notes for CLIMATE challenge team
*This is written for the “Climate Change: THE Challenge” telegram group. If you want to be a part of this open group, make yourself an Ideascale account, join Project Catalyst (Cardano), and reach out to someone from the Challenge team here: Climate Change: THE Challenge (ideascale.com)I
** Dear team, I’m taking liberties to speak for us as a whole, for the purpose of keeping the ball rolling on figuring out how we see our role during fund7 should CLIMATE continue to crush it through the voting period, and how we might present that publicly. Just throwing this out there:
A Note on this Challenge Team
This challenge team, as of Fund7, is a ragtag group of folks who, thanks to the valiant efforts of Melanie in her off-grid home in [Melanie insert whatever you want to call home] have gathered together in these last few days to stick a pin in a really big topic. We share a belief that there is incredible genius nascent within the cardano community that deserves to be nurtured and deployed to make meaningful progress on the problem of Climate Change. Like all the other challenge teams out there, we are very much figuring this out as we go. It is a great responsibility to take a popular issue and frame it for the Cardano community.. So, rather than put too many constraints this early in the process, we thought it best to leave it open and trust the process. What you see in the challenge question description are just constraints to consider, since constraints can often be helpful. Don’t be afraid to go outside the box that we’ve set forth to bring this issue to the Community.
The Role of Challenge Team Members
Member(s) of the challenge team will read every proposal regardless of budget request and weigh in the same way that everyone else does- by commenting. Our comments don’t hold any special sway and nor should they. At the end of the day, we each have one vote like anyone else. The future of this challenge question rests with the voters, the proposers and then (fingers crossed) once again, the voters. That’s how this works. The whole thing’s iterative.
Framing the Challenge Question to potential Proposers:
Harm Reduction vs Benefit Promotion
There’s the “harm reduction” side (decreasing combustion, de-forestation. Creating disincentives for contributing to climate change).
There’s also the “benefit promotion” side, (increasing sequestration, ecological health. Creating incentives that result in increased climate stability)
Leverage Points: in the economy, leverage points on land, in the sea, in industry, in culture, in markets, in communities, in networks- where small things can lead to big things.
Stories
Let’s face it this is a strange place: We are a Question seeking Answers living inside a decentralized digital network made of real people figuring out how to make use of a stash of cryptocurrency backed by millions of lines of code that represent a new type of monetary system that is poised to change the game. And its up to us to change the game. If we tell the world this story, we will lose almost everybody…. So we need proposals that tell clear, digestible stories about how this technology and this community can be used to solve real problems.
Short-Term vs Long-Term
This is early days for Cardano and the work we’re all doing here. Meanwhile, the urgency of the destabilization of natural systems is very real. If you have a plan that can hit the ground running, that’s great. But we should not miss the opportunity to consider the long view. We won’t solve this overnight. We will solve it with solutions that will have arrived at the right place at the right time, and that right time might be AFTER cardano is the global financial operating system it dreams of becoming. You can help Cardano get there
Challenge Setting and Problem Sensing within this Challenge Question:
Each Catalyst Fund has mechanisms built in for changing the current state (problem sensing) and future state (challenge setting) of the Fund. This is how Catalyst grows organically, in phases. If you have a perspective/opinion that you want to share, you access that mechanism as a “proposer.”
As above, so below. Should voters give our challenge question the nod, if You have something you want to share about how “Climate Change” is framed in this Fund7 Challenge, be a proposer and tell the community about it. If you have a vision for where Climate Change might make a turn, branch out, fork in Fund8 and beyond, consider giving that vision a jumpstart here in Fund7 by being a proposer. The success of this challenge wrests on it finding its niche within a Funding round that is very much TBD. The way You help shape the identity of this challenge question, and Catalyst at large, is by being a Proposer.
Arriving at a Budget for your Proposal
Firstly, if you have something of the problem-sensing or challenge-setting varietal to share, AND there is something actionable, for someone like you, in the proposal you submit,, don’t be ashamed to ask for some funding. We, the members of this challenge team, are “entitled” to receive funds if this challenge is accepted .. We haven’t decided what we’ll do, individually/collectively with these modest funds… it’s something we’re asking ourselves… but the fact that funds are flowing to this challenge goes to show that the organism that is Cardano is putting value in the idea that we’ve put a pin in and perhaps in the way we’ve framed it. And you can do the same within the microcosm of this challenge question. If funding would help you get there, ask for what you’d need.
For other proposers, some advice would be to think about the total budget that’s available in this challenge: $270k, out of a total of $5.7m for Fund7. Look back at successful proposals from previous rounds that might match yours and see what was requested relative to the budget of that Challenge. Think about what you’re realistically capable of delivering, what it would take to get to the milestones in your proposal. All that good stuff.
While in general Catalyst proposals with higher budgetary asks are given a more thorough look, It’s important for all proposals in this challenge question to be considered regardless of budgetary ask. Exhibit A: a cowherd in Ethiopia with a great idea might not need much funding to create something that proves a point, becomes a model for others, and starts a cascade of outsized benefit. Exhibit B: A proposer from the US who considers their personal standing relative to the average earthling as far as e.g. carbon footprint, and has the means to devote time to this passion project without compensation may be compelled to ask for very little for their proposal. That’s fine. Just remember that money makes things happen, and even if you can go without, your idea may benefit from a budget that helps create niches for capable people to fill to help you see your mission through.