%b5ZRRnGNWTyecAF/ox8VWZyO6eJfWVwaqin7AGmimlA=.sha256https://www.requestforsocialnetworks.com/
Today Blockstack PBC is announcing $1,000,000 to fund teams building decentralized social networks. Your data is being exploited by today’s platforms and it’s time for a change. Apply now and let’s reimagine how the world connects.
%eUF1wTutakgShXn0oDk8SgeV4X9qygi4lUJkg54TDaE=.sha256Application
- First Name*
- Last Name*
- What is your email address?*
- Where are you based (country)?*
- Describe your decentralized social network in 50 characters or less*
- In a few sentences, tell us more about what you’re going to build or are already working on:*
- Tell us a bit about you and your team’s background (ex: work experience, previous projects, past education).*
- If you have a demo or landing page, what’s the url?*
- Do you have any questions for us?
%9O82JKiQDiIIkhn4WKwH0TWKpldIOVHKReU+EuPOcRw=.sha256@mikey any idea if it needs to be built ontop of blockstack?
%1FCLVXIrZ9mRmBNCph1RjF+T+AMfevPohO4LiTG+tuU=.sha256Are successful applications blockstack based only, or are you interested in any solutions with the right values - building a better p2p future
%+w8JLyyttyGJzshPjw3VrdgPkpJ3BbnrDeOovoWa6LY=.sha256Ah, and I see that your brother indicated this is an open call not blockstack only.
%Ijy558WZDST3vLbc+z8cMNZZZlF4Klgjy2ig1u7HReg=.sha256@mikey seems like #ssbc are well placed to make an application based on previous funding rounds have not imploded the project and #ssb is continuing its steady fertilising, digging and building.
%DCN8BwIYAtes0P9AuuL4pSaErsmQzKjYng3LsxHGxUM=.sha256I did a security audit of their web UI for blockstack last year, so they know me. I didn't talk about ssb to them, might have mentioned it though. I think we should apply. We should use the money to work on improving things, but also chuck in some sort of blockstack integration, to make it really compelling for them.
%fEMOCvptpmqMY01IKcrMSYWd1t1zNFGyjSukmgCG2ko=.sha256Yes, we should apply!
And how to put in a blockstack integration that actually makes sense: usernames. Currently people are disappointed that SSB @ ids are not enough for connecting Alice with Bob. With a blockchain like in blockstack, which is already much like NameCoin, people can register their unique usernames, which would then point to SSB @ id and a user invite.
%4NUSJ5mQzpAGW8oUHoTmvjUNqk/Eohs1ziYh/REl1Yc=.sha256@andrestaltz blockstack is namecoin 2, built by the same people. Personally, I like petnames, but occasionally people want global names, and that is what blockstack is.
%BYl9IgYoa/7vVylRY+Ua9Q4P07mFoHwBq+CgZV/EBdA=.sha256so many things to do. Who has capacity to lead a huddle around filling this in?
%yWcXpdFJDhJZREjf665sCrukx7wUWqs+qYZFdGEGC1g=.sha256+1 for @Zenna writing a proposal for this!
+1 . Happy to proof read.
%RWBVbIuQYxbElT+i4cxCL9b8eHcxK2NP1+cSnFZcX/Q=.sha256doodle has some problem with my email address, but I'm down for 10am monday.
%xvJKQL1JlvBC2AwCKPSR99Mw3A1tAWo3AVby9xJC8iM=.sha256@zelf Thanks for volunteering! I think we're in need for a person with experience with writing these applications. SSB has so much potential and is well justifiable for receiving grants and donations, but we need help to write good applications.
Some time ago there was a funding project from RIPE (some European org that takes care of IP addresses in the region), and I took time and energy to write a decent (in my opinion) application: %wpAiGTh...
They didn't accept it this time, but reiterated that we should reapply. Time and time again we find these opportunities, and sometimes we miss them because they require some good amount of writing (sometimes as traditional PDF documents) and the deadlines are short. So, it's awesome SSB could count on your skills. We need more than just programmers! :)
%2WThBd6ylZgWAucwse85+SHyayv7fUEascxaPdMRh8k=.sha256Here's a video with a 101 of what blockstack is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=drRGGoYyKGs
Many similarities with ssb.
%jmSSm2K6l8235Sveg6wfsI+tcZAoiPObVKwq8R3KK3w=.sha256Nice! :)
Feel free to put my previous application in a hackmd. There was a lot more content written for it, though. I could share that in private.
