AIP-499: Lokie Labs & Albarra: Redefining Web3 entertainment and user experience with ApeChain

STATEMENT

Our mission is to develop user navigation software tools for Web3 to ease onboarding into ApeChain, ApeCoin & the broad NFT ecosystem. All of our products will launch through the story of Albarra, our illustrated/animated series that unfolds every Wednesday on X alongside our companion gamified storytelling platform (albarra.world ) with immersive multi-platform experiences, ApeChain discovery quests, minigames, product go-to-markets, NFTs, Made By Apes, Web2 & Web3 partner activations.

This narrative game platform is becoming a hub to promote, showcase and integrate MBAs or other Web3 brands into our story while allowing users to participate, learn & earn as they go.

TEAM DESCRIPTION:

The core team includes the 3 founders and 2 software engineers.

The founders, Iñigo Gastón as CEO (X , Linkedin ), Javier Guri as CCO (X , Linkedin) and Jaime Rodríguez as CMO (X , Linkedin ), are native to the Web3 ecosystem with more than 10 years of combined crypto, consulting, design & gaming experience.

Detailed description of professional background & experience of founders below :point_down:

Summary

Inigo Gastón is an early crypto adopter & contributor with more than 8 years of personal and professional experience being fully immersed in the industry since 2016. He honed his expertise in blockchain technology and its business applications through roles at multinational consultancies in Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) and digital transformation. Wanting to transition to a more direct involvement with public cryptocurrencies, he joined Spain’s leading cryptocurrency exchange where he took on leadership roles involving decision making and management of token utilities, airdrops & activations, exchange partnerships, launchpad strategies and client consulting.

Javier Guri is an avid entrepreneur who founded his first tech startup at 17 years old; with over 10 years of experience in graphic & UI design and filmmaking, he has provided strategic insight on go-to-market campaigns for numerous international brands, marketplaces, apps and games. The passion for tech, innovation and art came together when he discovered NFTs in 2021, which soon led him to join the leading Spanish crypto exchange and take on the role of Web3 Partnerships Manager for the Token Team alongside Iñigo, helping manage large scale campaigns, airdrops and product activations.

Jaime RodrĂ­guez is a seasoned social media specialist with over four years of experience in managing and growing online communities. At the leading Spanish crypto exchange, he played a key role in engaging and expanding a large community of holders and followers on social media, driving participation through creative content, events, and strategic promotions. With a strong passion for analytics, he leveraged data-driven insights to optimize campaigns and enhance user engagement.

As long time friends, our professional careers came together when we joined the token team of Spain’s leading crypto exchange, where we assisted Web3 projects with strategy and capital raise for launchpad ICOs as well as consulting & partner activations for global brands like FC Barcelona, Estrella Galicia or Mahou, among others.

After 2 years working together, managing a 6 figure crypto airdrop campaign, developing and managing new digital products & token utilities, creating user activations for +1M users and generating 80.000 holders for the exchange token, we took the leap and built Lokie Labs.

Our two core team software engineers are specialized in 2 areas of development:

  • Web, API & UX software tools - Juan Francisco Paulino Veras (Linkedin ):
  • Smart contract development - 0xDamp (X )

Detailed description of professional background & experience of core software engineers below :point_down:

Summary

Juan Paulino is a Full Stack developer with over 7 years of experience specializing in the JavaScript ecosystem. He has worked on projects in sectors such as banking, insurance, and telecommunications, both individually and leading teams with agile methodologies.

0xDamp is a software developer with over 3 years of experience in Solidity, possessing deep knowledge of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and expertise in writing low-level assembly to optimize contracts for gas efficiency. Previously served as Head of Engineering, leading the development of smart contracts, web integrations, and more. Currently running a software development company specialized in providing smart contracts and technical expertise for others.

For our pilot we put together a team of 8 talented creators, artists and developers:

  • Van Soul (X, Instagram): Art & character lead
  • Joey Pool (X, Instagram): Landscape artist & animator
  • Marleen Van Dun (Instagram): Character animation
  • NFT Dreww (X): Discord security
  • Midori (X ): Music
  • Adrian Murgu (X): Assistant discord moderator
  • Gary Lima (Linkedin): Software Developer
  • Xavier Traveset (Linkedin ): UI & UX Designer

Detailed description of professional background & experience of pilot crew below :point_down:

Summary

Van Soul is a professional digital artist from Cyprus, specializing in concept art (characters and environments). Over the past 3-4 years, he has worked on numerous Web3, traditional and Gaming projects, alongside his own passion project, Artemis.

Joey Pool is an illustrator, background artist, and production designer from the Netherlands with more than five years of experience working on a variety of projects, ranging from animated shorts to board games. He loves to create immersive and atmospheric worlds using colours, design and composition to set a strong mood.

Marleen van Dun is a 2D animator from the Netherlands with over 5 years of experience. Specialized in character animation, storyboard design and illustration, she loves taking on creative challenges and working with motivated teams who push her abilities further.

Shopkeeper Midori, a DJ in the web 3 space, is known for her role as a vibe curator. She brings a thoughtful touch to creating enjoyable and engaging environments for NFT events and communities. Her background in music and her understanding of digital art help her craft memorable experiences for enthusiasts and collectors alike.

NFT Dreww is a seasoned CyberSecurity engineer with over 8 years of experience, specializing in security consulting for Fortune 1000 and 500 companies in the Web2 space. In Web3, he is a passionate security enthusiast who has managed over 100 Discord audits, provided security training, and actively promoted security awareness within the community. As an ambassador for Wallet Guard and a contributor to Boring Security, he is dedicated to advancing security education across digital platforms.

Adrián Murgu is an experienced Discord server moderator and admin with a strong background in handling gaming communities. He’s skilled at managing diverse groups of players from around the globe and has a profound understanding of gaming culture and community dynamics.

