Signalling - Donor Drop Round Two: Web3Privacy Now 🎯

[Gavin]

Hello I’m writing this on behalf of Luminara

We launched Namada Prop2 and Prop5: https://explorer75.org/namada/proposals/5

We’re grateful that voters signalled strong support for our first Donor Drop, which targeted the amazing Coin Center team

Now that the first Donor Drop is done, we’re proposing a second: Web3Privacy Now

This is a signalling proposal. With your support, Donor Drop Round Two (R2) will look similar to Round One, but will include improvements and feedback suggested by you

Namada, will you support this?

• Estimated 900k - 1.2M NAM total from Namada PGF
  • Aiming for 900k airdrop
  • 25k NAM for the creator of the Donor Drop front-end
  • 1.8% - 2.4% of the yearly budget
• Allocated to Web3Privacy Now donors (aiming to recognize ~36 ETH in donations)
• Campaign estimated to last two weeks (Donor Drop window estimate ~3 days)
• A follow-up PGF proposal to distribute the NAM airdrop to donor addresses

Web3PrivacyNow has an active group of builders, creators and policy advocates–they’ll be great partners, in addition to our own community efforts.

Namada comms are prepped and ready to help with promotion, TuDudes is prepared to run our community-built Donor Drop app, and @almostFitz has an operations plan that he’s itching to launch

Why Web3Privacy Now?

Web3Privacy Now has become a cultural epicenter for teams, communities, and individuals answering the call to return to cypherpunk roots–namely, digital privacy.

W3PN hosts events, creates (educational content](Privacy Guides | Web3Privacy Now Docs) and research reports, advocacy, and social initiatives that bind us together as a community–beyond Namada, but within crypto. They were our co-organizers for the Shielding Summit in Brussels

Check them out! and get involved!

Donor Drop History

The world’s first Donor Drop was an experiment: do public goods funding (PGF) more effectively using Namada’s novel PGF mechanism.

Coin Center was our donation target. Problem: Coin Center needs runway, not a new token with no market. But there are people who do want a new pre-market token.

Solution: the Namada community used Namada’s PGF technology to airdrop NAM to those who donated ETH to Coin Center

People were surprised at how successful Donor Drop R1 was:

mine Zcash ᙇ🛡 (@mineZcash) on X

Donor Drop success: 36.78 ETH donated to Coin Center

Just want to say that this wildly exceeded my expectations and was executed flawlessly as far as I’m concerned. Well done to everyone involved and all those who donated! Hoping to see more campaigns like this in the future.

Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) on X

Christopher Goes (@cwgoes) on X

That’s because with hardly any promotion, ~200 donations were made to Coin Center in ~30 minutes, totalling 36.78 ETH (~$125k at that time). More recap here: Donor Drop success: 36.78 ETH donated to Coin Center

And we were amazed at the grassroots community effort to build an app that supported the Donor Drop. In three weeks the app was done, and it was

In fact, Zen has since open-sourced his front-end creation. It’s not just his code, it’s his art

GitHub - zenodeapp/donor-drop-frontend: Frontend implementation of the Donor Drop app.

This is why, beyond our upcoming PGF proposal to reward the app creators for their support for R1, we’d also like to include Zen’s address in each subsequent proposal that we use this Donor Drop front-end

[Gavin]

Gavin Birch 🏴 (@Ether_Gavin) on X

[tokidoki]

Is there any reason why we need to limit the donation amount recognized for Donor Drop?

Imposing a limit on the maximum donation amount recognized for the Donor Drop, specifically 36 ETH, will ultimately benefit only Ethereum users from certain time zones or those with specific technical expertise.

I propose instead to recognize all ETH donations made within a set time frame (minimum 24 hours) to provide equal opportunities for participants active at different times.

Rather than allocating 900k NAM to the 36 ETH donors who happen to be awake during the start of the Donor Drop or who possess the technical skills to automate their donations in advance, we should give every ETH donor an equal chance during this 24-hour period to acquire a portion of the 900k NAM.

While this approach may result in fewer donations, it is the same risk as the amount-limited donor drop system. Conversely, it could also lead to more donations, benefiting the Web3Privacy Now community and attracting more members to Namada.

[OVDuck]

Hello,
Please limit NAM reward to at least to 200-250k if we plan to collect 36 ETH.

I think NAM reward should not be that high as suggested in the post. Make it more reasonable so the Drop actually lasts for a few days at least.

Last time many people who actually wanted to get involved into Namada were not able to do so, since Drop ended too fast.

