Yesterday was the first day of YB's Onchain Letters - thanks to the first 6 people who subscribed! Check out my letter to six & my letter to bountycaster.
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To: Drew & Derek
Congratulations on Prop 450 passing!
I've been excited to write about this project since I first heard about it on the Nouns Farcaster channel a few weeks ago.
You guys are beasts for actually executing on this idea 🔥
A Nouns coffee shop in LA?? I mean come on, that's freaking awesome. To me, it highlights everything that is so great about Nouns and why the treasury exists in the first place.
I know there were some concerns about this not being scalable or the fact that it only serves a small community. But who cares! Not everything Nouns does needs to be some gigabrain software project or content that can go viral.
The fact that the both of you are literally taking an IRL coffee shop and converting it into "Nouns real estate" is a huge endeavor in itself. I think this project in it's final form will inspire a ton of folks to get out there and try something similar. Heck, it's already got me thinking about ideas for NYC 👀 The truth is, the idea of doing an IRL project sounds daunting to most of us who live on crypto twitter. Dealing with paperwork, acquiring a shop, managing operations, hiring staffers, etc. But we need someone to take on a big challenge like this, so thank you for stepping up 💯
What is most amazing about this project to me is that the both of you are getting out there and actually educating people who don't know or care about crypto. Staffers, customers, & anyone driving by will now inevitably start wondering what the heck this is ⌐◨-◨ . What better way to talk about public goods, what crypto stands for, the Nouns brand, etc. than over a cup of Nounspresso?
There's a couple of things I wanted to give the both of you a shoutout for that highlights the intentionality & creativity behind this project that I think others in the ecosystem should take note of.
Noun O' Clock Coffee
Of course it's cool that there's going to be a Nouns style renovation. But what stood out to me the most was the "free coffee at Noun o' Clock".
Every day at Noun O’Clock, we’ll offer free coffee for guests. This allows the shop to create a moment, each day, that’s special for its community. It's something only a Nouns-funded coffee shop can do: aligning its daily routine with the heartbeat of Nouns itself.
This idea in practice is so simple but will have a huge impact for the community. Just imagine a random kid or college student or grandma who has never heard of crypto all of a sudden getting a free cup of coffee. That act of kindness sparks anyone's attention and they're bound to come back with their friends for more. What do people love more than coffee? Free coffee. And after all, there's nothing better than some good old word-of-mouth marketing. Everyday, that cup of free coffee at Noun o' clock serves as an organic way to teach someone about Nouns and the reason crypto is so amazing 👏
Additionally, having QR codes on the coffee mugs is a subtle and brilliant idea to direct people to Nouns content. I'm sure there will be a ton of other interactive strategies that will come to life over time.
Minting the road to IRL
The other thing I wanted to call out was the mints Drew has been posting on his Zora page. I missed them at first, but just minted the live ones as I was diving deeper.
It's a great way of documenting this journey. But more importantly, it's letting others that are rooting for the both of you from the sidelines actually feel like we're part of this project! I'm already excited for the next one.
Not sure if the both of you are planning on it, but I would love to have a mint for each of your milestones. Great way to keep the community updated on how it's going and have us involved.
The video post was fantastic! Highlighted both of your personalities and honestly got me pumped & confident that you two are going to execute this at a high level.
Quality Proposal
The last thing I wanted to note was how well written the prop 450 was. After reading it, I felt a sense of excitement and honestly didn't really have any questions.
You guys covered everything that needed to be on there and I think it serves as a great example for others taking on different IRL projects in the future. Not to say that the other Nouns proposals in the past weren't good, but I believe that there was energy exhibited in this one that really stood out to me.
In my opinion, for the most part, voting on a proposal is voting on the person executing. There's occasionally some proposals that I'm a bit sus about but most people involved in Nouns have good intentions and execution abilities. The real dealbreaker is seeing the intentionality and enthusiasm of the proposer. Although, I don't have a nouns and have never voted so take that point with a grain of salt.
Request for an Open Source Playbook
I'll end it with just one request for the both of you. I really hope that you guys take as many notes as you can about this process: what worked, obstacles faced, etc.
It would be awesome to open source those notes and hopefully make it into a ongoing playbook for anyone trying to do a Nouns "URL -> IRL" project.
My background is in software engineering and I don't have a clue about doing something that involves physical real estate. Having a playbook to at least get me started would reduce a lot of the friction.
Anyways, that's all for this letter.
Excited to be in LA soon for my free Noun o' Clock coffee!
- YB
What I minted yesterday (12/18)
What I minted today: 12/18 Zora
- Mercedes Opepen #98 by @rgboop
- Morning message #1 by @rileybeans_eth
- Pseudonymity by @0xDesigner
- Farcaster Wrapped by welter.eth
- A letter to @bountycaster by me
- A letter to @onnnnnnnion by me
Optimism
- Borderless payments…
31
Links
Borderless Payments - https://tcg.mirror.xyz/M_6-9ygmbe5RlzjoucxOQerxycaX64DubmltOTD5ZkA
Pseudonymity - https://zora.co/collect/zora:0x83fd27ad8dadf3d4bfbe67131a1743bb092dc7cc/2
Interface - https://interface.mirror.xyz/x_-cm3h81VxPkLzpu0kZewOVE1IdvKbWv67NS1385oU
GM Farcaster - https://zora.co/collect/base:0xc678c2b1ced0f2a2666ae9b76a3be1d0ced09925/36
Points & Meme Propagation - https://y.mirror.xyz/3ADRhbbQIklTofpoCQNNP3M_KQEMvDsh1QU_S3qVyYE
Morning Message - https://opensea.io/assets/zora/0x9fb203b4aa61892c77604b910b5d30e49a81dd2b/1
Mercedes Opepen - https://zora.co/collect/zora:0x787c6366341fbb8a7bfff1064009bce60796338f/98
Wowow party - https://base.party.app/party/0x17441d1577e9482ee1b3e9e69d48416eb323e829
Farcaster Wrapped - https://opensea.io/collection/farcaster-wrapped-2023
