This year marked the first time Unlock Protocol debuted as a DAO at ETH Denver. We are proud and grateful to the community members who attended and represented the protocol! Special thanks go here to Will T, Steven Sinatra, Wonderwomancode, CaptainSouthPaw, Lana Dingwall, Yonks, and stellaachenbach!

The "Year of the Regenerate" saw the DAO actively engage in sponsorships, networking, and community building, leaving a lasting impression on the Ethereum ecosystem. With this short report, we aim to show our personal key highlights, shed some light on the sponsored events, mention some of the more significant contacts we established, and share our lessons learned that will see active implementation into upcoming events. Let's get started!

Key Highlights

• Investment and Impact: The DAO invested 4 ETH + $3,342.94, onboarding approximately 1,500 new users to the protocol (potentially more).

• Event Sponsorships: Unlock Protocol DAO sponsored several side events, including Carrot Castle, Hats & Friends, and the Onchain Creator Summit. Unlock Labs sponsored Pizza Castle.

• Brand Visibility: The DAO achieved strong visibility among target groups: community organizers, creators, and fellow builders.

Sponsored Events

As mentioned, this year marks the first year in the DAO's history that many people within the DAO organized ETH Denver, not just Unlock Labs team members. The following events were sponsored with interesting results, each targeting a slightly different group of Protocol Users.

Carrot Castle

This week-long think tank on governance and community organization attracted over 120 visitors despite being located outside Denver's city center. The event allowed stellaachenbach to showcase Unlock Protocol's potential in creating memberships, events, and certifications for decentralized communities and their educational initiatives.

Pizza Castle

Pizza DAO held an evening event on February 26th at Spork Castle, with over one thousand people attending throughout the evening. The event itself can be classified as a networking initiative that brings people together from various parts of the blockchain world.

Hats & Friends

Co-sponsored with aligned projects like Hats Protocol, Decent DAO, Lemma, and Tally, this event drew 173 RSVPs and featured notable Web3 personalities. The gathering facilitated valuable networking and project discussions, leading to closer network collaborations.

Onchain Creator Summit

This creator-centric event in Denver's art district highlighted the need for better preparation from our side to showcase Unlock Protocol's capabilities for creators properly. The summit showcased a healthy mix of creators, organizers and builders. We lacked preparation and clarity for this event to take maximum advantage of our presence there.

Other projects made it onto our ETH Denver 2025 Collection list, but the goal would be to triple the number of events (not necessarily sponsorships) throughout this year!

Networking and Future Opportunities

Thanks to many DAO members making an appearance at ETH Denver, we were able to split across different events, forming or deepening valuable connections for the DAO. The complete CRM additions can be reviewed within the Unlock DAO Charmverse space for those who are interested.

stellaachenbach took most of last week to have various follow-up meetings, and things look promising! The added connections open doors for potential collaborations, integrations, and expanded use of Unlock Protocol by our core target groups.

Lessons Learned

Thanks to the participation in ETH Denver this year and spending some funds, the DAO could learn and make any future iteration better than the one before. The following points have been identified as areas of improvement:

• Improve social media presence during events with a streamlined process that lets attendees and fellow DAO members who stayed back seamlessly collaborate on social media content. As an attendee, it is impossible to generate social content; hence, other DAO members will have to pick up the slack.

• Rework the grant process to dictate what we need as a DAO from grantees. Unlock Protocol is free and open-source and can empower many people and their business models. The DAO must rethink how grants are being given and what the return exactly needs to look like.

• Develop more elaborate merchandise for DAO members that will attract and create a brand narrative across different side events.

• Further strengthening alignments with other projects for increased visibility at the event and collaborating on more initiatives to knit us together tightly.

Action Items

Since the event, several action items have been added to our members' agenda. These are the most important ones:

• Write up an in-depth DAO report on Charmverse

• Synthesize the complete report into a newsletter format (here we are 😉)

• A co-hosted livestream with Hats Protocol and Decent DAO to recap ETH Denver 2025. This is happening on Friday 28th of March. RSVP here.

• Follow-ups with valuable contacts (WIP)

• Explore partnerships with aligned projects (WIP)

• Add all relevant contacts to the DAO's CRM system

• Create social media assets from the event & streamline post/ communication processes

• Get some portable testimonials or quotes from attendees at each of these events we sponsored

As Unlock Protocol DAO reflects on its successful ETH Denver debut, the organization is poised to build on this momentum, fostering growth and innovation in the decentralized ticketing and access control space. Join us on that journey by becoming an active DAO member. Here is what you can do:

• Subscribe to this newsletter

• Follow us on Social Media

• Attend weekly DAO Calls to identify synergies or get inspired

• Reach out on our Discord with your ideas and projects