Nouns and the urge to own one​

Nouns, the wildly successful NFT project and ecosystem around it, sprung on the scene like a kangaroo with hemorrhoids and has been going strong ever since. The concept is simple: a generative NFT sale, where only one NFT is sold every 24 hours in an auction format. Even today, as we find ourselves in a bear market and NFT trading down 97% since this past January, Nouns are selling for an average of $110,000 with a total market cap of over $50,000,000. That means they’re quite an investment; but at such a high price point, who can afford one?

Man plans, and God laughs​

SharkDAO was spun up as a solution to this high bar of entry into the NounsDAO ecosystem. It was a community aimed at bringing together resources to purchase Nouns and keep them in a shared treasury. Early contributors decided to throw together a Juicebox treasury to run the project, and plenty of folks you see around nowadays in the discord played a role, like dropnerd, jango, joshua fisher, goldy, kenbot-studios and others.

This was early on in the history of Juicebox, and it was quite an exciting way to test out how the platform could adapt to such a unique use case. That being said, the process was anything but smooth. Throughout the journey, however, the relative ease and flexibility of the Juicebox protocol sprung in to save the day. Over a call with jango— Juicebox founder and main configuration technician behind SharkDAO— I got the full banana split on the tumultuously marvelous SharkDAO inception and execution.

Duct tape, chewing gum and a whole lotta elbow grease​

Looking at SharkDAO’s configs, I have an obvious question: “So these configs, jango, they’re kinda all over the place. What was the thinking there?” There was a short pause. “Oh man,” jango began, “we were making it up as we go along.” And such is the story of SharkDAO, an organization that succeeded not because of careful planning, but because of a community working together with a highly flexible protocol.

“We learned a lot from it,” jango continued, “and the start of it was very clean. That said the real story is about how we had to adapt and come to consensus about which levers to pull, which configs to change.”

The beginning​

Where most may think of SharkDAO as a basic investment club, the mission statement was really much more about community and participating in the Nouns ecosystem. The only way to do this, of course, was by amassing some number of Nouns and leveraging that to join the Nouns community.

It started simple enough, but it didn’t take long for the plot to thicken. “Around the time we were on Noun 12, we’d began having some discussions about this ecosystem we were creating and there were factions within the discord. They all had great points to make, but they weren’t in agreement.”

These questions didn’t get any easier as time went on. For instance, what should a new funding cycle look like? If they kept fundraising at the same token issuance rate as they had before, then they were effectively diluting the value of the Nouns they had amassed. At the same time, if they pulled back issuance significantly, was this unfairly punishing contributors new to SharkDAO?

“You know how humans work,” jango said (compliment accepted!), “You start talking about numbers and then our impulse is to protect investments, and these feelings come on quickly and undulate as you feel out the process of making this thing work. It’s not linear at all. But we can punctuate those feelings we had at the time by looking at the funding cycle decisions we made.”

The almighty reserve rate​

“We were using the reserve rate as a stand-in pause button,” jango told me with a laugh. It’s true— a cursory dive into SharkDAO config history will show you a reserve rate that’s more jittery than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

“There was a moment where we flipped reserve rate and we made a few big decisions that got us out of some holes,” jango recalled, “By using the reserve rate to manage issuance, we started getting around the problem that only one million project tokens existed. Then we also had a discount rate, which was maxxed out at 20%. So we used the reserve rate to taper outward issuance rather than making a ton of funding cycles at a 20% discount rate.”

Reflections and next steps​

The current gameplan is up in the air, but could include transitioning SharkDAO out of V1 into a world where it can contribute again and maybe even win some more Nouns auctions.

When I asked jango to reflect on his journey with SharkDAO, it’s telling that he went right back to the original missions statement and discussed the importance of community. “It was just wild. No one in charge, no head of command, everyone there doing the best they could with the tools that they had. It’s a huge testament to community and the people who showed up and had that attitude; there was no secret info, everything was happening out loud and transparently.”

In the messy world of web3, SharkDAO stands as a totem to how community and shared values trump all, and how the JB ecosystem and protocol is strong but loose enough to give you the tools you need. After that, it’s what you make of it.

Sending ETH to an ENS address is one of the simplest ways for donors to interact with a Juicebox project. For example, sending ETH to auditfund.eth pays that ETH directly into the Audit Fund Juicebox project, and issues the corresponding tokens to the sender, all from within their wallet of choice!

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to configure an ENS address to forward ETH to a Juicebox project.

You can also watch the video walkthrough by JBDAO contributors Matthew and Brileigh:

Before you start​

Have a Juicebox Project​

Before you can receive donations, you'll need a Juicebox Project. Learn how to Make Your Juicebox Project.

