Wondering how magic spells and Web3 collide? Check out NEAR’s mystical guild – The Wizard’s Guild.
The Wizards’ Guild is an educational and marketing guild focused on promoting DeFi on Aurora, NEAR, and Octopus through online and offline marketing efforts. Launched by Zardoz, Yana, and Ksenia in August 2021, they started as NEAR advocates working to establish a city hub and onboard retail outlets to accept $NEAR.
The guild also creates money-making NFT spells with magic-themed animations to demystify DeFi by guiding community members through the steps required in using platforms such as Ref.finance.
To spread the gospel of NFTs and blockchain technology, the guild visited a local school to lecture about digital collectibles.
To date, the guild is most proud of the successful completion of several NFT spells, the growth and enthusiasm of their community, and being able to sponsor a car racing event.
Some of The Wizard’s Guild core team members at a local racing event last September 26, 2021.
The members of the guild will be attending the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami in January 2022 to network and introduce the NEAR Protocol at the event.
You too can spread the magic of decentralized and open internet! Start your NEAR guild today: https://near.org/guilds/
Kitchen Guild is a marketing guild that connects and builds relationships between its client projects and influencers in the space. They collaborate with the influencers to promote NEAR and other projects to ensure a professional and seamless collaboration between their client projects and their partner influencers.
They also offer online brand awareness services to different projects by producing various forms of marketing content from blog articles to other contextual content posted on Reddit, Medium, TikTok, and other social media platforms where NEAR and other client projects’ targeted communities are most active.
The guild is proud of being one of the most efficient and affordable marketing service providers in the industry by cutting costs and producing quality output for its clients. Last year, Kitchen Guild organized more than five AMAs with representatives from Human Guild, Aurora, and Ref.finance. Kitchen Guild has also helped in collecting 18,000 $NEAR for PARAS IDO.
This year, they are aiming to expand the marketing services they offer, work with more trusted and credible influencers, and interact with more projects in the ecosystem to invite and encourage more people to join Web3 by spreading the word of the new internet.
If you hold the same belief that serverless internet is the future, join us and build your own NEAR guild today: https://near.org/guilds/
Africa is a developing continent spearheading real-life applications of crypto, blockchain, and Web3 technologies.
Sankore 2.0 (S2) – headquartered in the city of Nairobi – is one of NEAR’s most successful guilds. S2 is an Africa-focused community integrating the NEAR blockchain and adopting Web3 technologies to launch projects and solutions by Kenyan developers. Some of which include enterprise and institutional blockchain development, IoT, smart agriculture solutions, digital infrastructure, food and water security, and the creator economy.
One example is Sarafu, an online real-time payments platform built on NEAR Protocol that enables the rural farmers in Kenya to accept crypto as payments and use it to buy their basic needs and other agricultural supplies.
Just recently, Sankore 2.0 kicked off NEAR-MEET and will be touring five cities in Kenya to introduce NEAR to a broader community and highlight the opportunities in the NEAR ecosystem. The team has visited two out of five cities – Mombasa and Kisumu – and has created hundreds of new NEAR wallets, onboarded new talents, and welcomed new community members on Telegram and Discord channels.
One of S2’s goals is to expand its presence to the other countries in Africa and bring more Web3 applications running on NEAR to the rest of the continent.
Join us and start your own guild to make a change within your community (or even the whole continent): https://near.org/start-a-guild/
Chapter One (C1) is a guild composed of artists that are helping artists who do not have the means to produce, mint, and sell NFTs. The guild provides resources and introduces these artists to the NEAR blockchain for them to take control of their artistic future.
The guild helps them by minting their work and using 30% of the proceeds to fund more projects. By doing so benefits the artists – by providing a new revenue stream for them – and benefits C1 and NEAR by providing a natural and ongoing onboarding mechanism to the NEAR ecosystem.
