Nouns Cares - A Better World On-Chain (Panel) - Tokyo 2024

[Applause] and we have a really exciting panel coming up uh this is a community that I've been extremely excited to work with uh I've been working with them since last year we have nouns cares you guys from nouns Dow here uh really really into the public good space uh with nouns and I'm excited to talk with them today yeah so today we'll be discussing creating a better world on chain and uh I just want to say I I really feel that nouns cares and noun St is so ethos aligned with funding the commons you know we're going to talk about you know nouns purpose in being here in Tokyo and being at funding the commons and uh yeah I'm really excited for this one um yeah so we'll go ahead and start with some introductions uh I didn't introduce myself yet in the beginning uh my name is Rachel so I'm mcing on behalf of funding the commons uh yesterday today um oh thank you and um yeah super excited to be here I I've been a part of uh curating educational content for the University of ethereum for about the past year um so I'm very focused on education making an impact on the space I'm also a published author uh published a book called impact entrepreneur this year um so yeah working on a lot of things thank you yeah I haven't given myself an intro really yet so I'm so so honored to be here and I know I keep saying it but like the funing the commons team is just uh the work ethic they have is so unparalleled and I'm just uh honored to be a part of this event today um okay so yeah I will pass it off and we can do uh some introductions before we get into it everybody hope you hear me okay uh hi uh my name is Will wheeler I'm here from nouns Dow and uh nouns cares I'm also the co-founder of problem media which is an integrated creative agency that works with Dows and web 3 projects um and I'm joined by my colleagues here today hello my name is Frankie uh will and I have been fortunate enough to be in business together for the last 15 years we started taking crypto as a payment on the agency side uh early 2012 fell in love with the space helped launch some really awesome projects including openc worked on Zora bitsky uh yeah have a mixed bag of web two and web 3 experience uh and yeah I'll let Chris introduce himself uh thank you for having me I'm Chris carella I'm here on behalf of nouns Dow I'm also the have a product of a product called charm verse uh and I'm a member of optimism citizen house and involved in the super chain and I have started a d called Purple which supports public goods in the farcaster ecosystem um extremely humble intros from these guy like no no joke that these are Allstars up here like the work they do I like the caliber of their work ethic is so impressive uh I mean nouns Caris has been around you know really showing up in the noun out Community I mean Charmers has been around I I've done so much with Charmers over the years uh like the web three notion so these guys are doing a lot to really help bring uh the next wave of onchain adoption so definitely very humble introductions and I know Frankie and and will have an extensive background uh working with a lot of uh high-profile uh projects coming from the entertainment industry uh so yeah definitely humble introductions uh so yeah I mean everyone here is is here I mean you see these noggles around everywhere everyone here um on the panel here is involved in noun sty at some capacity so um I would love to go around and hear in your own words what is noun sty and uh what do you all focus on with nouns all right so nouns is a DA uh we're an onchain Collective we have a mechanic where one noun which is like our cartoon mft that wears these noggles one noun is randomly generated every day and then available at auction and people bid to own a noun and uh if you acquire a noun you then have governance rights to the treasury and so 100% of the proceeds from the auction go into our Treasury and then anyone on the internet can make proposals to nouns uh and then we we vote to fund it and so a lot of our Focus has been on public goods the very first proposal was um a donation to five Organization for five non uh you know NOS uh and we do a mix of C of stuff and pure public good stuff like stand with crypto uh lots of art projects and in general our goal is to make these noggles as famous as possible uh to maybe be the next onchain Disney uh that has funding public goods at our core awesome yeah I know I know Frankie and will notoriously say the onchain Nike or the web 3 Nike um yeah so I'm curious uh will and Frankie if you can kind of go over what your role is uh what your intention is showing up in the noun out community and being here um in Tokyo yeah yeah so we're a part of a few layers in nouns uh including the nounal cares really focuses on Dow support So any prop that gets passed or anything that happens kind of in the space we just offer up support material Creations Partnerships branding development uh the list kind of goes on really for us like we want to make sure anybody who comes in has a healthy experience and they could execute to the best of their ability so cares really was birth uh off of the kind of traditional agency background but the focus really is is you know bringing in web two Brands to work with nouns bring in web 3 Brands to also work with nouns and just you know helping spread the seed yeah Bridging the Gap between web two and web 3 is our our main focus really uh Frankie talked about Brands I think that's an important one you have a lot of commercial brands that are web three curious might have had a good or bad experience don't really have a formal practice built out we think nouns is an amazing onboarding tool to do that um whether it's through collaborating on a prop together and doing a co-sponsorship activating an event