6 Months Extension for the PoKe Berlin Team - Transform Projects to Operational State

Requested amount: 290,899 USDC

Short Description

The scope of PoKe is business development that targets enterprises and governments to leverage Polkadot’s technology and to hand over projects to the Polkadot community. For that the W3F funded PoKe through the Decentralized Futures Programme for one year from May 2024 onwards.

PoKe has achieved all its milestones to date! To ensure the maximum impact for the Polkadot ecosystem we believe that an additional six month period of key accounting and project management is necessary. As already mentioned in our initial forum post and the application to the Decentralized Futures Programme we now ask the community to fund this period.

The goal of this period is to transform the most promising projects into an operational state.

Link to full proposal

Achievements

Our efforts have proven highly successful, revealing significant potential for Polkadot’s adoption across enterprise and government sectors. We have secured signed agreements and built a strong project pipeline in more than 10 industry verticals, including government, healthcare, energy, and defense. Promising opportunities in various stages have emerged from these verticals. Some projects have already secured an MoU or a collaboration agreement, others will be secured within the scope of PoKe.

The following projects are the most promising ones from our point of view, and they would require additional management attention to get them to a state where the implementation project can be kicked-off. Some projects will also require management of the Polkadot ecosystem consortium and local entities during the implementation phase resulting in a hand over to the local organizations.

Collaboration with Chinese Technology Conglomerate
A MoU has been signed with a multinational technology conglomerate with a dominant presence in China and beyond. An affiliate of the conglomerate wants to move forward to integrate their solutions with Polkadot in different areas of collaboration.
Diaspora-financed health insurance for an African country.
A Signed Collaboration Agreement between a local company on the ground and Scytale for facilitating a pilot project is in place. The project is progressing smoothly, with the MOU signed by the Ministry of Innovation, a local university, a local company and the W3F. The PoKe team currently works on the LOI. This project has the potential to be rolled out throughout the African Union.
Mandatory travel insurance for an African country.
The concept was presented and discussed on site with high-ranking government representatives and insurance executives. The concept was accepted by everyone, especially the insurance companies who showed high interest in the project because it opens up another revenue stream for them.
German Defense Industry Project: Resilient Identification System.
We had two high level workshops with the company in December and March. The discussion centered around how they could leverage Polkadot and blockchain technology. Three areas of collaboration are planned, such as building a prototype in the area of maritime communication, participating in a project funded through the EU military research fund and they are interested in participating in the PBA. The former PoKe team has established a trusted relationship with the decision makers and we believe a lot of key accounting will be necessary to be successful.
Projects in the government and private sector for an outer territory of the USA. PoKe is discussing three projects in different stages in the government and private sector for an outer territory of the USA. The first project involves establishing a decentralized energy production system managed by local communities, coupled with a decentralized blockchain-based energy exchange. The second project focuses on creating a blockchain-based land registry, while the third aims to transform the Caribbean territory into a central hub for air cargo. These projects have the potential to open the door for the Polkadot ecosystem for future and more projects within the US, which has always been a challenge in the past.
Central American Ministry for the Environment
The Ministry is positioning itself as a key driver of blockchain initiatives in the country. In collaboration with them, we have identified promising use cases, which are now being further defined and planned. While these serve as initial pilot projects, the government is also actively exploring additional blockchain solutions within the Polkadot ecosystem. The pilot projects still require management and support by PoKe to bring them to a state where they can be implemented. We believe that some key accounting will increase the probability for Polkadot to become the center of the country's blockchain strategy.
Blockchain Use Cases in Supply Chain and CO2 Network
A global service provider with a focus on digital transformation and automation is exploring the use of Polkadot nodes.They are seeking a compelling use case, potentially for one of their customers, to justify a Polkadot project. For example, they are in discussions with a leading gas monopolist developing the first CO2 network in Germany. The goal is to use blockchain technology to track and document CO2 transferred into the pipelines, as well as the consumers who store, transfer, or transport the CO2.
Photovoltaic Remote Control Project for German Municipalities
Project for the municipalities of a major German city to remotely control photovoltaic systems for stabilizing the power grid by managing electricity oversupply from small to medium-sized PV systems. This project has the advantage that it can be used as a blueprint for further projects in the German energy market.

