Q3 | 2024
The Push DAO Council has prepared the following report on behalf of Push DAO.
The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of everything the DAO Council has accomplished since the beginning of Push DAO v2 (May 2024), including achievements, challenges, and future considerations as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency and effective governance.
The Push DAO Council was formed after the passing of the Push DAO v2 governance vote.
The DAO Council was created with a mandate to direct and execute the vision of Push DAO by being directly responsible for guiding the strategic direction of the DAO over a period of 12 months (May 2024 - May 2025).
The DAO Council currently consists of 5 members who are directly responsible for different verticals in the DAO. The 5 members and their roles are laid out below:
Push DAO
Governance Lead
Ian
@ExpatCrypto3
Push DAO
Operations Lead
Sixty
@sixty_keys
Push DAO
Marketing Lead
René
@rene__hdz
Push DAO
Ecosystem Lead
Carla
@carlaupgrade
Push DAO
Growth Lead
Chris @christiandike_
The DAO Council was given a budget by the Push Foundation with which to execute the vision for Push DAO v2 over 12 months. The budget approved by the Foundation was a sum of 1.4 million PUSH tokens, sent in increments to a multisig controlled by 3 members of the DAO Council and 2 members of the Push Foundation for added security. Below, we will illustrate the total amount of Push tokens we have received and how they have been distributed. The PUSH token has been particularly volatile in recent months; therefore, we will not provide the equivalent of the spending in USD terms unless specifically requested.
Also, this breakdown only includes the funds administered and distributed by the DAO Council and does not include any funds spent in the lead-up to Push DAO V2.
PUSH Tokens received to date: 910,000 PUSH
Total Transactions Executed to Date (Oct 10, ‘24): 31 Transactions
Relevant KPIs1
Secure 3 partnerships for Push DAO
Drive 9 new potential integrations to Push Protocol
Summary of Achievements
Secured 23 partnerships
Driving 5 integrations2
Partnerships and integrations are among the core channels through which we drive the growth of the Push ecosystem. This is why we made it a core priority from day one. Partnerships refers to our collaboration in different forms with other DAOs, protocols and organizations in the space. We do this in different ways; X spaces, event sponsorships, and other forms of public ceremonies, and joint work. The essence is to establish our presence and leadership as a DAO, which in turn improves the perception and growth of our ecosystem. Integrations on the other hand refers to our efforts at directly getting more projects to build on Push. The Business Development SubDAO (or BD SubDAO) was primarily set up to help drive this latter objective.
1: Quarterly KPIs as laid out in the Push DAO KPI document (June 2024 - June 2025).
2: These are potential integrations that are still in progress.
The partnerships and integrations that we were able to attain were primarily through the efforts of the DAO Council and BD SubDAO Leads, and we are proud to have driven a joint total of 27 partnerships and integrations so far in under six months. Notably, we exceeded the target for partnerships for the entire year within this timeframe. These partners and details of our collaboration and relationship with them are listed in the table below:
Table 1.1. List of Push DAO Partnerships & Integrations (June’24 - October’24).
S/N Partner Category Details
1 Starknet Africa Partnership
2 StableLab Partnership
3 DAOSpace Partnership
4 Goverland Partnership
5 Metapool Partnership
6 Hats Protocol Partnership
7 OnChainDen Partnership
Collaborated on a community event discussing “Empowering Africa’s Future with Push & Starknet”
Collaborated on a virtual community event on “FOMO in Decentralised Communities”.
8 Dexe Protocol Partnership
Collaborated on a community event on “Boosting the Web3 Ecosystem through Grants”.
Collaborated on a community event on “DAO Tooling and Improving Operational Efficiency”.
Collaborated on three different community events on:
- Fundraising in DAOs
- Repeatable Business Models for DAOs
- Solving DAO Sustainability: Digital Products, TAM, & The Low Hanging Fruit
9 Thrive Protocol Partnership
Collaborated on community event on the topic of “Decentralizing Grants”. 10 Unstoppable Domains Partnership
Collaborated on a community event on “The Future of Communication with Push Protocol”. 11 iHeartDomains Partnership
12 DAOSpring Partnership
13 Web3Gals Partnership
14 Si3 Partnership
DAO Spring was a virtual event that was sponsored by Push DAO. Two members of the DAO Council attended two different workshops organized by DAO Spring.
