QU₳Z₳R

Into the Systems and Objects and Things
Gamechanger Builder
discord:

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

Tuesday Tango with @jonahkoch @BeRewt and @Cerkoryn about an Explorer, a X post, a flowchart, Leios, phalanx, zkHEROs, and the positive outcome of asking a question.
https://t.co/MJ6GrhXyfz

[GameChanger Wallet @GameChangerOk]

@thr33str1kes Well unfairly-marked-as-spam-by-x friend, you are totally right and this is the present we need to make peace with now on Cardano. Are we a smart web3 collective or are we just a greed-based jungle?

[🪏 Jonah Koch @jonahkoch]

Make Cardano Collaborative Again

[GameChanger Wallet @GameChangerOk]

Imagine a different Cardano mindset for builders and community sovereignty that borned on this far-away paradise and not even know about it

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

https://t.co/Niv361YJuP

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

@Jinx_The_Guy
Saw you on the space, peeked at your profile and saw Memorymint. Looks very cool!
Have you seen @Ada_Moments? https://t.co/ixTSjg0ebG
Great minda, as they say!

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

#ShutdownWave 👋👋👋👋👋
🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

From Project Catalyst to Project Shutdown Wave
Project Storm Surge Tsunami
#PSST

Cardano Founder Warns of Project Shutdown Wave | https://t.co/lElkIwXduj https://t.co/IvLdpLswLE

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

I love AI

[Jose Velazquez @jrv97_velazquez]

For all the people that watched Charles video today the last 5 minutes are probably the most important. For Cardano to grow and come out alive we need to detach from cryptocurrencies and the staining of its original pure form that was started by satoshi. It’s time to evolve

[masato_alexander @masatoalexander]

clearly what went wrong with cardano was giving so much ADA to the CF.

(misdirection is fundamental to magic)

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

Dear #CardanoCommunity,

I dedicate this one to you, the whole album, but let's start here...

https://t.co/Ymv4QNwaL7

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

@GameChangerOk

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

we have no place on a Cardano that is not giving alternative mindsets a chance and fair collaboration.

[GameChanger Wallet @GameChangerOk]

This is exactly what @GameChangerOk , #GCScript DSL and @DandelionLinknLink are for #Cardano. We are even P2P paying to
- api provider nodes
- dapp integrating us
- marketing guys

5 years now maintaining and suggesting this culture as we can.

But we have no place on a Cardano that is not giving alternative mindsets a chance and fair collaboration.

We are dying to open source it all for everyone but we need to pay our bills.

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

There are plenty of ways to support growth, and DAOs is one way.
Remember the #DRep Pioneer Program? This is also a way @IntersectMBO tried to support growth and governance.
Back the the old question of whether or not DReps should be paid, well, some already have, right @JaromirTesar
Are you the only DRep left from the program?

[Cardano YOD₳ @JaromirTesar]

@TapTools This may be a wake-up call for all those who think we don't need DAOs.

Through DAOs, we can support the growth of the ecosystem.

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

I was a bit off, give or take $1B
#15 $6.5B Marketcap
#ADA15
#Cardano

[QU₳Z₳R @QuasarSure]

#14 - 8.5B Market Cap
Next Stop
#15 - <8B Market Cap
And then
Anything in the top 20 and above a $5B market cap will be a huge win for #Cardano
$0.15 USD $ada should also be a big win for investors.
But for the community...🪦🪦🪦

[GameChanger Wallet @GameChangerOk]

This is exactly what @GameChangerOk , #GCScript DSL and @DandelionLinknLink are for #Cardano. We are even P2P paying to
- api provider nodes
- dapp integrating us
- marketing guys

5 years now maintaining and suggesting this culture as we can.

But we have no place on a Cardano that is not giving alternative mindsets a chance and fair collaboration.

We are dying to open source it all for everyone but we need to pay our bills.

[🪏Jon Kravetz @CSWAP_Destroy]

@NicolasC3rny Governance is a complete failure and needs to go. There is zero business value in it. It hurts everyone involved.

[GameChanger Wallet @GameChangerOk]

You all know decentralizable systems under community operation are not often fast at first nor UX-convenient but allows to live longer than centralized and convenient mammoths leveraging solely on treasury budgets? Right??

[GameChanger Wallet @GameChangerOk]

We still have time to embrace alternatives and different mindsets on #Cardano. Now more than ever we will start needing for alternatives and real decentralization.

[Rodrigo P₳cini | Agora Research | dRep @RodrigoPacini]

📌 Surfacing Innovation & Growth DAO Feedback and Misconceptions

Chapter 3: Innovation & Growth DAO uniqueness

🔹 Misconception #2

How will the DAO avoid overlap with Treasury Withdrawals, Project Catalyst, Builder DAO, Orion Fund, and other funding vehicles⁉️

Answer 👇🏻

This is one of the most common concerns surrounding the proposal.

It is also one of the most misunderstood.

The reason is simple:

The key differentiator is not the theme of proposals being funded.

The key differentiator is the maturity of the projects being funded, the size of the funding request, and the role that funding plays in the builder journey.

The question should not be:

"Does another funding mechanism exist?"

The question should be:

"Is there a meaningful funding gap that remains unaddressed?"

I believe the answer is YES. ✅

1️⃣ Different funding vehicles solve different problems

Not all funding mechanisms serve the same purpose.

A venture capital fund is not the same as a grant program.

A tooling fund is not the same as an innovation fund.

A program designed for mature teams is not the same as a program designed for builders who are still proving themselves.

