Name (or Topic/Theme) of Proposed Round
GG20 Proposal: Psychedelic Community Round: the creation of fun, educational, and accessible psychedelic content and live events with DAO governance
Twitter: @ShowPsychedelic
Instagram: @PsychedelicPuppetShow
How many times has this round been run during a Gitcoin Grants round?
Our organization is ready to launch its own Gitcoin round, having engaged in regular consultations with Ben West since May 2023 to prepare for this initiative. We deliberately delayed our round to ensure a clear strategic direction and a comprehensive understanding of our needs. Following extensive organizational development and a series of DAO planning workshops, we have crystallized our vision for conducting a successful Gitcoin round.
Our track record as a grantee in the past two rounds speaks to our capability and success in executing impactful projects. Specifically, we successfully utilized the funds to host our inaugural live film festival in New York City on May 7, 2024, and to support two months of weekly workshops that fostered creative envisioning and draft an initial whitepaper for the organizations future development plans.
How big is your team that will run this round? Who is your team?
The Psychedelic Puppet Show Non-Profit hosts a dedicated board of four members: Dr. Brad Necyk (Instagram/Twitter bradnecyk), Dr. Pam Kryskow, Aaron Munson (Instagram aamunson), and Scott Nelson. Additionally, we have strengthened our team by appointing Brad Necyk as Executive Director and Ona Praderas as our Community Engagement Officer.
Our network extends to renowned figures in the field, including Paul Stamets (famed myscologist, Twitter/Instagram paulstamets), Rick Doblin (founder of MAPS), Jason Silva (TV personality, Twitter/Instagram jasonsilva), Alex and Allyson Grey (famed artists, Twitter/Instagram alexgreycosm), as well as key psychedelic organizations such as MAPS (Instagram maps_org), Psychedelic Assembly (Instagram psychedelic_assembly), Propeller (Instragram propeller.la, Psychedelic Association of Canada (Instagram psychedelicassociation), District216 (Instagram district216official), and Psychedelic SF Gallery (Instagram psychedelicsfgallery), among others.
To ensure the integrity and alignment of our grant review process, our board members will serve as the primary reviewers. This approach guarantees that all proposals are evaluated thoroughly to align with our mission and values.
How does this round align with Gitcoin’s mission and essential intents?
Yes, we do align with Gitcoin’s mission and essential interests, as our focus in this round is to lay the groundwork for a global, decentralized, and self-governed community that raises psychedelic awareness and adds the public good. We believe that cutting-edge technologies such as digital media, AI, and blockchain can enable this vision. We believe in a read, write, generate, and own platform that empowers and compensated creators and contributors.
We are planning to contribute $10,000 USD in matching funds from a private Bitcoin donation we received in November of 2023.
ETH address: 0xadaa3b0d9b96df7e338b6db62e7daa073e0e94a5
Who will be advisors for this round, if anyone?
Scott Nelson (long-term web3 investor), Shawn Anderson (blockchain engineer and founder of Long Tail Financial), Adam Szymanski (Art Consultant specializing in NFTs), and Ben West (Gitcoin).
Please describe the eligibility criteria you envision for this proposed round.
In a broad way, every project must enhance our core vision of creating a decentralized community that creates fun, educational, and accessible content around psychedelic science, therapy, cultural practices, historical uses, or spirituality.
Each project must fit into one or more of these three areas: artist creations, live events, or DAO governance.
Each project must be willing to collaborate with our organization for the realization and launch of each project.
How large is your community approximately?
We have a growing number of thought leaders in the psychedelic space but are very excited to begin including and empowering creators worldwide. With the help of our social media platforms and the amplification of content through Paul Stamets and Jason Silva, our current content has reached over a million people. We aim to bring more creators into this community and share their visions and stories.
What type of projects would you like to fund?
In our inaugural year as a non-profit, we achieved significant milestones, such as producing media with leading figures in the psychedelic field, launching our first psychedelic film festival in New York City, and securing funding through Gitcoin and a private Bitcoin donation, enabling us to hire two new team members and offer $10,000 in matching funds for this round.
Collaborating with a web developer, a blockchain engineer, and a postdoctoral AI researcher, we are crafting a whitepaper focused on community networking, AI tooling, and blockchain integration.
For the upcoming Gitcoin round, we are eager to attract innovative proposals that will help expand our organization in three key areas, consistent with our mission, values, and strategic growth plans:
- Artistic Projects: We seek to fund projects that produce fun, educational, and accessible content related to psychedelic science, therapy, cultural practices, historical uses, and spirituality.
- Live Events: We aim to support events that combine film, art, music, readings, and public discussions, with the potential for global hosting, to foster community engagement and idea exchange.
- DAO Governance: We are committed to establishing and enhancing a community-governed DAO, focusing on strategic planning, infrastructure development, and launch.
Approximately how many grantees do you believe will be eligible to apply to this round?
We are committed to funding 6-8 outstanding projects that promise sustainable growth and long-term benefits for our organization and community. With five core contributors currently driving our vision forward, we are keen to welcome additional individuals and organizations. Their fresh perspectives and innovative approaches will undoubtedly enrich and expand our capabilities beyond what we could achieve independently. We are enthusiastic about the prospect of incorporating new voices into our project, enhancing its diversity and impact.
Impact Assessment: If and how do you intend to assess grantee impact over successive rounds? This could include, but is not limited to Hypercerts, GAP, Deresy, etc.
In collaboration with Shawn Anderson from Longtail Financial, we will explore the potential of Hypercerts and DeReSy to enhance our grant assessment process. Hypercerts could be used to create a transparent, verifiable record of a project’s impact, allowing us to track and reward achievements effectively. These tokens would enable us to retrospectively fund projects based on their proven impact, fostering a more dynamic and responsive funding model.
With DeReSy, we could implement a robust system for on-chain project reviews, providing clear, immutable assessments of each project’s progress and outcomes. This would allow for transparent and objective evaluations, facilitating better decision-making for future grant allocations.
By working with Longtail Financial, we aim to integrate these technologies into our grant-making process, ensuring that we fund projects that offer significant, verifiable impact. This strategic collaboration will help us leverage cutting-edge blockchain technology to make more informed and impactful funding decisions.
Is there anything else that community members should consider when voting for which rounds to focus on in the upcoming GG20 grants round?
Our organization, dedicated to promoting public good, believes in the transformative power of psychedelics and the arts towards making a better world. We view artists as essential in shaping public perception and preparing society for the changes psychedelics can bring. Recognizing the value of their work, we advocate for fair compensation for artists. Through this funding round, we aim to support projects that establish enduring, sustainable contributions to our organization and vision, empowering artists to create and disseminate their work, thereby influencing global consciousness positively.
