Hello NEAR!
Last week, I shared the vision of NEAR Local ~ generative community programs for ecosystem coordination, support, and onboarding worldwide. NEAR Local is a self-sustainable agency with a mission to engage contributors across NEAR communities to learn, strengthen connections, and solve problems together.
How It Works
We are cultivating a network of member organizations and community professionals to share knowledge and best practices with each other. This helps drive adoption of NEAR by improving the overall experience for new and existing participants ~ not only in terms of UX, but also the human experience of collaborative social groups, i.e., Working Groups.
Various types of programs, including Working Groups, DAOs, Community Groups, and Projects, can leverage NEAR Local as a platform to collaborate with members of our ecosystem.
Strategy
→ activate builders to LEARN, CREATE & GROW < EVOLVING SYSTEMS >
This post introduces how NEAR Local will develop, coordinate, and support community programs across various topics, including:
- Regional and Local Communities
- Web3 Legal / Compliance
- Decentralized Finance #NeFi
- Privacy + Zero-Knowledge Tech
- DAOs & Startups
- Interoperability
- Governance
NEAR Local Community Programs
Below is a brief overview of each Working Group.
Regional Communities Working Group
This group coordinates opportunities to build programs for growing lively communities around the world. This will support NEAR ecosystem development and impact.
We collaborate with “Hubs” and “Guilds” in various regions, including Banyan Collective in the United States (focused on NYC and San Francisco), Open Web Academy in Latin America, Sankore and C1 in Africa, along with NEAR Balkans, NEAR India, NEAR China, NEAR Vietnam, NEAR UA, NEAR Korea, and other thriving communities.
Legal Working Group
This group brings together legal professionals to discuss key issues faced by members of the NEAR community. They will explore the legal landscape for blockchain and crypto in order to promote better understanding of compliance and regulatory requirements.
For example, we could explore issues related to licensing for NFTs, ideally spreading the word about native royalty standards on NEAR. This would hopefully result in a public knowledge base akin to these open-source documents from Rarible and a16z.
Finance Working Group
This group will foster exploration, research, and innovation around financial use cases in the NEAR ecosystem. Our immediate priority will be supporting DeFi builders with informative resources about NEAR. Proximity Labs would be an ideal partner to activate industry experts.
Privacy Working Group
This group will focus on education about privacy solutions available to the NEAR ecosystem. With support from the Cypherpunk Guild and friends, this community facilitates discovery of private shards and zero-knowledge technologies on the NEAR network.
Startup Working Group
This new initiative from the NDC requires a clear structure with responsible processes of incubating / accelerating ventures that bring significant value to the NEAR ecosystem.
Interoperability Working Group
This group will support onboarding to Aurora, Octopus, and other multi-chain solutions. Ultimately, the outcome will be better understanding of what is available to enterprises already building on chains like Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot, etc.
NDC Governance Working Group
This group is developing an evolving framework for governing the NEAR Community Treasury. NEAR Local intends to support any GWG contributors who are helping NDC make decisions and implement strategies both efficiently and effectively.
How to Get Involved
In the coming weeks, we will be sharing more info about the above groups and their activities for contributor onboarding, ecosystem coordination, and knowledge sharing. We love working with people from all over the map to help each other learn, build, and grow!
If you are interested in contributing, check out our Activation Page on Near Social.
Create Additional Groups
We are always considering ways to support more Working Groups and initiatives. These could explore topics like gaming, identity, charity, and sustainability. Let us know any ideas!
Your feedback is much appreciated 