Degen Army - the end of the story

[Lolson_tg]

Hello dear members of the Near Protocol ecosystem

This post was created in order to clarify the situation in which Degen Army got and clarify some points regarding the work of NF, which, I think, are of interest to many participants in the ecosystem.

Many of you know our team, we have come a long way and supported the Near Protocol ecosystem for a whole year. As I said earlier, our community has grown from a chaotic group of enthusiasts into a clearly structured system that works like a Swiss watch.

We have never failed or disgraced our name. After some fair comments from the community, we organized an understandable, clear and transparent system for everyone.

We grew every month, we experimented, promoted the Near Protocol ecosystem in various directions, but at some point it all ended. Yes, it would be foolish to deny that at the moment we are completely dependent on NF.

A few months ago, representatives of NF approached us with a request to review cost of services provided. We thought for a long time and came to the conclusion that the best solution at the moment is to gradually reduce the dependence of Degen Army on NF.

The reduction in budgeting was supposed to happen within a few months and reduce funding by 50%. We have prepared several documents that fully describe the system and the cost of our work.

In short, we suggested that private companies contact us directly and prepared a Pitch Deck in which we outlined the essence of Degen Army. This proposal can only exist in conditions of a gradual decrease in the dependence of Degen Army.

We have prepared these documents and we were not told that we should stop working, the participants of Degen Army worked in April, as we did not receive accurate answers that the NF consuls did not agree with our proposal.

In my opinion and experience, at the moment the Near Protocol ecosystem is still young and at an early stage.

The evidence is right in front of our eyes. I recently came across a forum post from the Flying Rhino team about urgent funding. In fact, this company has already done what Degen Army has yet to come to with time.

Flying Rhino Emergency April Funding

Hello Community Team!! After our March update post, which can be found here: Flying Rhino Guild LLC: March Roundup and Growth Statistics, we have been encouraged by the Community Team to submit for extra funding to support our community clients before the new promotional workflow is finalized. As explained in our last post, this near NEAR Ecosystem Promotional Workflow is a huge initiative on behalf of NF, Flying Rhino, and NEARweek to collectively create a promotional avenue for each project …

The post contains information about financial assistance. Which implies payment for the services of Flying Rhino. By the way, this organization is a legal entity, has regular customers, but cannot pay for the work of its employees.

Doesn’t this prove that at the moment the Near Protocol ecosystem is still young and there are very few projects that can really exist independently of NF?

Again, I may be wrong, I am not the ultimate truth, I am just a person who organized the work together with other consuls. But if I’m not mistaken, then we have a very strange NF position.

We cannot allocate funds for guilds (marketing, ecosystem growth).

But we have projects that need it (but there are no funds).

I do not know what the true reason for this state of things is, but in my head everything happens exactly like this.

I ask the representatives of the NF to pay for the work of Degen Army for April (with the reduction of the last funding by 25%), since the refusal of funding was received only in May. This is by no means a conflict, this is just an attempt to clarify the situation.

Degen Army will continue its work, but in a different format. We will work with projects directly. Please write @Lolson_tg @baxoff @SanketN81 , in Telegram or on the forum to get more detailed information.

Degen Army can provide a full range of marketing services, from operational to strategic marketing.

We will do a more detailed proposal on the forum later, after receiving all the necessary information.

@mecsbecs @David_NEAR @Grace

[Dacha]

@Lolson_tg

Doesn’t this prove that at the moment the Near Protocol ecosystem is still young and there are very few projects that can really exist independently of NF?

As I know, many companies like Datality and others decided to stop working with Flying Rhino because they weren’t satisfied. I am happy to see how Near guilds and communities grow their own social media strategists without middle-man companies.

Marketing DAO constantly supports over 50 Near Communities, guilds, projects, influencers, YouTubers, bloggers, and translators; encourages meetups worldwide. By the way, Flying Rhino is one of our applicants (via Stars guild creating content for Flying clients).

@Lolson_tg

We will work with projects directly.

I believe the great degen team members can find their place in Near Ecosystem shortly.

[Rend]

We worked honestly in April and spent our time and resources. Therefore, we expect compensation from NF

[Dix_rao]

I worked in Degen’s Army for almost a year and so far we have seen NEAR grow at an exponential rate in last 1 year and i believe Degen’s Army play a Vital role in the success of NEAR Protocol. We agree that NF don’t need the help of Degen’s Army anymore but as a fellow Degen’s member i demand our PAYOUTS for the month of APRIL where each of us worked fair and square without knowing the fact that we won’t be paid for this. It’s my humble request to NF that please consider our payouts each of us support the same cause which is growth of NEAR Protocol. Thankyou

[alphaharsh100]

I was really looking forward to seeing this post after hearing about some issues with NF regarding degen’s army. not familiar with the payment intervals, but as outlined, I believe this should be done promptly, as Degen is so smooth and fine with their work, and I’ve been following their informative and sharp end threads for a long time, so this report is unfortunate. I hope everything will be fine soon, and NF will resolve this as soon as possible

[DrugbaronQueen]

Kindly resolve the matter on suo Motu basis .
The hard work and the talent should not be vaned off …but paid off and positive reinforcement is the only key to it.
NF should resolve this issue fast.