Gary Lima started in the world of digital marketing at the age of 15, but it was programming that truly ignited his passion. Since then, he has worked as a self-taught developer, engaging in a variety of freelance projects ranging from mobile apps to full digital platforms. His work focuses on helping startups and entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life by creating software that balances quality and efficiency.

Javier Traveset is an accomplished UX designer with over 12 years of experience in designing interfaces and user experiences for digital products, combining creativity and strategy to craft user-centred solutions. Throughout his career, he has worked across a wide range of industries, from tech startups to large enterprises, applying his expertise in user research, information architecture, and interaction design.

We took the approach of having a core team and a separate team for every season which we call “crew” for entertainment thematic purposes, to allow for more flexibility & scalability to meet roadmap needs.

The founders have now been planning and developing Lokie Labs first steps & the currently active pilot series for over a year with no salary compensation.

PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION

We want to utilize $APE as the conversion of our existing albarra.world reward system (logs) and hub incentives, supporting ApeChain from the get-go. These rewards will always be delivered to our users through a claim process at the end of each season.

This would also fund the continued development of all Lokie Labs products, including albarra.world season 1 & the first ever customisable minigame captcha service fed by an open creator platform for integration in NFT mint processes and brand activations.

FULL PRODUCT SCOPE

UX tools

Software tools that improve the overall navigation experience of NFT and crypto users, enhancing current processes to prevent malicious behavior, security threats as well as helping gamify mints and other purchase or human verification processes.

We will roll out a v.2 update of The Rail (Our first UX tool) after community feedback, that will include new features like $APE micropurchases, ad placements, additional blockchain support, upgraded customization options, etc.

The first ever customizable minigame captcha service, GaaS (Gaming-as-a-Service), with an open creator platform & $APE economy that allows anyone to upload customisable minigames and earn for their use. We will provide detailed documentation on how to ensure minigame customisation to allow captcha service consumers to brand the minigames however they see fit, opening up a new target audience that seeks to elevate their customer user journeys, including Web2 brands.

This tool will be integrated in high-demand NFT & product public offerings, aiming to solve various problems:

  • Mint botting
  • Lack of fairness
  • Boring purchase user journeys
  • ‘First come, first served’ bypasses
  • Captcha service monopoly

The service will run on several $APE payment mechanisms that we will always strive to convert to API’s for builders to implement in their business:

  • $APE success fee mechanism at its core that splits 20% of $APE back to the DAO, 70% to the platform minigame contributors and 10% to Lokie Labs revenue.
  • One-time $APE payments
  • $APE payments for customisation

Our “Tomahawk ” MVP minigame (currently playable for 24h on Albarra Wednesdays) is a sneak peek into the type of minigames users can expect in this GaaS platform in the near future. Let’s make captchas fun!

Entertainment

A storytelling series that unfolds through weekly episodes every Wednesday on socials and albarra.world at 6PM EST. It tells the story of Nedge, a genius inventor from Albarra determined to bring back the long lost TDRC that perished many years back. A story that allows the audience to unlock and live memorable digital & IRL experiences.

TDRC will serve as the club & core Lokie Labs communication medium for new product go-to-markets, roadmap hints, team transparency, partnership announcements, activations and more.

Fun fact: The fictional landscape for the story setting is not entirely fictional! It is heavily inspired by a beautiful village in rural Spain called Albarracín, a place very dear to the founders. The story could even become a sightseeing guide to give our community the chance to visit all the actual locations and retrace Nedge’s steps IRL to immerse themselves in Spain’s rich cultural heritage.

Gaming

The albarra.world platform will act as a companion website where users with parent NFT collections (pilot season parents & more) from different chains and albarra.world off-chain or on-chain assets can connect and use their NFT’s to craft custom off-chain and on-chain Albarra inventions that unlock rewards through phygital experiences as they take part in story adventures. Web3 users will be able to login to albarra.world via single omni-chain sign-on.

Non crypto or NFT users will be able to sign in with socials and subscribe to play, subscriptions that unlock different tier off-chain Albarra asset kits (NFTs waiting to be minted). These subscription methods include:

  • Lifetime subscription: One-time $400 credit card payment
  • Monthly Subscriptions: $9 a month credit card payments
  • Yearly Subscriptions: $80 credit card payments
  • Physical purchases: NFC enabled physicals with digital NFT twins

The post-purchase albarra.world off-chain asset kits will have intuitive steps within the albarra.world platform aimed towards incentivising on-chain onboarding into $APE & NFTs.

Moreover, this traditional fiat subscriptions revenue will have the following flow intended to bring value back into Lokie Labs & the ApeChain ecosystem:

  • Cashback: Turning 10% of all credit card payments into $APE on ApeChain to send back to subscribing players, prompting wallet creation and chain ecosystem spending
  • Albarra NFT staking pools: 40% of all credit card subscriptions converted to $APE on ApeChain monthly to feed Albarra NFT $APE staking pools
  • Lokie Labs: 50% to Lokie Labs revenue

Users with access will get the chance to engage with our gamified story in various unique ways:

  • Earn rewards for completing story adventures (Pilot season ‘Quests’ become a thing of the past) with crafted TDRC inventions (NFTs) to use in unique digital and physical experiences
  • Discover MBAs & partner brands through immersive experiences
  • Facilitate ApeChain discovery
  • Earn exclusive badges with special Albarra + partner perks
  • Early access to innovative products, mechanics and new market standards
  • Test their knowledge and learn about Web3 security
  • Compete in a global leaderboard
  • On-chain connected physicals
  • Take active part in Web3 innovation

PILOT PRODUCT SCOPE (MVP)

The goal of our 6 month pilot/MVP is to test market demand and demonstrate Lokie Labs’ ability to effectively deliver value, useful products and memorable story-led experiences, giving a sneak peak into what each jam-packed weekly episode will look like from the start of Season 1.

