OnchainOpen source / ecosystem programonchain
Cardano dOSPO and OMF Program
Christian Taylor / Open Source Cowboy Consulting
ID: gov_action1pv7g8d0x9f3kqw2gcfrmgl8aqy38jat05wx0wwcvdsvuuclss6xqqhpzemv
Establishes a decentralized Open Source Program Office (dOSPO) and Open Maintenance Framework (OMF) to systematically fund and sustain Cardano's critical infrastructure. Addresses single-maintainer risk through retainers (tiered by dependency centrality and bus factor), a mentorship pipeline with on-chain attestation, a bounty program, and ecosystem activation (Summer of Code + hackathons), governed by two independent advisory councils with quarterly on-chain reporting.
⚑ Red flags (1)
- Competes with other proposals in this batch: [object Object].
Ask (ADA)
12,000,000
Ask (USD)
—
Peg
—
Eff. ADA @ spot
—
Peg vs market
unknown
Scorecard
13 of 19 criteria answered
Amber · 82%· pending review
How this score works
Each criterion is worth between 1 and 4 points. The score is the points earned out of the points on criteria that have been answered — shown as a percentage. Green is 75% or higher, Amber is 50–74%, and Red is below 50%.
Some criteria are checked automatically against the proposal data (open source, doxxed team, treasury return clauses, etc.). Others are human-judgment calls — value for money, public good, whether the deliverables are realistic. Those stay blank until a DRep ticks them.
Criteria can also be marked Not applicablewhen they don't fit the proposal — for example, "open source" doesn't apply to a DAO governance proposal with no software output. Those are excluded from the score entirely, neither helping nor hurting.
Green requires 80% coverage. If less than 80% of the applicable criteria (by points) have been answered, the verdict stays at Amber — "pending review" — even when every answered criterion passes. This proposal's coverage is currently 68% (13 of 19 applicable criteria answered). The auto-calculated band would have been Green, but coverage is below the threshold so the verdict is shown as Amber to flag that judgment criteria are still pending.
Vote intent
Export & audit
↓ Download scorecard.mdRaw payload · Treasury (true) / Admin (self_with_oversight)
{
"schema_version": "1.2.0",
"id": "onchain-cardano-dospo-omf-program",
"_meta": {
"proposal_id": "gov_action1pv7g8d0x9f3kqw2gcfrmgl8aqy38jat05wx0wwcvdsvuuclss6xqqhpzemv",
"title": "Cardano dOSPO and OMF Program",
"proposer": "Christian Taylor / Open Source Cowboy Consulting"
},
"ingestion": {
"ingested_at": "2026-05-13T00:00:00Z",
"ingested_by": "claude-opus-4.7",
"source_documents": [
"Koios proposal_list record for gov_action1pv7g8d0x9f3kqw2gcfrmgl8aqy38jat05wx0wwcvdsvuuclss6xqqhpzemv",
"ipfs://QmP76MXJwp19ZAcX8soUPyh5jcvMoK1DoLbxAJT9LLRhDK (proposal metadata)"
],
"extraction_notes": "On-chain treasury_withdrawals_action submitted in epoch 630, expires epoch 637. Proposal denominated in ADA only (proposer states USD conversion 'not applicable'). 12M ADA over 36 months across 5 work packages. Proposer is single named individual (Christian Taylor) transitioning to independent dOSPO legal entity by month 6. Explicitly positioned as replacement for the Paid Open Source Model (POSM) program."
},
"source": {
"channels": [
"onchain"
],
"hydra_id": "gov_action1pv7g8d0x9f3kqw2gcfrmgl8aqy38jat05wx0wwcvdsvuuclss6xqqhpzemv",
"onchain_tx_hash": "0b3c83b5e62a63603948c247b47cfd012279756fa38cf73b0c6c19ce63f0868c",
"onchain_action_id": "gov_action1pv7g8d0x9f3kqw2gcfrmgl8aqy38jat05wx0wwcvdsvuuclss6xqqhpzemv"
},
"identity": {
"title": "Cardano dOSPO and OMF Program",
"proposer_name": "Christian Taylor / Open Source Cowboy Consulting",
"proposer_type": "individual",
"proposer_url": "https://opensourcecowboy.com",
"doxxed": true,
"primary_contact": "oscowboyc@gmail.com",
"team_size_disclosed": null,
"team_size_disclosed_note": "Core staff listed in WP1: Program Director, Program Manager, Security Coordinator, Legal/Compliance, Governance Facilitation, Tooling, Analytics. Cohort-based mentors/mentees in WP3. No total FTE count given."
