Author: Parker Spann, Executive Director, TAO
Date: September 2026
Abstract
This TELIP requests an additional allocation of 137,500,000 TEL from the TEL Treasury to the TAO Safe on Polygon, in addition to the funding approved under the TEL Token Upgrade TELIP. The Token Upgrade TELIP allocated $165,000 for integration costs with exchanges. That allocation is being applied to settle the outstanding August 2026 invoice from Telcoin Inc, formerly Telcoin Holdings, for Telcoin Network development and MNO installation, which includes the engineering work that delivers the TEL upgrade on September 24th. This proposal funds exchange integration in its place, sized at $0.0012 per TEL, so that agreements with exchanges can be paid as they are signed. It introduces no new expense category and asks the Councils to raise no category authority. It also puts on the record the invoice approval and reporting controls the TAO applies from this proposal forward.
Motivation
The August 2026 invoice from Telcoin Inc for network development and MNO installation is $164,897 and is due. That invoice pays the engineering and operations staff working full time on Telcoin Network through mainnet hardening, MNO validator testing, and the TEL upgrade. Telcoin Network is scaling faster than the Year 3 plan anticipated, and the added engineering capacity and business development effort required to meet that pace is why the Year 3 network development authority has been exceeded. The TAO’s Year 3 supplementary proposal, which addresses the full-year position and its causes, is being reworked following Council feedback and will follow this proposal. It is not a substitute for it. Leaving an invoice for delivered work unpaid while a larger proposal is revised would turn a treasury timing problem into a delivery problem in the weeks before mainnet.
The Councils have already approved funds that can settle it. The TEL Token Upgrade TELIP allocated $165,000 for integration costs with exchanges. That allocation is approved, undisbursed, and not yet payable, because the exchange agreements it will fund remain in review. It is therefore being applied to the August invoice now, as Treasury liquidity against an undisbursed approved commitment. What that leaves unfunded is exchange integration itself. This proposal requests the TEL to fund it, sized to the same $165,000 at a reference rate of $0.0012 per TEL, so that the approved cost is covered if TEL moves during the governance window, with any excess returned.
Specification
1. Additional Allocation for Exchange Integration
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Description: Additional TEL to fund TEL upgrade integration costs with exchanges, in addition to the allocation approved under the TEL Token Upgrade TELIP, which is being applied to the August 2026 Telcoin Inc network development invoice.
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Expected Cost (USD): $165,000, matching the exchange integration authority in the Token Upgrade TELIP.
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Requested TEL Allocation: 137,500,000 TEL at $0.0012 per TEL.
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Notes: Single tranche. Held within the TAO Safe for exchange integration payments as agreements are executed. Any balance unused once exchange integration is complete returns to the TEL Treasury. No change to the approved Year 3 cost plan, to any expense category, or to any other allocation.
2. Invoice Approval and Reporting Controls
Effective on affirmation, the TAO applies the following controls to every invoice it settles for network development and MNO installation:
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Supporting detail. The TAO settles an invoice only when it is accompanied by detail sufficient to map the charge to work-streams and to the deliverables or milestones of the period. The TAO is incorporating this standard into the updated services agreement with Telcoin Inc that is currently in progress.
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Two-party approval. No invoice is settled without review and written approval by both the TAO Executive Director and the TAO financial operations function, within ten business days of receipt.
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Settlement on approval. Each approved invoice is settled, or converted for settlement, on approval rather than accumulated against future invoices.
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Quarterly reporting. The TAO will publish a quarterly financial report to the Councils covering TEL and USDC on hand, spend by category against authority, total TEL converted and USD realized in the period, and runway at the trailing 30-day price. The first report, covering Q3 2026, will be published by October 15th, 2026.
Rationale
The dollar cost is already approved. The Councils authorized $165,000 for exchange integration in the Token Upgrade TELIP. That authority is now paying for delivered network development work. This proposal restores funding for exchange integration at the same cost, sized at a rate that holds through the vote.
The alternative is worse. An unpaid invoice for the team hardening mainnet, installing MNO validators, and delivering the TEL upgrade is a delivery risk at the point where delivery matters most.
It is small and bounded. 137,500,000 TEL is approximately 2 percent of the Treasury’s 6,329,085,758 TEL, of which 5,000,000,000 TEL is held under existing agreements and 1,329,085,758 TEL is available for allocation. Single tranche, single purpose, returnable if unused.
It puts controls first. The controls in Specification 2 are the TAO’s own approval and reporting standards, and they are the TAO’s response to Council feedback on the Year 3 supplementary proposal. They take effect here, before that proposal is decided, and bind every invoice from this one forward.
Feasibility. The transfer is a standard Treasury to TAO Safe execution. Applying the exchange integration allocation to the August invoice is within the authority the Token Upgrade TELIP confers, and because the exchange agreements are not yet payable, no exchange obligation is deferred.
Sustainability. The request is sized to one approved cost. It does not fund an extended gap. The Year 3 supplementary proposal that follows will net the August invoice out of its forecast so that no cost is counted twice.
Implementation
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Settlement of the August invoice. On posting of this proposal, the TAO applies the exchange integration allocation approved under the TEL Token Upgrade TELIP to settle the August 2026 Telcoin Inc invoice of $164,897, and publishes the transaction hash to this thread.
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Additional allocation. Upon affirmation, 137,500,000 TEL is transferred from the TEL Treasury to the TAO Safe on Polygon for exchange integration.
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Controls. The controls in Specification 2 take effect on affirmation and apply to all subsequent network development invoices.
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Return of unused TEL. Any balance of this allocation unused on completion of exchange integration returns to the TEL Treasury and is reported as returned.
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Reporting. Settlement of the August invoice and the exchange integration transfer will be reported in the Q3 2026 quarterly report.
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No change to other allocations. This proposal makes no change to the Telcoin Network, TELx, TAN, or Council Member allocations approved for Year 3, and does not pre-empt the Year 3 supplementary proposal.
Transfers
| Safe | Transfer Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| TAO Safe (Polygon) | 137,500,000 TEL | Additional allocation for TEL upgrade exchange integration |
Next Steps
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Community review and discussion of this proposal in the TELIP forum channel.
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Submission to the Platform Council Snapshot for voting, requiring 6 out of 8 approval within 120 hours.
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Upon affirmation by the Platform Council, submission to the Treasury Council Snapshot for voting, requiring 4 out of 4 approval within 72 hours.
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A 72 hour Compliance Council veto window following Treasury Council affirmation.
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Execution of the transfer by the TAO and publication of the transaction hash to this thread.
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Documentation of the affirmed proposal in the TELIP documentation section on Telcoin.org.
Concluding Remarks
This proposal pays for work that has been delivered, using funds the Councils have already approved, and asks for the additional TEL to keep exchange integration funded so the TEL upgrade reaches every venue it was built for. It is single purpose and single tranche. It also puts on the record, in binding form, the approval and reporting standards the Councils asked for. The larger Year 3 conversation follows, rebuilt on the same standards and the same arithmetic.
TEL The World,
Parker Spann
Executive Director, TAO