8 months ago, we envisioned a better way to fund Nouns builders. Since then, flows.wtf has grown to continuously fund over 200 quality nounish projects.
The problem
Funding smaller, non-consensus projects in Nouns DAO is hard. Traditional voting requires majority approval, which limits innovation and doesn't scale. Small-grant incentives don’t prevent free-riders or scammers, and manual oversight isn't viable at scale. Also, most funded projects aren't sustainable.
We are going to solve fundraising and capital allocation for grassroots impact.
Our solution
Flows is an open-source protocol combining money streaming, Token Curated Registries (TCRs), AI, and Farcaster to make grant-making continuous, scalable, and financially sustainable. It reduces voter effort, rewards impactful projects, and makes it economically unviable to scam or free-ride.
Our north star is to sustainably fund 1 million quality builders every month.
Recent progress
Since our proposal 4 months ago, we built:
Beautiful project pages
Easily understand project goals and activity over time.
Dynamic bonus pools
A quorum for each flow to allocate funds more effectively.
Impact scores
Grade every builder's impact in real time.
Impact chains
Automatic reports of a project's work.
Search
Vector search over all grants
Impact summary
Summarized impact for every project over time
Sanctions checks
Implemented sanctions check like Nouns AuctionHouseV3
Curation infra
Basic curation dashboard
Farcaster agents
Welcome new projects, send reminders, and support builders on Farcaster.
The Fixed-Pie Problem
A consistent piece of feedback we've heard from builders:
"How do I earn more money?"
We want Flows to be positive-sum, meaning as more builders join and succeed, the total amount of funding increases. Right now, Flows has a fixed budget, creating competition between builders. When one builder earns more, others lose out.
- Earnings are limited by a fixed budget.
- People without Nouns can't support builders.
- Builders lack long-term financial upside
- One builder earns more, others less
As Nouns faces a "breakeven moment", we must rethink how Flows can grow sustainably and become positive-sum.
Moving towards positive sum
Flows should be the most rewarding place for people onchain—financially and through the satisfaction of building something that matters.
We need a system where one builder’s success helps all builders earn more. To achieve this, we’re adding ways for new capital to enter Flows and for builders to share in a rising tide, rather than fight over a fixed pie.
Proposed solution
We believe revnets can help every builder raise money. Revnets are Juicebox DAOs with issuance locked in on launch, and cash-out managed by token ownership. Revnets align project builders, customers and supporters toward long-term success.
We plan to convert every Flows TCR into a revnet, and let vetted projects launch revnets denominated in the root TCR token. Since all Flow and Project revnets are priced in a common token, one builder's success benefits everyone.
The builder experience won't change much. We're mainly adding two simple things— revnets for projects and opportunities to earn more through matching pools. All the complexity is managed in the background. The best part: when someone buys into a revnet, that revenue grows funding for all Flows builders.
Project revnets
We plan to let projects with proven track records launch revnets. Builders will have financial upside beyond a fixed salary. These revnets will be denominated in $FLOWs, so when one project succeeds, all other projects benefit.
Builders:
- Clear path to earn more money.
- Long term upside based on success of their projects.
- Upside in Flows as a whole even if your project remains small
Nouns:
- Reduce pressure on the Nouns treasury as projects become self-sustaining.
- Collaboration among builders, creating stronger incentives for widespread nounish impact.
Supporters:
- Hold tokens backed by real projects with verified impact.
- Upside when a project or Flows as a whole succeeds
Ultimately, revnet tokens will serve as the fundraising layer for Flows. This pattern of denominating project and TCR revnets in the root revnet token aligns incentives between all builders, and can make Flows positive sum and sustainable in the long run.
Why will builders revnet?
While you could keep 100% of your revenue in your own private wallet, you’d lose out on the liquidity, community engagement, and capital formation that a revnet structure can unlock. For many builders— growing with your users/supporters has higher expected returns (both financially and socially) than going it alone.
