AIP-521: ApeCoin DAO Sponsorship for ETHGlobal hackathons

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PROPOSAL NAME:

ApeCoin DAO Sponsorship for ETHGlobal hackathons.

TEAM DESCRIPTION:

  • Alok: Mobile + web3 app developer with 11+ years experience building consumer apps.
    Devrel and partner for ApeCoin DAO at ETHGlobal hackathons in Istanbul, London and Brussels. Hackathon winner of the ApeCoin track at ETHGlobal Lisbon, ETHOnline and ETHGlobal New York.

  • Maaria: ApeCoin special council member, serving from March 2022 to December 2022.
    Author of AIP-230, supporting ETHGlobal x ApeCoin DAO partnership.
    Author of AIP-96 which provided public goods funding for ETHSF and a Gitcoin grants program.

  • Robbie: ApeCoin Devrel.

  • Yuga Labs [optional]: Contributor to ApeCoin and developers of the Otherside. 1 member from the Yuga team will participate in every event. ETHGlobal has extended an invitation to the Yuga team to attend ETHGlobal Singapore as a guest to experience it first hand.

  • ETHGlobal: ETHGlobal is an organization that operates global hackathons that support the growth and development of the Ethereum ecosystem. Their efforts have brought over 70,000 developers into web3.

PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION:

This AIP is an extension of AIP-230. The partnership with ETHGlobal would mean an ApeCoin DAO sponsorship for another 6 IRL hackathons:

  • ETHGlobal San Francisco: October 18-20, 2024 [time constrained]
  • ETHGlobal Bangkok: November 15-17, 2024 (Devcon Edition)
  • Four more TBD in 2025 (the 2025 calendar will be announced towards the end of 2024)
    • Two of the four are likely to include hackathons around EthCC[8] and Devconnect, subject to those events being announced by their respective organizers.

Impact of AIP-230:

ApeCoin DAO sponsored 11 hackathons, 10 IRL events and 1 online, during which 822 people built 337 open-source projects for the ApeCoin ecosystem. Many of these builders continued to be active contributors to the ApeCoin community even after the hackathons (including Alok and WebMoss).

ETHGlobal is the gold standard in IRL hackathons and regularly sees builders from all over the globe. For reference, ETHGlobal Brussels was the latest ETHGlobal hackathon that ApeCoin sponsored during EthCC[7] week. It was the biggest event of 2024 with over 1500 attendees, including 1100 hackers from 72 countries.

All 11 hackathons had different bounties and prize categories, based on what we wanted to see built with ApeCoin. The categories broadly included consumer apps, games, governance, new NFT primitives, wallet infrastructure, ApeChain, etc.

At ETHGlobal Brussels, we hosted a live workshop for ApeChain and saw a number of teams submit projects that (1) make it easier to onboard new users to ApeChain; and (2) created fun apps to use on the ApeChain. Two of the ApeCoin track winners at Brussels also went on to become ETHGlobal Finalists, even going Ape Mode during the live demo in front of a massive audience of Ethereum developers and builders.

All 337 projects can be seen here. Projects highlighted in yellow won prizes. Every project includes a link to a showcase / demo, as well as a link to the source code in GitHub.

Here are some of our favorite projects built during the hackathons (in under 36 hours!):

  • ETHGlobal Waterloo: AquaNet - A social network designed for AI-Driven NFTs to interact with each other and develop unique personalities. https://ethglobal.com/showcase/aquanet-dzz2c

  • ETHGlobal Waterloo: Nouns Kart 3D - where players put their $APE coins and NFTs to compete in high-stakes races with a twist where the loser surrenders their NFT to the winner. https://ethglobal.com/showcase/nouns-kart-3d-a3og1

  • ETHGlobal Tokyo: Apeify - Shopify template that enables ApeCoin DAO members to launch global brands and start accepting ApeCoin within seconds, contributing to the continuous growth of the ApeCoin DAO ecosystem. Apeify | ETHGlobal

  • ETHGlobal NYC: CharStat6551 - A streamlined game character data structure for game-devs, easing the burden of stat data design and ensuring data safety. This will invite more game devs to explore crypto technology in traditional video gaming. CharStat6551 | ETHGlobal

  • ETHGlobal Istanbul: ApeFit - Take on swole friends in Apefit on Lens. Stake ApeCoins, pick your rivals, and ace a fitness challenge. Fail to post results? Your ApeCoins go to the victors. ApeFit | ETHGlobal

