Grants and a Collective Movement into the Future

Philosophy and Economics
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One of the greatest things about Tezos is that it is meant to survive without a need for a centralized force. I think we, the community, have overlooked the fact that we are intentionally planning to remove the need for the TF in perpetuity. Certain members yell and scream that the Tezos Foundation isn’t doing enough, or quickly enough without realizing that the TF is only here as a catalyst for whatever the community choses. Tezos is a chain for the people, by the people…

With that being said, I wanted some input from each of you on a plan that I would like to implement. So here goes:

I’m going to find a list of previous grants and information about any investment that the Foundation has granted to Marketing firms. Once the marketing firms are identified, find any information on their approach and reach and relay the information back to the community to gain insight on areas that members feel might be lacking.

Next, find well known, and reputable firms that can fill the void in demographics that the community would like to see improvement. Acquire quotes, analyze cost vs coverage, and select said firm.

Write a proposal for a grant, then apply for the grant.

My questions are:

How can I apply for a grant to fund another entity? It looks like the application requires the actual firm themselves to fill out the application. I can use my business to do so, but it has nothing to do with cryptocurrencies and my accountant would probably be livid. If a grant is approved, am I then “in charge” of monitoring the firm to make sure they are upholding their end of the deal? If it’s the TF that does this, what happens when the TF isn’t around? I know that the members of the TF are only working part time with Tezos and it seems like a lot for them to maintain. Is there an entity of Tezos Commons that members are paid for fulltime positions to monitor the progress of grantees?

Anyway, I don’t know if this is the correct course of action to do something like this but I am looking for ways to get the community to take some responsibility as well as some power. Let me know if I’m way off track and I will certainly regroup to get back on course.

Since there seems to be some confusion, I wanted to clarify that I am not actually looking to fund myself. I am asking how something like hiring a marketing firm to benefit the ecosystem might be started by the community. If a community member had an idea, IE spend $750,000 on a marketing campaign in silicon valley to find developers and programmers because of a massive layoff, how could a community member start the movement?

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I don’t think you can apply to fund another entity. I mean, don’t get me wrong but (to me) it doesn’t make any sense! Why would you do something like that? The requirements and process to apply for a grant are straightforward for someone who is involved in the project, but it could be a little bit challenging if you are not part of the team, not to mention potential legal issues.

Keep in mind that when you make a proposal, you have to fully understand your idea/concept, if you can not explain your idea with details, it is more than likely that you don’t fully understand the idea , and if you don’t understand the idea, it is very unlikely that you would be able to write the technical proposal.

You see, it is not enough to say “I will build a time machine” THAT IS A GREAT IDEA, but how would you do it? In other words; show me the math, the physics, mechanics, etc… so other professionals can evaluate and review the benefit of your contribution to the ecosystem to fund your project.

TF is here to help the community, trust me when I say; if you have a good idea, you will get attention from the community and more than likely others will contact you to know more and offer help to make it happen.

I hope this help!
Best

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If we can submit applications on behalf of other parties, I would like to submit an application on behalf of Delphi Digital to conduct an economic assessment of the network/tokenomics to assess if any modifications can be made in the next protocol upgrade that help XTZ accrue monetary value. Delphi Digital is well respected and has helped design token models for several >$1 billion projects that have appreciated significantly and subsequently attracted large and loyal followings of devs and participants.

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No, I understand. That’s why I’m asking. There doesn’t seem to be a way for the community to say we want funding, do (x). Wouldn’t it be ideal for the community to pull bits and pieces from their fields of expertise and submit an idea on how to get something done? If I use the example of advertising to Silicon Valley.

(Hypothetically)

I work in Silicone Valley, and as it turns out, Covid has lead to the joblessness of half of the developers in our network. I have the idea that this would be the perfect time to recruit over 500 developers that are scrambling to stay employed. I can either A, start a chain email about tezos with the headline “If you do not pass this on, your mother will call you for IT help everyday.” or B) submit some sort of request to the grant system that allows for a certain amount of funding allocation to recruiting efforts. It could be as simple as, just spending $10k to a PR firm to inform the local job recruiters who are drowning in unemployed programmers.

I know that the idea presented isn’t that feasible under the current grant system, but I don’t know of another way for the community members to voice their ideas. I’m not saying they will all be great ideas (which causes some extra work to sort) but a well presented idea shouldn’t be overlooked just because it’s not funding supplied directly to the person doing the work.

If as a community member, I was willing to do research on Marketing firms that had done amazing things for other chains, came up with a solid plan to get the firm on board, to accomplish a goal that the community would like to see, and even had a price and schedule, why shouldn’t it be acceptable.

For instance, say I had friends in animation and I contact them about what it would cost to make some videos about the journey of Tezos. If they tell me the average going rates are (x) an hour. I speak with the community about what they would like to see created in the videos, put a proposal together saying Video A is a three minute video about the the upgradeability of the chain, involving a story about a fish that was put into a bowl and couldn’t grow, he moves from bowl to bowl but it’s never big enough… so on and so forth until the fish is released into the sea and gains speed yada yada (obviously a stupid example) but, at rate (x) to produce video A the price should cost around (y) amount. Pretend it’s a great idea an would add needed information and information to the ecosystem… Why would that be frowned upon?

I get that there was a problem with the last marketing firm and now there is a new one. I haven’t been able to find any information on who the POC is for community members is to even ask questions about marketing. I fully trust the TF to make good decisions but there is also a lot then needs to be done and most are working on other things and do this part time.

Long story short, I’m trying to figure out how the community is supposed to take charge. There is a lot of work being done be certain community members to get the word out but it think as a whole, we can be much more useful than just preaching to deaf ears. I was just hoping there was a way for the community to submit formal proposals so that good ideas aren’t missed, the community has a chance to steer the path of Tezos, and the community can partake in the usage of the funds.

