Kernel: A Peer-Learning Environment

Public Good Projects Discussion
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Kernel is building critical, public web3 infrastructure — an open peer-learning environment built to increase trust between participants on trust-minimized foundations.

Starting with Genesis Block in May 2020, Kernel has run seven “blocks”, learning with more than 1,800 Kernel fellows who have built 200+ web3 projects (more here).

Each block has been ~300 people in size, lasts eight weeks, and is oriented around Kernel Fellows having a transformative learning experience in a peer-to-peer environment.

Amongst many other (immeasurable) contributions, Kernel Fellows have gone on to start 100+ crypto projects which have raised a combined $50MM.

The preceding seven blocks have forged a community of learners, and we intend to nurture it into perpetuity. We are creating open source tools and patterns to:

  1. Make Kernel one of the best learning environments on the internet and
  2. Help foster a plurality of related learning communities, over time, well beyond KERNEL.

Funding Sources: So far, Kernel has predominantly been funded by grants, raising ~$1mm in funding. This has been supplemented with dues from Kernel Fellows. Contributors to date include Celo, Filecoin, Optimism, Gitcoin, Octant, The Graph, Anoma, and Climate Collective.

Use of Funds
Our primary use of funds is building Kernel as a perpetual, open, peer-to-peer educational environment. To-date, 80% of funds have been used to pay for salaries of 4-7 active Kernel stewards, and we expect a similar percentage going forward.

Alongside necessary SaaS tools, Kernel has crafted a variety of our own, web3 tools which also require some upkeep. We have committed to keeping open all the tools we use to craft an increasingly principled web with each person and project which spends time in Kernel.

Some of these patterns include:

  • Kernel Blocks - how may the partially cohort-based, partially continuous pattern that is KERNEL propagate in healthy, open, enjoyable ways?
  • Convo - a simple web app to organize intentional gatherings and great conversations
  • Book - a eight module, hyper-linked digital book which guides Kernel programming and serves as a model for other Kernel-like environments
  • Honour - a weird system of social credit for use in peer-learning environments, starting with our own

Each of the above is open source, modular, home-cooked, and represents a different part of Kernel. Each intends to extend and be a part of other educational environments, so that other people may use these patterns in their DAO’s, their communal spaces, and their digital and physical homes.

Team

The Kernel team has been together for two years and have established Kernel as a premiere educational experience in crypto.

1 Like
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Thanks @vivek for creating a discuss post. I sent you a message with some more details that would be useful for readers to have (e.g. a Discord username). Where would you say most of the community discussion occurs around Kernal? This could also be useful information to include.

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Sure thing. I am @vs77bb on Discord.

Discussion in Kernel is currently mostly happening within Kernel Blocks, which are our 8 week programs where we bring together 250 learners twice a year. The next block begins in January, and there will be a variety of conversation at that point.

In the meantime, our syllabus is entirely open-source, as is the code to the sub-systems we use to run Kernel as an open, peer-learning environment.

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Greetings all, here are some holiday updates from Kernel.

As a reminder: Kernel is building critical, public web3 infrastructure — an participatory peer-learning environment dedicated to building a better web, together.

Our stated goal between Epoch One and Epoch Two was to launch Kernel Block 8. We have done so, and we are incredible excited for the new beginnings!

  • On October 4th, we announced applications for Kernel Block 8
  • We received 258 applications for the block, and completed a decentralized ‘Searching’ and ‘Nominating’ process involving 40+ existing Kernel Fellows to help us select KB8
  • A part of this process included hosting 25 KB8 Intro Convos from November 9th – December 21st, through which 147 applicants were nominated to join KB8 via a personalized, peer-based introduction to Kernel

Next up is the beginning of the block on January 12th, 2024. It will run during Epoch Two, from January 12th – March 12th, 2024. We expect the 150 KB8 Fellows to work on a variety of crypto projects and to, hopefully, be meaningfully impacted by the people and ideas encountered in KB8.

At the end of the program, we expect ~50 KB8 adventures to showcase – highlighting their meaningful progress in Q1 2024. We look forward to sharing their stories in Epoch Three!

Funding Sources
Since Epoch Two, Kernel has received a $15K grant from the Ethereum Foundation to run a public goods track in Kernel, which we think Octant may participate well in. This will be run sometime in the first half of 2024, dates incoming.

We also have received dues from KB8 Fellows, ranging from $100 - $500 per participant (there is also a full scholarship for those who need). So far, these total roughly $10,000 across USDC and ETH contributions.

We continue to use funding we received towards funding 5 stewards to work on Kernel (3 full time, 2 part time), and to run two Kernel Blocks a year into perpetuity. Our team is well positioned to a) run Kernel blocks, b) maintain the Kernel Services which enable the blocks and c) support Kernel Fellows, past and present, focusing primarily on the current Kernel block.

We look forward to sharing more about KB8 and the work done in our next update.

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Hi Octant Community,

Kernel is happy to be re-engaging with Octant in Epoch 6 after being an initial participant in Epoch 1 and 2. Here is our LF Report sharing what has been happening in Kernel since Oct '23.

  • Total Funds Received from Octant so far: 6.911 ETH
  • Funds Spent: 0 ETH
  • Detailed Utilization: The Kernel Treasury is diversified from a variety of funding sources. The use of ETH from Epoch 0 was not immediately required, though it represented a meaningful addition to our treasury.