TCR token upgrade
As a refresher, each flow currently has its own TCR and associated token.
Our plan is to migrate every TCR token to a revnet and denominate them in the root $FLOWs revnet token. Since every flow TCR will be denominated in $FLOWs, success in one flow (like Beach Cleaning) strengthens all flows, benefiting every builder.
Matching pools and capital input
Outside of the revnet implementation, we will upgrade the protocol to enable outside capital to fund flows directly.
We also plan to introduce matching pools to encourage cooperation between builders and attract additional capital. Pools could reward all builders in a flow based on overall token sales or donations to their flow relative to other flows.
We can also reward builders that "earn the most for Nouns". When builder successfully sells products or mints content, we'll provide simple tools for them to automatically split a portion of revenues—reinforcing a virtuous cycle where success benefits everyone.
Our commitment
Today, the monthly budget is limited to $40k from the Nouns treasury. With revnets, each project's token sales and revenue will directly increase available funds, growing the pie for everyone.
Ultimately, we believe revnets are an incredible mechanism to align the incentives of all flows builders, attract new capital, and make Flows positive sum.
Over the next 8 months, we will build:
- The revnet upgrade
- Matching pools
- Onchain verification of builder impact.
- Dashboards around Flows capital efficiency
- Regularly incorporate feedback from builders and nouners
- Build what is necessary for Nouns to succeed
We'll measure success by tracking monthly capital raised via revnets and matching pools, as well as the number of quality builders sustainably funded. We will work very hard until we have figured out how to sustainably fund grassroots impact onchain.
The team
rocketman and riderway. We've been actively building in and around the Nouns space for nearly three years. In that time, we have built an alternative protocol for launching Nounish DAOs, House of Nouns, and Vrbs DAO to name a few.
Questions
Have any questions? Want to discuss with us? You can reach me on Warpcast here.
What has Flows funded?
Our conviction grows every day that funding Flows is perhaps the most effective use of the Nouns treasury. Nouns is a lot more interesting if we can pay 1000 people ~$100 to go out and have local impact, vs. paying small teams large sums of money (which already happens offchain). We put together a list to highlight a small set of exciting impact funded by Flows for only $40k/mo over the last 4 months.
Esports
- Competitive Gaming Success & Support: Funded and supported multiple esports streamers and events, achieving notable wins (Majestic SSJ in Dota 2 Nounish Cup, multiple undefeated Pokémon UNITE Cup victories, Team Flame win) and qualifying for major championships (Pokémon UNITE NA/EU).
- Esports Event Hosting & Streaming: Organized and streamed various tournaments (Smash Bros in Bristol & Toronto, Starbrawl) with crypto prizes, upgraded streaming gear, and created custom broadcast elements (outro videos).
- Live Game Commentary & Analysis: Provided live commentary for competitive matches (ESL Counter-Strike, ESEA Playoffs, Dota 2 Nounish Cup) often in multiple languages (English/Spanish) featuring Nouns branding.
- Gaming Community Tools & Content: Developed resources like an educational CS2 strategy video, a Discord bot for CS match predictions, and hosted streams specifically for women gamers (Dota 2).
Environmental Action & Sustainability
- Large-Scale Beach & Coastal Cleanups: Organized numerous cleanups removing hundreds of kilograms of trash (over 1000kg total mentioned across various events) from beaches (Boqueirão, Brazilian beaches, Reserva, Praia Grande, Lagoa de Saquarema, Foz do Rio Bacaxá) and mangroves (Ypê Island), removing items like TVs, fridges, and furniture. Also included youth empowerment elements.
- Mangrove Restoration: Planted thousands of mangrove seedlings (15,000 total mentioned) in Tanzania to restore ecosystems and create jobs, documenting with GPS/video.
- Recycling & Waste Management Initiatives: Installed cigarette butt collection stations, Nouns-themed trash bins at community courts, built a greywater recycling system for irrigation, and created art from collected river waste (plastic fish sculptures, eco-puppets).
