Etherplan Crowdfunded Grant Proposal to the ETC Ecosystem

THIS CROWDFUNDED GRANT PROPOSAL HAS ENDED.

THE GOALS WERE NOT REACHED, UNFORTUNATELY, BUT THANK YOU TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED.

  • Etherplan is an active and independent participant and volunteer in the Ethereum Classic (ETC) ecosystem.
  • In order for Etherplan to continue, and to further develop, a research & communications plan for ETC in the next twelve months, this crowdfunded grant proposal is extended to the ETC ecosystem at large.
  • Etherplan is kindly requesting donors in the Ethereum Classic ecosystem to donate $205,500 so the plan in this presentation can be executed.
  • The funding requested is in $ETC, the Ethereum Classic native currency, and the ETC address for donors to send their donations is: THIS CROWDFUNDED GRANT PROPOSAL HAS ENDED.

Following is the Crowdfunded Grant Proposal:

Research & Communications Plan for Ethereum Classic

Donald McIntyre profile.

Etherplan’s founder has worked in the crypto industry for a long time and is a staunch Ethereum Classic supporter.

Purpose of this crowdfunded grant.

Similar to how Andreas Antonopoulos and Luke Dashjr work, the purpose of this proposal is to enable Etherplan to continue its coverage of ETC in the activities it has already been working on and to extend that to meetups and conferences.

Crowdfunded grant format.

The crowdfunded grant proposal is extended to the global ETC ecosystem. It will take place between October 10th and November 10th of 2019. If 50% of the proposal is not met, then all funds will be returned less transaction fees.

Sample of Etherplan ETC articles and traffic.

Etherplan has written more than 48 articles about Ethereum Classic in the last 12 months. Together with the continued support of @eth_classic and @ClassicIsComing it has garnered a significant readership. The articles are aimed to explain ETC in self contained topics, touching on widely popular kinds of reader needs such as “what is ETC?”, “why does ETC have value?”, “how does ETC compare with ETH?”, or “how is ETC complementary to Bitcoin?”.

Etherplan traffic in 2019.

Attractive topics combined with promotional activities on social media have increased readership of ETC specific articles. As ETC becomes more popular and the business and investment thesis is further articulated, Ethereum Classic interest should increase significantly. From May to September of 2019, Etherplan’s traffic was more than 10,000 unique users primarily to ETC specific articles.

Etherplan traffic in 2019.

The Etherplan YouTube channel will be used to communicate all the ideas expressed on Etherplan and to interview ETC personalities to cover important current events and news, as well as articulating an ETC vision and long term roadmap.

Etherplan presence on crypto-twitter (CT).

Etherplan is an active social media participant and promoter of ETC. It also actively helps in the coordination of network upgrades and reorganization actions.

Etherplan’s founder covered in the media with regards to ETC.

Donald McIntyre is regularly cited in specialized media regarding ETC, explaining upgrades, clarifying controversies, and educating and promoting ETC in general. 

Etherplan’s founder in industry podcasts.

Donald McIntyre further communicates and promotes ETC in industry podcasts.

Etherplan’s founder recently on CryptoGrownUps, an ETC centered podcast.

CryptoGrownUps is an ETC centered podcast. Recently, Donald McIntyre participated in a long podcast talking about ETC security, social attacks, defense mechanisms, and analogies to Bitcoin.

Etherplan’s founder presenting ETC’s principles, vision, & opportunities at the ETC Summit 2019.

Donald McIntyre gave a comprehensive presentation at the ETC Summit explaining his views as to ETC’s principles, vision, & opportunities. In it he described the underlying patterns that will make ETC successful, the misunderstanding of what is called “toxicity”, the future landscape of the blockchain industry, ETC’s positioning in that future landscape, valuation, performance as compared to high value settlements systems in the world, and opportunities for teams and companies working in the ecosystem.

Planned activities.

The planned activities, if the proposed crowdfunding grant is successful, are to continue with the research, weekly articles, and promotion of ETC on social media. In addition to these regular activities, Etherplan will conduct a weekly podcast, will conduct monthly meetups in different cities in the world, and sponsor large blockchain conferences explaining ETC to wider audiences. Etherplan will also continue helping in coordinating network upgrades and reorganization actions.

Etherplan twelve month drivers, budget, success metrics, and unit economics.

The total twelve month budget, and thus funds requested, is $205,500. The planned activities by Etherplan are expected to reach around 96,076 people with a cost per contact of around $2.14 per contact.

The cost of the Etherplan team for twelve months.

The Etherplan team consists of one person working full time. The cost of implementing the proposed plan is $120,000 for twelve months. That income will include Donald McIntyre’s pre-tax income and will be used to pay for all office and other ancillary business costs. The work will be done as a contractor, so no other costs, benefits, or liabilities are incurred.

Meetup costs per event.

Etherplan will conduct a meetup per month in twelve locations, in North America, Asia, and Europe. There will probably be one or two meetups in emerging markets, but that will be decided depending on meetup member count and estimated attendance. The meetups costs are estimated to be $2,481.25 per event on average, considering travel, hotel, promotional materials, and meetup organization costs.

Conference sponsorship costs per event.

Etherplan will sponsor four large industry conferences in twelve months on a quarterly basis if possible. This excludes the ETC Summit which is the default conference in which Etherplan will participate. The idea is to buy kiosk type or a small presence in each of those conferences, e.g. Consensus 2020 and Money 20/20 2020, to distribute informational materials and verbally explain ETC’s benefits to attendants. Etherplan will seek speaking engagements in the conferences it will attend.

The conference costs are estimated to be $13,931.25 per event on average, considering sponsorship, travel, hotel, and promotional materials.

Crowdfunding grant request between October 10 and November 10th of 2019.

Based on the information on this crowdfunding grant proposal, Etherplan is kindly requesting donors in the Ethereum Classic ecosystem to donate $205,500 so the plan in this presentation can be executed.

The funding requested is in $ETC, the Ethereum Classic native currency, and the ETC address for donors to send their donations is:

THIS CROWDFUNDED GRANT PROPOSAL HAS ENDED.

The dates of the crowdfunded grant are between October 10th and November 10th of 2019. As said before, if 50% of the proposal is not achieved, then all funds will be returned less transaction fees to all donors, to the same accounts they sent the funds from.

However, Etherplan would be extremely honored and very exited if participants in the ETC ecosystem can fund this proposal so all the activities can be continued and implemented to support the future growth of the Ethereum Classic blockchain.

You can see this proposal’s pitch deck here: https://etherplan.com/etherplan-crowdfunded-grant-2019.pdf

THIS CROWDFUNDED GRANT PROPOSAL HAS ENDED.


Code Is Law

Author: Donald McIntyre

Read about me here.