Bankless Cleveland-Blockchain Meetup Sponsorship

Grants/Funding
1

Title: Bankless Cleveland-Blockchain Sponsorship

Authors: 0xJustice.eth#6213
Squad: 0xJustice.eth#6213, Bludex#6249

Date Created: January 26, 2022
Date Posted: January 26, 2022

Summary

We host a monthly in-person Blockchain and Crypto meetup group in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the only meeting of its kind in the city. Our group has grown to 77 members with an average attendance of 20-25 people per meeting and Feb will only be our third meeting. The format is two-part with a repeated introduction. The introduction covers the ground rules of the group and reviews security best practices. After this, we present the state of the market from a financial standpoint, then step through specific areas of Web3 proficiency typically in a workshop style session projecting the screen on 4 large mounted televisions.

  1. First Meeting (Dec 21)
  • Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and centralized exchanges.
  • History of Web3 and review of it as a technical and cultural movement.
  1. Second Meeting (Jan)
  • Technical analysis methods and Bankless Academy (We stepped the class through the material)
  • Wallet basics, Layer 2 onramps, and a Defi example (Simulated CDP)
  1. Third Meeting (Feb)
  • NFTs Demystified: The history, culture, and tech behind non-fungible tokens
  • Minting and token gated access demonstration
  1. Fourth Meeting (March)
  • A planned deep dive into DAOs

Future sessions will both cover other aspects of web3 and dive deeper into topics previously reviewed. We are requested BanklessDAO to be our first sponsor. We are sure that we will have many sponsorship opportunities down the line given the growth and composition of the group but we feel it’s fitting to have bDAO be the first given the fact that it’s how Bludex and myself met and made the whole thing possible.

BACKGROUND

Until now, Bludex and I have covered the cost of the room rental and refreshments. Our hope is to further increase the visibility and quality of these monthly meetups in such a way as to attract future sponsorships and other speakers. We are keeping close tabs on other geo-specific DAO projects hoping to claim the “available” position for the city as well. We feel this is the very genesis of a local DAO community.

MISSION & VALUES ALIGNMENT

We are actively onboarding people to Defi, Web3, and self-sovereignty as well as promoting the BanklessDAO community and growing product offering.

SPECIFICATION

This sponsorship request will pay for 3 months of the meetup and accomplish several, more important, things:

  • It will demonstrate to the group that DAOs are real business entities with financial resources and interests in promoting their communities
  • It will bring awareness to the DAO as it will be publicly posted on the meetup docs and in the presentation materials
  • It will act as a test case to future bDAO sponsorships and local chapter initiatives

Our endgame is to open a gate from the Web3 metaverse into the city of Cleveland. Bludex is extremely connected and has been interviewed by major news organizations over the last few months. On each occasion, he is promoting the meetup such that it has garnered the attention of local newspapers, government entities, local businesses, and real estate organizations.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

A three-month experiment to identify optimum sponsorship patterns, local chapter dynamics, and social return on investment. This will help to cover the cost of the event.

Total funding requested: 18,000 BANK

BRAND USAGE

We will list BanklessDAO as the sponsor on online and in-person materials in order to promote the movement.

SUCCESS METRICS OR KPIS

Increases in new attendants and return visitors.

NEXT STEPS

Vote to signal interest in sponsoring this meetup or comment to voice reservations/concerns.

SQUAD BACKGROUND

Bludex: Greg’s online (and offline) audience has skyrocketed over the last several months accumulating more readers than many prominent DAO thought leaders. He brings deep knowledge in finance, trading, and technical analysis to the table.

0xJustice: Justice is deeply entranced in the Web3 and DAO culture/ethos as well as coming from a startup and dev background. Together they make a good Web3 mullet. Many people come for the financial alpha and get red-pilled into the metaverse.

  • Yes, lets sponsor this and revisit in 3 months.
  • No, I don’t think agree with the direction of this.
  • Maybe, needs more work.

0 voters

1 Like
2

What better way to onboard 1B people than in real life! We are working on IRL events for London and it will be great to pool knowledge and see what innovations you come up with. The BANK ask seems reasonable considering this is a 3 month experiment, especially given the cost of venue hire, printing costs, and other IRL expenses.

5 Likes
3

I’ve run technical communities for the past ten years and I firmly believe that crypto needs more IRL events to onboard people onto crypto. They need to see that there are genuine people like them that work in this space trying to build a better world.

