# Camelot Proposal

The **Camelot Proposal** is the **core monthly grant program** of the Project Merlin DAO.\
It is designed to fund the **most promising Web3 startups** through a **fully on-chain, task-based, and community-driven selection process**.

Unlike many other grant programs where decisions are made by a small internal team or a private committee, Camelot is **100% run by the DAO community**—every vote is recorded on-chain and every winner is chosen by active members holding a **Project Merlin Community NFT**.

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### **🔹 Key Features**

1. **Recurring Monthly Funding**
   * Every month, **four startups** are selected to receive funding.
   * Each winner gets a **$25,000 value package**:
     * $10,000 worth of MRLN tokens (claimable)
     * $15,000 worth of non-withdrawable service credits to spend on **Freelify**, **Taskium**, and **Funddex**.
2. **Multiple Chances for Startups**
   * A startup can participate in up to **three monthly Camelot cycles** after submitting a Raven Message.
   * This means even if you don’t win in the first month, you still have two more opportunities without paying a new submission fee.
3. **Structured Two-Stage Voting**
   * **Stage 1 – Shortlist Voting:**\
     Startups are grouped into shortlists of five projects. These are assigned randomly to community members via smart contracts. Members rank them on-chain.
   * **Stage 2 – Final Proposal Voting:**\
     The top-ranked startups from the shortlists move into one of four final proposals. Community members vote again to select the monthly winners.
4. **AI Fallback for Fairness**
   * If no community member votes on a shortlist after three attempts, the **Merlin Spirit AI** steps in to rank projects based on predefined, confidential criteria—ensuring no proposal is left unprocessed.
5. **Cross-Chain Voting Access**
   * Even though voting smart contracts are deployed on Arbitrum, members can vote from any supported blockchain using their Custodial Wallet.
   * This removes the need for manual bridging and makes participation easier.

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### **🎯 Advantages Over Other DAO Grant Programs**

* **Completely On-Chain:** Every vote, ranking, and funding decision is transparent and verifiable by anyone.
* **No Centralized Filtering Bias:** Shortlists are random, and the community—not a private team—decides winners.
* **Guaranteed Funding Allocation:** Every month, exactly four winners are funded—no delays, no skipped months.
* **Service Credits + Tokens:** Startups get both liquidity (tokens) and practical resources (credits) to execute their plans immediately.
* **Vote2Earn Rewards for Voters:** Voters are not just volunteering—they earn points for every action, which are later converted into MRLN tokens.

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### **🗳 Who Votes and What Motivates Them?**

* **Voters:** Only holders of a **Project Merlin Community NFT** can vote.
* **Voting Method:** Voters receive assigned shortlists and final proposals in their Custodial Wallet. They rank projects directly on-chain.
* **Motivation:**
  * Earn **Vote2Earn points** for each completed voting task (+5 for shortlist votes, +10 for final votes, plus matching bonuses).
  * These points are converted into **MRLN token rewards** every quarter if the DAO Treasury exceeds 30% of the total supply.
  * Gain early insights into upcoming startups and potential presale opportunities.

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### How it works – Step by step

1. **Shortlist Creation**
   * All eligible startups from the Raven Message pool are grouped into **shortlists of 5 projects**.
   * Each shortlist is assigned to a community member via a smart contract.
2. **Shortlist Voting**
   * Community members vote **on-chain** through their Custodial Wallets.
   * They rank the projects in their shortlist based on preference.
   * If a member doesn’t vote within 7 days, the shortlist is reassigned (up to 2 more times).
   * If no one votes, the **Merlin Spirit AI** finalizes the ranking.
3. **Final Proposal Stage**
   * Top-ranked projects from each shortlist move to **four final proposal lists**, each containing **20 startups**.
   * Community members vote again—this time to select the winner from each proposal list.
4. **Selection of Winners**
   * Four startups (one from each final proposal) are declared winners for the month.

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💡 **In short:**\
Camelot Proposal is **more than a grant program**—it’s a **fully decentralized, recurring funding engine** where the community has real power, startups have multiple chances, and participation is rewarded.\
It blends transparency, inclusivity, and practical utility in a way that sets it apart from most DAOs in Web3.