Title: Crypto Sapiens Podcast – S4 Proposal
Authors: Humpty, EurekaJohn, flowscience, Jaris James
Squad: Humpty, EurekaJohn, flowscience, Jaris James, Ornella, InfiniteHomie, blurpleflame, Meowshka, Liviu, Joe_King, Tobias W. Kaiser, Jenetics, RedCrystalDragon, Vallentina, and many more including contributors from external projects
Date Created: March 03, 2022
Date Last Updated: April 6, 2022
Date Posted: March 21, 2022
SUMMARY
Crypto Sapiens is a web3 podcast recorded weekly and distributed across all major media platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. Crypto Sapiens plays an essential role in supporting the Bankless mission by developing educational programming that expands people’s understanding of the web3 ecosystem including decentralized technologies and cryptocurrencies. We curate thoughtful and accessible discussions between crypto pioneers and crypto curious individuals with aim of helping everyone gain the understanding they need to become crypto natives.
Season 4 Budget: 1,200,000 BANK
BACKGROUND
Crypto Sapiens was built to educate the next generation of humans. We host discussions with innovative builders with the aim of helping everyone learn more about web3. Crypto Sapiens differs from other media sources by unearthing quality conversations crafted from the personal stories from our guest’s journey into web3. Crypto Sapiens mission is to inspire our listeners to become contributors and builders in web3 through rich, meaningful conversations with the founders and core-contributors of innovative projects that are community-aligned, and share our values of decentralization. Our goal is to become a leader in web3 media to expand access to quality web3 educational content.
This proposal seeks funding to support the development of the Crypto Sapiens podcast. Funds will be used to cover production costs of the podcast, workgroups (created in Season 3), and three new series that will touch on important aspects of web3. We will also set aside a portion of our budget to research and launch our subDAO.
We will also set aside a portion of our budget to research and launch our subDAO.
Autonomous “Workgroups”:
Traditionally, companies specify a budget to cover the salaries of each employee from a top down approach as one central economy. In a centralized system there is a natural tendency towards bureaucracy and bottlenecks as a project grows. Over time, there becomes distance created from the original treasury (seed) of the organization, to the withering branches at the outer edges of the organism.
In its infancy, Crypto Sapiens was easily sustainable with a centralized budget that used a traditional allocation of funds to each team member with their respective role. However, as the project grew there arose a need to create new ways of remunerating its many contributors. To quote Frogmonkee in the article “DAOs as Economic Engines” in the BanklessHQ Newsletter from October 13, 2021, “When autonomous working groups are given a pool of capital to use at their discretion, they will begin to standardize around rates for work to better budget and predict expenses, inevitably kick-starting an internal economy.” In Season 3, Crypto Sapiens took a different approach to the budget in place of the traditional hierarchical approach.
This new approach made use of “workgroups.” As quoted above, we hoped that these workgroups would take on a life of their own. And they did! With capital assigned to workgroups, we saw the creation of workgroup-owned budgets and mini treasuries; the capital was spent more efficiently, with less cumbersome bureaucracy than it normally takes to have to go more than one step up a ladder to have costs approved. Each workgroup took on a life of its own and created its own micro-economy.
Workgroup Lead:
Each workgroup has a Workgroup Lead. At this moment in time, the workgroups are small and the entire group may even be only one person. However, beginning with this type of structure allows the program to scale upwards with less friction. A workgroup does not need to be a permanent group or team. A “Workgroup” can also just be the Workgroup Lead who uses the allocated budget to hire a back-up in a time of need. Essentially, the Workgroup Lead is not necessarily given compensation for completing assigned tasks, they are given a budget to run their own micro-business, focusing on a specific function within Crypto Sapiens.
