Web3 con Impacto Social en LATAM, Phase 2

A quantitative & qualitative research on social impact x web3 projects in LATAM.

Versión en español acá (https://ladreammachine.notion.site/La-Dream-Machine-Gitcoin-Grants-18-Espa-ol-e489b6c60ccf43de9234e8c696c7939d?pvs=4)

What you’ll find in this grant

1. TL;DR
2. What is La Dream Machine?
3. What have we built so far?
4. GR18: Web3 con Impacto Social en LATAM, Phase 2

⌛ TL;DR

Donating to La Dream Machine will result in the publishing of “Web3 con Impacto Social in LATAM”, a quantitative & qualitative research showcasing the state of the art on ReFi/Regen/public goods projects in the region.

By donating, you will support our core team to deliver, promote and present IRL the report, data base of projects, interviews, plus identified trends, opportunities and challenges in the ecosystem.

All content will be free, public and open source. Below you can find all the details about this and the progress obtained until now.

Join La Dream Machine in its mission to bring social, critical and latin perspectives to the space, by donating to this grant and sharing it with others!

La Dream Machine

🧐 What is La Dream Machine?

La Dream Machine is a public goods research hub with a social, latin, and critical focus. We explore the possibilities of blockchain, AI and regeneration through our newsletter, data driven research, a podcast and plenty of collaborations.

🤔 Why?

Frankly, because we are both bored and scared of:

• The mainstream & polarized crypto narratives. We found ourselves trapped either by the ‘web3 is gonna save the world’ or “web3 is nothing but a scam”. Same with AI.
• The Regen/ReFi spaces have broadened the discourses, but there is so much more to add towards actual systemic change.
• The lack of visibility/funding towards the South American wisdom, talent, communities, projects and sazón.
• The quantity & quality of Spanish web3/AI/tech content.
• The lack of humanities in mainstream crypto/AI/tech narratives.

By failing to integrate critical perspectives on said areas, we risk using all its potential to replicate the same dynamics we so desperately need to change - specially on the Global South.

✨ How do we propose to solve it?

We aim to create a knowledge and networking virtual hub for everyone working to improve LATAM, willing to responsibly look at the existential risks and hopes of blockchain technologies 👩🏾‍❤️‍👩🏽

Our activities include:

• 📰 Newsletter: ~50 editions published since 2022, ~150 subscribers, 2000+ views. Free and open source.
• 📉 Research -> "Web3 con Impacto Social en LATAM": we mapped ~100 projects in LATAM and classified them according to the UN’s SDGs. We teamed with Ashoka for the second iteration, introducing a heavy focus on systemic change.
• 🎙️Podcast: Just launched. Intimate, flexible, in-depth, not twitter-dependent conversations. Two episodes so far: interview w/ Cecilia Iaconelli on applied anthropology for regenerative communities, in english and spanish. More to come.
• 🎤 Twitter Spaces: hosted/participated in several spaces in collaboration with AndinoDAO, ReFi Tulum, CryptoConexión, Maker DAO’s Latin Ambassadors Project, more.
• 🫂Collaborations: Partnerships with several projects for specific initiatives, like Ashoka, Solarpunk Guild, Urbánika, FUTURX, Crypto-Communities, more.
• ✖️Twitter: ~1.000 followers, regularly publishing since April 2023.

🌎 Gitcoin Round 18

For GR 18, we are raising funds to deliver, promote and present IRL the Phase 2 of “Web3 con Impacto Social en LATAM”, our main research project at the moment.

Web3 con Impacto Social en LATAM (aka Web3 x Social Impact x LATAM)

👁️ Phase 1

Goal: Map all Latinoamerican projects working with web3 for social impact in the region, and showcase this ecosystem rather than the merely financial one.

• Mapped ~100 projects, classified them according to the UN’s SDGs, gathered quantitative data, and published the preliminary results through our newsletter.
• In late 2022, we presented the results at Ekoparty, and in UPFCoin’s ReFi side event for Labitconf.
• Referenced by Jaka Labs’ 2022 web3 landscape, Nueva Filosofía Tecnológica’s Fungiendo Innovación essay, more.

👀 Phase 2

After a successful first phase, we felt we had just scratched the surface.

Thus, we partnered with Ashoka’s Latin Department to introduce a heavy focus on systemic change. Ashoka has 40+ years of expertise working within the social entrepreneurship landscape, worldwide.

For Phase 2, we set out to:

• Grow & refine our database (which will be open source),
• Release an in-depth questionnaire (which you can check/complete here)
• Run introductory interviews with 10 selected projects
• Data analysis: identify trends, challenges, opportunities
• Deploy website with main findings + interactive graphics.

All products will be released on-line and presented IRL in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by October, if the gods – aka you, fellow dreamers – are with us!

Up to now, all research has been self-funded. We aim to raise between $6.000 - $10.000 USD to cover research and promotion expenses for La Dream Machine’s core team.

By the way, we are building live through GR18, RIGHT NOW, as we are running our daily, Spanish-speaking, in-depth interviews with selected LATAM projects through the Solarpunk Guild’s Gitcoin Radio. Big shoutout to Urbánika, who is co-hosting the interviews with us!

💰How's the budget raised in GG18 going to be used?

• Pay Claudio Cifuentes Lobo as La Dream Machine’s lead researcher + content creator for the next 3 months.
• Pay for x2 tickets to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the IRL presentation.

Budget: $5.000 + $1.000 (at least…)

$4.500 USD - research

• 3 Months Salary for lead researcher: $1.500 USD / month

$1.000 USD - Argentina trip

• Tickets, housing and expenses for Claudio & Simón Espínola, LDM’s co founder, trip to Argentina to present Phase 2.
• We plan to meet as many investment leads as we can through this weekend, web3 and non-web3. That’s why we ask money for 2 tickets, not just one.

$540 USD - hardware + software

• Hardware: $300
  • Microphone
  • Headphone
• Software subscriptions: $240
  • Google Drive (docs management): $60 USD per year
  • Riverside (podcast recorder + editor): $180 per year

If we were to receive more money, it would be re-invested in Phase 3 of this research.

🏆 Team

Claudio Cifuentes Lobo, journalist and writer, co founder of La Dream Machine and Impact Academy.

Simon Espínola, economist and social entrepreneur, cofounder of La Dream Machine and CEO of Naturland.

Action 📢!

If you’ve reached here is because you are genuinely interested in making this happen, right?

The team working on La Dream Machine is putting the sweat and tears to make this happen. If we want to change the world by introducing new technologies /systems, it's crucial we also look at them with a latin, social and critical lens. So, please remember that more than $1 helps a lot to boost the QF match.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions or want to collaborate, please reach out through a Twitter DM or an email to claudiocifuenteslobo@gmail.com.

Oh! before you leave…

If you are a donor & a grantee, the best of luck to you too.

Send us a DM with your grant’s link. We will check it out. We promote others making a real impact too, and because we are part of the SolarPunk Guild we host the Gitcoin Radio, so if you are building for the common good, we would love to invite you to a session.

If you are a donor, thank you for reaching this point. Consider attending the Gitcoin Radio sessions, you will get to know other great projects and we will have several sessions in Spanish too.