Collaborated on a community event on “Push Protocol: Decentralizing Web3 Communications”.
In addition to being one of our grantees, we were one of the sponsors of Si3’s “Granting Access” event.
15 Hedgey Finance Partnership
16 Charmverse Partnership
17 Coinshift Partnership
18 Praise Partnership
We partnered with Charmverse and Hedgey as DAO tooling providers for the launch of Push Grants V3.
We explored synergies with Coinshift by showcasing them to the entire Push community via our Demo Thursdays.
Showcasing Praise to the Push ecosystem and community via Demo Thursdays.
19 Unlock Protocol Partnership
20 Dapps Partnership
We collaborated with Unlock by participating in their community Townhall, where we shared all things about Push Protocol to the Unlock Community.
Showcasing Dapps to the Push ecosystem and community via Demo Thursdays.
21 Hallos Partnership
22 ModeSpray Partnership
23 Rarible DAO Integration (In progress)
24 Tally Integration (In progress)
25 LFG Integration (In progress)
26 Joepegs Integration (In progress)
27 Benqi Integration (In progress)
Showcasing the Push community how they can collect NFT tickets to access exclusive contents using Hallos.
Showcasing ModeSpray to the Push ecosystem and community via Demo Thursdays.
Demoed Push Notifications to RARI DAO, and in the process of drafting a DAO proposal to pass through RARI DAO governance.
Sent a proposal after productive discussions with Tally, a leading onchain DAO governance solution, to integrate Push Notifications.
Entered discussions with TraderJoe (DEX) and Joepegs (NFT Marketplace), leading platforms on Avalanche, proposing an integration of Push Notifications.
Demoed Push Notifications to Benqi, leading DeFi protocol on Avalanche, and awaiting responses/next steps from team.
The BD SubDAO was established to drive integrations for Push Protocol through the community, however, it was largely unsuccessful in its mission. While we received interest from contributors in joining the SubDAO, no inbound leads materialized as we had hoped. This was in spite of our best efforts at promoting the SubDAO through continuous marketing, BD-oriented content creation, and hosting online events with the Push Protocol BD Lead.
Based on our learnings from this initial stint, the DAO Council is making the following recommendations:
• The BD SubDAO should not be continued in its current form. It should be restructured as a workstream with a dedicated pool of contributors focused on the BD vertical.
• The incentive structure of the BD SubDAO should be redesigned into a modular structure that rewards incremental contributions. The barrier to reward/entry is currently high and this limits participation.
• There should be closer liaison between the BD SubDAO and the Push Protocol BD team:
• The Push Protocol BD team should be involved in the redesign of the BD SubDAO. While the DAO ultimately takes the most responsibility, this is still expedient as it would ensure synergized efforts from both sides in a way that contributes to the growth of Push.
• They should also provide strategic alignment and inputs on a regular basis, since they have more context on the topic of BD as it relates to Push. We experienced a significant boost in our activities and received a clearer sense of direction when the Push Protocol BD Lead came on board. This would have proven highly beneficial if it was available from the onset.
Relevant KPIs (3 months)
Launch Grants subDAO
Create and publish new Grants Funnel
Achieve 15 or more grantees from 2 pilot programs
Summary of Achievements
Received 30 applications
Accepted 10 applications (33% acceptance rate)
Developing 5-6 Flagship Push Apps, with soft commits
Push Grants Program v3 was a 3-month Grant program that was conducted and run by a community-elected Grants Council. PGPv3 focused on Mini and Growth Grants from $2,000 to $10,000 (in $PUSH).
The Push DAO community elected the Push Grants Council via a snapshot vote. The vote was to fill two roles, namely the Push Grants Lead, and a Push Grants Evaluator. With 5 applicants for roles in the Grants Council, 2 community members were selected, René and Brian Adam (Sixty). The Council served alongside the guidance of Push DAO Lead, Ian Leviness, who served as the Push Foundation seat and evaluator.
