Gm! 
This is our updated report for participating in the Epoch 5!
Total Funds Received from Octant so far: $68,543 / 27.491588 ETH
- Epoch 4 - $44,704 / 16.0907 ETH (USD value based on current price)
- Epoch 2 - $12,899 / 5.434418 ETH
- Epoch 1 - $10,940 / 5.96647 ETH
- Funds Spent: $23,839
Detailed Utilization:
Epoch 1:
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Funds were primarily used to support core community efforts.
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Engaged active communities such as Giveth, TEC, General Magic, and Optimism.
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Provided tailored assistance, including bi-weekly quantifications for Optimism.
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Introduced features like disabling Discord notifications for received praise.
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Implemented direct Praise Impact Scoring to streamline the feedback process.
Epoch 2:
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Funding advanced the Praise platform and facilitated a leadership transition.
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Welcomed Dani as the new Praise Lead, focusing on growth within the Optimism network.
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Expanded on-chain capabilities with further integration of Praise Attestations.
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Enhanced transparency and compositional acknowledgment across supported communities.
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Maintained and improved admin panels for 24 communities.
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Launched new tutorials to encourage meaningful participation and broader community involvement.
Epoch 3
- We did not receive any funds from this epoch.
Epoch 4
- The funds received in this Epoch were recently claimed and are yet to be utilized; they are scheduled to be deployed by the end of the month to support the upcoming objectives as detailed in our plan.
Milestones and Deliverables
Milestone 1:
- Description: Onboarding Communities onto Praise with dashboard and Praise explorer
- Immediate Outcome: Created a dashboard tool to onboard communities for free, to give them access to analytics and metric on Praise usage within their community.
- Funding Used: $70,000
Milestone 2:
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Description: Ethereum Attestation Service Integration
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Immediate Outcome: Community users can now receive minted attestation containing useful information like the score, their rank in their community, etc. from their community multisig, which represents their community.
Optimism Attestation Explorer -
Funding Used: $19,000
Milestone 3:
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Description: Expanded community outreach & future specs
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Immediate Outcome: For this phase, we maintained and improved admin panels for 21 communities, integrated further with attestations, and started planning the next phase of Praise integration with Farcaster
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Funding Used: $20,000
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Karma GAP: Karma GAP - Praise
Previous Challenges:
- Scaling Hurdles: We had some challenges with scaling the on-chain praise representations and making sure everything stayed transparent.
- Spam Risk: There was a concern about spam in our bounty programs, which could have hurt the system’s credibility.
- User adoption: Although we have a core group of loyal users, we wanted to expand Praise’s use outside of Discord.
Updates:
- On-Chain Expansion: We’ve made good progress with expanding on-chain praise using attestations, which has helped improve transparency.
- Spam Prevention: We put in place stricter submission rules and started doing weekly checks to keep spam in the bounty programs under control.
- User platforms: Create integrations with public social media for further Praise visibility, starting with Farcaster
Resolution:
- Process Improvements: We fine-tuned our attestation and quantification processes, getting community members involved in the verification to ensure their legitimacy.
- Submission Control: We added clear criteria for submissions and set up regular reviews to make sure only the real, meaningful contributions get recognized.
Lessons Learned:
- Transparency Matters: We learned how crucial it is to keep processes transparent to maintain trust in a decentralized environment.
- Community Input: Regular feedback from the community is key to keeping things running smoothly and avoiding issues like spam.
- R&D is Essential: Continuous research and development are necessary to keep up with new tools and adapt to our users’ needs as we grow.
Outputs and Outcomes
Outputs (Last Epoch):
- Output 1: Community Engagement: We have successfully managed explorer and admin panels for 24 communities. Our efforts to enhance participation and bot usage have been effective, and we have organized X spaces. Additionally, we have introduced various new content formats, including casts, tweets, and tutorials. We also launched a Bounty Program in Farcaster as a precursor to our upcoming integration on the platform.
Praise is now supporting 24 communities with its Discord bot. Since the last epoch, these communities have used the bot over 3,000 times. This is done by over 1300 users across communities. https://explorer.givepraise.xyz/
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Output 2: More than 300 unique attestations have been minted on Optimism network through Praise platform.
Optimism Attestation Explorer -
Output 3: Helped to distribute over $2,000 in rewards (via the GIV token and other communities), to reward users who have received Praise since the last epoch.
Short-term Outcomes:
- Outcome 1: Improved On-Chain Reputation Systems
The integration of on-chain attestations has not only enhanced transparency but also laid the foundation for a composable, verifiable reputation system that can be utilized across multiple decentralized applications and governance processes.
- Outcome 2: Created an educational funnel and onboarding experience to encourage long term adoption of Praise within communities.
Long-term Outcomes:
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Outcome 1: Created long term positive vibes within several communities, with some community managers telling us how valuable it has been as part of community culture. For example, one community manager quoted us, “Praise is the highlight of our weekly meetings, and really helps with morale and a feeling of belonging”.
