One Millionth Block Commemorative Coin Design and Proposal

Summary

Gridcoin will be securing its millionth block sometime around August 18th! The Branding community hopes to celebrate the occasion with a physical, real, 3 dimensional yes you can touch it metal coin conceived, developed, designed, and manufactured from entirely within the Gridcoin community. This proposal seeks consensus regarding the design of the coin and agreement on its manufacturing and distribution processes.

Manufacturing

CNC is the perfect combination of cost, labor, and look for our purposes. Moreover, @Dutch has access to a CNC machine! We propose milling the design into brass.

The other options were copper and steel. We felt copper tarnishes too easily and steel is not the look we are going for. @Dutch has volunteered to cover the small costs of manufacturing in this way.

Distribution

We propose manufacturing two coins for distribution. One coin will be given to the foundation to do with as it wishes. One coin would be given to the host which stakes the 1 millionth block. Should this host be a pool, the pool will decide what to do with the coin. Should the host be unreachable for more than 14 days after the millionth block is staked, the coin will be given to the foundation to do with as it wishes. If the host does not wish to have the coin mailed to them they will decide what to do with it.

We discussed the possibility of auctioning one coin off for foundation funding, auctioning one coin off and burning the GRC, and holding one coin for posterity, but decided the best option is to give it to the foundation and the staker and let them decide.

Design

We seek consensus regarding which design will be used for the coin. All designs presented were developed by the Branding community and produced by Hive account@joshoeah.

Our discussions revolved around the complex logo, the simplified logo, and integrating BOINC in a “two sides of the same coin” concept. Our designs were restricted by the capabilities of the CNC machine.

The complex logo had to be tweaked to fit the size of the CNC head, but we all agreed it is the perfect design for a coin. It was difficult to integrate BOINC and Gridcoin without feeling like we were taking something from BOINC – this is a Gridcoin commemorative coin. At the same time, we all liked the idea of two sides of the same coin, that coin being science! We all also liked the concept of merging the simple logo with the complex logo. Two logos on two sides of the same coin, that coin being Gridcoin, which incentivizes science!

After the discussion on steemit regarding the three designs, found here, we felt it was appropriate to change the binary on the outer rim of side 2. Instead of saying "Gridcoin", it now says the date the 1 millionth block is staked. The binary in the designs presented here says "20170818" as a place holder. We also corrected the inside dots in designs 2 and 3 and added the dot in the binary to designs 2 and 3.

Regarding depth: The darker the color the deeper the cut. So the deepest cut is the hexagon in design one, and the inside dots will be gradients.

Changing the designs: We cannot change these designs unless there is a massive flaw. The process for developing these designs has gone on for weeks and has been as inclusive as we could make it. Join us for our next project! Slack in #branding.

Voting

Voting will take place in the Gridcoin client. A 7 day poll has been made by Hive account@erkan. We are running the poll for 7 days as we must wait for the block to be staked to put the appropriate date on the coin. We decided that since we are not rushing to get the coin produced before the block is mined, we might as well give some time to vote, but not too much as we all can't wait to see it when @Dutch is done.

The poll options will be:

Yes: Design 1
Yes: Design 2
Yes: Design 3
No because: Design
No because: Manufacturing
No because: Distribution
No because: Multiple
Abstain

Voting any of the three "yes" options means "yes, I approve the manufacturing and distribution plan and the proposal overall, and this is the design I support."

Voting any of the three "no" options means "no, I do not think this proposal should move forward and this is why."

No matter your vote, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments!

Additionally

There has been a bunch of interest from the community regarding purchasing a commemorative coin. To do this we would have to outsource production of the coin. This goes against the intent of this proposal to conceive, develop, design, and manufacture a coin from entirely within the community. There are a number of paths regarding manufacturing more coins after the production of these two coins. For example:

The design and material can be altered and outsourced to larger volume manufacturers.
The design and material could stay the same and be outsourced to larger volume manufacturers.
The design and coin could stay the same and Hive account@dutch can 3d print a hundred plastic coins.
The design and coin could change and Hive account@dutch can 3d print a hundred plastic coins.
The design could be hosted on a manufacturing website where anyone can purchase one.

This proposal focuses only on the two commemorative coins.

Credit:

Proposal conceived and developed by the #branding community on Slack
Proposal produced by Hive account@jringo
Designs conceived and developed by the #branding community on Slack
Designs produced by Hive account@joshoeah
Coin manufactured by @Dutch