Push Grants Program v3 ran from June 3rd, 2024, to September 30th, 2024, and focused on compelling social, mobile, and gaming dapps, along with community initiatives and female and diverse founders. We also did our best to accommodate more innovative uses of Push Protocol.
The Grants Program was run through the web3 platform Charmverse, allowing easy applications that can be used only on your wallet. Charmverse also allows for the entire grant application and council review to be conducted on a single interface. Real-time communication with applicants is also permitted through the use of comments and replies and the freedom to make changes in your application, even after submission.
Push Grants evaluators rate applications with a numerical score for each element, against a pre determined evaluation rubric. Evaluators are encouraged to use their best judgment, drawing from their background and past experiences, to evaluate projects they believe are most deserving of grants.
Our first risk-management safeguard is that we will always make sure the applicant isn’t proposing something that could become a scam or exploit and has not been tied to such projects in the past.
Beyond that, we want to make sure we are awarding grants to not only the most deserving projects but also the people and teams we trust the most to use our grant allocations responsibly and create real impact and ROI for Push with the grants given. Here, responsibly means both “for building,” and “for scaling the product once it is built,” with consistent tracking of spending.
Phase 1: Applications submitted on CharmVerse are reviewed and discussed by the Grants Council using the publicly viewable rubric.
Phase 2 (Spam Check): The Grant Council will confirm all applications submitted are valid applications and not spam content. How do we do that? By ensuring that all of the sections of the application contain valid, comprehensive answers and that those tied to the project have the backgrounds they say they have.
Phase 3 (Initial Review): The Grants Council will provide feedback to proposers if they feel the need, and ask any follow-up questions they may have. The grantee is responsible for checking their application and responding accordingly.
Applicants will incorporate feedback from the Grants Council to refine their grant applications if needed.
Phase 4 (Final Review): The Grants Council will carry out a Final Review, where they will score each project based on the Rubric Evaluation Criteria. Each Grants Council member’s vote is weighted equally. The Council’s final decisions will be publicly announced, and approved applications will be able to get to work on their project!
Score
Team
ROI
Milestone Assessment
Utilization of Push
Project Details
Description
Team expertise and domain alignment, evidence of team’s technical proficiency and previous experience. Research on the project’s founder and whether they are legitimate.
Opportunity size and expected benefit for Push, how it will provide value to Push and the Push ecosystem as a whole.
Clear, trackable milestones and action items associated with the grant and accountability mechanisms to ensure that project milestones are met on time.
How the project integrates or utilizes Push to enhance its functionality, interoperability, or scalability.
Legitimate and well-maintained website?
Active and engaged with social accounts? Project’s Github or other links to backend/ code? Press releases or other media talking about that project?
Experimentation & Novelty Is the project building something new and innovative? Market opportunity of use case.
1 Si3 Mini Grant $2,000 Si3 is an ecosystem of women & non-binary builders, creators, and community leaders.
2 DhiveGovernance Data Hub Mini Grant $2,000
Dhive is a comprehensive governance data hub designed to simplify and integrate governance information.
3 ModeSpray Mini Grant $2,000
Mode Spray simplifies the process of sending tokens on Mode. You can “Spray” ETH/ ERC20 tokens to multiple wallets in one transaction. Built by Push LATAM Ambassador.
4 LotyLoyalty Platform Growth Grant $5,000
Loty allows businesses across Latin America to create hightech loyalty programs with a monthly subscription. Multiple time Push Grantee and 3rd largest channel on Polygon.
5 Grant Ships Mini Grant $2,000
Grant Ships is a novel approach to deciding where funding goes in your Web3 community. Everyone gets to play a part, making choices together to support great projects. It’s all about teamwork, clear choices, and making a big impact. Currently used by Arbitrum DAO.
6 PrivyChat Growth Grant $10,000
PrivyChat is a wallet-towallet messenger built on top of the Push Protocol Messaging Network. Designed for simplicity and ease of use, PrivyChat enables users to send messages to wallet addresses seamlessly, providing a familiar experience akin to using WhatsApp. Future Flagship Push App.