Have an ENS Domain​

You'll need to own or be the controller of an ENS address (such as yourname.eth) to follow the rest of this tutorial. Register an address at ENS Domains.

Optional: Set up your Juicebox Project Handle​

It's not necessary to complete this tutorial, but it's also a good idea to set up your project handle. Project handles gives your project a vanity url like juicebox.money/@auditfund, rather than the default juicebox.money/v2/p/256, and will make your project appear in the site's search. They're free and only cost a little gas for the setup transactions.

To set up a project handle, go to the project's page on juicebox.money, connect wallet with the project owner's wallet, click the cog icon to access the Project Settings, then select Project handle in the menu and follow the instructions on that page.

1. Create a Payment Address​

A payment address forwards ETH it receives to a given project. Anyone can create a payment address for a project.

On the project page, click the tools button.

Click Create Payment Address and follow the instructions on the page.

If you insert text or a link to an image (https or ipfs) in the payment memo, that memo will appear in the project's Activity Feed each time anyone sends ETH to the ENS address we'll configure in the next steps.

2. Configure the Payment Address in the ENS address's records​

Go to https://app.ens.domains/name/YOURNAME.eth/details. You'll have to substitute YOURNAME for the .eth address you're trying to configure.

Click Add/Edit Record, paste the payment address you generated into the Addresses: ETH input. Click save and confirm the transaction in your wallet.

The ETH record is now set. ETH transactions sent to this ENS address will be directed to the payment address, which will in turn forward the ETH to the Juicebox project and issue the project's tokens to the address that sent the original ETH transaction, if the project payer was configured to do so.

Conclusion​

In this tutorial you've learned how to configure an ENS address to receive donations at a Juicebox project. Let potential supporters know that they can simply send ETH to yourname.eth to pay your project, and receive membership tokens, too.

Advanced Note: This approach works great for receiving ETH donations. To accept other tokens sent to the ENS address, your project will need to configure Payment Terminals for the tokens you would like to receive. If you're interested in this, say hello in the #🚀｜project-creators channel in the Discord.

How MoonDAO raised over $8 million (2600+ ETH) on Juicebox to send someone to space

There are nearly eight billion people on Earth and fewer than seven hundred of them have been to space. We all share a curiosity to better understand space but only the wealthy have the ability to actually experience it firsthand. What started as a space race between nation states is now a game being played out by corporations, excluding 99.9% of humanity from having a voice in how we explore and research outer space… that is, until MoonDAO.

Our whole world is divided up into nations and historically they have competed over space, but we now have tools that enable people to easily collaborate across borders. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, as long as you have an internet connection you can join the [MoonDAO] Discord.

— Pablo Moncada-Larrotiz

“Why NASA should be decentralized,” a thread by MoonDAO co-founder Kori Rogers

MoonDAO, a worldwide collective of space enthusiasts 🌐​

MoonDAO is a worldwide collective united by the mission of decentralizing access to space research and exploration. Set against the backdrop of a privatized space race controlled by a select few, MoonDAO is building a decentralized community of space enthusiasts working towards improved access to space exploration while continuing to push research forward. As the worldwide population grows while becoming increasingly atomized by borders, it is more crucial than ever to make space research transparent and accountable while remaining accessible to everyone regardless of their financial means or geographic location.

The Moon as seen from the ISS, shared by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst (credit: NASA images)

The beginning of MoonDAO from the ashes of ConstitutionDAO 📜​

Despite the disappointment of ConstitutionDAO losing the auction to buy an official copy of the U.S. Constitution, community members were still buzzing in the aftermath as they considered the implausible events that had just unfolded and what might lay ahead for DAOs. Not long after, Pablo Moncada-Larrotiz, Kori Rogers, and a few others spotted a lunar asteroid going up for auction and started discussing crowdfunding the acquisition of the next meme object to be governed as a DAO. From there, MoonDAO started as a joke: let’s buy the Moon, one rock at a time.

Their goals quickly solidified and became more serious when Pablo and Kori hopped on a call to discuss what their values were, what MoonDAO could become, and why space should be a frontier for all humans. They shared a common vision for MoonDAO: a bottom-up, horizontal approach to space research that would reflect the thoughts and desires of humanity as a whole.

Banny on the Moon by Burtula from WAGMI Studios

Raising $8.1 million (2600+ ETH) on Juicebox 🧃​

The first goal for MoonDAO was to launch their governance token, $MOONEY. When they set up their project on Juicebox, there were no tokens set aside for founders or VCs. Project contributors received 500,000 $MOONEY per 1 ETH contributed with an additional 500,000 $MOONEY going to the community wallet which would later be governed by the DAO. “That was one thing that we wanted to emphasize in relation to our mission to decentralize space exploration,” says Kori. “I think it was the meaningful thing to do.” As opposed to giving power to co-founders or investors, MoonDAO was committed to giving every member equal opportunity to help shape the future of space exploration.

