Operational costs are emerging as a growing concern for DAOs built on the Internet Computer’s Service Nervous System, with new modelling suggesting mandatory infrastructure canisters account for the bulk of ongoing expenditure.
TACO DAO, which operates on the SNS framework, runs six standard SNS canisters: root, governance, ledger, swap, index and archive. These are not custom built components but protocol level infrastructure provided by DFINITY and required for every SNS DAO. Projects cannot modify their design or improve their cycle efficiency.
Data shared by the DAO shows that over a 30 day period, these six canisters consumed roughly 170 trillion cycles out of a total 246 trillion cycles burned across 21 canisters. That equates to around 69 per cent of overall cycle usage, despite the project maintaining 15 custom application canisters alongside the SNS stack.
At current rates, with one trillion cycles equivalent to one XDR, about 1.35 US dollars, the six SNS canisters cost TACO DAO close to 230 dollars per month, or just over 2,790 dollars annually. Priced in ICP at roughly 2.20 dollars per token, that represents more than 1,270 ICP per year solely for core SNS infrastructure.
Under a proposal known as Mission70, which would increase cycle costs by five times, those same canisters would cost more than 6,350 ICP per year, or nearly 14,000 dollars at current prices. That figure excludes the DAO’s custom dapp canisters, which add further operational overhead.
Supporters of the proposal argue that pricing adjustments are necessary to align resource consumption with network economics and long term sustainability. Critics counter that raising costs before improving efficiency risks placing a disproportionate burden on smaller projects that lack alternative revenue streams.
TACO DAO describes what it calls a triple squeeze. First, base cycle costs may rise sharply if Mission70 proceeds. Second, proposed changes to the Network Nervous System would reduce the maximum dissolve delay for neurons from eight years to two, lowering potential maturity rewards for DAOs that rely on staking income to offset expenses. TACO DAO currently holds 7,777 ICP in an eight year neuron, and says the projected reduction in rewards would widen the gap between income and infrastructure costs. Third, ICP’s market price remains subdued, reducing the purchasing power of treasuries denominated in the token.
Taken together, higher operating costs, lower staking rewards and weaker token prices create a narrower runway for projects without steady external revenue. TACO DAO says it is working to optimise its own custom canisters, but the SNS infrastructure layer represents a fixed cost floor outside its control.
The debate also touches on comparisons with traditional cloud providers. While the Internet Computer offers features such as on chain governance, tamper resistant execution and a reverse gas model, the raw compute workload of a modest backend and frontend could be hosted on conventional infrastructure for far less. TACO DAO estimates its full monthly cycle burn across all canisters is around 330 dollars at current rates. At five times the cost, that would approach 1,660 dollars per month, exceeding the annual price of some small cloud servers.
Proponents of ICP argue that such comparisons overlook the value of decentralised governance and cryptographic guarantees, which are difficult to replicate in Web2 environments. Others say the premium must remain within reach of early stage projects if the ecosystem is to grow.
Particular attention has been drawn to the SNS index canister, which according to TACO DAO’s figures burns more than 80 trillion cycles per month on its own. The DAO has published an AI assisted and human reviewed audit suggesting that efficiency improvements across the six standard SNS canisters could reduce their cycle consumption by between 60 and 90 per cent. If accurate, those savings would materially alter the cost profile for every SNS project.
Whether such optimisations are technically feasible or aligned with network priorities remains an open question. What is clear is that infrastructure pricing is becoming a central issue for SNS based DAOs. For projects still building revenue, the balance between decentralised guarantees and operating costs may determine whether they remain within the SNS framework or consider alternative structures.
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