Grant Proposal: ETHChicago

Community Grant Applications
#1

Grant ID: 8684ztww1

Summary:

Grant submission suggested by our volunteer kevinjones-crypto and jorgeflores who attends the local Chicago eth meetups.

The Chicago Ethereum Meetup has been active since 2015 and we have yet to host a conference or hackathon for ourselves in this big city. We didn’t get an ETHGlobal-sponsored event so we decided to try to do our own, run by local Chicagoans.

Team:

led by Andrew Poterala twitter @dpotsdobeck who runs Chainvision the digital asset exposure of the bluhm family office fund. He was able to get us some initial funding for the venue and set up the entity to handle the logistics of the event including receiving partnership funds.

I am an Ethereum core dev twitter @jameshe_eth who works on the prysm consensus client and helping organize our local event, I have been helping with partnership discussions and will help with organizing the hackathon.

For some more on the team of volunteers visit our website below

If available, please enter a link to your project below:

https://www.ethchicago.xyz/
https://twitter.com/0xEthChicago/status/1673679507499237383?s=20 - promotional video

Location:
The Metropolitan club in the willis tower, Chicago IL

Date:
09-15-2023 to 09-17-2023

Budget Breakdown:
Roughly 80k for the venue, food/drink, 20k for AV/support tools/decorations, and 10-20k for bounties

Attendees:
We are hoping to get 200 conference attendees and 300 hackers.

I have read and agree to the privacy policy:
true

Describe what your project does or is aiming to do in 50 characters or less:
The ETHChicago Hackathon is a three-day builder and creative IRL event where participants compete to win bounties sponsored by our partners. Bounties consist of tying together new technology in the blockchain space, innovating and learning from each other about existing blockchain tools, or solving real-world use cases with the unique properties of decentralized technology.

If available, please enter a link to your project below:
https://www.ethchicago.xyz/

How far along are you?:
We have the venue, the tickets are launched, the speaker and workshop forms are released but there’s a good amount left to organize in 2.5 months.

Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you’re making?:
I’ve been a local chicagoan for most of my life and would like to see our city as a hub for web3 uniting the individuals in the area.

What’s new about what you’re making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn’t exist yet (or they don’t know about it)?:
People resort to having desperate events that are private, disconnected, or attend the Ethereum meetups which is a very small spot in the city. devs typically need to travel outside the city to nyc or west coast to attend events.

What’s your vision for how your project will impact The Graph and/or web3?:
ETHChicago is a developer driven event with the hopes of connecting the locals and talent in our city. The talent has been spread out and are forced to attend events in other cities. we want to create an event that will connect the local community even more so than the typical meetups to celebrate our passion in the space. This could also be a great way to advance the local graph community as well.

How will you measure success?:
Ideally we have 300-400 attendees with a capacity of 600 or so attendees.

What milestones will you achieve in the coming weeks/months, with or without the grant?:
We have 2.5 months or about 11 weeks

Finalizing partnerships
Finalizing scheduling
Approving speakers and Workshops
Attracting local developers and students from the different schools in the area
Dry runs for the event including inspection of the site and streaming /wifi options
Defining the bounties and legal contracts associated
Setting up swag bags and physical decorations

Please select who you think will benefit from your project?:
Subgraph Developers

How much funding are you looking for? (USD):
20000

Provide a breakdown of your requested funding:

  • Allowing Kevin Jones to come in and help with the graph/edge&node/buildl guidl initiatives ( travel expenses)
  • Bounty for hackathon
  • Sponsorship Fees
  • subsidize venue fees
  • sponsor hackers ( tickets for hackers cost 75 to encourage attendance and help pay for venue fees )

Benefits

  • 5min keynote
  • booth
  • 6 tickets ( open for discussion)
  • Social medial logo
  • up to 2 workshop spots
  • other things open to discussion.

Have you applied for (or already received) funding from somewhere else?:
Yes

If yes, please describe where you’ve received funding from and how much you have, or will, receive:
We are waiting for legal contracts for
Arbitrum - 20k
Runtime verification - 10k
Mantle Labs - 10k

There are several others we are applying to and waiting including Jump, Wormhole, Pyth, Ethereum Support Program ( Ethereum Foundation ), and local venture funds.

