Please describe your proposed solution.
Perceived Problem :
Participation from the Eastern Hemisphere throughout Cardano & Catalyst activities to this date are still limited, it is still predominantly populated by English speaking communities. This contradicts a key early event in the formation of Cardano which is The Genesis Distribution ; the early distribution of ADA which you can learn more about in detail in this website.
There was a strong initial focus in building from the East, which is further strengthened by the founding of various Cardano entities headquarters in this region. The persistent question remains, "Why are participation of Cardano communities from the Eastern Hemisphere still limited?"
The simplistic prevailing theory is language barrier. Though through numerous iterations of the Eastern Town Hall (ETH), we have gained unique insights that indicates there is more than meets the eyes. In the case of ;
- Japan; translation is no issue.
- Although the Japanese community find it challenging to speak English, they posses strong comprehensive English listening and reading skills, therefore there is limited issue in understanding Cardano related documents
- The issue from the Japanese community is more towards finding justification to entice their dev community to want to learn and build on Cardano
- Other issues they face are the need of regulatory frameworks from their government that supports a positive and progressive view on crypto and blockchain, which is now currently progressing towards to that based on a law that was passed this June 22nd
- Viet Nam; translation is an issue but not debilitating.
- Although translation is an issue, the Viet Nam community proactively translate documents on their own record without funding or seeking funds to do so
- Viet Nam community in general are a community that are very eager and earnest to adopt the latest technologies such as crypto, including Cardano. This can be proven by a report done by Chainalysis in 2022
- This perhaps can also be attributed to Viet Nam education system which is cited to be better than their British or Canadian counterparts whom has a larger education budget with the factor of 6X. A recent a report by the World Bank on July 2023 highlighted this
- Other issues they face are the need of regulatory frameworks from their government that supports a positive and progressive view on crypto and blockchain
- Indonesia; translation is an issue but their interest still lies somewhere else.
- Translation and simplified interpretation of existing Cardano & Catalyst related documents is something needed for the Indonesian community
- From a devs perspective, Cardano is viewed as based on a superior language but unfortunately it is also viewed as a difficult one to learn and build upon
- Although crypto transaction is growing exponentially based on Statista's growth metrics where in 2021 it reached $55.9 billion, the general community perspective is that Cardano is viewed as different than the general approach of various chains that approaches adoption through "flipping" or "When moon?"
Reasons of Our Approach:
Hence our approach between each community in the Eastern Town Hall differs. It is based on findings that spans over months. Data that would not have been able to be extracted if it were only based on sporadic one-time surveys.
Unique insights such as above are a result of constant communication, constant observation and constant documentation of the respective communities participation throughout Cardano. <u>All the findings of Eastern Town Hall can be read through all our Close-out reports and also our Challenge Team Close-out reports</u>. Our recent findings can be read here.
With that said, the following are our external instruments in increasing participation to Cardano and Project Catalyst. External meaning to be done subject to each countries respective community leader consideration. Those instruments are;
- Catalyst School ver. 2.0
- Gimbalabs PPBL ver. 2.0
<u>A) Catalyst School ver. 2.0</u>
The continued use of Catalyst School and the development of it stems from data and results. Catalyst School ver. 1.0 (the very first iteration) had different results among the 3 (three) active communities in ETH. You can learn more in detail of Catalyst School ver. 1.0 effect on the ETH communities in this following link. As a quick overview of those effects, here are the following snippets (in alphabetic order) :
- Indonesia we mentioned above that Indonesia's introduction to crypto is heavily based on financial impulses and <u>that translates to the continued growth in participation as CA's and vCA's</u> (which are now called Community Reviewers and Moderators), a position that offers financial returns. Yet in terms of proposal submission the numbers are consistently low. Nonetheless, participation as CA's and vCA's place a crucial role in providing the Cardano community insight on quality proposals
- Viet Nam ; we mentioned above that Viet Nam are eager and earnest to learn and adopt new technologies supported by various reports and <u>that translates to exponential growth in the number of proposal submissions</u>, from single digits and now 20 to 30 proposals each Fund. Although there is participation in being a CA and vCA, their remarkable achievement is through their interest in building
- Japan ; we mentioned there is actually none to limited issue in understanding Cardano materials and <u>that translates into the high participation of their community in Cardano governance events</u>. The Japanese community are the earliest adopters. This factual situation must be accompanied by a progressive approach from Cardano. The following is something the Japanese community are continuously looking for, which is real-world use cases for Cardano. This becomes the development backdrop of Catalyst School in Japan, which is to create KOL (key opinion leaders) that will persuade the community from being early adopters to avid builders. Recently, there have been positive developments, where there is a mentality shift which is mirrored in type of proposals submitted that originates from Japan.
