BIP-8: Beanstalk Q1 Budget

Proposed: December 29, 2021

Status: Passed

Link: GitHub PR


Proposer

Beanstalk Farms

Summary

Goals

In designing the structure of the Q1 budget, the following different goals are being optimized for:

Structure

In order to meet the above goals, we propose funding two separate, symbiotic operations in Q1: Beanstalk Farms and Bean Sprout.

Dividing Line

While Beanstalk Farms and Bean Sprout will be deeply interrelated, the goal is to have more than one decentralized development team working on Beanstalk. Allowing Bean Sprout to fund projects independent of Beanstalk Farms will expedite this goal. Some examples of the current things/projects being coordinated by Beanstalk Farms, and how they would be organized and funded under the new structure are:

The main dividing line will be full (or close to full) time core contributors will be salaried under Beanstalk Farms, whereas Bean Sprout is designed to fund specific projects. In many cases, Beanstalk Farms will contribute labor and operational support to projects that are funded by Bean Sprout, and help coordination between independent projects.

Amounts

We propose a total of 2,000,000 Beans are minted to fund both programs through the end of Q1. We propose a distribution between the two programs of:

Optimistic Approvals

In Q4, each Snapshot proposal was not approved until it reached a quorum. While it is essential that the community has the opportunity to overrule any particular decision, optimistic approvals can be put in place to ensure the same community power, without the same time constraints as existed in Q4. Optimistic approvals work as follows: Beanstalk Farms and Bean Sprout can approve a hire or allocation of funds, but must submit a Snapshot proposal detailing the approval (amount, cause, deliverables, est. completion date, applicant, etc.) within 1 week. Instead of requiring a quorum to pass, under optimistic approvals proposals would now be approved if quorum is not reached. This allows those that are pleased with the actions of Beanstalk Farms and Bean Sprout to remain passive, unless there is a quorum voted against a particular proposal. In order to allow enough time for people to vote, each Snapshot will be for a minimum of 5 days (120 hours) and must immediately be announced in the appropriate channel (currently #farm-allocations and #sprout-allocations) that will be created in the Discord.

Tiered Quorum

Under optimistic approvals, there is no need to vote for a proposal unless it is near reaching a quorum. Once a quorum is reached, it is the outcome of the Snapshot proposal that determines whether an allocation is approved. Accordingly, for smaller allocations a higher quorum must be reached, and for larger allocations a lower quorum. This will allow more flexibility for smaller allocations, and a higher dependency on community input for larger ones. We propose any allocation of less than 10,000 Beans needs 33% for a quorum. Anything allocating 100,000 Beans or more needs a 10% quorum. Any allocation (x) such that 10,000 ≤ x < 100,000 requires a quorum of:

quorum percent = 33 - 23(x - 10,000)/90,000

Incentive Alignment

In order to best align the incentives of contributors to Beanstalk with its long term success, upon the approval of a Snapshot proposal (through the absence of a quorum, or through a majority vote in favor with a quorum) the recipient of the award may elect to sow an arbitrary percentage (0-100%) of their allocated Beans, independent of whether there is a sufficient amount of Soil outstanding. Soil will decrease by the amount of sown Beans when there is available Soil. In instances where the recipient elects to sow some of their Beans, they will be paid the Pods received upon sowing the Beans on a pro rata basis, in line with their payment schedule.

Custody

In Q1, the funds for Beanstalk Farms and Bean Sprout will each be custodied by a multi-sig wallet with keys held by various community members and Publius. Community members were able to submit applications to become a key holder for one of the wallets.

We propose the following key holders for the two wallets:

The proposed set of key holders have all individually demonstrated a strong commitment to Beanstalk, a high degree of competence, and strong judgement over the past few months. The majority of keys will no longer be held by Publius, significantly improving the decentralization of the custody of funds as compared to Q4.

The goal is to minimize overlap of key holders and the potential for collaboration between key holders, while maintaining a high level of coordination between Beanstalk Farms and Bean Sprout. Accordingly, with the exception of Dumpling, the head of operations of Beanstalk Farms, there is no overlap in community key holders. Dumpling holding a key for both wallets will ensure some minimum level of coordination between both parties.

In the instance a key holder is compromised or unable to perform their duties, JWW will serve as the on call backup key holder for both wallets. They will custody a key until a full time replacement can be found and put in place.

Initial Allocations

Effective

Effective immediately upon passage.