Can you share any information about current/past web3 experience?:
current/past web3 experience?:
I have been working as an Ethereum core developer on the prysm consensus client for almost 2 years now.
More recently we got acquired by offchain labs the creators of Arbitrum and have been working there for more than half a year.

Why are you interested in contributing to The Graph and/or web3?:
The target audience of the hackathon is developers and builders and The Graph would be a great opportunity in expanding. I would also love to have Kevin Jones help out with our event specifically.

Are you applying as a team or individual?:
Team

What type of grant are you pursuing?:
Project (one-off)

Please select the category your project best fits into:
Regional Community




Primary Community Poll

Do you fundamentally support this grant application, knowing that the final scope and grant amount may differ from the requested proposal?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters




Grant Committee Vote

Do you recommend this grant to the DAO?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

1 Like
Grant Proposal: ETHChicago - [Closed]
Grant Proposal: ETHChicago - [Closed]
#2

Hey there! The new format looks fine now but still see some typos like budget breakdown is mentioned two times but lets ignore that and go with the questions i had before, regarding your grant:

  1. In your proposal, which currency are you referring to and also it would be a great help if you would provide a clear breakdown in dollars ?
  2. Who will be the judges responsible for checking the submissions by the hackers and how will the bounties get distributed among them wrt to their positions ?
  3. How do you plan to measure the success of the ETHChicago Hackathon? Are there any specific metrics or goals you are aiming to achieve?
  4. What strategies will you employ to promote the event and generate interest?

Will be waiting for your reply, Best of luck!

#3
  1. everything mentioned is in dollars. Are you asking for specifics for every dollar amount?
    for venue
    |Friday Conference (Includes tax and Service)|$36,675.50|
    |Saturday Conference (Includes tax and Service)|$29,445.00|
    |Sunday Conference (Includes tax and Service)|$15,760.00|
    ||$81,880.50|
    other expenses aren’t set in stone, streameth quoted around 4.5k usd for streaming services and local AV quote is not ready.
  2. judges will be volunteers that the ETHChicago team deems responsible, we would like a hackers choice award as well through voting ( possibly through the taikai platform although still in discussions) In the case of the graph i assume kevin jones or whoever would be coming from the team could represent the judge for the graph bounty.
  3. The goal of the event is to further connect the chicago crypto community, ideally larger firms in the city will have access to talent, traditional businesses will learn more about the technology and focus less on financial speculation, and chicagoans will learn more about what resources are available. It’d be a success if we can quote specific cases where the event has led to some of these.
  4. checkout our twitter https://twitter.com/0xEthChicago/status/1673679507499237383 for the promotional video. we also have IRL events including the launch party also mentioned, chicago eth meetups at the I’m not art gallery, a telegram group created for virtual engagement, and outreach to local schools and businesses, and we’ll have a few more IRL events to promote the event.
#4

fellow ETHChicago team member here to answer any Q’s. appreciate y’all and hope to build something special with you!

#5

Ah my mistake! Also sorry for the confusion but to be more specific, it is recommended to give a clear/estimated breakdown (i.e: X amount of $ will be utilised in swag sets etc) out of the total amount you are requesting for.

#6

This is open for disc obviously but suggested funds breakdown:

$20,000 USD Total

$10,000 USD - Direct event/hacker support (these funds go directly towards subsidizing hacker venue/food & beverage costs

$5,000 USD - Bounty (part of main bounty but must include a subgraph?)

$5,000 USD - Event decorations/swag merch

#7

actually, probably 1000 usd from that would need to sponsor Kevin Jones travel expenses.

#8

I would recommend reducing the amount to a comparatively low price where it isn’t needed as much in all sectors. For example, specifying a budget of $5,000 for event decorations and swag sets seems excessive. It is a substantial amount.

I will leave further discussions regarding the amount and quality assurance of the hackathon to the grant committee members.

Best of luck.

#9

Due to the complexities associated with large-scale sponsorships for conferences and hackathons, members of the Graph AdvocatesDAO have established a new team - The Events Team.

I will be closing this grant proposal as the newly formed team will assume responsibility for the review process of this proposal.

@dobeck @jameshe_eth Thank you for your proposal, a member of the events team will reach out to you soon.