BIP-55: Extending Treasury Funding for Beethoven X DAO Contributors

Introduction and Motivation

Since the adoption of BIP-40 in April 2023, Beethoven X DAO contributors have been receiving funding of $35k per month from the Treasury. This financial contribution (and it’s predecessor, BIP-35 in October 2022) from the DAO play a vital role in retaining and attracting key contributors to work on advancing Beethoven X. During this past funding period, the Balancer service provider agreements have also significantly contributed by offsetting DAO Contributor costs by up to $55k per month. Without these two sources of funding for contributors, it would be impossible to keep the protocol operating. Now, we propose to continue this funding arrangement, for a minimum of $35k per month, from the Treasury for a further 6 months from November 2023 to the end of April 2024.

In the face of prevailing challenging (but improving) market conditions, the Beethoven DAO remains steadfastly committed and highly motivated to overcome the current difficulties and continue advancing the protocol. Our unwavering dedication stems from the belief that we are well-positioned to emerge at the forefront and fully capitalise on the potential rewards that more positive market sentiment can bring.

Background

Ever since the earliest bootstrapping phases of Beethoven X, the Beethoven DAO and its contributors have been able to finance operations from the activity of the protocol. Today the DAO is instrumental in ensuring maintaining a high functioning and operational team that is active in the best interest of the protocol.

Prior to BIP-40, and its predecessor BIP-35, Beethoven X underwent severe cost cutting measures throughout 2022. The contributors diligently reduced costs, decreasing headcount from 12.5 to approx. 8.5 and even implemented a 50% compensation cut across the board in July 2022. Thankfully, since BIP-35 compensations have been raised to 75% and since BIP-40 to 90% of pre-cut compensation levels. This was enabled by the Balancer service provider agreements, which provided an additional revenue stream for the DAO, which can be used for funding contributors. These proposals have facilitated our continued focus on development and allowed Beethoven X DAO Contributors to maintain the headcount of approx. 9.5 FTE (full time equivalents) over the past 6 months. These resources are divided as follows:

We expect primary DAO contributor resources to continue at this approximate level for the next 6 months.

Beethoven X's commitment to state-of-the-art technology and a decentralised, transparent, and censorship-resistant community remains unwavering. The additional funding from the Treasury, combined with the contributions from Balancer, has allowed our DAO contributors to stay dedicated to this vision. Noteworthy achievements in the past 6 months include:

• Executing Balancer Marketing & Streamlining Balancer and Beethoven Marketing Efforts
• Successfully onboarded a full time resource to focus solely on Beethoven X Community and Marketing
• Co-Building new Balancer frontend which will also replace the current Beethoven X frontend in the near future
• Actively Contributing to the technical vision and further development of Balancer core technologies
• Navigating the Multichain and BAL Boosted Pool Vulnerabilities in the Summer of 2022
• Re-Introducing Boosted & yield bearing Pools on Optimism and Fantom Redesigning Gauge Voting
• Launch of CL pools on Optimism supported by our UI
• Strong collaboration with the Aura ecosystem
• Integration of Balancer into our API infrastructure
• Development of various new strategies for Beethoven X DAO treasury and maintaining them

The market conditions after a strong Q1 in 2023 remain challenging for the DAO treasury. During this previous funding period, we have observed a steady decline in fees on the Fantom network, particularly since the Multichain incident. On the Optimism network, fees reached their peak in Q2, and despite fluctuations, Q3 still witnessed higher monthly revenues on aggregate compared to Q1. On the Optimism Deployment the trend has been more positive, currently the first batch of Optimism fees for the month of October came in 60% higher than the September bi-monthly fees. The latest developments in “Uptober” also have provided welcome relief and increased the positive sentiment to the future. We sincerely hope this will carry into 2024 and see volume and activity of the protocol steadily increase again.

As of November 4th, the Beethoven X Treasury holds assets worth over $2,715,116, with $2,015,588 in assets that are not BEETS or OP tokens. Treasury assets can be seen here: Fantom: https://debank.com/profile/0xa1e849b1d6c2fd31c63eef7822e9e0632411ada7 Optimism: https://debank.com/profile/0x2a185c8a3c63d7bfe63ad5d950244ffe9d0a4b60 Ethereum: https://debank.com/profile/0xea06e1b4259730724885a39ce3ca670efb020e26

Proposal

This proposal, if adopted, will continue our funding at $35k per month for the next six months, covering the period from October 2023 to the end of March 2024. This extension will provide us with the necessary resources to maintain and enhance the Beethoven X platform while solidifying our collaboration with Balancer.

In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of maintaining financial stability during these challenging market conditions. By extending this funding proposal, we aim to secure our position and be prepared to seize opportunities in a more favourable market environment, which we anticipate will return in the near future.

We appreciate your consideration and support in ensuring the continued growth and development of Beethoven X.

Thank you for your time and attention. Impact for the 6 months Team – Step 1: DAO Contributors will receive an aggregate fixed $35k per month ($210k in total) Budget in USDC from the Treasury. In addition, Step 2, as long as the Beethoven X-Balancer service provider agreement remains unchanged : 55k in Revenue from the service provider agreement with Balancer is paid into Treasury and will be used to fund the core contributor wallet.

Treasury – Treasury assumes a fixed monthly cost of $35k per month ($210k in total) in USDC and passes the 55k (or any new equivalent arising from SP contracts) in USDC received from the Beethoven X-Balancer service provider agreement onwards, to be used for the payment of DAO Contributors.

Tokenomics – No impact

Committees – No impact

Specification

Each month, $35k USDC from Treasury and, upon request, any USDC received by Treasury for service provider agreements with Balancer DAO will be sent to the wallet: 0x0EDfcc1b8D082Cd46d13Db694b849D7d8151C6D5 (or another wallet designated for the payment of contributors). No additional work or modification to status quo operations is required.

Execution Plan

Upon approval, the Treasury will send $35k in USDC to the team wallet for each month spanning this proposal. Treasury will periodically transfer funds from the anticipated Balancer DAO service provider agreements to the same wallet. These authorizations will take effect immediately as under BIP-40, 6x payments for 35k USDC have been completed to-date. Therefore the 1st payment will be in November to cover October 2023 and the subsequent one in the beginning of December for the month of November. This will continue with the last payment (6th payment) being the payment for the month of March 2024 in the beginning of April 2024.