  • ETHGlobal London: TokenTown - A parody of Monopoly that takes place in a fictional decentralized utopia! TokenTown | ETHGlobal

  • ETHGlobal Brussels: Gnomes And Knights - A blockchain board game using NFC wallets and ApeCoin for secure, immersive play. Convert ApeCoin to in-game Aura, enjoy randomized items, dynamic duels, and team interactions. Encrypted smart contracts ensure fairness and transparency. GnomesAndKnights | ETHGlobal

  • ETHGlobal Brussels: ShitCoin Dozer - A fully on-chain, multi-chain MemeCoin Dozer app that allows for global participation in a giant coin lottery. Physics simulation of coins is approximated via an off-chain ML model which can be queried for ZKML proof & verification. ShitCoin Dozer | ETHGlobal

ETHGlobal Gold Tier Sponsorship:

  • Dedicated booth at the event with dedicated ApeCoin signage.
  • Up to 5 DAO representatives at each event.
  • Live workshops at each event, 20 mins long. In Brussels for example, we hosted an “Intro to ApeChain workshop”, with a generic introduction on the tech stack of the ApeChain plus a live demo on how to deploy a contract on Curtis testnet.
  • Dedicated Testnet $APE Faucet
  • Dedicated tweets of ApeCoin Sponsorship to its global following of 80000+ builders and web3 protocols. Sample: x.com

BENEFIT TO APECOIN ECOSYSTEM:

  • With ApeChain going live in Q3 (tentatively), the upcoming months will be crucial in building momentum for the ApeChain.
  • The hackathons are a direct opportunity to engage with the developers and builders we want to build on the ApeChain.
  • Projects from the hackathon are open source, and create a base of applications and infrastructure that we can continue to build on top of.
  • We can align prize categories with what the DAO is interested in, ensuring that the $10k in bounties awarded is actively driving ApeCoin DAO forward.
  • We are able to educate developers and other communities about new initiatives such as ApeChain IRL (Apes don’t read).
  • Increase ApeCoin and ApeChain’s competitiveness among other Ethereum scaling blockchains also present at ETHGlobal events, such as Base, Arbitrum, Polygon etc. and position itself as the next big thing in the web3 space.

DEFINITIONS:

No key terms to develop.

STEPS TO IMPLEMENT & TIMELINE:

Given this is an extension of AIP-230 and the DAO already has a working agreement with ETHGlobal, this process should be relatively straightforward and would not require significant operational overhead for the Foundation.

Once the AIP is approved, ETHGlobal and the Foundation will finalize sponsorship for the 6 IRL events.

Every event will require some coordination and operational support to implement. This includes:

  • Transporting ApeCoin signage for each event
  • Purchasing merch / goodies for each event
  • Organizing travel / accommodations for each event
  • Planning and organizing prize categories for each event
  • Coordinating social coverage with the ApeCoin DAO
  • Managing the ApeCoin channel in the ETHGlobal discord and answering hacker questions
  • Evaluating all submitted projects, verify tech used and selecting prize winners
  • Maintaining an open database of all the projects submitted, for tracking purposes
  • Creating POAPs for each event
  • Hacker engagement and post-event support

REPORTING EXPECTATIONS:

This spreadsheet will continue to be maintained, making it a central repository for seeing all the projects coming out of the hackathons.

Progress will be shared after each hackathon on the Web3 Development Working Group Discord channel with links to submitted projects and the winners of each track. Winners will also be reached out to, to encourage continuing their work and turn it into a viable product with the help of any available grants program within the DAO.

OVERALL COST: $488,000 USD in APE

Total amount requested from the ApeCoin Ecosystem Fund = $488,000 USD.

  • ETHGlobal Gold sponsorship $45,000 USD per event x 6 IRL events = $270,000 USD.
  • Bounties for winners $10,000 USD per event x 6 = $60,000 USD
  • International travel, logistics and operational expenses for a team of 4-5 attendees: $18,000 USD per event x 6 = $108,000 USD
  • Technical Community Manager to mentor devs, both on-site and online support before and during the hackathon, conduct workshops, collaborate with ETHGlobal team to create content, social media marketing, prize tracks and go over technical aspects of submitted projects etc.: $30,000 USD for a period extending till the final hackathon in this proposal (estimated 10-12 months).
    Additionally, the TCM will work beyond hackathons by following up with the winning teams (4-8 teams per event) and work towards continuation of the project, technical support and help with small grants etc. plus share feedback of each event with Web3 Development Working Group on ApeCoin Discord. The TCM will also engage with developers regularly by introducing and onboarding them to ApeChain developer kits as they get released: https://docs.apechain.com/.
  • Merch/goodies, POAPs, booth, conference tickets and misc expenses (for all 6 events): $20,000 USD.

