Simple Summary
This proposal suggests a decisive shift for the Tangle DAO LLC: redirect all remaining assets of Tangle DAO toward a focused, time-limited initiative to accelerate core infrastructure and marketing for IOTA Rebased. Rather than continuing the Tangletreasury grant program, we propose to repurpose all resources for maximum strategic impact, followed by the orderly closure of Tangle DAO and its legal entity after 6 - 8 months.
This is the Phase 2 proposal. Read the original Phase 1 proposal here
This poll will be open for seven days and close on Monday, 18th August, at 12 am CEST.
For this proposal to reach Phase 3, this poll requires to receive 100 supportive votes for the proposal.
Only forum members with Trust Level 1 (basic user) or above are eligible to vote in this poll.
- Yes, I support this proposal.
- No, I do not support this proposal.
Abstract
The IOTA ecosystem recently reached a major technical milestone with the launch of its new MoveVM-based mainnet, IOTA Rebased, in May 2025. Yet, critical components of public infrastructure such as indexers, bridges, oracles, listings, but also public education and marketing about this new IOTA, are still lagging behind. Without these, the ecosystem cannot fully support users, developers, or investors at scale.
Motivation
The Time to Act is Now - IOTA at a Turning Point
The IOTA ecosystem is undergoing its most significant transformation yet: the shift from the legacy Tangle architecture to the modern, MoveVM-based IOTA Rebased network. While first key steps have been completed, vital components that are important for developers and community to thrive remain missing, including bridges, oracles, exchange listings, custodial services, and more.
To compete with mature crypto networks, IOTA must offer a complete and user-friendly infrastructure. Progress must be accelerated.
Infrastructure alone isn’t enough. The advantages of the new IOTA need to be communicated clearly and consistently to a wide audience, both within and beyond the crypto space. Achieving this requires professional, multi-channel marketing over many months, ideally years.
We conclude that significantly more resources, both financial and operational, must be urgently invested into this transformation.
Tangle DAO Must Help Out
Tangle DAO, IOTA’s community treasury, was created following a community vote (“Build vs Burn”) in 2022, and formally launched in October 2023. It was endowed with 54 million IOTA tokens. In its most recent term, 10 million tokens funded the Tangletreasury grant program, supporting small projects by funding their code audits, event attendance, and general, milestone-based startup grants.
Yet over the past year, it became clear that the demand for such small-scale grants in the IOTA ecosystem is lacking. According to Tangle DAO’s latest report:
-
66 proposals were submitted, 25 were funded
-
$680,000 in grants were disbursed, with $700,000 of the terms budget left unused
-
Overhead costs of ~$250,000 resulted in ~25% operational overhead
These numbers show that the program struggled to attract sufficient high-quality proposals. While recipient feedback was positive, the data suggests that the ecosystem does not currently benefit from a grant program of this kind, possibly due to foundational infrastructure, accessibility and quality-of-life of the network still being underdeveloped.
Additionally, the IOTA Foundation already operates its own IOTA Grants program with similar goals, further reducing the need for a second community grant system. With overlapping mandates and limited demand, continuing the Tangle DAO grant program is no longer the most effective use of resources.
Instead, these resources should directly support IOTA’s critical development and market readiness.
All-in: The IOTA Network Fund
Tangle DAO still holds substantial assets. As of July 2025, it owns:
-
42 million IOTA tokens ($8.4M at $0.20 per token)
-
~$700,000 in USDT
-
~$200,000 in other crypto assets (mainly ETH)
We propose that the Tangletreasury program be discontinued (its latest term already ended in July 2025) and replaced with a new initiative:
- The IOTA Network Fund
Its goal: Re-allocate all Tangle DAO assets to accelerate infrastructure development, exchange and service listings, marketing, and public education for IOTA Rebased.
All assets, aside from a $100,000 reserve for wind-down costs, will be deployed within six to eight months from the passage of this proposal. Once this period ends, Tangle DAO and its legal wrapper, the nonprofit Tangle DAO LLC registered in the Marshall Islands, will be orderly dissolved.
To oversee this transition, a temporary committee will be elected that is tasked to focused on efficiency and speed of the operation::
-
The committee will consist of 1 lead and 2 co-leads (down from 5), and the names are nominated in a specification session.
-
The Program Lead’s rate will be reduced from $70/hr to $50/hr, matching the reviewers’ rate
Conclusion
- The IOTA ecosystem has entered a new era, but success is not guaranteed. Without decisive investment in infrastructure and outreach, its technological potential risks going unrealized. This proposal offers a clear, time-bound, and impactful way to change that.
By redirecting the Tangle DAO’s assets toward core infrastructure and marketing, and by winding down the DAO once its mission is complete, we can give IOTA the foundation it needs to succeed.