- Sustainable Product Creation: Developed and showcased eco-friendly products like recycled plastic Noggle eyewear, Noggles keychains (Bangkok), and facilitated workshops teaching kids to make puppets from recycled materials (Caracas).
Community Building, Food Security & Infrastructure
- Food Distribution & Support: Provided hundreds of nutritious meals (Jollof rice, WHO-standard lunches, homeless outreach) to children, elderly, homeless individuals, and their pets in Nigeria and São Paulo. Also restocked a local shop owner's business.
- Community Gardens & Greening: Established and expanded community food forests/gardens (planting fruit trees like pink lemons, figs, peaches, apples, cassava), implemented natural pest control, installed rainwater harvesting, built hydroponic systems (community harvest, balcony garden, vertical bottle garden), planted 150+ trees for biodiversity, and gave away vegetable plants and Noggle pot plants.
- Public Space Enhancements & Art: Created community murals (El Faro, interactive nature theme, handprints, fantasy/sports themes, crypto mural), upgraded public facilities (basketball court net, playground cleanup, safer pathways), restored historic skate spots (São Paulo's "Sopa Square", 40-year-old plaza, ramp repair), built an outdoor radio stage/art space/fire pit, and transformed a car into a mobile Nouns art piece.
- Animal Welfare: Donated food to animal shelters (feeding 100+ rescued animals) and regularly fed stray animals.
Health, Wellness & Safety
- Inclusive Fitness Programs: Launched and adapted Pilates classes specifically for seniors and those managing obesity/chronic conditions, improving mobility, daily activity, social connection, and managing health issues like high blood pressure. Also offered strength training for chronic illness.
- Water Safety & Rescue: Supported a big wave rescue team (Nazaré) with branded gear alongside major sponsors, provided water rescue certification training (distributing physical Noggles), and received official city recognition for water safety efforts.
- Safety Initiatives: Provided safety helmets for youth skaters (Kampala) and installed a recycled tire barrier to protect skateboarders near roads. Also held a child safety carnival (Medellín).
Crypto
- Nouns Interfaces & Platforms: Developed unique interfaces like the Nouns95 retro web app (governance, chat, auction bidding, history) and a Windows 95-style crypto wallet/explorer, integrated safer multisig wallets, and built software for displaying live Nouns auction data (MagicMirror).
- DAO Tools & Community Platforms: Created open-source tools for tracking Nouns DAO data (finance/governance), launched customizable token-gated community spaces ("Nounspaces" on Base), and simplified wallet connections (RainbowKit for Gnars DAO).
- Crypto Adoption & Education: Enabled crypto payments for a BMX store and a vegan skincare line, conducted Web3 workshops (seniors, skaters, women, tribal communities, creatives in Santiago), created an educational video on Futarchy, and hosted crypto mural events with wallet setup guidance.
- NFT Creation & Events: Launched various NFT collections (surf photography, DarkNOUNS merch, live TV performance auction, acoustic concert collectibles, skateboarding photo, 'Cards of Culture'), hosted NFT premiere events (surf film), and released digital Noggles for Veveverse avatars.
Skateboarding Culture
- Skateboarding Events & Workshops: Organized youth workshops (building skateboards in Kampala, painting skateboards), supported downhill skateboarders (DHNOUNS project competitions/routes, organized sessions in Bogotá), filmed events (Carnavalong), and hosted community skate sessions.
- Skate Spot Development & Restoration: Restored and improved historic skate spots (São Paulo's "Sopa Square", 40-year-old plaza), repaired ramps adding Noggles graffiti, and built a concrete skate bowl.
- Skateboarding Content & Community: Produced skateboarding films/documentaries (Rio culture, mountain skateboarding, downhill techniques), minted skate photo NFTs, provided safety gear (helmets, tire barriers), onboarded skaters to Web3 platforms (SkateHive), and offered community support (free haircuts).
