DAO 4 expert groups. Design a DAO model & tools needed to bring together a network of experts to collaborate around specific topics.

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Scott Poynton

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

scott@pond.foundation

Additional applicants

Magnus Edvard Nielsen

Yoram Ben Zvi

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

6

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

No dependencies

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

DAO

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG Goals

9 - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

17 - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Background Information: 

Earthtrust Today:

Earthtrust is building a radically transparent verification network

Trillions of ADA are needed to fight climate change. However, "more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest certifier are worthless, analysis shows" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe

How do we make sure the funding gets to real projects? How do we create more transparency and trust for money transfer? How do we know what the money was used for and what impact actually happened? This is why we start Earthtrust. 

We are building Earthtrust platform v1.0. It is an online model that will allow an organization or a company to define a claim and transparently share data and documentation to prove it. 

You can find more information at: https://www.earthtrust.life/ We are working hard on the backend system and expected to launch by the end of September 2023. 

Here is an intro for how it is going to look like:

We are partnering with bold Pond Foundation member companies and partners who believe in the Earthtrust vision and are ready to build this new, radically transparent verification model to create trust and scale impact.

• Partners: https://www.pond.foundation/partners
• Members: https://www.pond.foundation/membership 

All the partners and customers we spoke with agreed to use the Earthtrust verification solution once launched.

How Earthtrust started?

Earthtrust is a Pond Foundation initiative led by Scott Poynton. Scott has dedicated his life to inspiring regenerative planetary action with a particular focus on agricultural supply chains and forest conservation. In recent years, he's focused on climate change related initiatives through Pond Foundation. 

Earthtrust was born to build technology solutions to support Pond Foundation's work and to scale climate initiatives impact. At the end of 2021 a team of product, development and business expertise joined Scott to work on Earthtrust. 

As part of the journey we evaluated how to use blockchain technology and was awarded and completed several Project Catalyst proposals:

• NGO Transparency (Fund 8, Nation building dApps) 
• Closing report
• Closing Video
• 21st Century Agri Supply chains (Fund 8, Nation building Dapps)
• Closing report
• Closing video
• Buy Food & Make an Impact (Fund 9, Dapps products and integrations)
• Closing report
• Closing video

There is extensive work done, collaborating with developers, corporates and NGOs and testing how blockchain can be part of the solution. Scott was invited to share his experience at the main stage at the Cardano summit in Lausanne in 2022. 

The focus on this proposal, The solution:

Publishing claims on Earthtust and providing self documentation is a first important step.

The next level is developing a network of experts that can verify, question and provide comments around the claims and share their view as to whether the claim is verified. This will lead to more transparency, trust in the project, learning, sharing ideas and seeing how to improve money flows and impact on the ground.    

Our intention is to build a model for a DAO of experts that can collaborate on a certain area of interest. We start with the use case of Earthtrust to bring together a group of experts that can verify companies' climate related claims. 

The work we are doing can be a base for a DAO of any group of experts coming together around a common subject (health, research, Finance, open source technology). Key elements to consider in such a DAO will include:

• Expert profile (filed, experience, location)
• Expert availability (willingness to take part, time available, commitment overtime, participation, ready to travel...)
• How to define and structure interactions between daw members
• What will be the governance model
• How decisions are being made  
• How do we verify who contributed
• What will be the rewards model
• Tokenisation structure
• Legal structure 

This proposal will research the answer to those questions and more questions that will come through the work. We will also check what available tools & solutions already exist in the ecosystem to support the DAO structure and what gaps we still see.

Overall we aim to create a framework for Expert DAOs for the service of the community.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

The challenge objective:

"How can we make Cardano the go-to choice for building DAOs? What tools can we provide to enable effective DAO's Creation & Operation"

This proposal will build a framework for any group of experts looking to collaborate under a DAO structure. It will help to position Cardano as a go to chain for expert groups to give it some advantage in this area. 

Working on a specific use case will help to showcase the model and attract more expert groups.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The main measurement will be able to define a framework for DAOs of a group of experts. We will measure it by being able to answer the key question above and test it on a specific model for Earthrust.

Some of the matrics that will be measured will include:

• Number of Cardano available tools for an Expert DAO 
• Number of tools that will be analysed 
• Identify gaps for tools that are missing for such a DAO

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

You can see from the reports provided for projects done so far the level of information provided to the community. "The 21 century agri supply chain report" was set as an example for a closing report by the Catalyst team as presented in one of the town halls. 

