I think what you guys are doing is absolutely fantastic, and crazy innovative. Thanks for the clarification -- I'm sure all the issues you have to deal with are fast moving targets that have to be hit while juggling chainsaws and dinner plates.
I have some questions about accounting and accountability -- questions that I'm sure others will have sooner or later.
Is this the appropriate place and time to ask these questions? I totally trust the people who are leading the Dash project and I don't want anyone to feel defensive from what might be some pointed questions. I just want to have a clear understanding of how things are done.
Yeah, ask whatever you want.
Re accounting and accountability in general, there is really nothing in the protocol yet. Proposal owners are encouraged to report periodically in the forum about their progress and how they are spending the money they receive, but if they don't do it the only measure masternodes have is to downvote that proposal (if it is a multimonth one) or not vote in favor of future proposals by that owner/team.
The team has established some internal procedures to ensure that there is uniformity and processes in place for its proposals.
@babygiraffe (Ryan Taylor) usually makes the proposal, controls the funds and keeps the books. He then works with projects owners to make the payments and ensure that the funds are used for their intended purpose. He publishes monthly reports on the finances of the team in the announcements subforum:
https://www.dash.org/forum/topic/official-announcements.54/
There you can also find the monthly report on activity that
@kot (Robert Weicko, project manager) publishes. There is also the updates on specific projects that are published in the project updates subforum:
https://www.dash.org/forum/topic/project-updates.123/
That one doesn't admit replies because it is intended to be a quick way to get info without getting lost in long threads.
If you need more specific information you can ask whoever is responsible of that project, preferably in the forum. However, bear in mind that answering everything everywhere takes a lot of time and people need to be working, so sometimes things can't get answered in a timely manner.
Oh, and there is also the quarterly community call with the team that is open to anyone. The last one was a week ago. Anyone can join. They are announced on all Dash outlets and you can submit questions in advance. In the announcements forum you have threads for the latest ones.