We are happy to announce details about the Trust Protectors election to be held in April for the Dash DAO Irrevocable Trust. The trust is 100% owner of Dash Core Group, Inc.

What is Dash DAO Irrevocable Trust

The Dash DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) Irrevocable Trust, was formed in July 2017 to ensure that the Dash Core Group (DCG), the biggest organization responsible for Dash’s development, is held accountable to the Dash network in more ways than simply defunding it.

The trust is structured so the Dash network is the beneficiary, the trust owns 100% of the shares in the Dash Core Group, and the trustee ensures that the everyday work of DCG is following the best interests of the network. The Trust Protectors serve as a check and balance system to ensure the trustee and DCG are doing their jobs and have the ability to replace any members of the DCG Board of Directors if they are not satisfactorily servicing the best interests of the network. The Dash masternode network then reelects the six Trust Protectors every year to ensure they also have the best interests of the network in mind.

For more information on the trust and its role, please click here.

Trust Protector Election Details

Candidate Application Submission Period: 3rd— 20th April Network Election Voting Period: 21st — 30th April Election Results Announcement: Early May

Dash Watch will overview the process

In order to ensure that the process is conducted as expected, Dash Watch will be the objective third party auditor. Results of last year’s Trust Protector election facilitated by Dash Watch can be seen here.

Dash Watch’s involvement will be two-fold:

Candidates data gathering and verification of prerequisites

Dash Watch will compile the list of candidates and will publish the final list for voting on April 21st. Anyone interested in becoming a candidate should reach out to them at team@dashwatch.org before the end of day April 20th UTC.

To be eligible, candidates must provide valid ID and proof of residence, since the trustee will need to perform KYC checks before confirming the appointment of any elected trust protector.

Dash Watch will also check that the candidates meet the following requirements:

Of legal age

Mental capacity

Not a felon

No conflict of interest with the position

Not citizens of Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan or Cuba, and not in the list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) maintained by the US Department of the Treasury.

Vote count and results publication

Dash Watch has a website where masternodes will be able to vote on the published list of candidates. The software will be open source so anyone can check the process.

Dash Watch will receive the votes and publish the results once they independently tally them, immediately following the voting deadline.

Approval voting

In order to improve the quality of the selection of the Trust Protectors we have decided to use an approval voting system. This means that each masternode can vote yes or abstain on each of the eligible candidates. The six candidates with the highest approval will win the election. This is closer to how our governance system works and also ensures that, in a scenario of many candidates, the six selected are most widely supported and representative of network interests.