[bisq-network/bisq] Running the numbers on Bisq DAO revenues (#5171)

[Chris Beams]

This is all great.

@pazza83, wonderful to hear you'd be up for getting this new role started. Here are my thoughts on how to do it minimally and manageably:

- Confine the role to _accounting_ for Bisq's financial resources, but _not for allocating them._ Basically, the comptroller would not have decision making power about where funds go. Only about how we think about, account for and report on them (which is a lot!). That's what I like about the connotations around the "comptroller" versus "finance director"—the former really means "head of accounting", not more. Budget decision making is currently the domain of team leads (and ultimately DAO stakeholders through voting) and we can leave that status quo for now. The comptroller role can greatly help in this decision making process by feeding higher-quality data into it, but I think the comptroller should not have any direct power over the budget.
- Start simple. Come to consensus on just a few key accounting metrics that would really make a difference, and nail 'em. Systematize data collection for and reporting on those metrics, get them on a dashboard, see what impact they make, get feedback, refine them / move on to whatever makes most sense next.

I think a lot of the value is in helping us to frame things correctly. How should we *think* about the DAO's financials? How to we turn raw data about trading fees, BSQ supply, etc, into enlightening and actionable information? Getting everybody (users, contributors, stakeholders) on the same page about these things will be really powerful.

So practically speaking, I'd suggest working toward consensus on those first key metrics here in this conversation, then post a proposal to create the new role, including initial rights and duties, bonding requirements (if any), a task list of stuff that will need to be done, e.g. creating a role issue, wiki doc and GH team for the role, and then just go for it implementing accounting and reporting on those metrics in whatever way makes the most sense.

Once this kind of foundation in place, the role could be handed off to someone with even more domain experience to refine it, take it to the next level, etc. A lot of the value in this initial phase is just getting the ball rolling and establishing things, pushing past initial inertia, and you've proven very good at that, @pazza83, so certainly have my vote if you'd like to do it.

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**So, to everyone:** what do you think the most important 3–5 accounting / financial metrics would be?

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For me, the first would be a single, USD-denominated monthly revenue number. Basically the number I was trying to get at in my original post that started this discussion. The Bisq DAO's "[top line](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/topline.asp)", if you will. We would naturally want to be able to drill down from that top line number to see details on how much of it is coming from BTC trading fees, BSQ trading fees, etc, but it would be so helpful to have a single, simple, rolled up number we can trust that tells us how much revenue Bisq is bringing in.

Of course, it follows that the second most important number would be our [bottom line](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bottomline.asp), showing how much (if any) is left over after expenses (including BTC victim repayments, BSQ issuance, etc).

I think it's a very interesting challenge to figure out how to make sense of all this. It's anything but "boring, run of the mill accounting" when considering all the nuances of the Bisq DAO and the various unprecedented ways this organization runs.


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