Subscan is an essential block explorer and analytics tool for the Kusama network, providing valuable insights to the Kusama community. However, maintaining and operating Subscan requires a significant investment of resources, including server infrastructure, security, and personnel costs. Therefore, we propose reimbursing the operation and maintenance fees for Subscan for the period from April to June 2024 from the Kusama treasury to ensure its continuous operation and maintenance.
Total
We believe that this reimbursement proposal will help ensure the continuous operation and maintenance of Subscan, contributing to the growth and development of the Kusama network. We are applying for a total of $56,144.12 USD from the Kusama Treasury, which includes $41,230.47 USD for reimbursement from April to June and a $14,913.65 USD advance payment to be deducted from the reimbursement for July to September.
Exchange rate
The final KSM amount will be calculated based on EMA7 at the time of official submission.
2024-08-07 10:00:12 (+UTC), Block #24378005
KSM EMA7 Price ( USD ): 17.886421;
Number of KSM: 3138.924215
View the detailed proposal here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wEkLKR_TVTJ-WK1JttkO17TeHEzwdkXhaW3duMeOWY0/edit?usp=sharing
🙏Thanks to the community's careful review and feedback, this proposal has been corrected.
🙏Thank you all for your understanding, support, and the constructive feedback and discussions. I'm pleased to see such a thoughtful and responsible approach to community governance, and I will do my best to respond to every feedback.
While the costs outlined in this proposal are fully justified, as most relate to expenses incurred before June, we believe that Kusama’s unique positioning merits access to the premium resources that Subscan provides. We've consistently worked to reduce costs, but our current infrastructure is built to deliver a high-quality, well-maintained explorer rather than a basic tool. This commitment to excellence and ongoing upgrades is central to our service, and it’s not something we can easily adjust in the short term without compromising the value we bring.
We understand the concerns raised by the community, and we acknowledge the financial strain on our company due to advancing these costs under the current reimbursement model. If this proposal is not approved, it would unfortunately leave us with no choice but to immediately halt all Subscan services on the Kusama network, including the explorer, API, and related services. We would then need to resubmit the outstanding invoices until a resolution is reached.
We truly hope to continue supporting Kusama and contributing to its growth. Your support is crucial in allowing us to maintain the high standard of service that the network deserves.
Threshold
I could not reply to the reply, so I'm writing here: what I meant is that those numbers seem inflated. I find it hard to believe that Kusama, that from your own charts has 1k active users per day, can do +3m queries per day. If the numbers are not inflated by the supplier, they must be inflated by 3rd party bots, which you should try to limit to let us save on costs, and you will do that only if we don't approve high spends.
Another potential problem I see in your metrics is the high percentage of 404 and 429 errors: can you explain those?
Regarding personnel costs, what was done in the 4 days per week that you are charging us? How much of the 600$/day are the people getting? Who are they? Are they real, different people? Are there efforts to reduce that cost? Eg. I believe there are many english speaking developers around the world that would happily take the job for much less than 600$/day, especially front-end eng., after your supervision of course..
Finally, I agree with Hitchhooker: you are providing a core service for many chains and you are doing it full time: you should consider lower cost alternatives (than reselling a cloud hosting) that you can also control & customize, to make it more efficient for us and more lucrative for you.
Edited
经过AIWeb3 的Twitter Space讨论和社区反馈意见，AIWeb3社区决定反对该提案。以下是社区的主要意见：
我们每周二北京时间早上10点会在AIWeb3 Twitter Space上讨论Kusama的提案，欢迎大家参与讨论。同时，也欢迎大家直接加入我们的Telegram询问任何问题。如果我们对任何提案表达了赞成，AIWeb3社区也会提供中文社区建设的服务和合作，愿意帮项目方一起建设中文社区，希望波卡生态有更多成功的项目。如果被我们拒绝，也不要灰心，我们欢迎申请人代表来我们的推特space分享提案的亮点，同时也请记住，有很多其他的Kusama DV可能会支持你们的提案。
AIWeb3 Community Feedback on Proposal
After discussions on AIWeb3's Twitter Space and feedback from the community, the AIWeb3 community has decided to NAY the proposal. Below are the main points from the community:
"According to industry standards, the fees in this proposal are significantly overpriced."
"This proposal has already received support from the Polkadot treasury, so why does it still require so much support on Kusama?"
"Some community members acknowledge their technical skills and contributions to Polkadot."
"I heard that Subscan also places ads and charges fees to parachains. Could you share the details of these fees and whether these charges could reduce the amount requested from the treasury? Is Subscan considering returning a portion of the revenue it earns to the treasury in the future?"
If your proposal is rejected, don't be discouraged. We welcome proposers to join our Twitter Space to share the highlights of their proposals. There are also many other Kusama DV who might support your proposal.
I have some concerns about the cost of the service, plus the volume in Kusama. In addition of that, there are other scans in the ecosystem that could provide the services.
Thank you for the response. The most obvious unnecessary cost is the one day per week frontend engineer (FE), as pointed out by other commentators. Your product supports quite a number of different chains, so it's clear that a FE is needed for Subscan. However, saying you need a FE for one day each week for Kusama is hard to believe, unless resources are being somewhat wastefully allocated.
I think this is too much given the low activity on the chain. NAY!