Please describe your proposed solution.

<u>Who We Are</u>

The Cardano NYC Community has served as a focal group dedicated to onboarding new individuals into the Cardano ecosystem and keeping all members up to date with the latest developments of the space. Our weekly in-person gatherings in Manhattan give people the chance to network, learn, and collaborate on various initiatives and projects in the Cardano ecosystem. Thanks to consistency, it has become a very active community of Cardano enthusiasts who wish to contribute to the growth and adoption of the Cardano blockchain. A recent example of our efforts was shown at NFT NYC, where the Cardano NYC Community successfully hosted two major satellite events with over 600 attendees from all walks of life. These events showcased the potential for New York City to be a significant hub for the Cardano Community at large.

<u>What Our Solution Is</u>

We aim to extend our current efforts and activities, backed by our recent successes and insights, to the neighbouring Ethereum community which currently has a significant dominance and recognition in New York City. Our approach is to introduce Cardano and its prospects to the ETH NYC Community through a series of weekly onboarding, networking, and showcasing sessions, via collaborative steps with CryptoMondays.

CryptoMondays serves as the biggest weekly community event where many new and existing crypto enthusiasts and contributors (largely Ethereum-centric) come together to learn and discuss various developments in the industry.

We intend to contribute and support CryptoMondays by becoming Partner Hosts of their events for <u>at least 1/4 weeks every month for a period of 3 months minimum.</u>

By becoming Partner Hosts, we will:

• Provide support with venue arrangements for Cardano &lt;> Ethereum sessions.
• Offer onboarding and educational materials/resources.
• Coordinate in-person seminars where we will showcase dApps and ecosystem developments, with the support of Cardano-based project/platform founders, developers, and community contributors.

By leveraging our relationship with CryptoMondays and its large Ethereum-based community, we have a strong thesis that we will finally be able to set off an exodus of new and existing crypto community members from the Ethereum NYC community to Cardano, and ultimately position Cardano's presence in New York City.

<u>PLEASE REFER TO RELEVANT LINKS PROVIDED FOR ALL FUTURE UPDATES/MORE INFORMATION</u>

Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Our proposed solution natively focuses on the exact subject of interest for the Challenge Setting: Bringing Ethereum's community and resources to Cardano.

Through direct in-person events and interactions on a massive scale as that proposed in our solution, we will be addressing:

• The lack of recognition of Cardano and its ecosystem in New York City crypto scene.
• The lack of Cardano-related information and guidance for Ethereum Community members in New York.
• The crypto newcomer to Ethereum pipeline in New York City (by redirecting that pipeline to Cardano).

What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

• Risk: The lack of good cooperation from "old guard" Ethereum folks a.k.a. Ethereum Maxis

• Solution: Build a warm and inclusive atmosphere that is considerate and acknowledges bias while delivering factual information and engaging experience.

• Risk: Schedule/Agenda complications with CryptoMondays.

• Solution: Establish a clear understanding of scheduling and planned events with CryptoMondays prior to final commitments.

Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

<u>Estimated Timeline: 09/26 - 12/26 (Three Months)</u>

• <u>Action(s)</u>:
• Organise and host CryptoMondays weekly events powered by the Cardano NYC Community, at least 1 of 4 weeks per month. Events will consist of a dedicated venue, team, and resource stack for:
• Cardano ecosystem showcases.
• Networking sessions.
• Fireside chats with Cardano dApps/project founders.
• Newcomer/Ethereum user onboarding.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

• <u>Fund Allocations ($65K Total)</u>

• <u>$20k per Month</u>:

• Venue rental: $10K per month (Max $2.5k per week or $5k biweekly).

• Cardano swag material/resources: $2.5k per month.

• Food and beverages: $2.5k per month.

• Cardano NYC Community Coordinating Team support/coverage: $5k per month.

• ~$1.67K per Month: Emergency Reserve For Events.

Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

<u>My Team:</u>

Eben Kohn (Main proposer) -> Cardano NYC Community Senior Coordinator.

Emmanuel Batse -> Cardano NYC Community Coordinator, former Community Manager for dcSpark.

Mototsugu Oba -> Cardano NYC Community Senior Coordinator, CEO of Merchify.

If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

We are likely to return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding as result of new empirical cost/operations data to support this proposal.

Also, should this proposal yield the needed/expected outcome (a successfully one at that), we will most certainly want to scale up further to offer more capabilities and reach new groups and individuals.

Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Some of the KPIs we intend to monitor include:

• Number of RSVPs for Ethereum -> Cardano events. This can be collected via Meetup.
• Number of new Cardano wallets created at events. This data can be collected on-site.
• Average count for Ethereum -> Cardano event participation over a monthly period.

What does success for this project look like?

• Ethereum community members in New York City will learn and experience more about Cardano and its ecosystem.
• Participation in the Cardano ecosystem from Ethereum community members via NFT/DeFi engagement.
• More participation of Cardano NYC Community weekly events from Ethereum community members.

Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

No