Activity Report Q1 & Q2, 2024 - uniFires GovWG - Felix

This summary gives a rough overview on my focus & engagement of the funded uniFires proposal in Catalyst Fund 12. listing some most relevant & interesting happenings,
https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/11/cardano-open-ecosystem/polkadot-cardano-unifires
Start: April 2024
Status: Expected to close in July, on track

### Cardano X Polkadot: Cross Chain Pool Operators/Validators
- setup a group of Cardano & Polkadot pool operators which help each other in learning and running pools on the respective ecosystems

Contributor Polkadot: [Polkadotters](https://x.com/Polkadotters1), [Saxemberg](https://x.com/saxemberg), [Kukabi](https://x.com/kukabi_)
Contributor Cardano: [Ashish](https://x.com/ashisherc), [Lauris](https://x.com/StakePool247), [Pete](https://x.com/astroboysoup), [Jonathan](https://x.com/jadjei)
Start: June 20, 2024
Status: in progress

Updates:
First Polkadot Pool Validator installed a Cardano Stakepool [[RBN](https://cexplorer.io/pool/pool17agmzy52u2hh2f8zkuvzrvth94wdr3erlpng50thrlmryqvkz57)]

### Cardano X Polkadot: Cross Chain Community Events
- setup a group of Cardano & Polkadot folks for cross chain community events (with Events Bounty Curators & Advisors)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rcbt7oNOUZ3ssGVnoM6hJhwtwELlDwkitFl-KTJ2LyI/edit
Contributor Polkadot: Event Bounty Curators & Advisors
Contributor Cardano: [Seira](https://x.com/seira_yun) (Japan), [Kinson](https://x.com/kinson_hk)(HK), Monish(HK), [Ubio](https://x.com/UbioObu)
Start: July 3, 2024
Status: in progress

### Cardano X Polkadot: Dev onboarding
- Setup a group of Cardano & Polkadot devs to collaborate on easy Polkadot developer onboarding > grow the Polkadot open source developer ecosystem

Contributor Polkadot: [Adam Steeber](https://x.com/AdamSteeber1)
Contributor Cardano: [MeshJS](https://meshjs.dev/), [SIDAN Lab](https://www.sidan.io/)
Start: July 25, 2024
Status: in progress

### Cardano Proposals

#### light client bridge proposal
- enable ecosystem grants to develop a Cardano <-> Polkadot Light Client bridge, create and submit a proposal at Cardano Project Catalyst
https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/12/cardano-use-cases-concept/cardano-less-greater-polkadot-light-client-bridge-feasibility-study
https://forum.polkadot.network/t/cardano-polkadot-bridge/8543
Start: May 2, 2024
Status: Failed in Fund 12 - Proposal not approved -> improve & iterate

#### NFT Swap proposals
- enable ecosystem grants to develop a Cardano <-> Polkadot NFT Swap, create and submit a proposal at Cardano Project Catalyst
https://projectcatalyst.io/funds/12/cardano-use-cases-concept/cardano-and-polkadot-digital-marketplace-factory
Start: May, 2024
Status: Failed in Fund 12 - Proposal not approved -> improve & iterate

### Meetings, Sessions, Workshops

#### Co-organising and hosting X Spaces & Sessions on Cardano X Polkadot topics with Dumpling
July 20, 2024 - X Speaker at Space with Chinese Dot & Ada communities on gov
https://x.com/BullishDumpling/status/1813874336178032971

June 18, 2024 - Co Organise Cardano X Polkadot - Adoption space with dumpling
https://x.com/BullishDumpling/status/1803116809555488954

May 14, 2024 - Co Organise Cardano X Polkadot - Gov space with dumpling
https://x.com/BullishDumpling/status/1789330553805615294

March 13, 2024 - Co Organise Cardano X Polkadot - uniFires space with dumpling
https://x.com/BullishDumpling/status/1767952604405870953

July 10, 2024 - Co organise & Host Space with Bill Laboon
https://x.com/CatalystSwarm/status/1810703467301814657

#### Workshops with uniFires GovWG (Felix & Victor)
- uniFires Governance WG Session - March 29, 2024
https://youtu.be/SY2t6RxjvRc

- uniFires Governance WG Session - May 15, 2024
https://youtu.be/tI-eSZHd42k

- uniFires Governance WG Session - April 8, 2024
https://youtu.be/_WF3u7Qibnc?si=53L95A9wnmTfmF_d

#### Attend Polkadot OpenGovWatch X Spaces
(if not able to join, listen recording)
July 30, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1818195018181480842
July 23, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1815803219731440079
July 16, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1813121533130182923
June 27, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1806222994911441162
June 18, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1802959614591299594
June 11, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1800558687830114613
June 5, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1798263534008324455
May 28, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1795470185169838206
May 21, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1792829117941133759
May 14, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1790430046298972586
May 7, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1787739177544536344
April 30, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1786312768943001632
April 23, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1782652838897709496
April 16, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1780235349504975109
April 9, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1777592408680677567
April 2, 2024: https://x.com/alice_und_bob/status/1775418539127554099

