[TFIP-23] - TrueFi Operational Expense Request Discourse

Context & Previous Budget Approval

In September 2024, the DAO approved under TFIP-19 a six-month budget of $1,175,000, based on an estimated annual operational cost of $2,100,000 under TFIP-19. This included:

  • $925,000 for operational expenses (half-year funding based on projected costs).
  • $250,000 for the Legal Reserve Fund (allocated for a full year).

Current Status & Budget Performance

  • The Legal Reserve Fund currently remains unutilized. ($250,000)
  • We operated below the allocated budget for the initial six-month period, demonstrating our commitment to fiscal responsibility and strategic resource allocation. ($140,000)
  • A detailed financial report for Q4 2024 is already included in the TrueFi DAO 2025 Report.
  • We will provide another budget report at the end of Q1 2025 for transparency on the upcoming period.

Budget – Financial Overview

  1. This proposal requests six months of operating expenses to support core functions such as governance, operational costs, and community initiatives. The budget accounts for the necessary funding to maintain operational stability and strategic development, with an estimated total of $994,000 for the upcoming period.
  2. The proposed budget will take a ~30% earmark in TRU’s token price at the execution of the proposal before being swapped into stablecoins. This is to account for price fluctuations before the TRU-to-USDC/USDT conversion.
  3. Any excess funds will be reported to the DAO at the end of the six months.

The purpose of this improvement proposal is to provide a use of funds to bridge the gap for the current operating team, and budget request for future improvements to the TrueFi ecosystem in three (3) main areas (I.e., product , business development, and protocol research). These improvements will be implemented across two new (2) workstreams:

  1. TrueFi Front-end Product Overhaul – UI and UX improvements to the front end product beyond aesthetics, as these changes directly impact user adoption, retention, and overall protocol efficiency.
  2. Research Analyst Hire (Part-Time) – A strategic force multiplier who enables marketing, business development, operations, and the community to work in sync via data dashboard creation and maintenance, product demos, content strategy execution, as an auxiliary generalist resource.

We are working with our agency partners (Flod) to deliver the designs and new branding which will be implemented on the TrueFi front end by Akemona. The current expiry for Akemona partnership is mid-Q2 2025 which aligns with when we plan to have all front end changes in production. We are highlighting the new branding and UI/UX via social media, coupled with long form research.

Estimated Budget in USD:

Position/Item Annual Half year
Operations Head (x1) $150,000 $75,000
Product Manager (x1) $150,000 $75,000
Business Development (x1) $150,000 $75,000
Full Stack Engineers (x2) $400,000 $200,000
Marketer (x1) $100,000 $50,000
Directors Fees $120,000 $60,000
Research Analyst (x1) $36,000 $18,000
Community Moderator (x1) $3,000 $1,500
Designer (UI/UX) $108,000 $54,000
Operational Infrastructure $10,000 $5,000
Team Travel $36,000 $18,000
Marketing/PR $35,000 $17,500
Events $40,000 $20,000
Legal and Compliance $500,000 $250,000
Financial Admin and Audit $150,000 $75,000
Total Expenses $994,000

Breakdown by Cost Center is as follows:

Cost Center Q2 2025 Q3 2025 Total
Finance $37,500 $37,500 $75,000
Legal and Compliance $125,000 $125,000 $250,000
Managing Operational and Business Development Costs $281,000 $281,000 $562,000
Marketing and Community Management, Community Team Onboarding, and Social (IRL) Outreach $44,500 $44,500 $89,000
Team Travel for Regional Representation $9,000 $9,000 $18,000
Legal Reserve Fund N/A N/A $0
Investment Vehicle Creation N/A N/A $0
Projected Operational Cost $497,000 $497,000 $994,000

This budget ensures continuity of operations while maintaining cost discipline and alignment with previously approved financial plans.

We are working with our agency partners (Flod) to deliver the designs and new branding which will be implemented on the TrueFi front end by Akemona. The current expiry for Akemona partnership is mid-Q2 2025 which aligns with when we plan to have all front end changes in production. We are highlighting the new branding and UI/UX via social media, coupled with long form research.

Projected Operational Cost $994,000
Reallocation from the TFIP-19 -$140,000
Budget Funding request $854,000
~30% earmark $256,200
Total Funding request $1,110,200
TRU price $0,03761
TRU minting request ~29,519,000 TRU

Next Governance Steps

As the proposals does not fall under the simplified governance exemptions, the proposal will require the following steps:

1. Forum Posting: A 72-hour posting period on the forum to allow the community to provide feedback.

2. Snapshot Vote: A 48-hour Snapshot vote will be conducted with the options: “OK to vote on Tally,” “Not OK to vote on Tally,” and “Abstain.” At least 5% of staked TRU must participate in this Snapshot vote to meet the quorum.