On December 17th, 2021, the MoonDAO project was created and their next goal was to raise enough funds to buy tickets for a sub-orbital flight on Blue Origin. “Juicebox is a bootstrapped community building from the ground up,” says Pablo. “It’s a community of regular people trying to do something new and I knew that we wanted to work with them over any other platform for crowdfunding.” By the end of January 2022, MoonDAO had raised over 2,600 ETH (~ $8.1 million USD).

MoonDAO's Ticket to Space NFT

The first person sent to space by a DAO 🚀​

The second phase of MoonDAO’s roadmap was to send someone to space. Literally. After their successful crowdfunding campaign they acquired two tickets for flights on Blue Origin. One ticket was reserved for a sponsor and the second was reserved for the winner of their Ticket to Space NFT raffle. For the latter, they launched a free-to-mint NFT and used Chainlink VRF to conduct a publicly auditable randomized draw. Following their commitment to transparency and equal access, this drawing method allowed any member of the community to verify the results for themselves.

For the sponsor seat, the MoonDAO community voted and chose Coby Cotton, member of the YouTube trick-shot group Dude Perfect. Nominations were gathered from a Discord vote that included over five thousand members’ input. Together, Dude Perfect and MoonDAO achieved something that has never been done before: a DAO sending someone to space. On August 4th 2022, Blue Origin successfully completed its sixth human spaceflight (NS-22) and Coby Cotton, along with five other astronauts, ascended to sub-orbital space.

Stay tuned for more MoonDAO updates as their next goal is to go to the moon in 2030 🚀

Coby Cotton with MoonDAO members and the Dude Perfect team after Blue Origin Flight NS-22 on August 4th, 2022

Relevant links 🔗​

🎙️ Listen to Kori and Pablo tell the story of MoonDAO on episode 7 of the Juicecast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

🌜 Follow MoonDAO on Twitter: @OfficialMoonDAO 

💬 Join MoonDAO’s Discord: https://discord.gg/5nAu7K9aES

🐦 Follow Juicebox on Twitter: @JuiceboxETH

🚀 Trending projects on Juicebox

📚 Project Creator Docs

📹 YouTube Tutorials

A juicebox treasury and a business is born​

ComicsDAO formed in June 2022. It set out to create a DAO with the purpose of purchasing rare comics, scanning them, and then allowing members of ComicsDAO to digitally “rent” the comic so that they can read them in their original form. The idea was that rare original comics are aesthetically unique and should not be locked away indefinitely in some private collection. (More in-depth article about ComicsDAO here!)

ComicsDAO used Juicebox as its treasury. It sold its own token (”$COMICS”) to enable membership verification and for eventual voting rights. It also explored partnerships with other DAOs and organizations, and it used its Juicebox treasury to store any payments it received. It is actively operating as of the publication of this article, and you can check out its juicebox project page here.

I sat down with Gogo, the chief DAO operator behind ComicsDAO, to get his take on how the project came to life. Here’s how the project was configured, how it changed it’s configurations over time, and why.

Config breakdown​

Distribution Limit - $2500 with eventual change to $1500

“We started with a breakdown of what we needed to get this off the ground. I needed $1500 per funding cycle, and Adam (the founder) got $1,000. We also have an artist, Gabo, who I pay about 500 per funding cycle to.”

“So we knew operating expenses for the three of us were going to be $2500, and then we wanted to fund raise more than that to purchase rare comics. After the first two funding cycles, our founder Adam decided to forgo his $1000, to make sure the runway of the project could be longer (actually, he also gave back the $2000 he received from the first two cycles!). So our distribution limit has been set at $1500 since then.”

Duration - 14 days

“We picked this just because a lot of communities we wanted to work with or know are also on 14 day durations, and so we figured it would be good to sync with them.

Discount rate - 10%, then recently changed to 2%

“Early on, we wanted to go pretty aggressive to really incentivize early contributors, so we had a 10% rate. Once the bear market hit, we felt like maybe that big discount rate will scare away people, since now people were way less likely to invest in fun projects like ComicsDAO. So we decided recently to change it to 2%. This still gives some incentive to earlier contributors, but it makes it much more attractive for people to jump in later too.”

Redemption rate - 90%

“We had some conversations about this. We felt like a really low rate was kind of punishing, but a full on 100% rate was almost like charity. We felt like 90% was a good middle ground, where there is some bonus for sticking around longer, but it’s not a punishment.”

