👑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.


🔹 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.


🎯 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.


🗳 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.


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.


💡 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.

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