The Decentralized Governance Blockchain Budget (DGBB) is really Dash’s superpower.  It provides a way for the network stakeholders to manage and fund the direction of the project.  The following introduction comes from the official Dash wiki.

“Decentralized Governance Blockchain Budget (DGBB), is Dash’s attempt to solve two important problems in cryptocurrency: governance and funding. Governance in a decentralized project is difficult, because by definition there are no central authorities to make decisions for the project. In Dash, such decisions are made by the network, that is, by the owners of masternodes. The DGBB system allows masternodes to vote for or against proposals that will impact the network.

The DGBB also provides a means for Dash to fund its own development. Dash uses 10% of the block reward to fund its own development. Every time a block is mined, 45% of the reward goes to the miner, 45% goes to a masternode, and the remaining 10% is not created until the end of the month. During the month, anybody can make a budget proposal to the network. If that proposal is approved by at least 10%* of the masternode network, then at the end of the month a series of “superblocks” will be created. At that time, the block rewards that were not paid out (10% of each block) will be used to fund approved proposals. The network thus funds itself by reserving 10% of the block reward for budget projects.”

Dash’s decentralized governance by blockchain consists of three components:

Proposals

  • Proposals are a request to receive funds.
  • Proposals can be submitted by anyone for a fee of 5 dash. The proposal fee is destroyed on submission.
  • Proposals cannot be altered once submitted.

 
Votes

  • Votes are cast by Masternode owners.
  • Votes can be changed at any time.
  • Votes are counted approximately every 28.8 days. (16616 blocks)

 
Budgets

     

  • Budgets are proposals which receive 10% of the possible votes (currently about 448 out of 4480) more yes votes than no votes.
  • Budgets can be nullified at any time if vote totals (cast or re-cast) fall below the approval threshold.
  • Budgets are processed (paid) in order of yes minus no votes. More popular budgets get payment priority.
  • Budgets are paid directly from the blockchain.
  • Approximately 6650 dash (in 2017) are available for each budget cycle, declining by %7.1 per year.

How and Where to Submit a Proposal

The official guide for how to prepare a proposal tells us that you should enter a proposal at https://proposal.dash.org (while the Dash.org home page sends you to dashcentral.org) and can view current proposals at  https://www.dashcentral.org/budget or http://dashvotetracker.com/  other tools from the “official documentation” are seen below.

Left is from Dash forum – Right is from Dash Wiki

I have never personally entered a proposal so can not testify to how complicated it is, but using the “official” tools you will be doing some command line stuff in your Dash wallet.  Here is an Amanda B. Johnson video on the process.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52TzOgq15h8]

 

There is also a “new” service Dash Treasury that seems to use the Dash budget API and tries to make the submission process easier.  They also host a “pre-proposal” forum for discussion of proposals.

Dash Treasury Proposal Input

That gives at least 3 places where someone can submit a proposal.

Pre-Proposals

My understanding of the current best practice is that the “pre-proposal” should be entered in at least the Dash.org pre-proposal forum a month in advance for discussion.  It should also be added / linked in as many other places as you think masternode owners will see it – slack, reddit, dashtreasury, random comments on the forum (not really).  This process is very important since you want your proposal to get enough support to get funded.  Discussion gives you the opportunity to respond to any issues that get brought up and either make changes or better explain what you are requesting.

Post Proposal Status Updates

This one is not a requirement since in reality once the vote happens and the proposal is passed and the superblock created the proposer has the funding and can’t be required to give it back.  From the perspective of the Dash community it is very poor form to not give updates until at least project completion.

Current Issues with the Process

Many people in the community feel that the cost to submit a proposal is too high.  Five Dash in January of 2017 was about $75 today it is approximately $950.  To submit a $10,000 proposal you have to “burn” almost 10% up front and hope you get funded.  There may be funding for a specific project to help off-set the 5 Dash but for a new person that is not clear or easy.

While decentralization is great for many things it is confusing for entering proposals.  The comments for this current proposal sum up one major problem with the proposal system https://www.dashcentral.org/p/AirlineIn-flightmediacampaign it was entered in one system and the owner didn’t know it was not the “traditional” system the majority of people use.  I am not commenting on the value of the this specific proposal – but the submitter appears to be a professional in the area of the submission and sincere in his belief that it will benefit Dash.  Someone we should want to bring ideas to the Dash community.

If the Dash community whats high quality proposals we need to make it a streamlined process with clear guidelines that new people can follow.  Perhaps we need community proposal “mentors” that can guide a new person and help them – I am not sure how well it would work. Should the help be coming from the community as volunteers?  A paid service?  Paid by who? The community or “funded by the proposal?”

Post proposal reporting needs to become the “expected” thing to do.  This would seem to require some sort of escrow service for at least a small percent of funding (say 5 or 10%) to help ensure limited compliance.

From my selfish perspective as a proposal reviewer all of the main pre / during voting / post discussion should be in the same place.  I also think that the main site for creating and discussing proposals should be on dash.org which gives it the “official” seal.  Masternode owners should be identified to help the proposer know who potentially is a voter (like dash.org/forum does now.)