Name of Project / DAO / Company
Harmony Nigeria DAO
Application type
Community DAO
Proposal overview
We propose to launch a Nigerian DAO Community for Harmony. The end goal is to Build a community inclusive, community-owned and self-sustaining ecosystem for Nigerian users while expanding the community and messaging on Harmony around Nigeria.
What problem are we solving?
Over the last decade, the adoption of blockchain technology has offered users multiple options and scalability towards ease of doing business transactions across the African continent. This has made the African continent progressively move towards embracing technology. Several reports have indicated Africa is one of the fastest-growing markets for cryptocurrency adoption. Markets like Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania have seen some of the highest grass-roots adoptions globally and ranked in the top 20 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Amongst these African countries, Nigeria ranks fifth in the world in the global crypto adoption index (Chainalysis, 2021).
This shows the great interest of the populace and the increased adoption of cryptocurrency by Nigerians. Couple with the fact that Nigeria is by far the most populated country in Africa with a population of over 200 million people (with one the youngest population in the world), the market size for the nation cannot be over overemphasised - making it one of the most vibrant markets in the world, with a potential to have one of the highest transaction volumes for centralised/decentralised services and one poised to experience explosive growth of DeFi.
However, the problem surrounding cryptocurrency adoption in Africa, besides the lack of reliable and affordable internet, particularly beyond urban areas, is the varying level of financial literacy and knowledge gaps. Although the potential seems immense, the longer it takes this information to get to the general public, especially the younger generation, the less likely they will tap into these technologies. That means decentralised finance and cryptocurrency could be at risk of being extremely niche in the future in Africa.
How do we intend to solve the problem?
We believe that the first step to mitigating these challenges and positioning to capture more value in the region as people move to integrate and adopt blockchain, DAO, DeFi and NFTs to solve real-life issues in Africa from government administration and elections through DAOS, DeFi in lending and banking the under(un)banked and using blockchain infrastructures for payment rails, various platforms (Harmony Nigeria - DAO) needs to make it Harmony core easier for people who are entirely new to cryptocurrency understand it better.
There must be efforts to translate and localise educational material into significant languages in Nigeria and the hundreds of other dialects. DAO Nigeria will translate the different local languages so that the elderly population and those who may not be in urban areas can access the information.
Five (5) of Pillars of Harmony Nigeria DAO
- Awareness: Our mandate for this pillar is to, first of all, localise content in the region we are focusing on. For this, we believe having content in the areas will go a long way in exposing the people in that region to the opportunities Harmony has to offer.
- Adoption: We will also initiate initiatives to onboard and Inspire new community members through events, newsletters etc.
- Engagement: Approach universities/institutions of higher learning to promote Harmony, sponsorship of events, Hackathons etc.
- Community: Utilise community initiatives to create and encourage active community participation. Organise crypto talks, workshops and share communities perks and opportunities.
- Scalability: Encourage, guide and encourage community members to build projects and integrate with Harmony.
Execution Module
- Positive PR influence:
At the Nigeria Harmony DAO, we believe it is crucial to spread the word on the benefits of Blockchain and Harmony considering the fact the continent (a large segment of the society and the government and its regulators) still have fully gotten a grasp of the technologies and its full benefits to the region (most still regarding the technology as a scam or a get rich scheme).
Hence, we will prioritise training, collaboration, and awareness in different forms to change the narrative and put from the benefits the technology offers to the general public. We also hope to renege with journalists and media houses to spread positive news on their technology and, importantly, future Harmony in a local publication, covers some of the works we will be doing in the region and advertise our initiative to a larger audience.
- Conferences and Event Sponsorships:
To grow the community, we propose to support local events, where we pitch on Harmony, have booths where people can interact, expose the project to a large audience and get some sort of market credibility and acceptance. We believe that a large conference provides a solid opportunity to inspire and guide early adopters, enthusiasts and builders.
- Education
One of our top mandates and goal for DAO Nigeria is to bridge the knowledge gap for most Nigerians on Blockchain and Harmony. But not just that, we want to increase the technical understanding of Harmony among African developers.
Team
Bloqfury is a Lagos based blockchain innovation lab with a core mandate of promoting blockchain adoption on the African Continent while encouraging different projects to scale in the region with our deep industry understanding and local market presence.
We have over 30+ years of relevant experience in blockchain development, content and language translation, community management, social media expert and emerging tech rollouts. We envision a future where blockchain technology is seamlessly integrated into society (starting from Africa and scaling to other frontier markets). We see a world where stable currencies are a fundamental human right and a situation where access to stable money is not a privilege enjoyed by a few. We use our resources, voice, community, and projects to change the world.
As an entity, we run community management services that change how projects are reached through social media or other channels online. We also offer integral and innovative blockchain marketing solutions addressing pain points across all areas related to the rapidly expanding usage of stable coins. This grant will help immensely support our communities by offering free online and in-person events, outreach efforts, community projects, media production, etc. This includes equipment, logistical and venue costs, improving the quality and access to our media (videos, photos, written, audio, etc.).
