The long wait is over, family!

After successfully completing our NFT offering, with some small setbacks, we’re proud to announce the official launch of our reserve currency and yield aggregator platform! The smart contracts are currently live on our website and available to interact with. Users can now buy bonds and stake their owned BLKD for it’s sBLKD or gBLKD equivalent, and snag an inaugural NFT participating in the ongoing public mint of the Abstract Diaspora NFT collection.

As such, there are now multiple ways to contribute to the DAO, and even more exciting features to come! Tap in with us!

Why Now?

There is no more denying it. We are in the midst of another Crypto Winter. The Global Cryptocurrency Market Cap is down by over $2 Trillion as of the time of writing. Calls for regulation have been getting louder in the wake of financial disasters caused by Terra-Luna and Celsius, and the SEC is actively pursuing further litigation against a multitude of cryptocurrency organizations. Even further, the wider global economic landscape is just as bleak.

The World Bank is cautioning the United States’ Federal Reserve against raising domestic interest rates due to risks of a global recession, the fragile supply chains systems that slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic have yet to fully recover causing prices of goods to skyrocket particularly in countries heavily reliant on imports. In addition, Start-Up capital funding in many stages, excluding Pre-Seed and Seed, has dropped as much as 50% in Q3 of 2022 in America alone. All of this spells disastrous for the cryptocurrency market for years to come. So in the provided context, why does the Black DAO team continue to build and launch?

Its simple. ”Bear markets are where the BUIDLERS come out to play.” We believe that building products to sustain and expand ecosystems beyond Web3 is a job that will never be exclusive to any bear market. Our mission is long term. As such our dedication to building through the toughest of conditions must match a long term strategy. A true test of a teams dedication is how they perform during a crypto winter. We aim to continue to deliver.

Bonding and Staking

To both kick off the growth of our ecosystem and ensure its longevity as a sufficiently decentralized organization, our initial 50,000 BLKD token have been set with a soft cap of 1,000,000 BLKD, and an initial staking incentive of near 15,000%. As these figures stabilize, our hope is that so too does the token supply allocated to the greater community. Bonds are currently set to around a +/- 30% premium of our token price! Our Bond offerings are listed below!

Current Offering: DAI Bonds BLKD - DAI Sushi LP Bonds

Future Offerings: OHM BLKD-ETH Sushi LP Bonds

To start purchasing bonds, tap into our website and to learn more about BLKD Bonding and Staking, see an in-depth dive into the ecosystem here.

Our Progress

Olympus DAO Grants: Olympus Grants supports circular economies and financial inclusion by identifying and funding projects that assist OlympusDAO and current and future OHMies through education, infrastructure, and utility. The OGP was initially funded with $1.5M from OlympusDAO owned OHM.

As an organization dedicated to the funding and education of Black and African institutions across the African diaspora, The Black DAO has received 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. Read more about this collaboration here and below!

Assure DeFI: In accordance with our white-paper, we fairly recently completed KYC with Assure DeFi. Ensuring that users have full confidence in the identity and genuineness of our core team while still maintaining the privacy necessary for safely navigating as a cultural DeFi product within Web3.

See the link below for further verification and information!

Solidity Spade Audit: Spade reports represent an extensive auditing process intending to help customers increase the quality of their code while reducing the high level of risk presented by cryptographic tokens and blockchain technology. Our organization solicited their help to run a full audit of the smart contracts governing our protocol. Although a single audit isn’t a one trick solution to ensuring security to the series of smart contracts governing our solution, this audit was the first step in providing safety and protection to our community of supporters.

While we received a passing review from the audit, with no major issue reported, we will be providing the results of the report over the coming weeks. See the full announcement post here!

Abstract Diaspora Club NFT: As our first NFT collection, we focused on honoring one of the most prominent and highest selling, post-mortem, Black painters and artists of all time, Jean Michael-Basquiat.

These generative pieces included elements inspired by Basquiat’s signature style of abstract expressionism, while also including attributes representing diversity and inclusion. Effectively giving our platform an aesthetic identity outside of our economic structure and mission, while also providing initial liquidity to treasury and LPs.**

**Now that the presale is complete, additional primary sale allocations will be subject to governance. See the full post explanation here and mint the inaugural NFT here!

Legal Entity Formation: In an effort to safe guard our team and token holders from legal liability, interact with real world institutions, and provide an additional layer of confidence to our growing community, the Black DAO is officially a registered legal entity.

While we recognize there are some concerns over the structure of Delaware-based LLCs serving as the legal entity of DAOs, particularly around ownership rights and decentralization, we have instead opted to become a DAO LLC under the innovative legislation coming out of the American state of Wyoming. While the federal regulation is still his allows for ownership rights to stay with our community of token holders but it also protects our core team and token holders from a level of legal liability as we interact with real world entities in furtherance of our mission to fund and support entities across the African diaspora. More information on this will come soon.

Future Tokenomics Structure

While there has been some concerns over the reserve currency model, particularly as it pertains to rebasing and relatively high yield for staking rewards, the benefits of such model around fund raising, protocol own liquidity, and initial distribution of tokens is indubitable. When staking

However, protocols like Hector Finance, SquidDAO, and OlympusDAO, have been able to prove successful through the introduction of innovative tokenomics features that strengthen their respective organizations. The Black DAO intends do do the same, particularly through becoming a deflationary currency. This feat will be achieved through a combination of NFT sales, Inverse Bonds, and token buy-backs funded by real-return on investments.