uh working with a subd whatever it might be we try to make that process uh as simple as possible and also true to both parties so we're not pushing a mandate either way yeah and and if I could share a short story of of how we all got connected uh so yeah starting last year I mean I I got connected with Will and Frankie uh through something called noun Stow Africa so noun Stow is kind of like this big umbrella right and there's all these subd Dows and sub projects uh where folks are working on different things based on whatever problem they want to solve or it could just be for fun uh but nounced out Africa is something that really resonated with me and I know we had some UNICEF folks here talking about Sierra Leon uh but I had connected with the princess of Sierra Leon who was interested in bringing more blockchain adoption and Tech uh Technology Innovation to Sierra Leon um so yeah we connected and I started learning about more uh how a lot of our world like uh does not have access to clean drinking water right and you know there there are children that have to walk six plus miles a day and don't have access to clean drinking water in Sierra Leon so Frankie will and myself on noun Stout Africa uh we started this proposal uh to help build wells in Sierra leom with Princess Sarah curon and uh that's something we we plan on doing a second itation of with noun St Africa and would love to connect with some of the UNICEF folks uh uh to talk about maybe different strategies of fundraising and how we can you know create more clean drinking water access there in Sierra Leon so yeah uh just quick little story of how we all got connected here um okay so the next question I have so uh nouns is a public good project and what's under the Dow in in terms of this well let's take this yeah so between like noun out Africa noun shelter a lot of kind of the focus especially with brands or or people in our Dow who don't really have the experience especially on the business side we we really try and help them um you know build the best opportunity for themselves so like even now in shelter which is uh basically the ability to Mint a digital shelter and then give cats shelters in Hong Kong and China and you know even in Japan we're spending now and and to the states like that kind of order of operations from getting money to to you know a partner who's halfway across the world really becomes easy at that point and at the same time like you know with nouns Africa which we are all collectively holders of you know there's a real opportunity there to kind of see your work come to life in in real time I mean between the schools that we've we've built and uh the well program that we're we're looking to to revamp uh there's kind of a really good story especially with blockchain a good use case there um for us like we are as much as we love the kind of nft circuit and everything that happens we really you know feel like the the bridge needs to start for real world and like focus more on this idea that like it's more than just nfts it's more than just meme coins right so yeah I would just add that there are maybe two lenses to look through public goods that that nouns often funds one is like physical real world public goods like we are helping build a school in Africa and then a lot of it is ethereum public goods uh so we have a we we launched a film and uh it was as an mft and it raised hundreds of eth for protocol Guild to you know further the core ethereum devs or we gave a 100 eth to stand with crypto for uh the lobbying efforts in in the US and so some of it is like the real world public goods that that uh We've mentioned and then some of it is like the public goods of ethereum yeah I would say I mean we always describe nouns as people places and things I think that public ISS is the perfect bottom of that it's the sort of thread that puts all those things together and I think that we're always really focused on what those things are and who the people in places that can happen in yeah and um I think there there was a conversation we had I don't know if anybody's familiar with Tavern here it's kind of like a niche like uh I don't know like nouns Twitter space hangout uh spot uh but we were talking about the meaning of nouns on that and we were talking about how it can be uh pretty much anything you want to pursue like I mean I feel like there's a sort of Freedom with noun Dow where you can come in and and build whatever you want connect with whoever you want there's there's somebody out there who will probably jump in and help you like will and Frankie you know like I was scratching my head like how do we build wells in Africa and help increase clean drinking water access and they're like bam get well soon let's create a project so I mean if you go in and are really passionate about solving something or working on something uh you'll find your people announc St so that's something I really love about it I would just add that it is the most decentralized organization that I am a part of and and in my many years of crypto and so literally anyone can pitch an idea and then there are hundreds of vs who evaluate that idea and decide to fund it or not um and so a lot of times when people try to engage with a a DA or nouns it's like they're looking for like who who Who's the lever here you know who can I talk to and nouns is just like very decentralized so on one hand there is nobody to come talk to on the other hand there are hundreds of members uh who are happy to jump into projects they find interesting and so a lot of it is like just broadcast your intentions TR to find who is interested in it and then they can sherper you through the process of a noun now proposal which is not necessarily an easy thing to get done yeah yeah that is a real thing it is so decentralized you guys like I mean