Reserve rate - 20% for most of ComicsDAO history, but recently adjusted to 50%

“We started it at 20% to incentivize early contributors. Those first contributors got a huge amount of tokens, and so it was a good reason to contribute early. After the bear market and as ComicsDAO started growing in partnerships, we decided we want the DAO to have more control in voting and its future. For that reason we put up the reserve rate to 50%, which gives us a good bit of control and safety as the DAO keeps expanding.”

Reconfiguration delay - 3 days

“This is just a good and safe few days so that we can make changes or stop anything we missed or an attack on the DAOs safety or treasury. It doesn’t make the governance go too slow, but it gives us a lot of peace of mind and control.”

How they’re leveraging Juicebox tooling to raise money​

“We’ve created some NFTs and are looking forward to using the Juicebox tiered NFT rewards system. The idea is we can sell different NFTs according to different contribution amounts. We’re also in partnership with Nouns which we hope will bring some revenue to the DAO and build our community. With Nouns, we will get 10% of the profit of the project we are partnering on, which is the creation of a comic book series and covers.

“Right now, the token doesn’t have much utility for us, but we are very careful in how we give it out in the configs because we will be using the token for our governance. We will also be using tokens to ensure membership for when we lend out the NFT rare comics that we have scanned (token and certain NFT holders will be able to access the library).

“The goal is to decentralize progressively. We’re still in a kind of central stage right now, but as our community and governance systems grows we hope to fully decentralize.”

Thanks and gratitude​

“A big thank-you to filipv who helped me set up the configs, and to the JB community in general. Also a thank-you to Adam, our founder, and Gabobena, our artist at ComicsDAO. Stay tuned and follow us on twitter!”

How Lexicon Devils is running a metaverse concert series on Juicebox

FORMING is a metaverse concert series hosted by Lexicon Devils for Juicebox. To learn more about how Lexicon Devils is building the metaverse and getting paid to do it, check out this deep dive on the JB blog as well as episode 8 of the Juicecast with Wackozacco and Peacenode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. You can also check out this configuration article to learn how Lexicon Devils configured their project on Juicebox to receive payments for services rendered and distribute funds to contributors for their work.

Attendees repping sick wearables at FORMING vol. 1

As the pinnacle of their monthly Juicebox event series, Lexicon Devils is hosting FORMING, an experimental metaverse concert featuring performances by web3 musicians. The team created a second Juicebox project dedicated to crowdfunding with fans and community members to pay out participating artists in ETH. Each monthly event features a curated lineup of web3 musicians, with pre-recorded performances (including juicy skits from DarbyTrash) at a virtual party in the Juicebox parcel.

The stage for FORMING VOL. 1

In this article, we’ll cover how Lexicon Devils is fundraising to pay web3 musicians for their performances at FORMING and distributing funds to artists transparently on Juicebox.

Darby Jerry Springer revealing whether JGAP is the father of FLOPPY’s newborn, still from a skit screened at FORMING VOL. III

Case Study: FORMING x FLOPPY 💾​

On September 17th 2022, FORMING highlighted tracks made by beta testers of FLOPPY, a FPS (First-Person Sampler) 3D environment that players can use to interact with their DAW (Decentralized Audio Workstation). Floppy is a free and easy-to-play DAW for everyone with a desktop browser, providing artist-curated sample packs for users to create music, listen to it, and sell it on their NFT marketplace. JGAP, the founder of Floppy, curated a selection of tracks made by the community of beta testers and collaborated with FORMING to spin up an event to showcase the results and pay the artists.

In the Funding distribution panel, we can see funds being distributed evenly (25% each) to all participants in FORMING vol. 3:

Recent Funding distribution for all artists performing at FORMING vol. 3

Understanding FORMING’s project configuration 🔎​

While Lexicon Devils have their own project to manage payouts for their contributors, the FORMING project is configured differently to reflect the needs of one-time fundraises for each monthly concert. Scoping out the project’s config, we can see that the following choices were made:

• Distribution limit is set to No limit (infinite) which means that there is no limit to the amount of funds that can be distributed from the project’s treasury. For FORMING, this gives organizers the flexibility to distribute the total amount raised for each event evenly between all of the artists performing.
• With Duration: Not set, the project owner can start a new funding cycle with a new configuration at any time, giving the project owner increased flexibility. However, this also presents risks to project contributors as funding cycles can be started at any time without warning.
• Discount Rate is set to 0% which means that token issuance will stay the same over time. In other words, there is no added incentive for early contributors.
• Redemption Rate is set to 100% which means that tokens can be redeemed against the overflow of the treasury at any time. In other words, there is no added value for redeeming earlier vs. later.
• Mint Rate is 500 FRM tokens per 1 ETH with zero (0) tokens reserved. This means that when someone contributes 1 ETH to the FORMING project, they get 100% of the tokens minted (500 FRM).
• Owner token minting is disabled which means that the project owner cannot mint tokens at any time. Only project contributors will mint new FRM tokens.
• No reconfiguration strategy was set, meaning that a project can be reconfigured at any time without notifying contributors. Again, this is a very flexible approach for project creators but carries risk for project contributors.

