My thesis as a delegate is: “Nouns has a unique role in the ecosystem as a gathering place around public goods.”

Mobile operating systems are a duopoly. Many attempts to fund alternatives have failed. The primary alternatives tend to have very specific backers who are pushing forward their interests, and aren't creating a neutral space for experimentation. That is why it's even more important for Nouns to fund an open source, crypto-focused operating system as a public good.

Hardware and operating systems are extremely hard. They require a lot of capital, far more than this prop is requesting. Nouns should give this initiative a small push and keep it going, to help incubate it for when it's ready for substantial funding. We can't solve everything, but we can do our part.

Seems like the exact type of exciting public and open-source project that Nouns should fund. I empathize with the concerns that it will be extremely hard for this phone to get adoption and "compete" with incumbents, but I don't think that should stop Nouns from trying to fund it if it is aligned with our mission and the world we want to build together.

Nouns should be at the forefront of funding public goods, and ethOS is an excellent choice for investment. That alone makes me vote in favor of this proposal.

But beyond that, I firmly believe that Nouns should be a leader in the broader web3 ecosystem. How will we possibly proliferate the meme of Nouns is no one in our own world cares? Funding this allows Nouns to make a significant impact in the overall space.

My one hesitation: I strongly believe that Nouns should have a much stronger branding presence than is suggested in the proposal. Any Nounish components should not be optional, but instead default. However, looking at Apenoun's votewithreason, it looks like the team is open to sweetening the pot if this proposal passes.

I love the vision of ethOS, and I am glad they've kept at it. I do not think this is a lost cause: all things start small. I've personally been an Apple fan boy for many years, but am ready to give this a shot as my main phone just because I am so tired of how Apple has treated crypto. I had actually looked into getting setup but didn't feel like buying an old phone. Having a preinstalled option on the latest phone will be huge.

My biggest complaint is that I wish there were a better story to this prop: the ask feels small and like we're partially just paying for a Nouns gtm option to sell back to us.

I wish the ask was larger, with a clear narrative of how our funding can be a key differentiator for the team, and a better story around how Nouns can be featured: e.g. a Noggle easter egg on all phones?

Nonetheless, I am voting FOR! Because

1. After talking with the proposers, it seems they went with the lower amount after informally getting pushback on a bigger ask. This will be the largest funding amount they've received to date and really will meaningfully help them get to market quicker.
2. Notwithstanding what I said about, the Nounish device option is cool and should be fairly high visibility.
3. I think there is a good story here that will reach an important audience. The people excited about ethOS are Ethereum maxis who are Nouns adjacent, if not already plugged in. Of all the people we reach across various props, these people are highly likely to (a) be excited about public goods and the ethos of Nouns and (b) have the means to acquire a Noun or minimally become active in the community. I am excited about funding things that are highly charismatic to those we want to--and can realistically--draw in!

Let's make it happen!

You used to call me on my cell phone ☎️💎

I think a crypto-native mobile OS sounds like a good idea on paper for folks like us who are into crypto, but in practice I don’t expect ethOS to meet the requirements and experience expectations of the modern user.

+1 to 40s, ccarellas, and salvino's comments

discussed on weekly Q&A call ensuring nouns IP representation beyond "optional" phone variant and team was receptive

+1 on noun 40’s comments

Pros: The operating system's foundational role in any software makes it a ripe candidate to make cryptonative, so that other applications and services built on top can enjoy its architectural assumptions. In addition, even if this particular instantiation doesn't take off, the open source nature of the OS can promote some future project to build on top of a base.

Cons: Skeptical that a new OS is what gets people to switch their current phone just for cryptonative benefits. Much more likely that dominant crypto adoption comes through app diversity in established OS app stores, or via browser functionality within a web3 app (like what Metamask does today).

Net: Positive - Despite the visible difficulties of new OS adoption, if anyone can help fund a run on a new system its Nouns DAO. The proposal seems very aligned with the DAO's overall goals of promoting the nounish meme alongside contributing to the long term development of the crypto ecosystem. This is an experiment worth running, and the fact that the team has already been making progress is a positive signal - we're helping a team that's already been helping themselves.

I'm not convinced that a phone made by an independent company can gain the critical mass required to take off and make this a profitable endeavour.

I am sympathetic to the creators of this prop, however, I just don't think this is going to work without an existing moat.

For example, I feel that even if Oppo or OnePlus did this, it would still flop. Moreover, I recall Samsung having done some significant pushes for a crypto wallet to be built-in to their phones before and yet adoption was quite lacklustre. HTC also famously made a big push about 4 years ago, I even recall seeing their booth at EDCON 2019.

I just have too many doubts against the ability of this prop to provoke significant proliferation and mainstream adoption. I am sorry.

I'd love to use one of these. Been a tech enthusiast forever and it's something I'd love to be using and show other people. I hope the marketing plan is solid though. ⌐◨-◨

Fund more ambitious projects!

would like to see more "juice" for nouns dao

would support a revised proposal

I don't think that OPTIONAL branding is enough of a tie-in with Nouns, would support a version of this proposal with deeper synergies. non-optional branding at minimum

would love to see this funded and later for the ethOS team to execute and come back asking for more after the nouns community had a chance to familiarize themselves with the ethOS phone more.

I see ethOS pushing forward an important bold mission on behalf of the ethereum community. maybe in the end apple/google play ball with the crypto movement and our progress is not hindered by their arbitrary censorship of weird rules (e.g. asking apps for a cut of the txn gas fees the apps facilitate).

if there comes a time where we really come up against apple/google, then I think we'd really feel grateful for a team like the ethOS team for have created alternatives we can choose rather than be stuck in their digital fiefdom.

I aplaude the ethOS team for taking on this important public open source work and feel excited for nouns to play a small role with this funding.

Taken from my newsletter Active Governance: https://paragraph.xyz/@thebower/UF6pmJQChyRthUTsBfq7

Yet another awesome proposal. We would be funding a great public good for the crypto community and supporting Ethereum, where Nouns live. I belive this is a great opportunity for Nouns to be the first and main facilitator for this project. It will help cement our position as a pioneer in financing public goods. Raising brand awareness and so on.

I am voting yes to this version of the proposal, but my only ask would be for Nouns to be more prominently featured in the product and not just offer a version of the phone with Nouns branding.

Investing future

• ethOS team is nounish af.
• Nouns is the best version of itself when its funding much needed public goods (and accrues good will from crypto community when it does)
• reasonable ask, very bold mission
• this team ships

The only hesitation I have here is "why 40 ETH?". Why not more? Why not less? Where else is funding coming from?

That said, imo the ask isn't wild. Great project, great opportunity to proliferate throughout the Ethereum ecosystem, very in-line with our values.

Excited to see ethOS hit more phones in the future!

I support this proposal as it aligns with Nouns' objective of promoting Public Goods and ethOS is one of the most ambitious attempts at a Public Good. Assisting in shaping our mobile future and prioritizing Ethereum on mobile platforms is crucial. The Nouns Virtuous Cycle is distinctly equipped to support such daring and visionary Real World Public Goods projects. I have full faith in this team, which has made incredible progress to without funding. Finally, the Nounish Edition of this phone is exciting and I will be purchasing one.

https://twitter.com/krel404/status/1653510860201947140?s=46&t=HMDCibI3Hl5luKRaTagiHA