Public Nouns - 2023 Year (and a bit) in Review

Public Nouns launched in September 2022 and the past year (and a bit) has been an impactful one for the project and the community.  This Year in Review covers the slightly more than one year since launch!

For those that are less familiar, the TLDR is that Public Nouns is a decentralized community funding experiments creating value in the Public Goods space.

Public Nouns (https://publicnouns.wtf/) exists to promote, fund, and proliferate aligned projects that focus on serving humanity.

Inspired by Nouns DAO and the mechanisms it’s pushed forward, Public Nouns is a project that leverages these awesome mechanisms to help fund Public Goods and experimentation thereof.

Public Nouns launched at the end of September 2022, and has raised over 205 ETH in donations from its sales of Public Nouns.

Thanks to our Public Nouns founding orgs

To begin, we’d like to thank the founding orgs who helped get Public Nouns launched.

PG Nounders or “pNounders” who are pounding the pavement for public goods are the Founders of Public Nouns. This small starting group of aligned public goods communities kickstarted and deployed the initiative:

• MetaCartel (attr: Chili)

• Optimism (attr: OPossum)

• Moloch (attr: Demon)

• Gitcoin (attr: Bot/Green Pill)

• Panvala (attr: stampee)

• Radicle (attr: seedling)

• CLR.FUND (attr: Bubbles)

You can learn more about the origins of how Public Nouns came about in this presentation to Dream DAO near the end of this past year titled “Funding Public Goods with Public Nouns”

Quality People are at the Heart of the Public Nouns Community

The Public Nouns community has grown into a very special group of Public Goods luvrs.

High level, the Public Nouns community is made up of about 130 wallets (both individuals and DAOs) holding 229 Public Nouns.  Many of the individuals hold Public Nouns in their Public wallets often attached to ENS’s so you can get a good sense of the caliber of the community.

You can dive into more details in this slightly past Twitter thread about “Who is the Public Nouns Community”

What Value Did the Public Nouns Community Create in 2023?

Importantly, we would like to have the world look at Public Nouns based on the positive value it is creating.

So far, Public Nouns has raised over 205 $ETH in donations over 185+ auctions and is using Decentralized Governance to fund experiments in the public goods space.

What does that mean?  The meta example is Public Nouns wants to fund experiments like Public Nouns itself!

Let’s take a look at what the Public Nouns DAO has supported?

The below is a list of initiatives and projects that Public Nouns has supported in the Public Goods space.  As you read through, you can begin to realize the exponential effect that Public Nouns is helping to promote.

1. Oct’22: Public Nouns DAO retroactively gave away pNoun10 at Schelling Point Bogota in Colombia around Devcon, a breeding ground for enjoyeeeers of public goods, regen economics & coordination, among community nominated candidates who deserve to be an early Steward of Public Nouns DAO.
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/3)

2. Nov’22: Public Nouns funded a four month long art “Creative Capitol Exhibit” focused on Public good by IRL Art and The Golden Triangle Arts District who were awarded the opportunity to showcase an NFT exhibition for the Creative Capitol Exhibit November 29th 2022 - May 2023 at the State Capitol in Denver, Colorado.
   The 5 month, free to the public exhibition showcased 30 incredible and diverse creators based in Colorado, all exploring the theme "Public Good".
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/4)

3. Nov’22: Public Nouns funded the Blocks Garden project whose aim is to #MakeCryptoGreen, starting from Ethereum 1 Proof-of work by decarbonizing a % of Ethereum blocks (for the 16 blocks it would be making 224,64 MWh of Ethereum's historical emissions green)
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/7)

4. Jan'23: Public Nouns funded the Church of Moloch, an education entity that will give ETH to people who are interested in learning about crypto and getting involved in the mission of spreading the web3 gospel.
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/8)

5. Feb’23: Public Nouns funded an event put on by Pizza DAO, Giveth & Public Nouns to  Feed the Homeless (and Buidlers) in Denver around ETHDenver.  The event included a new “Pizza-it-forward”element that raised funds to feed the Homeless.  Additional pizza was also provided to feed the homeless.
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/9)

6. Apr’23: Public Nouns funded Protocol Guild 1-year vesting contract with 10 ETH.  Protocol Guild is a collective of 130 Ethereum core protocol contributors ✨ enabling distributed funding for distributed systems.
   They have their own vesting contract setup to take donations that vests over the course of 1 year: https://protocol-guild.readthedocs.io/en/latest/3-smart-contract.html
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/12)

7. Apr’23: Public Nouns funded the development of CookieJar, a simple zodiac module and front end app that builds on the idea of daily spending limits with a managed allow list.
   It's a great way to minimize governance around small tasks. Good for DAOs that have done the hard work up front of building trust or for delegated teams managing a "slush" fund.  The project is open source, and being built in the open. A POC is being used for Gas refunds in DAOhaus and for small ops tasks in Raid Guild.
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/13)

8. May’23: Public Nouns helped to support DAO Palace 2023, Incubating the future of DAOs and stewarding Cultural Heritage Sites.
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/15)

9. Jun’23: Public Nouns helped fund Raid Guild Cohort Season VI, to continue providing top-tier mentorship and resources to our cohort participants. Public Nouns directly influenced the development of future Web3 leaders and innovators who will contribute significantly to the direction of the whole ecosystem.
   (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/16)

