#12 Monthly Newsletter, June — A New Ethlizards!
May Updates
Pre-seed, new council, new team members and more!
LIP-16 Whitepaper Approval
For those that missed it, LIP-16: White Paper Approval passed with overwhelming support, thus ratifying the Ethlizards White Paper as official documentation and project direction. For a short summary about our whitepaper, feel free to checkout our last month’s newsletter, or for full details, see the WP documentation. The governance results were extremely positive, with almost 97% support rate. The main changes include:
- Expansion of the existing DAO into the Lizard DAO and three sub-DAOs.
- Launch of a new suite of products and services, such as Battle in the Beyond & Elemental Lizards
- Development of new tokenomics, finance changes and new funding per the whitepaper.
LizCoin Aelin Pool Oversubscribed
On May 12th, the Lizard DAO launched a decentralized Aelin pool with customized Ethlizards theme. Special thanks to our partner Aelin and their contributors (+SeaGolem) for support to set things up. The DAO reserved 30% of the total pre-seed tokens (3,000,000) for loyal Ethlizards NFT holders, allowing them to participate with up to 150,000 USDC worth of pre-seed funding at a rate of $0.05 USDC per $vLIZ (pre-launch token). This placed our FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation) at $5,000,000 and was the first step in our new project. Our developers took snapshots of holders 24 hours prior to the pool, allowing each members to invest 100 per V2 lizard, and 200 per genesis lizard. Additionally, the devs also launched a contract enabling holders to batch transfer their LLZ (Locked Lizard Tokens) for lower gas fees and to potentially participate in the Aelin pool from a hot wallet.
Within the first day of the Aelin pool launch, it was already nearing 50% commitment and by the end (May 26th), it was oversubscribed by a significant amount. As the pool was capped, this resulted in a proportional deallocation for all participants and excess USDC was refunded. Participants in the pool are now able to claim their token from Aelin and await the launch of the official LizCoin token, where holders will then be able to exchange their $vLIZ for LizCoin at a 1:1 rate. The expected launch for $LIZ TGE is Q4 of 2023.
Project H
We are evaluating including LizCoin utility into Project H. There were minimal community participation opportunities but we will continue to look for those targeted chances for our holders and partners. Stay tuned for more details.
New Portfolio Council Epoch
As our first council epoch is nearing its end, we’ve had a total of 8 investments and 180,000 USD invested. We’d like to thank our council members, Kieran, Lizident, Marmalade, Haitzu & Animositas for their hard work over the last epoch.
- The second epoch nomination period ran from May 5th to 19th;
- There are 10 candidates: Lizident, Winterfyre, Lemz, InDAOwetrust, Adamdawson, KevinO (Arcade Consulting), Kent (Civitas, Machines Arena and 32-Bit Ventures), Haitzu (IMX), Missionpoole (JP from Arcade), Danny (Illuvium).
- A 2 week campaign period is underway and will end on June 3rd.
- Voting is expected to begin on June 4th and end on June 11th, with the new council being officially instated with their new Portfolio Council NFTs on June 18th.
Blog Updates
We recently shifted our content from Mirror.xyz, to Medium, as the prior site lacked some much needed functionality. We’ve already ported over our previous articles and newsletters with timestamps indicating when they where published.
Check out our Medium Homepage.
We’ve also published the first in a series of new thought leadership articles, which are intended to provide insight into some of the decisions that occur in our backend. Get an inside look at Behind the Scenes: Ethlizards’ Strategic Decision to Redeploy Their Main Collections for Long-Term Creator Royalties which provides readers a backstage view into the process, tech and planning behind our redeployment process, and how we hope to establish a generic and safe solution for future collection migrations from other projects.
If you’d like to contribute content to our medium, with ideas or full article submissions, please contact Animositas or Lu on discord.
Team Updates
The team has been working hard on the next steps post white paper approval. This includes wrapping up the pre-seed round, continuing to improve internal operations, interviewing and hiring talented individuals to build out Battle in the Beyond and Elemental Lizards. Additionally, many new partnerships are coming together on the backend and will be announced over time. These items will all carry over into June.
New Contributors
Shay (theshayshow) is coming on board to help with writing and article support. She is a dynamic first-generation Pakistani-American, widely recognized as a visionary Founder, Marketer, and Technology Evangelist. From co-founding Sock Monkey SEO at 16, working with industry giants like Google and eBay, to founding the faith-based South Asian Dating App “Chai Meets Biscuit,” Shay’s entrepreneurial journey has been filled with remarkable achievements. With a savvy business acumen gained from her Fortune 500 Alumni background, she has become an influential force in shaping brands’ identities. As the Chief Marketing Officer for Walker Labs, she led groundbreaking initiatives, including a monumental mint raising 325 ETH in a challenging bear market. We’re happy that she is stepping on as a contributor and excited to see her skills in action.
