The Black DAO x Olympus Community Grants

Welcome all OHMies!

We’re honored to be amongst the 13 projects selected for the Amanita cohort grantees of the OlympusDAO Community Grants program. Moving forward, we will be assisting the OHM ecosystem by acting as the premier interface for OlympusDAO to expand their total addressable market and exposure to Black and African communities.

As an organization dedicated to the funding and education of Black and African institutions across the African diaspora, The Black DAO has recieved a grant to support OlympusDAO in creating the building blocks to connect with Black and African creatives, businesses, and institutions by becoming a cornerstone reserve institution for supporting the emergence of new institutions serving those communities across Web3 and beyond.

Why this Alignment?

In accordance with OIP-55, the expanding aims of Olympus DAO seek to, not only, fill the gaps in the overall ecosystem between the protocol and the overall crypto community, but also, to build bridging relationships that support under-represented and historically-excluded populations in Web3. While, in theory, this is a task that could be handled by any community or organization with the motivation and resources to complete the work; in practice, this can prove difficult for organizations without the social and cultural capital or network access to effectively meet historically-excluded communities where they are.

For example, in corporate environments, ineffective Diversity and Inclusion programs often create a culture in which efforts to instill these values often fall short of expectations by being reduced to company optics by the overall organization, then slowly dwindling as a priority. Or having well-meaning objectives that aren’t complex enough to solve the root of the issue affecting company performance and morale. Well-meaning actions in this context could be received as cosmetic or pandering to historically excluded communities the programs are meant to reach. A large contributor to this challenge is a company’s refusal or inability to give individuals with said cultural and social context some level of influence over growth and direction of the programs, or the overall company.

An Unmet Need

As it relates to American crypto markets alone, Black Americans are leading the march toward universal adoption of cryptocurrency and NFTs. According to two recent surveys conducted by, twenty-three percent of African-Americans own cryptocurrencies, compared to 11% of white Americans and 17% Hispanics. Minority communities, who have traditionally been left out of growing industries, like alcohol, marijuana, and more, are eager to be part of this latest shift. In addition, as of 2020, the African country of Nigeria is a global leader in Bitcoin trade. A 2020 online survey by data platform Statista found that 32% of those Nigerians who took part used cryptocurrencies - the highest proportion of any country in the world.

While these numbers emphasize clear interest and validation of this niche market, even with the fast-growing population of Black and African cryptocurrency users, there is still a large education curve and representation challenge hindering adoption of Web3, amongst even experienced Black and African crypto investors. Not to mention a lack of widespread funding for creators, startup founders, and businesses both on and off-chain looking to take advantage of the opportunities that Web3 presents to our communities world wide.

By extension this includes the complex economics, philosophy, and ecosystem of OlympusDAO.

Fulfilling the Need

What is the best solution to these issues? An ecosystem alignment of course! We have constructed an ambitious strategy to not only address the problems of the global racial wealth gap and funding of Black and African institutions, but also the educational curve that is hindering the outreach of OlympusDAO (and the greater DeFi ecosystem) amongst historically-excluded Black and African communities. In addition to tackling the education curve our Treasury will work to accumulate gOHM to give increased influence to the new global reserve currency of the internet.

For more updates follow us on Twitter, and join our Discord! Also you can keep up with the progress and story of the Olympus Grants program by following them on Twitter! We’re looking forward to revealing more soon!

Sources:

5 Reasons Diversity And Inclusion Fails

Why Black Americans are leading the NFT, crypto revolutio

Cryptocurrencies: Why Nigeria is a global leader in Bitcoin trade - BBC News

Chart: How Common is Crypto? | Statista

​​Black, Latino, LGBTQ investors see crypto investments like bitcoin as 'a new path' to wealth and equity

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