7 EkoLance Mini Grant $2,000
EkoLance offers comprehensive educational training programs and workshops designed to upskill individuals and prepare them for various roles in the blockchain sector. They will be developing a technical workshop on “How to build a Web3 communication dApp using Push protocol”.
8 ChatterPay Mini Grant $2,000
ChatterPay is a wallet for WhatsApp that integrates AI and Account Abstraction, enabling any user to easily and securely use blockchain without technical knowledge.
9 Hallos NFT Ticketing Platform Mini Grant $2,000
Hallos is an easy-to-use platform for buying and selling event tickets as NFTs. It allows people to pay with either cryptocurrency or credit cards. The platform solves common problems like slow ticket distribution, limited interaction between organizers and attendees, and difficulties with reselling tickets.
10 Simplified Privacy Mini Grant $2,000
Simplified Privacy is a privacy focused forum built on Nostr, with the goal of using Push channels for sending out uncensored content to MetaMask wallets. The Grantee returned their grant due to not being able to complete the integration.
Note: Grant Disbursements are still ongoing through to December 2024. We are also pre-approving new Grantees for the upcoming year.
The first community run Push Grants Program was a huge success in our humble opinion. Not only did we improve the operational efficiency of the previous grants program, grantees have also been extremely happy with the current iteration of the Grants program. Some of the aspects they have praised include the ease with which to complete their applications, the availability of relevant information and documentation throughout the process, and the ease of communicating with the Grants Council.
We will run the next iteration of Push Grants in the coming year (Q1 2025), this time with more of a focus on flagship apps building on top of Push Protocol infrastructure, and continuing to support apps that drive growth to the Push ecosystem. We have already identified two such apps, Pistachio, and Privy Chat, and will continue to work closely with them to ensure their growth into flagship Push Apps.
Based on our learnings from PGPv3, the Grants Council is making the following recommendations:
• Continue to use Charmverse as the Grants Hub for the Push Grants Program, due to its ease of use, transparency, and web3friendly nature.
• Cement requirements for check-in meetings and milestone updates on the forum, while grants are going.
• Increase our focus on Impact metrics such as users onboarded to Push Protocol, notifications sent, etc.
• Fold all event based milestones(meetups, hackathons, etc..) into growth grants which can only be applied to by those who have already done a mini-grant and cement the requirement that events have to be earned. One example of this is that we’ll start by requiring grantees to prove 1000 or more daily active users before adding a physical event as a milestone.
• Educational programs will be folded into growth grants for Push Apps.
• We’ll offer three kinds of grants: mini-grants for $2k, growth 1 for $10k and growth 2 for $20k+. No one will be able to skip the line. This helps everyone.
• Our overall budget will need to 3-5x to allow for considerable scaling of grants.
• All grantees will have to extensively prove that they plan to use Push tech far beyond an initial integration over time. No more grants will be given for only Push channels or small integrations, alone.
Increase governance forum posts by 25% or more
Grow X following by 25% or more
Grow DAO Discord by 25% or more
Publish 2-3 DAO newsletter editions
Increase the average number of participants in governance calls by 25%
Increased governance forum posts by 240%, compared to January to March 2024.
• Co-host 9 educational spaces with partners
• Host 1 impactful side event with partners
• Secure 6 speaking slots
Grow X following from 666 followers to 1190 followers (increase of 79%)
Grow Discord members by 66% from June 2024 (19.3K in October’24)
6 Weekly DAO op/eds by the DAO Lead (Weekly DAO Thoughts)
3 issues of the DAO Newsletter published
Doubled the number of participants in governance calls (we went from an average of 7 participants in May ‘24 to an average of 20 participants in October’24)
With the establishment of Push DAO v2, one of our key objectives was the growth of the Push Protocol ecosystem by attracting more users and developers to build projects using our products. Ambassadors, existing contributors, published content, as well as virtual and IRL events have helped us to attract more builders, developers, and contributors to the DAO, which in turn has increased discussion on the Push forum, developers engaged with the ecosystem and builders applying for Grants.
