Educational Onboarding with Effective Sponsorship

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Andrew Caldwell

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Incorporated)

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

4

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

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

We will create and sponsor, through reputable partners, educational content targeted at helping newly onboarded members feel comfortable and confident engaging in the community and using dApps.

[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.”

Yepple will be used for the onboarding website development as they are our partner in the BANK dashboard so we would use them as a vender here as well.

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

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

This content and deliverables produced by this proposal will be open sourced with an MIT License. In particular, this consists of the educational content generated for user onboarding.

[METADATA] Horizons

Education

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Our project launched during the early phases of tokens (CNTs) becoming popular on Cardano. As part of our launch, we noticed that many community members were not only new to our project, but new to Cardano altogether. This came with many challenges, since most of them were not familiar with the recommended wallets, how UTxO transactions worked and why transactions appeared the way they did, how to connect a wallet to a website, how to initiate staking through their wallet, and all other aspects of Cardano that many community members take for granted after getting comfortable in the space. This friction to adopt Cardano technology leads to fewer people successfully making it through onboarding and becoming a contributing member in the community.

In an attempt to help the new Cardano users in our community, we searched for onboarding content that would take them from step A to Z with getting a high-level understanding of the key components of Cardano and getting a safe wallet setup on their computer or phone. Unfortunately, we found that a lot of this information was incomplete, outdated, scattered, and effectively hidden. Staking, catalyst, mobile wallets, UTxO models, hardware wallets – and nowadays, DReps and Midnight – were all explained on separate websites, in different formats, and with different levels of accuracy.

We see a gap in the onboarding education for Cardano, and we are well-equipped and eager to improve this.

The first step of our solution is to generate this educational content. This will be a mixture of written content going into detail on the core concepts of Cardano, as well as video content (a series of approx. 1-3 minutes per video) for digestible overviews for those looking for quick information. The topics discussed in this content will include, but may be expanded beyond based on community feedback, staking, DRep delegation, software & hardware wallets, wallet browser extensions, mobile wallet apps, wallet address types (stake, payment, script), transactions and UTxOs, native tokens (CNTs and NFTs), Catalyst, Midnight, message vs. transaction signing, best practices for security, and popular/useful dApps in the ecosystem. The content will be stored publicly so that open-source contributions can be made, and a hosted version of the website will be provided indefinitely by our team.

The second step of our solution is getting attention and traction on the content to onboard new users. This will be done through curated sponsored content on partner platforms in the Web2 realm across various industries. We will negotiate below-market-rate promotion through these companies by utilizing connections that we have access to and by targeting companies that are known to have an interest in blockchain. We already have several partners that have agreed to show this sponsored content if this proposal is to get approved, including Yepple’s Fan Engagement platform – a fan-facing platform that is used for fan engagement in the stadium and at home during sporting events, as well as a national leader in insurance agency networks with reach to average end-users across America that prefers not to be publicized until funding is received. With these partners and more to come, we will be able to ensure that the onboarding content reaches its proper potential with an influx of new users to Cardano.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

The most obvious and direct way in which our proposal helps the Cardano community is onboarding and growth. By partnering with “real-world” companies to promote Cardano at a discount, we will be able attract new users to the community with a great value ratio. With the educational content prepared for these users, we will make them feel empowered and comfortable operating and exchanging value on Cardano, which will increase typical conversion rates and add valuable, contributing members to the ecosystem.

Even for users who have been on Cardano for an extended period of time, even years of transacting on the popular dApps, there is still a clear lack of knowledge and even spread of misinformation that we frequently see. Our hope is for this content to enlighten all users to some degree and help the community understand the object benefits of Cardano as well as where it has room for growth and improvement. This will foster a much more positive and forward-thinking culture and allow the community to address Cardano’s pitfalls in a productive manner while benefiting from everything the blockchain currently has to offer. Many of Cardano’s vital processes – such as staking, Catalyst voting, DRep registration, and mobile wallet usage – are still misunderstood by a significant number of community members. These processes exponentially grow in the value they produce as more people participate in them, so educating and onboarding existing community members to these processes is equally as important as onboarding new members to Cardano as a whole.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

With regards to the educational content, we are confident in the experience we have gained through consistent (some might even say excessive) usage of Cardano through many popular apps like lending, as well as working with our development partner, Yepple, to set up several different NFT collection launches, NFT & token staking, and governance voting on our platform. We have a large community of long-term Cardano community members that actively communicate and can help us identify the most common knowledge gaps within the community. Our team also has video editing experience, which will allow us to produce professional video-form content. For the technical aspects of the explanations, we will rely on Yepple to assist in writing and auditing our content to ensure that all of the information is accurate and up to date. The Yepple team has been providing development services on Cardano for over 3 years and has a firm understanding of Cardano’s architecture as well as the tooling that has been built on top of it over this time frame. Our team has been engaging with dozens of partner projects and dApps throughout the ecosystem for more than a year, giving us a firm understanding of the community and the applications available to users. Between our two teams, we will be able to generate content that helps educate and onboard a vast range of users.