#### Attend The Kusamarians AAG
- Attend Polkadot AAG - February 22, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/live/Km76DZBDzBQ?si=t6bmMlZp29xTPqnK
- Attend Polkadot AAG - March 14, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/live/H7awKLrc0IQ?si=SqUXt4J9Lk7hBgu7
- Attend Polkadot AAG - March 7
https://www.youtube.com/live/LbwF_xRMPCQ?si=r-hoUH3b0y5BzXki
- Attend Polkadot AAG - February 29, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/live/pTMMa6DCnl0?si=ZtkKXEQ8R_q8klyB

( usually catching up on recordings, listening through AAG while doing some woodworking in the afternoon, AAG definitely a relevant space to stay tuned on all things Polkadot )

#### Attend Polkadot Events Bounty
- Attend Polkadot Event Bounty Call - July 3, 2024
- Attend Polkadot Event Bounty Call - July 17, 2024
- Attend Polkadot Event Bounty Call - July 24, 2024
- Attend Polkadot Event Bounty Call - July 31, 2024
#### Meetings with OpenGovWatch
OpenGovWatch has been from own experience one of the most valuable contacts at the polkadot ecosystem. Tommi & Jeeper provide some excellent guidance and advisory which helps a lot to coordinate and organise around relevant topics
- with OpenGovWatch - March 6, 2024
- with OpenGovWatch - April 22, 2024
- with OpenGovWatch - May 20, 2024
- with OpenGovWatch - June 6, 2024
- with OpenGovWatch - June 26, 2024
- with OpenGovWatch - July 19, 2024
#### Adam Steeber
Regularly checking in with Adam Steeber, a experienced polkadot developer to see what projects can help Cardano developers to learn and build on Polkadot
- with Adam Steeber - April 5, 2024
Introducing each other, asking loads of question, learning a lot from listen to Kukabis thoughts and experiences.
- with Adam Steeber - July 1
- with Adam Steeber - July 25

#### Bill Laboon
Meeting [Bill Laboon](https://x.com/BillLaboon), director of education and governance at W3F. Getting to know each other and start to collaborate on simple X Spaces, further looking to introduce CF & W3F to share insights, experiences and learnings from both foundations.
- with Bill Laboon - July 2, 2024
- July 10, 2024 - Co organise & Host Space with Bill Laboon
https://x.com/CatalystSwarm/status/1810703467301814657

#### OGTracker
- with [OGTracker](https://ogtracker.io/) - June 11, 2024
Check in and explore potential integration of OGTracker to Cardano. Continue async communication to coordinate towards OGTracker integration to Cardano

#### Kukabi
- with [Kukabi](https://x.com/kukabi_) May 10, 2024
Introducing each other, asking loads of question, learning a lot from listen to Kukabis thoughts and experiences.
- with Kukabi June 10
Looking on integrating Kukabi projects to Cardano

#### Saxemberg
- with [Saxemberg](https://x.com/saxemberg) - May 3, 2024
Introducing each other, asking loads of question, learning a lot from listen to Saxemberg thoughts and experiences.
- with Saxemberg - May 26
Check in and explore potential collaborations at the Governance layer across Polkadot & Cardano. Idea of a crosschain governance framework

#### Jimmy Tudeski
- with [Jimmy Tudeski](https://x.com/stakenode_dev)
Introducing each other, asking loads of question, learning a lot from listen to Jimmy's thoughts and experiences. No follow up since first call.

#### Jay (The Kusamarian)
- with Jay - [The Kusamarian](https://x.com/TheKusamarian) - February 30, 2024
Introducing each other, asking loads of question, learning a lot from listen to Jay's thoughts and experiences. Keeping touch in Discord with each other

#### Polka Labs (Polkassembly)
- with Polka Labs / [Polkassembly](https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/opengov) - July 30, 2024
Introduction call, ideating on Polka Labs > Cardano integrations, start to plan proposal for Catalyst Fund 13

#### Other engagements:
- Lot of engagement on X, mainly through @catalystswarm & unifires X Accounts
- Regularly joining Polkadot spaces
- Engaging on the Polkadot Forum
- Voting on Polkadot referendas
- Running the uniFires Governance Workgroup, maintaining and moderating the GovWG Discord channel, as well as general unIFires Discord management
- Regular meetings with Cardano Builders & doers to introduce them to Polkadot

## Summing up

In my Brain
Identify best matching projects for active collaborations, what is unique in each ecosystem, how to best bridge governance Gems to each others ecosystems, figure best ways for effective knowledge management

### Achievements
1) Building relationships
The most valuable outcome is that we arrived to build some strong relations with Polkadot contributors and builders and to establish trust and friendship which is crucial to actively work and collaborate with each other.

2) Building knowledge
Based on above listed engagements, i arrived to build a pretty strong understanding on the Polkadot ecosystem, especially around governance what helps me to identify and initiate specific projects around prior themes and topics to increse collaborations amongst cardano & polkdot builders.

