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Pre-proposal: Dash BE (Business Evaluation)

Update 12/29/18

We extend our gratitude to everyone who reviewed our offering to the DOA, and voted yes.

Should our services be requested in the future, we will be ready to work.

The community can engage our services by sponsoring the proposal fee. We will then deliver a full scope proposal, which will evaluate multiple proposals each cycle.

The proposal for the pilot was $9,500. This was reduced from the full scope, which was $19,500. The future proposal will be very similar to our initial proposal, and replies to questions may therefore be repeated. New evaluations will only be undertaken if we are awarded the project.

For examples of our work, please see copies of our reports on Anypay and Dash Embassy Thailand.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Bryan at [email protected].

Hi, my name is Bryan Courchesne and I am a registered investment advisor. The license associated with the business allows it to advise and manage digital assets for clients, some of which hold masternodes. I have been providing my clients with research on Dash and a portion of that could be built out and be of great benefit to the community. Currently, MNOs have no way to professionally analyze and evaluate proposals. It is a cumbersome task that requires professional expertise.

This is a very early stage proposal. I am looking to get feedback so that the proposal can be refined to best serve the DAO.

Thank you!


Pre-proposal
Problem
Proposals often widely vary in both structure and content, making it difficult for MNO’s to appropriately research them prior to making their voting decisions. It is highly inefficient for each individual MNO to conduct their own research on each proposal during each cycle.

Solution
Dash BE will evaluate key proposals and provide full reports on them, in addition to video summaries.

Team
  • Bryan Courchesne - Project Manager
    • The founder of Digital Asset Investment Management (‘DAIM’), a licensed investment adviser for digital assets.
    • Prior to founding DAIM, Bryan managed groups of sales traders at broker-dealers in New York City. During that time he became an Options Principal and General Securities Principal, and he holds the Series 4,7,24,55,63, and 65.
    • University of Florida 2003.
    • Linkedin.
  • Ryan Knowles - Analyst
    • Research analyst at The Crypto Company.
    • Stanford University 2016.
    • Major: Science, Technology, & Society.
      • Concentration: Innovation and Organizations.
    • Linkedin.
    • Roles:
      • Review, investigate, and report on proposals.
      • Content curation and presentation construction.
  • Aaron Frolow - Editor
    • Government investigations, Australia.
    • Roles:
      • Aggregate research data.
      • Proofread and edit reports.
Operation
  • Dash BE will perform ongoing, comprehensive analysis for the Dash DAO by evaluating the potential impact of key proposals, and by providing contextual research on the operational efficiency of the DAO.
  • Dash BE will analyze the DAO and Dash proposals, and report on how they compare to:
    • The crypto industry and
    • The traditional finance industry.
  • The analysis will be conducted on the following aspects:
    • The value proposition;
      • How do the hypotheses and strategies relate to the business?
    • The legal framework;
      • Is there a formal business arrangement and/or licenses?
    • The team;
      • Why are they suitable for the project?
    • Application of funds;
      • What are the strategic values and how will results be achieved?
    • Proposal price;
      • How is the budget allocated and how can prices be compared?
    • Macro environment;
      • How is it comparable to traditional business environments?
    • Market validation and product-market fit;
      • What can be determined from their market validation, market fit, and description of the end user?
    • Strategy, milestones & delivery;
      • How will the strategies be implemented?
    • Complexities; and
      • What could be difficult and cause potential failure?
    • Risks.
      • What are the security, reputational and regulatory risks?
  • If an evaluation is being undertaken on a proposal that is a renewal, comparisons will be made with Dash Watch.
  • All of the analysis will result in the formulation of a professional report.
    • Please see the example HERE or attached.
Why
  • Reasons why Dash BE will be delivered and maintained:
    • Just how the project lead, Bryan Courchesne, built Digital Asset Investment Management as a regulated asset manager, he will similarly build Dash BE in accordance with professional standards.
    • The evaluation framework used has guidelines yet is flexible enough to be applied across all proposals.
    • Dash BE will evaluate the operational efficiency of the Dash DAO from the standpoint of an investor who is going to question the viability of projects.
    • Just how DAIM follows government imposed guidelines for providing information to retail clients, Bryan will furnish Dash BE deliverables in accordance with the same high standards.
    • This all ties together because looking at Dash as an investment, one must consider the projects it takes on and the probability of them succeeding.
Ongoing Deliverables
  • Monthly evaluation report(s).
  • A 3-5 minute video summarising each report.
  • Audio podcast from the video.
Benefits to Dash
  • Dash BE will provide MNOs with an efficient way to review and compare proposals.
  • Dash BE provides comprehensive data that is otherwise unavailable.
  • Broader context comparisons to the crypto space and the traditional business world.
  • Dash BE will save voters time by providing multiple quick reference deliverables in the form of:
    • A video summary;
    • An audio summary, and
    • Summaries in the report.
  • Dash BE will give MNOs more information in order to make better voting decisions.
 