Alignment with Harmony
- We strongly believe in Harmony and its impact on the African Continent.
- Our team in Nigeria have worked across key industries (advertising, tech, blockchain, AI/ML, edutech) and has built the capability to successfully deliver the goals per milestone.
- We are Africans; hence, we have the local knowledge to seed growth in the region we plan to grow the project.
- Our team is a crosscut of experienced blockchain developers, enthusiasts, community builders as team members, and they believe in DeFi and open banking for the future.
Core Team / Moderators.
- Olawunmi Olaniyan
Role: Community Manager
Profile Brief: Olawunmi Olaniyan is a seasoned community manager with a special love for human resources and personnel management, blockchain and web3. I excel in organising community meetups - both tech and lifestyle and, in recent times, managing communities for blockchain communities, including Ocean Protocol Nigeria.
Awards / Qualifications:
- B.Ed Primary Education Studies
- Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resources Management
- Associate, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management
- Oluwayinka Adeyemo
Role: Moderator, Content writer & translator.
Profile Brief: Yinka is a creative native with an undiluted empathy for technology (UX), Web3, Defi & Blockchain. I enjoy generating and translating content that people with similar interests can easily consume.
Relevant Experience:
- B.Sc Computer Science Isfop university Benin.
- Translator at Novatia
- Translator at Ocean Protocol Nigeria
- Abel Agoi
Role: Moderator / Technical Lead
Profile Brief: Agoi Abel is a Blockchain developer with over 13 years of experience as a full-stack developer. An Instructor whose current interests lie in web accessibility, solving complex problems using web technologies and creating technical content.
Awards / Qualifications:
- B.Sc Computer Science
- Master’s Computer Science
- Chinonso Ezebuiro
Role: Head of Growth
Relevant experience: Chinonso combines his proficiency in technology, marketing, and management expertise to create exceptional experiences for the consumer. He is a brand, digital and technology strategist, tapping into user insights to deliver high-value adoption. He has over four years of experience working as part of technology and creative teams in Nigeria. He has worked as a growth specialist for tech startups; he has built the capacity to drive growth for AI/ML, Blockchain, and Web3 based products and projects.
Awards and Qualifications:
- B.Sc Physics
- Executive masters, International Marketing Strategy
- Postgraduate certificate, Technology, entrepreneurship, and design
- Microsoft certified Azure AI fundamentals.
Proposal ask
We requesting for the total funding of $57,125
Justification
Milestone Breakdown / Deliverables
Milestone 1: Content Translation (open.harmony.one), Localised Website Development and General Harmony SM and Website content.
- Create Harmony Nigeria DAO Website with an Educational module. ($4500)
- Create a newsletter blog site hosted on the localised Harmony website for Nigeria Community. (Moderators)
- Translate open.harmony.one and other Harmony content into the three major native languages in Nigeria plus Pidgin English. ($7000)
- Moderation Incentives for 2 moderators/month ($400)
Timeline: 1.5 Months
Budget - $11,900
Milestone 2: Community Activation, Building and Engagement.
- Local telegram channels and social media accounts setup and management (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Instagram, newsletter subscribers). (Moderators)
- Onboard community moderators and governors. 5 Moderators with a budget of $150/month for three months. ($2,250)
- Content Marketing ($3,000)
- Online marketing campaigns & PR to seed growth ($5,000)
- Community retention/incentive programs - organise AMA, instigate discussions and reward participation ($2,500).
Deliverables
- Create local telegram channels and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Instagram, newsletter subscribers), managed and sustained.
- Marketing and building the accounts to > 1,000 followings on all social media platforms.
- Onboard community moderators and managers to manage the different communities.
- Design and implement community retention strategies - organise AMA, instigate discussions and reward participation.
- Get media features on local publications.
- Increase Website visits for Harmony.
Timeline: 2 Months
Budget: $12,750
Milestone 3: Monthly Events and Outreach
Organise outreaches in Lagos to focus on women corporations, University campuses in Nigeria, which will start from the University of Lagos and spread across state universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. This would drive awareness, engage enthusiasts during the events by organising quick Q&A sessions and Quizzes and onboard ambassadors.
This grant will help immensely support our communities by offering free online and in-person events, outreach efforts, community projects, media production, etc. This includes equipment, logistical and venue costs, improving the quality and access to our media (videos, photos, written, audio, etc.). A detailed budget breakdown is highlighted below.
This will increase the visibility of the project and lead to more activities.
Key deliverables:
-
Onboard 100 developers to Harmony Dev. Channels that will form the building block for more DeFi projects and Harmony for Good Projects.
-
Onboard 150 community ambassadors to the Harmony network to continue growing and evangelising for the Harmony community even after our engagement.