The past year has been busy and productive for C1. Here are their achievements in 2021:
– Minted over 70 NFTs
– Released Baboon last August
– Created the C1 Mintbase store and set up the C1 Auction House
– Grew their community on Discord to over 400 members
– Held Saturday Seminars with SterryO
– Joined Blockchain club AMAs at Lagos State University
– Funded the Jah Zone project
– Hosted Toronto C1 events and live performance NFT drops
– Cryptovoxel Parcel – C1 Gallery for live events and auctions in the metaverse
Greater things are expected to happen this year as C1 aims to be the go-to place for high-caliber artists, work towards financial independence, join Metaverse events, do more seminars on their Discord community, and be a wrapped DAO.
C1 is a perfect example of how decentralization can help improve different industries. Start your own guild today: https://near.org/start-a-guild/
The theme for our monthly Open Web Sandbox Party is Defi Debunked ….what is Defi though? Why are people flocking towards this type of finance as opposed to traditional banking? And what types of benefits can Defi platforms and exchanges offer the NEAR ecosystem?
This edition of the OWS Party will feature a ROUNDTABLE discussion with special guests from Ref Finance, Meta Pool, Cheddar Farm, the Merchants of NEAR and the Wizard Guild who will give the opening presentation called “What is Defi?”. This will be followed by an audience Q&A where you get to ask all your questions about Defi. And of course, it wouldn’t be an OWS Party without a giveaway… 😉
Join us, as we explore the growing world of decentralized finance to cap off another exciting month of growth for our ever expanding ecosystem!
Is there a specific question about Defi that’s been running circles in your mind? Are you wondering about what the heck the difference is between staking an farming is? Time to clear the air! Bring all of your Defi questions here and we will be happy to address them at our Party.
The end of the month is a well-known period for the OWS to hold a monthly party; yet another reason to gather NEARians together, discuss meaningful topics and educate ourselves in an interactive and playful way. This month’ edition wasn’t an exception to this: last Thursday the OWS organized a party devoted to a fascinating piece of Web 3.0 technology — DAOs.
Undoubtedly, this part of the NEAR ecosystem has been on everyone’s lips lately and there is good reason for that. Since February 2021 NEAR Protocol has its own Sputnik DAO, a Mother to all future DAOs within the NEAR ecosystem, which is much more than just a tool for decentralized governance. As Ilia Polosukhin, one of the NEAR co-founders, describes it:
The OWS just could not let this topic of foreground importance slide!
The event was kicked off by introducing the vision and mission of the Open Web Sandbox (as per the requests we received from the last edition’s feedback — we hear you!) presented by the OWS co-lead Sofia as a party opener. This was mainly directed at people who attended an event organized by the OWS for the first time — we hope you felt welcomed 🙂
Let’s move to the main course! This time our crew decided to slightly change the format of the event. Instead of the project pitches (if you missed them this time or wanted to pitch your project — those will still be held on another occasion, no worries!), we organized a Roundtable discussion with the DAO experts from the NEAR ecosystem. Among the guest speakers was James Waugh from the NEAR Core team, Torsten Goerke from Alas DAO, Aaron Luhning from Vital Point AI, Jake Wang from JusDAO, Chloe from Creatives DAO and Blaze from Cheddar. Diversity of perspectives and personal experiences has allowed for a deep and meaningful conversation. Topics such as general DAO governance, Community Funds and tools, social tokens, Sandcastle DAO, the NEAR Ecosystem Treasury DAO were touched upon.
As usual, all the party attendees have got their proof of partYcipation – a brand new NFT brought to life by our moderator Sam.
To conclude, this edition of the OWS party was a very special one, not just because of the topic discussed but also because it showcased tons of interest (intense Q&A part) into the basics of the DAO governance and the need to have this kind of conversations more frequently. Our team is grateful to every speaker and every attendee for their irreplaceable contribution and for making this event possible! We feel the strong encouragement and enthusiasm from the community which only motivates us to work towards new events of this kind.