},
"classification": {
"official_pillar": "Ecosystem Sustainability & Resilience",
"official_pillar_confidence": "stated",
"working_category_suggestion": "Open source / ecosystem program",
"working_category_confidence": "high",
"tags": [
"open-source",
"ospo",
"maintenance",
"mentorship",
"bounties",
"posm",
"chaoss",
"dospo",
"omf"
]
},
"ask": {
"ada_amount": 12000000,
"ada_amount_note": "12M ADA total over 36 months. Tranche split: Yr1 2.733M, Yr2 4.634M, Yr3 4.633M.",
"usd_amount": null,
"usd_peg_price": null,
"pegged": false,
"currency_basis": "ada_only",
"duration_months": 36,
"milestone_count": 16,
"milestone_payments_disclosed": true,
"milestone_schedule_disclosed": "amounts_and_dates",
"usd_peg_vs_market": "unknown",
"raw_ask_text": "Total: 12,000,000 ADA over 36 months across 5 WPs. WP1 Operations & Governance 2,000,000; WP2 Maintenance Fund 6,000,000; WP3 Maintainer Development 3,000,000; WP4 CodeForUs Bounty 500,000; WP5 Ecosystem Activation 500,000. Proposer states USD conversion 'not applicable' — denomination is ADA only."
},
"treasury_return": {
"has_return_clause": true,
"types": [
"unspent_funds",
"reserve_undeployed",
"early_termination"
],
"expected_return_pct": null,
"expected_return_pct_note": "WP2 Portfolio Reserve 1,125,000 ADA, WP5 Activation Reserve 130,000 ADA, and 270,000 ADA operational contingency all return to treasury if undeployed. Early termination returns all uncommitted funds within 30 days.",
"treasury_favourability": "moderate",
"raw_return_text": "Portfolio Reserve (WP2) 1,125,000 ADA returned if undeployed. Activation Reserve (WP5) 130,000 ADA returned if undeployed. Operational Contingency 270,000 ADA (10% reserve) returned at program end following final audit. Early termination: all uncommitted funds returned within 30 days of governance vote. M1.5 non-achievement freezes portfolio reserve until completion or alternative governance vote."
},
"lifecycle": {
"pipeline_state": "onchain_live",
"hydra_submitted_at": null,
"hydra_close_at": null,
"hydra_support_pct": null,
"onchain_submitted_at": null,
"onchain_proposed_epoch": 630,
"onchain_expiration_epoch": 637,
"onchain_vote_close_at": null,
"onchain_result": null,
"status_last_checked_at": "2026-05-13T00:00:00Z"
},
"links": {
"hydra_url": null,
"adastat_url": "https://adastat.net/governances/0b3c83b5e62a63603948c247b47cfd012279756fa38cf73b0c6c19ce63f0868c00",
"ipfs_cid": "QmP76MXJwp19ZAcX8soUPyh5jcvMoK1DoLbxAJT9LLRhDK",
"ipfs_gateway_url": "https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmP76MXJwp19ZAcX8soUPyh5jcvMoK1DoLbxAJT9LLRhDK",
"github_url": "https://github.com/thatguyllc",
"website_url": "https://opensourcecowboy.com",
"forum_thread_url": null,
"other": [
{
"label": "OMF whitepaper (Google Drive)",
"url": "https://drive.google.com/file/d/13CGwn9GOMoyRTqRHdEmCauus5KwrpWs_/view"
},
{
"label": "YouTube explainer",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSQnSkWuMYI"
}
]
},
"content": {
"abstract": "Establishes a decentralized Open Source Program Office (dOSPO) and Open Maintenance Framework (OMF) to systematically fund and sustain Cardano's critical infrastructure. Addresses single-maintainer risk through retainers (tiered by dependency centrality and bus factor), a mentorship pipeline with on-chain attestation, a bounty program, and ecosystem activation (Summer of Code + hackathons), governed by two independent advisory councils with quarterly on-chain reporting.",
"problem_statement": "Critical Cardano dependencies often rely on small numbers of unpaid maintainers. Industry research (Harvard D3 2024, Tidelift 2024) shows 96% of commercial codebases depend on OSS projects with <10 contributors; 60% of maintainers work unpaid and 59% have considered quitting. Cardano has no systematic, data-driven funding mechanism for this layer.",
