Dear crypto writers,
We are organizing a writing contest with one of the most legendary communities in all crypto - Nouns.
Kiwi has a lot in common with Nouns. On the surface, it might not be that easy to notice since we are an Ethereum Hacker News, and they're an NFT-based DAO. However, we are both committed to Ethereum, decentralization, and creative experimentation. That's why we are happy to set the stage for this particular contest.
Nouns have been around since 2021, and in the last three years, they have been the trailblazers in building bottom-up brands, running decentralized governance, and supporting public goods.
To this date, Nouns have shared 32,575 ETH (over $80,000,000) with hundreds of projects. These projects built Nouns-related software, designed physical and digital merch, and some were just Ethereum public goods projects. More than a few supported projects, such as Agora, Stand with Crypto, ZachXBT, Protocol Guild, and Nouns Builder protocol, play an important role in the Ethereum ecosystem.
In this Nouns x Kiwi contest, we’d like to focus on Nouns & Nouns-related concepts. The writers will be able to win 3.5 ETH in prizes and receive distribution from the Kiwi & Nouns communities.
Here’s how it’s going to work.
How does the contest work
The contest starts on the 14th of October and ends on the 4th of November.
The contest is called “Into the Nouniverse ⌐◨-◨” and its goal is to help the crypto community understand the achievements, potential, and vibes of the Nouns project.
Here’s how you can take part in it:
1) Write a post that helps people understand Nouns better.
The prompts for the contest are:
Is being 'Nounish' a state of mind, a cultural signal, or maybe a way to look at the world? What are the philosophies and unwritten rules that shape the Nounish identity?
What can Nouns teach us about turning brand building upside down, and making it open source and steered by the community?
From headline-making proposals to under-the-radar decisions, which moments have shaped the Nouns history most profoundly, and why?
How has Nouns’ approach to governance reshaped the way you think about decentralized communities, and what aspects have been most surprising or eye-opening?
What are the untapped avenues for Nouns to capture more value from their activities, beyond NFT mints?
And a special prompt from Seneca, one of the Nounders:
Can Nouns be the face of crypto? What would it mean for the industry at large if Nouns were to become a household name?
You can choose one or more than one of these prompts to write your essay.
Update: If you need to dive deeper into Nouns first, we asked our community member and a long-time Noun - Chris Carella - to compile a Nouns 101 Reading List.
2) Add a line about your post taking part in the contest.
Link to this contest announcement with the words: “This post is taking part in the Nouns x Kiwi writing contest” at the beginning of your post.
3) Share your post on the platform of your choice.
The contest is platform-agnostic, so you can post on apps such as Paragraph, Mirror, Substack, X, Warpcast, Zora, private websites, and so on.
4) Submit your post to Kiwi.
To submit links to Kiwi, you need to have a Kiwipass. All Nouns are entitled to receive a free Kiwi Pass. If you want one, please DM Mac on Telegram or Warpcast.
5) Remember about the deadline.
To qualify for the contest, the author must submit their post to Kiwi between the 14th of October 00:00:01 CET and the 4th of November, 23:59:59 CET.
6) There will be four prizes in two tracks.
The contest will have two tracks, with 3.5 ETH split equally to their prize pools.
The first track is called “Vox Populi,” and its winners will be determined by the number of upvotes received on Kiwi. The second track is called “Vox Judicis,” and its winners will be determined by the jury from the Nouns & Kiwi teams.
The prizes will be divided as follows:
1st place: 0.875 ETH
2nd place: 0.4375 ETH
3rd place: 0.2625 ETH
4th place: 0.175 ETH
The "Vox Judicis" track is meant to reward posts that we consider good but didn't receive too much attention, so we are leaning into having 8 different winners in these 2 tracks. But if we see some outstanding work, it is not impossible for an author to win prizes in both tracks.
Update: Apart from the prizes, our long-time community member Riley Beans has offered to publish one of the winning posts in print in the EIC Quarterly magazine.
(The jury team is still being determined - if you’re a Noun and would like to join it, please let us know)
7) On the 6th of November at 6 pm CET, the voting concludes, and we reveal the winners in the next few days.
[Edit: in the previous version, we said we would reveal the winners on the 4th of November. We updated it to give people more time to read and vote]
For the "Vox Populi" track we will count all upvotes from Nouns owners and most active Kiwi community members*. For the “Vox Judicis" track we will let the jury decide which posts they liked the most.
If you end up being one of the winners, you will just have to send us a receipt/invoice and the wallet address to which you want the ETH to be sent.
