Here are our unedited answers to the Gitcoin funding eligibility criteria questions. We have made them public so that our community can hold us accountable to the commitments within them.
Describe your project's approach to community engagement and self-marketing.
At the heart of our community strategy is a commitment to open conversation. Anyone who has been in Web3 for any length of time has experienced the need for this. You’ve been in a telegram and made a simple observation about a potential problem for a project. The result? “OMG don’t fud!” “Mods, can we ban the troll?”.
First and foremost, we hope to foster a community that welcomes any opinion (on crypto), as long as it is presented in a thoughtful way.
We have looked to combine this with a lighthearted meme culture to great effect. As we have stated elsewhere, we believe that fostering a fun environment is key to developing community. Even though we are one of the smallest projects on Metis, our community/telegram is more active than most.
We believe what drives this is:
- Team members actively participating in ecosystem events.
- Integrating memes and illustrations with our messaging.
- Providing easy-to-understand information on our website.
- Voicing unspoken or “unpopular” opinions.
- Not taking ourselves too seriously.
How do you plan to drive user adoption and a supportive environment within the Metis ecosystem?
The core component of our adoption strategy is our learning center; a hub of easy-to-follow and accessible information. Our learning center can be consumed as either articles for individual questions or as part of a gamified course. This course will lead a user from knowing nothing about crypto, to transacting on Metis.
Our eventual plans include more direct marketing of our learning center, but in the short term, it is the perfect place for any Metis user to send their normie friend.
Benefits of the learning center:
- Encourages brand new “sticky” crypto users to join the Metis ecosystem.
- Gives new users a roadmap for a positive and informed first crypto experience.
- Provides existing projects a resource to supplement their own marketing (if, for instance, they don’t wish to break down every concept within their docs).
- Will eventually make more complicated processes more accessible for all. For instance, our upcoming “DeFi for Dummies” series will provide explanations and step-by-step instructions for multiple Metis DeFi options.
Provide a clear roadmap of your project, including key milestones and deliverables.
As a project with no funding, our roadmap has to remain flexible; we have been fastidious about under-promising to our holders and community. Our roadmap is more a collection of goals and ambitions, which remains flexible while we await clarity on opportunities for funding and collaboration. It includes:
- Delivering a high-quality learning center.
The core content for our learning center has already been developed, and the gamification of the courses is being tested. The launch version will provide a solid foundation of resources for major crypto queries. As we progress, we hope to use this platform to provide accessible information on Metis projects and dApps, allowing more users to confidently transact on the network. The eventual goal is to market it as a free resource for those new to crypto and act as a pseudo sales-funnel to the network. - Providing unbiased news and opinions on Metis projects.
We have already begun this process in a limited scope through some early project reviews and hope to expand on it. It is the network’s worst-kept secret that Metis has had an issue with unsavory individuals extracting value from users. We hope through providing early reviews on projects, along with feedback to the teams, that we can foster an environment in which the good projects stand out from the bad through their willingness to communicate and focus on transparency. - Create community and “fun” through our interactive NFT.
We were keen to include a product that ticked both these boxes. The Vesta Newspaper NFT will mark key moments in the developing history of the network. We are currently in talks with developers about ways in which we can make it stand apart, including interactions that occur when it is transferred. The key for this is to create something fun, that sparks conversation and fosters a feeling of belonging. With that in mind, key features will include:- Low barrier to entry; obtaining the NFT will either be through staking an affordable amount of our token or through a low one-time cost (under $10).
- Great design and interactive features.
- Inclusive of projects across the Metis network.
How does your team's expertise contribute to the successful execution of the project? Please provide relevant background information.
Cobi is all about people. From concert promotion to helping artists grow, he’s spent his career building communities and connections. Whether it’s through traditional sales or managing co-working spaces, his focus has always been on creating environments where people can thrive together. As an entrepreneur, Cobi knows what it takes to solve problems and seize opportunities. He’s passionate about making information and resources accessible, especially for those who need it most. With his wide network and knack for bringing people together, Cobi is excited to lead VestaDAO into the future, growing its community and creating opportunities for everyone involved.
Cobi earned his Bachelor’s in Communication Studies with a focus on Media Studies from the University of Iowa. During this time, he kickstarted his career by promoting concerts and working at the university’s radio station as both marketing and production director, laying the groundwork for his passion for community and media.
Kehmor has been self-employed for 17 years, and a small business owner for 10. Working in the events and entertainment world has given him great insight into what drives engagement and interest. Additionally, as a member of multiple small teams, he is familiar with both tools and best practices for delegating and prioritizing the tasks that will have the most impact.