Attachments

  • Anypay Report Pre-proposal.pdf
    240.8 KB · Views: 155
Last edited:
Thanks for the comment and the question Quansen. The current rough estimate for ongoing service is 117.5 Dash / $19.5k per cycle, not including any possible one-time start-up costs. As I get more feedback I will be able to better refine the proposal and the estimate.
 
Hello, @Dash Business Evaluation , and thank you for your pre-proposal. This is actually something that several of us have been talking about for quite some time. Dash Watch has been indispensable where honest and accurate reporting and better oversight are concerned, but due to the very wide-open--albeit high--barriers for entry in to Masternode Ownership and thus voting rights, it's become clear that the DAO could greatly benefit from expert analysis of proposals and more editorial assessment of their value to the network that require skills, knowledge, and expertise that many MNOs may not possess. Some initiatives are in place to this end, but nothing concrete has emerged, so I'm very much intrigued by your proposal.

I recently had the opportunity to participate in an ASU study on blockchain stakeholders, and what became clear from discussing the Dash DAO with researchers is that it is an incredibly complex, nuanced, and largely unexplored system in terms of possibilities, capabilities, and accomplishments. This is only going to increase drastically as the network continues to grow and more facets like the upcoming Dash Ventures emerge, so the need for additional assistance in ensuring the DAO is maximizing its potential and value will be crucial. However, what also became clear from these and other discussions is that a great deal of the background knowledge and nuanced perspectives needed to truly understand and maximize the value of one's contributions to the DAO can only come through time, experience, and exposure to the DAO and its workings.

Judging from your sample analysis, you present a professional and competent understanding of business and the blockchain space generally, but there is so much more to the Dash DAO and its history and the peculiar nature and events associated with it that can't be obtained by any means except immersion within it. As such, how long have you been following Dash, participating in the community, and why do you feel that that you and your team are a good fit for offering advice to the DAO in particular as opposed to any other crypto project with a governance aspect?

I anticipate that a lot of it--as was the case with Dash Watch--will be "on the job training," so to speak, that you'll learn as you go, and grow and improve as needed, so a sort of "pilot" or "trial" case may be the best format to ensure that it's something you're willing and able to provide in a way that we're willing and able to continue to support.

Given the highly technical nature of some of the projects in the space, it would be advisable to include an experienced developer at least in a consultant capacity among your staff to ensure that you can comprehensively tackle all of the diverse projects the DAO funds. Perhaps someone on your team already possesses that skill set but it wasn't immediately apparent from your roster.
 
Hi @Arthyron. Thanks for the comments. I also view Dash Watch the same way as you and think that their work will be an ongoing benefit to the DAO especially in terms of accountability. I envision Dash BE being a compliment to Dash Watch as our reports will make forecasts on hypotheses and strategies proposed, once a proposal is approved Dash Watch becomes the oversight.

From my observation of Dash, the DAO, and the treasury I see that the ecosystem operates much like a business but one that can virtually take on any task proposed. This makes it incredibly complex and when coupling in the amount of money dispersed per cycle, risk vs reward analysis becomes difficult to assess. If you have any research from the ASU study you participated in that you can share I would like to read it. Nothing but time spent immersed in the DAO will lead to maximum value add. Each contributor and project needs to start somewhere and I believe that experience in something relatable can shorten the curve.

In my career, I have made reports on publicly listed companies specifically for investor trade recommendations. Reviewing earning’s reports can be helpful and can uncover warning signs for possible failure. The difficult task and more heavily weight one was making forecasts on projections made by these companies. The types of companies researched covered a wide range, from oil and gas to TMT (tech media telecom).

