Please describe your proposed solution.

Djed is a formally verified and empirically battle-tested crypto-backed stablecoin protocol with several deployments on multiple blockchains. Two of these deployments are within the Cardano ecosystem: COTI's Djed and Milkomeda Osiris Djed. However, none of these deployments have managed to achieve their potential in terms of TVL and volume. And, as a result, the Djed Alliance itself is still relatively unknown within the Cardano ecosystem.

The goal of this project is to boost the Djed Alliance's marketing and community activities on Cardano, to make the Djed Alliance more well-known and, by extension, improve traction of all Djed deployments.

We envisage the following activities:

• 2 detailed articles analyzing the reasons that are holding back adoption of Djed on Cardano.
• 6+ interviews with Cardano social media influencers.
• Weekly content on Discord and fortnightly report on Discord summarizing everything that happened within the Djed Alliance, to improve visibility within our community, so that our contributors know what everyone else is doing.
• 48+ social media posts, informing the wider public about progress on Djed research, development and adoption.
• Improvement of the Djed Alliance's documentation page (http://docs.djed.one), especially with more details about the deployments within Cardano.
• 1 Workshop about stability, to incentivize people to research variants of Djed or other research related to stability.

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

Bringing value to the Cardano Community

Cardano needs widely adopted stablecoins. Stablecoins are pre-conditions for a vibrant DeFi ecosystem. Djed-based stablecoins are good candidates for wide adoption. This grant will fund marketing activities that are needed to take Djed adoption to the next level, for the benefit of Cardano.

Measuring impact

We will measure the impact quantitatively by measuring social media engagement with our articles, posts and interviews and the number of submitted papers and presentations in the workshop. And we will also evaluate impact qualitatively by looking for an improvement in the Cardano community's understanding of Djed and the Djed Alliance.

Sharing outputs and opportunities

Any content produced with this grant will be publicly available under CC-BY-NC-SA.

Wider adoption of Djed-based stablecoins on Cardano will create opportunities related to the use cases of stablecoins (e.g. payments, remittance, risk hedging, …) for Cardano.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Dr. Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo (a.k.a. Zahnentferner) is the founder of the Djed Alliance and main author of Djed. During his academic career, he has already received and managed more than 1 million USD in research grants in several countries and always achieved the goals of the proposed projects. He has several years of experience organizing and managing academic workshops, including one at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, which was attended by Turing Award winners and Fields medalists.

The Djed Alliance already exists for almost 2 years and has been growing steadily and sustainably. Its marketing activities have had the contribution of the former Chief Marketing Officer for Milkomeda and Djordje Stojmenovic (a.k.a. DJ) (community manager for the Cardano Talent Network).

What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Each milestone is planned to be completed within 2 months.

• Write 1 Medium Article.
• Write 8+ social media posts.
• Write 4 activity summaries in Discord.
• 1 Interview.
• Set up program committee for the workshop.

>- Write 1 Medium Article.

• Write 8+ social media posts.
• Write 4 activity summaries in Discord.
• 1 Interview.
• Send call for papers for the workshop.

>- Write 8+ social media posts.

• 1 Interview.
• Write 4 activity summaries in Discord.
• Organize workshop peer-review using EasyChair.
• Improve documentation (https://docs.djed.one) about COTI's Djed

>- Write 8+ social media posts.

• 1 Interview.
• Write 4 activity summaries in Discord.
• Co-locate workshop with a major conference.
• Improve documentation (https://docs.djed.one) about Milkomeda Djed Osiris

>- Write 8+ social media posts.

• Write 4 activity summaries in Discord.
• 1 Interview.

>- Write 8+ social media posts.

• Write 4 activity summaries in Discord.
• 1 Interview.
• Publish proceedings of the workshop (probably through College Publications, which has published proceedings from other workshops organized by Dr. Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo).

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo, PhD. (a.k.a. Zahnentferner)

Program Committee of the workshop, to be defined, to include prominent researchers and developers from academia and the blockchain industry, who are active in stablecoin research.

Djordje Stojmenovic - Marketing and Community Management

Dragutin Vukotic - Project Manager

Wen-Chiao Su - Web3 Product Marketing Manager

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Assumption 1 ADA = 0.40 USD

• 1 Part-time community manager for 12 months: 45000 ADA
• 1 Part-time marketing manager for 12 months: 70000 ADA
• 1 Part-time senior project manager for 12 months: 25000 ADA
• Workshop:
• Workshop organization: 20000 ADA
• Publication expenses: 10000 ADA
• Invited Speakers: 15000 ADA
• Best Paper Award: 5000 ADA
• Interviews: 9000 ADA

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

1. Raise general awareness: The funds will support initiatives aimed at raising awareness of Djed stablecoin and its benefits such as its security, stability and its decentralized nature. This includes both short-form and long-form content creation to effectively communicate Djed's advantages within the Cardano ecosystem.
2. Accelerate ecosystem adoption: By creating more content around Djed and its benefits, we aim to generate increased awareness and participation for all deployments of Djed-based stablecoins on Cardano. This increased engagement has the potential to boost overall Total Value Locked (TVL) for these stablecoins and for the wider Cardano ecosystem.
3. Thought leadership: The funds will facilitate collaboration with academia to explore and establish Djed as a more stable, secure and decentralized stablecoin. This thought leadership will lead to references in papers which will help raise awareness and establish Djed as a trusted stablecoin framework amongst the broader stablecoin research community. This in turn will strengthen people’s understanding of the Cardano commitment to creating a more secure and stable financial future.

Upon receiving the funds, the Djed Alliance will:

1. Support ecosystem partners: The increased awareness and engagement efforts will directly contribute to the accelerated adoption of Djed. This, in turn, has the potential to significantly enhance TVL and volume of transactions, generating additional fees for the Djed deployments as well as for the Cardano stakepools.
2. Facilitate learning about the Djed Stablecoin protocol: As the guardian of the first decentralized stablecoin protocol for Cardano, the Djed Alliance will use the funds to facilitate in-depth learning about Djed. This knowledge-sharing initiative will enable other projects to deploy their own stablecoins on the Cardano blockchain and potentially expand beyond Cardano.

To ensure optimal outcomes in relation to value for money, the Alliance will employ a data-driven approach, closely tracking:

1. The type and quality of engagement: Thoroughly monitoring both short-form and long-form content engagement to identify trends and preferences within the community.
2. Optimization strategies: Utilizing gathered insights to optimize content creation and distribution, ensuring a targeted approach that resonates with the audience. For instance, this could involve enhancing documentation for Djed and its ecosystem partners or addressing broader interest in the security and stability of Djed stablecoin deployments.

The use of funds aims to maximize the impact of the Djed Alliance's initiatives, aligning with the overall goals of supporting the Cardano ecosystem in its efforts to develop itself as a leader in the future of finance.

Regarding the costs of the project, we took GlassDoor's averages as a benchmark (assuming 1 ADA = 0.40 USD):

• The average salary of a full-time community manager is 164000 ADA.
• The average salary of a full-time marketing manager is 222000 ADA.
• The average salary of a full-time project manager is 230000 ADA.

The values requested are only a fraction of the averages listed above.