My name is Daveed Benjamin and I am working on several Web3 projects. I am new to NEAR and trying to figure out if the NEAR ecosystem could be supportive for my projects.
One is a project called PachaVerse that is building a NFT Metaverse P2E game based on the critically acclaimed story and AR book called Pacha’s Pajamas that features Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Cheech Marin. We have 3 levels of the book, two of which are in both English and Spanish.
The Metaverse game follow the book and will be a book sequel. We aim to create experiences for young people to get acquainted with Web3 so they become crypto-native. Participants in the game can win Pacha’s fan tokens and NFTs, which make compelling bridges for young people to start interacting with the blockchain. In the lore of the game and the sequel, we are incorporating DAOs to help young people learn this crucial technology.
We think the crypto-native generation has the potential to bring balance to the world. I can only imagine what it would be like growing up with access to the Web3 toolkit.
I am wondering
if anyone knows about projects that teach kids about DAOs
if there are any people in the NEAR ecosystem that think teaching kids about DAOs is important
if NEAR has any initiatives to teach kids about Web3
I would like to pilot this for Spanish and/or English kids. Living Mexico now. We are forming the Pacha DAO for this project and trying to figure out if NEAR as an ecosystem could be supportive of the project or at least the part about teaching kids about DAOs.
Hey there, thank you for sharing your ideas.
I will link @jlwaugh, to see if this could be something funded by the Community squad, as the Creatives DAO supports DAOs with a creative/artistic focus. Humanguild might also be worth a shot given that you are planning on developing a game.
On a side note, we have had several projects coming up in the last weeks that aim to work with minors. Imo it is important to have a clear separation between teaching young adults and kids and between monetising their work/creativity. By the looks of it your idea is focussing on the educational aspect of it, which i think is great.
Thanks @tabear!
I will try to explain what I am thinking in case that helps…
Here is a synopsis of the lore at https://pachaverse.io:
The book was about Pacha and the animals coming together in the dreamworld to throw a Nature festival called Pacha Jamma. The greatest festival in the history of the planet… but no humans were invited. They think she is a little gorilla since she’s wearing a gorilla mask. The festival was a huge success. And they intended to do it every year. That was the end of the book.
This is where the story continues through the Metaverse game.
The following year Mr Tick was able to sabotage the festival before it started.
And the following year, a huge hurricane forced it to be canceled.
And the following year, the animals just could not get organized and into sufficient alignment to have the festival.
So the council of all beings decides to form the Pacha DAO to bring back the festival and center a talent contest called Animal Idol.
The Metaverse is the festival grounds and Animal Idol is the game. NFT holders can perform in talent contests, rap battles, open mics, and dance challenges to earn NFT tokens.
I am envisioning creating the Pacha DAO from the story so that kids can participate in the decision-making of the DAO that will guide the story. For example, will the DAO allow humans to participate, and if not will they make an exception for Pacha? How will the DAO get the funds to rebuild the stadium? What rules will the DAO make for the performers in Animal Idol?
Through participation in the DAO the kids will not only learn about DAOs and Web3 (e.g., how to create a wallet) but also stretch their storytelling and decision making skills. I can also imagine a curricula being created around the DAO experience.
The other idea I had for onboarding families was to do a series of free mints of 10k children’s book NFTs to kids. We have two books, a picture book for 0-5 year olds and an early reader book for 5-8 year olds. Both are in English and Spanish. The early reader also has an English-Spanish version where it shows both languages. Here is a sample: A Tale Told By Nature (English-Spanish) - Google Slides
The thought was to work with community partners that deals with families to start with a free mint of the English or Spanish version of the picture book. Once that is completed, we do the other, followed by the English and Spanish versions of the early reader book.
At the same, we would encourage people to translate the Google Slides version of the book into other languages as a community, and do free mints of those as well.
