#### The world of Alter Orbis needs you!


We’re the team behind Autonolas and we want you to join us in creating an epic new part of the metaverse. Our creators have outlined the initial lore, and now it’s your turn to take it further. We want you to join our community and bring your vision to help shape this emerging world.

Alter Orbis is the metaverse home for the Autonolas community. It’s the cultural complement to our innovative technical platform. We intend for this place to be completely community-owned, with members having the freedom to build and expand the world.

![World buildathon blog image-min.png](/uploads/World_buildathon_blog_image_min_24419fdbcd.png)

**What’s the challenge?**


This is our first world buildathon, a collaborative effort where everybody is free to create their own artistic interpretation of Alter Orbis. For this challenge we invite you to express your creativity in images, video or the written word. You can use any medium you feel comfortable with and show the world and lore in the way you want. Whether you’re a junior in your field or are more experienced, everyone is encouraged to participate.

We’d like you to generate new and interesting takes on the Autonolas lore. We want to see how Alter Orbis looks through different eyes and minds. Feel free to explore the different storytelling and creative possibilities our world has to offer. You can be the one to set the tone for future expansion of the world. You can be a founder of Alter Orbis.

We’ll share more of our lore in the next blog post so you can better understand and envision the world of Alter Orbis.

**What can I submit to the buildathon?**


These are the three categories for which prizes will be awarded:

*   **Concept art.** Visuals that show our universe. This could be digital or traditional art and you are free to express your unique concepts, style and ideas.
*   **Writing.** Short stories based on the lore or take the lore and expand it with your own concepts.
*   **Video.** Short videos (can also be GIFs) for the lore. Think motion graphics, animation or video.

#### Prizes


Each category has one winner. Each winner receives $500 in USDT or a similar stablecoin\*.

*   **Concept art:** $500
*   **Writing:** $500
*   **Video:** $500

_\*What’s a stablecoin? A stablecoin is a version of the US dollar which is transferable and usable on the blockchain. It can also be cashed out to standard currencies via exchanges like Coinbase and Binance._

#### Why participate?


This is your chance to contribute to the crypto space’s next big community, even if you’re not a developer! Like the idea of a hackathon but don’t have the technical skills? This is your chance to participate in the creative equivalent and shape an emerging world from the beginning:

*   **Show your creativity** and add some extra interesting work to your portfolio
*   **Interact** with a new and diverse community
*   **Build your profile in the crypto space**
*   **Proudly have your name displayed on the artwork** — hey, even Michelangelo didn’t get his name displayed on his artwork in the beginning
*   **Be a part of an innovative experiment** in building a world as a community
*   **Develop your market** — we’re also looking into a way to help you generate sales for the work you do during the buildathon

**How to participate:**


It will take us a bit of time to put everything we have planned together for you, as we want you to have the best experience. We are currently aiming to open up for submissions in late **January 2022**.

If you’d like us to get in touch when submissions open, please register your interest here: [https://bit.ly/325e5pC](https://bit.ly/325e5pC)

In the meantime, be sure to join our Discord channel [here](https://discord.gg/VWGVs5kGkX) and check our Twitter for updates [here](https://twitter.com/autonolas). The crypto-fluent can read more about our vision [here](https://autonolas.network/posts/1).


The world of Alter Orbis needs you!

Open Call: The Autonolas World Buildathon (with Prizes!)

The momentum just keeps increasing! Since our last update, we’ve made some very exciting progress. Let’s get into it!

#### Our First Off-Site

At the start of the month, the Autonolas team members gathered in Belgrade, Serbia for our very first off-site. For many of us, it was our first time meeting in person. Over the course of 5 days, we explored every aspect of the project in depth, with an eye towards moving together as a unified force to bring our vision to reality. We all really enjoyed ourselves and learned a lot!

#### Protocol-owned Services

Another very exciting share was the first public reveal of a novel primitive we’ve developed that we’re calling “Protocol-owned Services”. We put together [this tweet thread](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1504120575849074699?s=20&t=xXgrS5sxe-OaMK5qodrJ6w) that outlines exactly how this new concept works, and why we’re so excited about it.

####  The Oracle is live!

![oraclegifoptimized.gif](/uploads/oraclegifoptimized_12b480d02a.gif)

Remember when we teased this [a few weeks ago](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1501161157033439236?s=20&t=My_18LLE4CXrtNZt-bBxpg)? Well, it’s finally here! This proof-of-concept agent service is a fully-operational BTC/USD price oracle, and you can see it [running live here.](https://oracle-frontend.autonolas.tech/) We also put together [this blog post](https://autonolas.network/posts/9) that explains in more detail — definitely worth a read!

#### The World Buildathon Winners

We wrapped our World Buildathon and selected [a winner](https://www.autonolas.world/home-1-1) and [a runner up](https://www.autonolas.world/home-1-1-1)! We loved their creative take on expanding Alter Orbis, and put together [this showcase site](https://www.autonolas.world/) to share their full submissions, alongside some of our other favorite entries.

#### Book Club

We’re currently reading [The Infinite Machine](https://www.worldcat.org/title/infinite-machine-how-an-army-of-crypto-hackers-is-building-the-next-internet-with-ethereum/oclc/1117469014) in our informal book club, and [some shorter texts too](https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm). Right now we’ve just finished Part One and are moving on to Part Two, so there’s plenty of time to catch up. You can find the discussions in the Discord channel [#📚 -book-club](https://discord.com/channels/899649805582737479/935590694221926450).

#### Autonolas Academy Cohort 3

![img02.png](/uploads/img02_183a3ade60.png)

Our latest cohort is making great progress and are super engaged, with pull requests coming regularly and rewarding sessions each week. We’re very excited to see how their final project will turn out. If you’re interested in learning how to build with our stack, we’d love to have you in the next cohort!

You can find the program [here](https://www.autonolas.network/academy), and if you’d like to hear about the experiences of the participants in the first cohort, check out [this blog post.](https://autonolas.network/posts/2)

#### A new schedule for Community Office Hours

Because we want to reach as many of you as possible, going forward we’ll start hosting every other Community Office Hours call at a later time. We hope this new time will be easier for those of you in the US to attend.

These events will be in the morning if you’re on Pacific Time, so grab a coffee and join us at 16:00 UTC in Discord, the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month. Here’s an [event link for Friday, April 8th’s session](https://discord.com/events/899649805582737479/956902992014090300), which will be the first at the new time.

The 1st and 3rd Friday’s call will remain at 13:00 UTC.

#### AVAX Summit and a call for new partnerships

Team members [Oaksprout the Tan](https://twitter.com/tannedoaksprout) and [Adriano Bradley](https://twitter.com/bradrian_0x) attended [AVAX Summit in Barcelona](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1506973318951358465/photo/1), and enjoyed meeting new people and making lots of connections. We’re keen to form partnerships with other relevant startups and projects, so if you’d like to work together, or want to make a recommendation, [get in touch with our Ecosystem team](mailto:oaksprout@valory.xyz).

We’ve also got [David Minarsch](https://twitter.com/david_enim) in [the SF Bay Area](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1505862969732775945) for the next few weeks, so if you’re interested in grabbing a coffee, catch him while you can!

It’s a very exciting time to be here, and we’re so glad to have you with us! Do stay in touch by [joining our Discord](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar) and [following us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas). Until next time…


Brick by Brick Edition

Autonolas Community Update 004

Welcome back! It has been a while since we released a Community Update, but we are excited to share that there is a lot to cover. In this update, we will highlight new technical capabilities, exciting AI integrations, community-generated contributions, and expansions to our partnerships with other organizations.

This update continues from where our Autonolas Year in Review left off. If you missed it, you can [check it out here](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/year-in-review).

Media Appearances
-

Valory CEO and co-founder [David Minarsch](https://twitter.com/david_enim) has been getting out there and sharing some exciting ideas in talks and on podcasts, and we’re glad to say they have been very well received.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What if we co-owned AI? 👀<a href="https://twitter.com/david_enim?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@david_enim</a>, cofounder of <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@autonolas</a>, is spotlighting this concept over at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DAOTown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DAOTown</a>. He believes DAOs are a primal form of co-owned AI and offer useful primitives. <a href="https://t.co/NKpUVhNPEm">pic.twitter.com/NKpUVhNPEm</a></p>&mdash; ETHDenver 🏔🦬🦄 (@EthereumDenver) <a href="https://twitter.com/EthereumDenver/status/1631812321474498561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

First was David’s talk at ETHDenver in March, where he debuted the “Co-owned AI” concept in public for the first time. You can watch a replay here:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bmBnv2g-mR8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

For a readable summary of the talk, you can [check out this thread](https://twitter.com/valoryag/status/1633482825252081664?s=20). 

He also spoke at this year’s [IPFS þing](https://2023.ipfs-thing.io/) in Brussels, where he shared a look into how Autonolas makes use of IPFS: 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bzSjPTF-6G4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Most recently, David was a guest on [Tally.xyz’s](https://twitter.com/tallyxyz) DAOTalk podcast, where the conversation covered all things DAOs, including how AI can make them better and exploration of various Autonolas use-cases for DAOs. 

Give it [a listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3OKbcO8Tyzs1EjfGMaou3o?si=4llwPJlYTP-JA4t8pdgkrQ&nd=1), and let us know what you think.

Products and Partnerships
-

The ecosystem of products and services using Autonolas technologies has expanded quite a bit recently, as have our partnerships.

Our newest partnership is one of the most exciting so far. We’ve teamed up with [Ceramic](https://twitter.com/ceramicnetwork) to bring AI-powered DAO tooling that combines the power of Autonolas with Ceramic’s composable, decentralized data. You can learn more about the project [on Ceramic’s blog](https://blog.ceramic.network/ceramic-and-autonolas-partner-to-revolutionize-ai-tooling-for-daos/).

This is our second venture working with Ceramic; earlier in the year, we were [awarded and completed a grant project](https://forum.ceramic.network/t/proposal-iekit-a-modular-toolkit-for-building-impact-evaluators/553) that delivered IEKit, an Autonolas-enabled solution for building Impact Evaluators. 

For an intro to IEKit, [check out this blog post](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/introducing-iekit) and [explore the demo here](https://iekit.autonolas.network/docs).
 
One of our biggest milestones ever came in February, when we were (finally!)  able to share the [Autonolas whitepaper](https://www.autonolas.network/whitepaper) and it’s been awesome to get your reactions and feedback. When we released [the full whitepaper](https://www.autonolas.network/documents/whitepaper/Whitepaper%20v1.0.pdf), we also shared a shortened, [4-page summary](https://www.autonolas.network/documents/whitepaper/Whitepaper%20Summary%20v1.0.pdf) and [a series of summary threads](https://autonolas.medium.com/autonolas-co-owned-ai-zkml-smpc-da92e40cc325) that break down the paper section-by-section.

Valory also released new offerings recently: [Valory Propel](https://www.propel.valory.xyz/) is a menu of service offerings that aim to help people and organizations get their Autonolas-based autonomous services up and running with minimal effort.

For a quick introduction to Propel, [check out this thread](https://twitter.com/valoryag/status/1636389360613593089?s=20).

There’s also a newsletter available where you can stay up to date with releases, projects and other news: check out issues [01](https://us5.campaign-archive.com/?u=b0e788d1c8b599737210d65cb&id=4a38f207e3) and [02](https://mailchi.mp/108619546a1b/001-9317040) and [sign up to receive future issues here](https://www.propel.valory.xyz/newsletter).

We also continued to explore the possibility of leveraging the recent advancements in AI with [Governatooorr](https://twitter.com/valoryag/status/1643670672521195523?s=20), an AI-powered delegate that can vote on DAO proposals on your behalf - either for good, or for evil if you dare! 

You can [try out Governatooorr today here](https://governatooorr.autonolas.network/) and why not [mint a commemorative NFT](https://zora.co/collect/0x64646d760118d1e6219df0aed8b1fc1f0b4133d3)?

The Smart Managed Pools product, built as a part of the [Balancer Grants program](https://medium.com/@BalancerGrants/valory-is-building-smart-managed-pools-on-balancer-1b03a2f4cc89) has also grown and [the whitelist for early adopters is now open](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1649461565337509888?s=20). SMP versions have [now been run on both main and testnets](https://twitter.com/BalancerGrants/status/1657071377118294016?s=20).

Another of our exciting forays into AI is [Centaurs](https://twitter.com/launchcentaurs). This Autonolas-powered service allows you and your community to collaboratively train and share ownership of an AI. You can [request access to Centaurs here](https://launchcentaurs.eth.limo).

We also recently shared another integration of AI into the Autonolas toolkit: [AEA-BabyAGI](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1656669288449835016?s=20) expands on [Yohei Nakajima’s](https://twitter.com/yoheinakajima) influential project, bringing the power of Open AEA to personalized GPT-4 agents. Check out the [repo here](https://github.com/valory-xyz/aea-babyagi). 

Infrastructure and Developer Tools 
-

Valory engineers have been hard at work expanding the capabilities, stability and usefulness of the Autonolas stack. 

As of May 18th, 2023, Open Autonomy is up to [v0.10.4](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-autonomy/releases/tag/v0.10.4) and Open AEA to [v1.340](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-aea/releases/tag/v1.34.0). 

Another great milestone was the release of the [Open Autonomy Client SDK](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-autonomy-client). This library makes it even easier for developers to interact with the multi-agent systems that are at the heart of our autonomous services. 

