Month-to-Month Retainer for Principal Architect Joseph Magly

Voting Duration: 3 days Author: Joseph Magly Type: Funding / Core Contributor Retainer

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Summary

This proposal seeks DAO approval to establish a month-to-month retainer of $12,500 USD per month for Joseph Magly, ROKO’s original architect and the designer of the temporal consensus system.

The retainer guarantees Joseph’s full-time technical leadership through the Nexus MVP launch and mainnet beta.

Terms:

• Start Date: December 13, 2025
• Structure: Month-to-month; terminable by either party with 30 days’ notice
• Rate Review: Renegotiation after 6 months (July 2026)
• Payment: Monthly in USDC (or equivalent stable asset) from DAO treasury

Joseph is offering this retainer at ~47% below his standard full-time billing rate ($135/hr), in exchange for dedicated focus on ROKO Network.

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Scope of Work (covered by the retainer)

Core Architecture & Temporal System

• Oversight of Unforkable’s Substrate
• Generation and validation of millions of temporal proofs/tokens per month
• End-to-end architectural stewardship of ROKO’s temporal stack

Infrastructure & Operations

• Management and self-funding of testnet infrastructure
• Hosting and operation of core validator nodes
• Support during migration to enterprise datacenters (Spring 2026)

Product, Integrations & Community Leadership

• Product direction and protocol design
• Partner integrations with Selfient, OCP-TAP, MATRIC, and others
• Public technical leadership for the community, builders, and ecosystem partners

Joseph’s contributions since July 2025 have consistently exceeded 40–60 hrs/week, with significant self-funded costs covered personally.

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Budget

Item	Monthly Cost
Retainer (fixed)	$12,500
Infra / tooling costs	Included
Total	$12,500

Funding Source

TAO Reserve Converted monthly to USDC (or equivalent stable value) for retainer payments

Why This Makes Sense

Unmatched Expertise

• Joseph designed the entire temporal architecture and is the only contributor with 20+ years of production PTP/White-Rabbit/TSN experience.
• His earlier $5k/month retainer (ended April 2025) delivered the complete system design and Unforkable onboarding.

Proven Execution

• Since mid-2025, Joseph has contributed far beyond expectations, often funding infrastructure out of pocket.
• The DAO now benefits from his continuity at a steeply discounted rate.

Flexible Yet Stable Structure

• Month-to-month retainer provides maximum agility for both DAO and contributor.
• A 6-month renegotiation window ensures alignment with evolving needs.

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Risks & Mitigations

Single-Point Dependency

• Risk: Reliance on Joseph’s expertise for critical temporal components
• Mitigation: Unforkable owns chain-level implementation; contributor base continues to expand.

Spend Transparency

• Risk: Lack of clarity on monthly output
• Mitigation: Monthly invoices, on-chain payments, and quarterly accounting audit.

Contributor Departure

• Risk: Unexpected termination
• Mitigation: 30-day notice ensures a structured transition; month-to-month structure aligns incentives.

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Call to Action

ROKO is entering a critical velocity phase. Securing the architect’s undivided attention—at a discounted rate—is one of the highest-ROI decisions the DAO can make.

Vote FOR to ensure ROKO continues shipping at full speed through Nexus MVP, mainnet beta, and beyond.

Let’s deliver the Temporal Layer the market is waiting for. 🚀