%UMgHBblTIUcRGZbCid2584SiwI2ZWUzTDVib24eNhkU=.sha256Neat! I can help with some parts:
How many members are there on ScuttleButt?
This will always be a difficult number to measure, it'll have to be through statistical census in the future. The exact number will always be impossible to measure because of decentralization. Right now I think we're in the range of a few thousand, maybe ~5 thousand? The way I know this is that you can check the number of ids in your local database and extrapolate a bit. I know e.g. that Dominic has 1000+ followers on SSB, and I'd suppose most people would follow him. So SSB is at least 1000 or so, but probably a bit higher, so I'd say thousands.
Is there a charted/logged growth curve?
https://celehner.com/ssbc/stats/daily.html
But remember, this only reflects a portion of the whole SSB community.
How long has ScuttleButt existed?
Exactly 4 years! https://github.com/ssbc/secure-scuttlebutt/commit/d8420a185439587990c8b752780096e3f6373c28
We need at least two more people, who?
Add @mix, because we need to mix him in
Do we want to add more projects examples beyond...
Well, Patchwork obviously. Also TickTack because it looks crispy and juicy.
%n3uTyewvmzC/AADghYfEiMxhA0JzKQlMkdozD/gV0ws=.sha256Is there an "Official Organization" behind Scuttlebutt? As in registered in some nation.
Not yet. The closest so far is @elavoie's scuttlebutt.fr
Who would you like as representative for the application?
@dominic ?
%WCpEFLzI0CiPvs7dZTLrphYyfQB8hPZPjAjm6IUhiPk=.sha256Do we want to add more projects examples
we can link to the dev diary meta-thread in case they want to explore: %9psz2xP... (ssb.mikey.nz external link)
Who would you like as representative for the application?
i can be if needed.
%ejSOafRqvqXu4npJFjOmUSD0M/2i70Hc2vJFmieAPi8=.sha256Notes from the meeting: https://hackmd.io/s/HJuOUV8CM#
I have some routes through blockstack via some friends so I will try that route. Dominic am happy to pair with you and zelf on this to help support.
My suggestion is that we put together a draft application before going to speak with them so that we're not going "empty handed". With their feedback we can then iterate.
@mikey your brother seems to have some knowledge? If yes do you think he would be open to a conversation about crafting an application?
%bXWTihmLBTOu3r9wVWUSPdGZGD242Ib3lmDnEkbJX3Y=.sha256@cblgh we said we'd do grants retrospective together am just noting this here so we don't forget. Will be able to put some energy into this over the next fortnight, but likely not full steam for another month or so (am about to relocate form fiji -> aus with a trip to nz inbetween)
%dybqVsYPlcRAeF5kqJJuStYxFhbinhsz42+eetV2yqw=.sha256immutable butt copy of the notes:
Here is the gathering %P3h+wEt...
Here is the intial thread: %b5ZRRnG...
Attending:
Quick swing round introducing eachother
Mikey is facilitating in Piet's absence
zelf: specific questions about application
To Discuss/Add:
We need at least two more people, who?
The CV / “highlights” from these
Do we have any questions for them?
(this can be good as we stick out more… so yeah, any questions? ;) )
Do we want to add more projects?
Who would you like as representative for the application?
General Questions:
How many members are there on ScuttleButt?
Is there a charted/logged growth curve?
How long has ScuttleButt existed?
Is there an “Official Orginization” behind Scuttlebutt?
Is there an e-mail for Scuttlebutt in general?
Link from zelf to application: https://hackmd.io/s/B1LnbvE0z
andre: mix is missing and is normally quite involved should we get him in?
dominic: what excites me about this is that many people self-organized this call. this application isn't the only one on the horizon, we don't need to figure out a team for every application, we just need a team for the BlockStack application.
andre: we need to consider implications of being the representative
zelf: jolyons suggestions for people to add: @Matt McKegg, @mikey, @ev and @cel
cel: 10 teams for 100k USD per team
andre: if we got 1 million
dan: is there a requirement to forecast what the money will be spent on?
zelf: no, but i haven't focused on that.
mikey: how much do we need to focus on BlockStack?
dominic: i think we should have part of it be integration: have BlockStack name on Scuttlebutt. will make our proposal a shoe-in, but need to stress that we aren't spending the money solely on our BlockStack integration.
cel: i think there are multiple possible integrations, discovery etc. also since they are funding 10 teams, they could allow for diversity.
dan: does anyone have a contact within BlockStack?
dominic: i did a security audit for BlockStack, so have interacted with several of their core developers.
dan: suggest someone pairs with dominic to get connected to ask questions. in my experience of funding grants, it's good to get connected to cater to what they are looking for.
andre: ...
cel: we could reserve one of the grant rounds specifically for BlockStack
zelf: that would be the best. another thing is their developing this funding structure, it's a larger scale of what we're doing, if we split it up again it might not feed back into their network as they want.
