This is a new thread about generating educational content for Grin and helping to contribute to the project. As mentioned in the earlier post, I have worked on other crypto projects (albeit in non-technical roles) and have done content and outreach for the project (Sarcopahgus). A couple of things I’ve learned from the +2 years working with them are that:
There are tiers of users and what they want from content and I think how you choose to go about content drives the type of users you’re trying to bring into the fold.
Developers/builders - Usually attracted to projects by interesting uses, technical challenges and/or chances to make good on tokens/coins
Believers In the Cause (What I’ll call probably most of the people actively engaging here) - They can see the reason why a project exists and believe in it. More of a pull than a push from them to be involved
Miners - For PoW projects, there are always those looking to earn from mining and (like myself) eventually gain interest in what a project stands for
Users/Speculators - They are two distinct groups but I group them together because most attempts at trying to grow users also attracts the speculators as well. So a double-edged sword.
We did outreaches to college blockchain groups which usually were greeted with positivity and setup through cold messaging them online and just asking to speak at one of their meetings. You’d get a good mix of technical questions as well as questions about work or jobs
My personal opinion on how to start/where to build content and/or educational material would be aimed at developers/builders and also already existing communities that have similar appeal to privacy projects from the main top 10 chains (ETH/SOL/etc…). For the developers showcase some of the cool features of Grin and show how easy it is to contribute. For the other appeal group build material explaining how Grin works and how it can used to safeguard assets and/or be used to enable privacy on DLT.
@Anynomous and @transatoshi tagging you as well as you had some comments about what to do and all.
Once I get a good idea of where to start I can write up a more formal proposal and see if others agree.
Thank you for your dedication to the project, and if you look at grin from my point of view, I will introduce the uniqueness of the grin project.
Absolute fairness, no pre-mining, no halving (no special consideration for the interests of the early adopters)
2.The most important innovation of Bitcoin is not the so-called decentralization, nor P2P, but the fact that Bitcoin is a “deflationary currency”; And Grin is the opposite of Bitcoin, and Grin is an “inflationary currency” that conforms to long-term developmentalism
3.3. Code elegance, scale, and extensibility (what other technologists like ardocrat told me.)
Yeah lots of lessons learned from that project… the founder did a great job raising funding for the dapp but wanted to do no real marketing of it and wanted organic growth… also since we were built on ETH and launched during NFT craze of 2021 fees made using the dapp super costly. I left the project early last year and have not been active with any projects… I would suggest reading about the project though the ethos and principles around it are very cool and aligned with the privacy space just some bad luck and probably poor decisions led it to not really getting pmf…
I have started a new wiki at https://grin.wiki which I will use to get all the spread out information about Grin consolidated to one place. I’ve just added the basics about Grin so far from the Github wiki, and I am noticing the language used is very outdated so I’ll make an effort to update that and correct typos.
Thank you for your contribution offer. Do you have any examples of your work from the previous project that we could see? Just to get an idea of content and structure. Thanks.
Hey sorry for missing this reply, was on vacation and not connected. I was also a little hesitant to post something for a couple of reasons, but below are links to some of the things I helped with:
Sarcophagus Medium Page - I organized and ran the medium content for our project and that’s primarily how I first got connected with Sarcophagus was helping them do some writing before joining the core team. We did various updates, technical updates from the devs, contests, etc… During the 21 bull, we actually got quite a few people and communities that started to follow the project as it was building. Due to the lack of traction and pmf it slowly faded during the bear and the team slowly disbanded.
My personal Medium Page - I’ve done a lot of writing for various projects through the years, Sarcophagus being the most prominent, also did ghostwriting for Conceal Network, and now help do token engineering supporting through Token Dynamics as well as through myself. There are also some early Python educational content at the very start of my Medium that I did and helped me try and pursue to learn/teach myself better through writing.
A hesitation of putting something too half winded real quick as I’ve been thinking this through is who is the most effective audience that the project needs. I think a lot of people who’ve been in the trenches know the name Grin, but maybe not much more than that, so I think trying to appeal to newer audiences getting into Crypto, younger devs, etc might be the opportunity and trying to cater to that group.
That being said, I was thinking as well that a Medium/Substack/other type of newsletter is helpful to some degree but it would need to come at a different angle than the one that comes out already on substack. In addition, I know I brought it up here in the past, but either trying to sneak some profile into Farcaster or Nostr would be a way to help funnel it to people as well. Farcaster, primarily an Ethereum-based social media platform is opening its doors to other ecosystems and also has the ability to build apps within their iOS app… I cheap way to get apps distributed without having the hassle of going through Apple Store/Android is the way I see it. In addition to social media platforms I think getting more “presence” on other forums in adjacent topics would be helpful, like Techlore and other privacy, digital freedom groups as well. Mr. Kwibs the community/marketing guy for Zano (who I know from Conceal days) has a privacy-themed Telegram chat that he’s been wanting to build out and make it a place for privacy projects to talk/discuss/chat/etc… They have a presence from Firo/Pirate/XMR/Zano/etc communities there.
Lastly, I saw someone post about getting grin++ or Grim setup on Umbrel. I think these distribution mechanisms are great and free provided someone builds out the build/docker containers to be hosted. There are a couple of different groups that provide OS’s for nodes. Umbrel and DappNode being the two most prominent that I know.
So at a high level to summarize my thinking right now the plan would be to:
Further define what content to draw attention to Grin looks like and who that audience is
Once the personas are understood build content in various forms: short form social media posts, longer blogs, walkthroughs, etc… to develop some cadence of content
Build presence and/or find ways to interject the subject of Grin and what it can do in other adjacent communities (ie Techlore, Privacy of Pursuit, TechRepublic, etc…)
More technical knowledge needed but look at how to integrate into crypto social media platforms - Nostr/Farcaster
Get node distribution through existing channels one for increased visibility and also to help with decentralization
Incentive plans could be discussed for trying to build engagement at a much later point, but that is always a two edged sword with balancing attracting new people and trying to keep away mercenary capital…
Just my thoughts, and would love for anyone to chime in and provide some of their feedback as I wouldn’t want to presumptiously try and presume what the project needs without the voices of those who commonly post here.
I think that we need to expand the positioning of grin. In particular, when the time comes for the introduction of CBDC, we need to make it clear to people that grin can become the best digital offshore zone.
I’d rather emphasize that it’s easy to follow the law with Grin. Focusing on its utility for breaking laws forces it into a very small niche that does not have broad appeal.
“Grin is not a privacy coin” subverts expectations for marketing campaigns, takes ammo away from opponents that cry “the privacy isn’t that good!”, and has a certain catchiness to it.