We kicked off Push DAO v2 (which launched in May 2024) with a new marketing strategy. Our new strategy focused on having a better impact on developers and builders through a communitybuilding funnel.
The following table illustrates some of our most successful X campaigns:
Table 1.3. List of Push DAO Educational Spaces (June’24 - September’24)
1 Push DAO Designer
2 Push Cross Chain Request Contest Contest 4,131 views
3 Push Grantees showcase with Loty, SI3 & Mode Spray
4 DAO Tooling and Improving Operational Efficiency with David Ehrlichman of Hats Protocol and Jonah Erlich of Den
5 Showcase of DAO Operations Tooling by Push DAO partners
6 Boosting the web3 ecosystem through Grants with Claudio of Metapool
7 Ethereum Uruguay — Buildathon + Event
8 Business Development SubDAO Program
Campaign to Recruit a full time designer for Push DAO
Twitter Contest on the upcoming CCR feature of Push Protocol
Grantee showcase with some of our successful PGPv3 Grantees
Showcase of DAO Operations Tooling by Push DAO partners
Discussion on how we can improve grants programs within DAOs
Discussion on how we can accelerate the growth of the Web3 ecosystem through grants programs
Workshop about the Push DAO sponsored Buildathon at Ethereum Uruguay
We also hosted the following events every week to engage our audience on Discord.
The DAO has made it a priority that, whether it’s a workshop, a hackathon, a full-scale conference, or something else entirely, we need to ensure alignment on which opportunities Push has a deep strategic fit. This includes prioritizing the areas where Push DAO and our ambassadors have a presence, namely LATAM, Africa, and India.
The following activities, both in-person and virtual focused on supporting education in decentralized communication with Push and the effective integration of Push’s tech stack.
We have had 9 educational spaces:
1 Open Web Academy Workshop Virtual Workshop on “Virtual Hacking” about how to implement Push Protocol on the frontend.
2 In person Workshop at the Software University in Mérida, México, on how to create Push Chat and send real-time messages.
4
5
6 7
8 MKT Community Workshop
9 Si3 Workshop
Educational program designed for builders interested in building with Push Protocol tools in a buildathon.
Road to the Buildathon session 1 on notifications wallet to wallet.
Educational program designed for builders interested in building with Push Protocol tools in a buildathon.
Road to the Buildathon session 2 on creation of a Push group chat.
Educational program designed for builders interested in building with Push Protocol tools in a buildathon.
Road to the Buildathon session 3 on Implementation of a Notification channel in front-end.
Educational program designed for builders interested in building with Push Protocol tools in a buildathon.
Road to the Buildathon session 4 on Implementation of a Push group chat.
Workshop on “Master in Push Protocol” in the Telegram group.
Workshop on “SI3 HER Growth Network” to learn the purpose of decentralized communications.
The Push Protocol brand, including Push DAO, is a premier brand in the industry based on longevity, technology and innovation. We have ensured we are active in IRL events in our targeted areas of focus in North America, Latin America, and Africa. Our goal with the attendance of IRL events was to spread knowledge about Push and its products, and to onboard new developers and builders to integrate Push products.
While every event resulted in leads and further contributors, we’ll be slowing down event participation for 2025 and doubling down on podcasts and other forms of marketing, through June 2025.
1 ETH Mexico Panel René
Participation in the panel “Public Goods y comunidades en Web3”. 2 Panel Yedid Participation in the panel “Mujeres transformando Web3”. 3 H.E.R.
Talk on Push Protocol products before ETH Mexico.
4
Talk in the main event on “The Future of Web3 Communications”.
5 ETH Uruguay Workshop Carla
6 Web3 Lagos Conference Keynote Ogidi
Workshop in the ETH Uruguay buildathon on “Mejoras en la usabilidad en Web3”.
Talk in the main event on “Opportunities in the Push Protocol Ecosystem”.
7 Lagos Blockchain Week Keynote Chris
Talk in the main event on “Driving interoperability through cross-chain communications on Push Protocol”.