[Autonolas Toolkits](https://docs.autonolas.network/products/) are a collection of code repositories that developers can fork when building their apps and services. They include: 

- *[SMPKit](https://docs.autonolas.network/product/smpkit/)* - for services that execute investment strategies on liquidity pools
- *[MintKit](https://docs.autonolas.network/product/mintkit/)* - for services with minting capabilities 
- *[CoordinationKit](https://docs.autonolas.network/product/coordinationkit/)* - for services that provide evolving NFT badges that track contributions
- *[MLKit](https://docs.autonolas.network/product/mlkit/)* - for services with custom machine learning capabilities 
- *[OracleKit](https://docs.autonolas.network/product/oraclekit/)* - for services that provide data streams onto the blockchain
- *[IEKit](https://docs.autonolas.network/product/iekit/)* - allows services to use Ceramic streams for automated tracking of user contributions 

The [Autonolas protocol](https://protocol.autonolas.network/) itself is also expanding in accessibility, and is currently deployed on the Ethereum mainnet, the Görli testnet and has recently been [launched on Polygon](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/autonolas-now-available-on-polygon).

[The documentation](https://docs.autonolas.network/) has also been kept up-to-date, and is now more useful than ever. If you’re a developer, we’d love to know what you think of it!

The Autonolas DAO
-

At the heart of Autonolas is the Autonolas DAO, which has seen some recent markers of maturation:  

We had the [first token epoch close](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1653804530390417408), and [donations distributed to developers](https://etherscan.io/tx/0x545d11eb6a7716c2fa30c9646bcbf4ba7024052cc261e5712f92630f45edd2d8#eventlog). 

SolidityFinance recently completed an audit of the tokenomics contracts, and we’re proud to say that [they found zero external vulnerabilities](https://twitter.com/SolidityFinance/status/1638556569074794497). Nice!

Protocol Owned Services also became a reality as Autonolas Contribute became [the first service to be owned by the Autonolas protocol](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/autonolas-contribute-pose).

Another [group of important proposals](https://boardroom.io/autonolas/proposal/cHJvcG9zYWw6YXV0b25vbGFzOnNuYXBzaG90OjB4MTYyNGRiNmY2ZTljNmRmODQ4MjRlZWFhNGE5ZTcyYWQyZjJkNTIxNGZmODdjNzhiZDlmNmU0ODVmNmQxMTc3OA==) that passed recently were summed up [in this thread](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1658760053573423104?s=20).

Community Contributions 
-

Autonolas community members have been taking the scope, scale and quality of their contributions to new heights. 

- [Curious_Rabbit](https://twitter.com/curiousrabbit27) explored the Autonolas ecosystem [in this informative video tour](https://twitter.com/curiousrabbit27/status/1613671930686541829?s=20).
 - [Andrey_Versus](https://twitter.com/andrey_versus) shared a [Russian-language version](https://medium.com/@cavalli8585/autonolas-contribute-18bcd9b837e8) of our Autonolas Contribute documentation.
 - [N0x](https://twitter.com/N0xMare_) shared two incredible contributions with us: first was [Awesome Autonolas](https://github.com/N0xMare/awesome-autonolas)–an encyclopedia-style guide to the Autonolas ecosystem, aimed at developers. 
He also contributed a massive, in-depth and exciting exploration of how Autonolas can enable innovation in AI and machine learning in this guest post: [Autonolas & Co-Owned AI (zkML & SMPC)](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/autonolas-and-co-owned-ai-zk-ml-and-smpc). The post is **very** comprehensive, so much so that we also decided to break it down into a series of summary threads, which you [can read here](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1651873904477229057?s=200).
 - Another interesting contribution came from [Evan Kim](https://twitter.com/EvanDeKim), who included Valory’s SMPs in [this blog post looking into Balancer’s Managed Pool Controllers](https://mirror.xyz/evandekim.eth/YPI5RbKi9CyIEgpnrFtmnyACHMtTHM9FBsMJFjdwLXI). 

Hacks
-
Two exciting hacks that incorporate Autonolas technologies are [Liquidation Station](https://github.com/8ball030/liquidation_station), which [won a prize](https://twitter.com/devfolio/status/1648689776432926720?s=20) on the PWNDao track at ETHZurich, and [AI Mechs](https://twitter.com/valoryag/status/1658869890625978373?s=20), which won a prize from Graph Protocol at ETHLisbon.
We are incredibly excited about the potential of these new AI technologies and their applications in the crypto space. In fact, we are spinning off a virtual conference to explore standards at the intersection of AI and crypto.
We would love to have you join us, so please let us know you're interested by filling out this form: [Form Link](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQFdudd62_3M1ImccloafO_2N6mi5bC22xjECTWiVwbHz_7Q/viewform).


We’d love to have you join us, so please [let us know you’re interested by filling out this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQFdudd62_3M1ImccloafO_2N6mi5bC22xjECTWiVwbHz_7Q/viewform). 

Wrapping Up
-
If you made it this far, thank you for your time and attention–we know this has been a long document, and we appreciate you sticking with us! 

We’d love to connect with you further, so here’s a few ways for you to get involved:
 - [Join our Discord](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar)
 - [Follow us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas)
 - [Register your interest for our upcoming AI x Crypto Standards virtual conference](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQFdudd62_3M1ImccloafO_2N6mi5bC22xjECTWiVwbHz_7Q/viewform)

We'd also like to remind you that we **always** appreciate your feedback on the content and presentation of this update. These posts are for you, our community members, so we want to make them serve your needs first. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or feedback, please drop by the Discord or send us a DM on Twitter. We’d love to hear from you.


Coordinating Greatness Edition

Autonolas Community Update 013

Today we’re excited to share a new program designed to engage and reward our community members for their contributions. Particularly at this early stage in the community’s development, we want to encourage the right kind of actions, and it’s our belief that those are things that will get us to exponential ecosystem growth as fast as possible.

Here’s how the system works:

Do great things + let us know + get points!

We’ll launch the program with a few “public” actions, but this list doesn’t encompass everything you can earn points for now, or in the future! You can figure out the rest on your own, or wait for subsequent updates, but we encourage you to think creatively and find your own ways to spread the word about Autonolas.


The goal with this program is to give you easy ways to advance our mission and a simplified way for us to track your contributions. In the near future this will make it easier to identify our strongest advocates and invite them to the right programs, add them to lists and connect them with others.

Keep those goals in mind, and actions you can take to earn points should become clear! You can also suggest actions in the [#suggestions](https://discord.gg/gspapq4xEH) channel on Discord.


**Leaderboard Actions and their Points Values** 


| Action | Description | Points |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Invite a new member to our Discord | Invite someone using your invite link, and we’ll use InviteLogger to identify your invitees | 2.5
| Provide actionable feedback that improves the running of the community | Help us identify a community-focused improvement that we implement | 15
|Contribute original art, design or writing to Alter Orbis |Share your original Alter Orbis related work with us | 10
|Complete an Academy Task | Finish one of the tasks between modules and send a screenshot in the claim form  | 40
|Help us identify a reproducible coding error in the documentation | Help us find bugs and mistakes we can reproduce in [the documentation](docs.autonolas.network). To claim, open an issue on [open-autonomy](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-autonomy) referencing your Discord username.  | 50
| Help us identify a non-code error in the documentation | Find a typo, broken link, etc in [the documentation](docs.autonolas.network) and open an issue on [open-autonomy](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-autonomy) referencing your Discord username. | 25
| RT or QT a selected tweet | Help us spread the Autonolas message on Twitter | 1 point for every 100 followers
| Create a thread about Autonolas | Help us explain what we're doing with a Twitter thread | 45 
| Tag a friend who should follow us on Twitter | Help us grow our community on Twitter by @mentioning a friend | 2
| Take the Community Survey | Answer [5 short questions about your experience here](https://forms.gle/xB3v3odqPG2n4XYK8)| 5


We’ll start tracking leaderboard eligible-actions starting today, August 26th, and release the first rankings after a week has elapsed. Rankings are released on Monday at or before 17:00 CET.

You can claim points by [using the submission form](https://forms.gle/FLn6xbrDDAtWgYa36), for invites, all you need to do is invite your friends - InviteLogger will keep track of the rest. 

Get out there and claim your place on the charts!


Will you be our number one?

Introducing the Community Leaderboard Program

We’re strapped in, the lights are coming on and things are starting to look really exciting. Here’s the current state of the Autonolas Community.

[**Agent Dev Academy**](https://www.autonolas.network/academy) is underway, and the quality-of-experience is looking great. Cohort 1 is setting a high bar! Cofounder [David Minarsch](https://twitter.com/david_enim) sat in recently and had this to say:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Listened in to half an hour of dev conversations in the <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@autonolas</a> agent academy yesterday and the questions asked and general level of discussion 🤯. Very bullish on what this cohort is building! We still have space in the second cohort - but not for long: 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃</p>&mdash; David Minarsch ☴ (@david_enim) <a href="https://twitter.com/david_enim/status/1461332756097605637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We’re currently hosting a **Welcome Call** once a week, Fridays at 1:30pm UTC on [Discord](https://discord.gg/7VY4zV8YBr). Look out for the post in #general each week or follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas) for a reminder. It’s a great opportunity to introduce yourself, ask specific questions and throw ideas our way.

**We recently** [**ran our first blog post**](https://autonolas.network/posts/1)**,** if you haven’t read it yet, go check it out! It’s a great overview of how we see the crypto space broadly, and why we’ve identified autonomy as the key to unlocking an entirely new world of crypto apps, and revolutionizing the ones we already have.

**Our POC oracle** is up and running stably as we prepare to move to larger test deployments. You can [check it out](https://ropsten.etherscan.io/address/0xb555e44648f6ff759f64a5b451ab845b0450ea57#internaltx) now. You can expect the latest BTC average price calculated by the agents here: under “latestRoundData”, listed as the “answer”.

It has 18 decimals so you need to divide the answer by 10¹⁸ to get the BTC price.

Note that as it’s a staging deployment, we guarantee no uptime at the moment.

**Internally, the Valory team** is growing. Having begun with 8 team members in September, we now have 16 team members in 12 countries. Latest hires include a dedicated Developer Relations person, a Senior Cryptography Engineer and a Python Engineer.

**Thanks for getting involved!** We’ve been sharing previews of what we’re working on with the community and getting some **great** feedback. We’re very interested in your thoughts on design, communication, strategy and more, so for those without hard technical skills, there’s already space to get involved — and much more to come.

Questions? Comments? @mention us on Twitter, or DM @maybrier on [Discord.](https://discord.gg/7VY4zV8YBr)


If You’re Reading This, You’re Early Edition

Autonolas Community Update 001

We’ve concluded another month, so that means it’s time to pause and take a moment to look back and recap what’s been happening in the world of Autonolas. There's a lot to cover, so let's get right to it!

**New: Community Showcase**

We’re also trialing a new way for you to share your ideas, passions and projects with us and the Autonolas community: the Community Showcase project is a weekly chance for you to share what you’re interested in. We hope this will be a fun way to learn more about you and an opportunity for members to connect with each other. 

Stop by the [first session this Thursday](https://discord.gg/wbandXnM?event=1035594284755333220)! 

**New: Alter Orbis Weekly Sessions**

We’re restarting exploration of Alter Orbis with a weekly creative session held in the Discord. We’d love to have you drop by and contribute your ideas, feedback or skills towards our companion lore! The event is [every Thursday at 14:00 CET](https://discord.com/events/899649805582737479/1035147743204741210). 

**Community Leaderboard Updates**

This month we made some big changes to our Community Leaderboard - you're now earning even more points:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Another Community Leaderboard! This week you&#39;ll notice a 100x modifier on the totals, because if points are good more points are even better, right? <br><br>Top 10: <a href="https://twitter.com/mihai673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mihai673</a> maintaining a strong number one but <a href="https://twitter.com/An_Tony1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@An_Tony1</a> coming incredibly close to clinching it! <a href="https://t.co/mqZaHw1gRL">pic.twitter.com/mqZaHw1gRL</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1582026741899329536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We also made a change to how you claim points - now, points earned will expire if you’re not a member of the Discord, so if you haven’t already joined us, [now is a great time](https://discord.gg/4xhAHuy4Y3)! 

There’s also some new actions available for you to earn points on. To find the full list, you can always check out the #contribute channel in the Discord. Here’s some of the newest actions: 


>Ask a question in a Twitter Spaces
Ask us or a panelist a question during one of our Twitter Spaces 
_1000 points_

>Create an Autonolas meme
Post your best Autonolas meme in 🫡-memez 
_200 points + LIMITED TIME BONUS: 2x modifier and 4x for memes we share on Twitter_

>Share your feedback on our visuals
Let us know what you think [of our latest visual exploration](https://discord.com/channels/899649805582737479/989174825115328552/1035516390246985818).
_300 points per item of feedback_

>Write something about us on your own platform
Write and publish an original article - and if you share with us before you publish, we can help with editing.
_3100 points_

There's more to come and bonuses and modifiers in the works, so get out there, get sharing and earn yourself some points!

**Twitter Spaces**

We’ve continued our Twitter Spaces series recently, and one very interesting conversation was between Oaksprout and community member [Asfi](https://twitter.com/Asfi3333). You can [check out the recording](
https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1582328075445862401?s=20&t=NcbmwtkitDtPB53Xc34Mpw) on Twitter, or for a permanent link, the #media channel in our Discord. 

**We’ve been threadingggg**

Recently we’ve gone deep on these threads that present and compare data from around the crypto ecosystem. Here’s a few of our favorites from the previous month:

This thread [examines index-type products](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1584932384490692608?s=20&t=NcbmwtkitDtPB53Xc34Mpw) in crypto: what’s out there already, and how is it performing, particulary in comparison to the TradFi market? We're very interested in this area, so we'll be keeping a close eye on it. 

In these threads, we took a look at the burgeoning zkSync and Starknet ecosystems: check them both out and let us know what you think!

The zkSync [thread is here](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1582662870881345539?s=20&t=NcbmwtkitDtPB53Xc34Mpw) here and the Starknet [thread is here](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1584609497741348864?s=20&t=NcbmwtkitDtPB53Xc34Mpw).

Do you have an idea for what we can explore in a future thread, or would you like to contribute your own? Get in touch!

