The DAO of Moving Forward
Originally written by Pioneer on July 6th,2022.
The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of the current (July 2022) standing with DAOs that applied to the Harmony grant forum in 2021-2022 and to assess their deliverables compared to the payments that they received. As of this writing, $3,631,827.40 has been funded the DAOs listed below.
The above funds were largely used to pay the DAO leadership, their governors, in most cases. Hard working, dedicated individuals deserve to be paid for their time and we should expect nothing less. $75/ hr though? Absolutely not. We need leaders that will spend their time with passion and a true desire to attract new users and to maintain the current ONEs. The grant program needs an overhaul along with strict oversight and management to include follow ups. Those in charge of approving ANY funding need to be intimately familiar with the projects, DAOs, individuals, MultiSig treasury signers- from top to bottom they need to know where they are spending. We should implement more robust social engagement requirements, as have been set forth in the updated grant guidelines found here. Overall, the grant application process should be time-intensive, multi-faceted, and no longer easy to manipulate.
Our spending habits have been unjustifiably foolish and we need new processes and to either replace the decision makers or to come together and educate them on our new expectations. We cannot afford to throw away funds and we could not afford it in the bull market. Money is a privilege and it is not the key component of the grant. Opportunity is. We are offering a chance for anyone from any place on Earth with an internet connection and the time of day to apply themselves towards the opportunity to create meaningful, lasting impact on the Harmony chain. We need more active users, builders, and believers. Money is a means but it is not the answer. Passion, vision, and implementation of Web3 and real world milestones that yield results are the answer.
Qualified applicants can make a difference with less funding. Startup companies traditionally utilize very little in order to grow into a self-sustaining operation- this is not a new concept. DAO governors and project managers do not need to be paid until the subject is self sustaining or has produced their deliverables (in the event that the project is not geared towards income/revenue generation from its onset). We are currently allowing these grantees to drain their coffers while making very little progress with their funding because they ate it all themselves. The funding is for development, community engagement, events, and growing the userbase. And we need receipts. We could also approve grants and then require proposals for each tranche of funding. That way there is actual work required in order to ask for access to the funds and the grant team could send the payment directly to where it is required.
*** Please consider that some of these DAOs did deliver on their promises and that the price of ONE, in which they were funded, has fallen drastically (in some cases 90%) since they began. The issue isn’t always that they did not deliver, it is that the milestones from the Harmony Grant Team did not ask enough of them***
Tucsac DAO: A Spanish social media platform that was conditionally approved by
for the bootstrap grant of $50,000, but never funded based on the timing of the bear market and the updated guidelines found at the top of this article. Notably, the original ask from this project was $75,000, $50,000 of which would be paid to the (9) governors as salary.
Harmony Ukranian DAO: A regional DAO focused on exposure and inviting new users and developers into the Harmony ecosystem. Similarly, another Ukranian DAO proposal popped up around this same time, with an ask for funding of $50,000. Both proposals were rejected by
on June 15th.
LightItUp DAO: a Web3 aspiring (NFT) production company that specializes in outdoor light projection art that is employed to raise awareness. They requested a bootstrap grant of $75,000, $47,400 of which would be used as salaries to the team/ governors. The grant was approved on March 20th by
for the total amount asked and funded in entirety on March 26th by
. Their community engagement appears to have dwindled after attending a few Friday night meetups in the Denver area and taking a ‘roadtrip’ to the InfoComm2022 Expo in Las Vegas. They also mention attending NFT NYC. Last, they recently posted that their treasury is down to $5,500 as of May 15th ($75,000 lasted about four months) and that $2,000 was lost due to a MetaMask wallet hack. Their deliverables were largely superficial and this project appears to have failed to achieve a self-sustainable model.
