Referendum #675

Improving Polkadot’s Presence In the U.S. With The Texas Blockchain Council

14x6...Pzae

Medium Spender

4d ago

Executed

Content

AI Summary

Full proposal

Summary

This proposal will support Ecosystem Agent Yung Beef to improve Polkadot’s presence in the U.S., discover new integration opportunities, and insert Polkadot into the minds of some of the U.S.’s foremost blockchain policy advocates. This will be accomplished in part through sponsoring the Texas Blockchain Council at the Executive Partner level, creating a stepping stone to further opportunities around the U.S.

Amount requested: $170,000 plus another $17,000 for price volatility for a total of $187,000. Any extra DOT will be returned to the treasury, based on the DOT price when the funds are received.

Many ecosystem members have discussed how Polkadot is lacking a suitable presence in the U.S. As we’ve seen from the results of the U.S. based Bitcoin ETFs launching, results in The United States can and will have an impact around the world.

As an ecosystem member for over 3 years, with an advanced understanding of the Polkadot ecosystem and its needs, I am well positioned to represent Polkadot in the push towards relevance in the U.S., provide education around Polkadot and its strengths, facilitate connections between interested parties and teams in Polkadot, and provide input on policy creation that would benefit the ecosystem.

Partnering with the Texas Blockchain Council (TBC) will enter Polkadot into the minds of those working on favorable regulations and provide networking and integration opportunities with teams in Texas, elsewhere in the U.S., and around the world.

I will start by focusing on maximizing the value of our partnership with TBC. Once up to cruising speed, I will also start exploring additional avenues (such as The Blockchain Association, Blockchain Industry Group, Stanford Blockchain Club, etc.) for improving Polkadot’s perception in the U.S., leveraging connections made and lessons learned from working with TBC.

Our Executive Partnership with TBC will provide opportunities for marketing, events (including a free Block 2 Sponsorship for the North American Blockchain Summit worth $30,000), integrations, and more, the majority of which will require active management, which is where I come in.

Funding

The total funding for this proposal comes out to $187,000:

Executive Partnership with the Texas Blockchain Council
Improving Polkadot's presence and optics in the U.S.
10% volatility buffer (extra will be returned)

Destination

Amount

Texas Blockchain Council

$50,000

Yung Beef

$120,000

Volatility Buffer

$17,000

Total

$187,000

Success Metrics

Policies & Regulations: Passing regulations that are beneficial for Polkadot, provide legal clarity (for example, do OpenGov voters have any liability?), or enhance DOT’s position as software.

New Ecosystem Teams: Onboarding new developers and teams to build parachains, applications, or tackle other ecosystem needs.

Integrations: Securing partnerships between Polkadot, ecosystem teams, and outside companies, whether they are TBC members or otherwise.

For details, please see the full proposal.

Request

≈8.4KDOT

≈20.15KDOT

Status

Decision28d

Confirmation4d

Attempts

Tally

99.6%Aye

53.5%Threshold

0.4%Nay

Aye

≈54MDOT

Nay

≈207.08KDOT

0.0%
0.0%
0.0%

Threshold

Support0.93%

≈13.07MDOT

Issuance

≈1.41BDOT

Votes

Nested

Flattened

Calls

How OpenGov works↗

Call

Metadata

Timeline6

Votes Bubble

Statistics

Comments

12s6...nE8h

Hello from Polkadotters!
Polkadot surely needs a stronger US presence. Connection with Texas Blockchain Council sounds promising as it might bring more legal clarity, some business opportunities and integrations and in particular this kind of visibility might bring some new teams or developers to the ecosystem, which is a big bonus. We support this proposal.

14x6...Pzae

Here is the overall final report for proposal #675. More details can be found in each of the previous reports.

Partnerships
Despite my efforts, I was not able to establish any concrete partnerships through the TBC. However, there may be some in the future, such as Origin Trail and/or Aventus working with The Provenance Network (members of the council), who are themselves partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense, among others. I also put Oracle in touch with both OT and Aventus, so something may come of that in the future as well. As always with traditional businesses, these things take time and need to be nurtured.

A connection was made between Block (founded by Jack Dorsey, creators of Cash App and Square, which are both huge in the United States) and Polkadot’s Velocity Labs. It is possible that they will build their eventual stablecoin system on top of Polkadot Hub.

I was helping Ryan from The Blockchain Academy craft a proposal in partnership with our PBA, but he has since disappeared.

Exposure
Being a member of the TBC gave Polkadot quite a lot of exposure, primarily via the free booth at the North American Blockchain Summit, which was covered in the full report for the Events Bounty. We also had numerous talks with other professionals involved in the intersection between blockchain, business, and politics, which has compounding effects with the work being done by others such as Ryan and James in Florida.

Policy
The council has backed a bill in Texas to look into moving their title registry and land administration system on-chain, which could later be expanded to include many other assets such as mineral rights, firearm registrations, etc. Input was provided to help make this bill more likely to pass and give Polkadot the opportunity to showcase our tech for this government project.

The Next Year
I will not be submitting a renewal proposal. Instead, Judge a.k.a. Grizzly, current Polkadot community Discord mod and former BD at Parity, has submitted a proposal to continue sponsoring the TBC with him working alongside. He is much better equipped than I to deliver excellent results from this partnership.