3) Setting a cross chain tone
Due to uniFires activities, we see an incresed communication of builders and doers cross the Cardano & Polkadot ecosystems and we can observe increasing interest of community members to learn and build together. We positively change the maximalist narrative into a friendly & productive cross chain tone

4) Sparking Spin Offs
Despite the fact of little manpower, im happy to see success in initiating several projects where i bring cardano & polkadot builders together around specific topics as outlined on the top of the document. Building strong relationships and knowledge allows to figure effective initiatives to increase cross chain collaborations

### Blockers & Challenges
1) Missing manpower
Compared to the workload, the Governnce WG lacks sufficient manpower to operate and manage its activities. The Polkadot lead at the GovWG is barely available, which moves the full workload of the GovWG to a single person (myself). Engaging additional WG Leads is insanely difficult as ideal cndidates to staff up the GovWG are already fairly overcharged with their activities in the respective ecosystems. Hard to effectively scale operations with a single person XD

2) Lack of documentation
Due to 1), it is hard to provide a proper documentation and track record of activities. little support is available to improve documentation which is a risk as it avoids proper insights and audit on achievements and deliverables

3) Lack of Funding
UniFires is currently funded through the approved Cardano grant proposal. We currently pay WG leads as sum of 2500 Ada per month (~1K USD) which does hardly reflects the workload and makes it unsustainable to engage in strong capacity over long term.

### Final Reflections (In Progress)

I dont regret a single second i invested into uniFires and even if financially unrewarding i deeply appreciate everyones work and committment and the work we do. From my own perspective i will definitely improve and continue my Cardano X Polkadot engagements with uniFires and see the project as a valuable initiative with potential to grow and to further improve relations and collaborations between the Cardano & Polkadot eosystems (& beyond).

#### Continute & evolve > Cross Chain Bounty ?
Create a Bounty with uniFires Team & collaborators as curators, focus on supporting cross chain initiatives ?

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# Post-Proposal thingies
Inititiatives and efforts in which i engage after July 2024 (So, everything continued after the proposal completion )

## Ausgust 2024

### Webzero - Cross Chain Hackathons
Start: August 7, 2024

Call with [Roman](https://x.com/Rektormoon) & [Sacha](https://x.com/SachaL__) from [Webzero](https://www.joinwebzero.com/), ideating on cross chain - open source developer ecosystem & initiatives. Felix to support Webzero by engaging Cardano Developers at the [webzero hackathon](https://signup.theblockspace.net/web3-summit-hackathon-signup-form-MLCt1EhmQtaeqU.QpDoXEA?v=o) next to the Web3 Summit on August 19-21 in Berlin, further to submit a proposal in Cardano Project Catalyst to enable fund and support for Webzero from the Cardano side.

- Introducing [NMKR](https://www.nmkr.io/) to webzero, setting up a Telegram groupchat to further communicate & coordinate

### Governance Across the Chains
Start: August 13, 2024

Aiming to organise recurring online events with key contributors at governance at the Cardano & Polkadot ecosystems.

- Setting up a Telegram groupchat with [Jeeper](https://x.com/xcjeeper) from [OpenGovWatch](https://www.opengov.watch/) and [Nicolas](https://x.com/NicolasC3rny) from [Cardano Foundation](https://cardanofoundation.org/) to ideate and coordinate on a monthly online event, "Governance Across the Chains"...

### IOG - Partnerchain Team x uniFires event
Start: August 13, 2024

Checking in with the IOG - Partnerchain Team who released their initial [Cardano - Partnerchain V1 built on substrate on Ausgust 1](https://github.com/input-output-hk/partner-chains/releases/tag/v1.0.0). Our gol is to co-orgnise a online event to provide some additional context & insights, and to answer questions, ideally starting to engage SPOs at the Partnerchain node.

- Setting up a Discord groupchat with uniFires & IOG Partnerchain team to communicate and coordinate the event
- Setting up a discussion on Polkadot Forum
https://forum.polkadot.network/t/cardano-partnerchain-v1-release-built-on-substrate/9548
- Setting up a pol.is to gather questions
https://pol.is/4auvpbiyj7

### Cross Chain Event format - update
Start: August 28, 2024
Call with Tycho from Polkadot Event Bounty, catching up on recent efforts and next steps of Cross Chain Events, kickoff with Cardano & Polkadot.
- Setting up a document to ideate on the Cross Chain Event format
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MeP18J1q35zk32KmMwldHQ_pvzKv2P4ebJuFYQ6X71k/edit?usp=sharing
which is a natural following up on: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rcbt7oNOUZ3ssGVnoM6hJhwtwELlDwkitFl-KTJ2LyI/edit )

### Governance - best practices & integrations
Start: September 2024
- Integrating Saxemberg voting guidelines to Cardano Projects
-- MeshJS https://github.com/MeshJS/DRep/blob/main/voting-guidelines.md
-- SIDAN https://github.com/sidan-lab/DRep/blob/main/voting-guidelines.md
- Integrating Kukabi [voting & rational tracker on github]()