This quarter, we have added more ambassadors to the existing hubs in LATAM, Africa, and India, reaching 30 active ambassadors as of October 2024. These ambassadors have been contributing to the DAO. In this report, we highlight the incredible representation our ambassadors have had at events such as Ethereum Mexico and the Web3 Lagos Conference, as well as workshops with partners and universities, which are impacting the number of projects being built with the Push Protocol stack and applications to the Push Grant Program v3.
Since June there’s been a total of 30 Medium articles created by ambassadors, all of which are recorded in their monthly reports published in our governance forum.
• September Report - Push Ambassadors LATAM
• September Report - Push Ambassadors Africa
• August Report - Push Ambassadors LATAM
• August Report - Push Ambassadors Africa
• August Report - Push Ambassadors India
• July Report - Push Ambassadors India
• July Report - Push Ambassadors LATAM
• July Report - Push Ambassadors Africa
• June Report - Push Ambassadors LATAM
• June Report - Push Ambassadors Africa
Also, the ambassadors have participated in Push Governance, and have been creating content within the ecosystem on platforms such as LinkedIn, Reddit, and Twitter.
Our ambassadors have gone from more infrequent contribution to far more streamlined and more frequent contribution over this quarter, than ever before. Many have voted and in 2025, we aim to cement the voting requirement, which benefits everyone in the DAO and in the ambassador hubs.
As part of the values we promote within the ambassador program— flexibility, proactivity, and teamwork—ambassadors also have the freedom to build their own projects using Push tools or create opensource projects for the community to contribute to. They can then apply to the grants program to receive further support.
This is how “Push Express” was born, a project developed by Wolfcito, a LATAM ambassador, aimed at simplifying the integration of Push Protocol components into web projects.
The DAO is transitioning toward greater transparency and efficiency, which includes iterating towards better tools that most efficiently allow for the automation of certain processes and synergy between subDAOs.
Based on this, and to continue attracting more users and developers to build projects using our products, the DAO Council would recommend:
• As our initial 4 months of operations come to a close, we believe we should open a Warpcast account and channel (Farcaster), for a new line of comms with builders, devs, and web3 native people.
• Every ambassador hub should be brought up to speed with our new Zealy system.
• We’re refining a bounty program on Zealy for new contributors.
• We’re restructuring our hubs in preparation for 2025 in more ways than one.
• We will consider expanding Push LATAM once they’re brought up to speed on Zealy.
• We will bring LATAM and Africa fully up to speed with systems that are truly similar to India’s.
• We’ll further finalize paths to further growth for ambassadors, funneling them further into the DAO after their initial engagements, based on their experience and the performance of the tasks they complete.
• We’ll streamline content channels and campaigns as many are not getting the engagement we need.
• We’ll delegate PUSH to all participating ambassadors for voting after at least one month of full participation in 2025.
• We’re considering opening up a Council Seat to one ambassador in 2025 for them to be even more heard and have even more say in governance. This won’t happen until at least April.
• Beyond the ambassador hubs, after these months of operations, we see a great opportunity to improve the comms with a Warpcast account and channel (Farcaster), to get better communication with builders, devs, and web3 native people.
• We will continue with the good strategy of spaces to be able to connect and make strategic alliances with other protocols, dapps, and web3 solutions.
• We’ve identified a great opportunity to be able to track and trace content within X’s account, using a measurement tool and to have more access.
• We also observed a great need for the X Pro account to improve our reach, engagement, and access to metrics.
• We see a great opportunity in aligning our brand identity on the Paragraph account for our weekly publications of Weekly DAO Thoughts with Push.
All the growth, iterations and achievements of this Q3 would not have been possible without our contributors and ambassadors, who daily believe in the DAO and journey with us towards a more transparent, efficient and decentralized DAO. A special thank you to each of them.
Resources & Additional Info
Push DAO Forum
Push DAO Mirror Blog
Push DAO Paragraph
Push DAO Charmverse
Push DAO Twitter
Push DAO Yearly KPIs (June 2024 - June 2025)
