Objective

The Shapeshift DAO needs to be empowered to run its own software infrastructure independent of legacy, centralized Shapeshift or any duly appointed custodians thereof. The goal of this proposal is to enumerate the reasons why, and the resources required to make it a reality.

Abstract

Currently, the Shapeshift DAO depends on infrastructure provided by Shapeshift AG in order to bootstrap hardware for its next-generation defi software platform to operate. If the DAO is to become independent and self-sufficient, it will need to appoint one or more trusted proxies to operate its own infrastructure. Shapeshift AG is dissolving, and if a new arrangement is not made, the DAO will eventually have no assets on which to run its platform or development environments. As the primary function of the DAO is to produce a software product, this initiative is integral for the long-term ability of the DAO to function and survive at a very basic level.

Specification

We are proposing that the Shapeshift DAO enables itself to independently serve its own product to the world via leveraging its existing relationship with TaxiStake. TaxiStake is a legal US commercial entity already tooled for operating in this capacity, and currently runs a Cosmos Validator on behalf of the DAO. As such, there are no initial capital expenditures required to fund the project.

The DAO’s next-gen defi platform, referred to as “Shapeshift Web v2”, pulls its data from a piece of back-end software, named “Unchained”. Unchained initially pivots on offering a rich user experience with the Ethereum ecosystem via the Geth blockchain client running in full archive mode. This means that the Geth implementation is demanding in both storage and run-time resources. As a result, the initial footprint of a new Unchained cluster running Ethereum is about $1000 USD a month. Thankfully, this initial cluster footprint will also be powerful enough to run a few additional, less-demanding blockchain clients such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Thorchain, without incurring additional cost to the operator.

This proposal posits that:

• TaxiStake will provision an isolated, dedicated cloud provider account for running the DAO’s infrastructure. No services will be provisioned in this account that do not belong to the DAO.
• TaxiStake itself will not be responsible for on-call or triage of operational issues with the software.
• TaxiStake will delegate privileged access to the cluster and/or account for appropriate members of the Engineering Workstream who are responsible for on-call and triage of operational issues.
• TaxiStake will provide programmatic access to the account in order to deploy assets via automated CI/CD workflows.
• The instance of Unchained operated by TaxiStake will become the primary back-end leveraged by Shapeshift Web v2.
• A Sablier stream will be established, from which TaxiStake can be reimbursed at a 150% rate for monthly operational expenditures incurred in running this infrastructure for three months. This equates to about $500 USD a month in profit for TaxiStake itself. If this arrangement needs to be terminated or modified for any reason, the DAO can simply withdraw or reissue the stream’s contract. This arrangement will be renewed on a quarterly basis unless otherwise modified by governance. The relationship with TaxiStake will continue to be leveraged for future infrastructure needs, assuming all goes well. At present, this is expected to include future blockchain integrations in the Unchained back-end, but could be extended to new feature offerings.

Motivation/Benefits

As mentioned previously, the DAO currently depends on Shapeshift AG to provide hardware to run its software product. The primary motivation of this proposal is to enable the DAO to serve its own product to the world with its own infrastructure.

Drawbacks

It does increase the DAO’s reliance on the relationship with TaxiStake. However, the infrastructure deployment workflow is currently packaged in such a way that if the relationship with TaxiStake needs to be terminated for some reason, it is a fairly simple process to deploy these assets elsewhere under the auspices of a new arrangement.

Additionally, the Foundation will be running an Unchained endpoint for the foreseeable future, and Shapeshift Web v2 can be quickly reconfigured to use it within a matter of minutes should need arise.

Vote

If you vote “For” this proposal, you are endorsing the following points:

• The DAO should be capable of running its own infrastructure to serve its own product,
• TaxiStake is a trusted proxy able to run the DAO’s infrastructure in a reliable and secure fashion,
• The establishment and funding of a Sablier contract in the amount of $4500 USD in DAI stablecoin tokens (1 DAI = 1 USD) to serve as a reimbursement vector for TaxiStake’s operational expenditures over the course of three months.

If you vote “Against”, you are indicating that you do not want the DAO to be able to run its own infrastructure, or perhaps just not via the existing relationship with TaxiStake.