Funding cycle configuration for the FORMING project on Juicebox

Looking at the history of Distributed Funds in the Activity panel on the right side, we can look through past months to see funds being distributed to the roster of artists that have performed at FORMING vol. 1, 2, and 3. By using Juicebox to manage their treasury in an open and transparent way, community members are able to see the payouts for each volume of FORMING which is not usually possible in a traditional event planning context.

History of funds distributed for FORMING vol. 1, 2, and 3

Reserved token allocation 🪙​

There is currently no Reserved token allocation, meaning that all tokens minted are given to fans who donate funds to support FORMING artists. Lexicon Devils have hinted that people who hold FORMING tokens will soon be eligible for special perks including NFT mixtapes, exclusive wearables, and token-gated channels in Discord.

FORMING vol. 3 with FLOPPY

In addition to hilarious skits performed by Darby and JGAP—including mock Jeopardy and Jerry Springer episodes—the team also streams a screenshare of funds being distributed at the end of the event. By using Juicebox to manage FORMING, Lexicon Devils demonstrates the power of a transparent and programmable treasury to create trust while harnessing the power of collective action to fund artists.

Live view of funds being distributed to artists at the end of FORMING vol. 3

Relevant links​

🧑🏼‍🎤 Watch the full performance of FORMING x FLOPPY on Youtube

💸 Support the next artists performing on FORMING on Juicebox

💾 Follow FLOPPY on Twitter: @FloppyDigital

🎙️ Listen to Wackozacco and Peacenode share the story of Lexicon Devils on episode 8 of the Juicecast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

🏗 Follow Lexicon Devils on Twitter: @Devils_Lexicon

🧃 Visit the Juicebox parcel in Voxels

🐦 Follow Juicebox on Twitter: @JuiceboxETH

🚀 Trending projects on Juicebox

📚 Project Creator Docs

📹 YouTube Tutorials

Managing a metaverse architecture guild on Juicebox

Lexicon Devils is a metaverse guild running on Juicebox. To learn more about how Lexicon Devils is building the metaverse and getting paid to do it, check out this deep dive on the JB blog and listen to episode 8 of the Juicecast with Wackozacco and Peacenode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Juicebox Learning Center in Voxels

In this article, we’ll cover how Lexicon Devils is managing their treasury on Juicebox by receiving payments for services rendered and then distributing funds to contributors for their work.

DeFIFA bar & lounge at the Juicebox Transit Centre, home for the upcoming self-governed game scheduled to take place during the 2022 FIFA World Cup

Case Study: Lexicon Devils x Juicebox 🧃​

Lexicon Devils has created buildings, concerts, and other metaverse experiences for a number of projects including a custom HQ for Dreams Never Die, a web3 music DAO, and a browser-based metaverse experience for NFT project Slothtopia. They also have an ongoing payout from JuiceboxDAO to design and build metaverse experiences for its parcel on Pluto Island in Voxels.

In the Activity panel of their Juicebox project, we can filter by Paid to see recent payments made to the project which consist of recurring payouts from the JuiceboxDAO v1 project:

Recent payments made to the Lexicon Devils Juicebox project

Understanding Lexicon Devils' project configuration 🔎​

Jumping into the project’s config, we can see that the following choices were made:

• With Duration set to 14 days funds can be distributed every 14 days. This is a common approach for project creators that run a business or service and want to pay their contributors every two weeks.
• Discount Rate is set to 0% which means that token issuance will stay the same over time. In other words, there is no added incentive for early contributors.
• Redemption Rate is set to 100% which means that project tokens can be redeemed against the overflow of the treasury for the same amount at any time. In other words, there is no added incentive for redeeming later vs. earlier.
• Contributor Rate is set to 650,000 tokens/ETH and Reserved Tokens is set to 35%, meaning that contributors who pay 1 ETH to the project will receive 650,000 tokens and addresses on the Reserved Tokens list will receive 350,000 tokens.
• Token minting is disabled, meaning that the project owners cannot mint tokens at any time. Only project contributions will mint new tokens.
• No reconfiguration strategy was set, meaning that the project can be reconfigured at any time without notifying contributors. This is a very flexible approach for project creators but carries risk for project contributors.