Blu3 DAO: An organization that aims to onboard more women (1,000) by empowering their financial freedom through learning, exploring and building their careers and visions in the Web3 space. They are comprised of 7 DAOs total, each with a different function that follows their overall vision and mission statement. The proposal was granted immediate approval for $1,000,000 by the Harmony Team per
on February 19th and was funded for the amount of $25,000 on March 11th and again on March 31st for the same amount. These payments were specifically made to fund the ETH Rio Scholars fund. On April 14th they were funded $45,000 and again for $30,000 on June 7th as the final portion of their initial tranche. They have been under fire ever since due to allegations for involving their personal company with the DAO and their extended request for funding after already being awarded $50,000 for their 300+ page book titled “Create Wealth in Harmony”. There are also community qualms with the fact that a husband of one of the founding sisters works for Harmony. Overall, this DAO has engaged the community in ETH conventions and has involved female teams in hackathons.
Spanish DAO: A regional DAO seeking to onboard more of the Spanish speaking community that was approved for the $50,000 regional DAO grant and funded $10,000 for translating open.harmony.one on January 25th. As of June 23rd the last report was that this DAO is seeking ways to become self funded.
The Ambassador DAO: Woah. An in-person event marketing DAO that promotes cross-community collaboration that is a ‘short-term task force focused on creating long-term and sustainable processes with the intent to transfer processes to existing DAOs’. The requested amount was a whopping $414,716, which was approved by @samharrison on December 21st, and funded in the amount of $136,000 on February 8th and an additional $60,000 on May 21st. They appear to have hosted weekly events that engaged with hundreds or current and prospective users in that timeframe, as well as earned $75/hr pay for the governors. The treasury currently has $9,740 (please do consider the drastic drop in value of $ONE).
Naija DAO: The Nigerian DAO is a regional group that seeks to onboard users within their community. They were approved for the regional bootstrap grant by
and funded on February 10th $10,000 for translating open.harmony.one . Afterwards they were funded an additional $20,000 on March 23rd for gaining 1,000 Twitter followers and apparently for translating the… wait. Must have been a typo in the forum. Recently they hosted a Hackathon that brought in 140 participants, but they have been unable to pay the winners due to… lack of funding?
Harmony Philippines DAO: A regional DAO that aims to create awareness about Harmony to Filipino students and professors. The grant was approved by
and funded on March 23rd for $10,000 for the completion of their translation milestone. On April 22nd they were funded in the amount of $10,000 for 1,000 Twitter followers. They’ve since held 500 $ONE Twitter giveaway, and two MEME giveaway for 500 $ONE.
Aura Dogs DAO: I’m not kidding. They want to make a positive impact for the field of animal care outside of the blockchain space. They aim to create real world impact by spreading good vibes throughout the crypto space. They will also sell NFTs. This dog, I mean grant, was approved by
and funded on April 5th for the amount of $60,000. There is about $5,000 left in the treasury as of this writing.
Golden DAO: They aim to onboard Asian Americans through IRL gatherings and boast a membership NFT that was minted in ETH ($2000). They were granted via the Project-X program at EthDenver for a $500,000 investment and funded on February 27th for the amount of $100,000. This appears to be a high end project that allegedly raised $1M through the sale of their NFT and gained over 10,000 users across their social media sites. They also gathered 1,000 attendees for their LA NFT launch party. They currently have $12,800 in the treasury as of the time of this writing.
Meta Gamma Delta DAO: Seeking to inspire women to enter Web3 via scholarships, partner programs, and mentorship. The initial funding request was for a whopping $250,000 and it was approved and funded on Jan 23rd for the 1st installment of $125,000. They never looked back and have offered zero deliverables. They have also accepted a grant from the Polygon network, as well as many others.
Vegan Africa DAO: Yum. A Project-X DAO that markets to the vegan population, attempting to onboard 10,000 new users by tapping into the environmentally-minded community of Africa and its investors. They launched an NFT campaign that would then fund enviro-conscious startups and the holders are given vegan products made in Africa as rewards. This DAO used the Project-X loophole and was funded on February 27th for $20,000. Afterwards they deserted the forum and have not been heard from.
