Change of Process

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Dear MNO Community,

Over the first term of the Dash Investment Foundation, the previous round of supervisors made an operational decision that the current round of supervisors feel is ineffective in the way the DIF currently operates. Legally, the DIF supervisors have a fiduciary duty to the network and have operational control over the funds the DIF holds.

In the course of DIF business operations, DIF supervisors are meeting and discussing many sensitive and private topics with potential investment opportunities – topics which are necessary to assess the risks and opportunities that may result from an investment – and are at most times legally bound (e.g., under NDA) to not discuss the information shared.

Many community members express the frustration of being asked to weigh in on DIF investment opportunities through decision proposals without the benefit of full access to information. It is impossible for MNOs to effectively assess opportunities in this manner. We therefore feel that as representatives of the network entrusted with our roles as supervisors, we should act in the best interests of the network as intended.

In order to more streamline the operations within the DIF to be able to offer the network the best service in terms of directing investments toward the best opportunities, the current round of supervisors has taken a unanimous decision to discontinue seeking MNO approval for each individual investment decision. The DIF supervisors will instead exercise their responsibility to make investment decisions on behalf of the network, allowing the MNO community to continue to influence the operations of the DIF via the selection of the supervisors and funding proposals.

Seeking approval for each investment was well-intentioned. While we value decentralization, we also recognize that tasking the MNOs with decision making that could only be effective with information inaccessible to them makes little sense. We believe this new approach will result in better outcomes for the network we represent.

-DIF Supervisors

DIF Board of Supervisors 2020 Q3 Report

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Dash Investment Foundation Board of Supervisors 2020 Q3 Report

An election for Dash Investment Supervisors was completed in July. Darren Tapp and Hytham Abdel-Karim were elected to fill two supervisor roles. A third elected supervisor declined to accept. While the minimum two supervisors required by law was fulfilled, Michael Lewis agreed to continue in his role. Darren was onboarded as the only new DIF supervisor from the election.

Darren was elected chair by Hytham and Michael.

Ryan and Rodrigo were invited to DIF meetings to evaluate how they could contribute. A special meeting was held with only the three sitting supervisors, Darren, Hytham and Michael. At that meeting there was a unanimous vote to appoint Ryan and Rodrigo to fill two additional vacancies. The board is permitted to fill vacancies as required.

In September the DIF BoS met four times. We discussed these topics with the following conclusion.

  • Should the DIF run masternodes?
    • There was general agreement that the DIF should not run masternodes.
    • Running masternodes will tend to dilute other masternodes of the DAO and would lead to potential conflicts with ability to vote on DIF proposals with network-provided funding.
  • Set Goals
    • Mission and Vision for the organization should be made clear before taking any actions
    • General support for a balancing strategy among real assets
    • General support for investing in companies that support Dash’s growth
    • General support for acting as a DAO savings account (e.g., act a repository for the DAO to accumulate assets that it can vote to deploy toward investments)
  • Jacob form ReadyRaider attended a meeting and the DIF BoS formulated a response to a proposal from ReadyRaider.
    • Outcome was a MOU contingent on their proposal passing.
  • The DIF using reserves to improve mixing speed or privacy by providing mixing liquidity was discussed.
    • It is not clear weather providing more liquidity would speed up mixing experience of users significantly
    • Unanswered question about technical improvements being more helpful
    • Concern that transparency of the DIF might actually compromise mixing privacy.
  • The DIF started evaluating Quadency third week of September.
    • Outcome of that is a proposal to the network
  • Three other opportunities were explored. We are still evaluating two of them.