DIF Election 2023 - Candidate Q&A Thread

[Sven]

The Dash Investment Foundation election proposals are finally live:

Proposal "DIF_Supervisor_Election_2023_Jared" - DashCentral.org

DIF Supervisor Election 2023 Vote For Jared

www.dashcentral.org

Proposal "DIF_Supervisor_Election_2023_Justin" - DashCentral.org

DIF Supervisor Election 2023 Vote For Justin

www.dashcentral.org

Proposal "DIF_Supervisor_Election_2023_Rodrigo" - DashCentral.org

DIF Supervisor Election 2023 Vote For Rodrigo

www.dashcentral.org

Proposal "DIF_Supervisor_Election_2023_Sven" - DashCentral.org

DIF Supervisor Election 2023 Vote For Sven

www.dashcentral.org

I imagine people have questions for our election candidates, but AFAIK only MNOs and proposal owners can comment on DashCentral. Our candidates may not be MNOs, so please use this thread to ask your questions to each candidate. Keep it civil please.

 

[Sven]

Everyone please notice that funding of Two Dash per proposal is being requested by the DIF in these elections. ...

I responded to you here:
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/2022-dif-election-method-election-update-read.53257/post-233752

Please keep this thread for Q&A with the election candidates.

 

[Theia]

For Jared:

You mentioned you started a successful business. What does it do? How big is it? Does it have a website?

You also mention your investing skills. Can you please tell us more about it? What kind of investments are you talking about and what is your track record?


For Rodrigo:

The other candidates all answer the same questions. Why didn't you?

 

[qwizzie]

I just hope all other DIF supervisor candidates beside Sven actually do have a dash.org/forum account and are reading this thread.
Having questions remain unanswerred (see above) is not a good sign.

I also hope that questions that were addressed to specific DIF supervisor candidates on Dash Central (Sam's question for example) will indeed be answerred here, and don't need to be copied and pasted from Dash Central again.

I may as well ask a question to all DIF supervisor candidates as well :

How should the DIF spread its holdings in USD / DASH / Other crypto / Precious Metals (i remember the DIF used to own some gold in the past ?) to reduce its overall risk of investment loss, in what has been and perhaps still is a volatile stock market, crypto market and USD valuta price ?

It would also be nice to have some information on how the DIF is currently operating in that regard.

 

[Theia]

Yes, honestly - it's awful. If those guys can't even be bothered to respond when it's about their own election, how can they be relied on for DIF work? They are getting plenty of Yes votes though, so do they assume they don't have to give a shit, will just be elected in on auto-pilot?

Not having an account here can't bw an excuse. I'm kinda new to Dash, took me 3 minutes to register here. I don't understand how people can vote Yes on such thin applications, there's barely any solid info in there to judge their qualification, and without as much as a beep from the candidates, neithert here nor on Dash Central. The lack of response, not taking this seriously is all you need to judge. I don't have much weight, but I'll be voting No.

 

[cryptosi]

Does the DIF have a mirco-site with further information, portfolio, members etc?

 

[AgnewPickens]

Jared's response to questions, he can't post ion the Forum for some reason

Answers to DIF Supervisor Election Questions

1. What is my business/investment background? My entrepreneurship/business journey began at a young age when I started delivering newspapers. Shortly after that I started a business building and selling toys made from PVC pipe and dowel sticks. During college I studied electrical engineering bef...

docs.google.com

 

[Sven]

Does the DIF have a mirco-site with further information, portfolio, members etc?

Dash Invests – The Dash Investment Foundation

www.dashinvests.org

It desperately needs updating, I know. At least I'm trying to keep the blog section somewhat current. Expect an EOY 2022 report in the next few days that will show our current portfolio.

 

[Sven]

I just hope all other DIF supervisor candidates beside Sven actually do have a dash.org/forum account and are reading this thread.

I did email every candidate a link to their respective election proposal on DashCentral and to this thread right after I posted it.