These insights from these 3 (three) communities can help the Cardano community on ; how to, what to and when to develop solutions in their respective regions (in alphabetic order).
- For an example in Indonesia based on data ; to increase adoption of Cardano create a dApps that allows trading of ALT coins assisted by AI, making finding profit easier
- For an example in Viet Nam based on data ; to increase adoption of Cardano create a hackathon/incubator in this region, to accelerate the start-ups created from Catalyst
- For an example in Japan based on data ; to increase adoption of Cardano create a "bridge" with the most used blockchain in Japan. Simply put, more efforts such as what Paima is currently doing
From the above potential solutions, Viet Nam has taken lead by developing and integrating ETH Catalyst Incubator into the Catalyst School ver. 1.0. The result of this integration is called Catalyst School ver. 2.0 (which can be viewed in this report ; sub section Viet Nam) where it has resulted in the creation of these following dApps :
- Tamper Proof Certificate base on Cardano Blockchain
- Crypto Payment Gateway on Cardano
- Tracking Ownership of Digital Artworks on the Blockchain Platform
- NFT Creator Tool for Non-Tech Users (integrated to ETH website here)
- Voting Application on Blockchain
No matter what solution and what country, we have identified <u>there is one underlying red line that connects Indonesia, Viet Nam and Japan</u>. Which is the lack of homegrown Cardano dev talents. Some regions differ in the needs of them, some differ in the methods to entice them but the need is clear. Hence our next tool we seek to integrate into our modular onboarding framework is Gimbalabs Plutus Project Based Learning (PPBL) ver. 2.0.
<u>B) Gimbalabs PPBL ver. 2.0</u>
Through this next collaboration with Gimbalabs by translating their syllabus into our 3 (three) main languages in ETH we seek to provide the direct tools needed to build on Cardano. Coupling the with Catalyst School ver. 2.0, we would have achieved our goal of creating a modular onboarding framework in the field of education. Where first we educate on the tools and then we educate on the potential of solutions those tools can build.
This initiative has been taken numerous steps further by the Indonesian team, through an official collaboration with Gadjah Mada University (UGM) -a top 3 university in Indonesia and top 50 Asian university- to integrate both Gimbalabs PPBL ver. 2.0 with Catalyst School ver. 2.0 into their extracurricular/curriculum. Which you can learn more about in the following Catalyst School : Chapter Indonesia proposal and their Gimbalabs : Chapter Indonesia proposal.
This initiative is also a collective consensus, where the Viet Nam community also seeks to collaborate with their local university to integrate Gimbalabs PPBL ver. 2.0 and Catalyst School ver. 2.0. The Japanese community has already started the process of translating PPBL ver. 2.0 into Japanese, led by Sebastian Pabon. This program is due to start in the near future.
The goal of the integrations of these 2 (two) tools within ETH is to :
> Create a modular onboarding framework for other Town Halls who seek to build their communities through education. If they choose to duplicate, they can simply implement this framework and tweak it accordingly with their communities needs.
Projects Forecasted Users :
<u>To be effective, we must be honest. Like all Town Halls, even the Main Town Hall, we recognize that there is a stagnation of participants.</u> That potentially means 3 (three) things :
- The onboarding framework needs to be upgraded
- The target of onboarding needs to be expanded
- Outside factors has dampened interest in Cardano
In terms of point (a), we have provided our roadmap to upgrade our onboarding experience as explained in paragraphs above, in terms of point (b), we have slightly touched on by the mentioning of Indonesian community efforts. As a consensus, <u>our next step of expanding our user base is by having each countries representative to attempt official collaborations with reputable official local education institutions.</u>
It has been proven through data collected by the Viet Nam community, targeting students results in higher participation in Cardano & Catalyst. By having an official collaboration with these education institutions we will have access to new students every semester.
Therefore through the efforts of each countries representative will be potentially producing continuous and locally aligned with the economics of the region, a number of junior blockchain developers. Increasing participants to our Town Halls and also increasing the number of developers that build on Cardano which potentially will increase dApps output from ETH and the correlating countries.
Demonstrating Our Impact :
Our intended direct impact of our modular onboarding framework that integrates the independently done Catalyst School ver. 2.0 and Gimbalabs PPBL ver 2.0 can be viewed through the following numbers :
- The number of Community Reviewers and Community Moderators
- The number of Proposal submissions
- The number of successfully funded Proposals
- The number of successfully close-out Proposals
- In the near future, the number of dev that comes from ETH
<u>All are measurable and have been measured and can be viewed through our various ETH Proposals Close-out report and Grow East Asia Grow Cardano (GEAC) Challenge Setting Team Close-out report</u> with clear numbers of growth or in some case stagnation. All are useful metrics dan data that the Cardano community can choose to learn from.
