Decoded 2024 Sponsorship for active community members

Ecosystem
1

Dear Polkadot community members,
the biggest Polkadot event of the year is coming up and you can be part of this experience!

As members of the community we submitted a proposal to enable 40 active Polkadot community members from around the world to attend the Polkadot Decoded 2024 in Brussels.

Do you want to participate? Pay attention to the requirements!

  1. Write a reply to this post with your postulation.
  • Your post would need to include:
    • Your name or nickname.
    • Your country and region.
    • A summary of your last six months of activities as an active member of the community.
    • A paragraph explaining why you would like to benefit from sponsorship.

  1. You need to post your application by May 31, 2024 at 23:59 UTC.

  2. Due to limited time and necessity for people to handle their visa, hotel and flight bookings, we will begin the selection process before the decision deadline of the proposal on OpenGov.

The selection process

  • A community member can read your post and vote for it by reacting to your post on the forum.

  • You can vote for as many posts as you want but you cannot vote for your post.

  • The community vote helps shortlist the most favored applicants but this is not what defines the outcome. The Team sponsorship Decoded 2024 will take a look at the most voted for posts, per region, and decide who can benefit from the sponsorship based on:

  • Motivation to go to Decoded 2024 and activities during Decoded (if the candidate is a speaker, MD etc).
  • The overall activities in the last 6 months.
  • No other funding is available for these people to travel to Decoded 2024 (e.g. not working for an ecosystem team).

  • We will try as much as possible to offer sponsorship for people from different countries within one region, in order to ensure a global participation of the entire community. The maximum to reimburse is 10 for Europe, 10 Asia-Pacific, 10 Americas and 10 Africa.

  • If we do not reach the cap for a region, the Team sponsorship Decoded 2024 will select nominees from other regions.

Results

On 5 June, a post will be published by the Team sponsorship Decoded 2024 to announce the people who will benefit from sponsorship to attend Polkadot Decoded 2024.

:arrow_right: Please note: :arrow_left:
Any financial assistance from this team is dependent on this proposal passing. Should it not be approved by the community, the team cannot be held liable for providing any sponsorship to anyone.

How to get your reimbursement

To obtain your refund, you need to:

  • Share a selfie from the main event or find one of the Team sponsorship Decoded 2024 members, to prove your attendance.
  • Collect the receipts/invoices for the hotel and the flight tickets.
  • Send the receipts/invoices together with the information specified in the section above
    • Euro amounts should be converted to DOT with the closing rate of the second event day (Friday, July 12, 2024).

Timeline

  • Submissions on Polkadot Forum.

  • Deadline: May 31, 2024 at 23:59 UTC.

  • Selection by the Team sponsorship Decoded 2024.

  • Deadline: June 5, 2024 at 23:59 UTC.

  • Sponsorships announced in the Polkadot Forum.

  • June 6, 2024.

  • Receipts to be sent by July 31, 2024.

  • Reimbursements payable in DOT by August 31, 2024.

:warning: DISCLAIMER :warning:

The team will not be able to secure visas or letter of recommendation for the corresponding visas.
In case the proposal is not approved, the team will post in Forum and Telegram group Telegram: Join Group Chat that sponsorship is not possible.
If anyone makes any reservations prior to confirmation of approval, we will not be responsible for any financial repercussions.

25 Likes
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Sounds super nice :+1:

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It’s essential to continue supporting our ambassadors to get them onboard at events like Decoded. They are then better motivated to evangelize about Polkadot. I support this initiative!

5 Likes
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Hi Gabe! Thanks for applying!

Could you please post links and images of your contributions so that the whole community can also see your contributions?

Thank you!

1 Like
6

Great initiative and awesome to see the once centralized task is now run by our decentralized community.

For those who are not familiar with this kind of event sponsorship, here is the context: in the past it was managed by Web3 Foundation and Parity. Since January these tasks are in the hands of the Polkadot community itself.

