The Dash Core Group summary call for 2018 took place this week, and is attached above. Here are my key takeaways from the call.

1: Dash Ventures Structure Is Finalized

Legal questions regarding Dash ventures have been answered and it is in the process of being formed. It will be a Cayman Islands foundation company limited by guarantee and after formation, a structure that is both ownerless and memberless once formed. It will be overseen by a number of statutory roles called supervisors, who stand in for roles typically reserved for shareholders, i.e. assigning the board of directors. This structure is new since 2017, and applying it to an investment firm is a world first. Dash Ventures will give back from the network by buying and destroying Dash in order to increase scarcity and drive up the price. Dash Ventures will be seeking two-year expenses soon to the tune of $144,000, with Core providing some of the initial setup funds.

2: First Evolution Repositories are Public, 0.14 and New Website Soon

Core has made two Evolution repositories, JSDPP and DPPSpec, public, with goal of making the rest public soon. Years of work developing the Evolution platform in private has now begun to be made public. Business-focused solutions in Evolution will be coming, but won’t be in MVP.

Version 0.14, which includes LLMQs and, most importantly, ChainLocks, is expected to hit testnet in Q1. Version 0.13 is still in the process of being adopted by the network but has made substantial progress.

The long-awaited new website going live in February. The site was only obtained from the contractor mid-January and has been worked on in-house since.

3: ABEE Rideshare Gives 3,000 Rides for Dash in Colombia

Dash-integrated Ridesharing company ABEE delivered over 3,000 rides paid in Dash in Colombia. This was part of a public beta to test Dash as a payment method.

4: SEC Letter/BitGo/Coinbase

The SEC no-action letter is still being pursued with little new to report. The US government shutdown may have delayed the process several months.

Following the treasury-funded Dash integration, BitGo has reportedly opened the door to discussions from multiple clients of theirs to integrate Dash, though details on this are not publicly available at this time.

Core has submitted an application to Coinbase but can’t disclose ongoing communications. The community should express continuing interest in a Coinbase listing in order to affect the eventual outcome.

5: Core Funding and Communication

Core has greatly increased emphasis on enhanced communications to all sectors of the Dash community and ecosystem through podcast appearances, Q&A sessions, regular update announcements, blog posts, etc. as part of a commitment to address a longstanding gripe of the community.

Currently Core requests about 60% of the entire Dash treasury, and has made quite a few cuts and several employees have experienced reduced salary or elected to forego pay entirely. The Dash price somewhere around $200-220 for a few funding cycles would let DCG start to reduce treasury asks to below 60%.

Funds from past advertising proposals were partially reduced due to devaluation, partially applied to advertising to increasing brand awareness, and partially applied to conference and travel expenses. Some of the budget remains.