Nexus
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0 points,6 years ago
Thanks for this response, I believe that addressed my questions and your solution actually mirrors some of my own ideas in terms of moderation, so great to hear.
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0 points,6 years ago
** The top of this comment should have read**

Thanks for the support!

In regards to your questions about security, encryption, and moderation - we will be following industry best practices That’s also part of why we are working with Pivotal on this – they literally wrote the best practices on how to handle security and encryption. We are hosting a live Q&A session with them next Monday, the 23rd at 3PM PST and we can address these questions in further detail during that session.
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3 points,6 years ago
It's a big ask, but on the other hand it's great to see a planning document with such a deep understanding of the network and software design. I feel like it addresses the reality of the network as it exists today instead of some indefinite point in the future where everything will be magically better. More budget breakdown would make this much easier to vote yes on, particularly what happens if the value of Dash changes more than 10% in either direction while this is being implemented. Will developers be paid in Dash? Will funds be rolled over into phase 2 if there is a significant increase in value?
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0 points,6 years ago
Hi strophy,

I would like to provide some clarification on what would happen in various scenarios if the Dash price were to experience any significant movements:

1. If the Dash price remains the same or increases beyond the $360/DASH level indicated in the budget breakdown - we will apply all funds allocated for currency risk and all gains to Phase 2 of the project.

2. If the Dash price were to drop below $324 (more than 10% from the quoted level), the currency risk budget would be depleted and we would begin to roll-back Pivotal resources to reduce the burn-rate. We would proceed with development, but would have to rely on our internal resources to complete the work, which may extend the delivery date of the MVP.

Our internal developers will have part or all of their compensation paid out in Dash, but payments to Pivotal will be made in USD.

Thank you for your support and please let us know if you have any other questions or would like further clarification!
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-1 point,6 years ago
I voted no. I really want this done, but the price is too high. Do it cheaper
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2 points,6 years ago
Your costs are ridiculous, 1500 Dash for this website that does the same thing but with a slightly better UI? This is just dangling some bling bling in front of MNOs and expecting us to fall for it. There is no place in the world that would charge this much.

No breakdown either, sigh...
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1 point,6 years ago
I agree with you 100%. This is the price for having approved all the million dollar crap of previous months. This guy only had the balls to ask for that much money because Ben Swann and others have set a terrible precedence.

Dash rewards people with millions of dollars for submitting bad and overpriced proposals, so it shouldn't be surprised to see more of that in the future.

Want to stop this? Vote NO on ALL unprofessional, overpriced, unsafe, unreliable proposals, no matter how much money is left on the budget.
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3 points,6 years ago
I'm sorry there is a breakdown.

5 people get paid 275$ an hour. 2 people 95$ an hour, and 2 people 65$ an hour. 65$ an hour are really the only numbers that make sense here, and that's higher than (I think) every dev in dash core.

I've honestly never seen costs like this before.
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1 point,6 years ago
I’m with you there!
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3 points,6 years ago
I can't fault the proposal in terms of professionalism and the standard to which they are pitching, it really does tick those boxes. I agree with others on here about the price point though.. Whilst we wouldn't expect such a product to be built "on the cheap", $275 an hour seems excessive and will result in sticker shock for a number of MNOs. Also, this funding is only for phase one, which promises to deliver an MVP. If we calculate stage two pricing based on the costings from stage one, then we are in for another 2000/2500 Dash proposal to deliver on the completed project. So all in cost for this project is likely to exceed $2.5/3 million USD.

I'm not saying that this sort of solution isn't needed, but $3 million is a lot of capital. We're going to have to think about this one!

Walter
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1 point,6 years ago
Hi Walter,

We would like to clarify that $275 is an all-inclusive blend rate from Pivotal. This not only covers world-class developer talent, but also includes housing our entire team at Pivotal Labs for the duration of development.

This means that our teams will literally work side-by-side, without any inefficiencies due to time-zones and language barriers, which would be the case if we were to engage with a cheaper offshore development partner.

Being in one space and learning from the best in the game will also allow for Nexus to hire and train a rockstar team that will continue maintaining and developing the platform beyond the initial 3-4 month engagement with Pivotal. At that point, we would have built a rock-solid foundation for the project and will have a team that has all the know-how to continue driving it forward at a fraction of the cost.
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1 point,6 years ago
i like ur proposal, but ive been a sw dev and u dont need to host ur entire dev team at the other teams offices.... why cant u work remote through collaboration tools? im voting no until u explain this expense to me, i like the overall look, but were an open source project, u should treat the budget as such, top quality people but budget the project properly.
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