Budget hoarding:
The next question one may ask is “What is to prevent the Working Group Lead from hoarding the budget completely to themselves?” Currently, the Crypto Sapiens podcast is still small enough to be able to clearly tell who would be spreading themselves too thin in order to keep the entire budget for themselves. However, as the podcast grows metrics will be set up to determine when it would be appropriate to require delegation of the budget and tasks within a Workgroup. We are also striving for a grant that would allow the Workgroups to operate with ample budget that would not possibly strain the productivity, creativity, and efficiency of each respective discipline.
Each workgroup took on a life of its own and created its own micro-economy.
Allowances:
The distribution of funds from Workgroups is managed from the project’s multisig. Workgroup Leads are able to budget according to their group’s needs and submit payment, and remuneration expenses to the multisig for approval. An accumulation of gas costs for immediate expenses and bounty payouts can be budgeted in as an average estimate allowance or the recorded transaction hashes for later reimbursement. Each Workgroup Lead is responsible for keeping a ledger of all expenses and gas fees. At the end of the season, all delegation of the Workgroup budget would be reported to the Executive Producer in order to accumulate data, form metrics, develop future goals, budgeting and statistical purposes.
Workgroup summary:
Overall, the main point of independently budgeted Workgroups is to accomplish the following:
- Empower each Workgroup Lead with ownership and confidence.
- Streamline operations with better attention to the needs of each department resulting in more efficient spending of the budget allocated.
- Provide relief, vacation time, and overall time to think which will lead to more efficient work when active.
- Allow the Workgroup Lead the ability to delegate standard tasks in order to research novel approaches to their process.
- [OPERATIONS]
- Project Lead: Responsible for all aspects of a podcast’s production and delivery, responding to issues as needed, and managing the production schedule—short and long-term planning. Works with Workgroup Leads to define scope of work, relationships between internal and external contributors, and core responsibilities. Responsible for managing revenue streams—grants and sponsorships. Liaison between Bankless DAO Grants Committee, GSE, etc.
- Host: Responsible for setting the editorial tone of the show. Storyteller, shaping the show through editorial decisions and personality. Develop briefing documents with producers and research team. Write and edit as needed. Review content edits prior to publishing.
- Project Manager: Supports the EP. Lead coordination across workgroups. Manages resources for internal and external contributors. Manages master calendar and weekly updates. Responsible for ensuring technology is prepared and ready for use weekly events such as Twitter Spaces, POAP, Craig and Degen bot.
- [AV]
- AV Lead: Oversee the success of the AV Workgroup. Define processes, growth and manage AV Workgroup. Coordinate asynch work, weekly working sessions with team, and weekly update at all-hands project meeting. Liaison between Bankless DAO AV Guild.
- Engineer: Responsible for good-quality audio on the back end. Create the soundscape for the show as determined by the host and executive producer. Audio-editing, finesse fades, generally creating a seamless listening experience consistent in tone and quality across all podcasts. Gives proper pauses to create an experience free of jarring transitions, sounds, or distractions. Compose and score the podcast as well.
- Editor: Makes necessary adjustments to create coherent and interesting episodes. Ensures proper cadence and flow of a conversation, while keeping the show within reasonable time constraints. Upload preliminary edits for review and final edits for mastering using proper naming and storage conventions within the DAM system making the files accessible to the relevant parties.
- [RESEARCH]
- Researcher Lead: Oversee the success of the Research Workgroup. Define processes, growth and manage Research Workgroup. Coordinate asynch work, weekly working sessions with team, and weekly update at all-hands project meeting. Liaison between Bankless DAO Research Guild.
- Researcher(s): Help hosts with collecting data for recorded events. Oversee the development of story ideas and provides feedback on story frameworks. Coordinate with Project Manager to populate the master calendar. Ensure that there is consistency cadence and flow between episodes. Identify speakers and projects, compile key contributions of the speaker, unique and innovative use cases of their protocol, meaningful details from the community, into briefing documents and scripts.
