BIP-64 Treasury Funding for Beethoven X DAO Contributors

Introduction and Motivation:

The Beethoven DAO Treasury plays a vital role in retaining and attracting key contributors to work on and advancing Beethoven X. Through defined six-month funding cycles, facilitated by BIPs-35, -40, and -55 since October 2022, the DAO has extended support to contributors. Now, we propose to sustain this funding model, with a slight increase of $5k per month, for a total of $40k per month, from the Treasury. This extension will cover a further 6 months from April 2024 to the end of September 2024.

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 maintaining a high functioning and operational team that is active in the best interest of the protocol.

The market downturn in 2022-2023 has forced Beethoven DAO contributors to be adaptable and flexible. At times contributor count was slashed by more than 30% and contributor rates cut by 50%. Nevertheless, the contributors have endured thanks to the foresight and engagement of the Beethoven DAO. Additionally, the close and strategic relationship with the Balancer DAO and the resulting service provider agreements, have provided an additional revenue stream for the DAO, used to fund contributors. Currently, this arrangement helps offset DAO Contributor costs by up to $59k per month. These combined funding sources are essential for attracting and retaining contributors, ensuring the continued operation of the protocol.

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: (1 FTE = 100%) Marketing, Sales and Community: 365% Design: 60% Partnerships & Biz Dev: 70% Development: 335% Governance, Reporting & Data: 100% Admin: 25% Total: 955%

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

1. Restructuring of the Treasury and Risk Management Framework
2. Migrating Bribes to Hidden Hand and Diversifying the Gauge Bounties
3. Taking over sFTMx and becoming the top LST hub on Fantom
4. Actively liaising with the Fantom Foundation and ensuring that Beethoven X is well positioned to capitalise on the exciting new developments
5. Actively Contributing to the technical vision and further development of Balancer core technologies
6. Actively shaping and participating in the development of Balancer v3
7. Actively reaching out to projects to increase the number of partners on our Fantom and Optimism deployments and maintaining the current ones

The market conditions, after a strong Q4 in 2023, have remained bullish in Q1 of 2024. Market participants' confidence and optimism have increased substantially, in the post Bitcoin SPOT ETF era and run up to the BTC Halving. Beethoven X has seen corresponding improvements in key metrics across the board. During the previous funding period, we have observed increases in fees on the Fantom network. Additionally, Fantom has experienced a bullish surge thanks to planned changes which should help the ecosystem recover from the multichain incident and bear market. Through the takeover of sFTMx by the Beethoven X DAO we have been able to acquire an additional source of revenue. On the Optimism network, TVL has increased steadily and Beethoven has become a sizable hub for LST liquidity. We hope this positive sentiment will continue in 2024 and believe that relevance, volume, and activity of the protocol will steadily increase again.

As of April 3rd, the Beethoven X Treasury holds assets worth $4’857’966, with $3’469’033 in active assets (that can be deemed liquid or the treasury has full control over). Treasury assets can be viewed here: Fantom: https://debank.com/profile/0xa1e849b1d6c2fd31c63eef7822e9e0632411ada7 Optimism: https://debank.com/profile/0x2a185c8a3c63d7bfe63ad5d950244ffe9d0a4b60 Ethereum: https://debank.com/profile/0xea06e1b4259730724885a39ce3ca670efb020e26

Treasury Proposal:

This proposal, if adopted, will extend treasury funding at $40k per month for the next six months, covering the period from April 2024 to the end of September 2024. This extension will provide us with the necessary resources to maintain and enhance the Beethoven X protocol while striving to be the leading DEX on Fantom and Optimism. The proposed increase of $5,000 per month will be allocated towards bolstering resources in pivotal areas, such as business development and marketing.

Additionally, we expect continued augmentation of the $40k by the Balancer service provider agreements, which help offset DAO Contributor costs by up to $59k per month. This proposal also foresees the continued use of any funds arising from service provider agreements (currently $59k per month) to be continued to be used for funding contributors.

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:

Contributors – Step 1: DAO Contributors will receive an aggregate fixed $40k per month ($240k in total) Budget in USDC from the Treasury. In addition, Step 2, as long as the Balancer service provider agreement remains unchanged : $59k in Revenue from the service provider agreement with Balancer is paid into Treasury monthly and will be used to fund the core contributor wallet.

Treasury – Treasury assumes a fixed monthly cost of $40k per month ($240k in total) in USDC and commits to passing the $59k (or any new equivalent arising from SP contracts) in USDC received service provider agreement onwards, to be used for the payment of DAO Contributors.

Tokenomics – No impact

Committees – No impact

Specification:

Each month, $40k 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 $40k 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 when the period outlined in this BIP commences. Therefore, the 1st payment will be in May 2024 to cover April 2024. This will continue with the last payment (6th payment) being the payment for the month of September 2024 in the beginning of October 2024.