ACTION: dominic to connect zelf and co with BlockStack contacts
dominic: running the grants turned out to be a burden, recommend some allocated to grants, some allocated to quests (like mobile quests), also pay people who do work to herd all the cats.
andre: grants have funded lots of experimental things, whearas quests have helped more with clear fixes and features.
zelf: could have a call to specific things done.
dominic: that's the quests we recently started.
andre: quests == we have funding to fix specific holes || grants == we have funding for whatever
andre: funding comes from different sources, we have different buckets of funding, each controlled by different people.
zelf: do we want to re-use structure? we don't need to answer that. we do need to know what they want, so we can cater to them. if they're looking for specific integrations with their platform, then we need to cater to that.
dominic: should we come to them with "hey this is what we're thinking, what do you think?"
dan: in my experience, sometimes a display of effort shows that we've put time into it, a solid signal to the funder that it's worth putting resources into funding.
zelf: i think we can go in saying "this is who we are", "here's how we can be useful", "what can we achieve?"
dan: happy to take zelfs view! :)
andre: "do you think if we build this it makes sense?"
andre: what's going to be the legal entity for this? think elavoile's french organization is a clear candidate.
zelf: one thing we could do is spend some money to talk to a lawyer.
dan: we could also partner with an established organisation to act as umbrella for receiving the funds. or alternatively can we do it like DFINITY? creating an organisation is overhead - if we're doing this anyway, then cool :)
zelf: who would like to be resonsible for this application?
mikey: many of us are part of workers' coop-y companies, mayb one of us should raise our hand to say "high-trust hand-wave we'll receive the funds"
dan: if we got the money, how would we use it?
dominic: we're amidst many discussions about how to fund maintenance. the result of that could be how we handle this one.
dan: does anyone want to act as the "indexer" of previous conversation on how we manage grants / quests / etc?
dan: does anyone want to take the lead on creating a historical record for how we got 200k USD and didn't blow up.
andre: cel, i notice you had the most ideas for how to integrate with BlockStack, plus you want to setup a US org, do you wanna take the lead on this?
cel: i can work on putting together the things.
zelf: we should see if we need to have an organization at this time. if we don't, at least we have time to talk to lawyers, structure etc.
andre: what if we had two applications?
zelf: "how will we integrate with BlockStack"
zelf: "if we were to build a decentralized structure, we'd do this"
cblgh: would a half-way retrospective of the ssbc grants so-far be useful in helping to decide how to use the money (if received)? (feels like it might be a big energy vampire though)
dan: i can pair with you on that!
zelf: we should figure out who will be the representative:
zelf: quick status:
andre: makes sense the people involved, listed are andre, cel, zelf, and dominic. cel has made impressive things, git-ssb, ssb-npm, etc.
zelf: cel, can you write info about yourself?
dan: we didn't speak about the deadline - would be useful to know timelines of when this needs rallying by. ciao for real this time :p 
lingering thoughts
thanks! =^.^=
%6lwjxi8IPIeR7H31VvJFi3+hDi7BpcbsnmAfr5r6tQU=.sha256what is the proposal we're bringing forward
if we get the funding then how do manage it?
how much of the application is about evidencing we can manage the funds successfully (historical analysis of our existing use of funds)
how much of the application is about forecasting how we will use the funds if we get it
which organisation will receive the funds (what are the paramters requirements for blockstack?)
who will be responsible for the application?
what is the timeline and deadline
%EyOvJI1DrK/tgblo5cRNLn1T3OWa3XmFTIdp1nMxHi8=.sha256%ErLmxe8r7m5oFnGv+nmC9ZA60aL9binlx9Ev2fDklFE=.sha256@zelf : "Does this sound good to you @Dan Hassan and @Dominic?"
Yep, sounds solid to me.