"proposed_solution": "5 work packages over 36 months: WP1 Operations & Governance (2M ADA, councils + entity formation); WP2 Maintenance Fund (6M ADA, tiered retainers by centrality + bus factor); WP3 Maintainer Development (3M ADA, mentor-mentee cohorts with on-chain attestation); WP4 CodeForUs Bounty (500K ADA, capped 30K/bounty + 30-day post-merge monitoring); WP5 Ecosystem Activation (500K ADA, Summer of Code + hackathons).",
"deliverables": [
"Two independent advisory councils constituted by month 3 (External OS Advisory + Technical Community Advisory, max 7 members each)",
"Independent dOSPO legal entity formed by month 6 (jurisdiction TBD)",
"Full dependency audit with SBOMs, centrality scores and bus factor assessments by week 12",
"First retainer cohort selected and disbursed by week 18",
"CHAOSS-aligned health dashboard live by week 16, quarterly updates",
"15+ high-centrality dependencies funded by Year 1; 20+ by Year 3",
"Bus factor 2+ for top-20 centrality projects by end of Year 2",
"Contribution ladder + on-chain attestation system live by week 12",
"48–60 cohort participants across two tracks; 70%+ completion; 5%+ Trusted Committer conversion in 18 months",
"Quarterly on-chain bounty rounds; 70%+ completion within 90 days",
"Cardano Summer of Code (3 cycles, 10+ participants/yr) + 2 hackathons/yr"
],
"milestones": [
{
"name": "M1.1 Council Constitution",
"deliverable": "Both council charters published on-chain; first meeting minutes within 72h",
"deadline_week": 6
},
{
"name": "M1.2 dOSPO Entity Formation",
"deliverable": "Registration confirmed; governance docs on-chain; operator agreement executed",
"deadline_week": 24
},
{
"name": "M1.3 Quarterly Reports",
"deliverable": "Published within 14 days of each quarter end",
"deadline_week": null
},
{
"name": "M2.1 Dependency Audit",
"deliverable": "Full map, SBOMs, centrality, bus factor, rubric approved by External Council",
"deadline_week": 12
},
{
"name": "M2.2 First Retainer Cohort",
"deliverable": "Selection results published; agreements signed; first disbursements on-chain",
"deadline_week": 18
},
{
"name": "M2.3 Health Dashboard Live",
"deliverable": "CHAOSS-aligned dashboard accessible; quarterly cadence",
"deadline_week": 16
},
{
"name": "M2.4 Annual Portfolio Reviews",
"deliverable": "Renewal decisions with rationale",
"deadline_week": 52
},
{
"name": "M3.1 Program Infrastructure",
"deliverable": "Ladder published; 10+ mentors; on-chain attestation live",
"deadline_week": 12
},
{
"name": "M3.2 First Cohorts Active",
"deliverable": "Enrollments confirmed; stipends flowing on-chain",
"deadline_week": 20
},
{
"name": "M3.3 Year 1 Outcomes",
"deliverable": "70%+ completion; attestations issued; conversion rate reported",
"deadline_week": 40
},
{
"name": "M3.4 Full Cadence + Follow-up",
"deliverable": "18-month follow-up data published on-chain",
"deadline_week": 104
},
{
"name": "M4.1 CodeForUs Launch",
"deliverable": "Rubric approved on-chain; first round open",
"deadline_week": 10
},
{
"name": "M4.2 Year 1 Bounty Cycle",
"deliverable": "4 quarterly rounds; 100% cleared 30-day monitoring",
"deadline_week": 52
},
{
"name": "M4.3 Yrs 2-3 Continuation",
"deliverable": "8 further rounds; annual rubric review; cumulative impact report",
"deadline_week": 156
},
{
"name": "M5.1 Summer of Code Launch",
"deliverable": "10+ participants; mentors assigned; stipends on-chain",
"deadline_week": 24
},
{
"name": "M5.2 Annual Hackathons",
"deliverable": "2 events/yr; conversion reports",
"deadline_week": null
}
],
"team": [
{
"name": "Christian Taylor",
"role": "Proposer / interim operator via Open Source Cowboy Consulting (months 1-6)",
"background": "Former Senior Manager of Open Source Governance and Head of OSPO at Intersect MBO; claims to have designed initial Cardano OSPO and informed the Paid Open Source Model."