My specialty was in options and those being volatile in nature gravitated me towards other volatile assets, which five years ago led me to Bitcoin. In 2015 I was studying Monero’s privacy mechanisms and when looking at comparables one of them was Darkcoin. This is the beginning of my direct participation with the community as a whole. Thirteen months ago I began advising several masternode owners. For myself, I see my relatable work experience as mentioned above and my current digital asset advisory services as a good fit. Ryan Knowles’ education is one reason I find him suitable. His current work makes him more valuable. At The Crypto Company, he has performed over 200 short-form analysis on coins and over 80 long-form analysis. Our services fit Dash over the other crypto's with governance aspects because of our knowledge of Dash, accessibility to the community, and the one we see we can best apply our skills to help.

There will be some “on-the-job training” as it relates to adapting to the communities request and translating those into the most impactful deliverables. Running a pilot program would be great for all parties.

The plan for Dash BE incorporates another analyst. Currently, we are working to define the roles for that person and what his or her ideal background should be.

I welcome more comments from yourself or anyone else who reads this thread.
 
@Dash Business Evaluation - Yes, it's much like a business, but it is also much, much more. There are reasons for funding various proposals that may not have any demonstrable ROI, for example, but may none the less accomplish important goals for the DAO. For the projects where ROI is important, however, we definitely need a business-oriented perspective from people with knowledge and experience on those matters. I'd be happy to pass along what I've written so far for the ASU study if you believe it will be helpful, but I suspect the study itself will probably be published eventually. PM me with an email address to which that material can be sent if you'd like.
 
I enjoyed the example report attached to your first post. One glaring omission in the 'basic information' section, it says it was for 219 dash, but fails to mention it was 219 per month for 3 months. While it was later mentioned in the text that the total was for 657 dash, it is a significant data point that should be noted in the basic information section. I think a lot of MNOs fail to understand the true cost of many proposals because they don't notice that they are multi-month proposals. I believe this is why the Ben Swann proposal passed initially. It never should have at such a price. Anyway...

Other than that, I liked the report. However, I question your ability to create such a well investigated report for every live proposal, as you will have a small window of time to do so: from between the day it is posted, to the last day to vote. Proposal owners may also decide to delay posting their proposal until near the end of the cycle so as to avoid being under scrutiny.

I would first like to see how Dash Nexus (has that launched yet? it doesn't work over tor, please fix your javascript) affects proposal owner behavior, then go from there.
 
@Unstoppable we will make modifications to ensure that the true cost of proposals can be located in the ‘Basic Information’ section, and will ultimately read as a data point of higher significance. We read about Ben Swann, which did affect the way in which we approach and evaluate proposals.

Our ability to reproduce such reports has been one of our main focus points since this proposal’s conception, and it is good you noticed that the potential difficulty in doing so.
In leading up to this pre-proposal, we tested various methods of evaluation, performed trial runs, and then methodically analyzed our work, allowing us to establish our current framework. Once this defined framework was established, the team started over from the beginning in order to test performance.

We recognize that the timing of proposal postings could make it difficult to evaluate them. We have been observing recent budget cycles and find that there is sufficient time to work but that it must be done both efficiently and effectively, in order to produce. We are certainly not shy about the amount of work that is required, and the speed at which it needs to be delivered.

We would be keen to work with Dash Nexus so that our reports can easily be accessed.
 
@solarguy thank you for the comment and pointing out budget constraints. I think as the budget shrinks evaluating proposals becomes more crucial. Maintaining the network in the immediately foreseeable future is a priority. Outside of the Core Dev Team's full wages, other proposals will pass and anyone of those that are awarded that are unlikely to yield beneficial results in these tough times is taking away from others that could. Dash BE is seeking to improve efficiency and effectiveness now and then be in place to help evaluate riskier proposals when the budget grows. It is great to read that you think our proposal makes an excellent complement to DashWatch, we have a lot of respect for what they are doing.
 
Update on Dash BE.

We will soon be putting up the proposal on Dash Central. We want to share recent modifications and hear any feedback before we do.

The full scope estimate is $19,500 and aims to deliver reports on a select group of proposals. Taking into consideration the tight budget we have reduced the price and the deliverables. The reduced price is $9,500 and it will cover reporting on the two most impactful proposals requesting between 200 - 600 Dash. If the most impactful proposal is the one requesting over 600 Dash it will be the only one reported on due to the likelihood of complexities associated with it. In addition to the reduction and because this is a new offering, we propose that Dash BE gets started as a pilot program so that adjustments can be made and to see how it fits as a counterpart to Dash Watch. Then the full scope can come later if requested or when/if price recovers.

This message will also be posted on Reddit and Discord.
 
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