- [MARKETING]
- Marketing Lead: Oversee the success of the Marketing Workgroup. Define processes, growth and manage Research Workgroup. Coordinate asynch work, weekly working sessions with team, and weekly update at all-hands project meeting. Liaison between Bankless DAO Marketing Guild.
- Campaign Manager: Manage campaigns, content distribution calendar, workflows, budgets, coordination and implementation. Ensure all content is published on schedule (audio, text, video). Monitor analytics weekly.
- Analytics: Generate formal monthly reports on listenership, distribution and engagement. Present insights and suggest recommendations.
- Publishing: Schedule publication of mixed/mastered final content edit on Podbean. Use AI transcription app to convert episode audio to text.
- Convert MP3 to MP4. Publish video to YouTube. Assign timestamps to chapters based on key points, add end screen cards.
- Social media: Distribute audio, format text & images for each platform, scheduling, announce post CTAs in groups/channels, like/share/retweet, like and reply to comments, monitor dm’s.
- [DESIGN]
- Design Lead: Oversee the success of the Design Workgroup. Define processes, growth and manage Design Workgroup. Coordinate asynch work, weekly working sessions with team, and weekly update at all-hands project meeting. Liaison between Bankless DAO Design Guild.
- Designer(s): Create graphics for events, social media, and podcast platforms, design relevant infographics from podcast content.
- [WRITING]
- Writing Lead: Oversee the success of the Writing Workgroup. Define processes, growth and manage Writing Workgroup. Coordinate asynch work, weekly working sessions with team, and weekly update at all-hands project meeting. Liaison between Bankless DAO Writers Guild.
- Writer(s): Create episode titles and descriptions. Make manual spelling and grammar edits to transcriptions. Chapter titles, search tags and description for YouTube episodes. Take notes during live sessions to capture key points and audience questions. Write monthly newsletter and publish episode transcriptions to Substack. Create weekly themes and write articles for premium newsletter.
- [DEV]
- Dev Lead: Oversee the success of the Dev Workgroup. Define processes, growth and manage Dev Workgroup. Coordinate asynch work, weekly working sessions with team, and weekly update at all-hands project meeting. Liaison between Bankless DAO Dev Guild.
- Web Developer: Design the official website for Crypto Sapiens. To educate everyone about our mission, impact, and link to all of our episodes and social media platforms. Enable analytics platform to track success metrics, such as DAU, MAU, and episode downloads.
- [GENERAL BOUNTIES]
- For incentivizing general contributors outside the defined workgroups and roles established above.
New Series:
- Diversi-Tea is a series that explores diversity, equity and inclusion in web3. Hosts JENetics, RedCrystalDragon and Vallentina discuss the state of DE&I in web3 today and the opportunities we have to build more welcoming spaces for a global community.
- Web3 Identity features discussions with key builders from Gitcoin, BrightID, DAOHaus, OrangeProtocol and more to demystify the emerging topic of self-sovereign identity. We explore the value of owning your digital identity across DeFi, public goods, and DAOs.
- eXchange Points digs into the infrastructure of web3 and engages blockchain developers, and the founders of web3 infrastructure projects such as Filecoin, Storj, Polygon, Harmony, Chainlink, Arbitrum, Optimism and many more.
We are launching three new series that will touch on important aspects of web3.
MISSION & VALUES ALIGNMENT
The Bankless DAO mission is to “help the world go Bankless by creating user-friendly onramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies through education, media, and culture.”
Crypto Sapiens supports this mission by facilitating meaningful discussions with web3 leaders, aimed to mobilize everyone to participate in Bankless money systems. It solves a fundamental challenge in crypto by connecting key technology builders with community members, involving them in thoughtful, educational discussions that supply them with the knowledge they need to become Bankless.
Crypto Sapiens supports the positioning of Bankless DAO as the foremost destination for media and education. Crypto Sapiens has mobilized many talented Bankless DAO members to contribute to the development of its media productions. Crypto Sapiens is developed in partnership with Bankless DAO. Crypto Sapiens includes content about Bankless DAO across its communication and promotional materials whenever possible.
