TIP 005 - Fund the 12 Month Operational Cost of the Timeless Engineering Unit for 2024

Summary

This proposal requests a budget of $980,000 USD to cover the operational costs of the Timeless Engineering Unit (TEU) for the next 12 months, starting from March 30th, 2024. To ensure sustainable treasury management, the budget will be divided into two phased funding periods of 6 months each.

Scope and Mandate

The TEU will continue its mission as described in TRC 003-01, which includes:

1. Extending the functionality of the protocol by designing and implementing new smart contracts and other censorship-resistant mechanisms.

2. Assisting with the maintenance and operation of existing smart contracts.

3. Ensuring the security and correctness of the protocol through rigorous testing, code reviews, and collaboration with external auditors.

4. Engaging with the community to promote understanding and growth of the protocol.

5. Building adapters to support new assets and gauges, upgrading existing functionality, and exploring deployment on other chains.

6. Evolving Timeless into a primary protocol for Layer2 solutions.

7. Identifying and auditing liquidity flows in the DeFi ecosystem.

8. Engaging in research and development efforts to stay up-to-date with changes in the Ethereum ecosystem and contribute to its broader roadmap.

9. Managing ongoing risk parameters, addressing operational needs, and developing tools to fix bugs.

Goals for 2024

The primary goal for the TEU in 2024 is to ship the Bunni v2 Beta testnet in March 2024 and the Mainnet version simultaneously with the release of Uniswap v4. This milestone will mark a significant advancement in the Timeless ecosystem and position Bunni as a leading protocol in the DeFi space.

Achievements in 2023

In the past year, the TEU has made significant progress and contributed to the growth of the Timeless ecosystem. Some of the notable achievements include:

1. Refactored all the subgraphs of Timeless and Bunni on 4 networks (Mainnet, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon).

2. Released a complete overhaul of the Timeless UI.

3. Fixed hundreds of bugs while maintaining the existing codebase for both Timeless and Bunni protocols and monitoring Immunefi bug bounty reports.

4. Provided user support alongside the Timeless Growth Unit.

5. Helped the Timeless DAO generate cash inflows:

• 757 ETH (approximately $2.8m at current ETH value) from oLIT redemptions.

• $106,936 from Bunni Protocol Swap Fee.

6. Helped generate $441,456 of fees for Bunni LP token holders.

7. Assisted the TGU in onboarding dozens of projects that distributed $457,047 in total bribes to veLIT voters.

8. Closed a deal with Balancer DAO to get BAL rewards accrued to veLIT holders for the 80/20 LIT/WETH pool, generating more than $35k USD of value accruing 100% to veLIT holders.

9. Integrated with Hidden Hands, Stake DAO, and Paladin to offer the best experience to bribers and voters.

10. Currently working tirelessly to ship Bunni v2 contracts and a brand new UI with an overall Bunni brand redesign.

11. Maintained Commonwealth and Snapshot platforms to offer a smooth voting experience.

12. Helped Liquis release.

13. Worked with the TGU to offer technical assistance during each step of the BD process.

Budget Breakdown

Expense Category	2023 Actual (USD)	2023 Budget Request (USD)	% Diff (Actual vs Request)	2024 Proposed Budget (USD)	% Diff (2024 vs 2023 Request)	Notes
Operational Expenses	$928,115.13	$920,000.00	+0.88%	$915,000.00	-0.54%
1.1 Legal, Operating Expenses	$59,250.06	$85,000.00	-30.29%	$50,000.00	-41.18%	Rent/Domiciliation Fees, Office Expenses, VAT Cost, Accounting/Directors Fees, Notary Fees, IT and Licenses Fees
1.2 Development Expenses	$821,268.89	$835,000.00	-1.65%	$835,000.00	0.00%	Contractor costs, Salaries, Insurances, Social charges
1.3 Bank and Exchange Charges	$19,523.18	-	-	$20,000.00	-	Trading Fees, Bank Interest and Expenses, Exchange Differences
Corporate Taxes	$32,171.05	-	-	$35,000.00	-
New Employee Vesting Pool	10,000,000 LIT	10,000,000 LIT	0.00%	0 LIT	-100.00%	Not used in 2023, fully available for 2024. Note: The DAO still owns the 10M LIT, not the TEU.
Gas Costs & Contract Deployment	$29,074.00	$50,000.00	-41.85%	$30,000.00	-40.00%	Development Fees including Safe TX Cost, Contracts Deployment, Subgraphs Deployment
Contingency Buffer	-	$335,000.00	-100.00%	-	-100.00%	Not utilized in 2023, to be carried forward to 2024
Total Budget	$989,360.18 + 10,000,000 LIT	$1,305,000.00 + 10,000,000 LIT	-24.18%	$980,000.00	-24.90%

Two-Phased Funding

To promote sustainable treasury management, we propose dividing the budget into two phased funding periods:

• Phase 1 (March 2024 - August 2024): $490,000 USD

• Phase 2 (September 2024 - February 2025): $490,000 USD

At the end of Phase 1, the TEU will provide a comprehensive review of its budget allocation and achievements. Based on the progress and the community's feedback, the DAO will decide whether to approve the release of funds for Phase 2.

Treasury Management

To ensure that the assets held in the Timeless DAO treasury remain productive, a separate proposal will be published to discuss treasury management and the potential allocation of a portion of the treasury to Liquidity Staking Tokens (LSTs). This proposal will explore options for generating interest and additional revenue streams for the DAO over the next 12 months.

Budget Implementation

The budget will be distributed to the TEU multisig 0x798E6af7658A1f20e6B2A5c780D8577D4AEAF7dA using LlamaPay on Mainnet. The multisig will be controlled by the TEU facilitator and selected team members.

Reporting and Transparency

The TEU will provide regular updates on its progress, including the use of funds, through community engagement on the Timeless forum and other communication channels. At the end of the 12-month period, the TEU will prepare a comprehensive review of its budget allocation and achievements, which will be shared with the community for feedback and to ensure transparency.

Next Steps:

If this proposal is successful, the Timeless DAO Treasury signatories will move forward with the creation of a Llamapay stream with the following parameters:

• Token Address: 0x98C23E9d8f34FEFb1B7BD6a91B7FF122F4e16F5c (aEthUSDC)
• Recipient Address: 0x798E6af7658A1f20e6B2A5c780D8577D4AEAF7dA (TEU Safe)
• Amount Vested: $490,000.0
• Time Vested: 6 months
• Include Cliff: false
• Custom Start: 2024-03-30

Conclusion

By implementing a two-phased funding approach, we aim to ensure sustainable treasury management while supporting the TEU's essential work. A separate proposal focusing on treasury management and LST allocation was published to explore additional revenue streams and optimize the use of the Timeless DAO treasury. We believe that this proposal, along with the forthcoming treasury management proposal, will contribute to the protocol's growth and success, ultimately benefiting the entire Timeless community.

Thank you for considering our proposal. We appreciate your support and look forward to working together to drive the success of the Timeless and Bunni Ecosystem.