Speaking of Starknet, this year we had some Valorians in attendance, and those of you lucky enough to be in Lisbon were able to catch our co-founder and Chief Research Officer David Galindo’s talk! 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">David Galindo, Co-founder &amp; Chief Research Officer <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@autonolas</a> will be telling us how to make smarter contracts. <a href="https://t.co/86y7yH3ON2">pic.twitter.com/86y7yH3ON2</a></p>&mdash; Starknet.cc (Bangalore 🇮🇳 Nov 30 - Dec 1) (@StarknetCC) <a href="https://twitter.com/StarknetCC/status/1585964600188555268?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

If you missed the simulcast, no worries as we were able to grab a recording, so [please check it out](https://discord.com/channels/899649805582737479/1004278442935734282/1036679787198025748) and let us know your thoughts. 

**Open Autonomy is now up to v0.3.4**

Check out [the latest release on our Github](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-autonomy/releases), and if you have questions, join the Discord where we have a [dedicated channel just for developer support](https://discord.gg/Dh3mrPAQrx). 

So, that’s what we have for you this month, as always thank you for your time and attention. If you have any suggestions, ideas or comments about what this update ought to contain or how we might make it better, please drop us a line—our Twitter DMs are open.

To keep up with the latest Autonolas updates, [follow us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas) and join [the Discord](https://discord.gg/7VY4zV8YBr). See you next time!



Enterprising Explorers Edition

Autonolas Community Update 011

_This is the third post in a series featuring ideas for autonomous services from Autonolas community members. It's brought to you today by guest author and community member Odin.THOR. Odin.THOR has been doing some impressive thinking about compelling ideas for autonomous services, and we wanted to share them with the community. Let us know what you think, and feel free to also share your own ideas with everyone on Twitter or Discord–you might be the next author featured on the blog!_

### #1 : Legacy Agents

**Purpose:** Allow individuals to financially influence and strategically support
causes they believe in, beyond their natural lifetimes.

**Overview:** Historically, the encapsulation of monetary assets as ‘societal debt’ has
allowed significant social contributors to shape the society they lived in, oftentimes
even after their death. The Nobel Prize serves as an exemplary characterization of
this idea. However, in its current form, does the Nobel Prize continue to recognize
talent in the same manner Alfred Nobel, the original sponsor of the award, would?

What if, instead of people, with their predilection for bias and potentially misaligned
incentives, the task of selecting award recipients could be assigned to an intelligent agent network, modeled after Nobel’s recorded behavior? 

The autonomous agents which constitute this network could also be
explicitly directed to fulfill Nobel’s long-term objective, without revealing it to any
live individuals. Such a service, while somewhat fantastical, is technically
achievable today using Autonolas’s technology.


**Path to Implementation:** An agent network will be endowed with a machine
learning model initially informed by *a)* explicit goals from the user (eg: reduce
cancer mortality) and *b)* data regarding the user’s moral tendencies and past
decisions. This model will be further refined by incorporating occasional feedback
from the user, over the course of their lifetime.


Feedback will entail financial reactions from the user in response to
simulated situations (assuming perpetually zero cost of living). The simulated
situations will oscillate between *a)* mimicking historically accurate scenarios (eg:
war/financial collapse) and *b)* enacting hypothetical, but possible, situations (eg:
energy crisis/climate shift). 

Upon the user’s death, funds will be willed to the Autonolas service by either a legal executor or a more transparent alternative like [Sequel Finance](https://www.sequel.fi/). The service will then actively identify and contribute funds to
actors it predicts will support the user’s long-term goal.

Any unallocated funds will be deposited into a productive low-risk yield
strategy (eg: Stablecoin LP-Pool) to protect against erosion/inflation. Agent
operators, in exchange for maintaining the service, will be entitled to any returns
accrued _beyond_ the ‘Principal Protection Rate’ (eg: Inflation + dynamic % of
Inflation).


Periodically, (every 2-3 yrs) agent operators may collectively vote to move
the principal to any insured yield-generating opportunity supported by whitelisted
insurance providers (eg: [Risk Harbor](https://www.riskharbor.com/)). The agent network will be hard-coded to
check if the deposited funds are eligible for an insurance payout every 3-6 months
(indicating a hack/risk management failure). If an insurance payout successfully
occurs on-chain, the recovered principal will then be assigned to different
operators to lower the chance of future loss to poor risk management.

Finally, the user will also be able to assign an on-chain wallet a limited
number of veto votes as NFTs. (The keys to this wallet can be given to a close
family member/inherited by children.) Before making a major on-chain
commitment, the agent network will broadcast upcoming principal allocation
decisions (in cipher) via an empty transaction to a burn address. The veto wallet
can prevent undesirable decisions by responding with a transaction containing a
veto NFT and the corresponding decision number(s) in the memo field. Successful
veto votes will be used to further improve the decision-making model.

### **#2 : Employment Bonds**

*Purpose:* Allow DAOs to offer employees greater income security while
simultaneously strengthening inter-DAO relationships and establishing an
additional stream of passive income.

*Overview:* A significant barrier to entry for many aspiring Web3 developers is
their inability to safely expect a reliable stream of income from the DAOs they
hope to work with, especially when those DAOs are new and unproven.


Unfortunately, the finances of several new projects are managed almost
entirely by team-operated multi-sig wallets, making them vulnerable to both ‘rug-
pulls’ by pseudonymous teams and sophisticated social engineering attacks.


However, what if it were possible to maintain the maneuvering advantages of
team-centralization (i.e. not requiring a community vote for every decision) while
still keeping funds earmarked for employees financially productive?

There are two main gaps DAOs must bridge to achieve this goal:

i) Retaining the ability to terminate employment in valid cases (without
employee fear of unfairly losing employment/future pay).

- Simplest solution [Subjective-Decision Issue]: DAO-DAO Collaboration.

ii) Enforceable employment terms (consistent workforce) while allowing
employees to remain pseudonymous (not share their public identity with
DAO).


- Simplest solution [Privacy Issue]: zk-computation + legal enforcement

*Path to Implementation:* When they begin work, each pseudonymous employee
will sign a notarized long-term employment contract and submit it to an Autonolas
service. The service will parse the submitted contract and ensure it meets the
employment conditions stipulated by the employing DAO. (As a fallback - agent
network can autonomously contact notary via email and seek clarification regarding
document contents/authenticity.)

 A key component of all contracts will be that the
signing employee can be transferred to a separate employer for the remainder of
their term (assuming same benefit/wage level). The employer (DAO) will never be given access to the contract unless they
seek to take legal action against their employee (keeping the identity of the
employee private).

 If legal action must be taken, the corresponding complaint/lawsuit will need be filed through the Autonolas service (which can be
incorporated as a legal entity). This will help ensure the complaint cannot simply
be withdrawn by the DAO upon learning the employee’s identity.


After an employee contract is signed, the DAO will delegate the funds
needed to meet its wage obligation over the employment term to an insured yield-
generating opportunity. These funds will be controlled through the Autonolas
service. Every month, the pre-agreed wage amount will be sent to the employee by
the service on-chain. The DAO will have the option to claim the yield generated
upon the deposited principal at any point (to allow for optimal compounding).

With this housekeeping out of the way, let us revisit issue (i) outlined in the
overview. At the beginning of each financial year, the employer DAO will identify
_another_ DAO with a similar number of employees and wage obligations to form an
‘Accountability Partnership’ with. In the event either DAO becomes insolvent or is
disbanded, the _operational_ DAO will claim the employees from the insolvent DAO
(wages will continue to be paid from the principal deposited with the Autonolas
service). 

If either DAO wishes to fire an employee, the other DAO will evaluate if the termination is acceptable (external validation). If the termination is deemed appropriate, severance will be paid out from the Autonolas service, and the remaining wage principal will be returned to the initial employer. If the termination is deemed inappropriate, the DAOs will ‘trade’ similar-level employees between each other such that the employee-under-review is assigned to the other/new DAO.


Let us consider a few examples to make this more digestible:

_*Conditions:*_
i) DAO α and DAO β have a similar number of employees at the
same wage level
ii) DAO α and DAO β enter into an Accountability Partnership
iii) Employee wages for both DAOs have been pre-deposited with
the Autonolas service
iv) To dismiss an employee (terminate wage payment) DAO α
requires approval from DAO β _and vice-versa_
v) DAO α can claim any of DAO β’s _initial_ employees at any time
_and vice-versa_
vi) DAO α cannot reclaim any of their initial employees that have
been claimed by DAO β _and vice-versa_ (max. one movement per
employee)
_vii)_ All DAO-employee actions will be taken via on-chain
instructions to the Autonolas service from the DAO’s multi-sig
_viii)_ Legal action can be taken against an employee by their current
employer through the Autonolas service

_*Examples:*_

Example A: DAO α is disbanded due to project failure.

- Response: DAO β claims DAO α’s employees with no resistance from DAO
α (which no longer exists).

Example B: DAO α places a hostile claim on one of DAO β’s employees.

- Response: DAO β claims an employee of similar standing from DAO α.

Example C: DAO α wishes to dismiss an employee

- Response: DAO β will manually review employee performance to assess
if termination is appropriate. If it is, DAO β will approve the termination
request with the Autonolas service and unpaid wages (-severance) will be
returned to DAO α. If DAO β determines termination is not appropriate,
DAO β will claim the employee in question from DAO α, and DAO α will
claim an employee of similar standing/role from DAO β.

These examples may suggest that DAOs engaged in such partnerships will
always ‘be at each other’s throats’. However, in practice, I expect partnered DAOs
will only interact with each other regarding employees in rare and extreme
circumstances. 

In fact, since each DAO has the capacity to effectively restructure
the other’s workforce, partnered organizations will need to maintain a close level
of trust and communication which could very possibly pave the way for additional
shared ventures.

Another weakness of this model is that, like much of over-collateralized
crypto, it is not very capital efficient. However, in exchange for some capital
inefficiency, DAOs will be able to maintain a more reliable workforce and
employees will be able to confidently dedicate their time to a single project without
the need to ‘doxx’ themselves.

### **#3 : Interactable Certificates of Net-Worth**

*Purpose:* Identify users with specific portfolio types (omni-chain & off-chain) in a
privacy-preserving manner with adjustments for historical distribution.

*Overview:* Token airdrops and feedback from alpha-stage users are often central in
new projects’ strategies to gain traction with their target audience. Currently, users
selected to receive airdrops or alpha-stage access are chosen using contextual
information which suggest their interest in either the project itself or a
similar/complementary industry. 

However, many of these methods can fall prey to
mercenary ‘airdrop hunting’ or, more simply, users with transitory/short-term
interest in the project. A better indication of a user’s convictions would be proof of ‘where they are putting their money’. 

To quantify this, what if it were possible to probe a user’s
portfolio with granular selectivity by running a privacy preserving query against
the sum of their assets and investments?

*Path to Implementation:* In order to generate a Certificate of Net-Worth, users
will be asked to provide an Autonolas service read-only access to their off-chain
CEX/banking/investment accounts via Web2 APIs. Users will also be asked to
provide their wallet addresses across chains and confirm they have provided access
to all appropriate accounts/holdings via a legally binding agreement.

The generated ‘certificate’ will then be stored within the Autonolas service
and updated whenever a query is requested against it by a participating protocol
(eg: Curve, Balancer). Each of the user’s wallets will be assigned a wallet-unique
code written to an SBT, allowing the service to associate the wallet with the main
certificate when a query is requested.

On the protocol side, once a user connects a wallet with an SBT from the
Autonolas service, and provides consent for a query to be run, zero-knowledge
proofs will be used to output a binary yes/no result. 

An example would be:
Step 1: An NFT trading platform (eg: OpenSea, SudoSwap) launches a new
token and is airdropping a percentage to eligible users on a first-come/first-
serve basis.

Step 2: A user with interest in NFT artwork connects their wallet with an
Autonolas service SBT to the NFT trading platform.

Step 3: The NFT platform, having verified that the user owns the wallet, will
transmit the wallet’s identity to the Autonolas service with a query request.

Step 4: The query can range from: “Is >15% of the user’s portfolio in the
NFT artwork industry?” To: “Did the user receive and still hold tokens from
a competitor’s airdrop?” (Identity of competitor’s token + Date window
during which competitor’s airdrop could be claimed)

Step 5: A yes/no answer is generated using zk-proofs and provided to the
NFT trading protocol.

Note: The protocol will only be allowed to run a query once per month to
ensure:

a) Different query parameters cannot be run to extract additional
details regarding the user’s portfolio.

b) The user cannot temporarily restructure their portfolio to ‘game the
system’ and become eligible for a lucrative airdrop.

Thank you for taking the time to read through these ideas! If you find any of them
to be of interest to you or your team, [visit our Discord](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar) to start a conversation with the community!


Written by Odin.THOR
Twitter: [@ODIN_Thorchain](https://twitter.com/ODIN_Thorchain)

Building Novel Services with Autonolas

Autonomous Augmentations — Volume Three 

**What's changed**

As we've moved closer to our goals and grown as an organization, our needs as a brand have matured and changed. Recently, it became clear that we needed to revisit and refine the values that stand at our core. Through the process of exploring who we are, how we see ourselves and who we want to be, it became obvious that we needed to integrate these ideas and values into a new visual identity.

**Brand core**

We started by defining our brand core: these concepts and truths are the "heart" of the brand and what it ought to mean. Everything needs to radiate out from, or reflect back on, one or more of these elemental principles and ideas. After a period of reflection, our founding team shared their thoughts about the brand and the mission.They provided this feedback both separately, and then together. 