With that being said running IRL events without sponsorship is painful and it sometimes involves creativity to pull off. Venues are a huge pain in the ass and if the DAO can pay for that it definitely helps because it’s not like you can walk over to IBM or Microsoft and ask to use their facilities. Our public libraries do offer some good options for free but you have to be on top of booking your space as the demand is high for free meeting spaces.

I used to bring food and drink but not having many people to rely on makes that onerous on the organizers unless the community pitches in. I find my audience doesn’t really care about much other than the presentation and some chit-chat.

Meetup seems to be the place to get general interest as there is a wide range of special interest groups that use the platform. I would like to work with a larger effort on the IRL front to try and develop some practices for forming a local group. I believe we need DAO members actively engaged with their communities to educate them about crypto and having some sort of framework may inspire others to get involved.

4 Likes
4

For people voting against, could you post why?

I’m curious, seeing so many against votes, especially for 18k BANK.

4 Likes
5

seriously, why would anyone vote no for 18,000 $BANKs.

Unless you are thinking “this is not in my town”, hey, why don’t you consider this? Now that if we approve this, you can fork this proposal and change it to your own town.

I think seriously 18,000 $BANK give a lot of mileage for something like this.

Please re-consider your votes.

2 Likes
6

I’d like to emphasize and make clear as well the actual product exposure and available user testing feedback made possible by this setup. I shared my screen and stepped through Bankless Academy in our last meeting asking the class to raise their hands to signify answers. The wallet basics surfaced some serious misunderstandings related to public key cryptography. It was really cool. Many in the group are heavy invested in crypto but don’t self custody or understand much about underlying utility so minds were blown when I opened a CDP in from of them. I plan to do similar with NFTs next month and then DAO tooling after that. Business owners have already asked us to come and give presentations to their leadership. Would be an easy redirect to channel them to Bankless Consulting for follow up. Just a few thoughts.

4 Likes
7

Can anyone provide any constructive feedback? I’d be open to reworking this proposal in light of it.

8

This is really cool! I live in Baltimore and am launching the city’s first web3 meetup tomorrow with a dude who works at Techstars. I’m really excited to see who comes out! Your proposal and the links you provided give us a solid roadmap and way to set expectations for the first few meetings.

I voted “Maybe, needs more work” because I don’t see how BanklessDAO benefits from this sponsorship in its current state. The DAO has many revenue-generating ventures now and I feel that these should be advertised through the sponsorship. Sponsorships lead to sales. Crypto.com is sponsoring the LA basketball arena to get people to spend money in their exchange. FTX sponsored MLB umpires to get people to spend money in their exchange. So I’d like to know what bDAO products you guys are trying to sell the Cleveland community - could Ultrasound Merch or NFTs or consulting services be attractive to this market? Or could you charge participants an entry fee and then repay bDAO, creating a new recurring revenue stream?

Another thing is that I believe the people who benefit from something should pay for it. It creates a strange market when one party provides the program (you), one party benefits from it (Cleveland web3 curious ppl), and a third party pays for it (bDAO in this case).

Yes it aligns with bDAO’s stated mission and it’s only 18,000 BANK, but I don’t think that the proposal as written aligns with the strategic direction bDAO is going based on all the conversations happening about generating revenue, strengthening our treasury, and becoming self-sustainable.

Also, related, I don’t know how we’re going to find space for the Baltimore web3 meetup. The first one is going to be virtual because the company who agreed to host us got cold feet about the association with crypto.

9

Thank you chuck25 for your thoughtful feedback. A few responses:

The DAO has many revenue-generating ventures now and I feel that these should be advertised through the sponsorship

That’s exactly what I am proposing with this sponsorship. To advertise the DAO and its many products over the course of the events. I already did so for Bankless Academy while it was in beta and the audience loved and wanted to know more.

Another thing is that I believe the people who benefit from something should pay for it.

We are charging a small door charge ($10) to ensure disruptive or non-serious people don’t crash the event but it’s not enough to pay for the venue.

I don’t think that the proposal as written aligns with the strategic direction bDAO is going based on all the conversations happening about generating revenue, strengthening our treasury, and becoming self-sustainable.

All advertising work in the way I propose above. It’s intended to drive viewers and participants and generate interest around the thing being shown. I am all for generating revenue but I also see the value of sponsorships. That’s how the entire conference of EthDenver is able to be offered for free. Sponsorship.

I don’t know how we’re going to find space for the Baltimore web3 meetup

You’ll have to do what we are doing right now. Pay out of pocket until you can find people who share the vision and agree to sponsor the event.

