# Mandating a 2-Year Financial Audit : Demand for Product R&D and Payroll Transparency

**URL:** <https://research.lido.fi/t/mandating-a-2-year-financial-audit-demand-for-product-r-d-and-payroll-transparency/12032>\
**Category:** Proposals\
**Created:** [October 13, 2026, 6:54am UTC](https://research.lido.fi/t/mandating-a-2-year-financial-audit-demand-for-product-r-d-and-payroll-transparency/12032 "2026-10-13T06:54:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cryp1](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/research.lido.fi/cryp1/32/7205_2.png) [@Cryp1](https://research.lido.fi/u/Cryp1)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2026, 6:54am UTC](https://research.lido.fi/t/mandating-a-2-year-financial-audit-demand-for-product-r-d-and-payroll-transparency/12032/1 "2026-10-13T06:54:51Z")

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Hi everyone,  
Following the recent Q3 2026 update, it is now clear that Lido Earn is a complete operational failure that has failed to generate any profit over its 7–8 months of existence.  
While the report attempts to hide behind “Forex gains” due to the market increase in ETH price, the hard truth is that the product is running at a heavy net loss. The EarnETH vault alone lost 124.73 ETH, completely wiping out the minor $65k generated by the stablecoin vault.

This raises a massive red flag regarding how DAO capital is being utilized.

As LDO holders and ecosystem participants, we will no longer tolerate our treasury being drained into underperforming experiments without clear accountability. I am formally demanding that the Core Team and Finance Workgroup deliver a comprehensive, itemized financial report for the period of 2024–2026.  
We demand immediate and absolute transparency on the following:

**1. Exact Development & Incubation Costs (R&D)**

We want to see the exact ledger of every dollar, LDO, and ETH spent on the research, development, deployment, and smart contract audits for:  
• Lido Earn  
• stVaults  
• Wisp  
We need to compare these upfront costs against the actual protocol fees these products have generated to prove whether they have any real ROI, or if they are simply burning DAO resources.

1. **Payroll, Compensation, and Operational Overhead**

• A full, anonymized breakdown of all contributor salaries, bonuses, and contractor fees funded by the Treasury over the last 24 months.  
• Exact figures spent on legal, administration, and marketing overhead for these specific sub-products.

1. **Mandating an Independent Web3 Financial Audit**

• 14-Day Deadline: The core team has exactly 14 days from the passing of this post to deliver this data or a binding, concrete timeline for its publication.

• External Enforcement: If the internal team is unable or unwilling to provide a complete and detailed financial report within this timeframe, this proposal strictly mandates the DAO to bypass internal channels. In this event, launch a Snapshot vote to authorize the funding and immediate hiring of an independent, professional Web3 accounting and auditing firm (such as Convoy Finance, Llama, or Fox Audit). These external Web3 specialists will be contracted via the Snapshot mandate to perform an independent financial review and audit of the Lido Treasury’s historical on-chain and off-chain expenditures.