How should the DIF spread its holdings in USD / DASH / Other crypto / Precious Metals (i remember the DIF used to own some gold in the past ?) to reduce its overall risk of investment loss, in what has been and perhaps still is a volatile stock market, crypto market and USD valuta price ?

It would also be nice to have some information on how the DIF is currently operating in that regard.

I wrote last year what I think the DIF should be doing, i.e. what I stand for as a candidate. I've followed that approach during my tenure so far (to the extent I can influence decisions as 1 of 6 supervisors), so it's still current:

2021 DIF Candidate Announcement Thread

DIF Candidates are invited to post in this thread. Thank you. https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/hello-im-darren-tapp-%E6%B1%A4%E5%BE%B7%E6%B6%A6-a-dif-supervisor.50507/post-227048

www.dash.org

The DIF divested out of all gold even before I joined. From what I heard, one major hurdle was custody. Apparently near-impossible to find a broker who would accept a construct like the DIF without human beneficiaries as client. The one we had AFAIK ended up having liquidity problems and it was a nightmare to get the gold, i.e. the money for it out. Darren would know more about it. We're currently almost exclusively invested in equity. One exception is RUNE, which we kept to start a liquidity pool once the ThorChain integration is live. That integration never happened and we still have the RUNE. We are looking into what to do about it, saw some suggestions on Discord.

As for actively trading other crypto or precious metals, it's almost certainly not going to happen for practical reasons: It requires substantial time commitment and comes with governance problems.

We are all volunteers. People have jobs, families, other priorities. None of us so far would be able to follow the market day by day and actively buy and sell - all without being compensated for that time. So we don't trade Dash, much less other coins.

On the governance side, decisions involving money are required to go through a supervisor vote. Normally, we meet once per week, much too slow for the fickle crypto market. The alternative would be to authorize one person to make these decisions alone (and again, that person would have to be doing that for free). I wouldn't be comfortable with putting so much power in the hands of one person.

There are ways this could theoretically be made to work - e.g. limited budget, copy trading, bots etc. - but I don't see it happening in the near future.

 

[Justin Szilard]

Reply to MasterNoodle:
Q: What was the major of your Masters program and what kind of startups did you work with and in what role?
My masters was in CIS with a concentration in Database Administration and Business Intelligence. The major startup that worked with where in the EdTech sphere and I worked as a Business Analyst for them.
Q: What are you doing now? Are you still in that fulltime job? What is/was it?
Currently I work as a Data Analyst for Fortune Brands as a fulltime role and trying to do side consulting in the reporting services sphere.

 

[Apoloniusz]

Reposting a question by BlueMoon from the DashCentral proposal comment section directed at @Sven. I'd would like to see this questioned answered not just by @Sven, but by all DIF candidates. Please see the question below:

To date The DIF has had 46 proposals funded for 16,367.18 DASH ($2,154,978.87)

Sources:
https://mnowatch.org/proposalowners/?po=TheDIF
https://mnowatch.org/proposalowners/?po=difkennedy

Could Sven explain how, from the perspective of scarcity and economics, the DIF has created more value to the network by increasing the price of Dash with its investments than it would have if we had never minted the 16,367.18 DASH into existence?

I believe that if those Dash were never minted in the first place, reducing the circulating and total available supply, there would be a better economic return for Dash holders and the network overall with an instantaneous 100% success rate as opposed to the DIF paying legal expenses and making long-term high-risk speculative investments that appear to have had no impact on improving the Dash price or market cap ranking thus far. When it comes to investing, there is unquestionably one option that involves no work and delivers an immediate reward without the chance of loss.

Source - Proposal "DIF_Supervisor_Election_2023_Sven" - DashCentral.org

 

[GrandMasterDash]

...and the lack of regular updates from Dash Direct whom received DIF funding. Might of thought 120 words per month would of been easy... Still, what pressure has the DIF put on Dash Direct to provide updates?