The impact would be:
10K families and kids know about NEAR
Up to 10K families and kids onboarded through NEAR wallets per free mint
Up to 10K families and kids learning about NFTs and DAOs per free mint
Spread the message that we are all connected all around the world
10K generative NFTs on the NEAR blockchain per free mint
I have the images ready for a generative launch of 10k NFT books with ordered book cover with 4 rarities, but I would need help with the mint site especially if it is to be on NEAR. I don’t even know if it is feasible on NEAR. But if we did, we could add NEAR as the Web3 partner at the end of the book.
I was going to do this on Solano but I got scammed. The developer disappeared with 25 SOL that was supposed to be my down payment and for putting a smart contract on the blockchain. I’ve learned some hard lessons through this and maybe there’s someone near that would be better to work with.
I think it is a cool idea to tech kids a DAO and the different ways of governing a community.
Personally I can see the creative aspect of it but given the bigger picture of the project and the fact that you are planning on creating a game, I would think that the Community vertical could be a place to request funds. Let’s see what @jlwaugh thinks
I see potential here, and I most definitely appreciate good recommendations. Just wondering how DAOs might co-fund projects like this. Also curious how our community of teachers feels about “edaocating” kids and / or adults.
@shiftshapr Who is responsible for Pacha’s Pajamas? I see Aaron Ableman and Dave Room are the authors, and it was originally published by Morgan James. How are they involved?
That’s me. Aaron Ableman is my co-creator and author of the story Pachamama’s Pajamas, which became Pacha’s Pajamas after we came together and formed BALANCE Edutainment. He wrote the first versions, but I took the lead in the published version, which was twice as long and almost completely re-wrote the previous versions. Aaron left in 2016 to pursue other interests. BALANCE failed in 2017 because I could not get any one in Silicon Valley or Hollywood to support and we simply ran out of funds after having raised just $500k in 6 years. Bridgit.io, which I started in 2018, is reviving the story world as the PachaVerse using Web3 tools including DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and Metaverse. Morgan James is simply the publisher of the our young reader book. They are not involved in either of the younger picture books, neither which have a publisher and therefore can be free minted and freely translated.
I “edaocating”. How does one connect most easily with the community of teachers here at NEAR?
Update: I am messaging with a teacher at Colegio Ingles in Tulum. She says they have 28 students from 4th grade to 6th grade.
I am envisioning a program where the kids:
read the young reader book first.
participate in a Web3 storytelling experiment that takes off where the book ends and rewards for participation. Families will make a wallet, choose an animal as their avatar, make a NFT for their character, join the Pacha DAO (or a simulation of the past decision of the Pacha Dao) and help decide how and where to direct funds to bring back the PACHA JAMMA festival. Families doing this together will learn about NFTs and how to join a DAO, submit proposals to a DAO, and vote on proposals all in the context of the story.
submit bounties with content that represents their ideas for where the story goes to. Any selected content must be taken into consideration as part of the evolving story.
Ages: 8-12 and 13-18
Time: 6 weeks with option to continue
I would like to make it free for public school students in Mexico and pilots
Would love to hear any thoughts, ideas, reflections…
Today is #worldwaterday! Remember to give thanks to this essential life-giving elixir on this special day and through our next trip around the sun.
Here is a Pacha doing the Water Dance!
Pacha Is designed to a kids spokesperson or ambassador for aligned initiatives, and can even bring some of them into stories. The above video is an example of how an aligned movement to protect sacred waters is using Pacha to promote World Water Day through dance.
NEAR, for example, since it is aligned, could use Pacha in onboarding videos for kids and families or explainer videos about how blockchain works for young people.
Good to see you here. I had envisioned working with teachers and had even started a conversation with a school here in Tulum but NEAR Foundation put out a PSA saying they will not fund projects focused on people that are less than 17 years old. So I am now rethinking the school pilots. Seems like the program may need to focused towards parents. This perhaps means connecting with parenting groups. We are beginning conversations with a Latinx Parenting group in LA through one of our community members that could potentially be a pilot, but that’s not where the conversations are now.
“edaocating”. How does one connect most easily with the community of teachers here at NEAR?