This AIP also requests the use of the ApeCoin and ApeChain branding for goodies and booth design purposes.

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@Stewards_Development what do you think about this? Is this an area that should go to a third party or be an initiative under the web3 development working group.

Also why was @maariab only in this role for 10 months and not the whole year. What is the history here? Can you help us make informed decisions. Thank you.

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Hi @bigbull, @maariab wrote the original AIP [AIP-230] for ETHGlobal partnership and oversaw 11 hackathons, 10 IRL and one online, spanning from ETH SF in November 2022 till the last one at ETHGlobal Brussels in July 2024. I joined the team over the last 3 events (Istanbul, London and Brussels) and we have a good working relationship with the ETHGlobal team and we’ve invited a Yuga team member to attend one in Singapore to get an insight of its impact. If anyone else would like to attend as a guest lmk.

The web3 working group already has a proposal in their budget for hackathons, although its unclear how they plan on implementing this, is it going to be 6 hackathons over 6 months?

As for the duration of Maaria’s special council role, Apecoin was launched around Feb/March 2022 so it wasn’t a full calendar year for the first council members.

Hope that clarifies.

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Appreciate you putting this together - very detailed!

Is there an opportunity to leverage the ApeCoin community to help enable teams building at these hackathons? Thinking specifically of events like ETHDenver where there are volunteer mentors to help teams with different areas (development, design, marketing, strategy, etc.) beyond just the core team/staff. I suspect with the talent native to the ApeCoin ecosystem we’d be able to find some folks that can help advise across these roles.

Are the hackathon efforts all going to be for products/services on ApeChain? I assume so, just wanted to confirm.

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Hi @MaximusMX, at ETHGlobal hackathons there are mentors available round the clock to help with technical stuff, but they are protocol agnostic for competitive integrity of the event. When hackers need any protocol specific help they usually reach out to us at the booth and bounce their ideas off of us, which is what we also recommend to them plus there’s a live workshop for anyone interested in deploying on the ApeChain (starting from Brussels). The hackathon itself is just 36 hours long so there isnt too much outside of building an MVP during this, but right after the hackathon is where the TCM’s role comes into play where they assist them in any technical help, mentoring, finding grants (if available) plus any other assistance they need and this is where the community aspect you mentioned comes in as well. Right now the comms for ApeChain developers are a bit convoluted as there is just one Telegram channel for everything ApeChain related but over time things will get streamlined.

As for the hackathon, yes, ETHGlobal Brussels was the first event where builders deployed their projects on ApeChain Testnet and this will continue for future events, but we can further customise the prize tracks based on feedback from the community. After each event I also post the winning projects on the ApeCoin W3WG Discord channel for anyone interested (for Brussels I’ve already posted these).

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Hi,

Firstly want to say I fully support the idea and clearly see the benefits. Price seems very reasonable as well for all the events.

I do have one question, maybe not relevant for the authors (not sure), but wouldn’t we be able to allocate/grant this funding from the 100m $ape bananas bill monies? Seems like possibly there’s a case to be made.

GL with this. Certainly something we should continue pursuing.

Thanks.

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Please can you provide a response to this AIP Implementation Update.

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Can you give a more detailed answer in this section:

Thanks for this clarification

Looking forward to seeing the Execution and Transparency Report.

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This is a big yes! ETHGlobal has made an impact on many chains and onboarded tons of new people over the years!
I know the original AIP as of it happened yesterday and had the privilege to be one of the judges for ETHGlobal 2023 representing Ape Foundation. We had amazing entries and as usual and it also onboarded amazing folks like Webmoss himself.
We seriously need ETHGlobal for $ape exposure and this is something which Apechain or Web3 Dev stewards cannot do, specially considering how small $ape and BAYC ecosystem is compared to actual ETH ecosystem.

