TL;DR

Help fund a public hackerspace in Vancouver, BC, with the intent of live streaming weekly public interactive presentations about Ethereum, helping grow out resources in the space such as the main website, Sidewalk Controller, Soda Machine and other future resources like them, help raise awareness about Public Nouns and the Nouns ecosystem with rotating Public Nouns and Nouns NFT displays, Public Nouns Mural on a wall in the space, and help cover some running costs for public use supplies.

How does this initiative support Public Goods?

DCTRL (pronounced Decentral or D-Control) is a hackerspace and commons in Vancouver, BC, Canada, which has been around since 2014, and has grown to create an IRL decentralized community commons. DCTRL has hosted hundreds of Meetups in the past, and is still hosting some now. We have a bunch of history and some museum pieces on display, such as old ASIC’s, Bitcoin and Crypto memorabilia, hyperinflationary currencies, and stickers galore. Notable figures have visited the space, such as Vitalik during the inception of Ethereum, Benny Giang and Jaden Windel during the CryptoKitties launch, Gerald Cotton from now defunct QuadrigaCX, Richerd from Manifold.xyz, Gary LeChance from the Decentralized Dance Party, Bitcoin activist Andreas Antonopoulos, CoinOS and Raretoshi creator Adam Soltys, plus many other influential developer, artist, and crypto personalities.

The space has run primarily on donations and volunteers. It was particularly challenging throughout the pandemic, as many people were not around to help maintain or contribute to the space. On the other side of this now, we are trying to build out as much as possible to create an educational, self-sustaining, welcoming commons.

Currently, the main event which is open to the public is an Ethereum Vancouver event night every Thursday where we have speakers present a topic around Ethereum or Web3. Even though these events are open and free to the public, we would like to extend the reach even further than just local. There are also Friday night “Learn to DJ” events, and NFT meetups every other Wednesday. Hoping to get more events running as we continue to grow and gain traction.

We also have a few interesting aspects to the space, such as a light up sidewalk outside of our door on the street, which can be programmed to have different patterns, or have words scroll across it! There are glass cubes that can be accessed from underneath in the hackerspace, so individual LEDs have been put in place to light up each cube. The live stream may not be working right now, but check out https://yvrsidewalk.com/.

It’s set up to work on Polygon as it’s cheap and easy. So anyone in the world can donate to change it. We would like to expand to other networks like Optimism, and Arbitrum as well.

There is also an old Pepsi machine which has been repurposed and rewired and connected to a Raspberry pi, which allows users to make on-chain donations to get beverages: https://yvrbepsi.com. We also have an old vending machine that could dispense snacks or small items, but has not been fully configured and set up like the Pepsi machine.

There are a few other interesting things in the space as well, such as a library of interesting books, a workbench with tools, along with a rich history of meetups, helping inform and educate the local public. Previous Meetup account with past events can be found here: https://www.meetup.com/decntrlvan/events/past/
All of these aspects can be built out and grown further to extend the reach of DCTRL to more of the public.

Having the option to live stream events, proper lighting, proper audio setup, materials to freshen up the space with paint or art will help it flourish. It will also be beneficial to have an option to provide bounties to devs who could help build out the technical infra (Sidewalk, Soda Machine, Vending Machine, Discord tools), adding some more technical things like screens and devices that could rotate through NFT collections like pNouns, or things like cleaning up the place, or fixing things that break. It would also be great to have a small budget to bootstrap drinks, snacks, and small items to go in the soda machine and vending machine, along with other things like toilet paper, paper towel, soap, and other cleaning supplies.

As the space is growing and more people are getting involved, we can attract more developers, and create a bounty board (Dework/Wonderverse) to incentivise anyone to come pick up a task or collaborate on it with others. This will expedite the process of completing things like the Sidewalk, the Pepsi Machine, the Vending Machine, or new ideas in the future!

How is it non-excludable?

DCTRL’s goal is to expand out and be as inclusive as possible to the local public, and to the online public community. By extending the reach to have an online presence with live streams, this allows others who can not make it to the physical space the opportunity to engage and learn about topics and discussions that are being held at the physical space. Including a chat screen for online individuals to ask questions would also help make it more inclusive. Putting bounties online via a bounty board like Dework or Wonderverse will also allow outside developers to contribute to the space as well.

How is it non-rivalrous?

As more people get involved with DCTRL, it will be able to grow and flourish. More involvement means more abundance. Expanding to an online presence will only help grow as well. Upgraded infrastructure will help make this all a reality, and hopefully encourage outsiders to get involved.

Why does it need funding right now?

In order to keep this common space alive and flourishing, it would be ideal to broaden the reach of our community, and share as many of our resources as possible with others. As we are hosting events on a regular basis, it would be ideal to capture those and share them with the greater public, and create a database of all of these sessions for others to view and learn from. As this is a hackerspace, we need to fund a few of the projects that need to be built out to help us become self-sustainable. Development of things like the Sidewalk, Soda Machine, and Vending Machine can and would be super beneficial to the public, and being able to give use cases and onboarding people into Web3.

Request Amount for Funding in ETH

• Dedicated PC for Live Streaming: 0.75 ETH (Quantity: 1)
• Monitor for PC: 0.20 ETH (Quantity: 1)
• Accessories / Cables for PC: 0.15 ETH (Quantity: 1)
• Cameras for Live Stream: 0.50 ETH (Quantity: 1)
• Microphone for Presenter: 0.10 ETH (Quantity: 1)
• Microphones for Audience: 0.10 ETH (Quantity: 2)
• Monitor for Livestream Chat: 0.10 ETH (Quantity: 1)
• Restream.io Subscription: 0.10 ETH (Quantity: 1)
• Raspberry Pi’s for NFT Displays: 0.05 ETH (Quantity: 3)
• Displays/Monitors for NFTs: 0.10 ETH (Quantity: 3)
• Paint and Bounty for Public Nouns Mural: 0.10 ETH (Quantity: 1)
• Bounties for Devs: 0.10 ETH (Quantity: 10)
• Lighting for Presenters: 0.05 ETH (Quantity: 2)
• Supplies for the Hackerspace/Resources: 0.45 ETH (Quantity: 1)

Total: 4.20 ETH

Impact Deliverables

A YouTube and Twitch channel will be set up where Live Streams can be viewed by the public, where comments can come in via YouTube, Twitch or Discord, and all be consolidated by Restream.io. NFT Displays and Mural will be created and shared on Public Nouns Discord. Resources like the Sidewalk, Soda Machine, and Vending Machine will all come to life for public use on additional chains.

Feedback Loop

As DCTRL grows, more of the public will be empowered to learn and be educated about Web3, and be among other like minded people who are passionate about Web3. Also raising awareness about Public Nouns and the Nouns ecosystem through the Mural and NFT displays.

Recipient Address

dctrl.eth 0xD5184c0d23f7551DB7c8c4a3a3c5F1685059A09c

Amount in ETH

4.20