Monthly Highlights:
-Merchants Telegram went from 122 members to start September to 154 members to begin October. Twitter has seen the most traction with a near doubling to 331 followers.
-Weekly and monthly contest submissions have ebbed and flowed with market, during peak bull run was 23 but when NEAR was slumping was 16.
-We are continuing the consistent content and have expanded with the addition of Sanket as a content manager. He will provide relevant updates on protocol, project, other guild, ect. He is already integrated into the NEAR ecosystem is helping fill some dead space that I had mentioned was a challenge last month.
-Was a panelist on OWS “Defi Debunked”, helped promote Cheddar farm and META pool launches, interview with NEAR NFT Club
Challenges:
Community interest on submissions is strong when NEAR is bullish and weak when NEAR is bearish. Just the nature of crypto markets, especially with the crazy price action this month. Have already shifted rewards to be more sided towards participation vrs accuracy.
Hard to get newcomers to do their own TA; the quality content is coming from the same 12-15 individuals. We have guides and beginner content in the works, ready to be launched
Sometimes crypto markets deviate from technicals due to crypto news or changing global market conditions. We have been trying to update Merchants on the changing climates and news as best as possible as with the Chinese debt crisis, United States debt ceiling, Chinese ban on cryptos.
Moving forward:
-Community engagement and cross promotion has been good but can expand, especially with the launch of so many NEAR Defi projects and with NEAR Con coming up. I will be in touch with projects and other guild leaders to cross promote and for content pieces.
-No change in the contest, will scale the rewards to be a tad more participation focused given the increase in NEAR price over the last month.
-Launching educational program and content. Will finish the year off with nice year end contest to allow new comers opportunity as well.
-Working with Sanket to drive engagement with users and provide pertinent updates on projects, yield opportunities, ect…
-Continue to educate Merchants economical topics; longer termed technical analysis struggles to account for major news and other economic shifts.
For the September funding, I am proposing Merchants Guild to move to the next funding level of 2,000 NEAR per month.
I appreciate the questions and happy to increase visibility.
I have never viewed the compensation in terms of dollar value but more raw NEAR numbers as that was how it was pitched to begin with. Our work would be the same if NEAR was $3 or $5 or $10. Companies would not decrease equity or stock options given to individuals just because their stock went up, just simply not how it works.
As for the monthly contest, yes we have decreased the monthly payouts but those funds are being re-distributed to more suit participants. We want to encourage beginners to learn and do their own TA, so the participation reward has gone up from 2->5 NEAR. I also gave out impromptu rewards one week for quality analysis to keep members on their toes and to reward quality submissions. All in all, the rewards pool will remain around 200 for as long as quality remains high. All merchants activity and payouts can be followed: NEAR Explorer | Account
As for the spending, we have brought on Sanket as community manager which accounts for part of the additional costs. Increasing content so more compensation for analysts as we all have put in more time into Merchants. I detailed the spending in my last monthly report.
I do not think that is a fair comparison as full time work has plenty of benefits which account for significant value: 401k, Medical/Dental Insurance, HSA, PTO, food, ect… Not to mention no volatility of payout.
If you have any suggestions on Merchants I would love to hear them. You can PM me on TG, also I do not see you in our Merchants channel. Come join us, earn some rewards and learn with us!
Why did you choose him ? He is definitely overwhelmed, managing over 6 communities.
Why not of one active member from your community or competitions winner?
I’m there
I propose
300N for the guild leader (600N get full time professional analyst);
50N for content manager;
Set up KPI for the guild management (community grow, Twitter grow, another social media)
Now in your tg group only 165 members, 5-6 posts a day.
The fact that he is integrated and aware of of the entire NEAR ecosystems the exact reason why he would be a good choice for such a position. He knows what is happening to different projects and can share that information to Merchants. Sanket has also been active member of the community from the beginning and quite competitive with his analysis.
Have you been entering into the contests?
I am happy to discuss what you believe we can do better or what content you would like to see. In terms of compensation, I already addressed comparisons of a fulltime job verses something in crypto, which you completely ignored. If you have an issue with compensation that is something to discuss with NEAR core team or someone higher up. We at Merchants are trying to continue to grow the community and onboard individuals interested in trading.
@Yuppiefab is one of our analysts that provide TA for the Merchants as well as other educational content. As for what Yuppie does with the money, it is absolutely none of anyone else’s business.
As for the payment to jamesj.near, he is one of my friends and works at dydx, decentralized crypto exchange on Ethereum. I swapped 1k of NEAR with him for 1k of dydx token. Saving fees from sending to exchange, swapping to ETH, then swapping to dydx via uniswap. Also was getting him interested in NEAR protocol and hopefully that will lead to listings onto dydx in the future. Dydx also launched trading competition with 250k USDC as rewards which was shared to Merchants group. I want to build a strong relationship with them as it would bring value.
I think you guys need promote your guild and competitions here: Telegram: Contact @cryptonear , nearweek, and other near groups. Do it constantly. I’m not sure that people know about your guild . Target 1000 members by end of the month
add account on trading view
Publish weekly payout reports (wallet /transaction/purpose) here and on gov.near
Do monthly reports with iconographic and encourage most active users ( special user name like “TA guru” , NFT, special bonus, etc…)
Hire moderators from active users (now 2 moderators involved in other Near projects).
