[Grant Proposal] - The Dream Conduit, the first 501(c)3 DAO

šŸ”„ DAO Proposals
1

The Dream Conduit DAO

The Dream Conduit is a 501c3 non-profit offering education and onboarding to NFTs and Web3 for creatives globally. The Dream Conduit has hosted daily sessions for the past year, and has delivered over 12,500 hours of free education so far. We have grown to a team of 14, and are building a DAO from the ground-up that will have complete authority over The Dream Conduit, making us close to becoming the first tax-exempt DAO.

Since inception, weā€™ve been laying the groundwork for our Collectible NFTs which tokenize donations made to The Dream Conduit.

Collectible NFTs can be used to vote in The Dream Conduit DAO when paired with Certificate NFTs, which are earned separately by attending The Dream Conduitā€™s daily sessions. In this aspect, we are unique in requiring a two-token system for votes. We chose this system to create checks and balances between creatives that need the education, and the donors that pay for it.

The Dream Conduit is preparing for the launch of the Collectible NFTs at the end of November, and are trying to maximize the potential of the debut. We are reaching out to Metacartel as a respected nonprofit sharing many of our values, and kindly requesting your support.

Manifesto/Vision

The Dream Conduitā€™s vision is to always serve the needs of the creative community by eternally evolving through democracy and decentralization.

Problem

The rapid evolution of concepts in Web3 leads to risks of content not being current. Trusted sources are required to present information on an ongoing basis while being held accountable by the creative community they serve.

Navigating and succeeding in Web3 as a creative requires foundational knowledge relevant to all, but also tailored guidance applicable to individuals. Knowing how to create NFTs is one thing, whereas an individual knowing how they can succeed in Web3 is another.

Solution

Live speaking forums, available as recordings, allow anyone to learn current information on an ongoing basis, ensuring information is always relevant and valid.

These live forums are complemented with 1-on-1 sessions between attendees and hosts. As fundamental blockchain and Web3 knowledge is established, specifics are resolved in public sessions as relevant to all and in private as needed. This ensures transparency amongst community members while ensuring that relevant information can be received by all who need it.

These are The Dream Conduitā€™s solutions to the problems above, and have been for 56 weeks.

Product

The Dream Conduit hosts 6 live sessions a week educating on the Web3/NFT space and offers individual guidance to participants at no cost.

The Dream Conduit is organized into divisions with educational themes led by specialized individuals. These divisions are themselves called Conduits, each with a specific, mission-oriented approach to helping creatives. The four Conduits established so far are:

  • The Curation Conduit
  • The Narrative Conduit
  • The Sovereignty Conduit
  • The Cultural Conduit

Each Conduit hosts 1 session a week with information and discourse within their specific theme, and The Dream Conduit hosts another 2 to provide foundational blockchain and NFT knowledge.

Validation

Validation of attendance represented by Certificates

Any participant that attends 3 sessions in 1 week receives a Certificate NFT, officially recognizing them as a Dreamer. Attending 6 in a week awards 2 Certificates, These NFTs are one of the two tokens required to represent a vote in The Dream Conduit DAO.

Validation of donations represented by Collectibles

Anyone that donates $25 receives a Badge NFT which triggers the on-chain Giving Game. The reward for completing the Giving Game is a Collectible NFT, the second token required to represent a vote in the DAO.

Certificates and Collectibles can be earned in perpetuity.

Progress

The Dream Conduit has delivered over 12,500 hours of free education to 18,000 listeners in 56 weeks. So far, almost 1,500 Certificates have been earned which is enough to facilitate the launch of the Collectibles NFTs, targeted for the end of November.

All smart contracts and infrastructure involved in the Collectibles are ready. The artwork is currently in progress, with 7 Dreamers each creating a pfp-style collection of 500, totaling 3500 NFTs to accompany the Collectibles launch.

Our DAO smart contracts are in development and targeted for launch in Q1 2023.

Weā€™ve seen many Dreamers go on to see heart-warming sales and success. The greatest impacts though are sometimes harder to quantify, and the strength of our community grows with every passing day.

Differentiation

The First Tax-Exempt DAO

The Dream Conduit is a 501c3 nonprofit, uniquely with the ā€œFounderā€ role absent. A Founder has final say and veto power in US nonprofits and stood in contrast to our vision of having governance be completely facilitated by a DAO, so we had that role removed.

