[BanklessDeSci] Project, Season 10 Funding Proposal

Grants/Funding
1

BanklessDeSci Season 10 + Season 9 (retroactive)

Project Champion: flowscience

Squad: flowscience, banklessChick, mantisclone, kryptoshrimp, cryptoReuMD, fine_dao, anaphant, ilk, Nishant, Bharat, Nahue

Purpose: mixed revenue generating + public good

Affiliations:

  1. Research Guild

  2. Marketing Guild

  3. Education Guild, Bankless Academy

    Authors: flowscience
    Editors: kryptoshrimp, cryptoReuMD
    Date: 11-15-2023

Funds requested: 1,067,200 BANK for Season 10 + Season 9 (retroactive)

Multisig:

  • Ethereum Mainnet (Safe): 0xFE0A3804cf9b35b9069F8D76b07ecBEd2f32705c
  • Optimism Mainnet (Safe): 0x20C914845d40cd31e72380A3704a2414E75aE607

Multisig signers: flowscience, banklessChick, mantisclone, kryptoshrimp, cryptoReuMD
Previous Grant Request: This is our first proposal to the Grants Committee.
Own subDAO/Discord server: Telegram: Contact @BanklessDesci

Project Teaser

Self-sovereignty over digital assets includes the products of scientific research and collaboration.

Project Purpose & Mission/Value Alignment

The Bankless thesis extends to decentralized science. Self-sovereignty over digital assets includes the products of scientific research and collaboration. We’re exploring how the Bankless thesis can inform systems design in DeSci, DataFi, and dataDAOs. Most DeSci projects tend to avoid anything to do with Defi due to the stereotypical reputation of crypto as a scam (see: 2022). There is huge potential in leaning into these concerns to explore how DeFi can be ethically integrated into DeSci and DataFi in ways that align the values of both movements. Unlocking access to knowledge as a universal public good. We’ll explore the latest trends in DeFi, DeSci, DataFi, Data Science, DataDAO Tokenomics, DataDAO Governance, and DataDAO IP & legal. Our Discord channel is intended to facilitate collaboration within BDAO, while our public chat on Telegram is where announcements are posted and our broader membership resides, including non-BDAO members who represent contributors to a wide range of desci projects.

Past Activities

  1. Rapidly growing community on Telegram with over 130 members.
  2. Twitter following reaching over 240 accounts.
  3. Detailed documentation created in our project Notion workspace.
  4. YouTube account with videos of our weekly meetings.
  5. Over 85 registered attendees for our upcoming Virtual Unconference and over 20 sessions booked.
  6. Deployed a custom Next.js app to host our unconference event.
  7. Deployed a web3-enabled discussion forum leveraging Orbis & Ceramic
  8. Elected a multisig of five L1+ members
  9. Elected one of our members to be a DAO Stewards Representative to VitaDAO
  10. Began partnership with Bankless Academy to create a “DeSci 101” lesson
  11. Already pursuing multiple sources of outside funding: Gitcoin, Giveth, Ethereum Foundation, event sponsors, paid collaborations
  12. Featured article in State of the DAOs

Previous KPIs

This is our first application to GC. KPI’s we are tracking are listed below:

  • Telegram community size: 133
  • Twitter followers: 243
  • YouTube subscribers: 7
  • Event registrations: 85
  • Forum Engagement: 6 members, 5 threads, 2 polls
  • Partners & sponsors: 2 event sponsors
  • Bankless Academy Lessons: 1 in progress
  • Marketing & Content
    • Expected Season 9 Events Revenue: > ~$2000
    • Creator payments (X, YT), “SocialFi” (PT etc): $0
  • Development Revenue: $0
  • Consulting Revenue: $0
  • Active contributors with >1hr self-reported: 11
  • New contributors onboarded to BDAO Discord: 1
  • New BANK holders: 1
  • Total BANK holders: TBD
  • New tlBANK holders: 1
  • Total tlBANK holders: TBD

Previous Commitments

We have committed to producing an event and are well on our way to having a successful outcome by all measures. We have also faithfully held weekly meetings and communicated our progress on BDAO Community Calls every other week since our public launch.

Previous Season DAO Updates

Oct 13th, 2023 - Community Call 13th October .pptx - Google Slides

Oct 27th, 2023 - Community Call 27th October .pptx - Google Slides

Nov 10th, 2023 - Community Call 10th November .pptx - Google Slides

Retrospective

Our Telegram group was instantiated on June 12th, 2023. After a few months of ideation, we launched our Twitter account in early October and began sharing biweekly updates on the BDAO Community Call.

We’re on track to achieve ambitious goals for season 9, particularly for unconference registrations, governance milestones, Telegram community growth, and social following growth.

Future Plans

We’re requesting retroactive funding for season 9 and ongoing funding to continue expanding our current activities into season 10.

Project Manager: flowscience
Start Date: 9/1/2023
Time commitment: 10 hours/week

Content & BD: kryptoshrimp
Start Date: 10/1/2023
Time commitment: 5 hours/week

Operations: Nishant Bhaskar
Start Date: 10-23-2023
Time commitment: 5 hours/week

Partnerships & Strategy: Renee & CryptoReuMD
Start Date: 10-1-2023
Time commitment: 3 hours/week

Developer: CryptoNahue
Start Date:
Time commitment: 5 hours/week

Operations: Fine_dao & Anaphant
Bounty based, includes Airtable setup & maintenance, Notion migration & maintainance

Writers: Ilk, Yuna, Bharat
Bounty based, includes Ethereum Foundation Grant Proposal, Giveth Grant Proposal, Bankless Academy “DeSci 101” lesson outline

Multisig: 1 hr/week each x 5 people

S9 Retroactive funding request: 36 hours per week + an additional 10% to be allocated for bounties