[garikbesson]

Thanks NF and all degens for this amazing journey. I believe that our efforts significantly helped NEAR ecosystem to grow faster and better.

Unfortunately in the last months we felt a lot of uncertainty from NF, and I understand that, optimization process is not always a pleasant thing. But from our side we always chose to keep working, even if we don’t know whether we will be paid or not. Because it’s not only work, it’s a passion. Passion for NEAR. We just waited an official answer from NF that they don’t need us anymore.

We got this answer in May. And it’s ok, nothing lasts forever. But I think it would be fair to reward Degen’s Army last time. You can reduce payments as @Lolson_tg suggested, or come up with something else, doesn’t matter. It’s not about the money, it’s about ending a year-long story right.

Thanks again to everyone for this year, but we are not parting no though. I will not leave the NEAR ecosystem and will continue to contribute. Because it’s passion. Passion for NEAR.

[David_NEAR]

Hey!

Firstly, let me preface this by saying that I believe the work the degens has done over the past ~ 12 months has been extremely valuable to the ecosystem.

However, the amount of funding requested did not align with the value add. To distribute $50k+ a month for the efforts is misaligned with the goals of the Community Fund. Any other project requesting this amount of funding would be required to submit an in-depth proposal of extremely high quality with meaningful metrics and targets.

This was discussed with the Degens and the Degen Army did submit something with the aim of achieving this, however, for the funding requested it missed the mark.

@Lolson_tg

I ask the representatives of the NF to pay for the work of Degen Army for April (with the reduction of the last funding by 25%), since the refusal of funding was received only in May. This is by no means a conflict, this is just an attempt to clarify the situation.

On the call with Rebecca it was outlined that funding for April was on hold. This was made clear in the Telegram group, too.

@Lolson_tg

The post contains information about financial assistance. Which implies payment for the services of Flying Rhino. By the way, this organization is a legal entity, has regular customers, but cannot pay for the work of its employees.

FRG are in the process of spinning out into a self-sustainable marketing agency. They’re supporting ~14 community marketing partners until they’re able to spin out

There’s no reason that the Degens couldn’t achieve this, too - but the documents submitted weren’t up to par.

@Lolson_tg

We have prepared these documents and we were not told that we should stop working, the participants of Degen Army worked in April, as we did not receive accurate answers that the NF consuls did not agree with our proposal.

This is incorrect.

many of our questions around overarching strategy and long term vision for the Degens need to be addressed before we can proceed with the same (or even higher) level of payout for April on
we have honored March’s payout of USD $51,000

All in all, it simply isn’t feasible to maintain this level of funding (or close to it) without a reasonable path to sustainability laid out and reviewed by the Community Team.

[butolaravi]

For degens, I truly think their due should be cleared immediately; seen some marketing guilds capturing grants without question, and the output is also not good; not sure what their monthly pay is, but Degens are reputable PPLs of our ecosystem, and their silence will return in a hell of a negative impression; even if NF is having funding issues, they should borrow from the treasury, which is for running projects or guilds;

[Rend]

It is unfair to leave us without payment because the work was done. Please negotiate with our supervisors for compensation

[Pug]

Degen members performed work for the month of April and half of the month of May in good faith on the behalf of the NEAR ecosystem and the foundation. For that reason, they should be paid in full from the foundation.

The long term financial viability and independence of the Degens marketing group, along with any formal proposal requested from Degen management, is a completely separate issue.

[AlterRush]

Hey there David!

While it was known to us that funding of April was on hold and that we would receive paycuts, we were never told that we wouldn’t be receiving anything. In fact, we continued to do work especially during that time when NEAR launched a native stablecoin. Us degens maintained the hype and answered the queries of renewed interest of people who weren’t familiar with NEAR Protocol.

But putting that aside, we were never explicitly told that we would not receive the pay let alone that NF was planning on shuttering Degens. If we were told that before, we wouldn’t have worked. As far as I know there was no transparency from NF on what was actually going on (at least to us degens other than our leaders). But since we were kept in the dark and kept working to provide good metrics, we demand a payment. Even a reduced one, we just want to be paid for our services for the previous month.

