Dear Community,
The Grant Support Squad was created to support the grantees in achieving their goals and taking care of the DAO treasury.
We would like to bring to your attention our conclusion regarding some concerns that we, and the community, have about the project in question.
Let’s dive into the objective points analyzed:
- Proposal
- PDF Proposal
- Canva presentation
- Updates
- Budget breakdown
- Payments
- Social media
- Answers from the Grantee regarding raised concerns
1. There are differences between what is written in the original proposal, the full description, Canva presentation, Grantee´s comments and the budget breakdown.
The Original proposal for this project was called “A Multi-disciplinary Platform to Onboard the Biggest Arts & Entertainment Names”. However, in the full description said “A Multi-disciplinary Platform Designed to Boost Decentraland Notoriety and Onboard the Biggest Arts & Entertainment Names”
We’re aware that the title has a character limit (80 characters) but it is important to mention this, because could be used as a justification in some of the goals of the proposal. In short, this could create an important and significant misunderstanding to the voter.
Why? Because it is not the same to onboard artists than to boost Decentraland and onboard artists, as well.
In the “roadmap and milestones” section of the proposal, it is written that 12 events will happen. However, in the Canva presentation, particularly in the Budget proposal, the grantee wrote that $24.000 will be destined to 36 Venue Partner Support.
Then, in the comments section of the proposal, the grantee explained: “In the proposal it states that we are working with 36 venues in DCL. Pre Event, Main Event and Post Event. We are doing this for a total of 12 weeks.12 *3=36 For the most part it’s a different Venue each time. Venue compensation will serve as a token of appreciation to the partner venues. It will compensate the venues’ efforts during the event including manpower, setup preparations, and promotions. (No venue partner has asked for this, but we feel an obligation to let them know we are thankful for their support) We are trying to make a win-win situation for everyone, the community has to win in order for DCL to win! I hope I answered your questions and thank you for your kind remarks.”
We asked the Grantee about these events (Pre Event, Main Event, and Post Event) and the response was that these were “extra” events, because the proposal said 4 events per month corresponding to the BeatTrekkers Dj Events. Then, the Grantee proves the payments done regarding the extra events.
In our view, the funds were requested to pay for the venues of the 12 battles and not to compensate for all the “extra” events because these last were not part of the original proposal. There were no goals. In short, this may be seen as a misuse of funds.
2. Milestones and Goals.
2.A) September:
- Development of the Decentraland onboarding kit standard:
The grantee sent us the corresponding documents but with a month of difference. The conclusion is that the goal is overdue.
- Venice Music/independent artist concert preparation talks:
We asked the grantee if they could describe what is “preparation talks” and -according to the Grantee´s answer- basically is a literal expression. So, during September they claimed they would collaborate with Dragon City to have 3 artists perform, which would happen during January 2023.
So our view is that this point is not clear enough, but it was what they wrote in the proposal and what the community voted on. In short, they promise preparation talks and they have done it. Even though the goal stated was not entirely clear, we consider it as achieved.
- 4 BeatTrekkers weekly battles
The Grantee explained to us that this means 1 battle per week and, according to their agenda, the battles were:
Even though the goal stated was not entirely clear, they explained that these 4 events correspond to the mentioned Milestone.
The goal is achieved.
2.B) October
- 4 BeatTrekkers weekly battles
According to Grantee´s agenda, the battles were:
One of the Djs was changed.
The justification regarding this was “the southwestern coast of Florida where Gucci Toe, one of the competing DJs for this battle, resides. He was supposed to perform the last week of September but couldn’t because the storm impacted his home. He asked for a one-week delay, which we granted given the natural disaster he experienced. He reached out again and asked for an additional week delay as he still was recovering from the disaster. Instead of delaying the battles any longer, we had another tournament team switch and perform instead.”
Then, the Grantee showed a private conversation with the DJ but they didn’t get permission to share and they informed this in their dedicated channel.
In our opinion, this point is achieved.
- 1 Venice Music/independent artist concert together with an onboarding campaign for artists and fan newcomers.
The grantee didn´t explain this point. But regarding the topic “events”, they explained that it was a misunderstanding from their side when the grant´s funds were available to claim, so, they didn´t have enough funds to finance this event.
The rules are clear and written on the grant documents. In our view, this couldn´t be a justification. Therefore, the goal is not achieved.