2 Likes
8

** Your name or nickname.**
Nina (@ninabreznik)

** Your country and region.**
Slovenian living in the UK

** A summary of your last six months of activities as an active member of the community.**
I’ve been engaged in the blockchain community since 2017 (3 years as Ethereum Foundation contributor and after that active Polkadot members building a DatDot parachain bridge and organizing community and educational events with WizardAmigos.

In the past 6 months I have continued working on DatDot and I’ve co-organized a month long code camp after Sub0 in Portugal. We’ve managed to get a lot of talented developers and founders in one big pop-up house again and we’ve hacked and brainstormed and debated all sorts of decentralization and topics related to the future of tech, finance and society in general. It has been amazing and we plan to organize something similar soon again.

Apart from that I have been actively engaged in setting up a Polkadot Hubs Bounty together with many ambassadors and Parity or ex-Parity employees. We’re planning to soon apply the Bounty concept for discussion and are really excited about having this missing puzzle in the ecosystem available for anyone trying to set up a permanent or a temporary (pop-up) hub to promote Polkadot and help onboard new people to the ecosystem.

** A paragraph explaining why you would like to benefit from sponsorship.**

I am currently working on all of the mentioned projects self-funded, our team got a Web3 foundation and a Treasury grant in the past but with the current price drop, we simply don’t have enough funds to join the Decoded this year. I’ve been on both, Berlin and Copehagen’s Decoded and Lisbon’s Sub0 and it’s been so important to meet people I work with also in person and through them also connect to the broader ecosystem, so I really hope to be able to join again this summer.

Thanks to Patrizia and everyone else for kickstarting this initiative and fingers crossed it gets the support it deserves on OpenGov.

[edit: some typos]
[edit: change from team to personal application]

16 Likes
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Name
Gatorkorps

** Your country and region.**
France and French language countries / Europe

** A summary of your last six months of activities as an active member of the community.**
Hey guys here is my resume:

** A paragraph explaining why you would like to benefit from sponsorship.**

I’d like to benefit from sponsorship to go to my 3rd decoded so I can continue to cover these events and report back to our community to show developments and be able to best present polkadot at future French events I’ll be organizing or participating in. I also think it’s very important to connect with other Ogs and ambassadors, so that we can continue to forge links and work together on different projects to help spread understanding of our ecosystem. These encounters are invaluable for gaining knowledge, discussing, debating, and moving forward towards our common goal. (as a french I also can check the croissant)

Merci, thanks and sorry for the long post :slight_smile:

22 Likes
10

Please apply as individuals, not as couples/teams.

1 Like
15

** Your name or nickname.**
Alex (@serapath)

** Your country and region.**
German living in the UK

** A summary of your last six months of activities as an active member of the community.**
I’ve been engaged in the blockchain community since 2017 (3 years as Ethereum Foundation contributors and after that active Polkadot members building a DatDot parachain bridge and organizing community and educational events with WizardAmigos.

In the past 6 months I have continued working on DatDot and co-organized a month long code camp after Sub0 in Portugal. We’ve managed to get a lot of talented developers and founders in one big pop-up house again and we’ve hacked and brainstormed and debated all sorts of decentralization and topics related to the future of tech, finance and society in general. It has been amazing and we plan to organize something similar soon again.

Apart from that I have been working on gathering resources and tooling for smart contract development in the Polkadot ecosystem and plan to contribute some missing tooling in this space.

** A paragraph explaining why you would like to benefit from sponsorship.**
I am currently working on all of the mentioned projects self-funded, got a Web3 foundation and a Treasury grant in the past but with the current price drop, there is simply not enough funding to join the Decoded Event this year. i’ve been on both, Berlin and Copehagen’s Decoded and Lisbon’s Sub0 and it’s been important to meet people we work with in person and through them I also managed to connect to the broader community and ecosystem, and really hope to be able to join again this summer.

Thanks everyone else for kickstarting this initiative and fingers crossed it gets the support it deserves on OpenGov.

