DIF Supervisor Election 2022 – Call for Applications

With a little bit of delay, the 2022 election is finally underway! We encourage anyone interested in running as DIF Supervisor to apply here:

https://forms.gle/ut8MetXHJfDhPTPo9

Some background:

Supervisor Terms

In June last year, before the 2021 election, the previous set of supervisors agreed to change the term rules stipulated in the DIF constitution to apply to the 2021 incoming and all future supervisors.

Since the DIF handles a portfolio of significant investments, it is important to have a certain continuity in its management. Previous election rules allowed for a complete turnover of all supervisors at once. That such a situation isn’t too far-fetched was shown months later by the recent Trust Protector election with a nearly complete replacement of all previous TPs. For the DIF, such a cut would have severe detrimental consequences. Established communications with portfolio companies, knowledge of the history and background of previous pitches and decisions, up to the managing of our tech infrastructure would be affected.

To mitigate this risk, the DIF decided that the three supervisors who received the most approval votes will be appointed for two-year terms. All other successful candidates would be appointed for one-year terms as before.

The original vote tally of the 2021 election happened on the Dash Watch website, which unfortunately is no longer in operation. However, the results can still be confirmed on various other sites that reported on it, e.g. here. They were:

Candidate	Results
Darren Tapp	217
Michael Lewis	203
Glenn Austin	195
Rodrigo Ambrissi	194
Sven Rossbach	155
Ash Francis	151
Hytham Abdel-Karim	109
name3	49

That means Darren, Michael and Glenn would automatically have their term extended for another year and their seats would not be up for re-election. Why “would”?

Darren Tapp Not Extending

Darren informed the other supervisors that he does not intend to continue his supervisor role and therefore the election should fill his seat. Due to his upcoming wedding and a shift of personal priorities, he feels he wouldn’t be able to contribute to the DIF anymore in the way this position requires.

As anyone who followed the DIF would know, Darren has been instrumental in shaping the DIF from early on. For much of his term, he acted as the chairman of the supervisor board – organizing meetings and being our spokesperson in public. Darren relinquished this responsibility a few months ago already, so his decision isn’t coming entirely out of the blue.

We thank him for his work and hope he will remain a valuable member of the Dash community for many years to come.

That means four seats are now available to be filled in the upcoming election – those of Darren, Rodrigo, Sven and Ash.

Election Platform and Process

In the wake of the Dash Watch closure, we also had to find a new way to conduct this election. The choice was between getting our hands on the software that Dash Watch had been using and setting up our own site for voting with it, and using the DAO treasury system.

We discussed the pros and cons in the Dash Forum and, also based on community feedback on Telegram and Discord, decided to use DAO proposals as a new tool.

No “No” Votes

While DAO proposals allow for a new feature – voting “No” and “Abstain” – we decided against using it for three reasons:

1. Our constitution clearly calls for an “approval-style election”.
2. Allowing “No” votes is likely to lead to an awkward situation where the election winners all have negative votes. Imagine three candidates, A, B and C, and 100 voters. 60% prefer A, 30% prefer B, and 10% prefer C. Every voter votes Yes on their preferred candidate and No on the other two. Clearly, A should win with an absolute majority. But if “No” votes were allowed, A received 60 Yes and 2×40 = 80 No for a final tally of -20 votes. The other candidates look even worse. Winning an election with a negative vote count didn’t seem right to us.
3. We wanted to change the tool, not the process. Previous elections have always been based on Yes votes only, just like any other major election in the world, and that process seemed agreeable to everyone.

Therefore, please do not vote “No” or “Abstain”! Your vote would be wasted. The four candidates with the most “Yes” votes will be elected.

Schedule

We’re aiming to conduct the election at the next budget cycle ending with superblock 1,744,680 near the end of September 2022. Candidate proposals will be posted on Dash Central as soon as the current budget cycle ends around Aug 27 (depending on your time zone). While we can post additional candidate profiles for voting during the budget cycle, we encourage you to submit your application early to maximize your chances.

• 2022-08-27 Soft deadline for application submissions
• 2022-08-29 Candidate profiles posted as treasury proposals, vote collection opens
• 2022-09-26 (approx.) Voting ends

If you have any further questions about the role or the election process, please comment here or on the election thread in the forum. We’re looking forward to your applications and wish all candidates the best of success!