UX Tools

“The Rail” browser extension is available in the Chrome Web Store, our first Web3 user-experience software tool: an NFT-market ticker tape display that allows users to customise and monitor crypto prices, GAS fees as well as NFT collections’ floor prices, volume and sales from all relevant NFT chains at all times.

The Rail Chrome Web Store link:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/the-rail/kapphbffdknhnbpflocmkibpdhhmgogh

Entertainment

Albarra weekly series on socials (X , Discord , Instagram) & albarra.world every Wednesday at 6PM EST with illustrations, animation, minigames, MBA story cameos, discord parties and immersive web experiences. The pilot season acts as the synopsis and first glance of the bigger picture yet to come.

Gaming

Rolled out in sync with our storytelling engagement platform, the first version of our narrative based game & immersive web-app, albarra.world , the first of its kind.

This platform will enable a soft-strategy gameplay for anyone to join the weekly story and earn rewards by completing quests, a journey where they will get to learn about crypto and NFT security, interact with MBA brands and get familiar with the ApeChain & $APE ecosystem, while also becoming the first to test Lokie Labs UX products.

“Parent” NFT collections that can claim additional rewards in albarra.world:

  • Bored Ape Yacht Club
  • Mutant Ape Yacht Club
  • 10KTF Grailed
  • Otherside Koda
  • Renga
  • Crypto Tats
  • Mutant Hounds
  • Mocaverse
  • Saved Souls
  • 0N1
  • Beanz

With Albarra, we introduce a new type of story-led social farming that limits crowding the X feed with excessive farming BS. This ensures everything we direct our audience to is valuable content while still allowing for competition with fun mechanics, activations and experiences.

Pilot TL;DR

Every piece of this MVP is an example of what we want to build on a larger scale:

albarra.world: The first iteration of our storytelling companion website for this Pilot Season, a demonstration of how we plan on communicating our roadmap, product go-to-markets, user interactions and access to memorable and rewardable experiences through IP based storytelling.

Tomahawk minigame: An example of the simple minigames we want to include in our creator platform fed minigame captcha service.

The Rail Chrome extension: Our first UX tool, a customisable cross-chain NFT, crypto and GAS ticker tape display for the top of the user’s browser. A custom widget that allows users to keep track of the market as they play & navigate the web. Yes, it works while assblasting in the Otherside!

Hub for MBA’s and other web3 brands: Through our story and companion platform, we have had the opportunity to cameo, integrate and champion other MBA brands in an effort to elevate their presence and sales, while enhancing our own communities experience. We believe we are in an immature market that needs to work and elevate others and will deliver the necessary resources to do so.

Want to learn more about the pilot season of @albarra_tdrc and how to participate? check out this tutorial video by @kidguri & this @Medium article:

MVP ROADMAP

PAST MILESTONES

  • Lokie Labs Corporate & legal structure
  • Secured a pre-seed equity round of 40.000€ in February 2024
  • Assembly of core team & pilot crew
  • Launch of full MVP with pre-seed capital including:
    • Lokie Labs company website (lokielabs.com)
    • Albarra storytelling engagement platform (albarra.world )
    • 1st UX tool (The Rail chrome extension)
    • 6 months-worth of weekly illustrated/animated story episodes
    • ‘Tomahawk ’ minigame integrated in albarra.world
    • Music resources & sounds
    • Yuga Labs & Novel Labs character IP licence
  • Since launch in June with organic marketing on our X accounts:
    • 1,200+ followers
    • 2,800+ reposts
    • 330,000+ impressions
    • 500+ Axed Up NFTs (Albarra Axe Campaign)
  • Other social accounts (Discord , Instagram, Linkedin):
    • 500+ followers
    • 45,000+ impressions
  • Closed 18 partners & collabs (MBA and non-MBA)
  • Yuga Labs MBA license #00447
  • GWG small grant for active pilot season incentives

PARTNERS & COLLABS

MBA partners

  • Boring Security: Weekly panel quizzes to keep our community educated on best security practices as they axe their way through the albarra.world Woods
  • Other Page: Integration to link OtherPage profiles to albarra.world & leaderboard display
  • Thank Ape: Cross-platform contributions and rewardable gamified experiences
  • F*ckItProductions: Exclusive perks, f*ck it!
  • 288 Spirits: Exclusive perks from the gang with the finest whisky in the Bodega
  • Mutants Beer: Exclusive perks for the highest quality hops in the space
  • House OG: Exclusive perks for the most OG phygital apparel in Web3
  • Forever Apes: Exclusive perks for merch from the brand that’s been here since forever
  • BoringBrew: Exclusive perks for the best Web3 caffeine dose
  • Unboxing Web3: Story cameo for MBA awareness on unboxing Youtube channel, appealing to the masses by unboxing Web3 products
  • SINGEÂź: Exclusive perks from a lifestyle brand from the swamp
  • Drew Security: Exclusive perks for a discord setup and security needs
  • Grateful Ape Chocolates: Exclusive perks for the sweetest Ape chocolate
  • BondCakeCooks: Story cameo for MBA Awareness of the best cooks in Web3
  • Hero The Doggo: Story cameo for MBA awareness of a children’s book of a doggo named Hero
  • DashboUGC: Bring Albarra to life, quests & help empower users to unleash their creativity with a multitude of animations and poses in the most awaited UGC platform in Web3

Non-MBA partners

  • OGTripleMedia: Media coverage and community access
  • Chorrus Games: Minigame development & integration in albarra.world
  • Sterling Abogados: Legal partners ensuring compliance in every step we take

BENEFIT TO APECOIN & APECHAIN ECOSYSTEM

Each of our product lines will have direct integrations of ApeChain & ApeCoin in our tech infrastructure, payments and reward mechanisms:

  • All $APE integrations in our products will include one-time payments & success fee mechanisms that will give back to the DAO treasury and platform contributors
  • Innovative API’s & plug-ins for the ApeChain’s ecosystem of builders
  • Facilitate ApeChain discovery
  • Novel $APE buy and hold pressure mechanics
  • Onboarding new users through seamless platform connection
  • Amplifying on-chain activity: NFT & on-chain tx based adventures as well as cross-chain community activations
  • Improve user experience (UX) in Web3 and the $APE ecosystem
  • 10% of all $APE gross revenue from albarra.world micropurchases & crafting back to the DAO in gross revenue until 150% ROI to ApeCoin DAO
  • Revenue from the GaaS platform will be distributed back to the DAO:
    • In-house minigames
      • ApeCoin DAO: 30% - until 150% ROI to DAO (gross revenue)
      • Lokie Labs: 70%
    • Contributor minigames:
      • ApeCoin DAO: 20% - Perpetuity (gross revenue)
      • Contributors: 70%
      • Lokie Labs: 10%
  • 10% of all $APE gross revenue from “The Rail” v.2 back to the DAO in perpetuity
  • Digi-physical products connected to ApeChain augmenting tx traffic through seamless IRL to on-chain connection
  • Build the first Web3-born global minigame captcha service on ApeChain
  • Bring fairness and anti-botting mechanisms for NFT, token or product offerings
  • A hub to present MBA’s to a new, wider audience to drive leads and interaction
  • Incentivise DAO participation through rewarded in-game quests and adventures
  • Contributing to add new uses cases and utility for $APE and ApeChain
  • Generate new $APE holders
  • Generate new ApeChain wallets
  • Loudspeaker for the DAO, MBA’s & IP based brands
  • A storytelling experience on ApeChain attractive to both Web2 and Web3 audiences worldwide

DEFINITIONS

  • Storytelling Engagement Panel: Immersive web platform that evolves weekly alongside our X series with quests, minigames, riddles and on-chain activations
  • Narrative Gaming: A genre of video games that prioritizes storytelling, where the plot, characters, and player choices drive the gameplay experience with branching paths and multiple endings.
  • TRDC: The Degen Rehab Center, HQ of Albarra
  • UX Tools: User-experience enhancing software tools
  • GaaS - Gaming-as-a-Service: A service consisting of a provisioning customized or brand themed minigames as a security layer to replace boring captchas
  • GaaS platform contributors: Creators of minigames and assets for the Gaming-as-a-Service captcha platform
  • Quests: Online tasks to complete in exchange for rewards
  • Logs :wood:: Our current Albarra reward system
  • Axed up: Users who got an edit of their NFT with an Albarra axe
  • API - Application Programming Interface: Set of rules, protocols, and tools that allows different software applications to communicate and interact with each other.
  • UX: User Experience
  • IRL: In-real-life
  • NFC - Near Field Communication: short-range wireless technology enabling secure data exchange between devices within proximity.
  • Phygitals: a blend of “physical” and “digital”

STEPS TO IMPLEMENT

Milestone 1 - Upon receipt of funds from ApeCoin DAO:

  • Community $APE rewards
  • Continue ongoing pilot until December 2024
  • Setup of LLC for friendlier crypto & NFT regulation
  • Logs to $APE conversion pilot claim contract and website
  • Launch Albarra’s first NFT to end pilot season
  • v.2 update of our chrome plugin ‘The Rail’ (Authentication, multiple profile options, $APE payments for in-app ads & level ups)
  • Assemble Albarra Season 1 crew (Art, Animation, Gaming & Web) & begin working on season 1 storyboard
  • Stage 1 albarra.world full scope development (UX, front-end, architecture & technologies)
  • R&D for new market minting standards
  • Team salaries

Cost: $203,750

Timeline: 3 months

Milestone 2 - Upon completion of milestone 1

  • Community $APE rewards
  • Finalize all art resources for Albarra Season 1
  • Stage 1 development of minigame captcha service platform (GaaS)
  • Lokie labs X Verified Organizations - Full access for 12 months
  • R&D for digi-physical collectibles
  • Start freelance compensation
  • QA testing of albarra.world
  • Launch Albarra season 1 series on X
  • Launch full refurbished albarra.world platform for Season 1
  • Smart contract development
  • ApeChain integration within all Lokie Labs products
  • Team salaries

Cost: $155,750

Timeline: 3 months

Milestone 3 - Upon completion of milestone 2

  • Community $APE rewards
  • Smart contract development
  • Scale up our technical infrastructure
  • Final stage of development for minigame captcha service platform (GaaS)
  • Freelance compensation
  • APIfication stage 1
  • Digi-physical sourcing & prototyping
  • Team salaries

Cost: $151,750

Timeline: 3 months

Milestone 4 - Upon completion of milestone 3:

  • Community $APE rewards
  • Launch minigame captcha service platform (GaaS)
  • Digi-physicial commercialisation
  • Final freelance compensation
  • Continued web partner integrations and resources
  • Team salaries

Cost: $158,750

Timeline: 3 months

Total timeline: 12 months

REPORTING EXPECTATIONS

At Lokie Labs we value transparency and trust with our community over anything. We commit to providing quarterly updates and progress reports through our social channels with insights into our ongoing development, product launches, important milestones and future roadmap plans. These reports would go on until the full ROI is delivered to the DAO (150% of total AIP funds) and continued at a biyearly or yearly basis for all perpetual revenues going back to the DAO.

We also ensure transparent on-chain data of all product related transactions, including our success fee mechanisms to give back to the community and DAO.