Crypto Sapiens supports the positioning of Bankless DAO as the foremost destination for media and education.
SPECIFICATION
Crypto Sapiens has gone from a recorded series hosted in the Bankless DAO Discord to a media platform that supports discussions across a variety of important web3 topics.
The podcast is hosted by Humpty Calderon who has thought-provoking discussion with web3 leaders. Recent guests on the show includes thought leaders such as Chase Chapman, Kevin Owocki, and Metadreamer, and innovators at dominant DAO and DeFi projects like John Paller founder of Opolis, Anjali Young CCO of CollabLand, and Farrah and Weaver core contributors at Yearn Finance. The latter which received the highest amount of LIVE viewers and podcast downloads for the month of February.
Production tasks as described in the background section are delegated to relevant departments to improve the development of this show, and to facilitate its distribution and sponsorship opportunities. The following departments are Operations, AV, Research, Marketing, Design, Writing, and Dev. These seven workgroups were created to maximize the impact of Crypto Sapiens and to ensure that the media is inclusive of many perspectives in the creation of educational web3 content.
Bounties are provided to new members to participate in the development of the project. Crypto Sapiens is an ideal onboarding experience for new contributors to earn their way into the DAO.
At Crypto Sapiens, we pride ourselves on being organized and efficient. We have developed our Notion to ensure there is transparency in our process and provides an accessible onramp to new members.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
- In order to retain the amazing talent we have at Crypto Sapiens, we need a larger allocation of $BANK. The value of $BANK decreased significantly in Season 3, which was challenging to our contributors and limited their availability to help us grow. Crypto Sapiens intends to help people transition from DAO visitors to active DAO contributors. We see ourselves as a springboard for Bankless DAO members to become fulfilled, active members of the DAO. We have a long list of success stories from Crypto Sapiens contributors becoming L1 members of Bankless DAO because of their contributions to our project.
Total = 1,200,000 BANK
Season 4: April 9 - July 8 (13 weeks)
- Cost Breakdown:
- Operations: 270,000
- AV: 200,000
- Research: 150,000
- Marketing: 200,000
- Design: 100,000
- Writing: 50,000
- Dev: 50,000
- New Concepts: 80,000
- subDAO Advisory: 100,000
BRAND USAGE
Crypto Sapiens leverages the Bankless DAO brand to represent its alignment to the mission of the DAO. Furthermore, the Bankless DAO brand is used to increase awareness, membership and participation in the DAO. Going forward, in Season 4, Crypto Sapiens will spread its wings to increase our brand awareness outside of the Bankless DAO Discord server. By doing so it intends to create even more support for Bankless DAO. For example, Bankless DAO has no visibility on Twitter Spaces. Crypto Sapiens will be very active on Twitter Spaces in Season 4, and will build on the connections we have made in Seasons 1-3 with influential projects like Gitcoin, DAOHaus, and Panvala to name a few. Hosting Twitter spaces with these projects, and our growing list of amazing builders will allow us to accelerate the impact of our work and validate the proposition of Bankless DAO.
SUCCESS METRICS OR KPIs
Metrics to measure the success of the project include, but not limited to, are:
Upcoming Revenue and Income:
- Sponsorships: episodes and email newsletters (pitch deck WIP)
- Donations: Twitter tips (enabled) and Podbean Patreon
- Premium content (e.g. NFTs, exclusive live sessions/events/panels/AMAs, newsletter, video, recordings/courses/etc using Podbean Premium, merchandise)
- Spotify and YouTube content creator monetization
- External grants (Gitcoin Grants, Harmony, Aave, etc.)