8 Likes
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Your name or nickname.
Gabriel Bonugli aka Gabekoin

Your country and region.
Curitiba - Brazil

A summary of your last six months of activities as an active member of the community.
In the last six months I’ve been developing business for Polkadot, as member of the BD Brazil Team, responsable for deals like Central Bank of Brazil, Sonica, Código Brazuca and Tokeniza.

We’ve hosted great events like SmartCity Curitiba, Curitiba Meetup and Polkadot Decoded View Party

I’m co-founder of Verbo DotSama, with almost 3 years of an Polkadot Maxi Channel dedicated to Brazilian community. We produce educational videos, threads, articles, lives and host meetups to engage our community.

A paragraph explaining why you would like to benefit from sponsorship.

Being able to go to polkadot decoded would be a dream come true

Through sponsorship to participate in polkadot decoded it will be a great opportunity for me to connect with the entire Polkadot community and have the honor of meeting new people and mapping out new plans and opportunities to be built in the ecosystem in order to maximize its adoption.

It will also be a great opportunity to connect with all parachain teams and increase connections for future business

Regarding the deals, here:

Central Bank of Brazil:

Tokeniza:
https://twitter.com/MoonbeamNetwork/status/1780808491416064376

Sonica:
https://twitter.com/TanssiNetwork/status/1784969223694844019

Código Brazuca:

I’ve listed those 4 just as example, but we already have more than 10 deals closed and they will be all published as soon as we can.

Events:
SmartCity Curitiba:
https://x.com/johnrhodelb/status/1770964532048855537
https://x.com/gabekoin/status/1771327933526773809
https://x.com/gabekoin/status/1770567714303603059

Gerar Institute:
https://x.com/gabekoin/status/1783108195843506436

Pinhao HUB:
https://x.com/johnrhodelb/status/1780952814698578287

Meetups:
https://x.com/gabekoin/status/1776394552976216105
https://x.com/johnrhodelb/status/1770614995287445827

Polkadot View Party:
https://x.com/johnrhodelb/status/1737159495489405053

As a content creator, I’ve written/translated more than 250 articles:

We’ve created/published a total of 188 videos 100% focused in Polkadot:

I produce daily Twitter content in English and Portuguese:
https://twitter.com/gabekoin
https://twitter.com/verbodotsama

We host Monthly Spaces with the whole Brazilian community in order to inform and educate too.

24 Likes
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A dedicated polkadot man in and out!
Best of luck in your application sir :pray:

1 Like
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  • Name: César
  • Country: México
  • Region: America
  • Summary of your last six months of activities as an active member of the community:

Over the past six months, I have actively participated in various prominent events where Polkadot had a significant presence. One of these events was ETHDenver, where I not only attended Polkadot’s side events but also collaborated with the KodaDot team on marketing strategies to expand the reach of their NFT platform, actively participating at the Polkadot booth.
Polkadot ETHDenver booth - 2024
polkadot booth
Blockspace Hacker house at ETHDenver 2024

In April, I had the opportunity to contribute to one of the most important technology events in Latin America, Talent Land 2024, held in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. There, I helped organize a side event fully funded by us, the Polkadot ambassadors in Mexico. During the event, I led a workshop on openGov, where I explained the voting processes, how to comment on proposals, conviction voting, vote delegation, and voting periods. The event was a complete success, with full attendance of people interested in the ecosystem.

Talent Land 2024 Polkadot side Event
post 2
OpenGov Workshop - side event of talent Land april 2024

Additionally, I regularly contribute online, creating educational and engaging content about the Polkadot ecosystem. I maintain active channels on YouTube and TikTok, and on my Twitter account, where I share insights and relevant developments within the crypto space.
Youtube Channel
TikTok channel

  • Paragraph explaining why you would like to benefit from sponsorship:

I’d like to receive this benefit as it would allow me to continue not only creating content for the Spanish-speaking community but also to showcase to external users of the ecosystem, including non-crypto users, what Polkadot has been developing over the past few yrs. I’ve made it my primary mission to educate about the various use cases of the ecosystem in its entirety. It is very important for me to attend Decoded and receive the sponsorship, as I’m not officially part of any parachain team, and this is the only way to receive sponsorship from Polkadot. As an active member of the Polkadot community in Mexico, I’ve established important connections with some team members across the ecosystem, and it’s crucial not only to maintain these networking ties but to strengthen them. In the future, I aim to bring some of these grand and magnificent Polkadot events to Mexico. Thanks very much for this opportunity and initiative. Regardless of the outcome, I wish all participants the best.

