BUIP174: Funded Development, aka Devpool4
Submitted by solex
28 September 2021
Motivation
The same motivation still exists as we saw with Devpools 1-3. The practice of funding development authorised on a per project basis through directed BUIPs removes a lot of flexibility for general maintenance, housekeeping, refactoring, QA, none of which is functionally significant warranting a BUIP. Further, some BUIPs are passed authorising changes but do not have directed funding included.
Objectives
The objective of this proposal is to enable further funding of project development, short-name "Devpool4 ", at the discretion of the Bitcoin Unlimited lead Developer.
Project Duration
The funds authorised on this BUIP are for a maximum of one year. Any unspent funds revert to the consolidated fund, and a subsequent BUIP will need to be approved to continue funded development for a further year.
Project Team
Developers who wish to offer their services for project work are invited to PM the BU Developer directly on this forum or make contact via GitHub. Developers being paid are contractors who are responsible for their own accounting and tax reporting. Payment will be offered in either BCH or BTC, but not in fiat currency.
Summary of Approved Projects
- Passed BUIPs automatically qualify.
- General maintenance, housekeeping, refactoring, QA and other discretionary work also qualify.
Description of Activities
The BU Developer has oversight of the projects, and work parcels, he allocates or executes work within project descriptions which he drafts and posts to this forum for general information.
Anticipated Challenges and Uncertainties
Standard development issues only.
Budget
The budget for the development pool #4 is $250,000.
This is equivalent to a projected to be up to $125 per hour for 2000 hours. During the last two years there is an explosion in blockchain projects, hence, rates for the necessary experienced blockchain engineers has climbed as a result. BU must remunerate existing and new talent to the level they may obtain elsewhere. It is expected that one or more funded projects will be active, depending upon circumstances.
The BU President and Secretary will co-authorise drawdown of these funds at the recommendation of the BU Developer when contracted developer invoices are presented for work completed.
All projects to be individually named and separated in the annual accounts.
Impact
Bitcoin Unlimited’s software has long been recognized as pushing the boundaries of on-chain scaling. The overall quality of BU development is expected to be improved by this initiative, also resulting in an accelerated rate of improvement, especially as the next bull market is likely to see an influx of users who are frustrated by the lack of BTC scalability.