THE PYNE FUND

Stake pools operated for Cardano startups, charities, non-profits and "social good" projects.

Stephen and Phil combine deep experience in network architecture/engineering, large-scale IT mgmt, biz dev and corporate finance.

Funds requested has been reduced from 900k to 35k!

Read the updated proposal here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cZ47JUWxJW68QremyKnK9hGrw5Vv4otdsedysXol8Iw/edit?usp=sharing

Old Version of the proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U3WsGJz9_bg5DxKTngHcn1nTitv8FKtv8rqVGPkaazg/edit?usp=sharing

Check here for ongoing updates, livestreams and more: https://pyne.yolasite.com/

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Abstract: Traditional and "crowd-sourced" fundraising methods currently used by early-stage startups, nonprofits and charities are cumbersome, opaque and high-risk for investors, donors and fundraisers. The Pyne Fund utilizes Cardano stake pools to provide funding to great projects through stake pool delegation, proclaiming the benefits of Cardano to those unfamiliar with blockchain, while providing a much needed alternative to funding.

--- The Pyne Fund Mission

If individuals were able to donate to charities and causes they care about or invest in companies they wanted to see succeed, by merely moving money into a "savings account" they own, instead of giving it over to others with no guarantees of any return, would they?

We think so; and believe that it's possible thanks to Cardano and Cardano's stake pool ecosystem.

The Pyne Fund is a variant on a regular Cardano stakepool. A Pyne stakepool is created and operated by Pyne. The explicit purpose of the stake pool is not only to compete with other pools to complete blocks and generate rewards, but rather to use the majority of rewards to fund a number of charities, nonprofits, "social good" projects and eventually real companies/startup ideas.

What does The Pyne Fund hope to achieve?

1. Expand the Cardano ecosystem by bringing fund participants (beneficiaries and donors/funders) into the Cardano ecosystem in a simple to understand, familiar way

1. Generate real-world interest and optimism around new ways of funding projects on-chain while proving Cardano is best positioned for this.

1. Encourage a higher level of engagement by entrepreneurs and developers who can leverage what Pyne offers to fund their initiatives.

--- Creating the first Pyne Fund

The first Pyne Fund stake pool will act as a proof of concept, not only to demonstrate our ability to implement and operate high quality stake pools, but also to measure the level of interest in the community in contributing some of their stake rewards to nonprofit/charitable organisations or business start-ups.

The first Pyne Fund will be centered around "Sensemaking" and the recipients will be distributed equally to:

https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/ - Rebel Wisdom curated video content, online courses and communities and in-person events centered around moving beyond ideology to create honest discussions.

https://www.humanetech.com/ - Center for Humane Technology is dedicated to creating the conditions for radically reimagined 21st century digital infrastructure.

https://www.lesswrong.com/ - LessWrong is a place to develop and train rationality, and apply one's rationality to real-world problems. LessWrong serves these purposes with its library of rationality writings, community discussion forum, open questions research platform, and community page for in-person events.

http://civilizationemerging.com/ - The Consilience Project, by Daniel Schmachtenberger, is a non-profit, transpartisan media organization going behind and beyond the news to help people make sense of their world. Read more…

The Pyne Fund will work closely with each recipient's stakeholders to guide them in offering their funders and donors this new way to contribute to their causes via stakepool delegation through The Pyne Fund.

The Pyne Fund will also provide the service of ongoing monthly updates to the community at large on how funds are being distributed and the real-world impact those funds have (since most recipients will not keep all transaction on-chain) and in future phases, a community forum for delegators to voice their opinions and vote on some issues will be included.

--- What do we think success looks like?

Our aim is to generate real funding from stake pool rewards for the first Pyne Fund recipient/s from our first pool, and we hope to generate 250,000 ADA in the form of stake pool rewards over a 3 month period. We believe this is possible by attracting a modest 50 million in delegated stake, achieving a 3.5% RoS and committing 85% of the rewards to The Pyne Fund recipients. To demonstrate long term viability, The Pyne Fund will be generating revenue through a fee equal to 10% of the recipients total rewards share each epoch.