- Day of the Dead Series special.
This goal was achieved.
Decentraland Events Page:
2.C) November:
- 1 Venice Music/independent artist concert
According to update#2, the grantee wrote: “Problem: The LoSmoothe concert was originally set for November however because we don’t want to divert any attention from Art Basel, we have decided to postpone it. The main reason is we don’t want to divide people’s attention and make them enjoy more metaverse events.
Solution: We found a date that we can focus on the concert and have a wider reach of audiences. The concert is now set on December 14, 2022. Despite the postponement, we made sure that our materials are ready and on time once we started our campaign and promotions.”
We asked them, specifically for this goal, and the answer was “When we planned this event we noticed that a large part of the web 3 community members (especially many that we are friends, collaborators, and professional associates with) were attending Art Basel and metaverse events in Miami. Some of these events included DCentral Con, Metaverse Miami, and Women of Web3. A good number of the Decentraland Foundation was also participating and attending events that week. I, then, made the decision to wait for our concert so that regular users who traveled to Miami could also watch our concert in DCL. I contacted Zino for approval in which he advised me to communicate it in the channel, which I did. Since we prepare quite a bit at the beginning of the month for DJ battles, we prefer to have concerts at the end of the month. Because of the previously mentioned, we decided to hold the concert in December.”
To our understanding, this point is overdue at least 1 month and the explanation given by the grantee may be seen as an excuse, as it does not align with the stated goal of the proposal, which is to make the Decentraland metaverse known and accessible to new target audiences.
- The final 4 weekly battles of the first BeatTrekkers series, with the grand finale (1) as the crowning event.
According to grantee´s agenda, the battles were:
This goal is achieved.
3. The big goal of this proposal is “become a platform for Decentraland to onboard big names in the music industry”
The grantee’s social media does not have enough followers and the posts are not having enough range.
The Grantee explained that they do not have a typical marketing campaign, quote “This (marketing) strategy is not a normal strategy, this is what the marketing company has used”. But is a marketing campaign, doesn´t matter if is typical or not, and the answer looks ambiguous. The Grantee explained that they do not have a typical marketing campaign, quote “This (marketing) strategy is not a normal strategy, this is what the marketing company has used”. But it is a marketing campaign, it doesn´t matter if it is typical or not, and the answer looks ambiguous. Then, they explained that the marketing focus is that the users remember their product (Metatrekkers) and come back to their events/venue.
Then, they wrote that they are doing this because of their “unique marketing methods. It’s not the typical approach of just running ads”.
However, in the same document they declare that “Every week we run ads and hold workshops on Metaverse and NFTs… These are also our advertising/marketing tactics” and to prove that only show us 1 picture on Instagram, corresponding to September. We mustn’t forget that in their budget they requested $20.000 for “entertainment Digital Marketing - Onboarding Ads”. Again, there are a lot of ambiguous responses that look like only excuses.
In addition, they’ve explained that Beattrekers events (a product managed by the grantee) are number #2 into Decentraland and used that as an example to explain how much they put into marketing material.
Our point is, the funds should be used to promote the events that they promised to do and considering that, it is not clear how they are being allocated. In fact, they didn´t explain the marketing campaign, only said “is a guerrilla marketing”. They limited the explanation to “All events are recorded, then we have the marketing company take the material and market it out. This is what will give us a sustainable platform. We have proof of concept and material to stand the test of time”, but where are those records? How do they use it? The question is still unanswered, it is not clear where the funds are being allocated.
On the other hand, we shouldn´t lose the focus: the grant was requested to fund these events, and when we asked for the rest of the events (pre, etc), the Grantee answered that they are extra. And they said “For the most part it’s a different Venue each time”; but from the 12 events funded, 4 were in their own venue.
So we believe that it would be appropriate for the grantee to use the funding to finance the development, marketing, and payment to artists for the Mettatrakers platform, as this aligns with the stated goal of the proposal.
If the grantee has used the funding for other purposes, it may be necessary to reassess the use of the funds and determine whether they were used in accordance with the terms of the grant. Additionally, the use of ambiguous language in the grantee’s explanations (“for the most part…”) may raise concerns about transparency and accountability in the management of the funds.