10. Jul’23: Public Nouns funded DCTRL, a public hackerspace in Vancouver, BC, with the intent of live streaming weekly public interactive presentations about Ethereum, helping grow out resources in the space such as the main website, Sidewalk Controller, Soda Machine and other future resources like them, help raise awareness about Public Nouns and the Nouns ecosystem with rotating Public Nouns and Nouns NFT displays, Public Nouns Mural on a wall in the space, and help cover some running costs for public use supplies.
    (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/19)

11. Jul’23: Public Nouns funded Upe, a crowdsourcing hyperlocal community information in Latin America.  Upe is a digital space for locals to crowdsource and curate community information that’s important to them.
    (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/20)

12. Jul’23: Public Nouns funded another event PizzaDAO + Frens are throwing a Pizza Party for the People @ ETH CC 2023 which also included the "Pay the Pizza Forward" option to raise extra funds to buy pizza for a local social impact organization in the week after the party.  This is now done at every event, inspired by our first collab together in Denver!
    (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/21)

13. Jul’23: Public Nouns partnered to launch Quadratic Funding on Giveth!  The most critical part of any QF round is the matching pool and Public Nouns was one of the launch partners to seed and become a founding member of the Quadratic Force!(Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/22)

14. Sep’23: Public Nouns funded Gas Hawk for public scaling infrastructure.  GasHawk solves expensive and volatile transaction fees by providing a free RPC that submits transactions when gas is cheap - helping scale Ethereum and save its users fees.
    Currently this is a public good, as it makes Ethereum more accessible to more people in terms of cost, and also helps balance the network load. The grant is to help the team keep offering the service for free and expand its effectiveness.
    (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/27)

15. Nov’23: Public Nouns funded The Birth of Meliora, which is an educational project that aims to democratize access to blockchain education through an interactive graphic novel.  By providing free access to educational content and tools, it enables broader participation in the web3 ecosystem.
    (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/29)

16. Nov’23: Public Nouns contributed 5 ETH to CLRfund's DAC experiment.  CLRfund is running a Dominant Assurance Contract (DAC) experiment that feels super well aligned with Public Nouns.  Essentially, CLRfund is crowdfunding a QF matching pool.  If the crowdfunding target is hit, then all of the funds go towards a QF matching pool for Ethereum public goods. But if the crowdfunding campaign fails, all addresses that contributed funds are fully refunded and receive an additional 20% bonus.  Contributing a small amount to this feels like a win-win for Public Nouns. Either it funds public goods, or it makes a 20% profit!
    (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/30)

17. Dec’23: Public Nouns contributed 5 ETH to sponsor the next 2 QF Rounds on Giveth, supercharging public goods funding by contributing 5 ETH (or an equivalent amount in Glo Dollars) for the next two Quadratic Funding Rounds on Giveth. Support will boost verified public goods projects, ranging from OSS to IRL initiatives, and offers Public Nouns significant brand exposure, project nomination rights, and GIVbacks rewards.
    (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/31)

18. Dec’23: Public Nouns supported Dream DAO who is cultivating the Future of Web3 with Gen-Z.  Dream DAO is the only DAO investing in Gen-Z’s (15–20 yo) by providing them with the essential tools and opportunities to succeed in the Web3 ecosystem.  Dream DAO needs funding to kick off season 5 early next year, which will welcome new Gen-Z Builders and the Champions who will guide them through educational sessions, one-on-one mentorship, and internship programs. Public Nouns will play a crucial role in keeping the DAO alive and helping us to make this new season happen.
    (Ref: https://publicnouns.wtf/vote/32)

Public Nouns has supported a wide mix of verticals in the public goods space ranging from hunger to environment, from open source software to physical hacker spaces, from quadratic funding matching to educating Gen-Z on web3, and from crucial Ethereum protocol infrastructure to in-person DAO research residencies.

The hope is that we as a community can learn from these experiments, improve decision making and lean into the most value-creative ideas out there while still being open to funding the new wild idea that could change the world!

Public Nouns Operations, or "pnOps", is focused on supporting, promoting and growing Public Nouns

Public Nouns has a goal to fund any operational expenses separate from the funds that go into the Public Nouns DAO treasury via Public Nouns Operations, or "pnOps" which is focused on supporting, promoting and growing Public Nouns.

That way, 100% of funds that go into the Public Nouns DAO treasury via sales of Public Nouns can be used towards Public Goods and experimentation thereof.

With this in mind, Public Nouns has participated in a few different initiatives to raise funds for Public Nouns Ops over the past year.

These initiatives include:

• The Giveth Giving system and their isolated QF experimentation Rounds

• The latest Gitcoin QF GG19 Round

• The most recent Optimism Retro PGF Round 3 (results unknown still)

  So far, the total funds raised, including matching funds, have been under $4k dollars.  We are hoping to have more funds soon that can be used to support, promote and grow the Public Nouns ecosystem.

  Public Nouns recently participated in the Optimsm Retro PGF Round 3 but the results are not yet known.  Public Nouns helped to expand awareness of both Optimism and Public Goods funding via leveraging the very popular Nouns DAO mechanism and helped linked OP to PG even more.   The OPossum headed Public Nouns are a great representation of this!

If you want dive into more detailed information about Public Nouns, you can do that here:

Docs: https://docs.publicnouns.wtf/
Manifesto: https://docs.publicnouns.wtf/manifesto

Conclusion

As value is created in the Public Nouns ecosystem, we hope to bring more attention to the Public Goods space, leading a cycle of further value creation.

If you are interested in Public Goods, please check out the inspiring Public Nouns community.

Thanks for an amazing 2023.  We look forward to an even better 2024!