I took some time to look into selected PFP project ecosystem treasuries in order to better understand what the landscape looks like for how NFT projects are going to grow beyond the drop. Putting the themes of identity, tribalism and community aside, the next really exciting part of NFTs for me are the ecosystems being built around these brands and how communities are going to incentivize builders to contribute to their ecosystems.

The two ecosystems that I see leading the propulsion of community lead IP are the Bored Apes ecosystem and RTFKT in their own special ways. Other communities are starting to pop up in creative manners in order to employ unique ways to capture mindshare and creator capital through their grant programs which I will explore below.

ApeCoin DAO

• Description: ~161m tokens ($969m) are earmarked for an ecosystem treasury in order to support community led governance through Ape Improvement Proposals (AIPs)

• Notable Proposals: The ApeCoin DAO has passed 13 AIPs with some of them covering the following items:             

  • AIP-9: Boring Security - Ecosystem Fund Allocation (LINK)

  • AIP-21: Staking Process with Caps (1x drop) – Process (LINK)

  • AIP-36: Guy Oseary as ApeCoin Representative - Ecosystem Fund Allocation (LINK)

  • AIP-70: Bored Ape Gazette: Ape Coin Media/BAYC News - Ecosystem Fund Allocation (LINK)

• Voting Structure: Voting structure: 1 ApeCoin = 1 Vote

NounsDAO

• Description: A treasury which exists for Nouns DAO participants to allocate resources for the long-term growth and prosperity of the Nouns project

• Size: The Nouns DAO treasury receives 100% of ETH proceeds from daily noun auctions. It’s currently valued at >28K ETH ~$40m (LINK)

• Voting structure: 1 Noun = 1 Vote, a minimum of 2 Nouns is required to submit proposals.

• Notable Proposals:

  • Proposal 9: Nouns Bidder POAP, a badge to be claimed by the 5 runner up bidders of Nouns auctions (LINK)

  • Proposal 28: Send a Noun to the International Space Station (LINK)

  • Proposal 47: Nouns Events Committee, a group of dedicated Nouners who facilitate the organization, coordination, and funding of various events organized by members within the community and at large (LINK)

DoodleBank

• Description: a community ETH treasury that will be used to scale the team and begin experimenting to grow the Doodles brand

• Size: Initially started with 650ETH and now holds >2.9k ETH (LINK)

• Voting structure: 1 Doodle = 1 Vote, needs a minimum of 15% (1,500) Doods to participate

• Notable Proposals:

  • Triwizzy Tournament, an annual creative competition organized by the Ministry of Wizard Doodles which aims to highlight and reward each year’s very best creative talents across Web3 (LINK)

  • Doodles activations & contests funding + Doodles dust tip jar in order to incentivize community participation and fund community prizes (LINK)

• Other: Team set up quorum thresholds in order to ensure turnout is scaled appropriately for given asks: (LINK)

  • Stacks - the smallest of proposals. funding tooling, one-off activations, assets

    • 5% quorum

    • Less than 10 ETH

• Racks - medium size proposals like long term contracts or experiences

  • 10% quorum

  • 10-25 ETH

• Duffel Bags - major decisions and production expenses

  • 15% quorum

  • More than 25 ETH

Jadu

• Description: A grant program for builders to apply for special funding from the Jadu Community Treasury to build at the intersections of their IP & Commercial rights. Jadu constituents submit & vote on proposed grants, while Jadu ensures due diligence, accountability and distribution of treasury funds.

• Voting Structure:

  • 1 AVA = 1 Vote, 1 Hoverboard = 0.5 votes & signature hoverboards earn 1 vote

  • Upon initial submission, Jadu AR Inc, will have the final say in DDing proposals by reviewing leading proposals; accepting, rejecting, or clarifying key details KYC and milestone payment plan for large grants

• Size: 100% of the AVA mint proceeds ~$1.2m

• Other: Very interesting approach to the proposal process by combing the best elements of community and centralized control flows! Brands and traditional companies who are “scared” of DAOs could take note!

Cryptopunks: Yuga Labs recently announced the first grant for a Cryptopunk centric newsletter to @ricgalbraith and @lorepunkdoteth in order to capture important events as well as promote networking opportunities (LINK)

Ultimately, I see ecosystem funds as a tool for customer acquisition. The founding teams can only lead a project so far, what really brings a community to escape velocity are the holders who building at the bleeding edges of their IP bestowed upon them.

Jenkins the Valet is a great example of what the power of ecosystem grants can be. The project was given one of the first ETH grants from Yuga Labs and has gone on get signed by CAA and raise $12m from a16z crypto, dapper and others.

We can reason by analogy even further and take a look at how layer 1 blockchains have employed ecosystem funds in order to attract development talent to their chains:

The parallels here are strong: developer & customer acquisition through mind share will be key in bringing PFP brands beyond the crypto native crowd. NFTs are generally an asset that rises with the tides. As BAYC succeeds, so will Bored n Hungry, so will Jenkins and so will others by association. My friend @0xCaptainLevi put it in a way that’s easily digestible: PFP projects need to continually fight for mind share.  Purposeful ecosystem treasuries might be an avenue to explore!