Listenership
-
Attendees at most recent live event: 4/19/22 - 744 listeners
-
Audio downloads: 7235 Total, 1109 Past Month, 304 Past Week, 25 Yesterday
-
Locations: United States 2.9K, Canada 278, United Kingdom 213, Germany 145, Australia 136
-
Sources: 27.2% Spotify, 23.8% Apple Podcasts, 9.7% Overcast, 7.9% Google Chrome
Social Media
- Twitter: 846 followers (over 400 followers since last season’s proposal)
- Instagram: 29 posts, 117 followers (up 56 followers since last season’s proposal)
- Facebook: 39 posts, 10 followers
- YouTube: 19 videos, 11 subscribers (launched 2/1/22)
- LinkTree: 579 views, 278 clicks = 48% CTR (up 500 views and 233 clicks since last season’s proposal)
Upcoming growth metrics:
- Number of Transcriptions published via Substack
- Email subscribers/open rates/CTR
- Social engagement tracking
- Website traffic (google analytics) and search performance (google search console) to monitor and improve our Podbean site and Substack Blog.
- Number of mini-segments/features of other Bankless DAO projects
RECENT WINS
- Recorded our 27th podcast!
- Published our 24th podcast for a combined > 7,235 downloads, 4,700 more downloads from last season.
- Defined Workgroup Lead roles to empower active contributors and promote ownership in the project.
- Workgroups now own various elements of the production process including AV, research, marketing, and design to create a more inclusive ecosystem.
- Improved team communication with a dedicated Discord server to better communicate with internal and external contributors.
- New distribution and promotion channels.
- YouTube, Stitcher
- Cryptosapiens.xyz domain instead of PodBean
NEXT STEPS
- Accelerate the creation of new series on Twitter Spaces
- Bite-Size content for TikTok, Instagram Stories & YouTube Shorts
- Create working standards to facilitate coordination across contributors. If possible, establish vacation time, holiday leave, etc.
- Diversify treasury with funding from other grants. (i.e. Yearn, Gitcoin, etc.)
- Increase revenue streams to reduce dependency on grants.
- Publish transcripts on Substack and Mirror
- Email subscribers/open rates/CTR
- Website traffic (google analytics) and search performance (google search console) to monitor and improve our Podbean site and Substack Blog.
- Expand social media channels to include TikTok, etc.
- 15,000 podcast downloads for Season 4.
- More Grants (Yearn Finance, Aave, Harmony, etc.)
- Expand partnerships outside of Bankless DAO
- Mint NFT to align our membership
- Launch our subDAO!
SQUAD BACKGROUND (Update)
Humpty Calderon: Longtime crypto enthusiast and community developer. He has contributed to the development of decentralized technologies including multichain validators, web3 wallets, AMMs, and decentralized identity and reputation protocols. He is presently focused on expanding the visibility and adoption of decentralized systems through fun, accessible media and events. Humpty hosts events on Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and in meatspace. He created Crypto Sapiens soon after joining bDAO as a tool to engage members, add value to bDAO partnerships, and further advance the mission of helping the world go bankless. Crypto Sapiens is a public good that helps everyone learn about web3 via meaningful discussions with leaders in the space.
EurekaJohn: Crypto enthusiast, YouTuber, and overall content creator. Prior to blockchain-involved projects, John has run his own internet and FM based radio station in the Austin, TX.area. During the SXSW festival he was responsible for recording the New Media podcasts. He has also worked with an assortment of audio and visual equipment through his previous band that performed live at many local venues.
Flowscience: My approach to marketing is driven by a background in data science and guided by experiences working as a university instructor. I have a passion for communicating complex topics in simple ways and firmly believe anyone can learn anything they set their mind to. Marketing and governance core contributor at DAOplanet, DAODenver, and DAO NYC. Imago at Cannabis Genome DAO.
Jaris James: A DeFi researcher that’s building relationships across the universe of DAOs. My intent is set on building strong relationships for the banklessDAO that can be leveraged for mutual benefit.
InfiniteHomie: Here for background support, research, and community building, because that’s what a true homie does :). Over a decade in TradFi and customer service, I’m here to help change lives where I can.