Funding cycle configuration for the Lexicon Devils Juicebox project

Looking at the history of Distributed Funds in the Activity panel, we can see funds being distributed to the builders of Lexicon Devils. Building in the open and managing their project on Juicebox allows anyone to see which address(es) are being paid for how much each time funds are distributed.

Two past examples of funds being distributed to Lexicon Devils builders

Reserved token allocation 🪙​

We can also take a look at how Lexicon Devils’ Reserved Tokens are split:

• ~ 11% to eight current contributors building Lexicon Devils
• ~ 11% to the Lexicon Devils multisig

Using Reserved Tokens to reward active contributors helps create incentive alignment by giving builders more tokens and therefore more power to shape the future of the project through governance. Their success is the project’s success: builders contribute to the project, accumulate project tokens over time, and are invested in seeing it succeed long-term.

Reserved token allocation for Lexicon Devils on Juicebox

In addition to managing their own project as metaverse architects on Juicebox, Lexicon Devils is also working on FORMING, a hyperverse concert series that pays web3 musicians to perform at the Juicebox parcel. Stay tuned for another overview and configuration article that will dive into the FORMING project on Juicebox.

Juicebox Transit Centre and Learning Centre in Voxels

Relevant links​

🎙️ Listen to Wackozacco and Peacenode share the story of Lexicon Devils on episode 8 of the Juicecast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

✍️ Learn more about Lexicon Devils in this deep dive article on the JB blog

🏗 Follow Lexicon Devils on Twitter: @devils_lexicon

🧃 Visit the Juicebox parcel in Voxels

🏢 Visit the Lexicon Devils HQ in Voxels

🐦 Follow Juicebox on Twitter: @JuiceboxETH

🚀 Trending projects on Juicebox

📚 Project Creator Docs

📹 YouTube Tutorials

Building a network of projects on Juicebox

StudioDAO is a decentralized movie studio running on Juicebox. To learn more about how StudioDAO is disrupting the traditional film financing model, check out this deep dive on the JB blog as well as episode 9 of the Juicecast with founder Kenny on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

In this article, we’ll cover how StudioDAO has created a network to fund multiple film projects with a 10% fee going back to an umbrella project, StudioDAO Backlot. Unlike traditional businesses where money moves with little oversight, when you purchase an NFT to support one of StudioDAO’s projects on Juicebox you can see exactly where funds are being distributed.

Please note that all projects mentioned in this article are currently running on Rinkeby testnet before going live on mainnet and therefore configuration settings are not final.

StudioDAO projects live on Rinkeby 🎥​

• StudioDAO Backlot: registered LLC that provides film production services to StudioDAO and takes a 10% transaction fee on all StudioDAO project NFTs sold through Juicebox
• Unlikely Love Stories: StudioDAO’s first project, a dark comedy anthology by Rosa Tran and Derek Smith
• Colossi Research Academy: test project with art by Michael French
• Dickson Greeting: test project, experimental historical short film

StudioDAO sub-project map

Case Study: Unlikely Love Stories ❣️​

StudioDAO’s first film fundraise is Unlikely Love Stories, a dark comedy anthology by Rosa Tran and Derek Smith that explores finding unexpected love in the most unexpected places. In the screenshot below, you can see that ~ 13 ETH has gone into the treasury, and 10% of those funds will be distributed to “Project 4630” also known as StudioDAO Backlot, the Juicebox project that supports all StudioDAO films through production-related services. The other 90% is distributed to the filmmakers (unlikelylovestories.eth) along with the Backlot tokens minted from the 10% payout.

Funding distribution for Unlikely Love Stories on Rinkeby

Understanding the project’s configuration settings 🔎​

Digging further into the project’s config, we can see that the following choices were made:

• With automated funding cycles disabled, funds can be withdrawn at any time. For the project creator this is a very flexible approach but it also presents risks for project contributors.
• Similarly, an infinite distribution limit was set meaning that the project can distribute freely from its treasury, as much or as little as it likes. Again, this is a very flexible strategy but also means that the entire treasury can be distributed without any limits.
• Discount Rate is set to 0% which means that token issuance will stay the same over time. In other words, there is no added incentive for early contributors.
• Redemption Rate is set to 100% which means that they can be redeemed against the overflow of the treasury at any time. In other words, there is no added value for redeeming earlier vs. later.
• Mint Rate is 840,000 tokens per 1 ETH, with half for project contributors (420,000) and half for addresses on the reserved token list (420,000) 🚬
• Owner token minting is disabled, so the project owners cannot mint tokens at any time. Only project contributions will mint new tokens.
• No reconfiguration strategy was set, meaning that a project can be reconfigured at any time without notifying contributors. Again, this is a very flexible approach for project creators but carries risk for project contributors.

