International Media Node Proposal

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Authors: @jengajojo

Squad: @jengajojo, @Jon Otherbright, @DavidBankless, @john | Bankless Brasil, @paulDE , @Galpe, @Attilla, @eternalflame, @cyclist , @gioser

Summary

International Media Nodes (IMN) are non-English Bankless channels that spread the message of the Bankless movement to all parts of the world through digital media tools such as (but not limited to) social media, substack, youtube, podcasts

The goal of this project is

  1. Generate a wider, multi-lingual audience for the bankless mission & vision
  2. Engaging bDAO contributors in a productive way as well as generating new contributors for local nodes and bDAO
  3. Helping entrepreneurial contributors/node operators to bootstrap their local nodes

More information can be found here

BACKGROUND

In the previous seasons, many contributors started their own media channels in local languages (without clear guidance) out of a desire to spread the Bankless message to a new audience. Those channels received decent growth and support from the local language communities and wider support from the crypto community in the form of Gitcoin grants and sponsorships

In S2, we aim to empower more contributors to start nodes in their own languages and grow the multi-lingual audience base for the Bankless mission.

Participating Nodes for S2

BanklessFr/MetaversalFr/DailyGweiFr

BanklessCz

Bankless Brasil

BanklessHi

BanklessAdria

BanklessGreece

BanklessDE

BanklessBG

BanklessIT

Bankless Norway

BanklessCN

MISSION & VALUES ALIGNMENT

The IMN project strengthens the vision of the DAO to bring the next billion people into crypto by opening up the content to non-English speakers. The IMN project operates in coordination with the other guilds of the bDAO and aligns its actions and material produced, with the common goals set through the Bankless community.

Specifications

The project aims to support local nodes in their growth process by providing clear KPIs and an IMN coordinator (already in guild budget) to act as a liaison between the nodes and bDAO.

Process

Each language node has a champion elected who will be the point of contact between bDAO and the local node operations and contributors. The champion is ideally someone with an entrepreneurial spirit/background. Each node will have to fulfill certain KPIs in order to receive funding.

KPI 1

In the beginning, each node will have to set up a social media page, post at least 5 posts about the Bankless mission/crypto as well as a substack page with a post explaining the Bankless mission and vision.

Each node that fulfils this KPI will receive a grant of 20000 BANK at the end of the first month (October) to continue with their activities of growing the channel for the next month

KPI 2

Each node will publish at least 1 newsletter each week for their community on substack and share it on their social media page. The node can decide the details of the newsletter from the following three criteria

  • Any one of the bDAO newsletter
  • Any one of the HQ newsletter
  • Own newsletter which is a mashup of bDAO/HQ newsletters

Each node will receive 1000 BANK for completing this KPI and will be paid out at the end of the month. (1000 BANK/week x 4) = 4000 BANK/node/month

KPI 3

a. Nodes that are starting from scratch

  • Will receive 16000 BANK at the end of their first month of operations (November) if they are able to accrue at least 50 audience* members to the channel. The grant is paid out at the end of the month.
  • Will receive 16000 BANK at the end of their second month of operations (December) if they are able to accrue at least 100 audience* members to the channel. The grant is paid out at the end of the month.

b. Nodes that have more than 100 audience* members will receive grants based on the following criteria

  • 20% monthly growth = 16000 BANK
  • 15% monthly growth = 12000 BANK
  • 10% monthly growth = 8000 BANK
  • 5% monthly growth = 4000 BANK

c. Nodes that have more than 2000 audience* members will receive grants based on the following criteria

  • 10% monthly growth = 16000 BANK
  • 7.5% monthly growth = 12000 BANK
  • 5% monthly growth = 8000 BANK
  • 2.5% monthly growth = 4000 BANK

*Audience refers to total followers+subscribers across the entire channel stack

Disclaimer: The KPI3 stats are inspired by BanklessBrasil’s growth trajectory (stats here). It is observed that it takes time to build the first 100 audience members and the growth rate is high till then, after which the growth tapers down to single-digit week-over-week growth.

Reporting

  • Each language champion is responsible for updating their stats to the IMN Database
  • The stats should be updated on the last day of the month
  • The IMN Coordinator is responsible for maintaining the IMN database and adding stats on behalf of nodes who are MiA

Financial Implications

  • The max budget for each node for this season is 60000 BANK = (20000 startup costs + 8000 newsletters + 32000 performance)
  • The nodes are entitled to make their own decisions on how to grant money is spent
  • There are a total of 11 nodes participating in this season, hence the requested funding amount is 660000 BANK

At the end of each month, the IMN coordinator will provide a list of node wallet addresses with the amount to be paid(based on the KPI fulfillment of each node), to the Grants Committee. The IMN project team can request lower payment for nodes who are unable to fulfil KPIs but still have shown progress.

Other information

  • if a node meets KPI1 by October 30th, it will receive 20k by the beginning of November for operations in November irrespective of when the node started its operations.
  • More nodes can join the project during the season, in this case, a new grant application will be made for those nodes during the season.
  • Bankless Africa node is being developed and run by another crew and is not involved in this project
  • Yes, take it forward
  • No, needs more work

0 voters

5 Likes
2

Thanks for the proposal, I consider it balanced and well formalized. The KPIs are also very interesting.
The result of all this will be an important enrichment of the Bankless / BanklessDAO ecosystem with still little visible potential.
I wish all future IMNs a prosperous future!