The position is for keeping Merchants updated on investment/yield opportunities, token sales, ect… Being aware of what is going is the best reason. Also he has been active and submits good analysis.
Small world!
I am not sure what you mean by “you just wanna get an airdrop”. Just trying to bring exposure to Merchants of a really good opportunity.
I am happy to have a video chat with you, @dacha, and someone of the core team if your qualms persists. I appreciate the feedback and will try to implement your suggestions.
Not sure that is necessary or reasonable. I am not trying to get into number crunching and debates with you or NEAR team.
I appreciate your concern and suggestions but is there a chance you can stop editing your posts above; hard to accurately reply with rewording and edits.
Hey! Awesome work, and it’s great to see. However, we are moving toward USD denominated fuinding so it’d be great if you could update the proposal to reflect that.
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For the purpose of the questions, let’s take your proposal of 2,000 NEAR as being equal to ~ $16,000.
I think this is super high for the operations of a Guild in a one month period, particularly one with no physical presence.
Where is $16,000 being spent?
This sounds like it’s still very early days in terms of engagement, and I’m not sure the workload which this attracts warrants $16,000/mo.
Can you dive a little deeper and be a bit more granular with where the funding is going to, please?
@David_NEAR@Dacha As I said before, I am happy to jump onto a video chat to hash out any questions or concerns you might have. But to say I have not answered any questions or have been transparent is just false. I have answered every questions you posted above, many of which you have added on as edits after the fact.
We had the addition of Sanket for more content and updates on projects and NEAR DeFi ecosystem. We also are trying to expand our outreach now to more TG groups, Reddit and Trading View along with Merchants also participating in a few panels.
I will move funds out of the merchants wallet to my own wallet so this is more clear. Some funds are reserved for contest and other payouts but the rest I was holding in the wallet. As I explained, I am trying to build a relationship with dydx and doing what I can to promote NEAR to them.
The payouts for the Merchants were as follows:
Monthly Contest Rewards: 110 NEAR (40+25+20+15+10)
Weekly Contest Rewards: 72 NEAR (4*(7+5+3+2+1))
Weekly highlights feature: 24 NEAR (42 per reward3 featured TA’s)
Monthly participation reward: 16 NEAR (8*2 per reward) this is for submitting all 4 weeks
Quality assurance reward: 8 NEAR (1 NEAR each who submitted quality TA that week and did not win any) Down week in terms of submissions and quality as NEAR was dropping
Referral: 8 NEAR (2 NEAR * 4 people who brought on people who submitted to contest)
Total: 238 N for contest payouts
Sanket: 50 NEAR as community/content manager
Yuppie and Misinformed: 350 NEAR each as analysts
Total: 988 NEAR
I think they provide good work? I am not sure who their other titles have anything to do with their work on Merchants, as they are doing different things. Mansadua is one of our analysts.
I offered you a bounty for sharing Merchants link with your trading group and you did not respond . I gave you a custom invite link for Merchants which has no activity.
@dacha, as for your concerns of funding. Merchants guild is part of the Warpspeed initiative which, I believe, is still funded with NEAR dominated. However, if you are pushing for payouts to be dollar dominated, it is not fair whatsoever to be attacking community members for moving their NEAR to an exchange and selling it.
Awesome! Sounds great to me. It’d be great if we could get this posted to the forum, too. A breakdown of where the funds are heading to. A spreadsheet might be a good fit for this.
Hey @david_NEAR. From what I have heard I was supposed to continue with NEAR dominated funding as a part of Warpspeed guild initiative. The NEAR dominated payouts is what was pitched when beginning the guild and what has been agreed upon. I do not think it is entirely fair for the funding method to be changed mid growth cycle without any discussion or feedback with Guilds or community. There are several concerns with dollar dominated funding I have. As guild leads, we are invested into the work and growth of NEAR; continued equity into NEAR price is aligned incentives. NEAR dominated allows us to continue quality initiatives such as the monthly contest with payouts. Also if Dollar dominated is the option, then let us be able to be paid in DAI, USDC or a dollar pegged stable coin of our choosing.
I do not think it is fair to have funding mechanism completely changed without any feedback or discussion with community contributors.
I would love to bridge the communication between me and some of the NEAR core if possible. There are other concerns I have, especially surrounding NEAR Con which I have not had answers for.
I am traveling tomorrow, so I might not be able to attend depending on time. I would prefer a separate discussion related to the topic for a later date.
For one, why are NEAR Con tickets so expensive? As a Guild lead, I am going to try to attend, but there was little to no communication from anyone to me about it, what should we expect, are we going to be providing any content. From the looks of it from my end, just seems like a networking and a bit of an educational opportunity.
Should be able to arrange something for sure, but ultimately discussions will come to an end on this after an outcome is reached.
Personally, I think the tickets are in line with the average for blockchain-focused conferences. You can take a look at ETHLisbon and the Solana conference (actually the Solana conf is $1,000(!)).
Not sure if there’s some assistance in terms of funding/discounts for Community Leaders (@mecsbecs is this the case?)
Check out the website for more details & even apply to speak if you think there’s something to contribute there
It’s an education focused conference with a networking opportunity, this is the case for almost all Blockchain focused conferences
Glad to be a Part of Merchants Guild…Merchants Guild is doing fantastic work encouraging people to learn TA, Post their analysis, and Earn Rewards.
, NFT, special bonus, etc…)