The first one is going to be virtual

The internet is flooded with videos and webinars. I think people are tired of being glued to their screens and eager to engage with others in real life and get real hands-on help to step through their crypto journey.

In conclusion, I think we have to question ourselves and our alignment with the mission if we don’t bat an eye to invest thousands in NFT campaigns and hyperinflated merch lines to crypto natives but incredulous and close-fisted to opportunities to onboard eager participants to self custody.

1 Like
10

I just changed my vote to a yes. My reason for initially voting no was honestly because I felt overwhelmed with the amount the dao was spending in general and just generally overwhelmed with the amount of effort you need to put in to keep up with proposals and governance and it had very little to do with the actual proposal which I’m not saying is a good reason and after looking at it again its a very affordable ask and absolutely worth it.

3 Likes
11

Thanks @0xJustice ! This is really helpful. I actually agree with everything you’ve written in this response. We need IRL links to bring mainstreamers into crypto. I’m so tired of virtual happy hours! It broke my heart when we lost our venue space.

Could you imagine a (near) future where meetup participants buy their $10 tickets in BANK? I know they’d first need to get exchange accounts and buy a stable then bridge it to another exchange to get BANK, but it could be a good experiential learning exercise for people who want to get into crypto but need assistance. This wouldn’t necessarily help you recoup the costs of the venue space but it would better align the value bDAO would get for sponsoring IRL events. We’d have more BANK holders and a larger ecosystem for our future projects and ventures.

Cheers,

4 Likes
12

Soundman, thank you for your candor. I understand your concerns and will do my best to pilot this sponsorship (if it is accepted) in such a way as to create an intelligent and reusable template for other sponsorship relationships. I’m seeing both Bankless Academy and Bankless Consulting as great candidates to direct attendees.

1 Like
13

Bankless community! We are so close to getting this passed. I would again encourage anyone to comment and explain whatever questions or concerns they may have for this idea. It would be the first sponsorship from the DAO and a great opportunity to test the waters on how these kinds of sponsorships can work in the future. This sponsorship would equate to 100’s of people getting exposed to Bankless NFT’s, Defi products and services, and to DAO’ing in general. Cleveland is one of the only local Bankless chapters listed in our notion docs and this meetup will be getting news coverage in the coming months. I am setting up live POAP distribution to validate attendance and that could and would be Bankless local chapter POAPs if this passes. We have a major author and Blockchain regulation writer speaking at this month’s event as well as featuring some local NFT artists. Check out the draft of the slide deck here (work in progress):

DM’s open.

14

Bravo to @0xJustice and @bludex for the inspiring work!

I believe that in the spirit of trustlessness, it should necessary that all bDAO sponsored IRL events use POAP to monitor attendance and growth. It isn’t a perfect system but it’s an excellent start.

So, if the Cleveland Chapter is to serve as a template, what are some other metrics that could be useful? Perhaps we could track how many:

  • newcomers are at each meet up
  • first timers come back
  • members invite someone
  • talent referrals to the DAO
2 Likes
15

I think these are fantastic ideas and very appropriate for the nature of the sponsorship relationship. I hope this proposal passes and we get the chance to explore this.

16

Only our third meetup. 110 members and growing FAST. LFG!!

3 Likes
17

I attended the 3rd Cleveland Blockchain and Crypto Meetup Group where we dove deep on NFTs. It was a lot of fun and I’m super excited for the next one.

As someone who’s been working in Web3 full time since March of 2021, I still learned a few things. The group sitting next to me was audibly amazed. On multiple occasions, they whispered, “Oh my god, that’s so cool.” The energy in the room was palpable.

We learned about the history of CryptoKitties from Evan Karnoupakis, the author of Blockchain Success Stories. We learned about different types of NFTs: generative, token gating, participation, and dynamic. We saw a presentation from a local NFT artist. And we had a lively group discussion about intellectual property rights and how they can be represented using NFTs. People were still chatting 1 hour after the presentations had ended. Everyone who attended received a POAP.

18,000 BANK for 3 months’ worth of meetups is incredible value for the opportunity to “get boots on the ground” working to onboard more people to Web3 and to make sure they know about bDAO and its projects.

Bullish on local bDAO chapters. Bullish on real-world utility for BANK tokens. Seriously, think about the possibilities. :star_struck:

3 Likes
18

Very ideal, planning this too for my region/ EastAfrica for this same development

1 Like
19

love this yes I believe irl meetups are the best to onboard people and as you have already shown traction looking forward to the next 3 months. Would be great if you could share your learnings in onboarding irl in your area for some of us to learn from that experience.

1 Like