Hello Dash network, here is the proposal, hope to get everyone's support!
Thailand Dash Internship Program and SE Asia Representative Office
Internship Program
Overview
Due to the huge burden of work fulfilled by each Core team member, secondary tasks such as testnet tools, visualization helpers, stability testers, network attack tools, and focused blockchain research are set aside.
The idea is to hire approximately 6 interns on a 6 months internship program from around the world based on their qualifications to work on these tasks and to offer a support role to core team developers. Academic achievement and blockchain enthusiasm will be the main criteria for selection of individuals.
We would offer them a competitive intern package including a work visa and a flexible schedule, with travel expenses paid and compensation based on origin country/level of education. In exchange we would ask them to undertake projects of a more academic nature than we are used to. Things that would take a core team member maybe 6 months to come up with a benign answer. For example, at what message load would masternodes start failing, most likely it’s very high and we just don’t need to worry about it, but it’s a great project for interns. Even more, hopefully this will start a partnership between universities and Dash core as well. While we have some academics that have started being interested in Dash, we could do better.
Why Thailand?
Well foremost, because it’s doable. There are few countries in the world where immigration laws would allow this to be easy for most countries of the world. Business and living costs are pretty affordable, and it's also a dream place for interns to have their internship.
Thailand also has an strategic location and serves as a gateway into South East Asia, which is home to the largest growing economic market in the modern world.
Benefits
The best and most reliable interns could apply for a position in Dash Core at the end of their internship. They would already be formed and would enter our team much better prepared than current hires who need time to be onboarded.
Intern Compensation
Interns will be compensated based on their level of studies and location. Because of the reality of student loans faced by americans, any american intern will receive 50% increased pay. Minimum compensation will be set at 8$/hour and will increase per year of university studies past 3. So someone who has completed 4 years of university will get 10$ per hour, 15$ if american. A doctoral candidate who is in year 8 would get 18$ per hour.
We can estimate an average cost of 2000$/intern/month.
Leader role
Arnaud Beaudat will undertake the leader role in this endeavor. His tasks will include contacting universities and promotion of this program, identifying work items suited for the interns, managing time schedules, and dealing with local regulations.
Legal representation
We have been in contact with Harvey Law Group. They were the only law firm in Thailand that we found that knew about cryptocurrency and we found that they were best suited for our needs.
Representative office
In order to open the internship program, we would need to open a representative office, as a LLC would be prohibitively expensive and ill suited for our needs. Harvey law group explained to us that Thai immigration would frown upon and possibly deny so many foreign students if we didn’t hire a few Thai nationals, while we will consider thai nationals as normal interns the reality is that Thailand is way behind in the blockchain space and it would be doubtful to find quality computer science interns.
To remedy this problem we propose also creating a Thailand representative Office with the purpose of promoting Dash first in Thailand and then expanding to surrounding countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma. In Malaysia for example a proposal passed to promote DASH, and now in the past 90 days Malaysia has by far the most downloads on Mobile ; 13 times the downloads of thailand and twice that of australia.
This really is a double win for us, at would solve 2 problems with 1 solution.
Roles in representative office
- HR Manager : excellent level of English required, will promote the internship program throughout the world to get best suited students.
- Accountant/Assistant
- Senior Marketing Manager
- Junior Marketing Researcher
- Event Planner / Organizer
- Event Assistant
- UI/UX Designer
Trademarking Dash in Thailand
From Harvey Law Group : “Thailand is not party to any international conventions or treaties providing reciprocal enforcement with regard to trademarks. Only by registering locally can a trademark owner be assured of his rights over the trademark within the Kingdom of Thailand.”
Costs here are about 2000$ per trademark, let’s start by trademarking Dash in both english and Thai, and then maybe trademark Instant Send and Digital Cash later.
Budget Approximation
- Creation of the Representative Office Legal Fees :
160 000 THB (4930$) Fiat only
- Work permit and visa Legal and Government Fees : 40 000 THB x 8 =
320 000 THB (9840$) Fiat only
- Intern compensation : 2000$ x 6 interns x 6 months =
72 000$ Payable in Dash
- Office rent : 150 000 THB x 8 months (2 month deposit =
1 200 000 THB (36 900$) Fiat only
- Computer and office equipment for 13 people :
1 050 000 THB (32000$) Fiat only
- Thai nationals salary (included tax and SS) : 60 000 THB x 7 employees x 6 months =
2 520 000 THB (77000$) Fiat only
- Leader role compensation : 4000$ x 6 month =
24 000$ Payable in Dash
- Trademark :
66600 THB (2000$) Fiat only
- Promotional expenses :
300 000 THB to start (9243$) Fiat only
- Travel expenses (airline tickets for interns) : 50 000 THB x 6 =
300 000 THB (9243$) Fiat only
TOTAL :
298 595$ for a period of 6 months renewable with a new proposal.
Budget issuance
We will use Dash core address for this proposal and use their conversion guarantee which locks in the dollar amount of this proposal and which means that if the DASH price goes up all extra money will go to dash core. In this proposal we have hired a Thai accountant who will publish a monthly expenditure report for the community.
Because of possible unforeseen future events we have included a 10% margin in our calculations. If we do not use this money it will be used to continue the venture.
Because of Thai law, the representation office will need to acquire sufficient initial funding to prove to the thai government that we have funds. This means that at its start a certain amount will have to initially deposited into the Thai bank account from overseas before we can start hiring people. Therefore we will request from Dash core group if this proposal is indeed funded half of the total sum immediately and the second half after 2 months.
Thank you for reading this proposal. We appreciate your support if you liked it.
That being said, you will require to manage a fleet of machines/VPS instances to test this kind of stuff least for a limited period of time (I would guess at least 100 of them to get a result which is somewhat close to reality) and I don't see any infrastructure expenses of this sort in your proposal.
