Collective Wellbeing via Cardano 🍄

[IMPACT]

Our project invests in mental health on all fronts:

• Raising mental health awareness
• Implementing strategies for promotion and prevention
• Improving access to quality health care and support
• Funding research to identify new treatments.

Market: Millennials (currently 25-40 years) who seek to invest in their health but face limited support and/or resources

Product: An NFT project, Mushroom Mob, that focuses on promoting wellbeing for all. Mushroom Mob is a collection of 10,000 unique pixelated mushrooms (shown in attachment). There are 10 core mushrooms and over 100 different attributes including facial expressions, caps and items, resulting in over a billion possible combinations. We chose mushrooms because of their unique characteristics and think fungi are the perfect metaphor for blockchain and the ideal community. 

Process: Use existing social media networks (Twitter, Instagram) and online Discord community to sell NFTs. Holding an NFT unlocks perks that promote mental health and align with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidelines [1]:

• Community accountability for better habits in a gamified way, reinforced using ADA/Cardano NFT rewards and social feedback
• Access to free health & wellbeing workshops
• Access to health & wellbeing providers
• Access to a dedicated ‘Mental health’ channel on Discord (similar to an online forum)
• Join a community network of Cardano wallet holders
• Help fund mental health research

Points of difference: 

1) Mushroom Mob NFT holders get free access to online health and wellbeing workshops.

These focus on a multidisciplinary approach, e.g. building resilience, managing stress, positive psychology, nutrition workshops, guided meditation classes and yoga/exercise classes. 

This provides valuable skills and resources and strengthens the community network. Using a multidisciplinary approach (i.e. including nutrition and exercise) will help prevent and treat other related non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

2) Workshop attendees will receive an NFT badge/token

More workshops attended = more badges. This encourages engagement in a gamified way. Badges can be used to help pay for e-health services in future, increasing access to quality care.

3) Fund novel treatments for mental health disorders

7.5% of our proceeds will be donated to research psychedelic-assisted therapy for debilitating mental health disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. Respected institutions are exploring psychedelics, with recent clinical trials showing promising results [2,3].

References

[1] Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

[2] Davis AK, Barrett FS, May DG, et al. Effects of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy on Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021;78(5):481–489. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.3285

[3] Agin-Liebes GI, Malone T, Yalch MM, et al. Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for psychiatric and existential distress in patients with life-threatening cancer. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2020;34(2):155-166. doi:10.1177/0269881119897615

Fear, anxiety, and doubt plague the crypto community. Mushroom Mob is a unique project because it uses the mushroom metaphor of a tight-knit, action-packed community to relieve mental health issues. The Cardano community and the Catalyst community will benefit from Mushroom Mob as it inspires and maintains wellness in an innovative way. 

We will add value to the Cardano ecosystem with potentially 10,000 more Cardano wallet holders. ADA and Cardano NFT rewards will incentivise people to engage in online events. The Cardano ecosystem will be associated with health promotion specifically targeted to those engaged with the stresses of working with cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.  

Cardano’s grand vision and paradigm-shifting goals are stressful to those building it. The Mushroom Mob is here to help.

We build safe and lively environments - that is what mycelium does, literally. 

Mushroom Mob is multi-faceted and can scale exponentially, like the mycelial network. There is potential to address numerous other health conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. We actively seek opportunities to collaborate with others, with special attention and outreach to Cardano community groups. 

Mushroom Mob provides a path to improved health which also showcases blockchain technology. To our knowledge, we are the first Cardano NFT to provide evidence-based resources and workshops led by health professionals to support the community. Workshop attendees will receive badges/tokens which can be used to help pay for e-health services in future. This allows many to improve their health and wellbeing within the Cardano ecosystem in an innovative and community-focused way. Active collaboration with health professionals and health-related companies will also support the adoption of Cardano and blockchain technology.

We will share updates on our project through our website and social media channels (Twitter, live weekly meetings on Discord, Instagram).

The main challenge is establishing a team of health professionals to create the online workshops and resources. We must ensure that our team is diverse and matches the needs of our community.