*Most active Kiwi community members are those who before the 12th of October collected at least 3 Kiwi karma points. You can check the user's Karma score, just bear in mind that this is a real-time board, not the timestamped one.
All writers are also welcome to share their posts on X and Farcaster. Our profiles will repost the best submissions.
If you want a retweet on X, you should tag @KiwiNewsHQ and @NounsDAO.
If you want a repost on Farcaster, you should tag @kiwi, and @nouns. It might also be a good idea to post your submission in f/nouns channel.
Summary
Nouns have been one of the most impactful projects in crypto, and we are happy to run a contest together.
We hope this contest will serve as a Schelling Point for writers who want to explore Noun-ish ideas and share them with the wider crypto world.
If you have any questions related to this contest, feel free to DM @macbudkowski on Telegram.
PS: Authors can use AI for brainstorming or editing but please don't share fully AI-written essays 🙂
Results of the “Into the Nouniverse” writing contest 4 upvotes, submitted by @macbudkowski
gm gm we have the results of the "Into the Nouniverse" contest! congrats to the winners: @mehdib, @p-e, @bradq, @naomiiii, @wmp.eth, richardmba.eth, @simondlr & @robotfishgirl! and thanks to everyone who supported our contest! https://paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-updates/into-the-nouniverse-writing-contest-results
we also have a commemorative NFT you can mint here: https://zora.co/collect/base:0x5460ca89491cd6acdad7e3f20a0cdb510c35ea40/1
nominate @timdaub.eth for building @kiwi (the onchain hacker news) and hosting a @nouns-dao competition supporting writers alongside @macbudkowski https://paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-updates/into-the-nouniverse-writing-contest
Found an article within this one that is exactly what I was looking for to study /nouns properly Thank you!
The only nouns article you will ever need fren 🫠😁 https://paragraph.xyz/@papajams.eth/nounswtf
Awesome, thanks! 🤩
Keep Nominating🫡🫡
This is slightly dated and I've met so many more great projects and people since I made the list. But not a lot of people publish about Nouns so the reading list doesn't feel dated. This is one reason I'm excited that Kiwi is running and Essay contest around Nouns. More info here: https://paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-updates/into-the-nouniverse-writing-contest
I really want to participate in this yet would love help funding the mint to join. ⌐◨-◨ https://news.kiwistand.com/kiwipass-mint https://paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-updates/into-the-nouniverse-writing-contest
Back with another handful of hand-picked pieces of writing over the past week or so!
Before we dive in, we wanted to spotlight a writing contest hosted by @kiwi & @nouns. Writers are invited to write about the any Nounish topics for a chance to win part of a 3.5 ETH prize pool (among other benefits!). Read more about it here: https://paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-updates/into-the-nouniverse-writing-contest
@tinyrainboot shares a frustration with the “free mint” culture in blockchain art, criticizing its benefits to platforms over artists and weighing various strategies for regaining control over their work and its value. "These models incentivize the creation of art as something quick, low-effort, and easy, because why pour hours of your time into making something with such a low ROI?" https://paragraph.xyz/@tinyrainboot/free-mint-meta
@cbxm shares his journey from a casual viewer to an avid New York Liberty supporter, praising standout players like Breanna Stewart, Caitlin Clark, Diana Taurasi, and A’ja Wilson, while capturing the drama and excitement of the season and playoffs. https://paragraph.xyz/@cbxm/the-w
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our @kiwi x @nouns writing contest news is out! Everyone is welcome to write about cc0, decentralized governance, bottom-up brand building and other Nounish subjects. We prepared five prompts to help authors explore the Nouniverse. We also received a prompt from one of the Nounders - @seneca. To participate in the contest, your blog post must answer at least one of the prompts. Apart from the eternal glory, you will be able to win a part of the 3.5 ETH prize pool. Our contest is platform agnostic, so you can post your essay anywhere you want - on Paragraph, Mirror, Substack, X, Farcaster, or even ZORA. Even if you don’t win the main prize, you can win some attention and subscribers because Kiwi and some Nouns members will repost the best submissions. You can learn more about the contest here: https://paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-updates/into-the-nouniverse-writing-contest PS: Thanks to @ccarella.eth, @nounishprof and @wiz, for helping to set it up, and thanks to all Nouns who supported our prop ⌐◨-◨
brilliant! I need to throw my hat in the ring.
🚀
okay, got the fun part done (wrote and published), now gonna do the get in the contest things - kiwi pass here i come :)
if you had any questions, lmk!
Need an invite to Kiwi. Can't you help me out Mac?
Sure DM me :)