We’re in the process of interviewing core contributor candidates for lead developer, UI/UX and artist.
We’ll also be scaling up the Community Lizard Contributors program soon including expanding Liaisons and Librarians, as well as some minor marketing support and video/audio editing. If you have other skills, you are welcome to apply to the program as well. If you are interested in this program, please see this article which also contains the application.
Department Updates
Development
Over the last couple of months we’ve been excited to unveil some long-awaited product launches to the Ethlizards ecosystem, such as the collection redeployment, staking, and the Aelin pool! As we move into June with the whitepaper passing, there are 3 main focus areas for the development side. These items include the new Battle in the Beyond launch, as well as the deployment of LizCoin and Elemental Lizards. While we work on these items, our team continues to iterate upon our development and product processes, with consistent improvements to the development life cycle while also planning for the broader future of the Ethlizards.
Social Media & Marketing
Gamified
Gamified continues showing strength and finding ways to compound on this strength should be high priority. This involves strategically distributing resources, such as time, budget, and personnel, to develop and enhance a gamified show experience via derivative content, improving the show content, securing high profile guests and whitelists, etc.
Understanding our current and future identity and audience
This process involves gaining a deep understanding of the organization’s current brand identity, its desired future direction, and the preferences and characteristics of the existing audience. By conducting research, analysis, and audience segmentation, the organization can tailor its strategies and messaging to align with its identity and cater to the needs and expectations of its target audience.
Marketing plan
This involves developing a comprehensive strategy to promote and market a product, service, or event. The marketing plan encompasses various aspects, such as identifying target audiences, setting marketing objectives, determining messaging and channels, and allocating resources effectively to achieve desired outcomes.
Liaisons Lizards
For the month of May 2023, the Liaison team pulled in 6 quality collabs with projects including Sparkadia, Defina, Ultiverse, Illuvium, Tollan Worlds, and Defimons. A total of 225 whitelist spots and 70 early access spots was distributed amongst our community across these 6 projects.
Ethlizards continue to attract the attention of many projects in the space. That being said, the Liaisons team will always research for the highest quality ones. This month, we accepted 12.5% of the total number of projects that reached out to us, putting us in line with the average acceptance rate of 12% since the start of this year.
We have more projects lined up for the month of June 2023 and can’t wait to reveal them to the community once they are finalized!
Librarians Lizards
The DAO Dashboard may see some changes. Want to have process review of which parts are being used and which things need to be improved. We want to continue expanding Web3 Library content.
Portfolio Council
Welcome to the latest edition of the Portfolio Council Monthly Update!
Firstly, we would like to express our gratitude for the continuous support and participation from our community. We recently assessed two more projects that were brought to our attention from the community, and we encourage you to keep them coming! As always, feel free to connect with our council members regarding any pre-seed/seed opportunities you may come across.
In the interest of responsible investing, we made the decision to decline an investment in a well-established Web3 company. While recognizing its prominence, we took into consideration its high valuation, an aspect we remain conscientious of as investors.
On a positive note, we are pleased to announce that two investments have received approval and are currently awaiting the necessary paperwork to move forward. Additionally, we have two more investments currently under final review, both of which show promising potential as favorable deals.
This will be our final update as the current council, as a new council will be elected for epoch 2 on June 18th. We strongly encourage you to review the candidates and cast your vote, as we have a highly impressive group vying for the opportunity to lead!
It’s been a pleasure; Investment Cohort 1 out.
About
The Ethlizards project is positioned at the nexus of innovative projects within the Web3 gaming landscape. Ethlizards brings together an exceptional mix of avid gamers, visionary builders, and savvy investors, establishing itself as a highly esteemed partner in the GameFi ecosystem. Our unique position spans various verticals, encompassing Web3 game studios, infrastructure partners, venture capitalists, and gaming organizations. We seamlessly blend the best aspects of VCs and Web3 gaming guilds/DAOs while co-developing solutions with our partners.
Ethlizards is fostering a community that features successful investors, project founders, and a multitude of individuals actively committed to creating and contributing value. Our distinguished partners and advisors, including founders of major Web3 projects, remain actively involved at all protocol levels. At Ethlizards, we firmly believe that an exclusive focus on value extraction in Web3 is counterproductive. Through our early-stage GameFi portfolio activities, we ensure the long-term success of the DAO, while our short-term strategies prioritize gamification, product development, and extensive partnership growth. This holistic approach positions us to thrive amidst the industry’s rapid expansion in the coming years.