WHAT WE HAVE INVESTED

10.000€ capital contribution by the 3 founders

40.000€ from pre-seed equity round:

  • UX software tool “The Rail” (Chrome extension)
  • Lokie Labs website
  • Albarra storytelling engagement platform (albarra.world )
  • 6 months-worth of art for weekly storytelling episodes
  • Minigame development for albarra.world
  • Legal & Advisory
  • Travel & networking expenses
  • Discord setup
  • Security audits
  • Partner & collab integrations for user activations
  • API connections and subscriptions
  • Technical architecture infrastructure & hosting costs
  • Smart contract development

LOKIE LABS COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

@lokie_labs - Company updates & announcements
@albarra_tdrc - Weekly Albarra story episodes
Albarra Discord - Albarra’s community hub
albarra.world - Companion storytelling engagement platform for digital and physical experiences as the story unfolds on @albarra_tdrc

COMPANY STRUCTURE

  • Lokie Labs Capital
  • Lokie Labs S.L.

We would use Lokie Labs Capital as the entry point for this AIP funding for tax purposes, and provide any necessary KYC information of any board members and hired individuals.

OVERALL COST

Total amount requested from the ApeCoin Ecosystem Fund = $670.000 USD, paid in ApeCoin.

Four tranches of funding have been requested:
Day 1 of Month 1- $203,750
Day 1 of Month 4 - $155,750
Day 1 of Month 7 - $151,750
Day 1 of Month 10 - $158,750

Our goal is to begin generating revenue to cover these costs and begin giving back to the DAO by milestone 4.

Community - $170.000:

  • $30.000: Pilot conversion of albarra.world in-game points “logs” for claimable $APE on Apechain
  • $120.000:
    • Season 1 rewards
    • MBA brands promotion & activations
  • $20.000:
    • User onboarding activations & partnerships (Web2 & Web3)
    • Physical events & sub-community meetups
    • New Apechain user incentive programs

Product - $500.000:

  • Technical Development:
    • $70.000: Season 1 albarra.world upgrade (Front-End Development & Integration)
    • $50.000: UX software product development
    • $35.000: Smart contract development + Port to ApeChain
    • $5.000: Security audits

Total: $160.000

  • Freelance recruiting:
    • $30.000: Illustration team
    • $80.000: Animation team
    • $7.000: Web resources
    • $3.000: Sound & music

Total: $120.000

  • Infrastructure & technology:
    • $10.000: Technical Architecture design

Total: $10.000

  • Marketing:
    • $5.000: Media articles + press releases
    • $10.000: @lokie_labs Twitter premium

Total: $15.000

  • Core Team Salaries:
    • $155.000: 3 founders compensation:
      • Business development
      • Partnerships management
      • Marketing campaigns & activations
      • Community management
      • Operations & misc.
      • UI/UX Design
    • $15.000: Software dev (Hours-based cost)
    • $25.000: Smart contract dev (Hours-based cost)

Total: $195.000

Expand to view screenshot from “YEAR 1 COSTS (AIP FUNDS SPENDING)” tab of financials and costs projections spreadsheet :point_down:

Summary

For more detailed information on Lokie Labs use of AIP funds please refer to the full spreadsheet here: LOKIE LABS 4 YEAR REVENUE PROJECTIONS - Google Sheets

RISKS & MITIGATIONS

Some of the main risks and mitigations to product delivery that we could encounter are:

  • Regulatory barriers: We have a flexible company and team structure to be able to quickly adapt to potential regulatory changes in the near future that could affect our business model. We also partnered up with an expert crypto law firm to ensure compliance in every step we take.
  • Market volatility: We have a good understanding of Web3 market cycles and have personally experienced high volatility before. In our cost projections we took that into account to maintain a financial buffer for potential worst case scenarios.
  • Interoperability infrastructure: Building our products with reliable market standards & EVM friendly capabilities will help mitigate possible setbacks in technology integrations.

4-YEAR REVENUE PROJECTIONS

Click the image below to access the detailed spreadsheet of our 4 year financial projections of how each Lokie Labs product will bring revenue back to the ApeCoin DAO. Aiming to achieve a $4 expenditure per user for every $1 of incentive they receive:

image

We consider a 30% uncertainty in our delivery cost estimates, considering how fast the Web3 landscape grows and how drastically the consumer sentiment & trends change.

Thank you for reading our ApeCoin Improvement Proposal; feel free to take a stroll in albarra.world and start axing your way through Albarra :wood: :axe

This is a very well put together proposal (perhaps this needs to be a template for other proposals so we can have clear visibility of costs and benefits).

Congrats with your progress so far. I have a few questions.

  1. 700k + 1.6m doesn’t add to 2.6m. What am I missing here?

  2. can you provide some indicative figures for return on investment per annum? It’s great to see a return to the DAO but you don’t show the scalability of the revenue stream over time.

  3. significant cost to attract people and incentives. For a typical user, what expenditure do you expect by the user for each $1 they receive as an incentive?

3.1) if your confident in your business, why do you feel you need any incentive?

  1. as with other APEchain proposals, why would this not come under the banana bill initiative?

  2. can you provide a forecast of your X follower growth over the course of the 1 year build time and beyond.

As I say, really like how you put this together. Other AIPs should take note.

2 Likes

Is this like in-game product placement? That’s pretty interesting, as long as it’s tasteful and not just in-game ads. Can I ask a little about the six-figure crypto airdrop that this team managed? Is that related to the 80,000 holders of an exchange token and the creation of +1M users?

Is this kind of a separate project within the Alberra World project? Are all aspects of Lokie Labs products included in the ROI to ApeCoin DAO? Right now it says 30% for in-house games and 20% for contributor games, but would that include the gamified captcha and other innovations? Also, are those returns in perpetuity?

2 Likes

Hi @Manakel ! Thank you so much for the kind words and feedback. I’ll answer each of the questions 1 by 1:

  1. Yes, completely correct. Edited immediately, thank you!

  2. True, we have a detailed financial projection document for all product lines and different return mechanism’s to the DAO, reflecting the scalability of revenue with low-end market assumptions for the next 4 years. I’ll be sure to fit it in the next proposal edit with the document link at the bottom.

  3. Based on our financial projections we want to work towards expenditure of 4$ for every 1$ they receive as incentive by year 4 of operation.

