Governance Proposal 21: Growth and Continuity Planning II

Context/Background

In February 2022, ApeSwap DAO voters passed a proposal to allocate funds for a variety of uses and projects related to the growth of the ApeSwap protocol. Since the expiration of the six month time frame of that proposal is approaching soon, the ApeSwap DAOC has created a new proposal to establish how the protocol will use funds from the ApeSwap Treasury, as well as how it will use ongoing revenue.

Summary

The "Treasury Funds Usage" section is intended to carve out the maximum financing needed over the next six months. The "Protocol Revenue Utilization" section adjustments are intended to apply in perpetuity, or until another governance vote is passed to overwrite the terms in this proposal.

Treasury Funds Usage

ApeSwap is seeking community approval to utilize ApeSwap Treasury funds as follows over the subsequent six months once the proposal is passed. Once approved, any of the funds in the ApeSwap Treasury, regardless of currency type, are eligible to be spent as described below. ApeSwap will use funds set aside for operational expenses in the "Protocol Revenue Utilization" section, before utilizing any of the carve outs below:

Product & Development

Product & Development Contributor Budget - Up to $374,550

Ensure the continuity of ApeSwap by providing compensation to DAO contributors for product maintenance, management, research, and development.

Product & Development General Budget - Up to $332,000

Cover ApeSwap's product advancement, research, and development, including but not limited to:

• Audits of new Solidity code through reputable auditors to ensure the highest degree of security and best practices as ApeSwap continues to innovate and build the DAO.
• Infrastructure necessary to maintain the suite of ApeSwap's solutions and offerings.
• 3rd party contributors and service provides to enhance ApeSwap's protocols, services, distribution, or processes.

Marketing & Community

Marketing Contributor Budget - Up to $256,000

Ensure the continuity of ApeSwap by providing compensation to DAO contributors for marketing efforts and initiatives.

Community Contributor Budget - Up to $49,400

Ensure the continuity of ApeSwap by providing compensation to DAO contributors for community engagement, growth, and maintenance.

Marketing General Budget - Up to $116,000

Cover ApeSwap's marketing expansions, initiatives, and operations including, but not limited to: tools, paid media, analytics, agencies, graphics, design, videos, influencers, sponsorships.

Business Development

Business Development Contributor Budget - Up to $252,500

Ensure the continuity of ApeSwap by providing compensation to DAO contributors for business development efforts and partnership initiatives.

Business Development General Budget - Up to $140,200

Cover the ApeSwap's business development initiatives and operations including, but not limited to: conferences, events, centralized exchanges listings, market making, liquidity provisioning, analytics, and/or other types of partnership engagements.

Administrative, Legal, and Finance

Administrative, Legal, and Finance Contributor Budget - Up to $253,000

Ensure the continuity of ApeSwap by providing compensation to DAO contributors for administrative, legal, and financial management.

Administrative, Legal, and Finance General Budget - Up to $141,000

Cover ApeSwap's administrative, legal, and accounting expenses including but not limited to contributor management, administrative tooling, and legal consulting/advisory.

Notes

• The remainder of the treasury will be eligible for generating additional revenue for the ApeSwap DAO via lending, yield farming, or other decentralized finance mechanics, based on the analysis of the Treasury multi-sig holders. All capital will only be placed in trusted and battle-tested protocols to ensure the security of the ApeSwap Treasury

Protocol Revenue Utilization

We are proposing to use revenue from ApeSwap's various service offerings as follows:

DEX Revenue Breakdown

Any revenue generated by trading fees accumulated through Ape LPs, regardless of chain, will be utilized in the following way:

50% for BANANA/GNANA Holders' Allocation

• We will use 50% of DEX revenue to give back to ApeSwap token holders in a mechanic that is voted on by the ApeSwap community
• This may be the standard buyback and burn, but leaves room for this allocation to be utilized in novel ways as the ongoing emissions & hard cap discussions evolve into actionable items
• In the meantime, funds will remain locked in a multi-sig until their purpose is well-defined by the ApeSwap Community via governance proposal

Up to 10% for Contributor Incentives

• Earmark 10% of DEX revenue to be utilized for incentivizing ApeSwap contributors. Including, but not limited to: Core Team Members, Administrators, third-party contributors, and contributing projects
• The distribution, selection, and process will be managed by the DAO Council, more specifically the multi-sig holders of the treasury address
• Unused funds from this 10% will be stored in the ApeSwap Treasury

Up to 10% for ApeSwap Operational Expenses

• Carve out for ApeSwap day-to-day operational expenses such as marketing, tech subscriptions, tools, human resources, design, community engagement, etc.
• Unused funds from this 10% will be stored in the ApeSwap Treasury

Minimum 30% stored in ApeSwap Treasury

• With the considerations above, this would leave a minimum of 30% of ApeSwap's DEX revenue to be stored in the ApeSwap Treasury for future use
• The only exception to this is BNB Chain, which reserves the right to utilize up to 10% for DEX optimization; specifically, engagements with world-class incentive distribution & tokenomics firms to build out custom machine learning models to maximize revenue for ApeSwap's DEX. Any unused funds from this 10% will go into the Treasury.

Other Revenue Utilization

Below is intended to clarify the usage of new revenue streams for the DAO and/or redefined existing revenue streams:

Fiat On-Ramp Revenue: 100% of fees generated from ApeSwap's share of fiat on-ramp will be utilized for ApeSwap's operational expenses.

Bonus Router Revenue: 100% of "take home" fees generated from ApeSwap's Smart Router will be utilized for ApeSwap's operational expenses. This excludes the amounts we give back to users for bonuses and the royalties we pay Wallchain for the utilization of their technology.

Other Revenue: Any other revenue generated from ApeSwap's Marketing or Business Development activities will be utilized for ApeSwap's operational expenses.

Notes

• ApeSwap currently has three treasuries: one on BNB Chain, one on Polygon, and one on Ethereum as per our public disclosure documentation.
• ApeSwap multi-sig holders can be found in the documentation at this link.
• "Operational Expenses" in this proposal refers to any expenses incurred to run normal ApeSwap DAO operations and business activities. These expenses are required to efficiently run ApeSwap including but not limited to human resources, technical resources, software, audits, vendors and third party providers, marketing services, etc.
• Any operations or offerings exempted from this document were done so intentionally and imply that ApeSwap continues those as they presently exist or as defined in the original ApeSwap Growth & Continuity Planning Second Edition

Motivation

ApeSwap's core contributors are committed to the long-term health of the protocol, the decentralization of our operations, and the continued growth of the DAO. To continue driving ApeSwap in this direction, we are proposing to use funds accumulated in the ApeSwap Treasury and revenue from various service offerings as described above.

Options

PASS - If this proposal passes, ApeSwap will follow the proposed usage of funds as described above over the next six months.

REJECT - If this proposal is rejected, this proposal will go back to discussion in Commonwealth to align on the necessary changes, before the proposal is re-sent for review.