In terms of the user experience that participants will go through in ETH modular onboarding framework are as following :
- Participation in ETH Bi-Weekly Zoom meeting
- Discussions in each communities respective communication channels
- Participation in each communities respective Catalyst School ver. 2.0
- Participation in each communities respective Gimbalabs PPBL ver. 2.0
Our Solutions :
- Translation and re-interpretation of Cardano & Catalyst related documents into (in alphabetic order) ; Indonesian, Vietnamese and Japanese - which can be later viewed here : Eastern Town Hall (ETH) website
- Conduct user experience surveys before and after each ETH iteration (subject to Project Catalyst Fund series schedule). The intention is to gauge the following "before" metrics (but not limited to) : - which can be later viewed in our Close-out reports
- Initial experience of Cardano & Catalyst
- Background of participants
- Intended goal by participating
- Conduct user experience surveys before and after each ETH iteration (subject to Project Catalyst Fund series schedule). The intention is to gauge the following "after" metrics (but not limited to) : - which can be later viewed in our Close-out reports
- Learning experience after experiencing one Fund round of Cardano & Catalyst
- Insights to improve the ETH services
- Future goals of participants
- Bi-weekly ETH sessions that caters to 3 (three) communities (in alphabetic order) ; Indonesian, Japanese and Viet Nam (@2 per month for 6 (six) months) - which later can be viewed here : ETH YouTube channel
- Integrate with Catalyst School ver. 2.0 sessions done by the Indonesian, Vietnamese and Japanese community with method of delivery subject to each countries respective community leader consideration - which can be later viewed here : ETH YouTube channel
- Integrate with Gimbalabs PPBL ver. 2.0 sessions done by the Indonesian, Vietnamese and Japanese community with method of delivery subject to each countries respective community leader consideration - which can be later viewed here : ETH YouTube channel
- Conduct IdeaFest Reels prior voting round of a specific Fund for proposals promotion to the Indonesian, Vietnamese and Japanese community - which can be later viewed here : ETH YouTube channel
- Continuously update our website that interconnects all our solutions (NFT minting app, translations, surveys, YouTube uploads and reports) - which can later be viewed here : Eastern Town Hall website
- Develop an app that represents the contents of the website and potentially utilizes the Project Catalyst API (under development) - which can be viewed here : Eastern Town Hall apps
- Provide dedicated Discord/Telegram channel for the ETH and for each countries respective community channels to continuously support and answer questions from the participants/general Cardano community spanning a duration of 6 (six) months
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
Value to Cardano Ecosystem (all can be measured and tracked through our operations report)
This proposal intends to expand Cardano's adoption in existing countries and reach to other countries (based on learnings from previous Eastern Town Hall (ETH) operations proposals) with following key characteristic :
- similar economic situations - reason being our efforts to onboard our targeted country of Korea was unsuccessful due to their cited opinions as following ; (1) their is limited financial benefits to be gained by using/promoting Cardano (2) the use of Cardano is still very limited due to their own countries effort to build their own ecosystem based on homegrown technology
- similar education situations - reason being as seen in Viet Nam, having a education system that is geared towards technological advancement extends interest to the field of crypto and blockchain, therefore likelihood of participation is high
- similar Cardano presence - reason being <u>having 2 (two) or more Cardano entities creates a confusion for new users/participants that has yet to understand the decentralized nature of Cardano.</u> It can cause confusion or be used to create confusion
The general goal of our efforts is as following :
- Increased Cardano awareness through community participation, information sharing, language support and automated acceptance regardless of background
- Increased potential partnerships with local businesses and organizations which have already been proven by the Viet Nam through collaboration with RMIT University Viet Nam branch and Viet Nam Blockchain Association also Indonesia through collaboration with Gadjah Mada University (UGM), a top 3 Indonesian university and top 50 Asian university
- Increased Cardano presence in countries that has yet to be approached or overlooked by official Cardano entities
Growing Cardano Ecosystem
Our community is continually expanding though in recent months has hit stagnation like all Town Halls, even Cardano's Main Town Hall to which <u>we have identified the potential cause of stagnation and seek to mitigate through solutions mentioned in above sections.</u>
After roughly a year of operation there are our achieve growth metrics (in alphabetic order) :
- Indonesia (>1100 members) which can viewed here and here
- Japan (>2500 members) which can be viewed here and here
- Viet Nam (>500 member) which can be viewed here
Within the upcoming 6 (six) month period in terms of expanding our existing communities we intend to achieve in 2 (two) methods ; quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative in terms of increasing our member base though that is subject to related proposal fundings such as the effort of the Indonesian community whom are collaborating with Gadjah Mada University (UGM).
