February Progress Update
Hey everyone!
I’ll keep this update short as I’m sitting at an event in Denver and have more on my mind than usual. Overall I’m very optimistic about getting a stronger hold in the market and it’s incredibly delightful to spend time with some of you in person.
Have a nice end of the month and let me know if you have any questions!
Finance
Treasury Balance:
$1,930 USDC
$281 DAI
0.21 BTC (~$12k)
0.016 ETH (usually used for gas)
Revenue: $68,022
(Orange Domains & Webslinger)
Profits: $6,995
Operational costs: $745.98
Team payments: $69,753
(Orange Domains, Webslinger & Deep Teams development)
Other Expenses: $989
(EthDenver car and Airbnb)
Our investment in Bitcoin a month ago has already paid off - the value is $3000 higher than when we bought it. Please remember that we are cost-averaging, so it might fluctuate over time.
The Webslinger payment went through much later than we expected, which makes the difference in profits between the last two months not seem significant. I have also used some funds from the treasury to pay for a few unplanned expenses in Denver.
Follow-ups from EthDenver
A few of us are currently in Denver, aiming to meet up and speak with different audiences as well as meeting up with our friends from other communities. We are currently working through a list of questions and gathering insights from them. Our working document is here.
We are also learning a lot from this collective trip - how to approach a conference together as a team while staying focused on our goals.
Deprecating DEEP Tokens
I decided to stop the distribution of DEEP tokens for now. Multiple reasons:
Firstly, it's an experiment that we don't seem to be making use of.
It does not contribute to our current goals.
DEEP tokens have so far only led to confusion.
It could be a possible attack vector.
Distribution of tokens costs gas fees.
You can read a more extensive message here.
External observations
My conversations with VCs, founders, and friends keep confirming that most startups (even outside of blockchain) are completely missing user research, rarely have internal alignment on goals, and no treasury and business management processes.
All of them need it to build sustainable organizations and avoid burning money, but it just seems like they are not interested in that exact framing.
Interesting research I found
Cooperation and collaboration can be described as a result of social trust (agreement on values) and confidence (understanding past performance).
This is important for risk management - when optimizing for cooperation, it seems to be more effective to increase social trust by signaling similar values rather than focusing communications on competence or past performance.
For companies and individuals struggling with cooperation, the authors recommend evaluating whether they can benefit from communicating their values and moral beliefs or their past performance and track record.
Test of a trust and confidence model in the applied context of electromagnetic field (EMF) risks
Michael Siegrist, Timothy C Earle, Heinz GutscherPMID: 12926564 DOI: 10.1111/1539-6924.00349