3.1) We see the incentive as a good-to-have onboarding mechanism that will not just benefit our user attraction ratio but also help onboard and ease spending of those $APE incentives within the ApeChain ecosystem which we will boost through minigames, immersive activations, micro transactions, education and interactive product placements. Facilitate ApeChain discovery!

  1. We debated whether to do a Banana Bill or AIP for weeks, but finally chose to submit an AIP in great part because of the feedback process, to be able to present it to the entire ApeCoin community and to test for market demand/sentiment. It also helps decide with the help of the community where our investment proposal fits best.

  2. Our forecast/KPI’s for X followers in combined accounts at the end of each year:

  • Dec 2025: 5607 followers
  • Dec 2026: 20.317 followers
  • Dec 2027: 58.640 followers

Really appreciate the comment and interest in our AIP idea.

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Thanks for your feedback DavidW!
Indeed it is like in-game product placement (we call them “brand cameos”) but we take it a step further by creating story-led experiences in albarra.world involving NFT custom crafting, minigames, clickabale web experiences and more that allow them to directly interact with the brands and generate leads through added collaborative incentives.

Sure, yes it is, that 6 figure airdrop campaign with which we generated 80.000 defi holders and specifically involved the founders whilst we were together at the exchange. Here is some info:

Responding to your question on if the GaaS platform is a separate from albarra.world, no. Everything falls under the same Lokie Labs roof, but exist separately at the same time. Different products within the same company.

The minigame captcha service is one of Lokie Labs’ UX products that debuts through the story of albarra.world. It serves as the narrative-based platform through which we creatively roll out new products like “The Rail” (Our first UX tool launching this Aug on The Chrome Web Store).

> Is this kind of a separate project within the Alberra World project? Are all aspects of Lokie Labs products included in the ROI to ApeCoin DAO? Right now it says 30% for in-house games and 20% for contributor games, but would that include the gamified captcha and other innovations? Also, are those returns in perpetuity?

Yes, if this AIP passes, all Lokie Labs products guarantee a distribution % back to the ApeCoin DAO and platform creators. This includes the gamified captcha platform and other innovations. @Manakel asked a similar question regarding our revenue forecast to which we replied with a forecast summary screenshot while we edit the proposal with a link to the spreadsheet that shows exactly what each revenue stream will look like along with duration and perpetuity specifications.

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Hi web3gatsby,

Thank you for the excellent responses,

A few follow up queries.

  1. I really like your projections over 4 years. It’s great to see how you anticipate the revenues to grow. These help to set a community consensus regards what we would like to achieve. As a community we can then see how well we did against what we desired. If we don’t project figures on AIP we have no baseline to know if we are doing well, great or rubbish. I wouldn’t be expecting the community to hold you to these . It’s a learning process.
    My only other note is that the biggest DAO revenue generator is the B2B (GaaS platform). Your incentives are mainly focused at onboarding and promoting the ecosystem which I understand. Have you considered additional incentives (future grants) to accelerate the activity with the B2B? How can the DAO help to magnify the use of this?
  1. sounds reasonable.
  2. that’s very interesting. Perhaps the community needs to consider the mechanism to provide input and feedback on banana bill initiatives with the APE foundation.
  3. reasonable numbers, hoping that the APE community can help you to smash through these estimates.

Thanks again for the detailed responses and being open about your estimates. The forecasts make me excited about what you could achieve here.

good luck with your proposal.

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Gm @Manakel. Of course, thank you for the excellent questions!

  1. Yeah completely agree, we need to know expectations vs real impact to make up for a better decision process and we are more than happy to share these projections, just seemed too detailed to add initially when comparing to other AIP’s.
    We have considered additional incentives for the GaaS platform but we expect to be able to cover these incentives ourselves with monthly $APE buybacks every month, coming from our own Lokie Labs revenue starting from year 2. The DAO could really help magnify its use by incentivising/promoting implementation in other DAO derived projects, to stress test the tech & to ease our connection with big market players such as leading minting platforms or established Web2 brands.

Your feedback has helped fine tune our proposal significantly, thank you!

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Hi Web3gatsby

Understood, the current template doesn’t really ask for revenue projections and ROI but we need to move the bar higher and your AIP and responses certainly sets that tone. Many people have great ideas, not everyone can deliver them. The community needs to start questioning delivery more, and how great the actual idea is, less. Need to ensure that the business has legs in the long term. Your responses and attention to detail on the business aspects of the AIP inform me that your company does.

Could go further and ask what the risks/mitigations to delivery are and what’s the %uncertainty on your cost estimates.
As detailed as they are, the world changes and you may come into unexpected delivery costs. By quoting this uncertainty now, there should be less surprise/objection to a second AIP requests for unforeseen or extra costs down the line. Otherwise what is the DAO going to do
 watch projects tank because the team got cost estimates wrong?

In my view the DAO should be allocating 15% of any approved AIP to a risk fund for unforeseen costs in delivery, otherwise we are expecting businesses to deliver unreasonably. If we want them to build for the community then we should take some accountability for the delivery and take on some of that risk also. It’s not surprising that some AIPs that pass to implementation go silent/cold.

You have some major players that are confident in your team, that gives me confidence also. Great AIP.

all the best with this journey.

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First, love the idea of this AIP, the concept etc. Well done.

As to the financials, please read this post as it would be quicker than me having to share the same sentiments here.

Given the financials that you provided, the ROI to the DAO is good - as long as we’re talking about gross rev and not net. If you clarified that, I may have missed it.

Also, if this passes, when the time to put together an agreement comes around, that you’ve added this much [financial] detail to this AIP in a bid to justify the numbers, you’re going to be faced with having to provide actual audited financials, P&L etc. to the APE Foundation in order to prove their provenance and accuracy because you’ve used them to justify the financial ask and benefits to the DAO. Just an FYI.

