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Evan, would it be possible to code the revised system so that contracts were paid first, always? If so, then Option E wouldn't result in contractors ever getting burned. Some one-time proposals would essentially get burned by being bumped from the payment list due to inadequate funds on occasion, but if contracts get paid first then contractors should be satisfied.
Contracts will be paid first by V2. Option E results in contracts getting burned if the price falls more than 2 standard deviations from the historical price average. I'll modify my previous example a bit to show how it can happen:
Lets say we only utilize USD based contracts in the system and in one 6 month period we have obligations for 75% of the total budget, which amounts to $25471.50 per month. At $4.20 per Dash, we should have $33,692 dollars available per month, which will more than cover our expenses. Lets say the price goes down 50%, now our budget can pay out a possible $16846.20. We have a deficit of $16846.20 - $25471.50, totaling -$8625.30. That's nearly $10k of work that we promised to pay that won't get paid now, thus burning bridges.
OK I see what you're saying now...my bad!
Is it possible to code a system that will keep up with the amount of dollars paid and if necessary extend the contract into additional months (or subtract months, in the case of price appreciation)? Such a mechanism could track the actual cumulative USD value of all the Dash paid out, and could automatically tack months onto the contract as-needed. This could get is in trouble with credit terms (the contract should have been paid over 12 months but actually took 14 months to pay), but at least contractors would be guaranteed to get their money eventually.
An example would be a contract for $10,000 that is intended to be spread over 12 months, equaling a payment of $833.33 per month. At $4.20 Dash, that would be 198.4 Dash per month. Now let's say that we don't ever allow the system to spend more than 198.4 Dash per month on the proposal, since that could cause problems with other approved non-contract budgets. But if the budgeting system took into account the USD value of the paid Dash at the time it was paid and kept a cumulative record of the USD value paid, then one of two things could happen:
Dash price goes up, and the budgeting system continues to pay 198.4 Dash per month until the $10,000 is paid...which could happen in 10 months, hypothetically. Let's say:
Month 1: 198.4 Dash Paid = $833; Total USD Paid = $833
Month 2: 198.4 Dash Paid = $900; Total USD Paid = $1733
Month 3: 198.4 Dash Paid = $790; Total USD Paid = $2523
Month 4: 198.4 Dash Paid = $810; Total USD Paid = $3333
Month 5: 198.4 Dash Paid = $990; Total USD Paid = $4323
Month 6: 198.4 Dash Paid = $1100; Total USD Paid = $5423
Month 7: 198.4 Dash Paid = $1050; Total USD Paid = $6473
Month 8: 198.4 Dash Paid = $1600; Total USD Paid = $8073
Month 9: 198.4 Dash Paid = $1440; Total USD Paid = $9513
Month 10: Dash = $6; Remaining Balance on Contract = $487; 81.2 Dash Paid
Month 11: 0; Contract Paid Off
Month 12: 0; Contract Paid Off
Dash price goes down, and the budgeting system continues to pay 198.4 Dash per month until the $10,000 is paid...which could happen in 14 months, hypothetically. Let's say:
Month 1: 198.4 Dash Paid = $833; Total USD Paid = $833
Month 2: 198.4 Dash Paid = $900; Total USD Paid = $1733
Month 3: 198.4 Dash Paid = $790; Total USD Paid = $2523
Month 4: 198.4 Dash Paid = $810; Total USD Paid = $3333
Month 5: 198.4 Dash Paid = $600; Total USD Paid = $3933
Month 6: 198.4 Dash Paid = $625; Total USD Paid = $4558
Month 7: 198.4 Dash Paid = $770; Total USD Paid = $5328
Month 8: 198.4 Dash Paid = $910; Total USD Paid = $6238
Month 9: 198.4 Dash Paid = $800; Total USD Paid = $7038
Month 10: 198.4 Dash Paid = $715; Total USD Paid = $7753
Month 11: 198.4 Dash Paid = $660; Total USD Paid = $8413
Month 12: 198.4 Dash Paid = $550; Total USD Paid = $8963
Month 13: 198.4 Dash Paid = $620; Total USD Paid = $9583
Month 14: Dash = $2.40; Remaining Balance on Contract = $417; Final Payment of 173.8 Dash
As long as contractors know what to expect, most would probably be okay with such an arrangement.
In conjunction with this, could we limit the percentage of budget that is available for contracts? Your example above uses 75% as the amount of budget taken up by contracts, but what if we hard-code a limit to say 30%? That greatly reduces the risk of the budget running out of money. It's still possible, but much less likely.