Milestones and Deliverables

  • Milestone 1:

    • Description: KB8 + KB9 Completed. KBX Launched!
    • Immediate Outcome: A total of 332 new Kernel Fellows joined us for KB8 & KB9, affiliated with organizations Optimism, Scroll, Safe, Bain, BoA, Yale, Google, NYU, and LSE. Beyond affiliations, it’s a really wonderful collection of humans – many who are finding their footing in the industry.
    • Funding Used: $299,491

  • Karma GAP: Kernel’s Karma GAP Page (to add Milestones).

Challenges

  • Previous Challenges: Challenges of note in Kernel include 1) recruiting great Kernel Fellows, 2) engaging deeply on Kernel projects (making a tangible, measurable impact on their stated goals) and 3) hosting a healthy amount (~50-75) learning events during a Kernel Block.

    • Description: Given a peer-to-peer learning environment is dependent on great cohort-mates, Kernel is dependent on a strong set of Kernel Fellows to improve the experience for all.

    • Going deep with each Kernel Fellow on their chosen project is the second challenge. We want to attract Fellows with clear ideas or goals they can implement, as their work will most benefit from the web of fellows around them.

    • Lastly, we want to host dialogues around topics of depth, learning together. The learning focuses mostly on crypto and in the broader web, but can relate to any discipline a Kernel Fellow is interested in exploring in depth. Whether the topic is cutting edge cryptography, L2s, artificial intelligence, finance, or mindful movement – Kernel wants to be a place where it is easy to “find the others” when you are trying to learn something in earnest. We write more about this here.

    • Updates: While these challenges remain ever-present, we have activated a referral network from the 2,200 past Kernel Fellows who are both helping us find KBX and, in special cases, being asked to re-engage in Kernel with their projects / as mentors to the current block. They are also being asked to host learning topics on their projects or practice areas within crypto and beyond.

    • Lessons Learned: 1) We expect to move closer to an ‘always on’ application process for Kernel, so great referrals / interest always has a place to go. 2) We will be tracking more closely how all projects in Kernel are progressing. 3) We are inviting high quality speakers to share their ongoing work, and by extension, sharing Kernel with their peers and networks.

At this moment, we have 64 applications to Kernel Block X. This is a low number for us. We, however, remain optimistic that we’ll come together with a great group, as always, starting January 31st. We also feel like the momentum for KB11 is just beginning. If you’re interested, consider applying to KBX here here.

Outputs and Outcomes

Outputs (Last Epoch):

  • Output 1: 332 new Kernel Fellows
  • Output 2: 80 Kernel Projects Participated In Expo (showcasing their work in a Kernel Block)
  • Output 3: Hosted two 9 week blocks of programming, including guests like Anjan Katta, Eva Beylin, Sam Williams, Aaron Lewis, and Lisa Tan.
  • Output 4: Announced Kernel Block X, our 10th block and newest iteration of Kernel, starting January 31st.

Short-term Outcomes:

  • Outcome 1: Another ~300+ Kernel Fellows join the program with ~80 projects,
  • Outcome 2: Another ~20+ Kernel affiliated projects are active across the spectrum of crypto, including a variety of public goods projects.

Long-term Outcomes:

  • Outcome 1: Kernel reached the 2,000 Fellow milestone. This network is one of the single strongest collections of people in crypto (and by extension, technology) on the internet today. Kernel Alumni are staying close to each other, and thereby strengthening our collective intelligence.

    Metrics for Outcomes:

    Innovation and Development: The only metric not listed above that we’d like to share is a total of 2,021 Convo’s have been posted on our events platform, Convo. You log into convo with Dynamic and can, by default, post a conversation you’d like to have in Kernel.

Plans for Potential Funds Raised in the Next Octant Allocation Window

  • Goal 1: Run Kernel Block X, with improved programming

    • Description: Kernel Block X is running January 31st to April 14th, inviting ~100 technologists from around the internet to engage with peer-to-peer and decentralized technologies as they see fit. KBX will be marked by an improved mentorship program, office hours, and overall support for the top stated goal of each Kernel Fellow.
    • Expected Outcome: 100 KBX Fellows with ~40 projects built towards a better web.
    • Funding Needed: $ 75,000

  • Goal 2*: Qualitative & Quantitative Metrics on Kernel Outputs

    • Track 1) activity, 2) engagement and 3) impact by KBX projects, and other Kernel Fellows who are active during KBX in three buckets: 1) Individual high-quality activity, 2) Kernel Project Progress, and 3) Learning topics shared and explored. Create a system to easily track across all categories (People, Projects, Conversations).

Other Funding

  • Grant Funding Received Since the Last Epoch: N/A, no grant funding received in 2024.

  • Other Non-Grant Funding Sources: User payments in 2024 totaled roughly $25,000, dues for Kernel Block 8 and 9.

Future Plans for Financial Sustainability

Our main sources of funding were from grants in 2022 - 2023. These were from Gitcoin, Filecoin, The Graph, Anoma, Octant, and Optimism – the last two via RetroPGF.

Short term, our goal is to keep our costs reasonable, continue to collect Kernel Dues, and apply for grants on an as-needed basis.

Our long term goal remains a Kernel Endowment - where projects who are successful and protocol tier sponsors who benefit from or value Kernel give back a % advisory share or donations to Kernel’s treasury. This allows Kernel to continue into perpetuity in a more sustainable fashion. The first two examples of this are currently in progress, and we hope to share more in the next epoch.