My thesis as a delegate is: “Nouns has a unique role in the ecosystem as a gathering place around public goods.”

I agree with Wilson and Krel's reasoning here. This is a bet on 5OC to produce something interesting and to make Nouns into a gathering place for hardware hobbyists.

I don't think that this makes sense for every solo staker, nor do I think that the market is necessarily a good one to be in given the competition from Raspberry Pi and others. Noun40 and Jihad both have thoughtful points here that we should pay attention to. At the same time, I believe that the value of a gathering place around hardware outweighs the downsides of the use case and the market.

Hardware hackers are a very public goods oriented community that is filled with hobbyists. I'd love to see them join the Nouns ecosystem, and I see this proposal as a first step to doing so. Even if this proposal doesn't pass, I hope that my and other For votes act as encouragement for hardware hobbyists to join Nouns.

Appreciate all the votes on both sides here. I am voting for because I think this could turn into something exciting and I think the flow of funds, starting with funding to build out a proof of concept, makes sense and is a reasonable guard.

It looks like this is not going to pass, so I'll just note some ideas

• Could we first fund an exploration to build a proof of concept machine? I think people will be excited by some proof they can see.
• Are we sure that going for a validator is the best simplification of the original prop (281)? I really liked the original prop's focus on hobbyists and learning. This feels Nounish. Is there a way we can push in this direction at a lower cost? Again, just a proof of concept people can get excited about?
• Nounish design is cool, but where can we gain the most from your expertise? Are there any huge pain points we can solve since we'll be going 0 to 1? It feels like a lot of the work for a validator may be redundant?
• In general, I'd say don't hesitate to discuss with any and all Nouners to find the most exciting version of this, and then make sure to pitch that here. E.g. for this prop I think this may have amounted to one of the cheaaper validator options on the market, but this aspect wasn't really pitched.

I appreciate fiveoceans sticking with this and trying to refine to arrive at something the DAO will support.

reVoteWithReason: hindsight & noun40

on behalf of UglyDAO: Love 5oceans and believe he would do a great job with this but would like to see more refinement in the prop to ensure achieveable outcomes. The focus on solo stakers feels like a great alignment so more development of how that would work, educaiton materials etc would be helpful.

we agree with other voters that these machines appear to not be future proofed enough for the intended validator use case

background: i'm an electrotechnologist by trade with experience in distributed systems. despite not having worked in the space for years, i still follow along with certain areas of research.

the r&d costs associated with this proposal are very reasonable. with the recent arrival of frore's airjet solid state cooling chips, there's an opportunity to revolutionise mini PCs. i'd expect this to have a major impact on ethereum staking nodes, especially since most are built on standard mini PC implementations. it's an exciting time to get involved in this design space, especially from a public goods perspective. i'd love to see what collaborative opportunities arise from our involvement as strong proponents for solo staking. most setups are still very much diy and often a hodgepodge of off-the-shelf components.

i understand that those with solo staking experience such as noun40, who've pieced together a mini PCs, don't expect people choosing to run on raspberry pi type setups. but with the advancement of revolutionary cooling tech, that's exactly where we are headed. taking a public goods approach to this design space is itself a competitive edge and would likely get the attention of those reporting on the space.

regarding proliferation of a project such as this, i'd recommend starting at the hobbyist level, by reaching out to those with cult followings such as n-o-d-e.net / mosfet.net who already take an interest in crypto and have done so since the early days.

yes, hardware is hard, but not so much when it's your area of expertise and you're playing in a collaborative space that leans heavily on open source, open standards, and expansible systems componentry.

i'd be happy to consult to 5oc on the gtm for this type of project. i've worked extensively on the development and marketing of new products in energy management and tenancy billing that are analogous to solo staking nodes. there are a number of unique systems integrator approaches we could take and the unique brand positioning and public goods focus is very compelling imho.

provided 5oc is happy to niche down even further, i'd gladly take a bet on this proposal and am therefore voting in favour.

Let’s bring more of that tech model railroad club hacker energy to Nouns. Nouns Model Railroad Club ⌐◨-◨

nom nom nodes

I love this idea, and while it's difficult to execute on, even a partially successful version could be a good experience.

My only request is that the computers be in the shape of the glasses.

voting w 40 on this one

(noun40 voting via agora)

I want to vote yes for this prop (I care about eth solo staking a lot!) but I'm just not sure if it's realistic to think solo stakers will choose to run their eth node on this type of board.

my setup was this (https://twitter.com/noun40__/status/1627009674603290624; bought them on amazon and pieced them together):

• intel nuc $454
• 32GB RAM $182
• 2TB NVMe SSD $173

total = $809

I just don't know if a ~$100 raspberry pi type board is something that ppl will realistically choose to run their eth nodes on.

This vote is a bet on the founder.

Im a fan of 5oc, he's proven himself to be great at execution (eg, organizing an NYC sailing event never having been to NYC) and an ability to iterate and adapt to improve on his ideas which admittedly are often at the draft stage when we first get to see them.

I think there is a more tightly packaged version of the Noun Computer idea hidden inside this prop. One that is even more focused on eth solo staking and better sells that narrative.

However, given my belief in 5oc im happy to vote for this iteration of the prop as i expect 5 to continue to iterate and, together with the nouns community, perfect his idea over the coming months.

Would it be better to reject this prop and hope 5oc comes back with another, more polished proposal? Possibly. But the nature of the ideas we fund, and early-stage funding in general, is such that not all things are neatly packaged from the start, and this is especially true for ambitious proposals. We are making bets on people to bring their ideas and dreams to life, and this is a bet i think the dao should make.

I support the introduction of Nouns in the DIY/Open source computers scene. If true, we would get a lot of positive repercussions and builders attention, since Nouns is a benevolent hackers club at heart. I would stick to a micro computer and try to compete with RaspberryPi. 5OC is an early nouns contributor, he is passionate and I am confident he can deliver something cool with this prop.

Competitive industry, no edge, no track record in it, hardware is hard.

I'm generally with Hindsight on this one... it's a fun project, but the economics just don't make sense, and it's not a good enough mode of proliferation to justify the outsized per-unit costs. I MIGHT support a proposal like this if it was tied to a very strong, unique GTM strategy that would get Nouns in front of a new audience.

$250k to design and manufacture 50 boards does not make sense to me. $5k per board - 40 of which are handed out for proliferation purposes. After it is done, then what? We fund the manufacture of 3k to 5k boards based on this small sample?

I do not think people are going to choose to run many nodes on these micro boards and if they are I do not think they will choose to do so on a board designed and developed by a lone builder with no practical experience in commercial hardware development or manufacturing logistics.

I do not think its in any way realistic to try and compete against Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoards, Arduinos or Odroids and the other dedicated manufacturers that have spent many years and millions of $ on R&D, supply chain mgmt and distribution.

This is not an effective use of treasury funds imo

The proposal has improved quite a bit since the feedback from the previous attempt. I think this is the way the DAO should work.

This is a revised proposal.

I have reduced the scope and focused on delivering blueprints for a cool and affordable computer to run an Ethereum node. I believe this kind of project is necessary and would decentralize the network and make it more valuable.

In my opinion, contributing towards the well-being of the whole ecosystem would increase recognition and respect for NounsDAO.

Love this new iteration of the prop. Thank you for revising and resubmitting!