Off the back of this proof of concept (either once complete or if it is demonstrating success beforehand), The Pyne Fund will promote and engage potential future participants and build more capabilities to support fund recipients, such as:

1. Additional managed services (e.g. marketing, business administration)

1. Donor/New ADA stakers support (e.g. fiat to ADA conversions, ADA security)

1. Incentive programs (e.g. start-up token rewards)

--- PYNE Stake Pool Examples

In the example Pyne Fund stake pools created for sample projects/causes below, you can see two different potential scenarios, as the Cardano Education Program has a higher margin and lower delegator return, since it directly benefits and grows the ecosystem. The "off-chain" Micro-lending Charity is adjusted to give delegators a better incentive while still providing the fundraiser with much needed funding.

Cardano Education Program

Total stake - ₳68mm

Pool performance - 95%

Operator margin - 85%

Monthly payout to recipient - ₳223,900

Monthly PYNE fee - ₳24,880

Annual delegator RoS - 1.6%

Micro-lending Charity

Total stake - ₳30mm

Pool performance - 95%

Operator margin - 50%

Monthly payout to recipient - ₳56,900

Monthly PYNE fee - ₳6,300

Annual delegator RoS - 3.2%

*In both examples, k=150, a0=0.3, Treasury Rate=20%, Expansion Rate=0.3%

--- A Proven Model

Individuals and organizations across the globe are increasingly looking to blockchain solutions for charitable giving and ways to fund "social good" projects with more flexibility and transparency.

The Pineapple Fund was a philanthropic project by an anonymous individual which gave away 5,057 bitcoins to 60 charities. The amount was valued at $86 million in December 2017. Some of the themes supported were medical research, environmental conservation, human rights and psychedelic therapy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple_Fund

Founded in 2013, BitGive® is the first Bitcoin and Blockchain technology 501(c)(3) nonprofit, bridging the gap between innovative technology and its practical applications for nonprofits and humanitarian work in the developing world.

In 2015, BitGive® announced its Bitcoin Charity 2.0 Initiative and GiveTrack™, an innovative donation platform for nonprofits to provide transparency and accountability to donors by sharing financial information and direct project results in real-time. NGOs all over the globe have partnered with us, including Save the Children, The Water Project, TECHO and Medic Mobile, to maximize impact on the ground. Our platform helps nonprofits overcome breakdowns and challenges to do their work without limitations.

BitGive® was one of the first grant recipients of the prestigious Pineapple Fund in both 2017 and 2018; offered to us independent from the over 10,000 applications submitted for funds.

We've been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report, NonProfit Times, Inside Philanthropy, Chronicle of Philanthropy and other publications.

https://www.bitgivefoundation.org/

https://www.givetrack.org/

Stake For Good is a Cardano stake pool dedicated to donating money to good causes and charities around the world, where delegators decide how the rewards are distributed.

https://stakeforgood.org/

---Funding Request and Use of Funds

₳35,000

Informational Website (8,000₳): All Pyne information and updates. Intuitive "how-to" guides in the style of Tim Urban

Creation of 1st Pool (12,000₳): Robust AWS node/s with 2+ relays and ongoing management to ensure uptime and connectivity

Legal (4,000₳) : Wyoming LLC formation and liability waivers, disclaimers for delegators

Strategic Partnerships and Public Relations (8,000₳): Design of materials for PR blasts and co-branded marketing for Pyne Fund beneficiaries

Miscellaneous (3,000₳): Various targeted paid campaigns

---S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

30 Days: Form legal entity, 1st stake pool operational on the network, Informational website operational

45 Days: 1st stakepool beneficiaries onboarded, Co-branded marketing published, Official press release to major crypto outlets, youtubers, etc.