At the end of this process, we had the following points to consider and integrate into the visual identity of the brand:

- We are unique, we are pioneering the autonomous edge of what's possible–in crypto and beyond.
- We want our branding to elicit one or more of the following emotions:

**Safety**  -  a sense of ethical and technical competence
**Hope**  -  autonomy will usher in a better future for humanity
**Wonder**  -  there is a whole new world to learn about and explore
**Excitement**  -  the technology is powerful and cool

A key concept that emerged in our discussions was the idea that machine autonomy will enable and empower human autonomy–two sides of the same coin.

**Brand values**

The emotions are our new brand values:
Safety, Hope, Wonder and Excitement.

**The new visual identity**

With the new, more precise brand core established, it became clear the current identity we were using was no longer fit to purpose. It was too dark, too metallic and had too many sharp edges and textures. The graphic elements did not effectively convey any of the brand's values. Taking these aspects into consideration, we started the process of building a new visual identity.

However, the existing brand identity, which many liked, will live on in the world of Alter Orbis, our companion lore.

The new brand is built around the brand values. We went through 4 different design iteration cycles before arriving at what would become the new visual identity. As a part of the design process, we solicited feedback from both the Autonolas community and our internal team members. Their feedback, ideas and input helped us to further refine and develop the visuals.


![blog-visual-identity-concept-1.jpg](/uploads/blog_visual_identity_concept_1_56dedcd2ff.jpg)
![blog-visual-identity-concept-2.jpg](/uploads/blog_visual_identity_concept_2_2e14313c69.jpg)
![blog-visual-identity-concept-3.jpg](/uploads/blog_visual_identity_concept_3_444956e890.jpg)
![blog-visual-identity-concept-4.jpg](/uploads/blog_visual_identity_concept_4_10f4ab62a0.jpg)
_The iterative design process_

**Decisions and process related to the brand values:**
1. Color Palette - we decided to switch from dark, cold colors like black, blue and green to pastels and lighter colors to bring in a sense of safety and hope. Alongside the main brand color purple and the highlight color, we developed gradients to be used as backgrounds and photo treatments.

2. Typography - the main typeface we chose needed to convey a sense of safety. We moved away from glyphs with sharp edges and fonts with pixelated effects. In general pixelated fonts are very common in the tech space, and they instantly make the user think of machines, tech and metal.
The main typeface we chose, Manrope, is simple and human. We wanted the typeface to blend smoothly with the visuals and not bring in any sense of sharp, metal edges.

3. Graphic Elements - two main graphic elements were developed for the new brand.
The first was glass objects to convey a futuristic sense of wonder, with transparency encapsulating and communicating complexity. While simple at first glance, a closer look reveals more detail. They were designed to be a part of the community visuals and to showcase the individual, the art, the possibilities of the crypto space.

The second was a dynamic element of murmurations to convey both excitement, and to make a visual reference to a real-world complex system, with individual actors working together as a group. In the same way, with Autonolas, single agents cooperate to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Based on these objects, we can build a specific design system and visuals for different types of communication materials.

A common element across all of the brand visuals are pastel gradients. Each of these graphic elements can be combined and reinterpreted to create specific visuals.

![blog-visual-identity-concept-5.jpg](/uploads/blog_visual_identity_concept_5_91c51772ee.jpg)
_The final visual identity_

Combining all of these elements communicates the brand's core values in a cohesive visual identity. The colors, graphic elements and typography were selected and developed specifically to convey and communicate the emotions that stand at the core of our brand.

We are thrilled to present to you our new visual identity and look forward to building and developing it together. 

How and why we've updated our look

A New Visual Identity for Autonolas

Hello Autonolas fans, followers and community members! It’s been another exciting month and we’ve got a great recap for you. Let’s get into it!

**Climb the ranks on the new Community Leaderboard!**

![29.08 Community leaderboard.png](/uploads/29_08_Community_leaderboard_8fa95a8a62.png)

One of the biggest and most fun projects we’ve started recently was the Community Leaderboard—this is an easy way to get credit for your contributions to our growing ecosystem and enjoy a little friendly competition. [This blog post has more information](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/30), but here’s a brief summary:

There’s a variety of different actions you can take. Actions are tasks ranging from very simple to very complex, and each action has a “points” value. You can earn points for completing actions all week, and every Monday at 17:00 CET, we’ll release the current rankings, tabulating what happened during the previous period, adding up all the points and letting you know who’s making major moves and who’s on top!

To keep track of the current actions that are available, you can check out the blog post we linked above or the [#leaderboard](https://discord.gg/4xhAHuy4Y3) channel in Discord, where the pinned message will have all the latest points and tips on temporary bonuses like how to claim and when they expire. Now, get out there and earn yourself some points and bragging rights! 

**The very first Autonolas AMA** 

We recently hosted our first AMA and got some really interesting and thought provoking questions. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question, we really enjoyed the depth and breadth of your submissions. Since we did both the asking and answering in writing, the AMA lives on for perusal at your leisure in our new [#AMA forum channel](https://discord.gg/7VY4zV8YBr). Please check it out, and don’t hesitate to post a reply or a comment to any of the questions you find interesting. We’d love to get into conversation with you. 

**Our DAO research continues**

We’ve continued our look into the world of DAO operations with several new Twitter threads that rank DAOs on a variety of metrics. The results can be quite interesting! Here’s what we’ve shared so far: 

There’s a few threads that look at the GnosisSafe (now Safe) ecosystem. We asked [which apps have performed the best since the Safe token launch](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1569350429720428545) and which apps [have increased their safe user activity since June](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1569701031222681602). 

In the broader DAO space, we looked into [which protocols have the most DAO Value Locked](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1572964101546188802) and [which DAOs have the most diversified treasuries](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1575109621940858880). 

How did your favorites do? If you have any ideas or questions you’d like to have us look into, or want to check out the raw data behind these threads, get in touch!
 
**A new article that makes explaining blockchain and autonomy easy**

![22.09_Intro_Blog_Post.png](/uploads/22_09_Intro_Blog_Post_2d3820a639.png)

In this excellent new blog post titled [The case for Blockchain and Autonomy: An Introduction for Non-Technical Audiences]( https://www.autonolas.network/blog/33), Valory Senior Python Engineer [David Vilela Freire](https://twitter.com/dvilelaf) starts at the beginning and breaks down why we need blockchains, where autonomy fits in and why we need more of the latter to maximize the potential of the former. Best of all, it’s written at a level that doesn’t require advanced knowledge to understand. Share this with your friends and family next time they ask you to explain why you’re so into web3, and let us know what they think!

**Have you taken the Community Survey yet?** 

Keeping in touch with all of you, and learning more about where you’re at and how you feel as a community member is an important on-going task for us. That’s where the new Community Survey comes into play. If you haven’t taken it yet, please take a minute or two of your time to fill it out. It’s short—just five questions, and no writing is required. 

[Take the survey here](https://forms.gle/Ku3oXstEc28JWK41A) and if you include your Discord handle, you’ll earn yourself 5 leaderboard points!   

**New, Targeted Landing Pages**

There are a lot of different ways that Autonolas can be impactful, so that's why we put together these different landing pages that target different audiences and use cases. We think this is going to really help people understand and get excited about what we're doing. There’s a page for [solo developers](https://www.autonolas.network/autonomous-developers), [DAO developer teams](https://www.autonolas.network/autonomous-infra) working on infrastructure, [builders interested in autonomous products](https://www.autonolas.network/smart-products) for their DAO, and [DAO members](https://www.autonolas.network/dao-autonomy) looking for ways to make their DAO’s operations more autonomous. Check out [this tweet thread for all of the links](https://twitter.com/david_enim/status/1565959998374551555) collected in one place with helpful commentary from Valory co-founder [David Minarsch](https://twitter.com/david_enim). 

Please share them far and wide, and let us know if you have any feedback on the contents. 

**One last thing…** 

![👀👀.png](/uploads/_9f5d708d60.png)

We can’t say too much about this 👆 just yet, but something is coming together behind the scenes, any ideas what it might be? We can’t wait to share more, so keep your eyes peeled. 👀

Well, that’s all we have for you this month, as always, we thank you for your time and attention. If you have suggestions, ideas or comments about what this update ought to contain or how we might make it better, please drop us a line—our Twitter DMs are open.

To keep up with the latest Autonolas updates, [follow us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas) and join [the Discord](https://discord.gg/7VY4zV8YBr). See you next time!



Moving Up the Ranks Edition

Community Update 010

_A guest post by Autonolas’ Brand Visual Designer_ [_@kameha\_san_](https://twitter.com/kameha_san)

#### A Christmas surprise…

Christmas — that time of the year when most companies think about what to give to their customers and employees/contractors. Way back in my advertising days, there was a colossal challenge to come up with the most creative gift ideas for our clients. And of course, everything fell on the creative department. Needless to say, it’s good to be out!

But what about crypto projects? When you have team members in 12 countries, shipping them each a physical gift can be tricky. Also, working in crypto, tokens are one of the first things that comes to mind. Tokens are digital assets and there are two types: fungible tokens (tokens which are interchangeable and can serve as money, like Ethereum or Bitcoin) and NFTs (or non-fungible tokens; tokens which are unique and not interchangeable, like ownership deeds or an ID).

We decided to gift everyone NFTs for two reasons:

1.  The founders felt that each NFT would serve as a unique public record recognizing individual team members for their early contribution to the protocol. What could be more fitting than weaving this recognition into the public history stored on the blockchain? In the end, [David Minarsch](https://twitter.com/david_enim) and [Oaksprout](https://twitter.com/tannedoaksprout) minted these with [a custom contract](https://github.com/valory-xyz/santa-nft) on a low-cost chain.
2.  As an NFT can point to an image, the founders thought it would be an incredible opportunity for the team to own unique artwork, like the work I had already created for our brands. I thought this was a great idea, but I was keen to not create just any bulk, same-thing-just-a-different-color NFTs, but actual custom NFTs for each person. Sure, it sounds like a huge amount of work but let’s be honest: who doesn’t like a present, custom-made for them? Plus, it could be a great design and creation experience, so, with the list of everybody’s passions in front of me, I embarked on one of the best design projects I’ve worked on.

#### **So how did you do it?**

First, let me say this was the second time I made NFTs. I wanted to make them as pieces of individual art for all my team members. I believe a custom, one of a kind piece of digital art is a lot more appealing to a person. With this in mind, I started to work on the first image.

In the beginning of every design project I have to do, I look for fonts. This is the basis for the piece. It was no different for the NFTs I was about to create. However, given that each one was different and should reflect the personality and passions of each individual, there weren’t enough fonts to choose from. The natural next step was to create the type from scratch, according to the elements of the art piece.

With the type in place, I had to look for imagery and create symbols related to everyone’s personality. Of course the colors also played a big part — from the very beginning, I decided on using a dark background. Why’s that? Because all of my elements would look better, I would have more contrast and I already had a vague idea of using some chromatic elements in the pieces. Also, since our companion lore takes place on a planet, the overall style was influenced by this setting. I wanted to keep a bit of the Autonolas vibe and add some of my own style, just to experiment and see what the results might be.

Now the interesting part begins! A lot of people have asked me how I came up with the visuals.

It wasn’t a very long thought process: as I design, ideas keep popping in my mind. I took bits from each person’s interests and mixed them together. For example: coding, sailing and theatre. They don’t seem to have anything in common, but finding the right graphic and balance can surely create the desired effect. Lastly, I didn’t look for references because I believe these can influence the final design a lot, and I prefer to see where the work takes me.

I believe having boards with 50+ images of other people’s work is not the best option for me, and I tend to stay away from such things. However, I do look at pieces of digital art or art from sci-fi and gaming for the purpose of creating the atmosphere that I want to showcase.

![tokens 2.png](/uploads/tokens_2_efda8066c6.png)

####  **How many? And all different?**

18 different NFTs! It might seem a lot to do in a short amount of time, but once a couple were done, the others came naturally.

Yes, all different from elements, to color, to photography treatment. Each one has its own idea and design. You can ask how one managed to get so many iterations on the same basic thing: I tend to say it comes with practice and time.

####  **They loved them!**

After about 3 weeks of work in total secrecy, it was time to give the presents — and just in time for Christmas. I didn’t know what to expect, and was a bit nervous but everything turned out really great. Everybody loved them!

My tiny bit of remaining anxiety about my designs went away, and I am happy I could be part of this project. I believe this is the new way: to let go of all design principles and go wherever imagination takes you.

You can check them out in the [virtual gallery](https://albumizr.com/a/-FJX) below, and feel free to draw inspiration from them for your next design project. 

![tokens gallery](/uploads/tokens_gallery_858627e4ee.png)

So there you have it, a perfect gift for a distributed crypto team: something unique and individual, that reflects both the recipient, and the project’s overall vibe. The project was a huge success, and I hope it can inspire you the next time you’re looking for a special way to engage your early team members. 

Interested in learning what else we’re working on? Follow us [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas), and join [the Discord](https://discord.gg/aGRVt6rdAz)!


An NFT design process for the tangible recognition of early team members

Tokens of Appreciation

Quite a bit has happened since our last update: the end of the year was a rush to get things squared away before our team got to take a much needed break. We used the time to relax and reconnect with friends and family–we hope you did too. By January we were all back and ready to start the year strong.

The whole team hit the ground running, and there was great progress made across the team, including on some exciting community initiatives. Let’s take a look!

#### Tech Stack/Academy

Our tech stack has continued to improve and grow: we’ve added more functionality, new plugins and continued to refine the styling of the open-aea framework. You can check out [the latest release here](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-aea/releases/tag/v1.4.0) and our [beautiful newly styled documentation here.](https://valory-xyz.github.io/open-aea/)

The Agent Dev Academy continues to make great strides. Cohort 1 has graduated (🎊!) and Cohort 2 got [started this week](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1486352052825563137).

The talented individuals in Cohort 1 converted the [El Collectooorr](https://github.com/valory-xyz/ethlisbon) — an autonomous, decentralized Art Blocks auction-participant — into a full, multi-agent-based Autonolas service. Props to the cohort for their hard work! They are now working on turning this into a fully-fledged demo service which you can all see.