Surfing Culture
- Surf Events & Films: Screened multiple films promoting Web3 for creators
- Surfer Support & Content: Provided custom Nouns/Gnars branded surfboards for a pro surfer (Bali), documented big wave surfing and safety training (Nazaré), released a vlog with Nathan Florence (Brazil), and supported youth surf mentorship (Projeto TPM, kids' first solo waves).
Art, Music & Creative Expression
- Live Music & Performances: Funded and organized live music events ("The Pond Party," blockchain concert in London with interactive elements, Caribbean fusion show, electronic music with Nounish visuals, Pablo Kappes Noggles premiere), hosted NFT-gated concerts, and ran a Nouns Music Training Camp for emerging bands (Chile).
- Physical Art & Merchandise: Created handmade items (crochet duck/Noggle plushies, custom painted denim jacket), physical Noggles (glow-in-the-dark, custom graffiti, global kits, distributed at events), eco-art (recycled sculptures, puppets), a metal "Nogglestacle" sculpture, tote bags, Noggle bookmarks, Nouns mugs, and shipped the first /noc physical product.
- Creative Workshops & Contests: Held eco-puppet workshops for kids (Caracas), a logo design contest (Nounish Tales Philippines), and distributed Noggles at creative/Web3 events (Santiago).
- Unique Brand Activations: Organized a luxury car cruise featuring noggles.
Unique Educational & Documentation Projects
- Specialized Content & Documentation: Documented an athlete's injury recovery (Naomi Metzger sprints), filmed a breakdancing documentary (Lil Gnars), created a Patagonia kayak adventure vlog, produced motivational sports videos, and created an AI song tutorial led by a child.
- Unique Workshops & Events: Taught practical tech skills to seniors, held a solar eclipse viewing event for children, hosted a metaphysics & music session exploring AI/ancestral knowledge, and organized a pickleball event
- Food education: Healthy food cooking, and shopping education for youth in Brazil
Flows made all of this happen and more. All for a relatively small amount of money compared to what Nouns has spent so far.
Funding request
$20k USDC a month to continue building Flows, split between riderway and rocketman ($10k a month per person) for 8 months.
$15k USDC to cover legal advice, Marshall Islands DAO incorporation (via MIDAO), and tax expert consultation to ensure we structure Flows compliantly. Any unused funds from this allocation will be returned to the DAO.
Finally, we are requesting $50k a month for the next 8 months to fund flows builders.
Total ask: $575k USDC
Let's bring the makers together and complete the virtuous cycle,
-- rocketman
Compliance and Legal Plan
The ethos of crypto (and Flows) is decentralization, immutability, openness, and borderlessness. Recognizing Nouns DAO's U.S. base and the complexities of global funding, we are implementing the following measures to ensure Flows operates responsibly and compliantly:
Establish DAO LLC: We are forming a DAO LLC in the RMI. This provides limited liability protection for our team and formally establishes Flows as a distinct international entity, clarifying its operational jurisdiction.
Implement Robust Sanctions Screening: We implemented automated sanctions checks to continuously screen all recipient wallets against OFAC and other relevant sanctions lists.
Pathway to Decentralized Governance: Flows currently operates as a decentralized grant giving program, with no one in charge of how funds are dispersed. We are committed to progressively decentralizing the control of Flows protocol contracts as well.
Clarify Tax Responsibility: Our system explicitly assigns the responsibility for all tax reporting and payments to the grant recipients according to their local laws. Recipients will be clearly notified of this requirement. The Flows protocol itself is not structured to manage individual tax withholding globally. We are open to working with the DUNA on this.
Commitment to Compliance: We are committed to navigating the regulatory landscape proactively and adapting as needed. We will work closely with Nouns DAO and seek guidance to ensure Flows operates responsibly while advancing towards greater decentralization.
