AIP-509: Raising awareness of Ape coin and its ease of use at Traditional Finance Events

PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION

Having attended several traditional finance conferences during the first half of 2024, I have learned a lot about their views on crypto and more specifically tokens. There is a huge knowledge gap between where the market is and what the finance bros believe. There is a huge number of skeptics and those people when challenged to name three tokens, they struggled, many even believing that there is only one block chain and all tokens sit within it. Others mistakenly called it the “brick-chain”, because each block was similar to a brick and those bricks make up the chain, similar to cementing together a garden wall!

So what is the solution?

I plan to build out my team to own, operate and offer free sessions at traditional finance events using our Coffee Bicycle. A nice warm coffee while you find out about APE and understand that while the Bored Ape Yacht Club was intrinsic in the launch strategy it’s now not its core driving force. I believe we have concentrated on selling to people inside the web3 community and while this is appealing it doesn’t attract enough new customers to offset the staking rewards and tokens being dumped by people who have just become funded.

The advantage of our model is that a percentage of the tokens received will be gifted to new users, allowing them to use ApeChain and purchase a nice warm coffee from our cargo bike, demonstrating how quick and simple it is to make a payment using APE and of course, earning the network another transaction, I believe these types of events are critical to network growth, an increase in network transactions, helps to reassure holders that the chain is alive and working. Having spoken to friends at TEZOS, I know that network activity is a core metric/consideration of any approved grant proposal and I believe that this model will generate transactions and new users, even if it’s only to buy cups of nice warm coffee throughout the winter events. Food and drinks booths have always attracted good footfall at events and with more event organizers removing free coffee stands, I strongly believe this will drive the creation of new wallets and transactions for the network.

So how does the stand work?

The stand will offer free cups of nice warm coffee to those who hold APE coins in their wallet, if the customer does not have any APE coin then they will be shown how to create a coinbase wallet and be sent five APE coin tokens. The web3 educator will help the customer understand web3 and explain how these can then be redeemed for a nice warm coffee, allowing the team to demonstrate the ease of use of APE CHAIN and of course reward the new APE coin holder with a nice warm coffee. Leaving them enough tokens to pop back later and claim a second free coffee. Our event activity will generate one new wallet and three transactions per new customer, at a busy event I would expect to serve a minimum of 200 coffees per day paid for in APE. These customers would likely be new to holding crypto and new to the ecosystem. I will offer quick bite sized fifteen minute web3 explainers and will share them with the wider DAO to ensure the training remains of a suitable standard. The training will also be created as video content and transcribed for a “How to: Ape” book.

How is the business sustainable?

Recycled paper cups and lids made from vegware a full compostable product, water based inks for branding, PVC free printable wrap and of course an eBike base rather than a petrol powered Piaggio APE.

This is where most small businesses would stop and consider themselves green, but for me, this is simply the beginning. I plan to recycle the used coffee grounds into fertilizer to grow mushrooms, these mushrooms will be donated to local food banks, helping to ensure those who need a “help up”, get some nutritious fresh vegetables. Any leftover mushrooms will be converted into animal feed, and again donated to local british farms to help feed livestock.

The cart will also offer orange juice and kombucha to customers, these drinks will be designed to fit within the low carbon business model with as many of the ingredients sourced within 10 miles of production and those that have to be shipped further having at least two purposes, for example our oranges, these will be shipped from mainland europe and as such they will exceed our ideal food miles but I plan to offset this by recycling the the orange peel into fertilizer, this will require washing, which again will be partially offset with the use of fertilizer, helping to improve the mushroom yield. Mushrooms are a low water crop, again making them an ideal product to grow, offsetting carbon dioxide while using a very small amount of water, another precious resource we are conscious of preserving where possible.

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How is the APE DAO investment being used?

The requested funds from the DAO will be spent on event tickets and the promoting of APE coin and APE chain, the PVC free wrap containing the logo and MAYC 4455, it will also be used to distribute APE token to new holders, to build/buy/customize APE compatible terminals to process the payments. I intend to ensure the ebike attends a minimum of four traditional finance (TradFi) events per annum and the funds will be distributed over a 60 month period. The funds will also be used to generate bite sized video content and face-to-face training. I expect the coffee eBike to generate additional revenue to cover the associated costs of a mobile coffee business and I do not envisage these costs being met by the DAO grant. I have attached a link to the five year forecast below.

APE_Cafe.xlsx

BENEFIT TO APECOIN ECOSYSTEM

I believe that one of the biggest challenges to web3 and DeFi in particular is lack of mainstream adoption, until recently we have only been focused on selling tokens to those who already buy tokens and while this has had some success, it doesn’t solve the wider problem, new users = new liquidity, driving on-chain transactions, raising awareness, creating a positive feedback loop and hopefully helping to stem the outflow of liquidity from project A to project B.

By helping to bridge the knowledge gap between traditional finance and DeFi (decentralized finance) we can help create new wallets, funded with fiat, which is the biggest possible win for web3 and in this case APE. I believe that one token will head down this path and having researched the market, I can envisage, many simply setting up a recurring buy for crypto. Imagine if of the 200 people introduced to APE, 15% set up a recurring order on coinbase, by month 60, those additional monthly sales could total $121,850 (assuming Month on Month growth of 7%), or total sales of c.$1.83 million.

New TX and Token Sales APE

Initial art renderings for the Ape Kart

OVERALL COST

Total amount requested from the ApeCoin Ecosystem Fund = $52,759.89.

This will be paid in traches and based upon completed Milestones.

• Initial payment from the DAO: $18,340,07

• Payment Two: $13,483.60

• Payment Three: $20,936.22

Tranche Funding and Suggested Milestones

One of the crucial discussions that arose during my consultation process was the distribution of $APE. We considered the option of releasing it in phases, a move that would protect the treasury and increase the chances of approval for AIP-509. I fully grasp the concerns and have worked closely with the team, ensuring that everyone’s perspectives are considered when developing a tranche release schedule. This collaborative effort ensures that all stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process, making the proposal more inclusive and effective.

The initial payment of $18,340.07 would be made in $APE (25,046.6201 at the time of writing). This will allow the additional costs of the proposal to be met and ensure the business makes it to at least one event to generate $APE awareness and sign-ups.

APE coin Funding Breakdown

PROPOSAL

Link to the full proposal: (https://forum.apecoin.com/t/aip-509-raising-awareness-of-ape-coin-and-its-ease-of-use-at-traditional-finance-events/24652)

The AIP implementation is administered by the Ape Foundation. Implementation may be immaterially or materially altered to optimise for security, usability, to protect APE holders, and otherwise to effect the intent of the AIP. Any material deviations from an AIP, as initially approved, will be disclosed to the APE holder community.