  • 36hrs/wk x 13 wks = 462 hrs @ 1000 BANK/hr
  • 462,000 BANK for roles + 46,200 BANK for bounties = 508,200 BANK

KPIs for Season 10

  • Telegram community size
    • Current: 133, Goal: 300
  • Twitter followers
    • Current: 243, Goal: 500
  • YouTube subscribers
    • Current: 7, Goal: 100
  • Event registrations
    • Current: 85, Goal: 300
  • Forum Engagement, TBD
  • Partners & sponsors
    • Current: 2 event sponsors, Goal: 5
  • Bankless Academy Lessons: 1 in progress, 1 per season
  • Marketing & Content
    • Expected Season 9 Events Revenue: > ~$2000
    • Creator payments (X, YT), “SocialFi” (PT etc): $0
  • Development Revenue: $0
  • Consulting Revenue: $0
  • Active contributors with >1hr self-reported: 12
  • New contributors onboarded to BDAO Discord: 1
  • New BANK holders: 10
  • Total BANK holders: TBD
  • New tlBANK holders: 2
  • Total tlBANK holders: TBD

Commitments

The BDWG creates a pipeline for:

  • DeSci funding opportunities (scientists new to web3)
  • DeSci Education
    • For BDAO members
      • For scientists new to web3
      • For non-scientists in web3
  • Web3 education for scientists (non-BDAO members)
    • Independent researchers
    • Student/entrepreneurial scientists
  • Guild & Dept collaborations
    • Writers guild → science content
    • Bankless Academy → “What is DeSci?” 101 onboarding lesson
  • Marketing & content for BDAO
    • Outreach to a new area of web3 BDAO isn’t currently touching at all
      • Searching the BDAO server for “DeSci” revealed it had been nearly 3 months since anyone used the term before flowscience posted something in the brainstorming channel in June.
  • Outreach & connections for DAOlationships
  • Potential clients for Bankless Consulting
  • Potential dealflow for Fight Club

Financial Implications

Previous Period Accounting & Current Holdings

We have received zero funding to date. We are currently attempting to raise external grant funding and generate early revenue to offer contributors the opportunity to earn a combination of hourly BANK plus additional remuneration in either stablecoins or ETH. This will reduce sell pressure on BANK earned by our members, who will be encourage to lock their earned BANK.

Below is an estimated budget for the virtual unconference using a standard of $25 USD/hr. Please note: this budget does not include project operations and other initiatives such as our forum and the Desci 101 lesson with Bankless Academy

  • Marketing

    • Social media, 2hrs/week for 8 weeks @ $25/hr = $400
    • Design graphics for breakout rooms and sponsor slides
      • 10 hours @ $25/hr = $250
    • Post-production
      • Welcome and Keynote = 1hr video
      • Breakout rooms, 8 x 2.5hrs each = 24hr video
      • Closing remarks = 30min
      • Estimate 2x time to edit & publish as length of content = 51hrs @ $25/hr = $1275

  • Operations

    • Recruiting, vetting, and scheduling speakers
      • 4 hours per week for 8 weeks = 32hrs @ $25/hr = $800
    • Hire moderators (8)
      • 8 people x 4 hours = 32hrs @ $25/hr = $800

  • Develop an open-source event hosting platform (next.js app) deployed using Vercel that leverages Supabase and a headless CMS (Storyblok).

    • Developer hours 40 @ $25/hr = $1000
    • Vercel Teams = $20/mo x 2 users x 3 months = $120
    • Supabase Pro = $25/mo x 3mo = $75
    • DatoCMS (headless CMS) = $91/mo x 2mo = $182

    Minimum estimated cost to produce the entire event > $4900

Hard costs to date

Approximately 2/3 of our requested retroactive funding for S9 will go toward the event, with the remaining 1/3 accounting for general contributions to the project. We are seeking sponsorship from external partners to cover remaining costs related to the event.

We are asking for a 10% increase in funding for season 10 to allow for more bounties to support additional grant writing and sponsor outreach.

S9 retroactive funding request: 508,200 BANK
S10 funding request: 559,000 BANK
Total funding requested in this grant application = 1,067,200 BANK

Third-Party Funding and External Revenue

We are currently applying for multiple other grants and seeking sponsorship funding for our upcoming event. We have not yet received any formal commitments or funds in our multisig.

Next Period Budget Breakdown

We plan to hold a seasonal unconference event and produce one new Bankless Academy lesson per season. We will not charge for conference attendance nor lesson usage and will provide these resources to both the broader Bankless and DeSci ecosystems as the focal points of what we’re bringing to the table. We expect that our event will generate enough traction to attract both repeat and new sponsors in season 10. Our custom virtual event app creates a unique offering with which we can showcase sponsors, partner orgs, and ultimately individual members. The member directory will be used to facilitate a consulting practice, through which our project may be able to generate revenue by forming a standard agreement with members. Combined with our development activities, we have identified three total revenue streams and expect to become cash flow positive as a project by the end of season 10. We are ambitiously pursuing revenue not just with the goal of being able to fairly remunerate BanklessDesci contributors, but also to be able to provide to remunerate BanklessDAO and provide a source of ongoing support to the community through which our project was formed.

Branding

We received approval from members of the Marketing Department before using the BanklessDeSci logo we created. We have included a link to the BanklessDAO Constitution at the top of our project Notion page and have actively prioritized mission alignment in the development of the BanklessDeSci mission, values, and goals.

Additional Information

  • Approve
  • Abstain
  • Deny
0 voters
2

DeSci appears to be a growing trend and I definitely think decentralised education should be focusing on things beyodn defi and financial speculation. I applaud this!

3 Likes