Cover-Credits:
In recent years, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have found themselves in the limelight. From extravagant art collections to in-game utilities, NFTs have been used for a wide array of purposes. One of the earliest projects that kickstarted the whole hype around NFTs is Cryptopunks. These pixelated digital avatars have been closely associated with the digital Web3 community and their identity. But NFT projects today have evolved from simple jpegs to utility-based Decentralised Autonomous Organizations (DAO).
A new NFT project, Nouns, has found massive popularity in recent times with the current floor price being 99 ETH ($169,467 USD). One Noun is auctioned off each day with 100% of the proceeds going straight to the Nouns DAO treasury. As a functioning DAO, any user with a minimum of two nouns can submit a proposal and all members owning at least one noun can vote. Recently, the Nouns DAO passed Proposal #119 – Nouns Esports Pod, and since then, it has attracted a lot of attention.
What is Proposal #119 – Noun Esports Pod?
Out of all the DAOs that exist in the NFT community, the Nouns DAO has seen massive growth owing to bold decisions and community backing. Nouns Esports initiative was first announced via Proposal #68 where the member voted on signing a professional Dota 2 roster by the name of “4 zoomers”. The team played brilliantly maintaining a 74% win rate. The next advance into esports was led by Noun DAO Proposal #91 where members voted on signing a Pokemon Unite roster called “Random Gaming” and pursuing a partnership with BLVKHVND.
By now, it was evident, that as a community, Nouns had the will and resources to venture into competitive esports. Nouns Proposal #119, which was recently approved, focuses on the formation of an esports pod. Up until now, Nouns DAO had a very game-specific approach to esports but with this proposal, it plans to function similarly to a thriving small grant initiative within Nouns. This will enable quicker access to funds and plans are in place to sign a League of Legends team along with sending international players to the fighting game events.
Members of esports pod
The esports pod consists of 11 members who are part of the Nouns community and have significant experience knowing the inner workings of the esports industry. These include:
Sasquatch
Brennen
Maty
Oni
Brian Cho
Jason Oliver
Deeze
thebeautyandthepunk
Brax
PPD
Griff
The structure of the esports pod is very flexible with options to add and remove members based on a supermajority vote. Members of the pod will be required to vote over the usage of funds with all members having an option to put forth a proposal. All fund usage will be monitored and documented in a completely transparent way for the Nouns Community to observe. A multi-signatory consisting of Sasquatch, Brennen, Maty, Brian Cho, and Oni will operate the funds.
Usage of Funds
A budget of 369 ETH ($633,167 USD) is initially allocated for the usage of the esports pod. Potential uses of the funds include building the infrastructure for any current and future Nouns team. This includes bootcamp, logistics, equipment, and special events. Funds can also be used to sponsor additional players, teams, or streamers to boost awareness about Noun Esports. Apart from this, event sponsorship and funding projects might be undertaken. Funds could also be used to create merchandise for players and fans and to build items like Noggles with a blue light filter which relates to the Noun lore. Although these are the initial ideas, concrete decisions regarding their pursual will be made by the members of the esports pod.
Future Plans and Vision
The Nouns esports pod will first and foremost be working towards being sustainable. This means that after the initial stage, if not cash positive, it should at least be breaking even. The inherent goal of the Esports Pod should be to proliferate the Nouns brand. Depending on how well the initiative is received, there could be a possibility of coverting the esports section into a sub-DAO. This would allow for greater engagement between players and fans. One of the most important works of the esports pod will be to enter into sponsor partnerships with traditional Web2 companies. Sponsorship deals can also be made with Web3 companies provided the DAO votes in the approval.
With this, Nouns is growing out of the traditional NFT space and is actively becoming a well-rounded community project. The Nouns Esports Pod will ultimately work towards achieving more awareness about the NFT project while making sure that there are still real-life communities that users can be a part of. While Nouns might be one of the first NFT projects to venture into esports, fans and players will have to wait to see how it pans out.
This story was written in partnership with Linx Games
Linx Games is a community-driven blockchain game distribution platform for gamers and developers to interact, socialize and exchange ideas.