3. Amendment Period: If the 5% quorum is met, with a majority negative vote, a 72-hour period will follow to allow for any amendments or discussions before the proposal is posted to Tally.

4. Tally Vote: Otherwise, the proposal will be posted to Tally for the final vote.

Dear team,

Thank you for preparing the proposal. While the budget allocation is clear, I’m missing a key component: the rationale behind the expenditure. What specific goals do we aim to achieve, and what tangible outcomes do we expect?

Could you please provide more detailed information on this aspect? Additionally, I’d appreciate it if you could include some KPIs tied to the budget to aid in the decision-making process. Over the past six months, we haven’t observed significant growth in the protocol, so understanding the projected impact of this budget is crucial.

Thank you again for your work on this. I look forward to reviewing the additional information.

Sincerely,

AdL

2 Likes

Hello,
We are now in the first quarter of 2025,yet I see no significant progress on the milestones outlined in previous roadmaps.Because of this,I cannot support additional funding requests at this time.
I expect clarity on the following points:

1.Tangible progress on the goals stated in previous roadmaps.

2.How community feedback has been evaluated and what actions have been taken.

3.TrueFi’s long-term growth strategy and how operational expenses align with it.

Until I see previous commitments being fulfilled,I cannot take a positive stance on further funding requests.I expect a transparent update.

Thank you.

1 Like

Hi AdL,

Thank you for your comments. We are really excited about the next six months, and have a lot in store. Below, please find our specific goals for this proposal and the KPIs for each.

TrueFi Product/Engineering

  • Continue to expand TrueFi offerings on new ecosystems and DeFi integrations

    • KPI: 3 bluechip DeFi Dex integrations for tfBills and vault aggregator integrations for Lending Pools
    • Timeline: Q2
  • TrueFI Core Product Overhaul

    • UI/UX Overhaul
      • KPI: UI/UX modifications deployed to production
      • Timeline: Mid Q2
    • Tighter Adapter tfBill integration
      • KPI: As part of UI/UX integrations mint and redeem for tfBills prominently displayed on the homepage
      • Timeline: Mid Q2
  • Grow community Engagement and marketing impact through data-driven strategies

    • KPI: 1 long form monthly blogpost and increase engagement on X by 25% (Likes, Comments, and Reposts)
    • Timeline: End of Q2
  • Support and improve existing TrueFi Integrations/Partnerships (E.g., Plume, Lumia, Ethereum, etc.)

    • KPI: Plume Nest Integration full deployment, Lumia TrueFi deployment
    • Timeline: Q3
  • Expand TVL on Lending Pools and tfBills

    Through BD efforts and Polaris will be feeding TVL into both

    • KPI: $50 million TVL
    • Timeline: End of Q3

Polaris

  • Successful spin-out and launch of Polaris
    • Polaris fundraise and spinout
      • KPI: Successful VC Fundraise of goal amount and Entity Seperation
      • Timeline: Early Q2
    • Polaris Security Audits
      • KPI: Multiple Successful Security Audits of Polaris Codebase
      • Timeline: Mid/Late Q2
    • Polaris Launch
      • KPI: Mainnet dApp and Smart Contract deployment
      • Timeline: Late Q2/Early Q3
    • Polaris Cross-Chain Deployment Launch
      • KPI: Polaris Spoke Deployment on Tron
      • Timeline: Q3

If you have any comments or questions on these, please let us know. Over the last term, we put some of these into motion and cemented our operational structure. With a focus on longterm viability of the TrueFi ecosystem, we hope the following milestones and KPIs align your vision for the future of TrueFi with the team’s previous and ongoing work in progress.

1 Like

Hi TRUHOLDER,

Thanks for your comment. We have been hard at work over the last term executing and delivering on many of the previously mentioned goals from our initial proposal. Please see our DAO report for an in-depth analysis on everything that we have accomplished. We have actively been incorporating and working with stakeholders to ensure that our north star is aligned and have been eliciting feedback. If you have thoughts or comments based on the DAO report of everything that we have achieved, please let us know and we are more than happy to address these points.

The Polaris initiative will create value for TRU token holders through a Polaris token distribution for the ecosystem and by bring significant TVL to the protocol. The TrueFi Product overhaul will streamline the user experience to reduce friction and allow BD efforts to better drive TVL to the protocol. Operational expenses are solely being used to bolster these efforts outlined in the proposal.

1 Like

Briefly, here are my other questions:

1.TVL Growth:Will there be any special incentives for liquidity providers to achieve the $50M TVL target?

