January Progress Update
Hey everyone!
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I’m planning to get more rigorous with financial planning and strategic decisions. So I will share it as clearly as I can, along with some personal comments.
I have also started regularly reading scientific papers on topics that previously helped me design Deep Work’s infrastructure. I intend to share with you the scientific evidence for previous design decisions as well as learn about nuances that can help us improve this complex social system we’re building.
Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!
Finance - Big improvement over last year
Treasury Balance:
$580 USDC
$281 DAI
0.212539 BTC (~$9k)
0.08613086 ETH (usually used for gas)
Operational costs: $734.03 (software)
Revenue: $3,350 (Gitcoin PGF Workshops & Summary)
Team payments: $2,950
Profits: $400
The amounts in general may not sound exciting but compared to last year, we’re in a much better place. We completed one project and have two others ongoing. One of which has been slightly delayed into February (Webslinger) and another one (Orange Domains) should be finished by the middle of the month.
Last January there were no projects and no income, and we spent $3000 on cold outreach that didn’t make any significant impact.
As mentioned in the last newsletter, I will begin to cost-average our profits into different assets. Starting with BTC over 2-3 years.
Strategy - Building relationships
We are focusing our efforts on establishing closer relationships with projects that seem to be value-aligned. I am also still in conversation with VCs to offer audits to their teams and forward them to our design and consultancy services.
We are also still planning our trip to Denver and looking to present and share insights from our work.
Internal - Let’s use Discord again!
Some of our internal conversations started taking place on Telegram, which made them difficult to find and organize. I cleaned up the channels in Discord, so let’s use that again to make our work more transparent and inclusive, especially for new people who are interested in following our work.
Also, welcome to everyone who joined this month! You might notice that things are a bit slower here than in other communities unless we are working on client projects.
Over the last weeks, we learned a lot from small-scope projects run by Balint and Laura. Most of the learnings relate to our ability to construct smaller custom projects and refine the branding offering.
External observations
I had collected some more notes but the tweets/links got removed. So I’ll share the ones that are left:
Brazil seems very advanced in blockchain development, which is less known in the West. They already developed a financial infrastructure that allows zero-fee payments internally (aside from their fiat currency). The plan is to launch a CBDC, along with a digital passport and real-world asset tokenization. https://eightify.app/summary/blockchain-and-cryptocurrency/introducing-drex-brazil-s-new-digital-currency-meio-explica
Europe is enforcing regulatory constraints to keep organizations from merging:
Nothing directly actionable, but I find it interesting to observe financial as well as organizational developments.
Interesting research I found
Students prefer to make friends with those who have similar goals and can help them achieve their goals. Being nice and trustworthy is also important.
“…the experience of trust may ultimately be linked to the extent to which dyadic partners can symbiotically trade resources and synergistically pursue mutual goals.”
Slotter, E., & Gardner, W. (2011). Can You Help Me Become the “Me” I Want to Be? The Role of Goal Pursuit in Friendship Formation. Self and Identity, 10, 231 - 247. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2010.482767.
Writing about one’s positive memories reduces symptoms in PTSD patients.
Contractor, A., Banducci, A., Jin, L., Keegan, F., & Weiss, N. (2020). Effects of processing positive memories on posttrauma mental health: A preliminary study in a non-clinical student sample.. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 66, 101516 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2019.101516.
Expressive writing about positive and negative experiences can increase working memory capacity by reducing intrusive and avoidant thinking.
Klein, K., & Boals, A. (2001). Expressive writing can increase working memory capacity.. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 130 3, 520-33 . https://doi.org/10.1037//0096-3445.130.3.520.
I love you all, have a nice day and see you soon!