Welcome!

Disclaimer: This proposal is individual in nature and is not brought forward by Dash Core Group

I'm Kittywhiskers Van Gogh (kwvg on GitHub, kittywhiskers on Keybase), I've been contributing to Dash Core since Dec, 2020 (my first pull request!), contributed through the Dash Incubator program since Jan, 2021 (pull request, Incubator claim) before transitioning to a role within Dash Core Group effective Apr, 2022.
Since then, except for a brief period, I have contributed to Dash Core in full-time capacity for 5 years.

What did I do?

I filled the role of C++ Software Engineer in the Core team. My responsibility was, beyond routine backports, implementing features needed in Dash Core sooner than sequential backports would allow.

This proposal seems familiar...

Because it is. Below are my past proposals.

Proposal Name	Funding Period	Work Period
kwvg-core-dev-nov24	Nov, 2024 - Jan, 2025 (3 months)	Dec, 2024 - Feb, 2025 (3 months)
kwvg-core-dev-apr25	Apr, 2025 (1 month)	Apr, 2025 (1 month)
kwvg-core-dev-may25	May, 2025 (1 month)	May, 2025 (1 month)
kwvg-core-dev-jun25	Jun, 2025 (1 month)	Jun, 2025 (1 month)
kwvg-core-dev-jul25	Jul, 2025 - Sep, 2025 (3 months)	Jul, 2025 - Sep, 2025 (3 months)   
kwvg-core-dev-oct25	Oct, 2025 - Dec, 2025 (3 months)	Oct, 2025 - Dec, 2025 (3 months)   
kwvg-core-dev-jan26	Jan, 2026 - Mar, 2026 (3 months)	Jan, 2026 - Mar, 2026 (3 months)
kwvg-dev-apr26	Apr, 2026 - Jun, 2026 (3 months)	Apr, 2026 - Jul, 2026 (4 months)
kwvg-dev-aug26	Aug, 2026 - Sep, 2026 (2 months)	Aug, 2026 - Sep, 2026 (2 months)

What have I done since last time?

Contributed 38 merged pull requests between Aug 6th, 2026 and Oct 5th, 2026 [1] totaling ~330 commits[2][3].

• Build/CI
  
  • base-sdk#32 (sdk%doc: promote 'docs/' for Zensical namespace, write startup guide, clean up style guide for web publication, make docs guide informative)
  • base-sdk#33 (sdk%ci: use comment syntax for doc splicing, add 'uv' lockfile, use for dependency tracking, make CodeQL runner multi-lingual, add symlink linter)
  • base-sdk#35 (sdk%feat(nix): add Nix-based devshells (and Docker wrapped counterparts), cross-compilation for Linux, Windows and macOS, x86_64 emulation for CodeQL on arm64 Linux)
  • base-sdk#39 (sdk%build: bump 'rust-bitcoin' dependencies to 'crates.io' releases, use 'cargo-deny' to lint unmaintained and yanked dependencies, drop 'bitcoin-p2p-messages' and stub dependents, add stub docs)
  • base-sdk#50 (sdk%lint(codeql): use 'unstable' channel for CodeQL 2.27, pin for Intel Macs, bump packs and update queries, move crate policy to datasource)
  • base-sdk#55 (sdk%lint: enable CodeCov comments, define ignorelist, track test runner results, add 'Justfile', repair 'cargo test --doc' violations, broaden 'lint_cargo' to include license checks)
• Arithmetic/Codec
  
  • base-sdk#27 (sdk%feat: extend 'TypeId' to support arguments, harden CodeQL lockfile enforcement, drop all dependencies from 'dash-pow', minor cleanups and doc fixes)
  • base-sdk#38 (types%feat: extend support for 'codec'-less 'dash-num' builds, decouple 'Hashable' and 'Checkable' from 'codec', extend 'make_bytes!', implement 'make_sbytes!')
  • base-sdk#41 (sdk%feat(num): decouple 'NumCodec' from 'codec' feat, rename to 'Numeric', fix byte reversal display bug, restore trait use in open enums, drop 'Hash512')
  • base-sdk#51 (types%feat!: use little-endian byte arrays instead of n-endian hex-encoded strings for machine-readable formats, expand trait implementations)
  • base-sdk#54 (num%fix!: match reference implementation in overloading, parsing, rounding and block proof checks, partially delegate 'Arith256' to 'bitcoin-internals')
• Crypto
  