The existence of multiple funding mechanisms does not automatically mean duplication.

What matters is the problem each mechanism is trying to solve.

2️⃣ The top-of-funnel funding layer is largely absent today

This point is critical.

"Top-of-funnel" means the entry layer of an ecosystem.

It is where new contributors, smaller teams, grassroots initiatives, MVPs, prototypes, educational efforts, governance experiments, and open-source ideas get their first real chance to prove value before becoming larger, more mature projects.

For years, Catalyst played much of that role in Cardano.

Today, that layer is largely missing.

Catalyst is currently paused. Public statements indicate that the budgets previously reserved for future funding rounds were returned to the treasury, while current efforts focus mainly on administering grants from previous funds.

Whether Catalyst eventually returns is unknown.

What matters is what exists today.

And today, Cardano risks spending another year without a broad funding path for initiatives that may not require massive budgets, but may still be crucial to keeping valuable contributors active in the ecosystem.

This is not about opportunistically framing a gap.

Personally, I would like to see more initiatives trying to serve this space.

But the reality is that very few groups have chosen to build a mechanism for it.

So the question is uncomfortable but necessary:

If Innovation & Growth DAO is not funded, what ecosystem-wide mechanism will support grassroots builders, small open-source projects, education, governance contributors, research, local communities, and early-stage experiments over the next year?

If the answer is "none", then this is not overlap.

It is a funding vacuum.

3️⃣ Catalyst evolved from an innovation fund into a full-funnel funding system

Catalyst originally emerged as Cardano's primary innovation layer.

Its purpose was to support:

🔹New builders
🔹Experiments
🔹Prototypes
🔹MVPs
🔹Grassroots initiatives

Over time, however, Catalyst expanded far beyond that mission.

The same mechanism began funding:

🔹Early-stage ideas
🔹Established projects•
🔹Infrastructure initiatives
🔹Scaling efforts
🔹Commercial ventures
🔹Large organizations

Grants that were once measured in thousands eventually became proposals requesting hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Catalyst became a one-size-fits-all funding system.

That brought benefits, but it also reduced specialization.

4️⃣ Treasury Withdrawals are not a top-of-funnel funding mechanism

Treasury Withdrawals are important.

But in practice they favor initiatives that already possess:

🔹Visibility
🔹Reputation
🔹Governance capital
🔹Social capital
🔹Established track records

Successfully passing a TWGA requires much more than having a good idea.

For new builders, experimental projects, or grassroots initiatives, Treasury Withdrawals are often a very difficult entry point.

That does not make TWGAs bad.

It simply means they solve a different problem.

5️⃣ Builder DAO focuses on scaling builders, not discovering them

Builder DAO addresses a different stage of the builder journey.

Its requirements generally assume:

🔹A launched product/application
🔹Demonstrated traction
🔹Market validation
🔹Commercial potential

Innovation & Growth DAO is designed for an earlier stage.

Not exclusively brand-new projects, but builders and initiatives that have not yet had repeated access to treasury funding.

A project that received funding once may still need support to validate itself.

A project that has already received multiple rounds of treasury funding should increasingly move toward:

🔹Sustainability
🔹Revenue generation
🔹Investment capital
🔹Mature funding mechanisms

The objective is not to create permanent grant recipients.

The objective is to help more builders become sustainable.

6️⃣ Tooling DAO and Orion Fund solve different problems

Tooling DAO focuses on a specific niche:

🔹Developer tooling
🔹SDKs
🔹Libraries
🔹Open-source infrastructure

Orion Fund operates under a venture-style investment model, focused on commercial projects.

Neither is designed to serve as a broad grassroots innovation layer.

They are complementary mechanisms, not interchangeable ones.

7️⃣ The DAO is intentionally adaptive

Another important distinction:

Innovation & Growth DAO does not have permanently fixed funding categories.

DReps participating in the DAO will decide priorities.

If another funding vehicle is already serving a particular area effectively, there is no reason to duplicate that effort.

Funding can instead be directed toward underserved parts of the ecosystem.

The mechanism is intentionally flexible.

8️⃣ The goal is not simply to fund projects

The goal is to fund more builders.

Over the last few years Cardano has developed funding paths that work relatively well for:

🔹Established teams
🔹Infrastructure providers
🔹Large organizations
🔹Repeat recipients

Those mechanisms are important.

But ecosystem resilience is not only about infrastructure resilience.

It is also about builder resilience.

It is about ensuring that talented contributors who are not already inside founding entities, large companies, or established organizations still have a path to participate and create value.

9️⃣ The real question

If a talented builder arrived in Cardano tomorrow with a promising idea and needed a modest amount of funding to validate it, what funding path would realistically exist today?

That is the question we should be asking.

Because if we continue funding infrastructure, mature organizations, and recurring recipients while leaving grassroots builders without meaningful support, we risk creating a healthier infrastructure layer while weakening the contributor layer that ultimately gives the ecosystem life.

The purpose of Innovation & Growth DAO is not to replace Catalyst.

It is not to replace Treasury Withdrawals.

It is not to replace Builder DAO, Tooling DAO, Orion Fund, or the Budget Process.

Its purpose is to complement the funding architecture by addressing a part of the builder journey that currently receives far less support than it once did.

The discussion should therefore not be:

"Does another funding vehicle already exist?"

The discussion should be:

"Do we still want Cardano to have a meaningful path for grassroots builders, experimentation, and new contributors to enter the ecosystem?"

I believe the answer is YES.

#Cardano #Governance #DRep