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Increase Harmony’s online and offline ranking/credibility in the Nigerian tech space.
Timeline: 3 Months
Budget: $14,975
Milestone 4: Educational Program (technical and non-technical)
- This is our approach to create awareness through strategic media platforms, create content about Harmony protocol and its offering, build anticipation and excitement in the target audience’s minds, and build a solid database of prospective developers. We currently have a talent pipeline of developers in Nigeria, and we intend to increase this and sustain it as we grow.
- Organise developer meetups to communicate the Harmony ecosystem through viral campaigns and build and grow a loyal community of Harmony adopters. ($3,000)
- Launch the Harmony Dev4Block platform and first cohort. ($5,000)
- Plan and execute online marketing campaigns to seed growth and increase the activation of more developers. ($2,000)
- Developer perks. ($3,000)
- Moderators and mentor stipends ($4,500)
Timeline: 2 months
Budget: $17,500
Metrics for success
Technical training
The training will target advanced web2 developers who still do not use blockchain professionally, even if they are familiar with the technical concepts. The focus of the sessions will be to introduce them to the technology, including the Harmony protocol. We intend to deliver these in person whenever possible and by a senior developer. At the end of the sessions, participants should be fluent enough to build on Harmony. To facilitate this and make it widely acceptable and famous, we will be launching a particular developer program sponsored by harmony called Harmony Dev4block.
Training metrics:
- Number of engineers who complete the training, including a final evaluation.
Non-technical training
This will focus on organising Meetups to promote and answer questions on Harmony (knowledge transfer). We intend to start the events in Lagos and organise a minimum of one monthly meet-up in Lekki, Ikeja, and Yaba. We are starting with Lagos because it is the most populated state in Nigeria and Africa and the nation’s tech hub.
Non-technical training metrics:
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Increased engagement with Harmony’s site from Nigeria.
-
Number of participants.
- Harmony BUILDL:
One of our key goals is to support Nigerian developers as they create their DAOs and Projects on Harmony. We will provide mentorship to the top developers in our pool, cluster others into developer pools and direct or mentor others to develop their projects on Near. For some projects, we will work with these developers to detect practical use cases and then design the product requirement, improve the MVPs and execute up to testing and launch. We will also try to match technical and non-technical cohorts in our ecosystem to build long term scalable solutions on Harmony.
Harmony BUILDL Metrics:
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Number of grant applications from Nigeria supported by the Nigerian DAO.
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Number of projects developed with Harmony.
- Harmony for Good:
Content is not enough for Nigerians to see how Harmony will create a long-lasting impact. Nigeria is faced with many financial and administrative problems. We will work on seeding the emergence of projects to address these issues. Some areas will be focused on:
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Payment, Remittances and DeFi Possibilities: At the core of Blockchain is the promise for swift settlements; it is on this premise that new will test project that we solve the payment and movement of value issues in Nigeria, allowing people without bank accounts and those that doesn’t have credit scores to also benefit from the financial system. This will be powered and promoted by Harmony.
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NFT for young artists creators (employment) - Partnership with Nike Art Gallery: Talent is distributed; the opportunity is not. This is the case for most young artists in Nigeria who have unique crafted artworks but lack patronage. Our goal will be to mint them into NFTs and connect to a global audience. This will employ the youth and make them believe in Harmony as a project for hope. The adoption afterwards can only be cult-like.
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NFT for reserves conservation and biodiversity in the North part of Nigeria affected by Terrorism and mindless animal hunting (Pilot at Yankari game reserve, Bauch State): Launch NFT initiate to immortalise extinct reserve in the far North of Nigeria affected by attacks and ruthless hunting. This will create a sense of purpose and serve as a way of crossing funding to protect these animals and immortalise them.
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Land Use Dispute DAO (Kaduna as a case study).
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PPP Dispute Arbitration DAO Arbitration (Pilot in Abuja, the federal capital territory)
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Agro value chain tracing for farmers in the middle belt (with a Pilot in Benue state - the nation’s food basket).
External links
[Project link, demo, whitepaper, video]
Previous Experiences for other communities
Ocean Protocol Nigeria
- Establishing a solid market presence for Ocean protocol in Nigeria with a clearly defined strategy and a tactical implementation plan for the local communities.
- Platform localisation and content translation of all Ocean Materials and Social Media as a market entry strategy to capture the interest of the budding community. https://www.oceanprotocol.ng/.
- By reinforcing our efforts with active community engagement on dedicated social media accounts created specifically for the local audience, social media campaigns, and community meetups, we increased the project’s acceptability in Nigeria amongst software/blockchain developers, data curators, and crypto enthusiasts.
- Our results show that we have had a successful run so far: Over 3200 community members in Nigeria, 140 localised articles published, and a consistent month-on-month growth rate, over 15 projects submitted from the community to Ocean DAO within five months.
Other Community efforts
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NEAR Nigeria.
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DFinity - ICP Nigeria.