Hi Near community!
This post aims to provide some background and transparency on the activities of the Marketing DAO as we finalize the Purpose Trust and transition to the NDC. The whole DAO council are eager and ready to work together to enter its next phase at a critical time in the NEAR ecosystem.
But let’s start with some dictionary definitions…
DAO - Decentralized Autonomous Organization an emerging form of legal structure that has no central governing body and whose members share a common goal to act in the best interest of the entity.
Members of the DAO can vote on how to use those funds.
Now let’s go deeper…
Decentralization is a form of an organizational structure where there is the delegation of authority by the top management to the middle and lower levels of management in an organization.
In blockchain, decentralization refers to the transfer of control and decision-making from a centralized entity (individual, organization, or group thereof) to a distributed network.
Autonomous acting or able to act in accordance with rules and principals of one’s own choosing.
Organization a group of people who work together in an organized way for a shared purpose.
Background
The Marketing DAO is the longest running grassroots DAO in the Near ecosystem. We are proud to have weathered the storms of the bear market (and other disruptive influences) and I believe we are testament to the positive strength the DAO structure offers.
The DAO currently has a council of four community members from four countries who work together as a team. Following the recent departure of one of our members, we will shortly be onboarding a fifth council.
Each council member brings their own life experience and individual skills to the DAO:
Taylor (@klint)
- 6x Startup Founder
- 15 years of Digital Marketing / Growth Experience
- Award-Winning International Marketing Agency Owner
- 7500+ Online Course Graduates Globally
- 12+ Global Accelerator Workshop Facilitator and Mentor Across Web3 and Saas
- Working with small, medium, and large organizations in Web3.
Lorraine (@so608)
- Long-time journalist (FastCo, SF Chronicle, Hearst) turned strategic communications pro
- Owner of marketing and communications agency serving venture capital firms, startups and blockchain builders
- Podcast host and course creator
- Web3 enthusiast working to encourage diverse populations to learn and explore the space
Elliot (@dacha)
- In real life, former head of regional purchasing and marketing at K-Rauta
- I joined Near Community in Q3 of 2020; Since this time, I have spent my whole life here.
- During this time helped with marketing support for over 100 dApps, including our top dApps such as Near. Social, Land2Empire, Zomland, MotoDex. Raised many new contributors who are now building the Community.
- Active NDC contributor, involved in many ecosystem projects
- One of the Regional Community DAO founder
Carl (@cryptocredit)
- Old school marketeer with over 30 years experience across all sectors
- 7 years of Blockchain Experience
- Brewery and Farm Owner IRL
- Founder of Decentralized Brewing Co built on NEAR
- Working to achieve crypto mass adoption goals
Marketing DAO Overview
Our main aim is to support the Near community achieve their marketing goals - increasing the number of users and transactions on the NEAR blockchain.
Our primary activity is to review marketing related Proposals from the community to ensure that we achieve best value for the funds disbursed.
We are always pushing to expand boundaries and find new ways to grow the Near ecosystem.
The Marketing DAO was set up and funded by the NEAR Foundation in May 2021. Its first iteration used a multisig wallet on Sputnik DAO platform. In November 2021 the DAO transferred governance and treasury functions to the AstroDao platform. The AstroDao platform provided the tools to allow DAO council members to vote and disburse funds to projects that receive approval by majority vote.
In the beginning there were three council members from the NEAR Foundation and two council members from the Near community. In December 2021 an additional community council member joined the DAO.
During January 2022, the DAO onboarded our first two Advisors - marketing professionals - who later transitioned to become full DAO council members. The remaining NEAR Foundation council members stepped down and the DAO became 100% community governed in March 2022.
The disbursement of funds was removed from the DAO in January 2022 due to KYC issues, but the DAO has continued with its primary role: reviewing and processing marketing proposals from the community. Since September 2021, the Marketing DAO has disbursed over $1.8 million.
Following a review of all grassroots DAOs in the autumn of 2022, the Marketing DAO was relaunched with a clear remit to support the community, with a focus on social media and content. You can read more about the relaunch and focus in this Guidelines forum post.
As part of the continuing aim of decentralization across the Near Ecosystem, the Marketing DAO has been working to become a separate legal entity. We created the Marketing DAO Charter, shared it with the community for feedback and have been working with a legal team to finalize our Trust document - which we intend to complete by the end of June (this week!).
The Present
Alongside the Marketing DAO’s regular work reviewing community proposals, we have been working to further a number of other activities this spring and summer. These include:
Onboarding two new Marketing DAO Advisors @jarednotjerry and @Bakaka who will provide extra support in social media and regional development.
Working to broaden NEAR Community marketing activities through a Bounty programme structured in collaboration with the NEAR Foundation and projects building in the ecosystem.
Launching a proactive outreach campaign to major projects building on NEAR to see how we can help them achieve their marketing goals through campaigns, bounties and other marketing initiatives.
Developing the Regional Community DAO, which now includes more than ten communities already part of the partnership. Thank you @RC-DAO leaders for their incredible work and outstanding support.
Roadmap for the Future
As we transition to becoming an independent legal entity, we look forward to working closely with the NDC and other grassroots DAOs. It is important to build close working relationships across the community and maintain good lines of communication. We are excited to help this new chapter unfold.
Additionally, the DAO is preparing for the next step in governance: on-chain voting. We have launched an IamHuman marketing community to give members a say in voting for council when V1 is launched. If you’d like to participate, you can join via this link.
In conclusion, I would like to say a big thank you to all the community. For me personally, it has been a pleasure to work with you all, and the Marketing DAO will continue to build and evolve as we move forward.
Look out for more updates posted on the forum!
