The Dash network has funded a team to perform detailed evaluations of upcoming proposals before the network as Dash’s governance system matures.

The Mason brothers, a pair of YouTubers with a strong history and interest in cryptocurrency, previously created videos reviewing upcoming Dash proposals. Amid greater demand to assist the masternodes in making informed and educated choices about the proposals they support, they decided to put in their own proposal to evaluate other proposals on their potential merits. The proposal passed with a wide margin and was funded.

According to the proposal’s owner Craig Mason, an interest in the proposal system combined with a desire to see more proposals evaluated on a cost vs. value basis prompted the creation of this evaluation project:

“When I first discovered Dash, I thought the MNO and budget system was unique and useful, so I started checking out the various proposals to see the direction that Dash was going in from the prospective of an investor. I saw a lot of great proposals that seemed like they added value and some others that although potentially of benefit to Dash, I considered the cost vs value and assessed that if I had a masternode, I would probably vote against them. My background is in public accounting and I’ve worked with many business owners and generally enjoy the exercise of considering what makes any business profitable or not. Given my background, I thought it might be useful to share my thoughts with the community.”

Proposal review a tough subject due to impartiality concerns

Methods of proposal evaluation have been a controversial subject in the Dash network for some time. This is because there is a great need for this kind of service to avoid waste and to weed out malicious actors, but few want the responsibility of performing such an important task, and many fear having a sort of undue influence over the network and its direction. Mason also felt the pressure when approaching this subject, but is confident that with a diverse group of evaluators this problem can be avoided:

“The most intimidating aspect was finding a way to approach it with as much impartiality as possible. Our main goal in creating any content, cryptocurrency related or otherwise, is to remain grounded in philosophy, that is, staying focused on truth via reason and evidence. We try to make that clear up front so anyone involved is aware of it and can keep us accountable. I’m not afraid of being proven wrong or criticized – my main concern is remaining focusd to reason and evidence, avoiding maligned incentives, and being open to criticism and new information as it becomes available. Regarding undue influence, I hope that more will take on proposal analysis as having a small number of voices could lead to undue influence, whether wanted or not. I look forward to seeing what others come up with!”

The first of several improvements to the governance system

This evaluation project is one of several recent initiatives taking aim at improving Dash’s governance system. A recent pre-proposal spearheaded by community member Paragon seeks to track and report on the progress of previously passed proposals in an objective manner, sticking only to facts such as updates provided and completion dates instead of using more subjective review like the Mason proposal. Providing this data on past proposals in an objective way can assist the masternode network in forming their subjective opinions on the performance of these projects.