Deliverables

The initial goal of PoKe was to identify verticals, establish connections with decision-makers, identify problems, and develop solutions using Polkadot, and then move these solutions to the MoU stage. The objective now is to make these projects operational to benefit Polkadot and its ecosystem.

Due to time constraints, the remaining PoKe time is not enough and may result in missed opportunities for the Polkadot ecosystem. During the 6 months we will focus on:

Finalizing concepts, requirements, technical approaches, and solutions.
Developing high-level roadmaps, project plans, and timelines.
Finding and involving Polkadot ecosystem partners to build consortia.
Developing sustainable business and funding models for new companies and projects.
Offering project management support for complex projects, even after handover.
Generating follow-up projects for the Polkadot ecosystem.
Ensuring publicity and press releases for projects with MoUs and agreements.
Presenting successful MoU completions and key learnings at conferences.

Team Members

The team has deep roots in the Polkadot ecosystem and has due to its experience a profound understanding of the requirements and workings of large organizations. Its members have been part of PoKe since the beginning (even since the ideation phase of PoKe) and they are the driving force behind the aforementioned projects. The team members have demonstrated excellent skills in business development and key accounting.

Ingo Rübe

Founder KILT Protocol / Co-Founder and Director of PoKe

Ingo Rübe, CEO of BOTLabs GmbH and founder of KILT Protocol, leads a Berlin-based team developing blockchain-based identity solutions. With a Computer Science degree from the Technical University of Berlin, he has held leadership positions at Axel Springer SE, Hubert Burda Media, and Drupal. He is also a founding member of the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications INATBA.

Elisa Dratsdrummer

Marketing Director at BOTLabs & KILT / Project and Ecosystem Manager at PoKe

Elisa is a Web3 native with a broad range of experience in marketing, interactive media, strategic communication operations and compliance communication.

She has worked with KILT for over five years, leading events and social media initially, and now leads marketing, communications, public relations and community operations. Elisa is also a Polkadot Events Bounty curator.

Matthias Möller

Director Operations BOTLabs & KILT/ Project Lead PoKe

Matthias has more than twenty years of professional and leadership experience in developing and shipping cutting edge digital services for various industries.

He has been key to KILT Protocol's success since BOTLabs' 2018 founding. He leads enterprise adoption and high-level collaborations, notably with Deloitte and the German Energy Agency.

Well, this PoKe Berlin team’s proposal for a six-month extension is really a classic case of overreach disguised as progress. They claim to have identified verticals and built relationships across government and enterprise, but somehow that translates into a €253,000 request — mostly for salaries and travel — to keep doing “key accounting” and facilitating more handovers. Everything is masked under an NDA.. no KPIs nothing to show whatsoever.

One of their “main findings,” they proudly announce, is that “Polkadot remains relatively unknown outside the blockchain ecosystem.” Groundbreaking stuff. I can only imagine the sheer depth of research it took to land that revelation — something most of us figured out within five minutes of trying to explain DOT to a friend. And yet this "insight" is used to justify more time, more money, and more vague deliverables, all wrapped in buzzwords and hidden behind NDAs. They assure us they’ll continue involving the community… just, you know, not in any way that involves real information or decision-making unless you’re willing to sign a gag order. Community engagement, but make it exclusive.

And then, of course, there’s the dystopian kicker. **“The discussion centered around how they could leverage Polkadot and blockchain technology to help the military to identify allies and adversaries on the battlefield.” ** Something we saw KILT working on as well :D. Really? After failing to build sustainable, grassroots adoption, the fallback plan is… helping militaries pick who to shoot at more efficiently?
Web3 was supposed to be about liberation, not feeding surveillance states and weapons programs. It is one thing if the governments decide to use our tech, but another thing if WE go directly to the military with this pitch. Mass adoption >>>>> Mass destruction. Not exactly what most of us signed up for.