#6 - March 2022 DAO Progress Update
Welcome to the 3rd official newsletter from the Merit Circle DAO
Welcome to the third official newsletter from the Merit Circle DAO. We have started the year off with a blast and can’t wait to share our exciting updates with you.
In our previous newsletter we presented our first treasury report displaying the current financial status of the Merit Circle DAO. Since then, we’ve released two more reports, launched our first creative project, Edenhorde, grown tremendously as a DAO and made some exciting announcements along the way.
Read on as we summarize what has been happening since the last newsletter and join us as we look ahead!
The launch of Edenhorde
Let’s start with one of the most important events of the past couple of months: the launch of Edenhorde, our very first creative project. You might be wondering, “what is Edenhorde and how does it connect with Merit Circle?”
When we launched our Balancer Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool we promised the top 250 participants in the sale a Merit Circle NFT. Now, there were various routes we could take with the official Merit Circle DAO NFTs, but there was only one that felt truly right. Instead of choosing the easy option and creating a badge or icon, we felt like doing something a bit special.
We partnered up with Andy Ristaino, the Emmy-award winning illustrator who worked on Adventure Time, the cartoon many of you will be familiar with, and Celia Blythe, the author and historian of Edenhorde. Together, they have created an immersive world that will eventually shape the future of the project.
Connecting the dots
Edenhorde is a Merit Circle DAO project. Meaning, all the proceeds from the mint have been sent to the Merit Circle DAO treasury and so will the proceeds from the royalties on sales on the secondary market. That said, we have generated more than $4,000,000 in profits across the mint in the first few days of trading on OpenSea and Looksrare.
We have been blown away by the response of the community on Edenhorde. Trending on OpenSea among the most well-known NFT projects in the industry was just a dream until we turned it into reality in our first week after the mint. Now, it’s time to head back to the drawing board and continue building out this world.
This goes to show the capabilities of the Merit Circle DAO and what will happen whenever the DAO launches a new project. Naturally, that success isn’t a guarantee, but with a successful launch it could create a significant boost for the Merit Circle DAO treasury and, therefore, for all of its owners.
Scaling up our gaming operations
Our recently formed partnerships, along with progress our previous partners have made, have enabled us to actively scale our gaming operations. Where we have carefully looked at the development of the Axie Infinity ecosystem and how that has been performing in a downtrend market, we felt that alternatives were imminent. Therefore, we’ve downscaled our Axie Infinity operations and started to offer our gamers alternatives.
In a short timeframe we have onboarded more than 500 gamers playing WonderHero, scaled up our VulcanVerse activities and are now in preparation and scaling mode for both Cyball and Fancy Birds. With each of these games, as a DAO we own thousands of assets that we will utilize to onboard new gamers eager to start playing and earning.
Newly formed partnerships
We are constantly looking for new potential investments and partnerships to broaden our operations. Since our latest newsletter, we formed a whole new set of partnerships that we’re delighted to share with you:
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, February 2022, the treasury decreased from $124,968,491 in December to $113,362,115 at the end of January, a 9% decrease from the previous month. The Merit Circle DAO has realized $1,602,990.17 in total income during the month January from token sales.
Stay tuned and subscribe to Substack to receive the next treasury report that will come out in the coming days!
Merit Circle 2.0
Since the emergence of our DAO, there has been a continued emphasis on diversification. Initially, we focused on creating a solid portfolio of the strongest play-to-earn games and infrastructure partners. It has quickly become apparent that the Merit Circle DAO has grown enormously and, as a result of its contributors, has the capacity to become greater than any other gaming guild by making further diversifications and including new pillars and verticals.
To represent this growth and the change that we envision for the Merit Circle DAO, we have written an extensive article covering our thoughts about the course we’re sailing. In this thread we cover some exciting news including some-never-heard-before material.
Framework games development
One important step of moving towards becoming a vertically integrated DAO is to create solid frameworks for upcoming projects. Therefore, we have created a foundation layer that will live under the Merit Circle DAO. This has been summarized, discussed and accepted through the official governance process.
An example of this framework can be found in the image below. However, remember that each game or project requires a separate proposal to be discussed, voted and accepted by the DAO before it will be realized. You can read the full proposal here.
Additional marketing power
Ever since we have started spreading the word about the Merit Circle DAO we have been extremely fortunate to receive the support from dozens of individuals across the globe amplifying our announcements. However, as our ambitions grow and we want to reach an even bigger audience; we need more hands on deck.
As of today we’ll be looking for someone who can help us position ourselves as the synonym of play-to-earn across the entire gaming industry.
You will be responsible for the presence of Merit Circle in our social channels, writing articles on our partnerships, our development as a company in general and the industry. You’ll be present in our communities to make sure that we are aware of what people are talking about and much more.
We’re looking for someone who has experience in both communications and the cryptocurrency industry, and who’s open to working with people from different backgrounds and countries. Someone who simply loves to write, tell stories and build the future.
Do you have what it takes -> Apply here
Building season
We have laid the foundations of the Merit Circle DAO and determined our long-term vision. Now, it’s time to get to work and start building and it’s exciting to have such a supportive and talented community to join us on this journey. We’re always looking for opportunities to reward our biggest supporters, both digitally and physically.
Something we haven’t mentioned before is that we’ll be hosting an event in Amsterdam during ETHAmsterdam. This will be an exclusive event mainly for our partners and investors, but there will be some spots for our community to join the fun as well. We’ll inform everyone when we get closer to the actual event.
Again, thanks for your support.
Together, we’re building the metaverse!
Our next newsletter will be sent early May.