}
],
"risks_disclosed": [
"Concentration of administrative authority in proposer's consulting company during months 1-6 prior to independent entity formation",
"Entity formation (M1.2) is a hard milestone; non-achievement freezes WP2 Portfolio Reserve",
"Mentorship completion / conversion targets are aspirational and depend on cohort recruitment",
"Dependence on still-to-be-constituted councils for selection rubrics"
]
},
"metadata": {
"open_source": "yes",
"open_source_url": "https://github.com/thatguyllc",
"has_prior_funding": false,
"prior_funding_sources": [],
"has_prior_delivery": true,
"prior_delivery_evidence": "Proposer claims design of initial Cardano OSPO and contribution to the Paid Open Source Model (POSM) while at Intersect MBO. OMF v1.0 and dOSPO v1.0 whitepapers (March 2026) published on opensourcecowboy.com.",
"admin_model": "self_with_oversight",
"is_administered_by_intersect": false,
"administration_fee_pct": null,
"duplicate_of_existing_solution": {
"value": "partial",
"confidence": "medium",
"set_by": "ai"
},
"duplicate_notes": "Proposer explicitly frames this as the replacement for Intersect's Paid Open Source Model (POSM). Overlaps in scope with Intersect OSC (Paid Open Source Model) proposal in the same batch — see relationships.competes_with."
},
"relationships": {
"competes_with": [
{
"id": "hydra-intersect-osc-paid-open-source-model",
"reason": "Both propose to fund the Cardano open-source maintenance layer; this proposal is explicitly framed as a replacement for POSM."
}
],
"related_to": []
},
"ecosystem_demand": {
"evidence_level": "moderate",
"evidence_level_confidence": "medium",
"evidence_level_set_by": "ai",
"active_users_known": true,
"active_users_examples": [],
"developer_demand_signals": [
"Documented single-maintainer risk across Cardano-adjacent OSS (Harvard D3, Tidelift, Linux Foundation reports cited)",
"Kubernetes Ingress NGINX security-patch cessation (March 2026) cited as precedent",
"Intersect's existing POSM program demonstrates ecosystem appetite for this funding category"
],
"adoption_risk_notes": "Demand for OSS maintenance funding is well-documented in industry, but no named Cardano dependency maintainers are listed as committed beneficiaries. Selection is council-driven post-funding."
},
"incumbents": {
"has_existing_solution": "partial",
"has_existing_solution_confidence": "high",
"has_existing_solution_set_by": "ai",
"existing_solutions": [
{
"name": "Intersect Paid Open Source Model (POSM)",
"url": null,
"status": "in_progress",
"overlap": "substantial",
"notes": "Predecessor program. Proposer states this proposal 'is built from the lessons learned of that program and this budget is intended to replace it.'"
},
{
"name": "CNCF LFX Mentorship",
"url": "https://lfx.linuxfoundation.org/tools/mentorship/",
"status": "shipped",
"overlap": "partial",
"notes": "Cited as model for WP3 mentorship pipeline; not a Cardano-specific competitor."
}
],
"differentiation_claim": "Cardano-specific dependency centrality / bus factor methodology; on-chain attestation of mentorship completions; two independent councils with binding authority; independent dOSPO legal entity by month 6.",
"differentiation_credibility": "medium"
},
"risk_flags": {
"aggressive_peg": false,
"self_administered_no_oversight": false,
"incumbent_already_delivering": true,
"no_evidence_of_demand": false,
"competes_with_in_batch": true,
"concentration_risk": true
}
}