Cohort 2 is a talented mix of software developers, computer science majors, roboticists and engineers. We’re expecting great things from them as they learn to build with the Autonolas stack.

If you’re an aspiring crypto dev, we invite you to explore the Autonolas Academy. The Academy is a self-paced learning experience, with the option, on completion, to apply for a more intensive, cohort-based Builder Track. The program is designed to teach you everything you need to know to develop your own apps and services using our framework. You can [get started with those materials here](https://www.autonolas.network/academy).

#### Whitepaper

The team has been hard at work on a whitepaper and that’s nearly at v1. It includes the project’s full vision, the specifications of our multi-agent-based tech stack, our tokenomics and more. There’s a lot of internal auditing to be done on the paper before it is released to the public, but we’re super excited for when it is.

#### Community Building

Right before the end of the year, we announced an experiment in collaborative world-building: the very first Autonolas World Buildathon!

This is a “creative hackathon”, a contest that’s open to artists, writers and designers, with a $500 stablecoin prize for the winning entries in these three categories:

*   **Concept Art**
*   **Video/Motion Graphics**
*   **Writing**

We’ll open up for entries on **January 31st**, so if you want more information or want us to keep you in the loop, head over to [this landing page we set up](https://www.autonolas.world/) and add yourself to the mailing list. You’ll be the first to know when the competition starts.

We also recently shared a contribution opportunity: community members have the chance to help us identify potential partnerships for our oracle product. You can check out the details and [share your insights here.](https://discord.com/channels/899649805582737479/899649805582737482/932557906417709056) As always, these early contributions are being tracked!

We also published **two** new blog posts: Community Manager [Thomas Maybrier](https://twitter.com/thomasmaybrier) investigated [NFTs as a tool for community engagement](https://autonolas.network/posts/5), and when the team received customized NFTs as a year-end gift, Brand Visual Designer [@kameha\_san](https://twitter.com/kameha_san) wrote about her [design process here](https://autonolas.network/posts/6). Both pieces will be of interest to anyone keen to learn more about how projects like ours can make use of NFTs.

If you’re following us on social media, we hope you’ve noticed an increase in activity, and if you’re not, [you know what to do](https://twitter.com/autonolas)!

Being active on Twitter is a big part of our strategy, and that’s something we can use your help with. Every like, reply, retweet and quote tweet helps us to reach more people and grow the community, and the project.

Don’t spam your friends, of course, but if you can help us share the Autonolas mission, every bit helps and of course will be noted!

Behind the scenes, we’re working on more exciting projects and partnerships we can’t wait to be able to tell you more about.

As you can probably tell, there’s a lot going on. Now’s a great time to get involved, so if you’re not already following, connect with us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas) and [join the Discord.](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar) We’re always looking for more ways to bring people from all backgrounds on board.

We also invite you to connect with us every first Friday of the month for Community Office Hours. This is an open-ended opportunity to ask questions, get answers and get involved. The event happens [here.](https://discord.gg/rHkmAXm8YV)

Until next time!


Builders Rule Edition

Autonolas Community Update 002

Today, we're excited to announce the launch of Autonolas Contribute, a new product that streamlines the contribution experience for members of the Autonolas community.

## Show off your contributions
![badge.jpeg](/uploads/badge_cc94b3331d.jpeg)
One of the key features of Autonolas Contribute is the ability to show off your contributions with badges. When you mint a badge, it will start at the first tier. As you complete actions that contribute to the success of Autonolas, you'll earn points and climb the leaderboard. When you earn enough points to reach a higher badge tier, your badge will automatically update to reflect your new rank. This is a great way to demonstrate your contributions on NFT-enabled social media sites and earn recognition that reflects your contribution within the Autonolas community.

## Streamline your contribution experience
![ui.jpeg](/uploads/ui_3f62c087cf.jpeg)
In addition to badges, Autonolas Contribute also includes a dedicated [app](https://contribute.autonolas.network) for tracking and managing your contributions. The app includes a leaderboard, a list of actions you can complete to earn points, and your badge. From here, you can easily keep track of your progress and see how you're doing relative to other members of the community.

## A new demo of an Autonomous service
![autonomous-service.jpeg](/uploads/autonomous_service_374fc658b2.jpeg)
Contribute is powered by an autonomous service. We'll soon be releasing the code as an open-source toolkit. This will allow other teams to fork and run their own versions of the service, making it even easier for teams to track and manage contributions.

## Get started right away!
To start, visit the [app](https://contribute.autonolas.network). It's free to mint a badge - you'll only have to pay gas fees. For a step-by-step walkthrough, check out the [badge section of our documentation](https://contribute.autonolas.network/docs#section-badge).
We're excited to see how Autonolas Contribute will be used by members of the Autonolas community. Whether you're a long-time contributor or just getting started, we hope you'll join us in using this new product to streamline your contribution experience and show off your contributions to the community.

If you already have points you'll need to migrate them. Simply complete the [verification](https://contribute.autonolas.network/verification) and then wait. If it's taking a while for your points to show up, feel free to ping us on Discord.


A new product that streamlines the contribution experience for members of the Autonolas community

Introducing Autonolas Contribute

_A guest post by Autonolas’ Community Manager_ [_Thomas Maybrier_](https://twitter.com/thomasmaybrier)

I was recently asked to consider the role NFTs might play in growing the Autonolas community. There’s a tremendous amount of overheated discussion surrounding NFTs right now, and this makes it hard to suss out precisely why and how they might be useful for community-focused projects.

As I explored the space, I discovered several very interesting concepts and found plenty of overlap with some of the most common tasks and goals in community management.

In this short piece, I’ll go through some of the ways NFTs provide value, consider how a project might spread and look for alignment with community management best practices. I also wanted to know if an NFT project could be thought of as a way to reduce customer acquisition cost, so I will return to this question throughout.

#### Utility and Value


From a community management perspective, the most compelling use-cases were the ones that paired the NFT with some kind of utilitarian functionality. Being able to put the NFT to use in an ongoing way makes them more interesting and engaging for members and useful for the project.

NFTs can clearly add functionality, but do they also have the potential to be a driver of community growth too?

The answer here is maybe, and I believe it has a lot to do with the NFT’s value.

The problem here is obvious; there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of new NFT projects launched every day. The higher the perceived value of these NFTS, presumably, the higher the volume of trading, and the larger the spread of the project.

One growth approach is to launch a collection and hope that the NFTs themselves function as advertisements for the project. Each NFT acts as a signpost, building brand awareness and pointing people towards the website and project.

Out of all of the people who see, or maybe even buy one of these NFTs, the hope would be that some percentage of them would be interested enough to join the community.

Working with influencers, or setting up a coordinated buy to generate excitement is a common way of building up an NFT project. Both of those tactics fall outside of the scope of my project, so I won’t explore them in depth here.

To give this “NFTs as ads” concept a fair shake, we need to talk about value. It is, in theory, value that will propel these individual NFTs out into the world. I believe that an NFT’s value, as I currently understand it, comes from one or more of these broad factors.

*   **Speculative**
*   **Fashion**
*   **Access**
*   **Proof-of-Identity**
*   **Aesthetic**

#### Speculative Value

Speculative value is the least interesting, and, in my opinion, the trickiest to manage. [Crypto has](https://app.pitch.com/app/public/player/d3fc35de-740d-49b6-a980-8f42fc2cffb7/92dda462-1da8-4cda-ae83-767a596e6560) an [image problem](https://www.thebword.org/c/about), and I believe that projects aiming for long-term success need to always keep this in mind.

[Speculators are a part of this negative image](https://www.blockchainresearchlab.org/2021/04/29/non-fungible-tokens-nfts-possible-speculative-bubble-with-potential-for-sustainable-innovation/), and that’s relevant to us because most developers and people who might join the community are [currently outside of crypto.](https://consensys.net/blog/developers/ethereum-has-4x-more-developers-than-any-other-crypto-ecosystem/) There are [people who don’t see speculation as a negative](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/03/05/money-reimagined-crypto-speculation-is-a-feature-not-a-bug/), and so at least some percentage of potential members would agree. Even so, I think it would benefit us to take a largely neutral stance with regards to the speculative value of any NFTs we release.

While some projects seem to be increasing in value, [most are not](https://news.artnet.com/market/think-artists-are-getting-rich-off-nfts-think-again-1962752) and thus, appear to have [failed as speculative assets,](https://twitter.com/splitcapital/status/1470222181309337603?s=21) except in the shortest of terms. This seems to me to be a particularly weak value factor, though I acknowledge my limited experience here.

As an aside, one of the content pillars I have chosen for Autonolas is “Crypto Optimism”, the idea that we see real, lasting and transformative power in crypto’s technology stack and values, and are invested in moving the whole industry forward. I see an ambivalent position on speculation as being strongly aligned with this content pillar, and my larger content strategy more generally.

#### Fashion Value

I am heavily indebted to [CL](https://twitter.com/CL207) at eGirl Capital for [this conceptual framing.](https://www.egirlcapital.com/insights/66692591)

Acquisition and ownership of NFT assets can be a performative and expressive gesture. This is the same way the cultural concept of fashion works: to be in fashion means doing what is current, and demonstrating that you “get it”, through your adoption, presentation and curation of what’s available on the market.

Fashion derives a tremendous amount of its value from its use as a kind of [social signalling toolkit](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-social-psychology-beh_b_13607734), allowing us to both communicate with others, and create an outward expression of our sense of self. This is, of course, [old news in the social sciences](https://scholar.google.nl/scholar?q=self+expression+through+consumer+choices&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart). We have known for a long time that self-expression often takes the form of consumer choices, but it’s still worth putting up for consideration here as we look for parallels between the buying and purchasing NFTs and the existing forms of consumer expression we are already familiar with.

Earlier I said that “to be in fashion means doing what is current”, this entails looking at a kind of scarcity, not of quantity or characteristics, (i.e. rarity, as is taken into account in NFT valuations), but rather scarcity of time, i.e. the time between the birth of a trend and the moment an individual first adopts it. From a consumer point of view, the social signalling utility of an item is directly related to where along this time spectrum it sits. Engagement with a fashionable concept at precisely the right point in its life cycle is what makes an expression of fashion, well, fashion.

Clearly, NFTs can be used for self-expression in much the same way as fashion. In such use cases, their utility, and by extension their value, will be affected by their age and scarcity.

It’s worth noting here, that in fashion, trends begin not with individual designers but manufacturers. Manufacturers [conspire to produce certain](https://www.savoirflair.com/fashion/237591/fashion-decoded-life-cycle-fashion-trend) types of materials, and designers respond to the materials available to them. This presents another interesting opportunity: to design and position our NFT project in the same way that manufacturers do materials.

If a project has multiple uses, there is a chance that the wider ecosystem will adopt and remix it. Without the ability to conspire, however, (see my earlier note about influencers), we may find our reach limited.

#### Access Value

One of the more interesting and applicable factors of value is what I’m calling access. This is anywhere, and any way, that an NFT [functions as a key or a ticket.](https://www.iamcharliegraham.com/utility-nfts-access-keys/) NFTs could be used to unlock value in the form of access to people or spaces.

I want to point out here that, if NFTs are used as keys, they can easily end up reproducing many of the same inequalities we see in the real world. I believe that what makes this space interesting and worthwhile is its ability to circumvent or entirely reinvent existing structures. I would be disappointed to see our NFT project function as a wealth gate.

Taking this into consideration, an NFT could be [something earned](https://medium.com/@NFTrade/even-with-a-nft-slump-earnable-nfts-are-stronger-than-ever-545f146201e5), not bought, tied to a user’s level of engagement or contribution to the community. This format would likely be less useful as an ad than one that could be easily purchased.

As long as we maintain **our** value proposition by keeping whatever’s unlocked by the NFT key useful, valuable, and importantly, not accessible any other way, NFTs with access value seem relevant for community engagement.

Before we move on, I want to point out that many projects tout the “access to the community” as a part of the value of their NFT. This is usually (but not always) hot air. The community you can access _sometimes_ offers real value, like a party you can attend, or access to a pool of funding for your project.

More often, I observed that there is only room for encouraging others to spend on the project and to invest their time and effort promoting and trying to get friends and family to buy into the project. Making negative or even doubtful comments would result in you being ostracized, accused of spreading FUD.

It’s unclear to me that this leads to anything, [other than having CT clogged up](https://geoffgolberg.medium.com/nft-twitter-is-an-absolute-shitshow-11befd94a254) with people shilling projects under every tweet that performs well, or makes even passing mention of NFTs. It certainly is not the way I would run any community I was managing.

#### Proof-of-Identity Value

Now, let’s consider Proof-of-Identity; how do you prove who you are for the purposes of claiming rights or benefits? There’s an interesting use-case for NFTs as [proof of ownership](https://medium.com/bridgeprotocol/non-fungible-tokens-nft-for-identity-and-how-it-all-works-b4548432144), removing the need for trust between us and our community members. NFTs could be used to maintain or provide proof of ownership. That ownership can be linked with benefits like profit sharing and shared custody of appreciating assets.

An analogy: A bridge is built, and people are rewarded for their specific contributions to the construction from the revenue generated by a toll booth. If a person contributed, for example, all of the bolts for the bridge, they could be compensated with a percentage of every toll collected.

If two people each contributed 50% of the bolts, they’d split that percentage of the toll.

In these uses, the NFT acts as the proof of your contribution and its relative value and that since you are who you purport to be, you are allowed to collect on your percentage of the value that contribution provides.

If our community has multiple user classes, the possession of an NFT could represent belonging to a class with the right to push or approve changes. If having or participating in ownership of the community has value, an NFT that connects you with that ownership will also hold value.