Have you attended and felt something could be done better? Your opinion is crucial to us, so feel free to share it here. We appreciate and carefully process every input we get from you. In case you could not participate in the ‘Hot DAO Summer’ party, you can find the full recording of the event here.
Keep a close eye on our updates: the next party is planned for the 30th of September on the main theme is “DeFi Debunked – Come learn about the mysteries of decentralized finance”. Stay tuned for more details!
This monthly Open Web Sandbox Party is going to be all about DAOs….what are they? What purpose do they serve? What is the potential future of DAOs in the NEAR Ecosystem?
This edition of the OWS Party will feature a ROUNDTABLE discussion with special guests from Alas DAO, Creatives DAO, and NEAR Core, followed by an audience Q&A where you get to ask your questions about DAOs. And of course, it wouldn’t be an OWS Party without a giveaway… 😉
Join us, as we examine this HOT topic of decentralized autonomous organizations to cap off and celebrate what has definitely been a HOT DAO SUMMER.
Is there a specific question about DAOs that’s been lingering in your mind? Are you wondering about the NEAR Ecosystem Treasury DAO? Time to clear the air! Ask all of your questions here and we will be happy to address them at our Party.
You can register for the event on Airmeet here. The video recording will be posted on the OWS Youtube Channel when available.
Looking forward to celebrating HOT DAO SUMMER with you,
29th of July was marked as a special date in our calendars: the second edition of the Open Web Sandbox was held by Sofia and Rebecca on the Airmeet platform. This recap will give you the most detailed overview of all speakers, special guests and other intriguing details tied to this event. Let’s dive in!
The main theme of this event was the NEAR Rainbow Bridge — a hot topic and a great technological breakthrough; inviting Marcelo Fornet, one of the team developers, to the event created a chance for the participants to broaden their knowledge of this impressive subject. Marcelo talked about the main mechanisms, most recent developments and future plans for the project during the first part of the party and left an ineffable impression on all who were present.
Afterwards, Shreyas, the NEAR community wizard and Guilds Lead, presented the freshest community updates, including a sneak peek of the team’s future plans and key focus areas. But that was not it for the NEAR Core community representation: by the end of the hour, James got a chance to discuss his recent creation — the Sandcastle DAO whose purpose is to eventually become the Ecosystem DAO and represent the whole NEAR population. Intrigued? You can find more information on this project here. All party attendees were invited to join the Sandcastle DAO and become full-fledged members of the council with a promised reward of a special proof of ‘partycipation’ OWS Party NFT created by Sam. It’s still not too late to receive your NFT, all you need to do is to submit the proposal on the Sandcastle DAO and have it approved by the council members.
As you all know, one of the main purposes of these events is to create the space for the community members to share updates on their projects and this edition was no exception! This time the spotlight was taken by multiple NEAR community members such as Alejandro from the Silicon Craftsmen, Riqi from Paras, Kevin from Sankore 2.0, Chloe from Marma J Foundation, Didier from Sodaki and many many more!
On top of that, the OWS moderator Carl presented his brand new idea for an OWS Taskathon (that’s right!) — a live event that will take place by the end of the month and will include multiple tasks, opportunities and exciting rewards. More details to follow in the near future so keep a close eye on our OWS discord server and, trust me, you won’t regret it 😉
All in all, this Rainbow-themed edition of the OWS party was a great success and our team would like to thank each member of the NEAR community who was able to attend the party and also helped to make this event possible. The support of this strong community is fueling our enthusiasm and motivation to continue our work! Distinct gratitude goes to the DJ staRpauSe for providing the music for the opening and the closing of the event, while also managing to sneak in his own project pitch.
Join our Open Web Sandbox Discord server and OWS Twitter account and keep a close eye on our updates: we will soon be back with yet another party edition and other exciting surprises. There you can also share your feedback and suggestions for the upcoming events. In case you have missed this event, you can find the recording here. See you soon!