I don’t understand the logic here.

You guys - who already know how to run an op like this - decided to sidestep no less than 5 professionals who are likely to be more objective, knowledgeable - and experienced in something like this, to then go put this in the hands of a largely irresponsible voting community? Why would you do that?

And you’re lucky to get 1000 views or even more than a few comments/votes on this thread, let alone anything that would yield the metrics that you rely upon for “market demand/sentiment”. A few people yelling out loud, how this is a great project etc. isn’t a reliable metrics nor a consensus. All that does is give false hope and mixed signals. Since you’re new around here, please don’t get fooled by that because while there are a lot of very talented and serious people in our community, more often than not, our voting metrics tend not to shine in the same light.

While we’re at it, let me tell you about AIP-436.

Here is the link to Banana Bill application. Please consider going there because, going by the sound commercial venture that you guys have, while you are unlikely to get funded to the tune of $2.3M - unless it’s an outright acquisition - for something like this, you’re very likely to get funded - if the numbers add up as they appear to be from what you’ve posted here.

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Hey SmartAPE! Thanks for the detailed feedback and questions, glad you like the concept.

Given the financials that you provided, the ROI to the DAO is good - as long as we’re talking about gross rev and not net. If you clarified that, I may have missed it.

Yes, the ROI to the DAO is in gross rev. All financials and revenue flows contemplated in our AIP will be showcased in detail in a 4 year financial projections spreadsheet we will be linking soon at the bottom of the proposal.

Also, if this passes, when the time to put together an agreement comes around, that you’ve added this much [financial] detail to this AIP in a bid to justify the numbers, you’re going to be faced with having to provide actual audited financials, P&L etc. to the APE Foundation in order to prove their provenance and accuracy because you’ve used them to justify the financial ask and benefits to the DAO. Just an FYI.

We are okay with sharing all necessary audited financials, P&L, etc with APE Foundation.

You guys - who already know how to run an op like this - decided to sidestep no less than 5 professionals who are likely to be more objective, knowledgeable - and experienced in something like this, to then go put this in the hands of a largely irresponsible voting community? Why would you do that?

So far this feedback stage has already proven to be very helpful in improving our proposal, and if it ends up going through the Banana Bill I know these are questions we will also encounter so think of it as a head start if that ends up being the case.

I think we should be doing that, putting this in the hands of the largely bored/“irresponsible” voting community because this is a project aimed towards driving value to that community in the first place. The same community that voted in favor of the Banana Bill, so I don’t see why projects should now be obligated to choose one or the other and have to stop or adjust their roadmaps if one isn’t a stopper to the other.

Baring in mind our proposal details $700K for development and $1.6M to give back to community, would you say we should have 1 AIP for the $1.6M and 1 Banana Bill for the $700K?

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Hi Manakel,
Appreciate your vote of confidence. I agree, this should be taken as serious as any other business pitch and look for a true value return to the DAO, happy to set the tone for that, edit coming soon.


Some of the main risks + mitigations to product delivery that we could encounter are:

  • Regulatory barriers: We have a flexible company and team structure to be able to quickly adapt to potential regulatory changes in the near future that could affect our business model.

  • Market volatility: We have a good understanding of Web3 market cycles and have personally experienced high volatility before. In our cost projections we took that into account to maintain a financial buffer for potential worst case scenarios.

  • Interoperability infrastructure: Building our products on EVM compatible blockchains like ApeChain will help mitigate possible setbacks in technology integrations and cross-chain capabilities.

The percentage uncertainty in our delivery cost estimates is 30%, considering how fast the Web3 landscape grows and how drastically the consumer sentiment + trends change.


A 15% allocation or lockup until ROI expectations are met of all AIPs to a ‘risk fund’ is a great idea!

All the best to you too, really appreciate your feedback and support.

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Fully support this. Brilliant platform and fantastic way that you’ve brought so many of the MBAs and community IP into the project and the Albarra universe. Can’t wait to see the development. Hero agrees :clap::banana::test_tube::dog2:

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Thank you legend :pray: Hero x Nedge makes a AAA team :wood::axe::paw_prints:

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Absolutely right bro :100::muscle:

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Fully support @web3gatsby and the team !

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Like wise legend! Thank you for your support :wood::axe::saluting_face:

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Thanks. And yes, I saw that in the tracked revisions.

I understand that. But what I was trying to point out there is that if this goes to vote and fails, then going to the BB after the community has voted against it, optics aside, will likely not yield the intended results. Which is why I was explaining that for such an amount to the tune of $2.3M - especially given current market conditions and DAO sentiments - it’s probably better to first go to the BB (which is specifically setup for ApeChain growth), and then if it doesn’t make it through (there is a review process first to determine the viability. And if it passes that, then it goes to the 5-person committee for a vote to execute), then you can take your chances with a DAO vote. The benefit to that is, unlike the public nature of proposals going through the DAO, the BB won’t make such a submission public - unless you or your team makes it public first. Hope this makes sense.

For example, I have a $5M AIP-487 proposal to build a community platform that’s currently going through the DAO vote. But I put that up back on July 8th, long before the BB even had it’s application process online - which didn’t happen until July 22nd. I have thus far opted not to withdraw it; and I’ve stated that if it fails the DAO vote, that means, notwithstanding the influence of whale wallets, the community probably (I can always be certain of this by pulling the post-vote results) didn’t want it. That being the case, I won’t then go around the community vote to run the BB gauntlet as that’s just terrible optics. And I created my project specifically for ApeChain and the community because, due to timing and other commitments, I am unable to migrate my in-progress Web3 game projects to ApeChain. And so whether my proposal succeeds or fails at vote, is immaterial. But I would very much like to see a proposal like yours go up on ApeChain because it’s impressive while not being primarily focused on the much-maligned Web3 gaming scene atm.