These quantitative targets also is dependent of the efforts of the Viet Nam community to also increase onboarding through Gimbalabs Plutus Project Based Learning (PPBL) ver. 2.0. In general these are the targets of each respective community after 6 (six) months of operation :
- increase of 5% from the existing members of the Indonesian community
- increase of 5% from the existing members of the Japanese community
- increase of 5% from the existing members of the Viet Nam community
In term of qualitative targets, from our existing members we intend to :
- increase proposal submissions from all participating countries
- increase quality of proposal submissions through further education ; quality here we equate to more proposals that contribute technically to Cardano
- increase interaction throughout Cardano & Catalyst ecosystems
The proposal also aims to organize numerous events and activities where community members will be given the opportunity to actively contribute to Cardano's development, generating a sense of ownership and involvement. With the goal to foster a lively environment for the Cardano & Catalyst ecosystems.
Those events and activities are as following :
- Bi-weekly Town Halls with Breakout rooms ; enabling concentrated discussions and updates particular to each nation. A culture of learning and collaboration will be promoted by inviting motivational speakers from the local community to share their knowledge and experiences. These speakers will offer insightful commentary
- Catalyst School sessions ; onboard students to learn more about the technologies potential, future governance and funding opportunities
- Catalyst Incubator program ; series of one-to-one sessions, workshops and presentation panels that prepares Catalyst School participants for Project Catalyst funding rounds which will foster the next generation of enthusiasts and professionals
- IdeaFest Reels ; a platform created to increase the visibility of community projects by allowing proposers to promote their ideas to a larger audience (which can be viewed here) before each voting round, fostering community support and cooperation. These presentations will be posted on all of our social media channels, including our website, Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, and Discord
- Organizing Cardano Summits ; to celebrate Cardano's achievement during the past year across the whole ecosystem which brings in a sense of unity in the Cardano community. We seek to reinvigorate cross invitations with neighboring Summits which underlines the collaborative nature of Cardano
Looking to the Future
The proposal operates independently as a stand-alone initiative, but it recognizes the significance of long-term development and expansion. This includes broadening the reach of the Eastern Town Hall to include more nations in the Eastern Hemisphere, fostering increased community participation, and establishing closer collaborations with local partnerships.
> In order to sustain itself in the future, the proposal aims to be self-sufficient by operating a stake pool, seeking sponsorships from external sources and providing insights to business/entities/organizations through consultancy efforts on methods to build on Cardano.
>
> Where these efforts to sustain ourselves will be documented and added to our modular onboarding framework that focuses on business interest
These efforts are already experimentally in motion although not documented well. An effort undertaken by the Indonesian community that seek to onboard the following business entities, though not limited to ; Bitzenius, Wyndblast and Sena.
Supporting Open-source
This proposal is a community-driven proposal, therefore the documents can be found on our official channels and will be made available to the public. Links related to our project can be found in the section below.
Outputs communications
We will update our output via below various links (in alphabetic order) :
- Indonesia community communications :
- Cardano Indonesia community and dev ecosystem which can be [viewed here](<https://github.com/cardano-indonesia >)
- Cardano Foundation Indonesia forum which can be viewed here
- Cardano Indonesia community Discord channel which can be viewed here
- Cardano Indonesia community Telegram channel which can be viewed here
- Cardano Indonesia community Twitter which can be viewed here
- Cardano Indonesia community Instagram which can be viewed here
- Eastern Town Hall Indonesia Telegram channel which can be viewed here
- Viet Nam community communications :
- Cardano Viet Nam community Facebook Page which can be viewed here
- Cardano Foundation Viet Nam forum which can be viewed here
- Cardano Viet Nam Telegram channel which can be viewed here
- Cardano Viet Nam Meet-up which can be viewed here
- Japanese community communications :
- Cardano Foundation Japan forum which can be viewed here
- Cardano Japan Telegram channel which can be viewed here
- Cardano Japan Trading Telegram channel which can be viewed here
- Cardano Japan Twitter which can be viewed here
- Eastern Town Hall public communications :
- Eastern Town Hall Discord channel which can be viewed here
- Eastern Town Hall Telegram channel which can be viewed here
- Eastern Town Hall Twitter which can be viewed here
- Eastern Town Hall Instagram which can be viewed here
- Eastern Town Hall website which can be viewed here
- Eastern Town Hall apps which can be viewed here (under development)
Uniqueness Justification
This idea we categorize as unique for it puts strong emphasis on the following :
- community building that targets the wider demographics not specifically only to SPO's community or to developers community
- creation of an modular onboarding framework with initial focus on education and further developing to also accommodate business interest onto Cardano
- increasing adoption of Cardano by pinpointing the needs to provide more developers that accommodate the Eastern Hemisphere economic standards including it's unique needs and opportunities
By tailoring our objectives to the special requirements of the Eastern Hemisphere region, the proposal differentiates itself from other challenges and demonstrates a clear relationship with The Catalyst Open challenge, where it seeks to have the <u>greatest impact on expanding the Cardano ecosystem in region that represents the largest potential of adoption</u> based on our Eastern Town Hall data.
