Hello there, beautiful soul!
Hope this message finds you well.
Weekly round up of all things Catalyst (+more) is here. This week is especially exciting because the Catalyst team was able to share the second installment of proposed changes signaled for Fund10, specifically around Challenge Setting. We also saw two amazing presentations discussing Auditability and Nation Building Dapps. Congratulations to both Challenge Teams on completing the work and resurfacing some fantastic insights about projects funded under those topics. However, there’s a lot more.
So what’s the latest? Let’s dive right in.
Danny
Town Hall #119
TH Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDqfSAf8m68 
TH Slides: bit.ly/3MiQYx5- TH Playlist: link here
Break Out Rooms: https://bit.ly/33i38SB
Next: TH #120 on Apr 5th at 5PM UTC. Register now via this recurring link.
Project Catalyst is looking ahead
Since Fund9’s end, the Catalyst team has been deep in research, discovery, and design mode. Holding many workshops with the community, a lot of 1:1s, and received additional user-centered feedback from fund surveys, social media, and beyond.
There are a number of proposed changes for Fund10 that are going to be gradually shared over the weeks to come. Last week, we began with looking at what an alternative path looks like for the assessments stage in Cardano’s Project Catalyst. This week, we turned our collective attention to Challenge Setting.
Part 1 - Assessments Stage Proposal
- Catch timestamped town hall segment here
- Breeze through this twitter thread here
- Listen in to twitter AMA recording
Part 2 - Challenge Setting Proposal
- Catch timestamped town hall segment here
- Review this twitter thread here
- Listen in to twitter AMA recording
Both after town hall break out sessions should also be available shortly on the Catalyst Swarm Youtube Channel.
Catalyst funding rounds have been on pause for a little while now. Thank you everyone for your patience and continued support as we’ve navigated these past months. 2023 is shaping up to be an important year for Cardano, and equally so for Catalyst. You’ll be playing a pivotal role.
Register to vote (or check if you still have a valid QR/PIN)
Don’t forget to register to take part in a Catalyst Special Voting Event (SVE) if you haven’t already. If you have cast a vote in the past, you just need to ensure you still have a valid QR and PIN code available. Here’s the guide. Not sure what the SVE is just yet? The Catalyst team also shared a quick update during February’s Cardano360 show, you can catch the timestamped segment here. More information is coming soon.
Voltaire Musings
Conversations around Governance at large continue speeding up. Have you had a chance to participate yet? There are some opportunities for you.
A great place to start is by diving into the www.1694.io portal, or catch the latest with the community initiative - Voltaire News! - a collaborative community newsletter started by Governance Guild to help the community keep track of the CIP-1694 debate.
Additionally, following on from the earlier CIP-1694 workshop in Colorado, the organizing team held a public workshop on zoom earlier this week and collaborated on the Miro board. Stay tuned for the recording, which will be published soon. A lot more of these events are expected to take place in the near future.
If you wish to add your perspectives to CIP 1694, make sure to share them here. Add your voice as the era of Voltaire rolls out!
LATAM taking lead!
As you may recall, there’s a standing call to action to the community on the topic of organizing Voltaire workshops from the success of the first one held in Colorado. LATAM community is taking the lead and has put up a call to action. If you are in the region or wish to participate, make sure to check them out.
The " LATAM CIP 1694 Workshops " are a series of meetings that will take place in different LATAM cities, simultaneously, to work on the CIP-1694 (Cardano Governance Document). Each city will write a document, which will be compiled into one proposal as a Latino Community in English. These Workshops seek to put LATAM on the map and raise our voice to the global Cardano community.
Do you wish to host one of these local meetings in the region? You can find the sign up form here: https://forms.gle/SY6KqdMcsWKjkLs66
Don’t want to miss a beat? Make sure to join LATAM Discord here to follow further developments and additional calls to action. Vamos!
Happy Birthday CATH!
There would be no Cardano, much less even Catalyst, without dedicated community members around the globe.
One of the shining examples are countless initiatives from different town hall teams. Recently, Africa Town Hall celebrated their 1st anniversary. What an achievement! Big kudos to everyone who has helped make this a reality and continues supporting ongoing efforts for education and adoption.
Thank you, sincerely.
Now, make sure to soak up their energy from the latest town hall recording celebrations here. You can also follow their work now on twitter here.
Ariob Incubator Demo Day
On behalf of Input Output Global (IOG) and Iceaddis, we invite you to join us for the Ariob Incubator’s first Demo Day! Join us on Tuesday, April 4th at 4 p.m. UTC for the Ariob Incubator’s inaugural Demo Day.
Last year, Project Catalyst launched the Ariob Incubator program in collaboration with Iceaddis, a pan-African incubator, and accelerator. This event is your opportunity to learn and directly connect with cutting-edge Web3 projects building on Cardano, many likely looking for additional guidance, support, or investment.
The Ariob accelerator program is designed to elevate the most promising and impactful startups that initially found funding through Project Catalyst, whose primary focus is tackling real-life challenges across Africa. This five-month program has helped eight early-stage ventures refine their businesses and prepare for a select audience to mark the completion of the program.