Strategies to mitigate: engage within known networks (pending partnerships with Fungi Foundation and Mind Medicine) and create an initial group who are strongly aligned with the project’s goals and values; hold a series of meetings and training sessions; connect with potential partners globally

[FEASIBILITY]

This is an existing and on-going project that started in December 2021. From the beginning to present, these tasks are completed:

• Conceptualised Mushroom Mob NFT project
• Designed artwork
• Leap off of the community (currently 1055 Twitter followers, 200 Discord members, 165 Instagram followers)
• Created a website
• Co-hosted 2 weekly Twitter spaces discussing our project, health and sustainability (2-5 hours long)
• Pending partnerships with Fungi Foundation and Mind Medicine
• Provided 1-on-1 technical and health support
• Minted NFTs using NFT-MAKER PRO

Fund 8 will fund on-going activity

Phase One – Launch the NFT Project ‘Mushroom Mob:

• Release the first 3300 NFTs (Drop One) using NFT-MAKER PRO on Friday 18 March at 9 pm UTC
• Partner with health providers plus health and wellbeing companies through new and existing networks
• Ongoing community wellbeing challenges in Discord with ADA/Cardano NFT rewards
• Develop online health and wellbeing workshops
• Build badge/token for workshop attendees
• Donate 7.5% to a psychedelic research centre

Phase Two:

• Release another 3300 NFTs (Drop Two)
• Host first online health and wellbeing workshop; badge/token given to attendees
• Grow partnerships with health providers and companies
• Ongoing community wellbeing challenges in Discord with ADA/Cardano NFT rewards
• Donate 7.5% to a psychedelic research centre

Phase Three:

• Release the final 3300 NFTs (Drop Three)
• Monthly online health and wellbeing workshops; badge/token given to attendees
• Regular community engagement with ADA/Cardano NFT rewards
• Donate 7.5% to a psychedelic research centre

Phase Four (10,000 NFTs sold out):

Launch ‘Health & Wellbeing Hub’ – holders can use badges/tokens to access discounted e-health services

Milestones

After 3 months: Have established partnerships with companies and health professionals, Start developing online health and wellbeing workshops, Begin creation of badge/token for future healthcare access.

After 6 months: Launch monthly online health and wellbeing workshops.

$15,000 will fund 6 months of community building and 6 online health workshops

Developer – website elaboration, NFT launch - $1000 per month for 6 months

Project team – Implementation and coordination of the online health and wellbeing workshops, meetings with potential partners, engaging with the online community - $1250 per month for 6 months

Equipment, resource development and human resources for online workshops - $250 per monthly workshop for 6 months

Core team

Audrey - Co-Founder/Project Manager:

Registered clinician with Master of Health Sciences skilled in behaviour change and lifestyle interventions, multidisciplinary networks, Canva, blog/article writing, online adult health education.

Main focus: Networking, community growth, organise health and wellbeing workshops, resource/content development

https://www.linkedin.com/in/audreytaynz/

Johnny - Co-Founder/Creative Director/Software Developer:

Skilled with Haskell, C#, JavaScript, web development, wallet integration, smart contracts.

Main focus: Art, blockchain and web development

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-alipate/

Scorchill - Community Manager:

Registered mental health clinician skilled in cognitive behaviour therapy, motivational interviewing, psychoeducation and psychosocial rehabilitation services.

Main focus: Community engagement, resource/content development

Garren - Business Advisor:

Registered clinician skilled in health service improvement, health management, quantitative analysis, health economics

Main focus: Business leadership and strategy

Our project is open-ended and available for collaboration; we seek opportunities for new team members and will build a network of health educators.

Our Values

• Deliver results - Invite positive changes in members’ lives with high-quality NFTs and online activities
• Give - Give back to our community and organisations/charities
• Trust - Maintain transparency and keep our end of the bargain
• Integrity - Do right by our community
• Explore - Continue learning and innovate new solutions

[AUDITABILITY]

• Evaluate growth of our online community in weekly live meetings on Discord
• Number of Cardano wallets and transactions
• Collaborating with other Cardano-based networks and groups for promotion and community wellness activities.
• Reaching out to specific communities for inclusion, focusing on the developing world
• Document, monitor and evaluate each online workshop/activity based on engagement and number of attendees
• Increase the number of partnerships with health and wellbeing companies and health professionals

Short-Term:

• Increase Discord community by 10%
• Establish three new partnerships with health professionals or companies

Mid-Term:

• Increase Discord community by an additional 10%
• Establish a team of at least 5 health professionals to provide multi-disciplinary workshops and improve mental health and overall wellbeing
• Form an additional 3 partnerships with health and wellbeing companies
• Use badge/token to reduce cost of e-health services

Long-Term:

• Improved mental and overall being within our community, determined by qualitative and quantitative data
• Secure funding to address other non-communicable diseases
• Become a self-funded sustainable platform that highlights the power of blockchain technology to prevent and treat non-communicable diseases and promote mental health and wellbeing

Entirely new proposal

SDG Rating

SDG goals:

Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

SDG subgoals:

3.4 By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

3.4.2 Suicide mortality rate