there's Chats on on far cter and Discord telegram Twitter like they're so dispersed uh that yeah it trly is one of the most decentralized projects in the space that I know of um okay so I'm curious if we can just go through um how do you each support the Dow operationally what is your role and and what are the things you you uh each tackle um I think I'm pretty focused on governance and so um I probably have one of the higher voter records where I vote on everything and when I vote I give feedback and so we have this mechanism called vote with reason and so you can say why you voted and for two years now I've been showing up to every prop vote I give my reason that's like the core I think why what people think I do in nouns and then the other is just uh like these two guys too I'm a connector and so if you have a project that's interesting I know the other people in nouns who are interested in it and so just connecting people through it but I think it's like governance is probably what I'm known for and then um just being a connector is uh what I do behind the scenes okay Chris I I do have another question for you because you're just kind of a a Maverick doing all these different things in the space I'm curious how all these roles sort of fit together like you're working what on like uh forecasters or a charm verse nouns uh do you sleep it's so funny um look we need to make on chame happen there is no prescription to making this happen and so I identify good opportunities and I just try to lend my support to them and it's like zorao where we mint because I think creativity and culture is really important it's optimism and the super chain because I think l2s are really interesting it's nouns because I believe in the ethos so deeply um and so you know when you do the stuff you love it's easy to make time for for these these kind of activities also there's there's a lot of people you know I just I'm mostly a collaborator you know and so there's all tons of people working with me on on all these initiatives and uh I just pitch him when I can and uh yeah that's just it man we're trying to build the next internet here and you know there's no boundaries of who does that and who doesn't yeah you got Chris is a unicorn if you connect with him uh he can just be your your web three Sherpa to any of these communities so definitely recommend connecting with Chris um and yeah I kind of want to uh pass it off to Will and Frankie so operation Ally on noun style like what is your primary focus or focuses yeah so with with cares we we kind of act as a traditional agency really onboarding you know people and and acting as Conair in some regard uh if you're a new holder we we try our best to make sure that you have the best experience um and at the same time we offer a list of services so again anything from proposal creation to materials all the way up to web development and and and other things we try to be the welcome desk the lobby and the room service we want to make sure that if you especially are getting a prop ped or you want to start that process we can assist you in doing that and then executing is really important uh proof of work is really important in in now so I think that's uh that's a little more of an abstract executional task in terms of what that looks like depending on what you're doing so for us that's taking the years we have working together uh with independent Brands entrepreneurs uh 4 500 companies and applying some of those best practices to executing the problem I I have a question for you guys sure so the way the way now funds uh you know public goods everything we fund it's you just get all the money up front and um so if you want to build a school and you need 100 e we just give you 100 e and uh it's worked out remarkably well for us we certainly have a handful of projects that just disappear um but one of the issues is just a lack of accountability because if I give you all the money up front even if you do something great with that money you may not be telling the world about it or you may not be telling the da about it and so you know we have a couple of conversations about just the general lack of accountability I think this is a true of nouns I think this is true of public goods funding across the board unless you're doing Milestone based funding or streaming funding uh so I would love to hear your guys take on accountability and yeah I mean look it's it's a tail as old as time like you need support you need infrastructure you need execution you need operations so for us like we we really try and treat it like a client service but at the end of the day like it's it's really about giving as much as we can with the expertise that we have right like I think the process is you know a tail as old as time you you either have a good process or you don't right so like with cares it's it's way less about like us succeeding as much as it is as if you're coming into nouns like helping you succeed so you know again like I think like even on the prop support if your prop pass is offering a list of services or tools that we can offer to to help you know those projects along is is really the most important thing to us yeah I think consistency is key I think my recommendation to project is always be a thermostat not a thermometer set the temperature get it done uh don't let execution be sacrificed there but don't be reactive be proactive in what you're doing give updates if you're having issues like Chris mentioned you have members around the world that can help you with those things and we're here to do that as well and that's something that we think is important I think accountability uh Milestones all those things are sort of like corporate jargon but I think in a dow sense is that you have a group of people that are coming together to fund your idea and you