This leaves decision-making power in the hands of the board of directors, which is being made entirely electable and impeachable by The Dream Conduit DAO. The Dream Conduit is close to becoming the first tax-exempt DAO, with all governance mechanisms being placed on-chain.

Giving Game Available to All

The launch of the Giving Game is an important milestone for The Dream Conduit due to the potential it offers to the general public. As all gas costs are covered by The Dream Conduit, an individual can make a donation, receive a tax deduction, receive a Badge NFT, and use it to make their first blockchain transfers and participate in a DAO, all without needing to buy crypto.

The significance of this is that it removes the need for someone to provide their social security number (or national equivalent) to a crypto exchange so they can buy the crypto necessary to engage in Web3. Anyone can make a donation in cash, be assured itā€™s going to a good cause they have accountability over, and embark on their first experience in Web3.

Tax Deductions

Donors can receive tax deductions for donations to The Dream Conduit DAO. The documentation is provided by populating a form and using digital signatures to verify ownership of the Collectibles in a donorā€™s wallet.

Multilingual Onboarding

The Cultural Conduit has been planned for months and is being set up to help onboard non-English speakers to Web3, starting with French speakers. Launch is targeted for mid-November.

Team Diversity

The Dream Conduit has grown to a team of 14 members spanning 7 time zones, 9 nationalities, and over 4 decades of collective Web3 experience.

The members of The Dream Conduit team have aligned around the shared vision of benefitting the creative community through NFT onboarding and education. We are a group with kindness in common, a passion for helping people, and an endless interest in blockchain and Web3.

Community Opportunities

Every Set of 500 Collectibles is made in a different art style by a different artist, all sharing a common character. Only Dreamers are eligible to create a Set of Collectibles, a process through which The Dream Conduit teaches the Dreamer how to create and generate pfp-style collections, provides them with a brand new, modern laptop, as well as several other benefits.

Team

Rami Al-Sabeq - Co-founder, President, Executive Director

  • Short Bio:
    • Rami Al-Sabeq has lived every year of of his life in a different place. He is a writer at heart with a career as a consultant keeping pharmaceutical companies compliant. Having studied both Business and Politics during a 3-year Bachelorā€™s at Penn State, Rami has enjoyed re-engineering business processes at the worldā€™s largest pharma companies. His travels have brought him face-to-face with the lack of equality of opportunity available globally, and he has spent years hoping to change that. He brings that experience and passion to The Dream Conduit where they can both be utilized to create positive, scalable impact.
  • Skills:
    • DAO Creation and Establishment
    • Organizational Structure
    • Communication
    • Public Speaking
    • Writing

Sleiman Nasr - Co-founder, Treasurer, Director

  • Short Bio:
    • Sleiman Nasr is a Master of Finance student with 4+ years of crypto experience and has been in the NFT space for over a year. He is a co-founder of The Dream Conduit, and also serves as the Treasurer and a Board Member. Sleiman has also co-founded bitnifty, an organization that helps onboard artists into the NFT space, particularly ones that live in countries where cryptocurrencies are banned or restricted.
  • Skills:
    • DAO Creation and Establishment
    • Team Building
    • Investment Research
    • Asset Management
    • Financial Analysis and Advisory

Lianna Adams - Vice-President, Director, Curation Conduit Lead

  • Short Bio:
    • Lianna Adams is a member of Top Tier Impact Network and is an advisor for DAOs, nonprofits and collectives in the NFT space. She comes from the cross-section of contemporary culture, technology and philanthropy with over 20 years experience spanning multiple industries, scales of businesses including organizing her own art fairs, working with major auction houses, and internationally acclaimed artists and brands. She regularly speaks on NFTs for social good, innovation and creativity through technology, arts and culture. She puts together panel of speakers with the aim to create conversations about accountability, social impact and responsibility, community and mental health.
  • Skills:
    • NFT Creation & Development
    • Business Innovation
    • Art & Content Curation
    • Creativity Coaching
    • Project Ideation

Andy Woodward - Director, Blockchain Developer

  • Short Bio:

    Andy Woodward is currently Director and CTO of OneBCG, a consulting and software development firm with offices in US, India, Australia and the UK. Andy currently sets the technology direction for the company and customers, designs enterprise software, and performs client technical analysis and due diligence. He has over 30-years of experience in consulting, designing and implementing enterprise software and solutions in a wide range of industries from banking to insurance, manufacturing, petroleum, and government.
    Prior to joining OneBCG, Andy was CTO and software architect for a financial technology startup where he designed and implemented ACH, credit card, and KYC platforms responsible for processing over $1-billion in transactions.

