Team Funding

Intro

Earlier this month there was a discussion in the #governance channel around the team’s reduction in headcount and current salary structure of 50%. This proposal is to request a monthly ask of $25k per month for six months ($150k total) from the Treasury to support team salary payments and in return the team will sacrifice the 20% it gets from protocol fees.

Motivation Over the months, the team has been open on questions regarding runway. We have tried to be diligent and looked to save on costs where we can.

Our belief has always been that the protocol is based firmly on a foundation of state of the art technology. If we are successful in establishing a market fit for our product, we will reap the benefits.

Steps we have taken to extend the current runway is that we have reduced the team headcount from 12.5 (start of the year) to 8.5. The team had started taking reduced pay as early as April and since July everyone has been on a 50% salary: this move extended our runway to 12 months as we work on core product features.

We have put our heads down and kept working, in Q3 alone we did a revamp of a significant part of the website and released new pools that will help the longevity of Beethoven as a protocol. Key product features we are very proud of.

The unfortunate reality is that the 50% pay base is starting to have an impact on some team members. At this pay rate we may soon run the risk of losing operationally critical team members in the next few months. Not from lack of desire to be here, but out of financial necessity.

It is with this that we would like to ask the Treasury to support some of the costs, in the form of $25k per month in USDC. This would allow us to bring team members to a 75% salary without impacting the base runway of the team. At 75%, the at-risk team members would have enough of a salary to sustain themselves personally and continue to contribute to Beethoven full time.

This would be for a period of 6 months (total cost would be $150k). We also do not wish for this to be a blanket ask so in return we will sacrifice our 20% share of the monthly protocol fee. This will go to the Treasury instead.

Impact for the 6 months

Team – The team will no longer take its portion of protocol fees, currently 20%. In return the team will get a fixed $25k per month ($150k in total), in USDC

Treasury – The Treasury monthly allocation from protocol fees will increase to 70% (currently at 50%). It will also take on a fixed monthly cost of $25k per month ($150k in total), in USDC

Tokenomics – No impact

Committees – No Impact

Specification

Each month $25k USDC is to be sent to the Team wallet: 0x0EDfcc1b8D082Cd46d13Db694b849D7d8151C6D5

No other additional work is required, the 20% will be sent to the Treasury as part of the other protocol fees sent for the month.

Execution Plan

If accepted, the treasury will start sending the team wallet $25k in USDC monthly over six months and will take 70% of the protocol fees. These changes will be effective from October month end.