can figure out really creative ways to get them involved in the process without bogging yourself down yeah we always say that like it's it's always nice to have somebody to blame and we love to be the people to blame um we we really want to be that that handhold for anybody who comes in and and giving them the best shot of success yeah I totally agree I mean I I asked you guys what you do but it was kind of rhetorical like I already know I've worked with you guys I've seen the the level that you show up for others and and that's how we all go further together you guys showing up for one another supporting one another jumping in and offering a helping hand to those who are coming into the space uh that is really uh you know what it's about if we want to make it um and now I'm I'm going to ask a separate question because I know uh will and Frankie you guys are so bullish on Tokyo like you started you know Tokyo company like uh you guys have done a lot here and I'm curious like I I want to hear each of your perspectives but why Tokyo I know you all are coming from from different places in the world like uh I think most of us are us-based here uh why come to Tokyo why do this work here uh what is your primary objective in coming I would love for will to open that up I think uh I think Japan overall and to in particular is a fascinating place for this technology uh the way that's it's being adopted and used and woven into daily life I think is something I'm really interested in I know Frankie and Chris are as well we're really obsessed with practical applications of web 3 if you can't improve someone's day-to-day life then what's the purpose of doing it and the way that it's being done here as with all things there's a focus on quality consistency executing it making sure that it's a uh one siiz fitall universal solution versus a new solution I think that's what's been done really well across any industry here um and that's why I think that this is a fascinating place to talk about it to meet the community here is huge um it's we have had amazing conversations since we've been here and uh yeah never continues to surprise me so yeah and we've been working in Tokyo going on almost 10 years on and off you know I think progressively speaking they Tokyo and Japan specifically gets it uh in a really good way and the timing I think now especially makes a lot of sense um so yeah and then I would add that like nouns actually has a huge Community here in Japan noun St Japan uh so I was excited to come and meet um and meet that Community also there's a big farcaster Community here in Japan so to meet those people but then the other separate part is that uh Japan is a growth market for crypto I mean it's just it's just getting started here um I know that like the government is in support of it which is not true everywhere and laws are working their way through to to legalize all of this stuff and so I really think this can be the frontier I think crypto in general can help the company the country Leap Frog uh some of the other countries as the US is very resistant to crypto there's a big opportunity for countries like Japan to just Leap Frog the US and build the next interet um you know Japan was very involved in in the 90s and the Doom of uh of building the internet Yahoo Japan and all of that stuff and so this is the place where it has to happen awesome uh thank you guys so much so uh I think we are getting to the end of the panel here but I I do want to take a moment to just go through and talk about how can individuals here get involved with these projects how can they get involved with Charmers Zora farcaster nouns uh what what is the best Pathways uh for these projects we can start with Will me um I think that there's a lot of entry points in so I think one get a noun yeah get a noun is a good one bu buy a noun today the um forecaster is a social network for onchain enthusiasts and crypto people so if you have not signed up for forecaster yet I think join that it's it's still pretty small it's like a very focused Twitter on uh people who love being on chain but also without all the negativity of Twitter it's all kind of positive sum uh people who really truly live the crypto ethos so if you join forecaster you'll see all of these different things happening is one and then the other I would say look up uh noun Dow Japan as a really good entry Gateway into nouns yeah and for us like we are willing to help anybody and everybody um again the big priority is is getting everybody on chain for us and and doing that through traditional practices um a lot of the web two brands that we're looking at even on board I think make a lot of sense for for Tokyo at large right so um we're we are still working with a lot of web 2 Brands uh in our portfolio including Brands like Michelin Adobe um so you know if there's any opportunity for for web to support that helps broker web three opportunities uh more than happy to talk about those I think if you're curious about nouns or what is Nish or the Dow at all uh we have a documentary we're actually screening on the 29th here it's called Shark pickle cone it's an incredible onboarding tool in my opinion it really tells the story of getting involved in the da the ethos the sort of history of it and then getting a prop passed in a very non-traditional way in a very traditional setting um I think it's a really great Testament to that process and the folks involved in the community from the beginning so when is that screaming the 29th and where is it it's at hiot 8 down the street and we have a Luma link you can come and see me after if you want to yeah you guys should come to the screaming absolutely yeah absolutely and I think we have a couple minutes for uh questions yeah okay cool uh so we have a couple minutes left uh we love to hear any questions