[margikbaxi]

Hi @David_NEAR , As Degens seems to be valuable to the ecosystem said by you only the whole team never raised any issue on the payout part as we were given flat 300 N when the price of near was only 2$ to the usd based payout system the team of degens has delivered the same amount of work to the ecosystem it’s not like the other projects which are not having anything to showcase on forum reports still getting funded (let’s not name them), And also Near core is still not decentralised in funding case which is neglected.

In short only wanted to say that Degens has accommodated and welcomed all the immature decisions from the foundation and core team still we aren’t counted as a valuable team to the foundation just because of funds.

I think No one is seeing that Degens have some contribution in raising near from 2$ to 20$.

[Pug]

@illia @Grace @David_NEAR @mecsbecs Could you please help to resolve this issue for the parties involved? The Degens performed well in their task of raising awareness of NEAR protocol and the ecosystem and we believe that we should be compensated for our work for the month of April. The foundation should step up and do the right thing here.

[mecsbecs]

Hi all, thank you for raising these concerns and for the work the Degen Army has done in its many iterations over the past year.

As discussed in our private Telegram group and over the call the @community-team had with @SanketN81 @baxoff (@Lolson_tg was absent) two months ago on March 25, payments to the Degens was contingent upon the delivery of a full roadmap, strategy, and budget. We confirmed that because of the delivery timeline, February & March’s payouts would be covered but not April on. The first messaging regarding this requirement dates back to March 10th in our private chat.

The materials delivered did not sufficiently convey an equivalent USD ~$51K monthly funding value. This is an incredibly unique monthly funding ask that does not exist elsewhere in the Community to date. The Degen leadership was expected to convey this messaging to the rest of the team so there would be no funding surprises.

With the Guilds Program revamp and revisiting of funding within the Community, we’ve worked with different community leaders and groups on a needs-basis to find a more sustainable funding pathway and business model for them so valuable Community contributions to the NEAR Ecosystem can continue. A few of these groups have been directed to traditional grants, and the Degens are welcome to find their own direction to continue to deliver value to the projects of the NEAR ecosystem. Hope this clarifies everything.

[Dacha]

@leaves297

NEARIAN Promotional Army

Good evening, dear Ecosystem DAO councils. Can Flying Rhino hire ex-Degens in the new Promotion Army?

As I know some degens are experiencing financial difficulties due to unstable political situation in the world (Yes, we have some great community members in Ukraine, some people seeking for asylum in Turkey, USA and Europe).

I believe the dismissal from Degen’s army was unexpected for them. Thanks.

I was surprised to know that NF closed Degen’s program and approved a grant for NEARIAN Promotional Army from Flying Rhino. It would be great to know the amount of the grant and rewards for NEARIAN Promotional Army members because the funding source is a Community treasure.

@community-team @SanketN81 @Lolson_tg @baxoff

[Dacha]

@David_NEAR

FRG are in the process of spinning out into a self-sustainable marketing agency.

Since January dear Dave.

[mecsbecs]

Hello @Dacha - a reminder that the Ecosystem DAO is no longer active but there is a comparison that has developed here that I would like to address:

As you’ll see in the materials presented by Flying Rhino, the 14 partners participating within this still-in-development NEARIan Promotional Army are community marketing players already with a track record in the Community and who have been in most instances supported by the Marketing DAO, as you know. As thorough and intentional planning takes time, this has been a process of several months to coordinate and prep a large grants application for all 15 entities to be able to work in lock-step to better provide full-service marketing support for projects in the ecosystem.

The amount of funding requested by the Degens in the past is not comparable to what has been approved to date to keep the lights on for these ~15 partners to develop their portfolios and build up their processes. All of which further strengthens their large grant application and which is currently under review, but perhaps the deck & supporting materials can be shared as an example to others should their application be successful (@leaves297 something to think about). Because the grant is currently being reviewed I do not think hiring is possible at present, but I’ll leave @leaves297 to speak to that.

As I mentioned before, I am here for any other community group who is interested in the same in-depth planning and development to deliver long-lasting value to the ecosystem. And I definitely look forward to future such conversations with the Marketing DAO and its council members like yourself @Dacha.

[Dacha]

@mecsbecs

but I’ll leave @leaves297 to speak to that.

Would be great. Thank You

[mecsbecs]

On a separate note, I am saddened to hear that the members of the Degen Army on the whole are experiencing varied difficulties as a result of this funding being cut, but I’m afraid that given the current bear market and the limited resources of the Community Fund, this was a decision that had to be made. Though believe it wasn’t taken lightly - as I outlined above, it was something we went back and forth on for months.