Welcome!

This proposal is to sponsor an open-source WordPress plugin which integrates with WooCommerce (currently the most popular WordPress e-Commerce plugin) to accept direct Dash payments to an Electrum-Dash wallet.

It's been discussed in the Dashtalk forums, and on the Dash Round Table pilot episode, and a lot of people have voiced support for this, so I wanted to officially put it up for a vote.

I went ahead and also filled out the new suggested project template, for any curious: DP4WC-Proposal.pdf

Even with all the great features and advantages that Dash offers over other crypto- currencies, it's still not a simple matter for an e-Commerce store owner to accept Dash as payment for goods. Additionally, at the time of this writing, there exist no plug-n-play modules or plugins which enable users to receive direct payments in Dash without using a payment processor.

This will enable anyone to set up an online store and accept Dash directly. As a bonus, the payment gateway will also be censorship-free, unlike other payment alternatives such as Paypal and BitPay (since direct Dash payments can't be shut down).

This should encourage adoption and promote Dash merchant acceptance, which is a critical aspect of business development, one of the Strategic Areas of Work according to the current Dash Strategy.

The plugin relies on an external Insight-API service for payment lookups, which I am currently hosting out of pocket (this can be changed to a self-hosted version). Part of the funds will also go toward running an Insight-API service every month for this plugin, for users who can't or won't configure their own.

The Dash price has gone up significantly within the past week or so. Previously it was about $2 less than it is right now (about $4.50), and there's a chance it could drop back down, through maybe not to the same level. I've lowered the amount of Dash I was originally going to request and also am anticipating a middle-ground between the current high price and what the price of Dash was just a week or so ago. So I am assuming a small bit of risk that the price drops back from a ... not "all time" high, but "long time high".

For the cost justification, in addition to running an ongoing network service, I've worked on this for about 6 weeks solid. I've put massive time and effort into making this, having to learn WP and WooCommerce development from scratch.

A couple other points that I made in the forum:

If you compare the cost of software vs our current and previous PR/Marketing proposal budgets *for a single month*, this is not a lot. If you compare the fully-loaded cost (meaning: full-time benefits, etc.) of a full-time programmer for one month, this isn't a lot at all. This is less than the average monthly salary for a junior developer.

If this proposal is approved, it will immediately be placed on Github.com (in either my account or in the Dashpay organization's account if the community wants to keep it there). I will be the maintainer for as long as it needs updates/upgrades, unless someone else is able and willing to do so. It's definitely open for anyone who wants to jump in.

Please understand that this is only version 0.0.1 -- I have a lot more plans and updates that I'll be implementing as time goes on, e.g. InstantX support. I will not be submitting other proposals for these "enhancements", this is a one-time package deal, all future upgrades will be automatic. (But not Automattic. Oh! WordPress humor. Moving on...)

My company, Black Carrot Ventures, will be listed as the developer/maintainer in the comments/readme, but the all same still applies. I'm about 80% finished with the documentation. It will have both written and video documentation (e.g. "a how to install from scratch" video).

I'm currently working on getting a demo video made to demonstrate the full life-cycle of the plugin at work, showing the payments go straight to the Electrum-Dash wallet.

Any questions, concerns? Please let me know.