October 2021

The month of October brought a few proposals and suggestions to the CRC’s attention. Elacity is a budding Elastos based NFT marketplace who came into the fold with a proposal for further development and funding. Elastos Info formed a proposal in efforts to expand the social media presence of Elastos. CRC member Shijun Song has created a suggestion pertaining to finding consensus between the community and CRC regarding proposals. 

Proposals in the community spotlight

Proposal #61- Welcome to Elacity!

Sash from Elastos Orchard is one of the earliest contributors in the Elastos ecosystem. This month he developed a proposal to build his new project, Elacity, to new heights. Elacity strives to be the one stop shop for anything and everything Elastos related. The dApp already has the Elastos Essentials wallet linked to it along with being able to transact NFT’s such as CryptoName. 

Ultimately all of the funding to support Elacity will go into the development of the dApp itself. This development includes building a bridge, called the Airport, in order to import and transfer assets onto the platform. The team also plans to develop a DEX type protocol (the Elastos Stock Exchange) that will link to Elacity. The official utility token name for Elacity is being discussed in the community, and will need funding for its official fair launch. Branding, Marketplace and Auction House features are also in the works for this aspirational Elastos dApp. 

Two thirds consensus is needed to pass a proposal through the CRC. Elacity missed getting passed by one vote. Shijun Song, the founder of FilDA and longtime Elastos ecosystem contributor, suggested that nascent projects lacking a proven track record need to get results first, and ask for funding later. He believes that funding is needed to support more mature projects that have already developed a foothold within their niche. Mark Xing, Zhang Feng and Jingyu Niu all agreed with Song’s sentiment regarding the proposal. 

Other CRC members, including Ryan from Starfish and Elation Studios, believe in Sash’s plan to further the utility of ELA and develop more of a presence in the crypto ecosystem. Brittney Kaiser stressed the need for community building and furthering the Web 3 narrative through the Elacity Marketplace and DEX tools.

Proposal #62- Funds for Strategic Marketing: Influencer Relationships and Social Media Campaigns

The next proposal brought to the CRC’s attention was from Elastos Info regarding Strategic Marketing efforts across Social Media. In the past few months there was a trial conducted with Crypto Social media personality “Crypto Finally”. She has developed a very big following and believes in the Elastos project. Following Crypto Finally’s tweets, Elastos saw a 35% increase in Twitter engagement. Elastos Info has also worked closely with a data-driven project called “THE TIE”, funded by Elastos based Tuum Technologies. 

Due to the success of working with Crypto Finally, Elastos Info wanted to branch out and sign on more influencers in order to further Elastos education across the cryptocurrency community. THE TIE recommended getting 3-5 more influencers in order to best support Elastos social media presence. One YouTuber that was recommended and agreed to support the project is VoskCoin, who has over 430,000 subscribers on his channel. All the funds were to be used for compensating the influencers involved in this endeavor, with nothing going to the Elastos Info group itself. 

Elastos Info’s proposal did not pass due to a few reasons. One of the main concerns from members like Rebecca Zhu and Jingyu Niu was the upfront payments needed for the proposal. She explicitly points out that most proposals that require up front payments are not needed, and only specific ones, such as for Exchanges, would be acceptable. Rebecca needs to see proposals with high levels of accomplishment in order to consider bulk payments up front. Shijun Song noted that while an increase of 35% Twitter engagement was nice, it didn’t warrant such funding for additional social media presence. 

Donald Bullers, Ryan from Starfish, Elation Studios, Strawberry Council and Orchard all made points that Elastos development is at the stage for more marketing to be considered. It was suggested that the creation of dApps such as Profile, Essentials and Feeds, mean the crypto community is in desperate need for more education about Elastos. Finally, it was stated that dedicating funds to more high level social media influencers directly correlates to more followers in social media which leads to an increase in user base and ELA holders. 

Update to Proposal #56- Elastos to Lead and Sponsor Web 3 Conference

Sash from Elastos Orchard created a successful proposal which gives Elastos a big presence in the upcoming Web 3 Conference at Tech Circus. The Web 3 Conference will be January 26-27th with some notable speakers including Jeff Booth, Dominic Williams and Ben Goertzal.

Suggestion #124- CR Grant Program

Shijun Song posted a suggestion, CR Grant Program, in order to bring more influence from the community into the governance process. Song expressed his concerns that sometimes the will of the CRC is not fully aligned with the will of the community. There are certain projects that, for one reason or another, do not get granted funds through the CRC process. However, this doesn’t mean that these projects aren’t worthy enough to warrant further development. 

Song proposes that 100,000 ELA be allocated to a CR Grant Program for projects that can’t receive funding through CRC. He believes that a maximum of 10,000 ELA can be allocated to one project a month, and will give the community a say in funding dApps and initiatives they believe in. Anyone with an Elastos wallet with a DID and ELA can vote for a project which can lead to a 10,000 ELA boost for development. 

Song seeks to implement a specific process for aspiring projects in pursuit of funding. He has developed a grant application phase, voting authentication and rules, proposal rules, CRC involvement, and payment. Ben from Elastos Essentials will be creating the mechanism to tie all the voting together for the Grant Program. 

Follow-up on Suggestion #111- Engagement of a Marketing Agency to Provide Marketing and Communication Services

In August, Elation Studios crafted a suggestion to write a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Professional Marketing Services. Elation has spoken with a top tier law firm in the US to incorporate Cyber Republic as a legal entity. The CR DAO would then be allowed to engage with the best marketing agencies and do business with companies that only accept fiat, amongst other benefits. Elation Studios has since signed an engagement letter with the law firm, K&L Gates. The law firm recommends the next step is to register CR as a legal entity. The initial legal entity registration will allow Elation to open a bank account and conduct business in a few weeks.

The RFP process has been going smoothly and Elation has narrowed down a list to a few candidates. The winner will be announced on November 12th. In order to maximize funding for the winners of the RFP search, Elation would like to conduct a Q&A/AMA style dialogue in order to address any concerns and questions from the CRC. 

The RFP Marketing initiative has already taken time to execute, and will require patience for it to come fully to fruition. Elation has been speaking with multi-billion dollar marketing firms that require CR to be a legal entity in order to do business. The marketing focus has continued to be developer-focused, which will lead to more users, sustained growth and higher investment on the platform. The Marketing RFP is expected to be completed November 26th. The shortlist of candidates will not be able to commence their services until January or February 2022, at the earliest.

CR Secretariat News

The Secretariat has refunded 3644 ELA of unspent funds from the 8600 ELA budget to the CRC. Over the last three months, the Secretariat completed multiple tasks to assist CR. Social media was reactivated; the Secretariat has supported the CR Council as needed with proposal follow-up and phase payment approval; released three CR monthly updates; answered CR related questions from the community; and one quarterly financial report is coming shortly after the October Monthly Update. All tasks defined in the Secretariat plan have been properly executed. 

Conclusion

While the month of October didn’t bring any passed proposals for the Elastos community, there were a few themes and lessons learned. Projects asking for full upfront payment will need to have a solid and tangible reason in order to justify it. There is also a growing sentiment that projects need to have lots of accomplishments and a proven track record in order to be granted funds for further development. 

Another theme that came to light was the need for community governance. CRC member Shijun Song understands that the community’s voice is of great importance to the CRC, and the CR Grant Program can give the community a say in projects that can’t be funded by the CRC. Democracy, decentralization and community should continually shape the philosophy and direction of Elastos, with suggestions and proposals helping to guide and build for the future.