Twitter account

16 Likes
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Gustavo Joppert Massena
FROM Brazil, Rio de Janeiro / Living on PORTUGAL, Lisbon

During the past 6 months, I’ve been fully immersed in the Business Developer team in Brazil, where my expertise in Corporate Innovation and Digital Transformation, coupled with my legal background, has proven super useful. I’ve been instrumental in generating over 100 qualified leads and successfully closing more than 10 deals with the team.

Among the successful deals I’ve closed are partnerships with significant entities such as the Brazilian Central Bank, Oracle, Tokeniza, prominent Brazilian Universities and Scientific Hubs, Sonica, and Código Brazuca (an educational platform), to name a few.

Why I Want the Benefit: I haven’t had the chance to embark on a Decoded yet, but I’ve been an active member of the community since 2020. Back in the day, I organized numerous meetups and worked on various projects with Kusama, which was widely covered by Brazilian newspapers due to Gilberto Gil’s (music legend and former Ministry of Culture in brazil) involvement. Nowadays, I’m dedicated to contributing to the community and have been able to achieve remarkable results. My aim is to share my knowledge and accomplishments in business development with everyone. Furthermore, I’d love to connect and meet with BDs, parachains, projects, and leaders to involve them in our efforts in Brazil and worldwide. My ultimate goal is to integrate them into our activities and help them close deals with companies or create distribution channels.

14 Likes
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+1 for Gator !!

2 Likes
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Gatorkorps makes a very valuable contribution to the dissemination of information and practical knowledge about the polkadot ecosystem.
The same I can say about Gabekoin (Gabriel Bonugli).
This statment based on my knoweladege about these guys for a quite long time.
So, I am sure they can add even more value to the polkadot ecosystem.

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Application:

My name is Mark Petruska, known as proxy nick on the Polkadot Forum. I hail from Hungary (Europe) and work as a Cardano software engineer. Currently, I am collaborating with the UniFires team, contributing to the Polkadot and Cardano communities by fostering adoption, enhancing governance, and advancing interoperability.

I am seeking sponsorship to attend Decoded 2024 to amplify these efforts. This event presents a unique opportunity to elevate the visibility of UniFires and our pivotal work. Additionally, it will allow me to network with influential figures within the global Polkadot community, fostering partnerships and sharing innovative ideas.

Thank you for considering my application. Your support would be instrumental in advancing our mission and driving forward the synergy between Polkadot and Cardano ecosystems.

11 Likes
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Name: Ayomide Bajo A.k.a Bekka
Country & Region: Nigeria located in Africa

A summary of your last six months of activities as an active member of the community.

I started my journey into Polkadot as a developer, I applied and got accepted into the Polkadot Blockchain Academy last year into the Buenos Aires cohort, from which I also graduated. I didn’t stop there, I went on to join the ambassador program and became an ambassador. Ever since then, I’ve written a few articles on Polkadot, contributed to the Wiki docs and I also have been advocating for the protocol.

In the past six months, I’ve been rebuilding the African community, we currently have a Twitter(X) official account that I have been managing and promoting from scratch. I’m also the community manager/developer advocate for Rust Nigeria (meetup group/online community). I built this community from scratch to over 250+ members and I have been using this platform to also advocate for Polkadot in my little way.

Currently, I’m a lab intern at Polytope labs and I host monthly Twitter spaces for Polkadot Africa and try to represent Polkadot whenever I can even when I go on international travels like when I attended Devconnect last year.