In early June, the Silicon Craftsmen Guild, led by none other than NEAR Degen AVB, launched NEAR’s premier product design and improvement Guild – for DApps and emerging products on the protocol. Since that time the Silicon Craftsmen have been busy gearing up for the long-haul by putting core infrastructure in place for the future conversation surrounding usability and development of Web3 products.
The Wild Users Interview Podcast: UI / UX on NEAR
The first initiative that the Silicon Craftsmen have planned and launched is known as the WUI Podcast. The value proposition of the podcast is straightforward: Talk to users of core crypto-products to create easily available samples of what users enjoy and why they prefer certain products and design preferences over others. The podcast is already recording and has a full schedule going into Q3!
Really excited to be recording the first three interviews for the Wild User Interviews (WUI) Podcast this week!
Perfect mix of a current Product Manager at traditional Startup w side project on NEAR, a legendary community member and guild leader, and a NEAR Core team member 🔥
Beyond providing insights into the future of product design, development, and usability, the Silicon Craftsmen Guild is also focused on providing immediate value to the NEAR Ecosystem via demos, guides, and walk-throughs of new products launching on the protocol. To date, AVB has loaded up the UX is NEAR Youtube Channel with 6 total videos (5 launched in the last week alone!).
Short, sweet, and to the point, it is clear that as more products launch on NEAR the craftsmen will be available to continuously showcase their best features in an easy-to-use and no-nonsense manner.
Investing in the Long-Term for Product Design and Usability:
One of the unique selling propositions of the Silicon Craftsmen on NEAR, is NEAR’s original focus on usability: NEAR stands as the most usable L1 blockchain in crypto, with its unique Account ID model, the ability to buy and sell accounts, and one-click integrations with native NEAR DApps. All of these benefits increase the value of focusing specifically on user-experience, and design for new dapps looking to launch on NEAR. To prepare for this future, the Craftsmen have begun a course in purposeful design as it relates to web applications, and is also currently in touch with the NEAR Dev Rel and the NEAR Wallet teams. When all is said and done, it is clear that the future of usability and thoughtful design is alive and well on NEAR protocol and in good hands with the Silicon Craftsmen Guild.
To reach out to the guild for a product demo request or related inquiry be sure to check out their website, follow them on twitter, and join their community!
Swine Guild launched in the first wave of NEAR Guild launches, with the purpose of bringing high quality memes into the NEAR Ecosystem. In spite of technical difficulties, the two Swine co-founders – CoyoteFugly and Sue D’Nimm put on a show in their presentation of what a meme guild on NEAR might look like.
Roughly a month later, the NEAR Ecosystem is checking back in with the Swine guild to get an inside look at how Swine guild has become so successful, how they approach their Guild, and what they see in the future for Swine and the rest of the NEAR Guilds!
For new guilds looking to launch on NEAR, and existing guilds looking at an example of growth, the Swine Guild provides a clear cut example of crypto-community entrepreneurship at its finest.
An Inside Look At Swine Guild: Motivations and Future Ambitions
Swine Guild started, on a serious note for a satirical topic: To create memes for the NEAR Ecosystem. Like many other L1’s the NEAR Ecosystem is a blossoming smart contract platform, competing for space in the crypto-verse, amongst many other highly productive projects.
Where did the idea come from to start Swine Guild?
“We had been in the NEAR Ecosystem for a few months working with 4NTS Guild on some Odd Jobs accumulating NEAR, and we realized that the Meme Game was pretty weak for NEAR. Just by looking on Twitter we realized that the internet presence in general was lacking in dank memes for NEAR and especially memes that actually explained products and projects and facets of NEAR that we felt were really significant.”
And why did you choose memes as a form of communication of NEAR and its larger Ecosystem?