Kehmor’s educational background includes a BA in Philosophy and Ethics, which contributes to his questioning mind, unbiased writing style, and insufferable nature. He’s also funny af and makes dank memes. He’s an okay web dev.
Provide a breakdown of how you plan to utilize the funds in increments (e.g., first $2k, next $2k, etc.) to maximize your project's impact within the Metis ecosystem. Also, explain how you would adjust your plans if you still need to meet your full funding target and raise meaningful funds.
Our spending plans are purposefully frugal to account for any delay in obtaining funding. As a result, we have used what we believe to be realistic costs for each component, rather than padding the numbers to account for contingency.
Our funding priorities in order are:
- Developing and launching our Newspaper NFT.
We anticipate the cost for this to be approximately $3,000 for the launch of the first NFT, and a further $500 per issue following this. This will allow us to:- Raise additional funds on the first sale.
- Add the first utility to our token for future issues by making the NFTs accessible through staking rather than purchase.
- Increase our reach in the community whilst opening opportunities for collaboration highlighting milestones of other projects.
- Replacing and increasing liquidity (LP) for our token.
This will not only improve the faith of our existing community, but also open the opportunity for people to “buy in” to our vision. It will also unlock limited spending power based on the project-held share of the token pool. We will look to do this initially with approximately $3,000 (matched with $3,000 of $VESTA) and then add to it consistently over time until approximately 15% of our token pool is locked on Hercules. - Fund the continued content creation for the website and learning center.
Whilst the content that exists provides an excellent framework for what we hope to achieve, we envision both the learning center and news site as being constantly evolving platforms. In order to do this, we’ll need people-power. In the short term, this might look like part-time fees for one or two individuals selected by the community, likely in the region of ~$2,000 a month to ensure a high quality of work.
The media platforms will provide the following advantages to Metis:- Increase accessibility of all projects on Metis and encourage cross-project collaboration.
- Make Metis accessible to brand new crypto users.
- Foster a culture of trust and accountability through project reviews.
- Additionally, we anticipate the following advantages for VestaDAO:
- Expansion of reach and trust in our platform, leading to a larger and stronger community.
- Eventual revenue through affiliate links.
- Benefits to our holders by leveraging provided exposure to projects that go through our review process.
- Introduce more traditional marketing for our learning center.
As a platform aimed at those with no crypto background, we would like to do testing with marketing more common in Web2. This might include PPC advertising and social media marketing that extends beyond Twitter. This early round would look to collect data on the long-term financial sustainability of this, with a view to the learning center becoming a self-sufficient business. Initially, we would be looking to spend ~$1,000 – $2,000 per month for a three-month period. - Development of our decentralization process.
Earlier this year, we demonstrated our commitment to decentralization by having our first leadership elections. We additionally made a commitment to have further elections in the future, likely every two years. We would ideally like to develop a mechanism by which this process can be as trustless as possible, ensuring that the results of any election are honored through on-chain processes.
Is this a new or ongoing project? If ongoing, briefly describe your past contributions to the Metis ecosystem, including any CVP approval, supplemental support received, and specific results achieved.
The core of the VestaDAO community has existed since November 2023, when it existed as the memecoin, $VBD.
Cobi took over the project in February 2023 at the request of the community and was joined by Kehmor shortly after.
Since then, we have spent most of the time creating the infrastructure for our upcoming learning center, but have also contributed to the Metis ecosystem in multiple key ways:
- Promoted Metis events and added to accessibility.
The best example of this is the Metis Champs event; the content on our site achieved fantastic reach and was used by every one of the top six performers in the event. - Collaborated with new Metis projects in spaces/articles to break down the complicated aspects of their docs.
An example of this is our “First Impressions” article on StablisLINK that not only inspired clarifications in their docs but also led to a mutually beneficial Twitter space. - Voiced community sentiment in an effective way.
As an example, our Metis Deep Dive article led to not only a positive response from sources in Metis but also a change in policy. A relevant example would be adding more accountability to the EDF process.
We applied for CVP on July 2nd, 2024, and were unfortunately unsuccessful; we believe in part due to slow market activity at the time. Despite being the smallest project in terms of staff and funding, we came the closest to passing out of any project that week. We passed the token requirement quorum and were 20 wallets short of the total wallets quorum. We will be attempting again after the Gitcoin funding round.
We have currently received no financial support of any sort, including no token or product sale of any kind.
Is there anything else you'd like to share about your project, previous work, or other affiliations that may help determine project eligibility?
Vesta has participated in multiple Governance Votes, including a leadership election and a token burn proposal. As mentioned above, our commitment to decentralization of Vesta is a priority. This will take our ‘on-chain society’ to the next level as we have more and more meaningful governance votes, such as leadership, board, and council elections, along with votes to decide which projects we review.