Let’s ensure the community’s contributions are used where they matter most. Let’s finish strong, by building what IOTA still needs.
Specification
New Tangle DAO Committee
The 2024/25 Tangle DAO committee will be released and a new Tangle Dao committee will be elected to manage the DAO for six to eight months and through its subsequent closure procedures. This committee will consist of established current members of the Tangletreasury with a focus on backgrounds in investment and ecosystem building. This proposal offers these positions to the following individuals:
- Program Lead: Linus Naumann
- Co-Leads: Yi-Wei Lin & WiWi
This committee will function as the governing body of Tangle DAO, make decisions, including funding approvals, via 2-out-of-3 majority votes. All Tangle DAO multi-signature wallets likewise will require 2-of-3 signature thresholds from these members.
The Program Lead will serve as the primary signatory and representative of the Tangle DAO LLC. The Co-Leads will assume all responsibilities of the Program Lead during any extended absence (e.g., illness or resignation).
Aside from reducing the committee size from five to three members and appointing two Co-Leads instead of one, the committee will continue to operate under the rules set forth in the Tangle DAO LLC Operating Agreement.
IOTA Infrastructure Fund
All previous Tangle DAO funding programs will be discontinued. Instead, all remaining assets (excluding a $100,000 USDT retainer for dissolution) will be allocated to the newly established initiative “IOTA Infrastructure Fund”.
Purpose:
The IOTA Infrastructure Fund aims to rapidly support the development of essential IOTA infrastructure, services, marketing, and public education. Grant funding may support a wide range of efforts, including but not limited to:
-
Exchange and custodial service listings
-
Bridges, oracles, indexers and other on-chain infrastructure
-
Wallets and other user-facing software
-
Compliance, tax, and reporting tools
-
Network analytic tools and services
-
Marketing campaigns, events and educational initiatives
Funding Process:
Grants will be issued based on clearly defined and verifiable milestones (for example, successful integration of IOTA into a public exchange). Payments may be structured as upfront disbursements, milestone-based installments, or retroactive reimbursements.
Grants can be issued directly to infrastructure providers or to intermediary organizations paying those providers.
**Note:** Existing Tangle DAO grants will remain valid for the duration of the six-to-eight-month term. Grantees may continue to submit milestone deliverables and receive payments during this period. After that, all remaining grants and unfulfilled milestones will be closed.
Contracting:
The Program Lead and both Co-Leads will sign new service provider contracts with Tangle DAO LLC that task them to manage Tangle DAO LLC and the IOTA Infrastructure Fund, as well as the subsequent dissolution of Tangle DAO LLC as described in this proposal. The compensation will be $50 per work hour for all positions, with 40 work hours per week for the Program Lead and 20 work hours per week for each of the Co-Leads. In cases of prolonged absence of the Program Lead a Co-Lead will take over his or her tasks, in which case this Co-Lead likewise will assume 40 work hours per week.
Governance Rules:
The IOTA Infrastructure Fund will not follow the funding processes and restrictions outlined in Exhibit C of the Tangle DAO LLC Operating Agreement. Instead, the elected committee will retain full discretion to approve funding decisions via a 2-of-3 majority vote.
There will be no limit on individual grant sizes. All grants must comply with applicable laws, including those of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Tangle DAO’s internal AML/CTF policy.
All decisions must be documented in writing and signed by committee members for internal use. DAO wallet activity will remain fully transparent and all used addresses remain publicly disclosed. Individual grant details may remain confidential. A final end-of-life report will be published before the liquidation event summarizing all expenditures of these six months by type and funding amount.
The SMR token holders retain ultimate authority over the Tangle DAO at all times, including funding decisions and committee appointments, via on-chain elections as described in Exhibit B of the Operating Agreement.
Timeframe:
All assets of the IOTA Infrastructure Fund are to be used up for its purpose within 6-8 months of the passing of this proposal. Any leftover assets will be liquidated at the end of the dissolution process of Tangle DAO LLC and transferred to another non-profit organisation following the rules of Marshall Island non-profit DAO law.
Dissolution of Tangle DAO LLC:
After this period, the Tangle DAO will start its orderly dissolution process according to the acts of the Republic of Marshall Islands. This process will be led by the Program Lead, who will act as the company’s representative and primary signatory during the whole process. Tangle DAO will fulfill all its contractual obligations and pay all remaining bills, fees and contracts, etc., until the conclusion of the dissolution process.
At the end of the liquidation process all remaining assets will be sent to the non-profit organisation. This is the final step of Tangle DAOs orderly dissolution.
Update of the Tangle DAO LLC Operating Agreement
In order to reflect the new management structure of Tangle DAO, consisting of one Lead and two Reviewers (both of which act as Co-Leads), instead of the current one Lead and four reviewers, of which one acts as the Co-Lead, the relevant passages in the operating agreement of Tangle DAO LLC will be changed.
