Grow E. Hemisphere, Grow Cardano

The Cardano community leans heavily toward North America and Europe. Growth elsewhere requires our support and initiative as a community.

A broad spectrum of people across Eastern Hemisphere assisted by the Eastern Town Hall, coming together and growing our ecosystem together.

At the end of this challenge, we will be asking ourselves some questions about the quality of participation :

1. The number of proposals that seeks to increase education on the language used by Cardano
2. The number of proposals originating from Eastern Hemisphere countries in Project Catalyst
3. The quantity and quality of funded proposals originating from Eastern Hemisphere countries
4. The observed impact of funded projects (meeting their KPIs)
5. Did we increase the participation of the Cardano community and Catalyst teams with Eastern Hemisphere residents?
6. Was there an increase in Daily/Monthly Active Wallets (DAW/MAW) as a proxy measure of momentum and engagement
7. Did we increase the number of Stake Pools and Stake Pool Operators based in Eastern Hemisphere countries?

We will also be asking some specific questions about the quality of the proposals :

1. Is there good feedback on funded project progress, failure or success that help us understand the nuances of deploying Cardano solutions across Eastern Hemisphere countries?
2. What is the novelty and appropriateness of solutions?
3. Are we on track to improve the lives of people using Cardano in Eastern Hemisphere countries?
4. Was social and environmental impact evaluation used to measure proposal performance?
5. What is the sustainability of proposals beyond the scope of Catalyst?
6. What is the long term effect of these proposals in terms of creating an independence/reliance from the aids of the Western Hemisphere?
7. Does these proposal actually help build a Cardano ecosystem that can sustain itself?

As in Africa, raising the awareness and education levels of the Eastern Hemisphere countries about blockchain and the Cardano network should be a priority for the Catalyst community. In this challenge, we provide funding for people who have learned about Cardano to take advantage of the community's support and build on or use the Cardano network.

What is Eastern Hemisphere? And which regions are included in the Eastern Hemisphere? Asia in general (North Asia, East Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Western Asia), Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, etc.), and East African countries.

Education here should be one of the emphasis, for Eastern Hemisphere to strive we need a strong developer production pipeline that can contribute and create products based on Cardano. Therefore becoming independent and not reliant on Western assistance.

The nature of the proposals for this challenge is open-ended. Their only requirement is to originate or focus on Eastern Hemisphere countries and include Eastern Town Hall members.

For instance, the overwhelming majority of Stake Pools reside in North America and Europe. The Cardano network will be more resilient when Stake Pools are evenly distributed across the globe. The Catalyst community needs to step up and intentionally make that happen.

Cardano started life in East Asia (Japan, Korea, Viet Nam, etc.), and Emurgo focuses on East Asia. Let's build upon that and expand Cardano's influence.

What this is

A call to action; Activate the Cardano community's ability to recognize, reward the opportunity to make the world a better place. Eastern Hemisphere is fertile ground for the adoption of Cardano. The return on intention (ROI) is likely to be high because projects in young and developing economies face less economic inertia.

Addressing different parts of the world directly and intentionally through funding challenges makes our community more accessible. It makes us more resilient. It helps us learn and understand the needs of communities that make up our ecosystem.

It is a vision that needs votes to become an achievement. When the challenge succeeds, the beneficiary is the whole Cardano community. It is a call to close our prejudices and open our eyes, hearts and minds to good people who lack the benefits many of us were born with—allowing others with fewer privileged circumstances to rise and succeed.

Challenge amounts should only be proposed in increments of 25K ₳. Other amounts not in these increments will be rounded up. E.g. 27,500₳ will be rounded up to 50,000₳.