We look forward to showing you what we’ve been working on!! Learn more about Ariob: https://ariob.io or catch this live stream placeholder link: https://iohk.link/3KmpIvW
Cardano Catalyst Women
Learn, create, and collaborate in a space held by women. Catalyst Women is a space for learning, collaboration, and creation rooted in behaviors and intentions that support women as builders within Cardano. Read more at https://cardanocatalystwomen.com/ or check out their Meet Up page here.
Last week in CIPs
Here’s the recap from my colleague Ryan Williams that writes these fantastic CIP round-ups. I figured you’d like them, too. So here’s the latest to get up to speed. You can catch past and future summaries via this Cardano forum thread here as well. If you’re unsure what CIPs are - please check out this link to dive deeper: https://cips.cardano.org/.
RW: What happened in CIPs last week?
- CIP-??? Extend token metadata for translations [New Proposal]:
- This proposal defines an addition to CIP-25 Media NFT Metadata Standard to support more languages than English.
- CIP-0030 Better describe API extension compatibility [New Discussions]:
RW: Continued Recommendations:
- CPS-??? Voltaire era Governance:
- This CPS tried to frame a set of motivations, goals, constraints, and open questions for the very broad topic of Cardano governance.
- This is to accompany CIP-1694 to allow for discussion of the problem of governance rather than the technical solution.
- CIP-0045? Decentralized WebRTC dApp-Wallet Communication:
- This proposal describes a decentralized communication method between dApps and wallets based on WebTorrent trackers and WebRTC.
- This has seen some decent engagement and is an interesting idea.
Next Meeting:
- CIP Editors Meeting #63:
- Postponed to April 4th 5:30 GMT
- Held on Discord - here.
- Agenda TBC
Additional governance and Catalyst community conversations can be followed on the official Cardano forum here. Check out the diversity in the topics and solutions discussed, and don’t be shy to be part of the conversation.
Cardano Talent
Cardano Talent is a Discord server for Cardano professionals looking to get hired, network with other professionals, and learn. Founded by one of the longest standing community members participating in Catalyst, the Project’s main purpose is to encourage Cardano enthusiasts to earn income from their domain knowledge and connect them to projects and companies looking for talent.
Whatever your expertise or your seniority is, if you are considering a career in the Cardano ecosystem, Cardano Talent is a place for you. The Team aims to continually gauge the server community, provide relevant content, and share job opportunities. Your main task is to present yourself, share your knowledge, and add value in whichever way you can.
Activity is tracked and can open additional opportunities. A dedicated channel for Catalyst professionals has been created where PAs, VPAs, proposers and all other Catalyst actors can discuss, share, demonstrate their expertise, and offer their services.
Join the server: Cardano Talent
Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CardanoTalent
NFT Guild
The NFT Guild is dedicated to developing standards and building tools for the NFT community.
Their mission is to facilitate the creation of a lively NFT developer and creator community, while ensuring that projects have the resources they need, and a clear understanding of best practices for getting started and throughout their journey in this space.
The group holds a weekly community call in an open-format discussion where members are invited to debate current topics in the Cardano NFT ecosystem, or present their projects to the wider community. Check out their twitter profile here.
-
When? Each Tuesday, at 3PM UTC
-
Where? Meet Up page with details
Catalyst GitHub Repo - Weekly Round-Up
One of this year’s primary objectives has been to help educate the community on the technical functionality required to run Catalyst. Part of that mission has been to increase transparency in the backend systems. Of course, with this comes the need to continue community collaboration, and we’re hoping to see members champion community co-creation as they help to build and suggest improvements to these systems.
This repo is the starting point and we’re seeking improvements to it throughout the months to come. For now, feel free to bookmark the pages and lurk around as we get it ready:
- GitHub - input-output-hk/catalyst-core: ⚙️ Core Catalyst Governance Engine and utilities.
- Catalyst Core Documentation - Page Redirection (draft/WIP)
Community Events
Many community events are taking place regularly across the ecosystem. In the image above and below you can find a snippet of what is available out there. A great way to uncover what’s happening and see where you’d like to participate even more directly. You can browse more via this link.
Catalyst Project Completions - 450+ and counting!
450+ projects funded by Catalyst have been completed to date by submitting their self-reported close-out reports and videos. Not seeing your favorite project completed yet? You can check their progress on other tabs and also the monthly reporting output documents. Save the links below:
- Monthly Reporting: Catalyst Public Reporting Tracker - Google Sheets
- Monthly Report Output Data: Public Catalyst Monthly Reporting - Google Sheets
- Proposal Journey: Proposal Journey in Catalyst (public) - Google Docs
- Want to do more? Check this call to action about accountability and participation!
- You can also reference this town hall slide for the first meeting outcome.
Are spreadsheets a little too much? Leverage community tools like Lido Nation which you can find here or via projectcalyst.io website directly.
Get in touch
And that’s a wrap. Let’s continue to talk about Catalyst & governance on twitter, or telegram, or reddit, or wherever your online home is, and keep driving these important conversations forward.
Enjoy your day ahead!
Danny & the Project Catalyst team
Daniel Ribar
Community at Project Catalyst
Note: References in this newsletter to the 3rd party projects, products, and services are provided for information purposes only and are not endorsements. Everyone should carry out their own investigations before relying on the information provided in this newsletter.