#### Aesthetic Value

Lastly, I want to talk about aesthetics. Some NFTs with an art component derive value from the real or perceived skill required to create the piece of artwork they are paired with. However, NFTs are [often associated with low effort, unappealing art and design.](https://www.google.com/search?q=why+is+nft+art+ugly+site%3Awww.reddit.com&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1440&bih=814&ei=zZrAYe3VMufc7_UP26SRsAI&ved=0ahUKEwit8PzQ0vL0AhVn7rsIHVtSBCYQ4dUDCA0&uact=5&oq=why+is+nft+art+ugly+site%3Awww.reddit.com&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EANKBQg8EgEySgQIQRgBSgQIRhgAUIQFWIQFYJERaAJwAHgAgAE5iAE5kgEBMZgBAKABAcABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz) Lack of artistic rigour or commitment to craft doesn’t always hinder the spread of an NFT project, but does drag down the overall credibility of the space.

I think it’s fair to say that generally, there is only a weak correlation between an art NFT’s value and the aesthetic quality of the artwork, but the correlation is a logical one with the potential for strength. We have already taken a strong visual stance with our brand, so any NFTs we create should represent a similarly clear aesthetic vision and commitment to beauty.

Taking the design and art that goes into our NFT project seriously is an opportunity to imbue them with value and subvert expectations.

#### Bringing it all together

There are more considerations and deeper complexity that I haven’t touched on here, like programmable scarcity, the [environmental impact](https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22328203/nft-cryptoart-ethereum-blockchain-climate-change) and how to address it, the cost/benefits of different chains, the use of influencers, coordinated buys, astroturfing…it’s a complicated space.

However, by looking at these value factors and imagining how they might align with community incentives, I think I can say this much with a fair bit of certainty:

To be an effective and interesting project, community focused NFTs need to offer real utility, like connecting users with value — whether that takes the form of enabling self-expression, access to a space, rights or rewards. The project should strive to meet at least one of these goals. If there’s an artistic component to the NFT, it should be aesthetically pleasing in-and-of-itself. A project that meets this criteria presents real value, and this real value makes the project more likely to spread purely on its own merits.

NFTs that are intended to function as advertisements for the project face a variety of challenges, primarily the difficulty of targeting them to the right audience. It’s anyone’s guess what percentage of the people who discover your community through an NFT project will convert, and the inability to target them in any meaningful way (compared to the advanced targeting currently possible in digital advertising) means the members you acquire could vary wildly in their quality and suitability for building a long term, sustainable community.

Overall, NFTs represent an interesting approach to solving the problem of brand awareness and true community ownership. They also allow us to tie owners to their contributions in a trustless way and create advanced user classes with different rights and abilities.

The space is polluted, so we must proceed with caution and execute at an incredibly high technical and aesthetic standard, but it’s clear to me that there’s real value to be added by pursuing community management goals with this new tech layer.

Interested in what we’re doing? Want to talk NFTs, community management or ask a question? I invite you to join us on the [Autonolas Discord.](https://discord.gg/CPAKVFqyY5) We’re hard at work on the autonomous future of crypto apps, and there’s room for many kinds of contribution, and we’d love to have you with us.

[\-Maybrier](https://twitter.com/thomasmaybrier)


NFTs as tools for real community engagement

Cutting Through the Hype

It’s almost the end of the year and it’s the start of a new month, so let’s look back on what’s been happening here at Autonolas. We have a lot of content to share, and an important message from me (Thomas) at the end, so let’s get started!

**Twitter Spaces - Recaps and Replays**

We hosted [Charles Storry](https://twitter.com/c_storry) from Phuture for a very interesting discussion on onboarding, and ideas about how we can get to widespread adoption of crypto in a [Twitter Spaces](https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1nAKErjveZAGL) that you can replay. We also had a very interesting conversation on managing DAO treasuries in volatile times (like the one we’ve been experiencing of late!) with freelance treasury manager [50](https://twitter.com/50shadesofgwei_) and [Matt G](https://twitter.com/DaddyMattyETH), Finance Lead at Rook. Give that [a replay here](https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1mrGmkDEBbzxy) and let us know what you think. 

Both of these Spaces can be listened to on the Twitter links above, or in our Media Library on Discord.

**Community Contribution: Autonomous Augmentations Vol. 3**

We were lucky enough to get a third article from none other than [Odin.THOR](https://twitter.com/ODIN_Thorchain) and it’s a cracker! If you haven’t already checked out his earlier posts, you can read [Volume One here](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/autonomous-augmentations-volume-one) and [Volume Two here](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/autonomous-augmentations-volume-two). In this series of articles, Odin explores some of the exciting potential of autonomous services, and he takes it in some very daring directions. We’d love your feedback on these ideas, so hop into the Discord to let us know what you think. If you’re keen to share your own ideas on our blog, get in touch! We welcome content contributors from the community, and your effort will earn you leaderboard points, naturally. 

**Next Block Expo 2022**

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/buzea200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@buzea200</a> talking at <a href="https://twitter.com/nextblockexpo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nextblockexpo</a> about Autonomous Investment Strategies on <a href="https://twitter.com/Balancer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Balancer</a> using <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@autonolas</a> <a href="https://t.co/T3pIIZzliU">https://t.co/T3pIIZzliU</a> <a href="https://t.co/xAVCU3knpb">pic.twitter.com/xAVCU3knpb</a></p>&mdash; Yoko ⚡️ (@rwyoko) <a href="https://twitter.com/rwyoko/status/1595720310355283970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

A great moment this month was [buzea200](https://twitter.com/buzea200) presenting our Balancer grants project at NBX. If you’re unfamiliar, we’re creating a “smart managed pool” on Balancer that uses Autonolas technology to run itself autonomously based on the current rating of the Crypto Fear and Greed Index. More on that project [can be read here](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1562470002007375873?s=20&t=LcdkXyFq0sBBy3LTH5hBzw). Shout out to community member [Yoko](https://twitter.com/rwyoko) for the tweet! 

**Releases**

We had several releases this month. Here are the most recent updates:

 - Open Autonomy - [v0.4.0](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-autonomy/releases/tag/v0.4.0)
 - Open AEA  - [v1.24.0](https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-aea/releases/tag/v1.24.0)

For more information on what’s new in these releases, check out the release pages linked above, or head to the Frameworks channel on Discord, where we share the notes and links for each release.

Need help? No problem, Dev Support is here for you. Just post your question in the dev-support channel on Discord and we’ll get you sorted. 

**Research, Threads and More!**

We kept the research coming in November with a range of threads looking at different ecosystems and projects. Here’s a summary of each:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here are the top 10 &quot;themed&quot; crypto index products that have outperformed the market in the past month.<br><br>Themed indexes allow investors to gain exposure to different sectors in Web3.<br><br>Investors can spread their capital across trends, without spending too much time on research. <a href="https://t.co/3pDwn7Ktdy">pic.twitter.com/3pDwn7Ktdy</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1588169150064517120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

In this thread, we looked at crypto index products and ranked the ones that have been outperforming the market. There’s some interesting findings in there, so if you’re interested in this type of investment vehicle, do check it out. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If native tokens did not exist, which DAOs would have the largest treasuries?<br><br>Looking at non-native assets of DAOs can give us insight into how they might handle periods of high volatility.<br><br>In this thread we rank the top 10 DAOs by their non native valuation: <a href="https://t.co/7rHPiyD6rZ">pic.twitter.com/7rHPiyD6rZ</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1590669837214154752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Here’s another great thread, this time created with the help of community member [jevans](https://twitter.com/__Jevans_). The scope this time is DAO treasuries - ranked by size but excluding holdings of their native token. There’s some expected winners (Looking at you, BitDAO!) but some surprises as well. One quick note - our analysis methodology missed TempleDAO, so check out the replies to the thread for more info on that. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There are already over 300 projects building on <a href="https://twitter.com/arbitrum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@arbitrum</a>! It&#39;s hard to keep track.<br><br>Thankfully, we’ve done the work for you.<br><br>So let&#39;s dive in!<br><br>Here is the breakdown of the categories of project that make up the Arbitrum ecosystem: <a href="https://t.co/YmH1IGgeIx">pic.twitter.com/YmH1IGgeIx</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1590710865153576962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Next up there’s our thread exploring the Arbitrum ecosystem. Autonolas team member Kian took a deep dive and brought back all the info about what projects are currently building on Arbitrum and broke them out into categories. It’s a great thread and you may learn about a project you didn’t know about. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There are already over 300 projects building on <a href="https://twitter.com/arbitrum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@arbitrum</a>! It&#39;s hard to keep track.<br><br>Thankfully, we’ve done the work for you.<br><br>So let&#39;s dive in!<br><br>Here is the breakdown of the categories of project that make up the Arbitrum ecosystem: <a href="https://t.co/YmH1IGgeIx">pic.twitter.com/YmH1IGgeIx</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1590710865153576962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

After that, we released another thread looking at crypto indexes, this time we’re ranking them by TVL. As we go through the top 10, the thread identifies some clues about the future of this exciting sector. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Off-chain infra projects enable cross-chain communication, automation and bridging among other benefits.<br><br>While there are many varieties of infra projects, this thread looks at the oracle, keeper, and bridge protocols in <a href="https://twitter.com/avalancheavax?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@avalancheavax</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/BNBCHAIN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BNBCHAIN</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NEARProtocol</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/0xPolygon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@0xPolygon</a>. <a href="https://t.co/fzv3udify6">pic.twitter.com/fzv3udify6</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1593245213266280453?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Finally, we have this thread examining the state of off-chain infra projects on Avalanche, BNB, Near and Polygon. This thread specifically examines oracle, keeper and bridge protocols, and offers some clues about which chains are strongest in which areas. 

Like these threads? Let us know, and if you have any questions about the research, ping Adriano on the Discord, he’ll be happy to talk with you and share the raw data.

**Looking Forward**
Finally, I (Thomas) want to share some news about what you can expect to see from us next year: It’s time for the team to focus on the tech and building out our autonomous capabilities, including through partnerships with other projects. One change will be a pause on many of the regular community events I’ve hosted in the past, like the Community Showcases, Office Hours and Alter Orbis creative sessions. At some point, these initiatives (and more!) will be returning, but for the immediate future, I’ll be less visible than before. 

You are, of course, in very capable hands, and I’ll still be checking in from time to time. For developer support, we have David V, for partnerships and BD, Adriano and Kian are available. I am looking forward to seeing how this next phase unfolds and I look forward to seeing you around the Discord. I will be active on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/thomasmaybrier) and if you’re interested in grabbing some time to talk with me, here is a [link to my Calendly](https://calendly.com/tom-maybrier).

That’s all we have for this Community Update! As always we welcome your feedback on the content and scope of these updates, so please let us know what you’d like us to include in future editions. Please stay connected by [following us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas) and join the [Discord](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar) to keep in touch.  


Bullish On Buidlers Edition

Autonolas Community Update 012

It’s time for another Community Update and we’ve got some cool stuff to share with you today. Let’s get into it!

**Ahhh, we’re poddiinnngg!**

Recently our cofounders [David Minarsch](https://twitter.com/david_enim) and [Oaksprout the Tan](https://twitter.com/tannedoaksprout/status/1531313264579301376) appeared on [Chorus One’s podcast](https://twitter.com/chorusone):

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ucxwaJhBr20" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

…and Oaksprout was a guest on The Crypto Podcast, hosted by [Arjun](https://twitter.com/arjunxdefi):

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oNNXlizKnYM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

They both really enjoyed their appearances and we’re keen to see them do more, so if you can connect us to a podcast you’d like to hear us on, please [get in touch with us](mailto:thomas.maybrier@valory.xyz)!

**El Collectooorr**

We’re really excited to have started publicly talking about El Collectooorr, the world’s first autonomous NFT collector DAO. Here’s one of the first tweets to go out on our feed–give it a like and a RT to help spread the word!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Coming soon: the smartest way to participate in the latest <a href="https://twitter.com/artblocks_io?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@artblocks_io</a> drops. <br><br>The El Collectooorr service waits and mints with built-in smarts, and fractionalization means collectooorrs can participate at a price level that works for them. <a href="https://t.co/ZAJPO9RKgo">pic.twitter.com/ZAJPO9RKgo</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1529449167164145665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

One of the highlights this month was Oaksprout’s demo at [NFTBerlin](https://nftberlin.org/), where attendees got to see El Collectooorr in action. It was pretty awesome, and we can’t wait to see a full public release soon.

**Agent Dev Academy: NFTs for Cohort 1 and an invitation to join**

We’re continuing to educate and lead developers towards building the next generation of crypto apps and services–in fact, El Collectooorr is a product of Agent Developer Academy effort, led by Cohort One participant [Ardian](https://twitter.com/0x61726469616e). If you’d like to build using Autonolas, the Academy is a great way to get started.

We’re really proud of the contributions and efforts made by Cohort One, and to thank them, we issued these cool NFTs pictured below to participants [Ardian](https://twitter.com/0x61726469616e), [Simon](https://twitter.com/Complexitas_io) and [Marcel](https://twitter.com/Complexitas_io). You can see them [minted on the Avalanche chain here](https://nftrade.com/assets/avalanche/0x8f36ff50a331e638aa510f092b5448a03d432611/0).

![cohort 1 nft.jpeg](/uploads/cohort_1_nft_8793bfff1a.jpeg)

As always, if you’re curious about the program get in touch, or dive into the new [self-guided video course here:](https://www.autonolas.network/academy) 

**Community Office Hours**

We’ve adjusted the Community Office Hours–starting in June we’ll now host the calls once a month, on the second Friday of the month. That means the next call will be June 10th. [Here’s an invite](https://discord.com/events/899649805582737479/973267519584481370) — we hope to see you there.