Mempodera DAO: Bring Web3 to the vulnerable (majority) population of… Brazil? Not quite sure, as this project was mysteriously funded after being declined under the consideration of the DAO Ops team by nature of Project Y by @boris_polania. They walked with funding of $10,000 on April 8th.
DoDAO: An educational platform that seeks to educate through articles and videos to act as a DAO onboarding space. They asked for $36,000 and were mysteriously funded after taking calls with Aura Dog DAO and Ambassador DAO. Allegedly they were approved by DAO ops prior to the pause on funding (no record of that in the forum), so Chak_Raam pushed for ‘emergency funding’ to save face for the 1DAO Alliance . Luckily, the DoDAO had also rapidly completed 2/3 milestones and were able to secure special funding for their creation of a Basic DAO guidebook and the DoDAO article/ interview. These milestones completions must have had a tremendous positive impact on the DAO community at large; payment was sent out on May 13th for the amount of $24,000 and a final $12,000 funded on June 6th. After receiving funding they cashed out and it has been radio silence ever since. Their site can be found here.
ONERu DAO: Onboard the Russian speaking community by setting up social media and the minimal objectives laid out by our grant standards like the rest of the regional DAOs mentioned prior. Great news,
noticed the drastic level of community support on the forum (there were about 10 comments prior to him, 9 of which were the ‘governors’) and decided to approve with the support of @nickv. This was funded for the amount of $10,000 on January 24th for the translating of open.harmony.one. Then again on January 24th for the same amount in accordance with the milestone for finding 5 other Russian speaking grantees. And again on February 10th for $10,000 for achieving the immense task of 1,000 Twitter followers. After completing these milestones they have held two in-person meetups of over 50 people. According to Shestov, one of their governors, they have been affected by the Russian-Ukranian war.
Harmony NFT DAO: Educate people about NFTs through online classes and in-person workshops. Ask and you shall receive. They gave a rough outline and name dropped that 6 of their governors were present for Project X in EthDenver and were immediately approved by ‘Danny’. Subsequently funded for $50,000 on March 1st. Radio silence for the past two months.
Harmony Korea DAO: Another regional DAO for onboarding and translating their respective community and language into Web3. They were funded for translating the open.harmony.one site for $10,000 on November 25th, 2021 and again on February 25th for 10,000 for achieving 1,000 telegram followers. They apparently made YouTube videos, articles, and introductions for the Harmony ecosystem. Over one month of silence from them.
TokenJenny DAO: Come on. Really? They got paid for their service to the community for allowing everyone to make shitcoins.
approved this grant and it was funded for $60,000 on January 24th. Afterwards, silence.
Portugal DAO: Bring more users from the regional community via the exact same initiatives as the other copy and paste regional DAOs did. Great due diligence
for the instant approval and funding on December 21st for the amount of $10,000 for hosting 2 events of 50 people or more. Honestly, good on them for hosting the events, but they looked more like drinking parties than onboarding events.
French Connection DAO: Onboard the French speaking community through social IRL events and online presence. Funded January 17th for $30,000 for translating open.harmony.one , having 1,000 Twitter followers, and hosting two recorded events that brought together around 100 attendees. (https://twitter.com/i/status/1487546806611415040).
The French Connection DAO - #75 by AlexONE0662
SpectrumX DAO: Implement psychology into Web3 by finding ways for those on the spectrum to be heard in this space. This includes a potential NFT project with psychology driven art. This 24 y/o solo applicant asks for a $10,000 grant to ‘live off of’. @Boris_Polania was able to approve this grant at EthDenver Project-X and funding was sent in full on March 25th. She cashed out within hours of funding to a CEX, never to be heard from.
India DAO: Bring more Indian users to Web3 by promoting projects, creating social media accounts, and hosting online events. There seems to be no actual approval, however they were funded $15,000 for their hackathon milestone on February 28th, and another one that was issued prior to that without mention until later for the amount of $30,000 for translation and Twitter followers on January 20th. Their last payment was received on April 22nd for the amount of $10,000 for completion of their 2 social events. The proposal is riddled with users explaining how this DAO cannot aim to tackle all of the Indian community, as it is such a diverse space full of over 22 official languages and many religions.