The downside of running the DAO vote gauntlet is one of timing. For example, because my proposal is at # 487, it likely won’t go to vote and obtain results before the middle of Sept or even later. Your AIP is going to be in the same boat because by the time the ideas period ends, it goes to draft, then admin review, then to vote - that probably won’t happen before Oct due to the current list of proposals that came before it. Even if AIP-451 (which, among other things, shortens the voting period) passes. And in that timeframe, you would likely have received an answer from the BB in a much shorter time period.

Just some things for you to consider. The choices are yours to make; but I believe that it would be easier to make them if you are well informed - especially since you are new around here.

Most projects that come through here fall under that criteria. And even the best ones that garnered community support by way of these discussions, tend to fail at vote. And that’s why we consistently poke fun at our voting system and DAO frens due the erratic voting patterns.

The BB vote isn’t relevant here. Just because they voted for the BB doesn’t then mean that they’re also going to vote for proposals either here or through the BB. Also, there’s no obligation for any author to do anything. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have the BB which is a $100M (probably about $45M now) carve out from the treasury. And you don’t have to adjust your roadmap. As I’ve indicated above, your roadmap is already affected by the process itself. And so, there is no benefit or detriment to the roadmap in whether or not a proposal goes through the DAO vote or the BB.

No, I am not saying that. I was explaining to you the pros and cons for each option so that you understand the process. If you want to send a $2.3M proposal such as this through the DAO vote or through the BB, that’s entirely up to you.

btw, I don’t see how your proposal gives back $1.6M to the community. From your own numbers, it’s a lot less. In fact, all things being equal, those incentives are much higher than whatever gross rev goes back to the treasury. For an example of a successful program that does precisely what you are looking to do in “giving back”, please take a look at ThankApe.

Also, something to bear in mind; with your own numbers, your group had a pre-seed round of 50.000€ - all in. And so, with a $2.3M ask, the valuation (even for a seed round) should be heavily favorable to the DAO. The revenue that this proposal is giving the DAO, doesn’t do that. I just thought I’d mention this because you will be dealing with that if you go through the BB which is geared toward commercial revenue generating agreements. And I am all but certain that other voting entrepreneurs here and who tend not to publicly opine on proposals, have probably observed that aspect as well.

Hey SmartAPE, thank you so much for all that insight, definitely important points to consider specially when baring in mind the timings and our roadmap. Our last update really slashed the ask by a lot after grasping the sentiment, community feedback and current situation of both the market & the DAO.

Total amount requested from the ApeCoin Ecosystem Fund = $670.000 in $APE at the time of transfer.

Baring in mind the centralisation problems I don’t see why Banana Bill could not act as the saviour for some, depending on the case and detailed expand of the votes of course, but do get your point, you have now deprived me from sleep haha BB seems like the right choice to make right now.

Just checked your AIP and all I could think about is how many synergies I was seeing, I’d love to hop on a call some time to get the chance to personally introduce myself and explore how we could share value both ways, really like your concept. Btw, I just checked out one of your games, Battlecruiser Generations, and I just wanna say that you’ve been developing stuff way ahead of your time, No Man’s Sky got nothing on you :exploding_head:

btw, I don’t see how your proposal gives back $1.6M to the community. From your own numbers, it’s a lot less. In fact, all things being equal, those incentives are much higher than whatever gross rev goes back to the treasury. For an example of a successful program that does precisely what you are looking to do in “giving back”, please take a look at ThankApe.

Also, something to bear in mind; with your own numbers, your group had a pre-seed round of 50.000€ - all in. And so, with a $2.3M ask, the valuation (even for a seed round) should be heavily favorable to the DAO. The revenue that this proposal is giving the DAO, doesn’t do that. I just thought I’d mention this because you will be dealing with that if you go through the BB which is geared toward commercial revenue generating agreements. And I am all but certain that other voting entrepreneurs here and who tend not to publicly opine on proposals, have probably observed that aspect as well.

The pre-seed we did was 40K€ total at a 500K€ valuation by family and friends. Additional investments have been made by the founders. We just published the edit with a our detailed & updated financial spreadsheet with 4 year projections on how we will bring that revenue back to the DAO community in perpetuity and for ROI (depending on the product) on investment. Would really appreciate your feedback on it and if you think its sufficiently favorable for the DAO or not, regardless of going through the BB or AIP.

We partnered with ThankApe precisely out of the synergies we shared, we love what they do and plan on incentivising contributions while acting as a loudspeaker to their platform through our gaming & entertainment experiences.

Thanks again for your detailed responses.

Hi @web3gatsby ,

The community feedback period for your proposal would be ending in less than 24 hours.

  • If you’re content with the feedback received, your next steps are to finalize your proposal using the AIP Draft Template.

  • A moderator will contact the author to finalize the AIP Draft. Upon receipt of the final Draft, we will review it and provide instructions on the next steps.

  • Are you ready to proceed to the next phase or do you wish to extend community discussion for another 7 days?

We look forward to hearing from you.

-@Facilitators

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You’re welcome.

I think this is a great idea. If you focus first on building - and you show success/progress, you can always come back here or through BB to get funding for what comes next. It’s how ThankApe ($4M) and OtherPage ($1.1M) did it, even though OtherPage failed at first, and succeeded in the resubmission.

There’s that. It’s a toss-up. So, choose wisely. Note that if you do decide to submit to the BB, you don’t need to withdraw this idea because the discussion can be reopened at any by sending a message to the facilitators.

heh, thanks. Though I consider myself to be DAO royalty (lol) now, I’m still the resident old man yelling at clouds around here. :rofl:

Happy to hop on call as our schedules permit. You can catch me on Telegram (@thedereksmart) to set something up.

Yeah, I already figured out the math, which is why I pointed out what a $2.3M ask would amount to if valuation were taken into account.

Later, I will review the revised docs and provide feedback.

Yeah, we all love ThankApe. They’re the prime example of the DAO’s finest hour.

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