#22 - January 2023 DAO Progress update
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#22 - January 2023 DAO Progress update
Welcome to the 8th official newsletter from the Merit Circle DAO
Welcome to the official newsletter from the Merit Circle DAO.
In our previous newsletter, we gave yet another update of three of our lovely portfolio projects, shared the wonderful news about the newly launched staking portal, and about MIP-20, the proposal that burned 200 million $MC. Since then, we’ve recapped the year 2022, present yet another treasury update and have some interesting proposals that came along.
Read on as we summarize what’s been happening and what’s to come…
Portfolio update
We’re proud to work with dozens of amazing partners across the world who are all contributing to the web3 gaming space in their own way. We’re regularly receiving updates from these partners on development, market analysis and everything in between. To give our community some more insight, we will be highlighting three portfolio projects in each newsletter.
Ascenders
We’re proud of Ascenders. They’re one of these games that don’t like talking too much, but focus on action. Within two months after revealing the first trailer, they released an interesting demo with three game modes that attracted more than 80,000 players. You can still play the demo here if you’d like.
They scaled their team to more than 40 people and have been passionately building along the way. As a nice way to kickstart the new year they released an environmental trailer that truly sets the stage for the game. In there, you can see the switch from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.
Castle of Blackwater
Last weekend, community members of web3 social deduction game, “Castle of Blackwater” were given a first glimpse of the game. In this early prototype, players were able to playtest 7 unique characters in a brand new social deduction experience that combines the action and excitement of the popular game “Among Us” with the strategic complexity of “Town of Salem.”
Some players were running around the magical castle completing tasks and solving murders, while others were causing chaos and secretly eliminating their enemies. The COB team concluded the weekend excited, and with a ton of great feedback to focus their further development. Want to be part of the next event? Join their Discord.
Flair Finance
Our friends over at Flair are truly staying busy building out their product, and have now integrated credit-card and cross-chain payment solutions, to make on-boarding easier for players. Seamlessly buy any NFT or token with just a credit-card and email; no wallet, crypto or blockchain knowledge required to make it an easy transition to web3.
Additionally, anyone can now purchase NFTs or tokens with whatever currency they prefer, Flair will do the swapping for you. They’ve been constantly onboarding new games and are including more web3 features such as scalable smart contracts, relayer APIs and wallet solutions. Interested to learn more? Head over to their website, or discord.
Treasury report
To properly show what we have been doing in terms of handling our treasury and the funds raised, we share a monthly treasury report. This report includes all the ins-and-outs of the Merit Circle DAO financially.
A small quote that summarizes the treasury report of the previous month:
“In the past month the treasury decreased from $98,717,876 in November to $95,138,027 at the end of December, a 3,6% decrease from the previous month. In the month December, the DAO made $142,000 in profits”
Read the full report here.
2023 Recap
This past year will be one for the books. We’ve seen the rise and fall of industry giants and the emergence of new trends alongside the maturing of the Merit Circle DAO, which has evolved from a small group with an idea into one of the largest web3 gaming organizations in the business.
We released a Twitter thread and a medium article where we recap the entire year, see what we achieved and more importantly what we have learned to set us up for 2023.
The Merit Circle Grants
In late December last year, the Merit Circle DAO accepted MIP-21; ‘Merit Circle Grants’. In this proposal, the DAOCoreContributors suggest the introduction of a new grant system to stimulate creativity and productivity within the DAO. To quote from the proposal;
“The Merit Circle DAO consists of large quantities of talented individuals all having their expertise in their respective fields. For the purpose of stimulating these individuals to step up and contribute to the Merit Circle DAO, we propose that the DAO forms a committee that is granted the right to offer relatively small grants that will allow these developers/creators to focus on their project for a brief period of time. This period is meant to quickly figure out whether there’s product market fit, and whether the project requires additional funding.”
Applications for the grants will open in the next following weeks. In the meantime, read through the full proposal to know what to expect.
Time to rep the DAO
A widely debated topic within the Merit Circle DAO is the creation of merchandise. We got all these people across the globe working hard every single day to add value to the DAO, talking about this orange coin, but is it enough to tell people how amazing the DAO really is? Daandegreef didn’t think so. In MIP-22, Daan proposed to create a unique set of merchandise.
Later this month, we will be presenting a ‘Merit Circle Tactile NFT’. Using this, NFT holders will be given the opportunity to choose the size of the items in their box, and have it shipped to an address of their choice, anywhere in the world. Thereafter, production starts and the expected delivery is roughly the end of Q1.
Want to know more? Read the full proposal to know if you’re eligible to receive a package!
Together, we grow
It’s with excitement that we enter this new year. After such an eventful year that we’ve lived through together, it’s time to sit back and enjoy the freshness of 2023. We’re determined to make it a year full of launches, cooperation and growth. In the upcoming weeks, we will be sharing an outlook for each vertical as to where we stand, and what you can expect.
Again, thanks everyone for your support. Together, we’re changing the game!
Our next newsletter will be sent early March.