[Sahib]

Hello, Namada community! I supported the first donor drop because it was bold, it was new, it was in some way truly decentralized.
But, I don’t understand what the rush is, why are you in such a hurry, Gavin, and thereby devaluing the significance of the NAM token?
I don’t like the fact that in a short period of time, people get a token in quite a large amount for a fairly low cost. We can’t check these accounts for sybils and so on.
Why do I think this is devaluing the token? To get about ~23,000 NAM tokens, an SE participant needed to actively participate in the life of the project for about 3 months. And here a couple of thousand dollars and just a few “donor” accounts are enough.

I do not support such a quick second stage in the described parameters! It is necessary to either postpone the second donor drop, or change the proportions of NAM / ETH.

[cryptosj]

• The success of this round will depends on demand and whether people are willing to donate.
• But to move forward, the $value of NAM must be doubled from the first round:
• 1M NAM = 70 ETH
  or
• 500K NAM = 35 ETH
• Without this adjustment, I will not support it.
• Early donors must be given leverage for their contributions.
• We cannot devalue NAM like this.

[miles-six]

We cannot devalue NAM l

[Barrys2025]

900K donor drop for 36ETH is fine,I support this,increase the $value of NAM is not good,since this is donor drop, not token selling.we need more people to join this donor drop.

[Super0086-code]

I couldn’t agree more. Launching another donation campaign can attract more people to participate in the ecological construction of Namda. At the same time, Web3Privacy Now can obtain sufficient donations to maintain its good operation and better build the blockchain world. Therefore, I support this initiative and will make a donation.

[Rigorous]

Web3Privacy

They have organized multiple events with topics that are very aligned with Namada and they managed to get prominent speakers on stage. If you know what it costs to organize events, the proposed 36 ETH is not extravagant, but could help a lot. Therefore I support this beneficiary.

recognize all ETH donations made within a set time frame

I like this idea, but it would involve too many changes to the Donor Drop app. But it may be a nice concept to explore for Donor Drops after Phase 5.

change the proportions of NAM / ETH

I agree it should be decreased slightly:

• Considering it took only 30 minutes to complete, the first Donor Drop may have been a too good deal, which surprisingly could be net negative to the PGF ecosystem, as it may have attracted non-aligned traders that only participated to extract value. It may have been interpreted too much as a discount instead of as a donation to a cause.
• Giving Donor Drop #2 donors the same deal will likely piss off Donor Drop #1 donors and also looks cheap to non-donors.
• Primary goals besides funding a good cause were advertising Namada and increasing the number of NAM holders. There needs to be a little bit more friction to prevent Sybils and to allow the campaign to run for longer than 30 minutes.
• To make it geographically fair, we should aim for about 24 hours, which could be achieved by increasing friction (vague, I know).

Other thoughts:

• I would like to see a larger number of participants.
• The donation period should be timed to be open just before it is clear to everyone that Phase 5 will activate 1 day later.
• The Donor Drop app should be launched on a testnet for several days before the real thing, so people can practice the procedure. Fixing broken and missing donations of Donor Drop #1 took way too much time.

[almostFitz]

So am I right if I say that your main concern is getting a bigger window to allow for more participants from a bigger audience?

fwiw, I see it as hard to aim for ‘geographically fair’, but possible to aim for geographically neutral in how campaigns are deployed.

[almostFitz]

How do you see lowering the amount of NAM rewarded as having the outcome that the drop will last longer? Can you explain a bit more?

[OVDuck]

Sure.
With the current proposal (the same as in the previous drop), anyone with ETH can get NAM tokens for literally $0.1 in donations, which many perceive as relatively cheap.

So these people are rushing to donate ETH to get cheap NAM so they can make a potential profit later when NAM is available on the market. Purely speculative motive, not a “donation” but an investment)

Such NAM holders don’t give a … thing about Namada, Privacy, or Donor Drop target and will sell all tokens at first opprtunity.

[tokidoki]

Yes, a bigger time window will make a difference. At least 24h window will cover all time-zones equally.

Another small concern is that by limiting the amount of donations recognized for donor drops, we unintentionally send some signal to the wider market of NAM value relative to the amount of ETH. This is a minor issue for me since NAM is not liquid yet, but it does send a message to the broader market about how NAM stakers/voters value their NAM.

[almostFitz]

Definitely some good ideas in here! The friction thing is a big concern of mine, but unsure of how to actually integrate something that makes things more sybil resistant, but not a nightmare for the user. Any thoughts?

For the DDR#2 pissing off DDR#1 donors, i’m not sure I see how exactly. Was it stated first time around that this was a one time thing? And couldn’t any donor from R1 decide to donate again if they want to? Not trying to shoot it down, i just don’t quite see how it reasons out to make someone mad that it was successful enough to setup interest in a Round 2.

