Abstract
This proposal seeks continued funding for the Engineering Workstream for six months (April 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026).
In line with the DAO’s transition to a lean operating model, the Engineering team has been significantly restructured — reducing headcount from five full-time engineers to one full-time engineer and one fractional contributor (~15% capacity).
The primary objective is to provide the DAO with sufficient engineering capacity to maintain its existing products and ensure current revenue streams remain unaffected. Where capacity permits, the team will continue to drive product development so the DAO’s products can continue to evolve.
This proposal represents an approximately 73% reduction in total engineering spend compared to the previous period ($770,250 over six months).
tl;dr Kev (full-time) manages infrastructure, addresses production issues, handles prioritized bug fixes, and drives forward product development. Apotheosis (fractional, ~15% capacity) serves as the primary point of contact for Engineering, handles account administration (service configuration, API key management, access controls), manages vendor relationships, and handles bill payments.
Motivation
The DAO’s existing products currently generate approximately $35,000 per month in revenue. Continued engineering support is essential to protect this revenue stream — without it, production issues would go unresolved, infrastructure would go unmanaged, and revenue-generating products would degrade. This proposal ensures continuity of operations with a lean team at a fraction of the previous cost, while preserving capacity for forward progress on the product roadmap.
Specification
Team
- Apotheosis — Workstream Leader & Senior Engineer (fractional, ~15% of previous capacity). Primary point of contact for Engineering. Responsible for account administration including service configuration, API key management, and access controls. Manages vendor relationships and bill payments. Coordinates with other workstreams and external contributors on engineering matters. Available for critical engineering support as needed.
- kaladinlight — Senior Engineer (full-time). Manages infrastructure, addresses production issues, and handles prioritized bug fixes and product development.
The two contributors operate across significantly different time zones, providing broader coverage for critical engineering support and reducing the window during which no engineer is available to respond to production issues.
Mandate
No changes to the previous mandate, restated below for reference:
This proposal seeks to have the Engineering Workstream be the sole maintainers with discretion over CODEOWNERS, permissions and administrative rights of the ShapeShift GitHub namespace.
This is to ensure the DAO maintains a high standard of code quality, velocity, reduced regressions, and has a single core team acting as maintainers responsible for the codebase.
The Engineering Workstream will work with external contributors to ensure contributions can be made expeditiously while not compromising quality, patterns or stability.
Budget
The details below expand upon the budget spreadsheet.
- Monthly labor: $20,188 USDC
- Monthly infrastructure: $15,000 USDC
Recurring Costs
Labor
This proposal reduces headcount from five full-time engineers to one full-time (Kev) and one fractional contributor at approximately 15% of previous capacity (Apotheosis).
Infrastructure
Over the past 12 months, the Engineering team has absorbed most ongoing infrastructure expenses from the Foundation. The previous proposal allocated $20,000/month for node expenses; we have since reduced these costs to approximately $11,500/month, with plans to achieve a further 20–30% reduction through strategic vendor agreements expected to be in production by end of April 2026.
In addition to node providers (Liquify and Moralis), the Engineering Workstream now manages the following services: Railway, Sentry, Vercel, GitHub, Alchemy, Helius, Zerion, Pinata, and Exchange Rate Host. The combined cost of these ancillary services is variable but totalled $1,523.50 for the most recent billing cycle.
This proposal includes a line item for up to $15,000 USDC per month to cover ongoing infrastructure costs. All unspent funds from this line item will be returned to the DAO.
Non-Recurring Costs
Miscellaneous
The budget includes a $5,000 USDC discretionary allocation, available for use at Engineering’s discretion for unforeseen needs. Any unspent funds will be returned to the DAO.
Contingency
Present in all previous Engineering Workstream proposals, the contingency line item has been removed in this proposal.
Variance
Unused funds from any budget category will be returned to the DAO at the end of the budget cycle. In the event that the Engineering Workstream requires additional funds, a separate governance proposal will be raised.
Benefits
- Maintains and stabilizes the existing product suite, protecting approximately $35,000/month in revenue
- Retains capacity for product development where bandwidth permits
- Funds the infrastructure required to keep ShapeShift’s products operational
- Distributed time zones between contributors provide broader coverage for critical engineering support
- Represents an approximately 73% reduction in engineering spend compared to the previous period while retaining critical capabilities
Drawbacks
- Reduced team capacity will result in slower roadmap progression
- Reduced capacity to sustain parallel workstreams
- Single points of failure with only two contributors
Will post it in the right thread.