from the audience I see see a hand up I'm gonna run the mic over I got to talk to Chris a little bit about this last night but I'd love to hear about uh personally from both of you how you disting between funding Network Goods that directly benefit nouns versus funding actual public goods so I'll kick this off because I I have somewhat coined the term uh a lot of the times when we talk in crypto a lot of the times when we talk about funding public goods we talk about funding crypto public goods and so you know if I'm like funding a public good on the optimism L2 uh that's great because we all need those public goods but if you don't use optimism it's not really a public good to you you know I would say like public goods is a complicated term because if they build roads in North Korea it's great for the people in North Korea it's not a public good for me because I'm not allowed in the country to drive on those roads you know and so a lot of the times in the in the crypto context I think we're funding Network Goods which is we're funding things that add value to the network we're all participants of the network so when someone adds value to the network we all uh receive value from that Network and so that is the notion of network Goods I think it's important one thing you could ask is like why and then I'll just say and then public goods to me is definitely more traditional build schools build Wells um offer educational opportunities it's more about like solving real world problems and I would just say you could ask the question why do nouns uh which is a dow it's just individuals uh putting in their Capital to fund public goods why would they do that and uh p is what we call The Virtuous flywheel which is you buy a n at auction we do something amazing with that money the world finds out more people want to join then they buy one at o you know they come to nouns because they found out we built a school in Africa and then they buy a token and so we have this virtuous flywheel where it's like we raise Capital we deploy it on public goods people get excited they want to join and and so that's why we do it and then also you guys want to talk about I mean I think nouns is a vehicle to identify opportunities to do that and uh with people places and things like I was saying before if nouns can add value to it whether it's just identifying it and then it's funded elsewhere that's okay too so I think for me I always look at the entry points the reason why much of what Chris was saying in terms of does it benefit the general public good is actually a public good versus something self- serving is really a lens that I look at it through yeah and and look like at the same time like bringing in partners that have done really good things in areas that might not be web three leaning right like talking to Michelin now about recycled tire programs and you know hosting dinners for for crypto partners and and DOW support in within nouns to make sure we're connecting globally better uh using their their platforms as well as their to do that so you know at the same time I think a lot of what we consider like public goods is coming in up like three different forms yeah totally I think a public good is like the best case study for this stuff and it's it's no pride of authorship or ownership I think it's if you can solve the problem and do it and show the method for doing it has been on chain that's incredible right yeah absolutely so do we have any more questions from the audience okay we have two more minutes if there's any questions okay I'll ask you guys a question then so um we talked about Capital allocation we talked about funding public goods can we talk a bit about social capital and the culture and nouns and why that's so important yeah I'll kick this to you guys but that is what nouns is actually so you know we can be like very academic and talk about Capital allocation and public goods but really it's just a community of people um who organize around public goods who organize around positive some thinking uh who do art with the noggles and the nouns the nouns are really cute um there's a whole art community involved here uh so you know at the end of the day we're funding projects but you don't need a noun to be a part of nouns I think that's a very important message here it's like just show up join the foraster channels um post what you find interesting talk about public goods post your art um mint things like things it's like there's a there's like a few hundred nouns and like tens of thousands of people in the nouns Community absolutely thanks so much Chris okay uh if we could do a lightning round uh if you guys want to go through and just share uh how folks can connect with you here uh we'll wrap up in one minute we'll do right to left sure let's go this way um so the best way to get in contact with us is cars.tv is the site for announce cares uh we're actually also upstairs in the second floor of unu if you want to pop in and say hi we have our popup our whole team is there uh from all over the world we can chat through anything and make intros get telegram whatever might be so yeah I'm at C carella everywhere and the best way to contact me is through warcast so join join warcast send me a DM tell me you are here and then we'll connect yeah same here warcast I think is is probably the best place to reach me Frankie co. eth uh Twitter as well FRN ke uh pretty easy to find me so yeah awesome thank you guys and lastly there I've heard there's an Afterparty happening with d c you guys want to talk about that a little bit Yeah there is yes on the 30th we're doing an Afterparty at Circus which is here in chuya uh if you go to Luma l. macars you can find the event info and RCP there awesome okay our time is up let's give a round of applause to our panelists today thank you guys