Additionally, with the introduction of our auto-compounding yield aggregator, users will be able to contribute the treasury and mission without actually having exposure to our native token! This will allow for those with concerns over our tokenomics structure to still contribute to the organization while engaging in farming using their favorite crypto assets. To learn more about our roadmap, check out our docs page here. More in depth information on our plans will be released as we continue to develop and release.

See our tentative roadmap here!

Conclusion:

We’d like to finally thank our community of existing supporters, partners, and users that have given us the encouragement, resources and accountability needed to make this launch a reality. Our goals are ambitious and spread far beyond Web3 as we aim to become a central economic backbone to the African diaspora. We are creating an ecosystem of leaders, founders, creatives, advocates, activists and financial institutions all working towards the common goal of closing the global racial economic gap that has plagued our planet fand communities for centuries. While we recognize this to be a long ways away from the reserve currency protocol and yield aggregator being announced today, we also see the immense potential for expansion through collaboration in our future.

See the link below for all additional information. Come join us on this journey!

With Love, The Black DAO.

Risks and Disclaimers

RISKS:

Please keep in mind that this is a high risk economic experiment, and you are not recommended to contribute to BLK Finance with funds that you can’t afford to lose**.

The smart contracts for BLK Finance are currently undergoing audits by Spade Solidity Audits. They have also undergone thorough informal internal and external review by multiple 3rd-party actors. The results of the audit are optimistic.

DISCLAIMER:

THIS POST IS NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL, OR SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, ANY SECURITIES. ANY AND ALL SECURITIES REFERRED TO HEREIN HAVE NOT BEEN REGISTERED UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, OR UNDER APPLICABLE U.S. STATE OR FOREIGN SECURITIES LAWS. NEITHER THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOR ANY U.S. STATE OR FOREIGN SECURITIES COMMISSION HAS PASSED UPON THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THE CONTENTS HEREOF. NO REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY OR ASSURANCE IS MADE REGARDING THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN, AND IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE RELIED UPON BY ANY PERSON. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT REFLECT SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENTS. NOTHING SET FORTH HEREIN IS INTENDED TO BE LEGAL, TAX OR FINANCIAL ADVICE TO ANY PERSON.

THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS IN THIS PAPER ARE SUBJECT TO NUMEROUS ASSUMPTIONS, RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES WHICH ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE OVER TIME. THERE ARE MANY RISK FACTORS, INCLUDING THOSE RELATING TO BLOCKCHAIN AND CRYPTOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY GENERALLY, AS WELL THE BLACK DAO’S BUSINESS, OPERATIONS AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS, THAT COULD CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS OR DEVELOPMENTS ANTICIPATED BY US NOT TO BE REALIZED IN WHOLE OR IN PART OR, EVEN IF SUBSTANTIALLY REALIZED, TO FAIL TO ACHIEVE ANY OR ALL OF THE BENEFITS THAT COULD BE EXPECTED THEREFROM. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE PLANS, EXPECTATIONS AND INTENTIONS STATED HEREIN AT ANY TIME AND FOR ANY REASON, IN OUR SOLE AND ABSOLUTE DISCRETION, AND, EXCEPT AS MAY BE OTHERWISE REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW,  WE UNDERTAKE NO OBLIGATION TO UPDATE PUBLICLY OR REVISE ANY FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT, WHETHER AS A RESULT OF NEW INFORMATION, FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS OR OTHERWISE. ACCORDINGLY, WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT RELY ON, AND DO NOT MAKE ANY FINANCIAL DECISION OR INVESTMENT BASED ON, THE STATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THIS PAPER --- INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY SELLING OR TRADING OF  ETHER OR ANY OTHER CRYPTOGRAPHIC OR BLOCKCHAIN TOKEN, OR THE SECURITIES OF ANY COMPANY OR OTHER ORGANIZATION OR GROUP.

LEGAL DISCLAIMERS:

The information provided in this Medium Post pertaining to The Black DAO, (“The Black DAO”, or the “Company”), its crypto-assets, business assets, strategy, and operations, is for general informational purposes only and is not a formal offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction and its content is not prescribed by securities laws. Information contained in this Mirror Post should not be relied upon as advice to buy or sell or hold such securities or as an offer to sell such securities. This Mirror Post does not take into account nor does it provide any tax, legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the specific investment objectives or financial situation of any person. The Black DAO and its agents, advisors, directors, officers, employees and shareholders make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of such information and The Black DAO expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or errors or omissions thereof. The Black DAO reserves the right to amend or replace the information contained herein, in part or entirely, at any time, and undertakes no obligation to provide the recipient with access to the amended information or to notify the recipient thereof. The information contained in this Mirror Post supersedes any prior Medium Post or conversation concerning the same, similar or related information. Any information, representations or statements not contained herein shall not be relied upon for any purpose. Neither The Black DAO nor any of its representatives shall have any liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to you or any person resulting from the use of the information in this Mirror Post by you or any of your representatives or for omissions from the information in this Mirror Post. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed in this Mirror Post.