GDP #012: December 2022 DAO Treasury Vote for 2023

The usage of the DIA Association’s annual reserve unlock will be up for vote on December 13, 2022. The annual treasury vote is designated to define how DIA’s reserve funds will be allocated in the coming year to foster DIA’s progress including product development, marketing, community, events and more.

As in previous years’ annual treasury votes, the DIA token holder community can submit and vote on proposals for the usage of unlocked DIA tokens for the upcoming annual exercise. The details on how to formulate an annual treasury proposal can be found in the following Forum post.

The DIA core team has laid out its own proposal for the use of the funds.

Context

For this year’s treasury release and fund usage for 2023, we propose a more conservative and cost-efficient release, adapted to the current market conditions. This proposal will, as a result, lead to a higher burn, as well as a buffer for a potential market uptake in comparison to the annual releases of 2021 and 2022.

At the same time, product development remains the main focus. DIA aims to utilise the funds for technical research and implementation as well as product driven communication. Additionally, we continue to drive forward the decentralisation of DIA’s operations across its business divisions via the DIA DAO and continue to develop a legal set-up for the DAO to operate smoothly under.

Lastly, DIA considers a pragmatic and opportunistic adaptation of financial strategy geared towards current conditions across crypto markets and fiscal monetary (interest rates) policies by US and European central banks.

Solution

The DIA core team proposes the following distribution for the 2023 DIA 9.15M token reserve unlock:

1. Burn 50% (4.575M) of the reserve tranche for deflationary tokenomic policy (vs. 25% - 2.2875M in the previous year)

2. Split non-burned tokens (50%, 4.575M) in two tranches: the first tranche is to be released immediately if this vote passes successfully. The second tranche is to be released only upon an additional DAO vote in case of improving market conditions:

3. The first tranche (2.2875M) shall be used for: 30% - Oracle and product development 30% - Ecosystem grants 20% - DAO incentives and legal expenses 20% - ETOP (Employee token option plans)

4. The second tranche (2.2875M) shall be used for proactive marketing activities to improve brand and product exposure a) This will be decided by an additional DAO vote on Snapshot, initiated by the team via the DAO Governance process. b) If not released, these tokens shall be burned latest by 31. December 2023.

Benefits

If this proposal is passed, the funds will be allocated in a risk- and market-conscious manner:

• Oracle and product development: Developing an algorithmic trust architecture, in contrast to building a node infrastructure with a decentralized architecture; innovation and IP protection in on-chain data provision.
• DAO operational and legal development: Growth and innovation of legal DAO structure in Switzerland, as well as the evaluation of other jurisdictions; enable further DAO and community growth in key areas such as content, communication, product, business development and tech.
• IRL events presence: Ensuring DIA’s attendance to the most relevant in-person events and conferences.
• Team ETOP: Ensuring long-term team retention.

Parameters

DIA holders can vote to:

• Yes, implement this proposal
• No, do not implement this proposal

Timeline

The annual treasury vote will follow the next timeline:

• December 6, 2022, 2:00pm UTC: Open submission

• December 13, 2022, 2:00pm UTC: Close submission

• December 16, 2022, 4:00pm UTC: Open vote

• December 23, 2022, 4:00pm UTC: Close vote & start unlock

Disclaimer

• Proposals that include vote buying, attempts of price or supply manipulation, allocations to a small group of wallets, or other fraudulent and/or unethical activity might be rejected via public decision-making of DIA management.
• In order to participate in the DAO vote, you must hold your DIA tokens in a self-custodial wallet.
• If a proposal gets traction and upvotes on the forum, the core team will incorporate suggestions as long as they are in line with requirements.