“We are both experienced Meme smiths and we saw this as an opportunity for us to contribute to the NEAR community and our love language. And we think that the best crypto projects tend to have really, really good meme communities. It’s a way of driving culture and community engagement. We want to make NEAR memes preeminent in crypto through swine guild.”
How do you approach growing or scaling up Swine Guild?
“The big key word here is Scale – Up. Because we are trying to build something that is sustainable, and as a decentralized community we want to build something that can stand on its own. At the beginning we are starting with a very modest budget and it is just us founders, and we wanted to make sure that we can do a good job in the basics – laying a foundation for future growth.
Every month we want to do a scale up that includes making memes for more and more of the community. We realized that Guilds are a results based project and they are supposed to serve a purpose, and we want to make sure that every scale up can be justified through deliverables. In general, we are trying to balance between ambition and long-term sustainability and we realize that substantive projects aren’t built overnight.”
How is it getting paid in $NEAR? Was it an adjustment from traditional fiat?
“The success of NEAR is dependent on the results of our guild to some extent. We want to contribute to not only make the ecosystem better, but also because we have a staked interest in this project. The incentives are aligned and we want NEAR to win. Getting paid in NEAR is a matter of sweat equity in the protocol.”
The founders added:
“We understand that NEAR is extremely undervalued and that plays into our long-term goal of accumulating of what we believe is a going to be a 20 or maybe 50$ token in the long term. Obviously we have expenses and we want to create a budget that is realistic now, but we don’t really see it as a two dollar token now.”
And in terms of future prospects for the token? There seems to be momentum with NEAR:
“Once you get into the Ecosystem you start to see how much is going on, and how much value is being developed and that narrative is very powerful. We are extremely bullish because we are so familiar with the ecosystem and have watched it grow into what it is. We have confidence in the token based upon our confidence in the team and community.”
Moving beyond Swine Guild itself, what Advice Would You Give To New or Prospective Guild Leaders About This New World?
“The most important part of any enterprise – especially in crypto – is clear communication – because everybody is shooting for the same goal. Being transparent about what you need, what you expect, and what you offer removes a lot of unnecessary anxiety.”
This of course, has to be backed up by production:
“Production at the end of the day is supreme. Communication is important when problems arise, but the best way to have a happy guild is to execute. Show don’t tell. And stick around. So basically plan for the long haul and plan on executing routinely.”
And perhaps to some small extent, that also depends on the nature of the Guild in question:
“We are lucky in Swine Guild insofar as we work with a very product based and tangible item – memes. Our outcomes are extremely tangible — and we know it’s a good week if we can get 12 to 15 memes a week out the door. This whole creator economy – influencers, meme artists, etc. they understand the trickiness of this endeavour. We need to think on variety, content, format, and ecosystem interests all the time.”
How Do You Explain What You Do To People Who Don’t Understand Crypto? Are Memes Here To Stay?
“Memes are here to stay and they have been around since their genesis. They rule. It’s an art form – and like art insofar as it evolves over time to new situations and circumstances and even technologies. You can make memes about anything.
That being said: The way I usually explain if people don’t understand what a crypto is, I say that we use memes to market and educate the community and the larger space. To reach more people and to make it more accessible. A lot of people have been able to understand more with the help of memes. So in essence, I say we are early stage educators of NEAR and Crypto.
Sue added:
“I have explained it as Memes for instruments of exponential growth, and when you are working in the crypto space anything short of exponential growth is usually a bad sign. The very premise of a meme is this element that gets shared widely and uncontrollably. In a marketing and education context they are invaluable. Especially on the internet.”
Any last things, you would like to Tell Us a About Yourselves Personally?
“We love horror movies- we fuck with spirits, but not ghosts. We learned a lot nomading it with 4NTS guild this last year – we almost got stuck in Asia because we messed up the ferry registration back to Europe. Belgian beers slap. We don’t understand sharding – and that’s okay.
To stay up to date with Swine Guild follow them on Twitter or put a request in on their website!