2.TRU Token:How will the Polaris launch benefit TRU holders?Will there be new utilities or staking/yield mechanisms?

3.Polaris & TrueFi:How will Polaris’ independence contribute to the TrueFi ecosystem in the long term? Will there be a direct connection with TRU?

4.DeFi Integrations:Which three major DEX integrations are planned for tfBills?

5.UI/UX Updates:How will the new UI/UX changes impact the current user experience?

Thank you.

Hi TRUHOLDER,

Certainly, here are the team’s notes on each of the questions.

1.TVL Growth: There will be incentivization on TrueFi TVL through ecosystem partner incentives. For example, a potential tfBill points program/Polaris points program. Increased TVL of both tfBill and Polaris will directly flow through TrueFi infrastructure.

2.TRU Token: Polaris TVL will be routed through TrueFi infrastructure, generating fee revenue and increasing TVL for the TrueFi protocol. In addition, there will be a Polaris Token distribution for the TrueFi Ecosystem. More information will be shared on this in the coming months.

3.Polaris & TrueFi: Polaris is aiming to be a regulatory compliant yield-bearing stablecoin. In maintaining airtight compliance, operations on the stablecoin and other aspects of TrueFi’s business will not be co-mingled. Again, Polaris is being built within the TrueFi ecosystem, and Polaris TVL will flow through TrueFi’s permissionless infrastructure, increasing TVL for TrueFi.

4.DeFi Integrations: As we finalize partnerships, we will make public announcements on them. We can reveal that we are in the process of working with Morpho on an official tfBill/TrueFi partnership. Again, more to come on this soon.

5.UI/UX Updates: Currently, the user flow for interacting with TrueFi’s Lending Pools and tfBills is highly disjointed. The team, in conjunction with FLOD, is working on a complete front-end product overhaul that will reduce friction for depositing TVL into TrueFi. We will share sneak peaks with the community in the coming weeks.

1 Like

Thank you!
I really appreciate your valuable feedback.I will continue to closely follow TrueFi’s developments.I regularly keep up with the forum to stay updated on upcoming innovations and progress.The contributions of the community are truly important!

Thank you Kelvin,

how does the TVL translate into revenue for TrueFi? And will 50m TVL be enough to cover the ongoing costs mentioned in the proposal?

Looking closer at the salay bands mentioned it looks like hires from more expensive to operate in countries like the US, is the intention to have all positions be in the US or can this be flexible?

All the best,
Alex

Hey Alex,

We wanted to be conservative, so we had 50M in TVL as the target for 3 months out. The goal for the end of the year is higher - but we will be more public about our long-term goals depending on the next few month’s performance.

We imagined a bear case where Polaris scaled to ~24% of Usual’s current TVL in 6 months (Usual is currently at roughly $830 M). In the following scenario, at the 200M Polaris bear-case TVL, roughly 80% will go into the tfBill product. From this scenario, we extrapolated how much the TrueFiDAO would collect in revenue and scale over the next 6 months from Polaris operations.

Protocol Fees for tfBills from Polaris:

  • TVL in tfBills: $160 million
  • Current Fee Rate: 0.20% (reduced from 0.50%)
  • Revenue: $50,000,000 * 0.002 = $320,000 annually

The DAO would collect approximately $320,000 in annual revenue from this TVL distribution. This is slightly below the current operations budget for the next 6 months. Keep in mind, however, that this is solely from Polaris operations and the Foundation hopes to prioritize organic TVL growth in the near future, as well. TVL in the Credit Pools earns a higher fee for the TrueFi DAO.

In the bull case, we imagined The DAO would collect approximately $1,325,000 in annual revenue from Polaris TVL, where the bull-case TVL for Polaris matches Usual’s current TVL. This far exceeds any operational costs the Foundation will have.

We also expect a reduction in operational overhead as Polaris development separates into its own entity. For the development funded pre-seperation, there is a loan agreement with Polaris to repay the DAO for the cost of incubation. The majority of the team is not in the United States, and we will be prioritizing lower cost-of-living geographies as we grow into a steady state.

A few thoughts from me:

  1. I’d like to see this extension linked to some milestones of delivery on Polaris and the front end being met.
  2. I know there is the intension for the DAO to recoup some of this spending once/if Polaris is live/successful. Would you please provide an update on what is pure investment into Polaris by the DAO vs. a loan to the Polaris capital structure vs. equity for the DAO into Polaris tokens?

Thanks,
Sefton

1 Like

I’m also curious about the deployment of Polaris. Am I reading correctly that you’re raising VENTURE funds to develop Polaris? And that Polaris will be separated from TrueFi?

How exactly would that work and how would current holders of Truefi be included and/or compensated?