The sections to be changed in the operating agreement are:
V.1. Decisions of the Grant Committee.
From:
In relation to ordinary and usual decisions, if a member of the Grant Committee is not present creating an even vote (e.g. 4 members, 2 and 2), then in the instance a voting tie occurs, this would result as an opposition to the vote. For example, if the Program Lead or Co-Lead proposed to hire an accountant, and a reviewer was sick, and the vote became 2 yay, and 2 nay, then the vote would not pass.
To:
In relation to ordinary and usual decisions, if a member of the Grant Committee is not present creating an even vote (e.g. 2 members, 1 and 1), then in the instance a voting tie occurs, this would result as an opposition to the vote. For example, if the Program Lead or Co-Lead proposed to hire an accountant, and a reviewer was sick, and the vote became 1 yay, and 1 nay, then the vote would not pass.
V.3 Multisig
From:
The Company will have a multi-signature Wallet (“Multisig” ”) that will require 3 out of 5 signatures for any operation (like spending funds or adding or removing members to the Multisig).
To:
The Company will have a multi-signature Wallet (“Multisig”) that will require 2 out of 3 signatures for any operation (like spending funds or adding or removing members to the Multisig).
V.4 Members/ Composition of the Grant Commitee:
From:
The Grant Committee is composed of 5 members: a Program Lead and 4 Grant Reviewers.
To:
V.4 Members/ Composition of the Grant Commitee:
The Grant Committee is composed of 3 members: a Program Lead and 2 Grant Reviewers.
V.6 Grant Reviewers.
From:
The 4 Grant Reviewers will process funding requests on a part-time basis.
To:
The 2 Grant Reviewers will process funding requests on a part-time basis.
V.6.3 Grant Reviewers’ contractual relationship and remuneration.
From:
The 4 Grant Reviewers will be contracted by Marshall Island DAO LLC based on a contract of services as contractors or consultants. The 4 Grant Reviewers’ contractual relationship and remuneration will be established and contained in the services contract.
To:
The 2 Grant Reviewers will be contracted by Marshall Island DAO LLC based on a contract of services as contractors or consultants. The 2 Grant Reviewers’ contractual relationship and remuneration will be established and contained in the services contract.
V.7 Co-Lead.
From:
The committee Members will select one of the four Grant Reviewers as the Co-Lead.
To:
Both Grant Reviewers will also act as Co-Leads. The Co-Lead acts on behalf of the Program Lead in cases of sickness, holidays, or leaving.
Implementation
The committee will then take the following steps:
-
Update of the Tangle DAO LLC Operating Agreement
The outgoing Program Lead officially updates the Tangle DAO LLC Operating Agreement according to the changes stated under “Specifications”. -
Service Agreements
New service contracts will be signed between each newly elected committee member and Tangle DAO LLC:
- Contracts will be countersigned by the Program Lead.
- The Program Lead’s contract will be countersigned by one Co-Lead.
-
Handover Process
The new committee will assume control of all existing documentation, login credentials, wallets and other company materials from the outgoing committee within 2 weeks. -
Release of the outgoing committee
At the end of the handover process the newly contracted Program Lead documents the official end of the outgoing Tangle DAO committee members work and responsibilities in the company.
Proposal Name, question and answers, and optionally additional information
Proposal Name:
[SGP - 0012] IOTA Network Fund: Proposal to Go All-In IOTA Infrastructure and Growth with Tangle DAO
Question:
Do you support the Proposal [SGP - 0012] - IOTA Network Fund: Proposal to Go All-In IOTA Infrastructure and Growth with Tangle DAO?
Answer 1
Yes - I support this proposal
Answer 2
No - I do not support this proposal
Participation event of this proposal:
{
"name": "[SGP - 0012] - - IOTA Network Fund: Proposal to Go All-In IOTA Infrastructure and Growth with Tangle DAO",
"milestoneIndexCommence": 17529648,
"milestoneIndexStart": 17650608,
"milestoneIndexEnd": 17771568,
"payload": {
"type": 0,
"questions": [
{
"text": "Do you support the Proposal [SGP - 0012] - - IOTA Network Fund: Proposal to Go All-In IOTA Infrastructure and Growth with Tangle DAO?",
"answers": [
{
"value": 1,
"text": "Yes - i support this proposal",
"additionalInfo": ""
},
{
"value": 2,
"text": "No - i do not support this proposal",
"additionalInfo": ""
}
]
}
]
},
"additionalInfo": "Read the full proposal here: [{https://govern.iota.org/t/sgp-0012-iota-network-fund-proposal-to-go-all-in-iota-infrastructure-and-growth-with-tangle-dao-phase-2-poll/1794)]"
}