The suggestion to have it open just before Phase 5 activates seems like too many moving parts in an already complex operation. I can’t see a benefit to trying to time things so closely together especially when one is a governance initiative and the other is core protocol development. I respect the thinking tho.

DD app being on testnet is a idea. We need this! And need better edu docs about how ppl can go through the process so we have less mistakes and easier flow!

[Rigorous]

DDR#2 pissing off DDR#1 donors

Did you ever thought you had a once in a lifetime discount on Black Friday and then one month later the same deal is repeated for the Christmas Sale? It is not unfair, but might still leave a sour taste, because there may have been an assumption that Phase 5 would follow quickly after the first Donor Drop.

But I can also see your point that the #1 donors can benefit once again from the same deal that was otherwise restricted to 10,000 NAM.

friction

By making the deal slightly less good and reducing the maximum contribution per address. How to configure it in such a way it will run for about 24 hours is occult sorcery, yes.

open just before Phase 5

To maintain positive optics it is absolutely imperative we prove that Donor Drop #2 is not going to delay Phase 5. Remember, the Donor Drop is a marketing tool too. What would be the point of losing respect with the very tool that was meant to increase it? So when Donor Drop #2 launches, the Phase 5 proposal should already have quorum and strongly point to consensus. I implore you to take this advise extremely serious, and I am surely not the only one having this perspective.

[dismad]

I love the enthusiasm with these donor drives but I think if we do it again too soon, it loses its magic. They should happen randomly, and without any notice because I think more folks are now “on the hunt”. Another question, why just ETH? Why not ZEC, XMR, or UM, a token more aligned with privacy?

Thanks for reading my thoughts

[ChainflowPOS]

It seems like there is concern over “Devaluing NAM.”

Reducing the amount of NAM tokens rewarded per donation can help prolong the donation window, allowing more participants to contribute over time. This falls under our values of increasing access and improving decentralization within ecosystems. This also protects the value of $NAM because it removes downward pressure from the Donor Drops. I think if you look at things long term you would want the Donor drop to be consistently used, the overall public would be more inclined to fund public goods if they believe that they don’t add that downward pressure. How much is currently in the PGF treasury compared to total NAM in circulation? Perhaps using this ratio to guide judgement on the NAM/ETH rewards and being transparent about how it’s done could be a solution.

Web3Privacy Now does good work and is synonymous with the Namada ethos!

Lastly, +1 on making sure this is sybil resistant

[Gavin]

Amazing to see so much feedback, thank you!

We’re reviewing and will take all of this into consideration

[Mykola_web3privacy]

Hey, everyone!

Mykola from Web3Privacy now here.
First of all, thank for signalling why privacy advocacy we do are so important!

Some useful links and plans we wanna deliver in 2025: https://linktr.ee/web3privacy_test

events: tons of privacy-focused meetups, hackathons, summits & congresses:

Namada community will speak there, share experience, connect with peers. Moreover, looking forward in supporting hackathon projects scouting new devs and project-managers who could contribute to Namada dapps.

Privacy dashboard: we are fostering progress of Privacy dashboard aka “free Messari” http://explorer.web3privacy.info - this helps to get the latest info who’s building what within privacy ecosystem + make knowledge free and open. Namada has dedicated page (looking forward for ecosystem projects to be there too)

mind: it’s GitHub-friendly, open-source and free.

Research: we will double-down on research this year covering from “AI x Privacy report” to “IBC privacy snapshot”.

Research covers Scoring model for privacy (for Privacy dashboard), Privacy audit that will become a market standard and even Annual market report.

Academy: we are battle-testing Academy to onboard more people into privacy with ease - it will act as a platform helping projects like Namada storytell privacy as ABC, get tons of educational content and build edu-modules around specific subjects (like “shielded transactions”).

Devs: this year we will put lots of attention on helping non-privacy devs build their first dapp - from standalone hackathons to frameworks.

We mapped Privacy builder journey, consult it with the privacy devs and projects - expect “Accelerator approach” (free) to nurture devs on their way to Privacy-market-fit. Teaching, matching with experts, unlock grants etc.

Some other activities we do:

• Awards featuring experts from Vitalik Buterin to Seth For Privacy
• Newsletter
• Job board for privacy
• Ideas generator for devs
• Publishing: book on Privacy in the digital realm with contributions from Audrey Tang to Naomi Brockwell; zine on privacy.
• Content production: from personal open-source expert stacks (Vitalik, Audrey Tang and others) to tons of educational videos

And it’s not even a full snapshot of what we do, how we do, and why it matters for the who privacy x decentralization movement.

Last, but not least, happy to support our pals Poetic Technologies (Namada validators + future developers) with our staked tokens.