Ether's Phoenix Game [Version 0]

[Colton]

“Ether’s Phoenix is an angel that rewards you for summoning it” - Kevin Owocki

TL;DR:

• Goal: Collect PG POAPS to increase your Regen score. Earn cool art.
• Rules: One free NFT per wallet. Collect PG POAPS (Grants Rounds, Schelling Point events, Memeapaloozas, Optimism RPGF governance, etc. )
• Feedback system: EP starts to die if you stop contributing to public goods. Collect beautiful art. Flex your PG contributions.
• GR14 Launch

Abstract:

Ether’s Phoenix (EP) gamifies the process of supporting public goods. Your actions shape a constantly evolving PFP and increase (or decrease) your Regen Score. EP proliferates coordination lore, unifies impactDAOs through a shared game experience, and provides a trackable metric of greenpilled people (Regen Score).

This project has a lot of momentum and we would like your feedback and ideas to make it a reality for GR14!

Rules:

• One free NFT per wallet.
• POAPs as Points: POAPs are familiar and beloved by web3 natives (h/t Armando for this idea). By using them as points, we:
  • Build on a preexisting system
  • Offer a very easy way for other public goods groups to build on our game (Optimism could offer a POAP for their retroactive public goods funding round 2 and that token could unlock a special Optimism themed Phoenix)
  • If this technically infeasible, we could have a proprietary points system
• Rewards:
  • Enter raffles for special edition art
  • Access to token gated events (eg. need a Regen score of 69 to get in)
  • Increase your GR matching amount

Art:

• The art is scalable. Version 1 can launch with just a few stages of evolution. Going forward, a wide range of artists can create Phoenix’s for different causes.
• H/t to my brother for suggesting we leave the door open to eventually create a cast of mythological creatures of coordination (Ether’s Hydra? #antifragility)
• These concepts were done by Luke Harris, myself, and the wonderful power of AI

Design and Layout:

• High Regen Scores or collecting specific POAPS could add unique attributes to the frame or a custom overlay (think holofoil cards)
  • eg. significant GR14 donors get the “Legendary Supporter” frame
  • eg. attend every Schelling Point and get a solarpunk nature-themed overlay
• QR Code could link to more info. In a later version it could link to 3D augmented reality phoenixes.

IRL Events:

• POAP incentives for activates
  • Treasure hunts for POAPs
  • Speaking at or hosting public goods events
  • Schelling Point Amsterdam trash pickup

Other Potential Mechanics:

• Could every EP have its own traits or a GPT3 bio? Would be nice to make each phoenix feel special.
• Maybe you pick a color/team when you get your EP egg (similar to Pokemon). Those teams could be used for later gamification and community building activities.
• What if you could burn your phoenix whenever you want? Idk what that would do but they are phoenixes after all . . .
• Could you spend your regen points?
• Are Ether’s Phoenix NFTs soulbound? Technically they are not (I could transfer my phoenix and all public goods POAPs to someone else) but that level of trust and coordination is unlikely on the open market. Having a souldbound NFT that represents your commitment to public goods (via your Regen Score) could create interesting possibilities for future game mechanics, token gated events, and even creative input on the future of the project.

MVP and Scope:

• This project is meant to be scalable. The minimum viable product has:
  • A pleasing claims process
  • An engaging feedback loop (I collected a POAP, saw my Regen Score go up, then saw my phoenix evolve)
  • Dope art (we have two artists but would welcome more!)

Outstanding questions:

• Do you collect more and more NFTs or does one NFT evolve?
  • If collecting: you could have a live NFT and others are archived
  • if evolving: end of season you pick favorite art and that is “baked” as your NFT for that season.
• What L2 makes this most accessible and fun? My guess is Polygon but I’ll defer to the experts.
• Monetization: should parts of this be monetized or is it valuable enough to encourage people to support grants?
• Paying contributors:
  • Workstreams have shown an interest in supporting the initial development of EP.
  • For future art and dev costs maybe the project is funded through grants rounds or another monetization strategy.

Thoughts or ideas? Let’s hear ‘em!

[smartcontracts]

@Colton

What L2 makes this most accessible and fun?

I’m a bit biased here (I work on Optimism), but I’ll just hop in on this point and say that the concept of Ether’s Phoenix is really important to the Optimism team and the project as a whole. I think it’d be great to launch the project on Optimism since it’ll just further reinforce the public goods commitment.

[smartcontracts]

But yeah, generally speaking I think this project is super cool!! I think it’d be great if we could construct more Ether’s Phoenix lore through this. People who get these cards could start to learn more about what Ether’s Phoenix is trying to do and why it’s worth helping bring it into existence.

[erich]

The phoenixes might be a fun starting point to experiment with soulbound tokens to make Gitcoin Grants more pluralistic. Also, to artistically convey the Plurality paradigm to the community.

@erich

Here are some thoughts on formalizing richer evidence for pairwise cooperation in an accountable and value-aligned manner. First, imagine that contributors would maintain personal journals with all sorts of soulbound attestations about themselves. So, for example, you’d get attestations for the grant rounds you participate in, the projects you contribute to,

Specifically, it might be a valuable experiment to issue phoenixes representing specific actions in grants rounds. For example, grants-round-specific phoenixes — so to contribute to a project in the GR13 Uniswap Round, you’d need to claim the GR13 Uniswap Round phoenix. To contribute to a project in the GR13 Polygon Round, you’d need to claim the GR13 Polygon Round. Et cetera. We could create a unique phoenix for each matching fund in Gitcoin Grants and then require contributors to claim them to participate in the particular rounds.

Additionally, suppose we had something like GPT-3 to generate phoenixes in a more scalable way. In that case, we could require contributors to claim a grant-specific phoenix for every grant they’d like to support. So, for example, if you wanted to contribute to Scaffold-Eth in GR13, you’d need to claim the Scaffold-Eth GR13 phoenix.

With something along these lines, the phoenixes might become a playful but critical piece of Plurality infrastructure in Gitcoin Grants. Beyond Gitcoin, various social organizations might borrow social mappings from the phoenixes and get inspired by the concept to scale Plurality.

[Colton]

love this. My original thought was EP could act as another “verification method” to increase your matching amount. None of us want to stop people from giving money, but it makes a lot of sense to dial in the matching amount