  • Skills:

    • Needs Assessment, Design Facilitation, and Requirements Gathering
    • Blockchain Smart Contract Development
    • Web 3.0 Distributed Application (dDapp) Development
    • Internet of Things (IoT) Hardware Design
    • Data Analysis

David Koroma - Narrative Conduit Lead

  • Short Bio:
    • David Koroma is a communications professional with over 10 years of experience ranging from political campaigns to corporate communications, but his passion for gaming and technology led him to venture into the metaverse. While David is familiar with the digital escape offered by video games, he says the new web3 metaverse built on blockchain functionality is offering a new level of ownership and earning power that has never been seen in the gaming space. He leads the Narrative Conduit and hosts a weekly podcast, Web3 Warriors, interviewing creators about the ways blockchain is enhancing their careers.
  • Skills:
    • NFT Creation and Development
    • Communications and Public Relations
    • Public speaking
    • Marketing
    • Podcasting

Low Sleazy - Sovereignty Conduit Lead

  • Short Bio:
    • Low Sleazy Aka Low Life recording artist, serial entrepreneur, NFT Consultant, Metaverse Land Developer, and Web3 community facilitator. Founder of the Blockchain Gospel and the StorytimeDAO, Sovereignty Conduit lead at The Dream Conduit.
  • Skills:
    • NFT Creation and Development
    • Community Management
    • Onboarding & Tutorial Content Creation
    • Public Speaking
    • Project Ideation

Ingrid Woode - Social Media Lead, Secretary

  • Short Bio:
    • Ingrid Woode is a musician and filmmaker located in the Midwest of the United States. She worked as a chemist for several years while songwriting and producing for artists until she decided to take off her science lab coat to fully focus on projects and networks of people that call on her to be a Creative Problem Solver and Storyteller. She has written and produced for Grammy winning musicians such as Lalah Hathaway and Queen Latifah, and has toured in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the UK. One of Ingridā€™s short documentary films ā€˜King Meā€™, was chosen as a finalist entry in the 2019 My Rode Reel Short Film Contest.
  • Skills:
    • Music/Audio Production
    • Live Performances
    • Content/Social Media Storytelling (Strategy/Production)
    • Live Streaming AV production/facilitation/Consulting
    • 3D Art Creation

Nadine Johnson - Events Lead, Director

  • Short Bio:
    • Nadine Johnson is a leader in design and research, and in innovation and creativity, working for a vast range of companies as a designer and trend forecaster from multi-national corporations to start ups. She frequently speaks on trend, tech and creative thinking at conferences, schools and trade shows in the USA and Europe including The San Francisco Art Institute, Struktur, and OutDoor Retailer. Her secret life as an aerialist and contortionist has led to her becoming a valued panel moderator for CircuTalkPRO on the subject of tech innovation in the Arts. Sheā€™s published internationally and currently a member of CirkusSyd based in Lund, Sweden, working on the Circosonic research project.
  • Skills:
    • Design
    • Illustration
    • Merchandising
    • Trend Forecasting
    • Innovation

Veronique Chabrolle - Cultural Conduit Co-Lead, Director

  • Short Bio:
    • Born in France, Veronique Chabrolle A.K.A. VeroDalla, started her professional life at twenty years old as the executive owner of a Michelin star restaurant in Nuits Saint George, France. In 2006, a life calling revealed that art was her journey. Since then, she has participated in more than seventy national and international exhibits, fifty percent as a solo show, and also sold by auction by Christieā€™s and others. Creator of the character LivenLuLuĀ®, her unique work examines what societyā€™s social restrictions repress in humansā€™ emotional ability and expression. In 2021, challenged by health issues and unable to handle studio work, she started learning to translate her work to the virtual world.
  • Skills:
    • Visual and Virtual Artist (Sculptor, 3D, VR)
    • Project Management
    • Team Management
    • Partners Relationship
    • Life Mentorship