**Continued DAO Operations Research, Partnerships and more…**

We’re continuing our look into how DAOs operate, and we’re more optimistic than ever about the potential value that an “autonomous service at the heart of every DAO” could unlock. You can read the research for yourself in this “Thread of Threads” we’ve compiled. You’ll find links to the latest threads there, and all of our previous research threads as well. Going forward, we’ll keep the replies up-to-date with our latest work.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lately we&#39;ve been doing deep research into how DAOs operate. The big question: What&#39;s holding DAOs back?<br><br>Our investigations have revealed that DAOs face a variety of challenges, some obvious and others less so. This 🧵 of 🧵s collects our ongoing research.<br><br>Follow us for more 🤝</p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1531634091937845249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We recently went deep on the [GnosisSafe](https://gnosis-safe.io/) ecosystem, looking for opportunities to deploy autonomous services, and we found some promising openings. You can see the whole thread here:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Users store billions in <a href="https://twitter.com/gnosisSafe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@gnosisSafe</a>. Gnosis Safe has created the App Store to make it easier for multi-sig users to interact with DeFi applications.<br><br>But which apps are <a href="https://twitter.com/gnosisSafe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@gnosisSafe</a> users actually interacting with?🧵👇 0/15 <a href="https://t.co/zT2GvbBVHs">pic.twitter.com/zT2GvbBVHs</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1527668191635247104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

**How Our Tech Stack Works**

This month we published two in-depth blog posts with technical details about how Autonolas actually works. The first was [this in-depth](https://autonolas.network/posts/11) post examining our Oracle Service, and the latest article takes a look at [how Autonolas can be used for autonomous Treasury Management](https://autonolas.network/posts/12)–DAO operators, take notice!

**Community Threadooorrs**

We loved to see this thread of truly original Autonolas ideas from [Odin](https://twitter.com/ODIN_Thorchain):

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Could a network of <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@autonolas</a> agents eventually become a self-owned &amp; autonomous version of <a href="https://twitter.com/TokenReactor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TokenReactor</a>?<br><br>Contd 👇</p>&mdash; Odin.THOR ⚡🦋☴ (@ODIN_Thorchain) <a href="https://twitter.com/ODIN_Thorchain/status/1525182239004315651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Keep them coming–you may see your tweet(s) in the next update! We’ve mentioned before that we keep track of community contributions, and here’s a little preview of where that could potentially lead: the NFTs pictured below were issued to community members [Ardian](https://twitter.com/0x61726469616e), [Simon](https://twitter.com/Complexitas_io), [Marcel](https://twitter.com/Complexitas_io) and [Jack](https://twitter.com/__Jevans_) for their contributions to the Autonolas ecosystem. You can see them [minted on Avalanche here](https://nftrade.com/assets/avalanche/0x953b391477177e551be82d6fd3ee5f48aab951dc). Thanks, frens!

![Ardian NFT-min-500.png](/uploads/Ardian_NFT_min_500_e224e9ed8f.png)
![Marcel NFT-min-500.png](/uploads/Marcel_NFT_min_500_f3a2ec5f2a.png)
![Simon NFT-min-500.png](/uploads/Simon_NFT_min_500_634a93f401.png)
![jack nft.jpeg](/uploads/jack_nft_c2b26cecea.jpeg)

Each image was customized for them by our designer [Camelia Cucolea](https://twitter.com/kameha_san), with symbolism and custom typography that represents their interests. What would yours look like? 🤔

Are you wondering how you could contribute? Get in touch [in the Discord](https://discord.gg/7VY4zV8YBr) or reach out to Community Manager [Maybrier](https://twitter.com/thomasmaybrier) directly and [let’s figure it out together](mailto:thomas.maybrier@valory.xyz).

**We’re Hiring!**

Valory, the organization that’s creating Autonolas, is looking for a Head of Engineering or Engineering Manager. If you have a background leading engineering teams to success, you might be the next passenger on our 🚀

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Win a $12k bounty if you introduce our next Engineering Manager<br><br>We love decentralization even in hiring <br><br>Now you can help someone find their dream role *and* be remunerated for sharing the contacts you&#39;ve worked hard to build<a href="https://twitter.com/JobProtocol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JobProtocol</a> links &amp; info: <a href="https://t.co/xuBJzqaibf">https://t.co/xuBJzqaibf</a> <a href="https://t.co/z0ueL7vu8F">https://t.co/z0ueL7vu8F</a></p>&mdash; Valory is hiring (bounty offered💰) (@valoryag) <a href="https://twitter.com/valoryag/status/1530159897161121794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We’re looking for a talented person to guide our capable team as we launch our novel autonomous web3 apps. If this sounds like you, get in touch, and if you think you know someone who could be a match, there’s a $12k referral bonus if we hire the person you suggest!

You can learn more about the [opportunity here](https://angel.co/company/valory-3/jobs/1951401-engineering-manager-head-of-engineering).

That’s all we have for you in this update, thanks for reading–now’s your chance to let us know what you’d like to see in these updates. Head over to the [suggestions channel](https://discord.gg/gspapq4xEH), or leave us a comment here. We’d love to incorporate your feedback and make these updates great for you!

If you’re not yet following us on Twitter, [we’re here](https://twitter.com/autonolas), and please [join us on Discord](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar). We’re always glad to hear from you and would love to help you discover and build your own autonomous apps and services, so [drop us a line](mailto:bd@valory.xyz)!


Depth and Breadth Edition

Autonolas Community Update 006

**A New Website**

We recently launched a brand-new website, with a new visual identity to match. The new website makes it easier to find our blog posts and learning resources, like new sections explaining some of our core concepts. You can [see the new site here](https://www.autonolas.network/), and read the [new educational articles here](https://www.autonolas.network/education-articles). There’s also a new way to learn to build with Autonolas–more on that later!

**New Visual Identity**
![blog-new-visual-identity.png](/uploads/blog_new_visual_identity_9bb10225ad.png)

The new site is a showcase for our new visual identity. The new look is a part of a re-brand that took us through a process of determining how best to communicate our mission. We put together a blog post with [all of the details here](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/20).

**Autonomous Augmentations**

Community member Odin.THOR contributed two great pieces full of interesting ideas for autonomous services, in a series we’re calling “Autonomous Augmentations”. We think these ideas are really fascinating! They’re a great way to spark discussion about the myriad ways autonomous services could be put to use today and tomorrow. Read the [first post here](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/14) and [the second here](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/17), and let us know what you think! Interested in contributing your own ideas in a post like this? Reach out and we’ll be happy to partner with you!

**Twitter Spaces**

We also hosted our first Twitter spaces, with panelists [funkmasterflex.eth](https://twitter.com/funkmasterflx1) and [Jordan](https://twitter.com/dOrgJelli) (aka dOrgJelli). The space went really well and we had a wide-ranging discussion about building for DAOs and the challenges that entails. 

If you’re interested in participating in a future space, or would like to suggest a topic, please get in touch! You can DM @maybrier on Discord, or drop your idea in [#suggestions](https://discord.gg/E6v3FS22).

**Open Sourcing the Codebase and Documentation**

![img21.png](/uploads/img21_23e1717b40.png)

Open Autonomy is here! We’ve released the code and now anyone can build their own autonomous services. [This blog post](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/15) goes into more detail, but the high level story is that we’re open-sourced both the code and the documentation, enabling anyone to dive straight into the exciting world of building autonomous services. You can [read the documentation here](https://docs.autonolas.network/).

**Academy V2**

![img08.png](/uploads/img08_c35b6f1f18.png)

We’ve also released a major update to the Academy program. The new and improved Autonolas Academy is a self-serve video course you can complete in your own time. When you’re finished, there’s the option to apply for a more intensive Builder Track. The Builder Track carries over the cohort-based approach from the earlier Academy program, where you’ll work together with other builders and get expert guidance along the way. You can [get started with the new materials here](https://www.autonolas.network/academy).

**The Oracle heads to Polygon**

Finally, remember the oracle? Previously, the oracle was running on Ethereum’s Ropsten testnet, but our plan was always to move to a mainnet deployment, and this month it finally happened! [This blog post](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/16) explains in more detail, but if you’re curious to see the oracle running live, [head here](https://oracle-frontend.autonolas.tech/). Don’t forget that we’ve also put together a post that covers the technical details of how our autonomous oracle works under the hood, you can [read that here](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/11).

So, there you have it! An eventful month with lots of progress. We’re looking forward to connecting with you across these various projects, whether that’s through the Academy, in the community or…in person! We’re going to be attending EthCC in Paris this year and hosting a side event, so watch our Twitter feed for more, and keep the evening of the 20th free! As always, we invite you to let us know what you’d like to see in these updates. Head over to the [suggestions channel](https://discord.gg/E6v3FS22) and share your ideas.

Don’t forget to [follow us on Twitter here](https://twitter.com/autonolas), and please [join us on Discord](https://discord.com/invite/RHY6eJ35ar). Want us to help you build your own autonomous apps and services? [Drop us a line](bd@valory.xyz) and let’s get going. Until next time!


New Possibilities Edition

Autonolas Community Update 007

For most of us, it’s spring outside, and the energy is easy to feel. Here’s a recap of the past month.

**ETHAmsterdam and Devconnect**

We were lucky enough to have a few team members attend this year’s ETHAmsterdam and Devconnect events in Amsterdam. We really enjoyed meeting some of you in person, and making new connections. If you’re going to be at an event this year and think we should attend, let us know!

As an aside, two of our team members were on a ETHAmsterdam hackathon team, and they won a total of 4 prizes, so we had to shout them out [in this thread](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1519968952805257218?s=20&t=Yyo0kTJ3T19B-d2Vns-Mxg). We loved seeing how [their entry](https://showcase.ethglobal.com/ethamsterdam/decentr-api-8v4ju) used our [open-aea technology](https://valory-xyz.github.io/open-aea/). Great show, everyone!

**Autonolas Academy Cohort 4**

We’ve got a whole new Autonolas Academy underway, with our largest cohort to date! This time around there will be 8 participants learning and working together. We’re very excited to see what they work on and what their final project will look like…

As always, if you’re curious, we encourage you to dive straight into the [self-guided video course here.](https://www.autonolas.network/academy)

**Community Office Hours**

We’re going to continue with Community Office Hours at a later time, every other week. Recent calls have been very fun, thank you to everyone who has dropped by. We hope to see you all again, and if you’ve not yet joined a call, please stop by. You’ll find the latest call times under “Events” on the Autonolas Discord. [Here’s a link to this week’s call at the later time](https://discord.com/events/899649805582737479/969539027478913046).

During last week’s call, brand designer [Camelia Cucolea](https://twitter.com/kameha_san) live-streamed a portion of the creation process for this awesome piece of artwork for an NFT for community member and top contributor [Jack Evans](https://twitter.com/__Jevans_). Thanks for all of your great contributions and insights, Jack!


![jack nft.jpeg](/uploads/jack_nft_c2b26cecea.jpeg)

_The final creation!_ 

**Book Club**

We’re now reading Part 4 of “The Infinite Machine”, and discussion points for [Parts 2 and 3 are up](https://discord.com/channels/899649805582737479/935590694221926450/965611350711762944) in the [Book Club channel](https://discord.gg/htQgVsgv) on the Discord.

We’re looking forward to finishing, and eyeing “The Cryptopians” by Laura Shin for our next read. Join us for some discussion!

PS…[did you hear about the movie](https://discord.com/channels/899649805582737479/935590694221926450/968797276694790144)?

DAO Research, Partnerships and more…

This week we dropped a major knowledge goldmine. Autonolas team member [Adriano](https://twitter.com/bradrian_0x) helped us pull together this DAO deep-dive, looking into exactly what DAOs are doing with their treasuries (hint: not much!). There’s some obvious use cases for autonomous apps and services here, so [check out the thread](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1521853164638523397?s=20&t=57ruLa4pcUOf9RkUUeCzFQ) for more information, including [a link to the WIP report](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1521853211493031942).

Are you interested in working with us to deploy full stack autonomy, perhaps in your DAO, as an app or service you build, or something else? [Reach out](mailto:oaksprout@valory.xyz) to our Ecosystem team and let’s get growing!

**We’re Hiring!**

Are you ready for something a little more challenging? Do you have a background leading Engineering teams and want to get stuck in delivering the autonomous future of crypto? You’re in luck! Valory, the organization that’s creating Autonolas, is looking for a Head of Engineering. You can learn more about the [opportunity here](https://angel.co/company/valory-3/jobs/1951401-engineering-manager-head-of-engineering).

That’s all for this update, as always thank you for being here, and thanks for being early. If you’re not yet following us on Twitter, [we’re here](https://twitter.com/autonolas), and [join us on Discord](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar)!

Until next time….


Springing Forward Edition

Autonolas Community Update 005

Robust, trust-minimized, decentralized, composable and free of bugs—that’s our goal. We'd like your help for that last one, so that’s why we’ve partnered with Immunefi to create a bug bounty program. The bounties are live on their site now, and we’re offering a range of bounties across different threat levels, from $1,000 USD for low-level items up to $50,000 USD for a critical bug or vulnerability. 

To learn more and get started, [head to our page on Immunefi](https://immunefi.com/bounty/autonolas/).

Best of luck, bug hunters! 

Find a bug or vulnerability and claim up to $50k 🤑

Announcing our Bug Bounty Program

It’s been another jam-packed month here at Autonolas HQ. Since our last update, we’ve continued to plug away behind the scenes, refining and expanding our tech stack, and growing the Autonolas community, rolling out more and better opportunities for you to get involved.