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Maaria was one of the first Special Council alongside Yat and Alexis.
More reasons why special council was considered actual top position and $20k salary was justified. On dec 2022 the term ended coz Apecoin was literally launched in march of 2022 when it was airdropped. Hope this helps with the SC terms

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From dev aspect, the Gold sponsorship is not benefit at all, why not Bounties become $45,000 instead?
Become a Gold sponsorship wouldn’t bring significant attention/value to ApeChain:
i) Most hackers tend to hack and leave after earned the bounties
ii) Continuity of development highly rely on chain incentives, potential, ecosystem. ApeChain don’t have enough resources to attract them yet

As ApeCoin DAO and ApeChain already has a strong team (SC, WGs, Advisory, etc), why not have ApeChain or ApeCoin DAO have their own hackathon? Running a virtual ApeChain dedicated hackathon seems to be more cost-effective.

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Hey,
Last time, you guys requested $1,000,000 to spend on ETHGlobal. What is your take, the result is worth it? Will any of the teams be deploying on the ApeChain mainnet?
Maybe we better try something else, not ETHGlobal again?

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Implementation update submitted.

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Hosting your own hackathon will require quite signification resources and I can confirm this as someone who’s attended dozens of big and small ones over the past couple of years, and hosted multi-day workshops with 1inch, Cartesi, Chainlink, Filecoin etc. A typical ETHGlobal hackthon runs for 3 days and the expenses include:
Venue
Catering (even ETHDenver doesnt offer meals to hackers)
Entire production setup, live workshops, Audio Visual etc.
Technical mentors available round the clock
Full operation team available round the clock + online
Overnight sleeping arrangements for hackers etc.

Managing this by yourself from scratch is probably gonna cost you the same, maybe more.

There is a reason why protocols like LayerZero, Avail, XMTP, Chainlink, Worldcoin, Uniswap, Filecoin, PancakeSwap, Arbitrum, Near, ENS, 1inch, Graph, Base, Scroll, Nouns, Optimism, Farcaster, Mantle, Polygon, Gnosis, Circle, Chiliz, Safe etc. partner with ETHGlobal, and this list is just the past 4 events, even though all of them have significant resources to host their own hackathons.

As for the continuity of hackathon projects, I agree, the interest goes down after the event, but that’s why other protocols have a team of TCMs and Devrels to work with teams after the event which was missing in the DAO until now. This is a two-sided effort and some outreach is needed from the DAO as well to ensure their success.

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Out of the $1,000,000, a big chunk of it (300k) was a donation so the net spend on partnership was 700k and its impact has been posted above. And since ApeChain didnt exist for almost the entirety of the AIP duration, deploying on ApeChain mainnet was out of the question.

As for trying something new, I am all open for it but without someone actively taking up a technical role and working with the devs, the results would still look the same. For example at ETHGlobal NY a winning project on Cartesi track was further supported by them with technical mentorship and grants, and they just launched as a consumer product a week ago.

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Thanks for the ellaboration. But what’s the solution for the two points?

Please don’t ignore this, and I think WG already working on it…

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I’ve covered it in my first comment to @bigbull but ok I’ll answer again, I saw that the W3 WG has put together a budget for hackathons but there is no explanation as to how they plan on implementing it (I asked this in comments but it was unanswered). 30k each month for 6 months, so one event each month? How this would work, how many hackathons IRL and virtual, standalone ApeCoin hackathons or in partnerships with other protocols etc.?

“Over 10 projects join us. Over 500 developers will attend together.”

Again, what does it mean, who are these 10 projects. And 500 developers per event or overall? And this metric is based on what stats? I’m not ignoring the question as I simply dont understand how would the W3 hackathon roadmap play out.

As for the virtual hackathon being more cost effective, whats the rough estimate of hosting one on your own from scratch. And if you partner with an online hackathon portal (Dorahacks for example) you have to pay a partnership fee for that too.

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Yup, I doubt on this part too. The whole planning is too abstract. Apparently, the W3 WG still needs to clarify the budget plan further.

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I know it is not the best context to express it. But who knows)

Would you be interested in running for the 3rd steward position at W3D WG? I would love to see us rather joining forces starting in January. Although my expected focus is GetApe, I would be happy to contribute to the “technical role” and work with the devs at/post hackathons.

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Think this is a good threat to pull and appreciate you moving the discussion forward on it.

Things like partnering with other protocols or existing sponsors, rather than targeting pure “stand alone” events, can be a helpful way to reduce the cost to the ApeCoin DAO while increasing participation and impact from the hackathon.

Thinking of things like sponsoring a track at the ETHDenver hackathon, for example, rather than hosting a stand-along one on the sidelines.

Note: edited typo in the last line

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