On the sponsorship side, the founders of the bank team are both tenured business leaders with 20+ years of experience each and a strong financial education and background. With their standing in their respective fields, as well as the network they have grown throughout their careers, there are many companies that we would be able to partner with for effective advertising for Cardano onboarding.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1 (Planning & Scoping): 

• Outputs: Scope of planned research, including the primary and secondary topics that will be covered in the educational onboarding content. A per-topic breakdown of the critical elements of each topic that must be covered in depth for sufficient onboarding. Established plans for the location and quantity of content as well as the ratio of text vs. video content.
• Acceptance Criteria: Documented research is made available detailing a breakdown of the primary and secondary topics required for sufficient Cardano onboarding, along with a documented approach to the quantity, medium, and location of the content’s deployment.
• Evidence: Documentation in a publicly accessible location detailing the above will serve as proof of completion of the planning stage of this proposal.

Milestone 2 (Research & Content Generation): 

• Outputs: Digestible content in text and video form for the primary and secondary topics detailed in the planning & scoping milestone. Content is accurate, up to date, and sufficient for allowing a newcomer to navigate the practical applications of each topic. The content is publicly hosted and available.
• Acceptance Criteria: The content is available at a publicly hosted location specified by the team. The content covers all key topics mentioned in the proposal as well as any other topics that arose during the planning & scoping milestone.
• Evidence: The publicly hosted content will serve as evidence of the completed research and content generation.

Milestone 3 (Sponsorship Design & Agreements): 

• Outputs: Advertisement designs that will be placed on the platforms of the sponsor partners. Agreements with each sponsor detailing the visibility that the content’s advertisement will receive in exchange for payment. The agreements themselves will not be publicized, however the companies will be publicly noted along with the numerical details of the agreement (price & visibility measurement).
• Acceptance Criteria: Advertisement designs are created following industry best practices. The entirety of the budget for sponsor agreements has been used appropriately in pursuit of advertising the onboarding content.
• Evidence: The advertisement designs in addition to the agreement details shared by the team shall serve as evidence of the completed sponsorship agreement milestone.

Milestone 4 (Close-Out Report & Video): 

• Outputs: Comprehensive project report detailing the development process, community impact, and future directions. A professional video showcasing the project's journey and final product.
• Acceptance Criteria: The report and video must comprehensively cover all aspects of the project, demonstrating the success and community benefit.
• Evidence: Final project close-out report and a video link shared with the community through Discord, social media, and potentially additional locations.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

The proposal will be spearheaded by the BankerLabs team, which launched the $BANK token and subsequent staking and governance solutions on their platform. The team maintains several revenue streams (i.e. verticals) that were funded through the presale and following NFT sales, and the rewards from these revenue streams go directly back into the hands of token  and NFT holders. Our team has handled millions of ADA in funds, with several hundred thousands of ADA already being distributed as rewards. The two visionaries of the BankerLabs team have helped drive adoption of utility tokens on the Cardano network and have invested heavily in their partner projects on Cardano, particularly in relation to mining. These activities have given them a strong understanding of community, social, and ecosystem knowledge. Other members of the BankerLabs team have professional experience with video editing that will be used for content generation.

We will also utilize the Yepple team as a vendor for their technical expertise with regards to drafting the technical side of the educational content.

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Planning & Scope:

Perhaps the most vital stage of the entire proposal, selecting the topics and subtopics that are most essential to a positive experience on Cardano is crucial for onboarding documentation, since each user only has a limited amount of time and resources for getting familiar with a new product and community.

Cost: 15k ADA

Research & Content Generation

The “meat & potatoes” of the proposal, this is the actual research and creation of the digestible content, both in text and video form. This includes both the technical and non-technical aspects of Cardano, as well as the social and ecosystem aspects.

Cost: 45k ADA

Sponsorship Design & Agreements: 

Designs related to sponsorships/advertisements for Cardano onboarding.

Cost: 2k ADA

Direct advertising costs to partners with preferred rates, giving us the largest value and visibility per dollar to promote Cardano and its ecosystem/community.

Cost: 38k ADA

Ongoing Updates & Support: 

As part of the education and onboarding initiative of Cardano, which is the responsibility of all community members and projects, we are happy to offer continued updates and support through our Discord server at no cost.

Cost: 0 ADA

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

Our proposal has all of the key components required to improve the collective intelligence, understanding, and progressive mindset of the current Cardano community as well as create a new wave of empowered, confident, and safe community members joining the community. Beyond that, it contains the necessary funding for a meaningful outreach to new users. With these factors in mind, this proposal will lead to a more confident, engaged, and active community, which will boost Cardano’s metrics in many key areas including transaction volume, volume locked in protocols, social interactions, development activity, and successful project launches. With our experience, our wonderful community, and our partners at Yepple, we have access to a wealth of information and collaboration that is typically very difficult to fund, particularly at this price point. Considering 40% of the funds are reserved specifically for outreach/advertising, with partners that are willing to give us preferred rates based on our existing social and business network, we will be able to generate a significant net positive influx of value for the Cardano ecosystem compared to the cost of this proposal.