RFC-013: IBP Cost Reduction

proposals/013-cost-reduction-measure.md

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+# RFC 013 – IBP Cost Reduction Measure
+
+## Summary
+
+DOT remains in the low single digits, Treasury purchasing power is depressed, and Bounty #50 is burning roughly **$275k/month**, leaving only a few months of viable runway. This RFC proposes new, lower IBP hardware pricing—effective **December 2025**—to materially reduce Treasury outflow, extend sustainability, and strengthen our commercial positioning with Parity, W3F, and other ecosystem clients.
+
+**New infra pricing (effective December 2025 billing month):**
+
+- CPU: **$14.172 → $10.00** per core/month  
+- RAM: **$1.402 → $1.00** per GB/month  
+- NVMe: **$0.193 → $0.10** per GB/month  
+
+**Impact at the infra level:**
+
+- Per‑member reduction: **$5,714.57/month**  
+- Program‑wide reduction (12 members): **$68,574.82/month**  
+- Infra component drops ~**42%**  
+- Overall program burn drops ~**25%** (from ~$275k → ~$206k/month)
+
+> **Note:** Bandwidth remains the dominant cost driver and is **unchanged**, which is why overall burn reduction (~25%) is smaller than the infra reduction (~42%).
+
+---
+
+## Current Setup
+
+Each member operates:
+
+- **240 cores**  
+- **944 GB RAM**  
+- **46,600 GB NVMe**  
+
+**Current monthly per‑member (old pricing):**
+
+- CPU: 240 × 14.172 = **$3,401.28**  
+- RAM: 944 × 1.402 = **$1,323.49**  
+- NVMe: 46,600 × 0.193 = **$8,993.80**  
+
+**Total per member:** **$13,718.57**  
+**Program total (12 members):** **$164,622.82/month** (infra only)  
+Including bandwidth + other costs → **~$275k/month** total burn.
+
+---
+
+## Proposed New Pricing (Effective December 2025)
+
+New unit prices:
+
+- **CPU:** $10.00 per core/month  
+- **RAM:** $1.00 per GB/month  
+- **NVMe:** $0.10 per GB/month  
+
+**New per‑member pricing:**
+
+- CPU: 240 × 10 = **$2,400.00**  
+- RAM: 944 × 1 = **$944.00**  
+- NVMe: 46,600 × 0.10 = **$4,660.00**  
+
+**New total per member:** **$8,004.00**  
+**Reduction per member:**  
+$13,718.57 − $8,004.00 = **$5,714.57/month**
+
+**Program‑wide reduction (12 members):**  
+12 × 5,714.57 = **$68,574.82/month**
+
+**Updated total burn:**  
+$275,000 − $68,574.82 = **≈$206,425/month**  
+
+**Runway impact:**  
+- At current burn (~$275k): ~4 months  
+- At new burn (~$206k): ~7 months  
+- **Runway extended by ~3 months**
+
+---
+
+## Why Now
+
+- **Treasury pressure.** DOT price compression has reduced the purchasing power of Treasury‑denominated bounties. Preserving runway is critical before we request additional funding.  
+- **Hardware economics have shifted.** The IBP hardware fleet is now ~3 years old, and market costs for CPU, RAM, and NVMe have materially decreased. Holding legacy pricing no longer aligns with real-world cost baselines.  
+- **Commercial leverage.** Lower base rates strengthen IBP’s position when replacing Parity and W3F cloud spend. Competing directly with AWS/GCP/Cloudflare requires a more aggressive cost structure.  
+- **Clean lever, zero operational risk.** Bandwidth remains the largest cost driver and cannot be reduced without impacting reliability. Adjusting CPU/RAM/NVMe pricing is the safest way to achieve meaningful savings without touching SLAs or capacity.  
+
+---
+
+## Vote
+
+On the GitHub RFC PR:
+
+- 👍 **Thumbs up** = **Aye** (approve new pricing effective December 2025 for January 1, 2026)  
+- 👎 **Thumbs down** = **Nay** (reject proposal)
+
+No reaction = abstain.