Funding cycle configuration for Unlikely Love Stories on Rinkeby

Reserved token allocation 🪙​

We can also take a look at how the Reserved Tokens are split:

• 50% to filmmakers of the project
• 40% to StudioDAO Community wallet
• 10% to StudioDAO Backlot

This cross-pollination of tokens allows each member of the StudioDAO ecosystem to have a stake in one another, creating incentive alignment and building community in the process.

Reserved token allocation for Unlikely Love Stories on Rinkeby

As mentioned earlier, all projects discussed in this article are still on Rinkeby testnet and their configuration settings are not final. Once StudioDAO and NFT Rewards are live on mainnet, we’ll update this article with the final configuration details. Stay tuned!

Coming soon to a mainnet near you.

Relevant links​

🎙️ Listen to Kenny tell the story of StudioDAO on episode 9 of the Juicecast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

🟢 Follow StudioDAO on Twitter: @studioDao

💬 Join StudioDAO’s Discord: https://discord.com/invite/YxPGn9pcdr

🐦 Follow Juicebox on Twitter: @JuiceboxETH

🚀 Trending projects on Juicebox

📚 Project Creator Docs

📹 YouTube Tutorials

How StudioDAO is building the first million person green-light committee on Juicebox.

🥱 Prequels, sequels, reboots​

If you’ve streamed movies recently, you might have noticed that everything is starting to become homogenized. Superhero mix and match, cinderella with the latest celebrity, maybe an apocalypse or two. It’s becoming increasingly clear that we are no longer paving new roads but rather returning to the same old well-trodden paths. The traditional studio model behind film production is, at least, partly to blame for this. And StudioDAO is trying to fix it.

These constant reboots are often favoured over new ideas that seem like too much of a risk to investors. And to make matters worse, the filmmakers don’t reap nearly as much profits as the financiers. Here is how films are funded in the traditional studio model:

• Filmmakers create a budget and pitch their film to financiers
• Financiers provide funding, get repaid once the film is made, and get an extra 20-30% of the films profit
• Financiers then receive ~ 50% of all revenue going forward and the filmmakers the other 50%

Other than the exorbitant take rates (50%? hmmm…), the problem is that financiers are assuming the risk of the success of the film. In other words, they are not incentivized to invest in new films without a proven track record and are much more amenable to franchises with successful past releases. This has lead to the franchise overload that we are currently experiencing where every movie in theaters or on streaming platforms seems to be a prequel, sequel, or reboot.

🟢 Enter StudioDAO, stage left​

Rather than relying on a centralized financier, StudioDAO is a decentralized movie studio working to become the first million person committee of fans green-lighting movies. By combining the power of collective action with NFT sales to fund films, anyone can participate regardless if they have 0.01, 0.1, or 1 ETH to contribute. For the first time ever the audience will have the opportunity to decide which films they want to fund and watch, all while building community and gaining behind-the-scenes access in the process.

Our goal is to have a million people come together to fund a movie for the price of a movie ticket

— Kenny

💸 StudioDAO’s hybrid funding model​

While the idea behind StudioDAO is simple—fans coming together to fund films—their innovative funding model is complex, so let’s break it down. StudioDAO has three methods for funding films:

1) Retail NFTs

Using Juicebox’s new NFT rewards feature (coming soon to a mainnet near you), anyone can support projects at three different price points: 0.01, 0.1, and 1 ETH. These NFTs help fund the film’s production budget and are also collectibles that grant governance rights to the StudioDAO community wallet.

2) Community wallet

The StudioDAO treasury receives 30% of profits from projects. This community wallet is controlled by members of the DAO and can help fill in the gaps for films in the StudioDAO network that are raising funds for production. This process democratizes the experience of movie production by allowing DAO members to vote on which films should receive treasury funds.

3) Film financing fund

Last but not least, this method opens the door to the traditional financing world outside of NFTs and the crypto community. This fund requires investors to KYC and work together with the StudioDAO community to reach an agreement.

🎬 How does this work for filmmakers?​

• Filmmakers receive 70% of all profits made from their films;
• Retain ownership of their film;
• Control the distribution of their film

A DAO member will act as a filmmaker’s representative, make a pitch to the DAO on their behalf, and seek approval via governance. All DAO members are able to create and vote on proposals, allowing the community to curate content and vote on which films they want to see come to life. Once the vote gets approved, the DAO opens a new Juicebox project with three funding tiers and fundraising begins.

