[The Rug] Season 8 Funding Proposal

Grants/Funding Season 8 Proposals
1

Project Champions: Frank America#0610, Liquidiot#5975, Perchy#8133
Purpose: For-profit
Affiliation: Writers Guild, AV Guild
Authors: Frank America#0610, Liquidiot#5975, Redemption Fox
Date created: 3/25/2023
Date posted: 3/25/2023
Funds requested: 1,978,500 BANK
Project wallet(s): 0xA4C7Aca8D49226355c5543a28c3DE0573F66494a
Own subDAO/Discord server: Discord

Table of Contents

  1. PROJECT TEASER
  2. SUMMARY
  3. RETROSPECTIVE
  4. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
  5. SEASONAL KPI
  6. COMMITMENTS
  7. BRANDING
  8. FURTHER PROJECT CHANNELS

PROJECT TEASER

The Rug is a crypto comedy journalism outfit shipping the best in satire news related to web3. We’re a media property spun out of BanklessDAO and composed of (mostly) BanklessDAO members. We exist to help the industry not take itself so seriously.

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Mid-S7 SUMMARY

Season 7 has been a surge of positive feedback from all directions. From beta access to Mirror’s mainnet subscribe-to-mint NFT, to under-the-hood input on how paragraph.xyz operates, to BanklessHQ’s decision to promote The Rug’s articles on their weekly roll up, we’re just floored about being embraced from all directions.

Mirror article collectibles on #Optimism are performing quite well, we’ve hit 213 articles collected at .002 ETH per article so far in S7. Our Twitter followers continue to grow (we’re nearing 4.5K), and we’re proud to announce we’ve been verified on Lens, with a stamp of approval from Stani Kulechov himself. We continue to ship three hilarious headlines a week on Twitter and 1-2 articles on Mirror, as well as our monthly Under The Rug podcast, and monthly flagship newspaper-style NFT.

As with last season we are committed to return 10% of all sales to BanklessVault.eth at the end of S7. Check out our stats, we update them weekly.

S7 Stats: [The Rug] S5-S7 Influencer Stats

Mid-S7 RETROSPECTIVE

  • Verified on Lens
  • Weekly hilarious article on Mirror (+400 Subscribers)
  • Approaching 4.5K followers on Twitter
  • Monthly newsletter on Paragraph
  • Monthly Under The Rug podcast
  • 435 NFTs Total Collected on Mirror via Optimism (Earned .87 ETH)
  • 229 Owners (83% unique) of newspaper-style NFT

Past/preparatory activities

At the intersection of comedy and crypto we saw a vacuum and aimed to fill it. See Frank America’s appearance on the Quorum podcast for a detailed explanation.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Note: Budget reflects change from 12 to 16 week season for S8 per Snapshot

Total Estimation for S8: 1,978,500 BANK = 2,088,000 (S8 budget) - 110,000 (est. carryover)

Project and Compensation Breakdown

See budget link here: [The Rug] Season 8 Budget

All assignments and payouts are tethered to tasks and bounties submitted weekly and accounted for through DeWork.

SEASONAL 7 KPIS

  • Earn 1.5 ETH via NFTs (Distribute 10% back to BanklessVault.eth) [Currently at. .666 ETH)
  • Reach +300 articles collected on Optimism (Currently at 435 collected articles total)
  • Surpass 5K Followers on Twitter (Currently at 4,394 followers)

SEASONAL 8 KPIS

  • 300 Collect NFTs on Optimism (.002 ETH x 300 = .6 ETH)
  • 150 Collected NFTs on Mainnet (.0069 x 150 = 1.035 ETH)
  • +5K Followers on Twitter
  • +1K Followers on Lens

COMMITMENTS

We were self-funded from S1-S4, and aim to reach full self-sustainability by the next bull market. The Rug will return 10% of profits on S8 NFT sales back to the Treasury just as we did in S6.

BRANDING

The Rug is a media property spun up out of BanklessDAO. An attribution and link to BanklessDAO’s bankless.community page is at the bottom of TheRugNews.com.

FURTHER PROJECT CHANNELS:

For all project links (Newsletter, Mirror, Twitter, etc.):

POLL

  • Yes, I support this proposal
  • No, I do not support this proposal

0 voters

[/poll]

1 Like
2

The Stewards of The Rug News have done a fantastic job on minimal resources, I support this proposal and further funding The Rug

4 Likes
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At first glance it felt expensive, but you ship consistently across many channels, generate revenue, and improve on all fronts season-over-season. You’re exactly the kind of project bDAO should be funding.

Would love to see your budget (requested access), but this is a clear Yes vote from me

5 Likes
4

Sorry about that. Usually have it locked. Should be good to view now.