Africa DAO: Wow. Not just a region, but an entire continent. They seek to educate and empower African youth through NFTs initiatives, remittances, and potential land ownership. They were funded $242, 650 on December 4th as a partial payment. They’ve since hosted several in person events of around 50 attendees and later came under fire when the governors tried to change the name of the organization to Impact Plus DAO. Their treasury currently contains $1,400 and the forum has been silent since April 19th.
Beta DAO: A self-sustaining community for pre-entrepreneurs that seeks to onboard entrepreneurs, investors, and start-ups into Web3. They were funded on March 23rd for $75,000 due to their completion of their initial formation, hosting in-person events, and having 100 Discord members. They failed to become self-sustaining after the first quarter and now have $1,200 in their treasury.
Incubator DAO: Mentorship, connections, and treasury guidance for promising projects on Harmony. They were funded with very little proposal or community support on December 9th for $20,000.
zkDAO: A Core DAO that operates the Zero-Knowledge University (ZKU), which aims to provide unofficial training to Web3 devs and those who aspire to become a part of that community. Their students create zk projects and submit grants on them to hopefully create a sustainable model by the year 2025. Notably, their ‘teachers’ and admin receive $8,000 monthly salary according the their documents . Funded $400,000 on March 28th.
and $1,002,177 on March 3rd
Dev DAO: The developers of Harmony aim to onboard and provide training/ resources to the dev community through offering technical support and in person promotion at such events as EthDenver. They also have guides on their site and assist other projects on technical matters. Their first round of funding came as a $50,000 payment on November 6th, 2021 and they were most recently funded for $100,000 on March 21st to pay their governors for their work in supporting hackathons, providing bug fixes, and holding workshops/ events to further market the Harmony chain.
Aragon DAO/ Chainlink Challenge: Prize money for a Hackathon. It appears to have been funded on March 17th for $20,000. Where it went afterwards is a mystery. Actually, it’s on the blockchain.
https://talk.harmony.one/t/hackathon-challenge-chainlink/11423/6
NoBank Hackathon: This is for some reason listed as a Track 6 DAO proposal and was funded the amount of $40,000, which was issued March 11th. It appears to be Hackathon prize money.
Validator DAO: Seeks to represent and strengthen the validator and delegator community through increasing the number of elected validators, creating how to formatted content for new validators, as well as a mentorship program. They were approved by
and funded $100,000 on February 11th for their third term. Earlier, they received funding for $100,000 on November 6th, 2021.
DaVinci DAO: DaVinci DAO: (updated 22 July) The DaVinciDAO was fully funded on September 28th, 2021 for the amount of $50,000 after an 80% funding was achieved via communitypoll. The DaVinci DAO governors claim to be active in Discord/Telegram and running in contention costs mode due to the market situation. The Governors vehemently reject all associations that create FUD with the project related to past events.
Dreamer DAO: That it is. Lets fund 100 people that can’t afford to attend EthDenver 2022- $1,000 per scholar. Instead,
counter offered to sponsor 50 attendees and funded this grant for $50,000 on October 28th, 2021. Look at the wallet to see where that money went. I’ll give you a hint- not were it was supposed to.
Harmony Community DAO: Engage with the community and interact to spread the enthusiasm of Harmony. Funded $50,000 for their second term on October 2nd, 2021 and another round of funding for $100,000 on January 9th.
HER DAO: A women-centered dev DAO that seeks to include under represented female, trans, and non-binary populations through IRL events, competitions, meetups, etc. They appear to be actively attending conventions at this time.
It was just the vehicle to get the approval. Besides that, we could probably be considered a project that successfully made it from Hackathon & follow on grant to a start up company and a live product on Harmony.