❤️ StudioDAO’s first project: Unlikely Love Stories​

Unlikely Love Stories is a dark comedy animated anthology that explores the highest highs and lowest lows of unexpected love in the most unexpected places. The anthology is inspired by the real life love story of Oscar-nominated producer Rosa Tran (Anomalisa, Robot Chicken) and Emmy-winning VFX artist Derek Smith who met at the 2010 Emmy awards and fell in love 7 dates later. Part 1: Tender Vittles tells a hilarious, slightly fucked up story about love when a sweet mouse falls in love with a dangerous yet delicious gingerbread cookie.

The first goal for Unlikely Love Stories is to raise $305,000 USD for the pilot episode Tender Vittles. To continue the anthology, the project will be aiming to raise $2,000,000 USD to produce a half season and $5,000,000 USD to fund the entire season. 90% of proceeds go towards funding the project and 10% goes to the StudioDAO community fund governed by DAO members.

🧃 A transparent way forward​

The idea of crowdfunding films isn’t new: Kickstarter has helped raise $500M USD for films over the last ten years, including 5.7 million for Veronica Mars in 2019. Fast forward to 2022, crowdfunding on Ethereum has opened up new ways for fans around the world to support films, like filmmaker Miguel Faus who crowdfunded his film Calladita with tiered NFTs. Going one step further than a one-time fundraise, StudioDAO is building a regenerative model in which project creators get to make their dream projects while fans get unprecedented access to the green-lighting process. And all of this magic happens transparently and out in the open on Juicebox.

There is a two trillion dollar entertainment market and there is a clear scenario for a decentralized studio to do one billion dollars of production 3-4 years from now.

— Kenny

Relevant links​

🎙️ Listen to Kenny tell the story of StudioDAO on episode 9 of the Juicecast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

🟢 Follow StudioDAO on Twitter: @studioDao

💬 Join StudioDAO’s Discord: https://discord.com/invite/YxPGn9pcdr

🐦 Follow Juicebox on Twitter: @JuiceboxETH

🚀 Trending projects on Juicebox

📚 Project Creator Docs

📹 YouTube Tutorials

Governance can be fun​

And funny. As Sean McCaffery, Co-Founder of JokeDAO and seanmc.eth#0163 will tell you, governance doesn’t have to be a somber affair. Along with their co-founders they’ve built JokeDAO, a DAO tooling option that can run everything from on-chain governance to shitpost popularity contests with ease.

JokeDAO 🃏 An open-source, collaborative decision-making platform.

Enter JokeDAO​

The schema is simple: create a contest, and deploy it. Users on the platform can then vote on your contest with tokens that deploy for just that contest (if you wish). The platform can handle anything from “What color birthday cake should we choose?” to “Tell me the best joke about hamsters” to “Which workspace tooling should our DAO be using day-to-day?” It does so on-chain and transparently, so you and your community can track progress, previous votes, and run a decision-making platform that’s open and honest.

https://twitter.com/jokedao_/status/1549053077046472705?s=20&t=F1--BE4uL7TiocEVd1EluA

Disposable tokens and their utility​

Central to JokeDAO’s platform is the unique way that tokens are used. That is, they are quite literally used. In many cases they are disposable and unique to a specific contest. This has some strong benefits, and is a facet that many other DAOs could learn from.

Token-voting mechanisms suffer a lot from the question of why. Why should some people have some much more voting power than others. Reasons abound. Maybe it’s because somebody was an early contributor. Maybe it’s because somebody contributed a boatload of funds to a project. Or maybe— bear with me here— a person has a really nuanced understanding of the topic at hand.

But that last case is a bit less common. After all, it would be nice to say, “You know what, we’re voting on solidity devs, so let’s give all the solidity devs a bit more voting weight for this proposal,” but current mechanisms make this difficult and cumbersome, and certainly not scalable.

JokeDAO, by employing tokens which expire with a single contest or vote, can easily address this issue. And this is just one of many use cases where it’s a potential game-changer.

https://twitter.com/jokedao_/status/1562100521334341633?s=20&t=BvRz0K1QwJE8AK5695G2AA

The future of JokeDAO​

Where JokeDAO will go is anybody’s guess, but current sentiments seem to point moonward. The platform has shown new ways to approach governance for DAOs, and offers tooling that is unique and easy to employ. What more could an anon ask for?

To follow JokeDAO, check them out on twitter. To learn more about co-founder Sean, find their twitter here.

In this video, I'll show you how to:

• Create a list of addresses that hold your project's tokens using Juicebox.money
• Create a list of addresses that have voted in your project's Snapshot
• Create a JokeDAO contest
• Airdrop voting tokens using Coinvise

The Snapshot GraphQL query used in the video:

query {
  votes (
    first: 1000,
    skip: 0,
    where: {
      space_in: ["jbdao.eth"],
    },
    orderDirection: desc
  ) {
    voter
  }
}

For support, visit discord.gg/juicebox.