Can you confirm that Polaris is a wholely owned asset of the Truefi foundation?

Please offer some clarity.

1 Like

You’re correct

There would be a loan structure where TrueFi recoups the full development cost of Polaris, as well as 10% of token supply on top of this. We feel this is in line with the risk being taken by the DAO and should not only provide liquid capital in terms of loan repayment to TrueFi but also generate significant upside for token holders and the DAO.

Absolutely.

Polaris is taking on strategic investors in order to minimize the risk taken by TrueFi.
In order to make sure that TrueFi is equitably compensated, full development cost will be recouped by the DAO through a loan structure with an additional 10% of token supply on top.

1 Like

Could all paid board members please weigh in here?

I’m sure each of you is playing a different role and engaging in separate conversations with potential strategic investors.

Has the team already taken on strategic investors, or is it currently in the process? Would you be open to sharing what’s in the pipeline, or are we still hopeful that strategic partners will come to the table?

I see a long list of salaries:

What I don’t see is any portfolio or background information on the individuals being paid…?

Who are they?
What’s their track record?
Any portfolio or resume?

The same level of due diligence we require of board members should absolutely apply to each team member receiving funds from Truefi. You can mask it as a “loan” based on Polaris performance all you like!

Blindly allocating Truefi funds that are to unknown individuals that are mostly focusing on the Polaris initiative is frankly, reckless.

I want to see the value of these people being PAID. They are not private volunteers!!

And lets not play this BS manipulation of the “Doxing” game, please!!

I deliberately chose not to become a board member and handed over my votes to others so I could retain the freedom to speak my mind openly and without restraint.

2 Likes

Further to the above

I believe a portion of each salary must be paid in TRU, with the condition that this TRU is required to be staked as part of the agreement.

Requiring a portion of each salary to be paid in TRU and mandating that it be staked as part of the agreement offers several key benefits—for both the protocol and the contributors:

  1. Alignment of Incentives:
    By holding and staking TRU, contributors have a vested interest in the success of the protocol. Their performance and contributions directly impact the value of the token they are partially compensated in, fostering a stronger sense of ownership and accountability.

  2. Long-Term Commitment:
    Staking introduces a time-locked element to compensation, discouraging short-term thinking and encouraging contributors to remain engaged with the protocol over time. It helps attract those who genuinely believe in the long-term vision.

  3. Strengthening Governance Participation:
    Staked TRU can be tied to governance rights, increasing the number of active, invested voters in protocol decisions. This deepens decentralization and helps ensure that those voting are genuinely aligned with the health of the ecosystem.

  4. Token Demand & Reduced Circulating Supply:
    Automatically converting a portion of salaries into staked TRU reduces sell pressure and increases demand, contributing to more sustainable tokenomics. A lower circulating supply can also positively influence token value.

  5. Culture of Skin in the Game:
    It sets a cultural precedent where contributors are more than just hired help—they are stakeholders. This fosters loyalty, accountability, and a deeper connection to the protocol’s mission and outcomes.

  6. Reinforces Transparency:
    Salary structures that are partly staked show the community that team members are financially and ideologically aligned, building trust between contributors and token holders.

2 Likes

Moreover, I don’t understand what Legal and Compliance means and the costs are a quarter of all funds ($250k)

1 Like

Voting has begun but does the Truefi DAO feel their questions have been answered?

[TFIP-23] - TrueFi Operational Expense Request Snapshot

https://snapshot.box/#/s:truefi-dao.eth/proposal/0xda53f3a63e22e78b86ae3dab357c9fc2b1f524b984ded9b0b1eb714abdfce807

Hello StrategoHoldings,

Our board who was elected several months back by the token holders and have been intimately overseeing operational activity: sitting in weekly team meetings, weighing in on every key decision, and supporting with resources and network. The board represents token holders and allows the operational team to execute quickly while still holding the team accountable.

Every hire on the operational team is interviewed and vetted by the board. They are confident in and have selected the team due to each individual contributor’s immense crypto experience having worked for reputable firms and crypto-native projects such as dYdX, The Block, Wonderland, etc. Every member of the team has at least five years of crypto experience. The team is extremely lean considering the level of operations and each operator is being paid below market rate (factoring in other offers they had received).

As mentioned, the TrueFi funds used for Polaris in the form of any legal and salaries are being repaid in full to the DAO, in addition the DAO will be compensated in tokens for the help provided to incubate Polaris (Comment Linked).

To address the topic of strategic investment in Polaris we are currently talking to large Market Makers, Liquid Funds, and other VC firms. Mostly industry mainstays you’ve probably heard of. Publicly announcing specific names prior to officially closing will jeopardize conversations. Please DM board members for more specific updates or questions.

3 Likes