A paragraph explaining why you would like to benefit from sponsorship.

I’ve never been able to go for decoded. I’d love to attend this event because I want to connect with experienced community members, meet new people in the ecosystem, and form strong connections to map out plans for the African community. It’ll also be great to meet with the alumni!

Thanks for starting this initiative, it’s great for the community!

21 Likes
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I will like to see Bekka sponsored for Polkadot decoded’24. Bekka has brought a phenomenal change to the Polkadot African twitter space hosting great minds. Well deserved :raised_hands:

1 Like
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Hello, I’m Georgi from Spain., and I’d like to be sponsored for Decoded 2024. I’m an active member of the Polkadot community since 2021, I’ a member of BD Bounty in Spain and curating several other bounties. Additionally, I lead the Technical Support Bounty initiative. I’ve also organized numerous workshops, meetups, and hackathons. www.polkadotprodigy.com

11 Likes
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BRYAN or BRA_16-D
Valencia, SPAIN
ES
Durante los últimos seis meses el trabajo realizado por parte de BRA ha sido en el ambito de educación mediante videos educativos, tutoriales, explicaticos y noticieros, el fin de todos estos ha sido mantener a la comunidad hispanohablante informada y educada acerca de las nuevas actualizaciones del ecosistema del funcionamiento de la red.
cabe destacar que BRA cuenta con un grupo de telegram enfocado en

Polkadot dónde los usuarios son ayudados de forma directa en caso de que tengan algún problema además de que también sirve de un area de networking ya que contamos con embajadores de Polkadot así como de parachain, además cabe destacar que desde el canal incitamos a que los usuarios sean activos en gobernanza, es por ello que durante los últimos meses desde el canal estamos votando de forma conjunta mediante Telegram para asi involucrar más a los usuarios en este ámbito ya que es sumamente importante facilitar o hacer más simple esta rama para los usuarios

¿Porque a BRA le gustaría beneficiarse del sponsorship? Muy sencillo puesto que BRA se enfoca en acerca la información del ecosistema de primera mano, gracias a equipos tanto de parchains, de trabajo o desarrolladores sin duda esto sería un beneficio para los usuarios de pie, ya que asi mismo debemos de tener en cuenta que el idioma más utilizado por el mundo crypto es el inglés, acercar esta información a los usuarios de habla hispana sin duda es un beneficio para poder respaldar la marca de Polkadot en habla hispana y más aún cuándo estamos hablando de poder conocer a los equipos de forma nativa, además que siempre es un punto sumamente a favor poder volver a conectar con otros miembros de diferentes países para poder saber cómo están trabajando sus comunidades ya que siempre pueden surgir nuevas ideas.
Puede ver mis principales y más constantes contribuciones en el ecosistema AQUI

EN
During the last six months, the work carried out by BRA has been in the field of education through educational videos, tutorials, explainers and newscasts, the purpose of all of these has been to keep the Spanish-speaking community informed and educated about the new updates of the ecosystem of network operation.
It should be noted that BRA has a telegram group focused on
Polkadot where users are helped directly in case they have a problem. In addition, it also serves as a networking area since we have Polkadot ambassadors as well as parachain ambassadors. It is also worth noting that from the channel we encourage users to are active in governance, that is why during the last few months from the channel we have been voting jointly through Telegram in order to involve users more in this area since it is extremely important to facilitate or make this branch simpler for users

Why would BRA like to benefit from sponsorship? Very simple since BRA focuses on first-hand information about the ecosystem, thanks to teams of parchains, workers or developers, without a doubt this would be a benefit for regular users, since we must also take into account that The language most used by the crypto world is English, bringing this information closer to Spanish-speaking users is undoubtedly a benefit to be able to support the Polkadot brand in Spanish-speaking and even more so when we are talking about being able to meet the teams native, and it is always an extremely positive point to be able to reconnect with other members from different countries to know how their communities are working since new ideas can always arise.
You can see my main and most constant contributions to the ecosystem
HERE

22 Likes