Ornella: Communications, marketing, design, sponsorships, and community growth define the areas that I can contribute most. I believe that by being a bridge, connecting stories, by sharing knowdlege, and education I can help many people thrive in web3.
McGuyverWannabe: Aspiring web3 analyst - love analyzing projects/companies and writing reports/briefs in my free time. Always looking for alpha, though my portfolio could do much better. Product owner for an AI/ML platform in the public sector IRL
JENetics: Originally a traditional artist, JENetics physical sculpture art can be seen on the set of Discovery+ Monster Garage (episode4), and her TikTok channel. She is a founder of UltraSound Merch and POAPathon, and a Design Guild Coordinator in Bankless DAO. As a self-taught digital artist, she is passionate about empowering other artists to find their way into the digital spaces such as NFTs, and you can find her livestreaming her art on several different DAOs around the metaverse.
RedCrystalDragon: Active AV Guild Governance and Community manager as well as active Design Guild and Marketing Guild contributor. Works with UltraSound Merch and Crypto Sapiens as a co-host for the Diversi-Tea podcast. NFT Artist, Comic Artist, Graphic Designer. Full Time B-DAO Contributor.
Vallentina: An Eclectic Artist and a Cosmic Creator with a penchant for Social Justice and Intersectionality, which she expresses mostly through Instagram and her Illustrations (available on Etsy). She has brought her professional translator skills and self-taught graphic designer ones to web3 through BanklessDAO, where she has taken on a variety of projects for Design and Marketing Guild, as well as being the Italian Translations Coordinator.
Meowshka:
Blurpleflame:
mitch:
Joe_King:
Tobias:
Feems:
Liv:
We welcome anyone interested in learning more about Crypto Sapiens to join us on our Discord.
Testimonials from contributors
Jaris James: I’m thankful that Crypto Sapiens was the first project I contributed to in the BanklessDAO. I was recruited to be a part of the project within my first month of joining the bDAO at the very end of Season 2, and this is where I gained the knowledge of how to set up/host a proper AMA, which is the majority of my contribution to the BanklessDAO. Thanks to Crypto Sapiens, I will be a Level 1 Member within one season of contribution. This project is extremely organized, with clear incentives and deadlines. I’m excited to be a part of such a professional team with a focus of becoming a media powerhouse for BanklessDAO.
Flowscience: I’ve learned an incredible amount from this show. I often draw unexpected inspiration from the stories unfolded by builders during the live conversations. It’s an honor to support and contribute to furthering the mission of people-centered education in web3.
Brandon: Crypto Sapiens is a seriously impressive project. Humpty has done an excellent job of empowering individual contributors and that’s why the project has grown so much recently. There’s room to grow, learn and contribute which make Crypto Sapiens a fun and rewarding project to work on.
Ornella: Amazing team that serves its purpose with joy and professionalism, integrity, and commitment. The success of a project depends on its team, and CryptoSapiens has a top-notch one. Honored to be part of it. The leadership and empowerment that Humpty brings to the project, the purpose of the podcast towards communicating stories of web3 builders, and the seamless way things flow in CryptoSapiens, are reflected in its results and the growth of its audience and supporters. A proper BanklessDAO born project to be proud of.
Humpty Calderon: I am inspired every day by the thoughtfulness and care that Crypto Sapiens contributors bring to the project. Going from a single podcast hosted within the Bankless DAO Discord to a media platform hosting multiple discussions about crucial topics across many channels is not an easy task. It has only been possible because of the people that have joined and supported our mission from the beginning including Bankless DAO, its guilds, and the grants committee. As we set our eyes on our next chapter, we trust that we can achieve our very lofty goals because of the supportive community that has continued to energize and empower us.
Crypto Sapiens is democratizing web3 media to ensure that it is inclusive of the global community that is building this ecosystem.
Thank you for reading and for your support.
- Yes, I approve of Crypto Sapiens Budget
- No, make adjustments