6 Likes
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Seems like a well-thought out proposal and a fair starting point with a outstanding opportunity to increase our global and diverse footprint. Nice job.

1 Like
4

I would push back on all the KPI grants. 16000 BANK a month for going from 100 to 120 subscribers is way too high in my opinion and becomes a huge cost burden if eleven IMN are hitting those numbers (176,000 BANK/month). Subscriber growth is great, but the goal should include some sort of revenue generation rather than just greater spending on behalf of the DAO treasury.

5

I like this proposal a lot, getting word of the Bankless nation spread throughout the planet is a monumental task at this point. Without steps like this, we will just be spinning our own wheels.

Social engineering is a good way to move things forward :v:

@Jengajojo & the team behind this project

2 Likes
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Hello Guys. I believe i can be the Farsi(Persian) Node and create channel from scratch and bring it up. Already i have translated almost all of the newsletters to Farsi so i have the content with me and just need to start publishing them and work on spreading the word out.

1 Like
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I’ve voted no on this. The KPIs, while the right approach, are overcompensated by a lot, as Siddhearta said.

A few notes:

  • We have a culture of showing our work before asking for funds. I’d rather we stick to that and see consistent channel growth before putting $ towards programs that we have no clue will succeed or not.
  • Not all channels will have the same growth metrics, yet they are treated the same. For example, India has over 100M active crypto users, but it has the same expectations as Norway?
  • Regarding KPI 1: “In the beginning, each node will have to set up a social media page, post at least 5 posts about the Bankless mission/crypto as well as a substack page with a post explaining the Bankless mission and vision.” We’re paying 20K BANK for people to post 5 times along with some light admin work?
  • 11 nodes at the start is too high in my opinion. We should focus on getting a few high-value geographic regions up and running as a way to test the program before onboarding more.

I’d like to see this proposal paired down to 5 or so nodes that run for a month in order to establish baseline numbers, then set KPIs for the rest of the season according to respective growth metrics.

2 Likes
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Thanks for your inputs frog.

  • Some of the nodes such as Fr, Cz, Brasil, and Hi have been working for the past few months and have consistent metrics of growth without any funding, so the project as a whole is definitely not starting from scratch and we have some baseline numbers to jump off from. I do agree that some nodes are starting from scratch this season, but the newer ones will have guidance from the older channels.

  • The KPI1 grant is mainly to subsidize the initial 2 months of operations. It’s been seen that the first two months demand a lot of work. A channel needs consistent content production of many months in order to become successful. The KPIs are minimums needed to receive a grant, the channel will, of course, produce much more content as can be seen with some of the older nodes.

  • Right now none of the nodes have any significant reach as compared to the number of language speakers. I agree that nodes with more speakers should have more focus, but that’s a problem we have to address in the future when there is some significant activity in the channel.

2 Likes
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Some of the nodes such as Fr, Cz, Brasil, and Hi have been working for the past few months and have consistent metrics of growth without any funding

Can we see those metrics? It would be to good to benchmark their respective KPIs instead of a universal system.

The KPI1 grant is mainly to subsidize the initial 2 months of operations. It’s been seen that the first two months demand a lot of work

I’m reading it as one month’s operation. First payment goes out end of October, which is one week away.

Right now none of the nodes have any significant reach as compared to the number of language speakers.

Right, this is my point. Why not focus on these locations and figure out what the IMN best practices are before expanding? This is conservative, but it’s a forcing function for us to collaborate and minimizes excessive expenditures.

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Oh another thing I wanted to ask was about how IMN becomes self-sustaining? Presumably the end goal is to monetize through sponsorships and ads? Have you discussed if any of that goes back to the DAO?

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To clarify, I really am in support of this. I just think we need to pare back the scope until we have a solid POC and expand from there.

2 Likes
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I believe that some of the criticisms expressed are valid and I have expressed my constructive point of view to those who are carrying out the project. Speaking with them several times I am sure of their will to build something that helps them build something of their own and to build with and for BanklessDAO at the same time.

I would not vary the number of IMNs, I would also include new ones, distinguishing them by the level of maturity, with the most experienced leading the newest.
Regarding KPIs and remuneration, these are considerations that I leave to the proposers.

1 Like
13

I agree with most of you earlier points, as you know I’m also a fan of work fist get paid later (we need way more of this also in the grants structure).

I do not however agree to limit languages, I think we should structure KPIs that enable the DAO to help everyone that wants to put in the time to have the possiblity to get going (agree, current proposal is high). This onboards more nodes and more people at a limited risk. If nothing else, translators guild needs a way to maintain a talent pool outside of the major languages.

There has been some discussion and agreement on that the end goal is for the DAO to make money of each node, revenue sources have been floated. Both collabs with BizDev (sales on a royalty basis, with x% to the DAO) and maybe also to share sponsors with the writers (giving them IMN reach for a part of their sponsors). Nothing agreed so far. But the intention is for mature nodes to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with the DAO.

1 Like
14

This is a great idea.

I think we should provide a seed fund. (Because we already provided a platform, a branding and endless content)

The IMN can gain by having exposure, having their own face associated with the Bankless brand. i think this is a huge thing that can be monetised in its own way. There shouldn’t be a need to pay for “KPI” in terms of user numbers, creates a very unhealthy dependence.

Ultimately, we want to really just reach out to people who wants the content, make it more accessible, not milk the user numbers.

2 Likes
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