Just to add a bit more, I think it would be an amazing idea for the TF to reach out to colleges that deal heavily with IT or graphic design. Offer scholarships for student who create amazing videos or programs that involve the Ecosystem. It’s an easy way to get 20 promotional videos as well as inform the next generation of programmers and marketing gurus about the potential of blockchain.

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See, this kind of insight makes sense. I just don’t know exactly how we are supposed to communicate this if we can’t get involved in the grant system.

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I wanted to say that I’m aware of the DAO, and Homebase. Maybe that’s the answer I’m looking for, I’m just not sure how large the capabilities are going to be. Is Homebase going to allow proposals for grants from the TF to other entities and is there a budget cap? Will HB allow for votes and then the TF executes the grant process?

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Why not create a proposal that says “I’ll try to spend the money hiring these firms, and if I can’t I’ll return it to the TF”?

This would make you responsible for spending or returning the money, but that’s not a super heavy burden, especially if you engage the community’s help with the project management (I’d be willing to help).

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Sure, someone who no one has ever heard of with their first post today, should be trusted with project management. Let me check my common senses at the door.

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I was thinking more along the lines of create a proposal, set a plan, make suggestions on who could get it done and have the TF execute the contract directly with the marketing firm. I don’t expect (and hope) the TF to blindly trust anyone with any amount of money because they promised not to mishandle the funds.

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We should probably ask someone from the TF how this could work. If the TF is willing to do what PP proposes, great!

But my assumption is the TF limits itself to 1) evaluating proposals, 2) disbursing funds, and maybe 3) evaluating the results - this is the pattern I’ve seen with grants in academia and industry. In this case there needs to be an official responsible party that receives the funds from the TF. If the amount is small enough (a few thousand XTZ), that could just be a trusted community member - not me, obviously, but it could be any senior member who’s willing to sponsor the project.

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Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping to get out of this post is insight from someone from the Tf or TC to explain how I might go about doing this. This weekend I’m going to try to put together a proposal similar to the ones I use for my business. I’m going to try to use the little knowledge I have about how the current grant system works to ask for a certain percentage of the yearly allotted funds that the TF plans to spend annually into the Homebase DAO for marketing purposes. It’s fine if more can be spent by the TF to extend the reach but 5-10% of the yearly budget that the community votes on could certainly be very powerful with a collective knowledge. Proposals could be placed by members throughout the year to select specific projects they think might benefit the community.

Again, I know that a lot of my questions might be answered once Homebase is released but right now I’m finding it hard to find answers or get answers. I don’t even know who to ask. Hopefully by just taking initiative, it can either get answers or find out what we need to implement as a whole to start moving forward.

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I want to clarify that the following comment I made was not a joke. Arthur has been on Tom Shaughnessy’s podcast, Tom is one of the people that runs Delphi Digital. If there’s a way to adjust parameters, Delphi would find it, likely resulting in a market revaluation of Tezos, placing it in it’s proper place above polkadot and cardano. They’ve designed token models for several billion dollar +++ projects.

This would be justified as it would further strengthen the security of the network by maximizing the economic aspect of the security model, further strengthening Tezos’ security & resiliency against adversarial cyber/economic attacks.

“ If we can submit applications on behalf of other parties, I would like to submit an application on behalf of Delphi Digital to conduct an economic assessment of the network/tokenomics to assess if any modifications can be made in the next protocol upgrade that help XTZ accrue monetary value. Delphi Digital is well respected and has helped design token models for several >$1 billion projects that have appreciated significantly and subsequently attracted large and loyal followings of devs and participants.”

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Hi perfectparadox, we have a room in Telegram for informal discussusions on the possible uses of Homebase to help in this regard; it is:

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I see someone expanded on my Delphi Digital idea on Reddit so I’m copy/pasting it here for visibility. Also Arthur said this is good idea. (edit: credit to rokosbasilia)

“I saw an interesting post on agora about the possibility of contracting Delphi Digital to conduct an assessment of any tweaks or modifications to the protocol or tokenomics to increase network security and maximise economic effects. I looked into Delphi Digital a bit, and they’ve actually already done this for several projects larger than $1 billion mc, and apparently to great success. Delphi Digital has done this for Aave, Synthetix, Axie Infinity, and other projects. This is an actual consulting service they offer, which TF could enter into a contract with them to do. (Also Arthur has been on Tom Shaughnessy’s podcast, Tom works at Delphi Digital)

For example, after Axie Infinity was launched, they contracted Delphi Digital to totally rework the economic model, this is part of how the strategy worked (copy/paste from their page):

" Goal here was to ensure the long-term viability of the ecosystem now that adoption has been established.

Value accrual was a key component of this overall structure because of how much it enhances the existing adoption incentives. As part of the deliverable, we created a full deck and dynamic dashboard that was ready to be presented to prospective investors and the general public to help explain the client’s vision. Since this was a full redesign from the ground up, it was a high touch engagement to ensure the client understood our thought process at various steps while also enabling fluid input from the client."

Considering the very unique situation Tezos is in, and the extremely specialized services Delphi offers for EXACTLY this specific situation, I think we should put together a proposal to contract Delphi Digital for this service.”

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Take one minute email Delphi & request they submit an app for TF grant for token economics audit
team@delphidigital.io

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To whom it may concern,

"I would like to reach out on behalf of the Tezos Community to request that Delphi Digital apply for a grant through the Tezos Foundation to provide a token economics audit of the Tezos Ecosystem. Please let me know if I can assist you in any way and I will be happy to help or I will find you someone that can. I appreciate your time and consideration.

Best regards,
XXXXXXXXXXX"

Sent at 10:42 EST February, 10th 2021