Aniket Jatav - Design Lead

  • Short Bio:
    • Aniket Jatav is a 26 year old, Sr. Product Designer working at Capx, a Web 3.0 DeFi protocol. Aniket crafts end-to-end digital experiences for early stage Blockchain, SaaS, and Finance startups. With a deep understanding of product tech, Aniket understands the pain-points and gaps in product design and operations. He derives a lot of inspiration by staying cognitive and building a strong mental bank of references and utilizing them in his designs as needed. Apart from crafting digital experiences, Aniket is an avid reader of comic books, graphic novels and everything pop-culture. He likes to experiment and grow his art & design skillset. Someday he hopes to to create similar stories to those that influenced him.
  • Skills:
    • Digital Product and Experience Design
    • Visual Design incl. Illustrations, artworks, compositing.
    • Branding
    • Front-end Development
    • Animation & Editing

Mahmoud Sammak - UI Lead

  • Short Bio:
    • Mahmoud Sammak (Tastymachine), is a multidisciplinary digital artist that seeks to combine his formal education in architecture, and his love of Sci-Fi. Mahmoud, or Tasty, started off studying architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, where he was inspired by conceptual architecture, and the post-human movement. His work tends to manifest in surreal imagery, combined with futurism. A life in which advanced technologies exist in symbiosis with nature.
  • Skills:
    • Multidisciplinary designer, formally educated in architecture.
    • Fluency in, 3D modeling, animating. Art direction, concept creation, product design, Graphic design mediums such as, UX/UI, and knowledge in typography.
    • Understanding of printed mediums and application.
    • Model making, including mold forming(Silicone/Vacuum forming).
    • Understanding of organic and synthetic material.

Ibrahima Kebe - Cultural Conduit Co-Lead, Metaverse Lead

  • Short Bio:
    • Ibrahima Kalil Kebe, born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Lived in Guinea until he was 7years old where he immigrated to the United States. Winner of the Special City Need Special People award winner awarded by Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall Jr. 2004. US Junior Olympian 2005-2009 and Guinean Olympic committee team member 2010-
      Three time Howard Alumni
      2018 Forbes 30 under 30 nominee for Green Infrastructure and Tech.
      Cofounder of Ascxnd Modular Construction company
      Cofounder of FinorX Sustainably and Climate Tech company
      Cofounder of ThePotluckDC communal network for alternative holistic health practices.
  • Skills:
    • 3D Design
    • Blockchain Archeology
    • Metaverse Architecture
    • AR & VR Creator
    • Educational Leadership and Policy

Mo Kalache - Branding Lead

  • Short Bio:
    • Mo Kalache is a brand identity designer from Beirut with a studio located in Barcelona. Experienced at establishing brand strategy, Mo works with a combination of creative skills including design & illustration to help brands visualize their vision, define their branding strategy, and brand their logo and identity. Mo is a co-founder at fintipay and links his entrepreneurial background using crypto technology with digital art.
  • Skills:
    • NFT Creation and Development
    • Illustration
    • Branding
    • NFT & web3 Brand Strategy
    • Graphic Design

Artur Makhnach - Technical Consultant

  • Short Bio:
    • Artur is an industrial designer and a developer with a vast experience in algorithms and embedded systems, moving into the blockchain tech and tackling a multitude of projects ranging from NFTs to DeFi and beyond. Has started crypto development company with his partner, offering full-stack project development, security audits and guidance. Is an advisor to several crypto organisations and a lecturer on cryptography and blockchain technologies.
  • Skills:
    • Skills:
      • Computer graphics and scientific visualization
      • Web-application development
      • Blockchain development
      • Interface design
      • Cybersecurity

Grant Request

$10,000

Funds

The Dream Conduitā€™s launch and ongoing operation has been entirely funded by the co-founders, Rami Al-Sabeq and Sleiman Nasr. All of The Dream Conduitā€™s teamā€™s countless hours have been kindly volunteered to the benefit of the creative community.

The requested funds will enable The Dream Conduit to accomplish the following:

  • Cover a portion of operational costs incurred so far
  • Purchase and ship laptops to Collectibles artists ahead of receiving donations
  • Cover travel costs to represent The Dream Conduit at events beneficial to the community

Help

Any members with any questions can post them using this forum below or reach The Dream Conduit team directly on Discord. We can also be found on Clubhouse, where we host our daily educational forums.

Additional Resources