4. Artists.
Based on the information provided, it seems that the grantee has been promoting itself as an entertainment company that has partnered with the Venice Music label to host a series of concerts in the Decentraland metaverse. The Venice Music label is known for its use of NFTs and focuses on web3 technologies, and the partnership aims to promote the Decentraland metaverse and bring it to new audiences. However, based on the listeners and followers of the artists that have been brought in, it appears that these artists may not be well-known or widely popular in the music industry.
Let´s see.
LoSmoothe Artist.
https://twitter.com/iamlosmoothe , who have 74 followers on Twitter, and 1.7k listeners per month in Spotify.
The artists has 31k followers but the impressions of they post is to poor.
Youtube
The artists that should be performing during December:
Mariatu Kargbo Artist
The grantee provides to us the following link to present the artist.
https://www.instagram.com/iammaria.china/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
It´s looks like they have a lot of followers, however their posts do not reach a wide audience.
We are aware that IG is banned in China, so in our opinion the Grantee should justify why this artist is considered a Major Artist.
RU Korean Artist.
From our point of view, RU is the first and only (so far) artist with more than 50k subscribers and we could eventually classify them as an artist that could bring new and significant audiences as the grantee promised.
5. Conclusion.
In conclusion, the project is delayed; it´s not clear where the funds are being allocated; what the Grantee has proposed has not been achieved or is overdue; there are substantial differences between the roadmap written in the proposal and what the grantee is doing, principally with the objective of the project.
Additionally, it seems that they are manipulating the community to have support and to create a ‘win-win’ situation for themselves, rather than prioritizing the needs and interests of the community. Why? Because they are making payments for events that there are not in the original proposal and we quote “No venue partner has asked for this, but we feel an obligation to let them know we are thankful for their support) We are trying to make a win-win situation for everyone, the community has to win in order for DCL to win!”. No venue partner has requested these payments, but the grantee feels an obligation to thank them for their support.
Moreover, when the grantee responded to us to some raised concerns, most of what they wrote was based on showing people having meetings and pictures with them. We quote:
“Here are the entertainment events we had in Miami: MetaTrekkers Presents: Web3 & Metaverse Miami Dinner Party (Art Basel Week) | Decentraland Events
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1m1p5Hrd-RSGBQaSAMioN14WPlGQKQkFb
It is worth noting that we saw in Eventbrite page is that these events in the real world weren’t free, the attendees should pay for ticket . This means that the event wasn’t entirely funded by the Grantee but partially (or totally) done by its attendees.
Then the grantee copied and pasted the following:
“Entertainment event with Decentraland Foundation in November.
“Discussions and Dialogue event with Decentraland Foundation, Decentral Games, Metatrekkers community members and other active DCL community Members in November in Miami. This event means a lot to us and our community. Not just because the CEO of DCL is there, however it shows the commitment Metatrekkers has in the metaverse and how we are actively involved in DCL in real life and in the Metaverse. I hope we can be judged by our actions not by the accusations that people make against us. We wholeheartedly believe in this ecosystem and will continue to invest our team resources inside DCL as well as have good community engagement.”
Again, the grantee has focused more on presenting a positive image through photos and meetings rather than addressing the issues at hand. We believe that this behavior is dishonest and undermines the trust of the community.
A point that we want to mention is that we are aware that all the efforts that the grantee and their team are doing; however, those actions do not mitigate the raised concerns. This is an open question, but… what will happen when the grant funds come to an end?
In short, the grantee’s project has faced significant setbacks and there are concerns about the transparency and accountability of the grantee’s actions. It may be necessary to reassess the use of the funds and determine whether they were used in accordance with the terms of the grant. Additionally, it may be necessary to consider whether the grantee’s actions are in the best interests of the community and whether they align with the goals of the original proposal.
We recommend that the DAO Committee (@HPrivakos @yemel)should pause the Vesting Contract until all the concerns could be resolved.
The grantee must:
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redefine the roadmap with clear and accountable milestones.
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show the exact expenditure of funds to date.
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show the planned future expenditure of funds.
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show how much is currently being allocated to marketing (specify what the concrete marketing campaigns are and how much they cost; define if their marketing strategy is guerrilla marketing).
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explain the relevance the artist presented and demonstrate the relevance of the audience of each one.
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explain how many artists and venues are going to be funded by this grant.