#### Tech Stack/Academy 

The Agent Dev Academy Cohort 2 is well underway and Cohort 3 will be getting started soon. There are more applicants each time and the selection process has become more and more selective as new devs discover the program. Applications are still open for Cohort 4, but don’t delay if you’re interested!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Academy 1: 3 applications; Academy 2: 5; Academy 3: 28 🤯 (cohort starting in March). <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@autonolas</a> is assembling a growing group of builders and there’s no better time to apply for Academy 4 than now!</p>&mdash; David Minarsch ☴ (@david_enim) <a href="https://twitter.com/david_enim/status/1496130559495610368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Academy Cohort 2 is hard at work on a keeper system that will integrate with [Keep3r.](https://keep3r.network/) We’ve been posting about their progress in weekly threads on our Twitter account. You can see the [most recent thread here.](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1492446111637856263?s=20&t=75uOOGAR-k43KSTUKZ9hFQ)

We also ran a blog post where we interviewed the Academy’s first cohort on their experiences. It’s valuable reading for anyone considering joining a future cohort. [You can read that here.](https://autonolas.network/posts/2)

Another exciting project is a site that visualizes a running agent service: a robust price oracle! We are looking forward to having this up and running soon, to better communicate what’s possible with our stack.

![img23.png](/uploads/img23_72b5402bf3.png)

This will be live soon and we can’t wait to share it with you.

#### Whitepaper

Good progress has been made on our whitepaper. We are currently working through all of the specific regulatory details. In due course we will announce its public release.

#### Community Building

The World Buildathon has wrapped and we are judging the entries. We received some very cool and creative submissions and will be announcing our winners very soon. Join us in the [#world-buildathon](https://discord.gg/7VB6XSRjzf) channel for all the latest.

We ran two other blog posts since our last update: first was [this post](https://medium.com/@ValoryAG/weve-hit-a-fork-in-the-road-456d0fa6e5ab) from our parent organization Valory. Part of the journey to get to where we are now involved forking these two projects our cofounder, David M contributed to and the post explains why and how that decision was made.

We also created this [Guide to Getting into Web3](https://autonolas.network/posts/7) — a curated list of resources for developers looking to get into web3. If you know someone who might benefit from a guide like this, please share it with them. You can send them the article linked above, or @mention them [on this thread.](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1493580330321813505?s=20&t=alAmOLxomTahb0hGJRSLfQ)

Our Community Office Hours recently have featured live streams, where our designer created NFT artwork for our Academy graduates live: you can see timelapses she created [here](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1491013390764064779?s=20&t=75uOOGAR-k43KSTUKZ9hFQ), [here](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1493997717810515972?s=20&t=75uOOGAR-k43KSTUKZ9hFQ) and [here.](https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1496500782836953092)

![academy cohort one nfts](/uploads/academy_cohort_one_nfts_412e52e919.png)

_Academy Cohort One’s finished NFT artwork_

We hope you’re as excited as we are about the growth of our project. We’d love it if you would follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas) and [join the Discord.](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar)

We also invite you to connect with us every first Friday for Community Office Hours. This is an open-ended opportunity to ask questions, get answers and get involved. The event happens [here.](https://discord.gg/rHkmAXm8YV)

That’s all for this month — see you on the Discord!


Growing Together Edition

Autonolas Community Update 003

#### A Mis-Step on the Path to Autonomy 

Despite the rallying cry for decentralization, our belief is that the arc of crypto points towards one value above all — autonomy. Autonomy means economic machines which produce basic services for humanity without being _hindered_ by messy human input. Machines that work _for_ us, rather than requiring us to constantly stoke their fires.

Blockchains have undoubtedly forced a great leap forward towards this goal. Whilst the space has been focused so intently on scaling, another significant issue has emerged — the next major roadblock on the path towards autonomy. Protocols have significant autonomy at the level of the blockchain/smart contracts, but the parts of their applications which run _off_ the blockchain resemble web2 at best, and the clunky industrial age at worst.

#### Off-Chain is Broken

Most crypto services cannot run solely as on-chain smart contract applications. There are some things which, by design, smart contracts are extremely bad at. Smart contracts:

*   can’t do things which require complex processing
*   can’t run continuously
*   can’t talk to things which aren’t on the same blockchain, like external APIs or other chains

A few concrete examples of these limitations:

*   a DAO/protocol can’t manage its own social media advertising budget
*   an on-chain asset management fund couldn’t run machine learning processes to optimize its trading strategies
*   an on-chain protocol can’t directly get price feeds from centralized exchanges (oracle use-case)
*   There’s no way for an on-chain protocol/DAO to keep its processes private — they’re laid bare for all to see. This seems normal but is wildly out of sync with real-world organizations

And the list goes on.

#### Duct Tape Dapps
![duct tape meme.png](/uploads/duct_tape_meme_78e96058ca.png)

So, how do protocols currently get around these limitations? Here are just 4 common off-chain workarounds which have emerged:

**1.  Individual Bots**

Some protocols will run individual bots which live on centralized servers, such as Amazon Web Services. These bots are a single point of failure. They are prone to going offline and causing degraded user experiences, if not loss-of-funds due to lost/compromised keys in DeFi applications.

**2\. Humans (Meatware)**

Many protocols depend on groups of external individuals to provide complex and critical roles for maintaining network function. For example, decentralized exchanges pay out large rewards to incentivize people to regularly re-balance their liquidity. Other DAO operations depend on individuals executing transactions at the right time, for example topping up protocol-level insurance. These processes are often expensive and unreliable.

**3\. Heavy-Duty Middleware**

In certain restricted cases, protocols can depend on large existing providers for off-chain services like oracles. Typically these are inflexible, expensive and permissionful.

![one does not meme.png](/uploads/one_does_not_meme_cc942fb57c.png)

**4\. Community-Incentivized Bots**

Another thing we see is protocols writing their own bots and incentivizing their community to run them. While this is a legitimate attempt from the community to take ownership of a core process in a decentralized manner, it also bears significant cost and risk.

*   The costs lie in needing to pay out non-trivial incentives to bot-runners
*   The risk lies in not having significant guarantees that the service will actually continue to run if interest and belief in the project wanes and, as a result, bot runners elect to put their machines to work elsewhere
*   Bot systems which are painful to keep up-to-date as the underlying blockchain software evolves, particularly in an multi-chain environment where even EVM chains fall out of sync
*   Although the underlying bot code is transparent and auditable, nothing else is. For example there is no visibility into how effectively the bots are being run.

—

In summary, existing options hence leave blockchain protocols with:

*   The risk of services which perform poorly because they’re run by dumb individual bots on web2 servers
*   Burdening humans with high levels of manual input
*   Opaque, unauditable off-chain processes
*   The need to completely develop their own off-chain services, including sets of operators, from scratch
*   Significant financial cost of incentivizing third-party service providers

![img22.png](/uploads/img22_951af37721.png)

All of this has led us to the conviction that something is fundamentally missing in the blockchain infrastructure stack. Why is it not yet possible to build off-chain services in a cryptonative way?

#### An Entire Missing Layer in Crypto

We think there are several reasons why this platform for developers to build robust off-chain services wasn’t created before:

*   Solving the problem stretches beyond the realms of traditional disciplines of crypto academia all the way to the established computing paradigm of multi-agent systems
*   Performance and scaling have been the most obvious and critical problems to solve until recently
*   Given the lack of good scaling solutions, the market is yet to focus on shoring up off-chain services as a key concern. As scaling is resolved, we feel this must change

#### The Autonolas Platform

We feel that now is the right time to present Autonolas, which our team of co-founders has been collectively building towards for years.

We believe Autonolas is the key to building the next level of decentralized protocols, and the next big unlock on the path to autonomy. It does this by creating a developer platform that enables robust, transparent and decentralised off-chain services.

“Is this another network for automating DeFi transactions?” The simple answer — no! Our platform enables a fundamentally new breed of protocol which is much more proactive, rich in underlying complexity and connective. In simpler terms, we will enable a new type of crypto app which can take action on its own, become _really_ good at what it does and interact with the entire internet, not just one blockchain.

We believe Autonolas will not only make existing applications much better, but will also blast open the design space of what’s possible with new crypto applications. We believe this is one of the most promising new vectors of innovation in the crypto space. If you sense the same, get involved now.

—

_This post has given a glimpse into the why behind Autonolas. Future posts will fill in the gaps around the what. We’ll also have posts focused on the product we intend to launch on Autonolas, and some ideas around the kinds of applications you can expect to see emerge in the ecosystem. However, autonomy cannot be reached by one party alone. We are committed to creating a conducive environment for a strong community who will collaborate to shape the future of Autonolas together._

[_Follow us on Twitter_](https://twitter.com/autonolas) _to join the conversation and hear updates._ [_Join our Discord_](https://discord.com/invite/z2PT65jKqQ) _to get involved and contribute to the community._


How an open middleware layer will unlock the next level of crypto applications

Autonomy is Dead, Long Live Autonomy!

Welcome to another community update! There is a lot to get to this time, but first, we want to invite you to share your feedback on the content and structure of these updates. Let us know what you’d like to see and we will incorporate your ideas! 

**Protocol Launch**

Let’s start with the biggest one: this is the most exciting news we’ve had in quite some time: the Autonolas Protocol launched on August 2nd! We held a live stream (and [dropped another POAP](https://poap.gallery/event/574320!)) that you can [check out here](https://bit.ly/3zlshry). This was a major moment in the Autonolas journey and brings us even closer to the flourishing autonomous service ecosystem we all dream of, so a big congrats to everyone involved. 

**More DAO Ops Research**

![02.08 DAO Operations.png](/uploads/02_08_DAO_Operations_1174e92679.png)

We're continuing our exploration of DAO operations and have put together [a new blog post](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/24) that will be a central hub for all of our threads and data drops. Give it a read and let us know what you think, and if you have DAO ops related questions, let us know!

**New Educational Content + Video Media**

There’s a whole new section on our site that’s dedicated to “quick intro” style education articles. These easy to follow posts will walk you through some of the core Autonolas concepts. When you’re finished, [try the quiz](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrPpVCZf8CvcsU1qi-5pOCYKAjCJBUankYfqg8jRBySUbF7g/viewform?usp=sf_link) and test your knowledge.

We also recorded a presentation called [“Upgrade your DAO with Autonomous Services: An Intro to Autonolas”](https://bit.ly/3QcjC1m) that we think you’ll find very interesting!

**Alter Orbis Art and Exploration**

We’re returning to the world of Alter Orbis with lots of new concept art and explorations - this tweet showcases some great work from community member [Kaen Ackerman](https://www.instagram.com/kaenackerman/). 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Check out this amazing Alter Orbis concept art from Kaen Ackerman! We loved their creative take on the lore—they even got the colors from our new branding in the sky!<br><br>Follow them on Instagram here: <a href="https://t.co/4cUvfE0PsX">https://t.co/4cUvfE0PsX</a><br>and for more Alter Orbis, join our Discord (link in bio) <a href="https://t.co/bSLllwS8xo">pic.twitter.com/bSLllwS8xo</a></p>&mdash; Autonolas (@autonolas) <a href="https://twitter.com/autonolas/status/1547860559072112640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We also got to see some work from our designer Camelia, a view of the planet:

![AO planet](/uploads/AO_planet_781140ca1c.png)

And a settlement - the fan collects water from the air as condensation!

![AO settlement](/uploads/AO_settlement_3712463cba.png)

What do you envision for Alter Orbis? We’d love to hear from you as we build the world together so please join us in the [#🌍-alter-orbis](https://discord.gg/VWGVs5kGkX) channel on Discord.

**A new deep-dive on cross-chain bridges**

![27.07 bridges blog post.png](/uploads/27_07_bridges_blog_post_3cb7ed21d6.png)

Our team recently put out [another great in depth article](https://www.autonolas.network/blog/23). This time, we explore cross-chain bridges, starting with how they work and moving on to two fascinating use-cases for autonomous services inside of the examples. Give it a read and let us know what you think—and if you’re interested in putting an Autonolas service into your project, [get in touch](mailto:bd@valory.xyz) and we’ll be glad to help out.

**Twitter Spaces 02**

Another highlight of the month was our second Twitter Spaces, which [you can hear as a replay](https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1dRKZlMlgPaJB). Oaksprout the Tan spoke with [Tarun Gupta](https://twitter.com/tarungupta1475) and [Patrick Pray](https://twitter.com/pray_eth) from [Coinshift](https://twitter.com/0xCoinshift) about DAO treasury management and Coinshift’s approach. It was a very interesting conversation and we’re keen to do more of these, guest suggestions welcomed!

We also [released a POAP for listeners](https://poap.gallery/event/56791). Be sure to stop by our next Space to snag yours!

**El Collectooorr Opens Whitelist**

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How is El Collectooorr designed to work? This thread explains the 6️⃣ steps in the process:<br><br>1️⃣: Deposit <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24ETH&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$ETH</a> into the vault - El Collectooorr uses the deposited <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24ETH&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$ETH</a> to fund the current collection, and depositooorrs receive fractionalization tokens in exchange <a href="https://t.co/OEQmwfq6ho">pic.twitter.com/OEQmwfq6ho</a></p>&mdash; El Collectooorr (@elcollectooorr) <a href="https://twitter.com/elcollectooorr/status/1552563787290517504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Another Academy milestone: the first product to open its whitelist for real-world users is [El Collectooorr](https://www.elcollectooorr.art/), an autonomous NFT collector DAO built with Autonolas technology by Academy Cohort 1 with [Ardian Abazi](https://twitter.com/0x61726469616e) as lead developer. 

We also released two educational videos, [one introducing the service](https://bit.ly/3zQNSJW) and [another demonstrating the UI/UX](https://bit.ly/3QeKxK6), so check those out.

If you’re interested in joining the whitelist, [you can do that here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfA0ux4SYIA64rXta82JSU2c5zECoFQuABQQ90Lns-ZbNYCiA/viewform), and while you’re at it, [follow El Collectooorr on Twitter](https://twitter.com/elcollectooorr) for all the latest news. 

So, that’s it for this edition, and thank you as always for joining us. If you don’t already, please [follow us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/autonolas) and [join the Discord](https://discord.gg/RHY6eJ35ar). See you next time!

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