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
Measurement method (for a complete overview you can refer to the following link)
Impact of our project will be measured through both qualitative and quantitative assessments. The following are our intentions ;
Qualitative assessments :
- Surveys will be conducted in (alphabetic order) Indonesian, Vietnamese and Japanese to measure the increase in quality of Catalyst participation. Following metrics will be measured by these surveys :
- Percentage of random voters
- Eastern Town Hall score average relative to overall score average
Quantitative assessments :
- Number of participants in the Eastern Town Hall
- Number of event attendees, number of archived views, and number of views
- Number of followers/participants on each social networking site
Measurement method justification
Eastern Town Hall has previously utilized and refined these measurement criteria throughout funding cycles. It is a system that we continuously choose to use for this criteria matrix reflects the active engagement of the community from various perspectives within the Cardano ecosystem
Intended Effect on Cardano (short term : 1-3 months)
- Maintain awareness and interest of Cardano & Catalyst throughout our collective ecosystem of members between all participating countries
- Initiate onboarding of new members from our revamped modular onboarding framework that consists of the locally executed Gimbalabs Plutus Project Based Learning (PPBL) ver. 2.0 (subject to proposal funding) and Catalyst School ver. 2.0 by each respective community leader in the manner they see fit
Intended Effect on Cardano (mid term : 3-6 months)
- Cycle and tutor new members through our Bi-weekly Town Halls with each communities respective breakout room program (e.g. guest speakers/Gimbalabs PPBL/Catalyst School)
- Participate new members to be involved in Project Catalyst utilizing the learnings gained from Catalyst School and/or Gimbalabs PPBL to do the following activities (subject to proposal funding) :
- become Community Reviewers/Modertaros
- become Proof-of-Achievement auditors
- become Project Catalyst proposers
- participate in modular section of Andamio that is designated to each communities respective PPBL student group
- participate in the further roll-out of CIP-1694
Intended Effect on Cardano (long term : 6-9 months)
- At the end of 8 month we target to have our first batch of new junior blockchain developers where we can choose to either (subject to proposal funding) :
- utilize to develop our own local dApps as per our findings
- funnel those talents to the larger Cardano community
- Roughly around the same time (subject to Project Catalyst updates) we expect to have the results of our respective communities participation in Fund 11 where we can share with the community the effectiveness and outcome of our revamped modular onboarding framework
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
Intended Action Plans
All our activities are updated regularly during the 6 (six) month period on our various communications channel of each respective community as mentioned in above section. In general these are our following monthly (but not limited to) action plans :
Content creation :
- Develop a content calendar to ensure consistent posting across all channels
- Create engaging and visually appealing branding in all our communication materials
- Regularly update the website with the latest news, resources, and project updates
- Regularly post updates about the progress of the Eastern Town Hall (ETH) initiative, including onboarding efforts, partnerships and upcoming events
- Share informative articles, news and resources related to Cardano and its ecosystem
- Share translated Cardano documents and educational materials
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing strategy and make necessary adjustments based on user engagement and feedback
Community engagement :
- Encourage participation by organizing interactive polls, AMA's and Town Hall sessions
- Conduct live sessions and interviews with Cardano project team members with into to provide insights into their work and experiences
- Collaborate with universities and educational institutions to showcase the benefits of Cardano adoption in academic settings
- Respond promptly to user queries and comments on all communication channels, fostering community engagement
Community communications :
- Summarize milestones and achievements reached during the 6 (six) month period that showcases the growth of the Cardano community in the Eastern Hemisphere
- Summarize the progress made during the 6 (six) month period in a comprehensive report to share with the broader Cardano community
- Distribute the "after" the 6 (six) month period survey results through all communication channels of each respective community