  • base-sdk#25 (pkc%feat(bls): migrate operational types to 'Bls{PublicKey,SecretKey,BlsSignature}', reap 'bls_{chia,ietf}' modules for unified 'bls' module)
  • base-sdk#26 (pkc%feat(bls): pin Chia and IETF scheme behaviors in unit tests, implement weighted aggregation API, Chia arm of aggregate verification, import aggregate corpus)
  • base-sdk#29 (pkc%feat(bls): replace 'Hash256' with 'BlsShareId', expose scalars and groups through RustCrypto 0.14 traits, allow secret retagging, subtraction, expose reduction, weighted public key derivation)
  • base-sdk#30 (pkc%feat(bls): implement BLS-IES, gate 'dash-types' codec infrastructure behind feature, allow 'codec'-less 'dash-pkc' builds)
  • base-sdk#44 (pkc%feat(bls): clean up API to better align with ECDSA, speed up 'pk_to_g1'/'sig_to_g2()', add master public key recovery, scalar and point tweaks)
  • base-sdk#45 (pkc%feat(ecdsa): clean up API to better align with BLS, decouple 'codec' from 'ecdsa', swap 'k256' for 'libsecp256k1', grind nonce for low R, add API symmetry CodeQL datasource and query)
  • base-sdk#46 (pkc%feat(eddsa): add rudimentary Ed25519 support backed by 'ed25519-dalek')
  • base-sdk#47 (pkc%feat: adjust APIs in preparation for downstream integration, derive 'Copy' on non-secret operational types, extend CodeQL to enforce trait parity)
  • base-sdk#53 (pkc%feat!: harmonize tweaks across '{Bls,Ecdsa}{Public,Secret}Key', report zero scalar in 'add_tweak_sk' as 'InvalidSecretKey', fix perf degradation on 'Drop')
  • base-sdk#56 (sdk%lint(codeql)!: split secret queries into 'subtle', 'zeroize'-specific definitions, move policy to data extension, track by dataflow, fix leaks)
  • rust-dashcore#1038 (test(key-wallet): pin scalar reduction paths, refusal of zero scalars and public keys off the curve)
  • rust-dashcore#1036 (feat: abstract BLS backend types behind newtypes, isolate to 'dashcore-crypto' crate, switch to 'dash-pkc' from 'blsful' fork)
  • rust-dashcore#1056 (refactor: abstract EDDSA backend types behind newtypes, switch to 'dash-pkc')
• Miscellaneous
  
  • base-sdk#52 (sdk%misc!: consolidate common crates to workspace 'Cargo.toml', bump 'aes', 'base58ck', 'sha2', move crate re-exports to '__deps', drop 'Checkable' and 'Hashable' compatibility aliases)
  • rust-dashcore#1042 (build!: bump 'rand' to 0.9, 'getrandom' to 0.4, 'secp256k1' to 0.33, drop the 'secp256k1' context)
  • rust-dashcore#1048 (fix(key-wallet): construct 'root_private_key' with 'from_secret_bytes')
  • rust-dashcore#1053 (refactor: backport rust-bitcoin#5680, drop unconstructed Ed25519 error variants, reap base58 module, tidy base64 dep)
  • rust-dashcore#1108[4] (refactor!: consolidate common definitions to workspace 'Cargo.toml', bump 'base58ck' to 0.5.0, pass through definitions from 'bitcoin-{hashes,internals,crypto}' and 'dash-pkc')
  • rust-dashcore#1110[4] (refactor!: harmonize behind 'hex-conservative' 1.x, propagate with 'dashcore_hashes::hex', ban 'hex{,_lit,-literal}' with 'cargo deny')

The following packages were released or updated, tracking for base-sdk milestones are available for 0.1 and 0.2

• dash-types (v0.1.0-beta) with accompanying procedural macro crate dash-types-marker (v0.1.0-beta), see changelog for work after initial release.
• dash-num (v0.1.0-beta), see changelog for work after initial release.
• dash-pkc (v0.1.0-beta), see changelog for work after initial release.

Why am I asking?

Due to external factors, current DCG funding would be insufficient to allow retaining me as a contractor. This proposal will allow me to continue work, while retaining my reporting structure and maintaining work output.

How much am I asking for?

105 DASH per month for the duration of the proposal period. The amount disbursed will be paid to DCG's compensation fund for conversion and payment to me and shall be treated as proposal income and compensation expense for DCG.

The currently proposed amount is reduction from previous proposals by 95 DASH in light of significant price changes and the emergence of a new, higher price floor.

Verification

The below message can be verified using Keybase (source)

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https://www.dashcentral.org/p/kwvg-core-oct26
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Notes

[1] - Counting 32 pull requests from dashpay/base-sdk (source) and 6 pull requests from dashpay/rust-dashcore (source)
[2] - Calculated for dashpay/base-sdk using 'git shortlog b08855c4e..33fcc59e --summary --numbered --no-merges | grep "Kittywhiskers Van Gogh"', 331 commits.
[3] - Calculated for dashpay/rust-dashcore using 'git shortlog 4525bc62..5628202e --summary --numbered --no-merges | grep "Kittywhiskers Van Gogh"', 6 commits.
[4] - Not merged as of Oct 5th, 2026, included as most work for it was done during Q3 CY2026.