2 Likes
5

Really like to content that this crew produces! Would love to see more collabs with other groups in the DAO

2 Likes
6

Do you have any examples of what you had in mind?

7

Good suggestion. What do you have in mind?

8

The Rug is a really nice initiative. It’s a yes from my end.

3 Likes
9

a few examples from the top of my head:

1 Like
10

Not wanting to be a naysayer here because the content has been very clever and has definitely found a good niche. However I’m wondering what the team believes is the connection with the DAO’s mission.
Do you think industry jokes for an audience already well informed about web3 act as user friendly onramps?

{I’m not asserting that they don’t - I’m playing DA and asking you to expand on the justification given it’s a high BANK ask}

In asking this question I finally noticed properly that the section on mission and values alignment was removed from the project funding proposal template when it was revised by Grants Committee. The Branding section of the template does now ask “how will the project ensure integrity with the bankless mission and vision?” so that is why I am asking for more information here.

4 Likes
11

Thanks for the perspective and question! Let’s dive in!

"We will help the world go Bankless by creating user-friendly onramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies through education, media, and culture.”

Laughter has to be one of the most user friendly onramps I can think of.

We are a prime example of Web3/crypto media and culture that happens to present itself through the lens of comedy and satire. We are another layer of the unique content onion that is the BanklessDAO. #Depth

Yes, it would be safe to say that a good portion of our audience is well informed about Web3, and that we produce almost exclusively ‘industry jokes”, but who is to say exactly how well informed they are and in what areas.

We are settlers heading west, as we often hear, but it is not just about heading west. It’s also about giving settlers another reason to stay through the good times and the bad.

We would also say what we are doing is much larger than the perceived immediate audience, as we can start talking about narrative, network effects and mindshare. Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who knows Kevin Bacon. And now Kevin Bacon is more curious about crypto because he was recommended an article goofing on Keanu Reeves that was minted as an NFT. Next thing you know, Kevin Bacon is taking courses over at Bankless Academy. What’s up, Kevin?

Bottom line, we are providing another way for people, both industry vets and crypto curious alike, to discover and enjoy this wonderful new world we are exploring and experimenting in together. Is that not in line with the mission and vision?

We exist to help the industry not take itself so seriously.

But we also exist because we do take it so seriously.

8 Likes
12

Thank you, great answer! :star_struck:

2 Likes
13

Thanks for sharing these Jenga. Will share with the team.

2 Likes
14

Hi Trewkat, just to add to Liquidiot’s comprehensive answer, I think about this all the time as a writer for The Rug. I think I lean more toward comedy that doesn’t require a lot of knowledge about crypto or Web3 when I write. Others in the group are better than I am at the comedy that really hits with the core Web3 crowd. So I think we have a range in jokes that both can reach people outside of the space and entertain the diehards too.

3 Likes
15

Jenga, reached out to the team and we’re lining up a The Rug x Decentralized Arts collaboration. It’s going to be an NFT project around a character we created named, ‘Rugstradamus’. Thanks for pushing us in that direction!

3 Likes
16

Amazing! I also suggest looking into creating OP specific content more. As you may have seen, we received a good chuck on revenue via RPGF2 and more such rounds will follow. All the best frens

1 Like
18

All of our Mirror articles are minted on OP. We have dont 30+ mints there and mint weekly.

1 Like
19

Hi The Rug Team!
@FrankAmerica @Liquidiot I have a question about the budget. I see that at the end there is a completion incentive. While I think this is an excellent idea, I am wondering if you have considered using a portion of any revenue from the NFT for this. Or tlBANK when it is available.

1 Like
20

Also, I wish that there was an option to abstain on this poll I would like to have my vote counted towards quorum if it is needed. But until I have more info I cannot vote yes or no.

21

Thanks for the question!

First off, I would like to table any discussion related to tlBANK as it pertains to this S8 funding proposal given that tlBANK is a new core-primitive still in development and only recently hit the radar.

The bigger question of how to use revenue is of great importance to use and something we have been discussing internally. Do we use it to compensate contributors, invest back into the publication towards the goal of self-sustainability, HODL and see, a little of all or none of the above? What are the legalities? Do we need to start thinking about a business entity?

Our main focus up until now has been on shipping regular, great content and trying to grow our audience and reach while experimenting with different revenue ideas. We are just starting to crack that last nut.

All of this is to say this is high on our list of priorities, but we have not come to any formal consensus at the time this proposal was published. Thus, the completion bonus was listed in BANK as in previous seasons.

When and if we do tweak this formula, it will be reported in our seasonal budget and Dework and reflected in possible future proposals.

2 Likes