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Outcome 2: Sustainable On-Chain Reputation and Governance Tools
Praise is establishing itself as a critical tool for on-chain reputation, enabling communities to maintain transparent, reliable records of contributions that can be seamlessly integrated into governance frameworks and other decentralized systems.
- Outcome 3: Enduring Community Cohesion and Engagement
The consistent use of Praise within communities has contributed to long-term cultural cohesion, with users reporting a deeper sense of belonging and increased motivation to contribute, driven by the recognition and rewards facilitated through the platform.
Metrics for Outcomes:
- User Engagement:That translates to 3,000 instance of the praise bot being triggered since the last epoch which ended in late July. More than 1300 users have used Praise since.
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Adoption and Usage: Over 1300 users across communities with 23 currently active communities.
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Community Impact: 24 active communities including Giveth, Optimism, and Gnosis DAO. New communities like Hand Protocol and VDAO are in process of being onboarded.
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Financial Metrics: No revenue generated until now, it’s a free service public good.
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User Satisfaction: A couple of testimonials from community members that use Praise, “New contributors find Praise hugely impressive, cool, inclusive, community-building. It hooks you into the community!” - Danibelle Giveth contributor & “Praise is essential. I don’t think anyone in the community could imagine not having it.” - Dr. Suga at Giveth
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Innovation and Development: Launched attestations, working on Farcaster integration to be launched within Q3.
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On-Chain Activity: Number of Attestations: Over 300 unique attestations minted, creating a robust on-chain record of contributions that can be leveraged for governance, reputation building, and access control.
Plans for Potential Funds Raised in the Next Octant Allocation Window
Goal 1: Farcaster Integration
- Description: We aim to integrate Praise with Farcaster, allowing users to mint attestations directly within the Farcaster feed. This integration will seamlessly connect on-chain acknowledgments with the existing social graph on Farcaster, enhancing user interaction and community engagement. With more unique users minting attestations for others with a context define, Praise bot can contribute ever more to account uniqueness and building reputation on them.
- Expected Outcome: Users will be able to mint attestations within the Farcaster feed, increasing the reach and utility of on-chain acknowledgments and contributing to account uniqueness and reputation-based systems.
- Funding Needed: $ 70,000
Goal 2: Expanding On-Chain Attestations Using Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS)
- Description: We plan to expand the use of on-chain attestations through the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS), extending Praise’s capabilities to a broader range of decentralized communities. This will make the Praise platform more versatile and increase its applicability across various sectors.
- Expected Outcome: The scope of on-chain attestations will be broadened, enhancing the platform’s versatility and enabling a wider range of decentralized organizations to utilize Praise for transparent and trusted recognition.
- Funding Needed: $20,000
Goal 3: Marketing and Community Building
- Description: We plan to amplify our marketing efforts and strengthen community building by enhancing our social media presence and launching targeted campaigns. This will involve creating content, hosting community events, and engaging with more bounties to increase visibility and attract new users to the Praise platform. X spaces programs are in plans with other EAS projects to educate the user base and raise community awareness. Several bounty programs on both X and Farcaster are also in place to promote content creation and increase learning enthusiasm of users about account uniqueness and reputation in general and Praise products specifically.
- Expected Outcome: Increased brand awareness, a larger and more active user base, and stronger community engagement across supported platforms, leading to higher retention and adoption rates.
- Funding Needed: $15,000
Other Funding
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Grant Funding Received Since the Last Epoch: No significant additional liquid grants have been received since the previous epoch. However, we did secure the following funding and donations:
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Gitcoin Grants 20 Matching Fund - $1,213 USD
Other Non-Grant Funding Sources: N/A
Future Plans for Financial Sustainability
Our financial sustainability plan revolves around multiple strategies:
- Revenue Generation: Introducing a small fee for users minting attestations within the Farcaster feed, providing a steady revenue stream for the Praise ecosystem.
- Strategic Partnerships: Deepening partnerships with Optimism (OP) and other superchains to expand our user base and integrate more communities into the Praise platform.
- Premium Features: Developing future premium AI-driven features, such as community subscriptions, to offer enhanced services for a fee, thereby diversifying our income sources.
- R&D and New Features: Continuing research and development to launch new features and tools that meet the evolving needs of decentralized communities, ensuring the platform remains relevant and valuable.
We’ve been focused on fostering the Praise community up until now. However, starting from Q3 of 2024, our focus has been on innovating and expading the impact of Praise. We’re in the process of creating a Farcaster bot to enable users to mint attestations for others within the Farcaster Frame Feed without having to be redirected outside. This bot could charge each user to pay a small amount of fee as a revenue for Praise ecosystem.
We’ll also be planning on requesting funding from Retro funding round 6 as well as other grants once the Farcaster bot is launched.
We may also charge an onboarding fee for new communities to integrate with Praise if they would like advanced features, such as AI profiles, or paying out rewards for Praise.
Praise currently supports +24 communities with its Discord bot.