• 21st Century Agri Supply chains (Fund 8, Nation building Dapps)
• Closing report
• Closing video

As the Earthtrust product aims for transparency, once we launch the platform, the aim is to have Earthtrust also as one the companies in the platform and sharing full details of use of funds and activities, including this research. 

Pond Foundation and Scott Poynton are very active in Social networks and especially LinkedIn, where the information will be shared as well. Here is an example of a recent post that mentions Earthtrust model to start creating awareness for the solution: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7080482150776500224/

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

The team has been working for several years and already showed high performance in previous proposals. Climate change, agriculture supply chains, carbon markets are all huge problems but also with great potential. Our team includes combined expertise of: "boots on the ground" working with related projects, experience UI & technology teams and business development expertise for social impact. Above all, the mission to bring transparency and traceability of environmental projects is what brought us together. 

Scott Poynton has been active in environmental and supply chains for decades. He has a strong network of colleagues and climate experts as part of his close netwrok.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal for the project is to build a framework for a DAO of experts and bring together all available tools on Cardano or identified gaps for needed tools.

Success will be to provide a guide book for the community on how to create an expert group DAO and through that to attract expert groups to develop their DAOs on Cardano. 

Those groups can be non tech groups so one success factor is that the framework will be understood also by non tech expert groups.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Main activities:

Milestone 1, 4 weeks, initial setting 

• Project initiation and project plan
• Use case definition - description of ideal group expert interaction, roles, activities around the Earthtrust use case 
• Prepare a list of companies and community members to interview
• Put together a list of 10 climate experts that will be part of the feedback group

Milestone 2, week 5-8, research

• research available tools and solutions 

Milestone 3, Week 9-12, build frameworks

• Onboarding
• Governance
• Contribution
• Tokomomics

Week 13-16, workshops 

• 4 workshops with the expert groups, each time about a different topic 
• Workshop with lawyers

Milestone 4, week 17-20, adjustments 

• Based on info gathered
• feedback loop with companies/tool makers
• adjust the frameworks

 

Milestone 5, week 21-24, market feedback

• Present to Earthtrust initial expert group
• Present to 3 other expert groups and collect feedback
• Final report

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Main deliverables

Milestone 1, 4 weeks, initial setting 

• Use case definition doc 
• List of companies and community members to interview
• List of 10 climate experts that will be part of the feedback group

Milestone 2, week 5-8, research

• initial research doc

Milestone 3, Week 9-12, build frameworks

Framework docs for:

• Onboarding
• Governance
• Contribution
• Tokomomics

Week 13-16, workshops 

• Summary of 4 workshops with expert group  
• Summary of workshop with lawyer

Milestone 4, week 17-20, adjustments 

• Frameworks update doc based on feedback

 

Milestone 5, week 21-24, market feedback

• Feedback doc from initial expert group
• Feedback doc from 3 other expert groups and collect feedback
• Expert DAO framework reprot
• Final report

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Milestone 1, 4 weeks, initial setting 

• Project lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000 
• Tech lead: 5 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 1500
• Research support: 5 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 750

Total: ₳ 5250 

 

Milestone 2, week 5-8, research

• Project lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000 
• Tech lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Research support: 20 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 3000

Total: ₳ 9000 

Milestone 3, Week 9-12, build frameworks

• Project lead: 20 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 6000 
• Tech lead: 20 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 6000
• Research support: 20 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 3000

Total: ₳ 15000 

Week 13-16, workshops 

• Project lead: 15 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 4500 
• Tech lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Research support: 10 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 1500

Total: ₳ 9000 

Milestone 4, week 17-20, adjustments 

• Project lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000 
• Tech lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Research support: 10 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 1500

Total: ₳ 7500 

 

Milestone 5, week 21-24, market feedback

• Project lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000 
• Tech lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Research support: 10 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 1500

Total: ₳ 7500 

Total budget: ₳53250

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

This framework is being developed within Pond Foundation as an answer to a real world huge problem. There is a lot of value in developing the solution already for clients and partners, as done in this case, so it could be tested on actual use cases.

Doing it with a reputable person like Scott Poynton will help to validate the solution and create interest by other expert organisations. 

Expert groups could be a great candidates for DAOs and building a framework with a use case, could attract various experts groups to Cardano.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept