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Join the Blender Development Fund

EnactedGrant Request

Proposal Details

Author0x3b4f…c915
PublishedNov 03, 2021 21:17
Voting beginsNov 03, 2021 21:17
Voting endsNov 10, 2021 21:17
Snapshot#XsAFFXt

Grant size

175,000 USD

Tier

Tier 6

Beneficiary

0x9De8…a799

Description

This proposal is partly inspired by this great post, "We Need More Open Source in Gaming": https://a16z.com/2016/06/01/open-source-gaming-vr/ "A rising tide lifts all boats." Blender is an open source 3D content-creation program that lays at the center of 3D workflows like an indispensible swiss army knife tool. Its used by millions of people - in 2020 alone there were 14M downloads. The subreddit has almost 500k members and there have been over 100 books published covering Blender. As a creator that's made virtual worlds and avatars across dozens of platforms (including Decentraland) I've used Blender for: - creating, fixing, and optimizing 3D models and avatars - converting between different 3D file formats (great glTF support) - 20k meebits were made into usable avatar files using Blender - High quality renders, lightmapping, and animations - Exporting content directly to web based virual worlds Features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animating, match moving, rendering, motion graphics, video editing, and compositing. One of the foundation's goals is "to give the worldwide Internet community access to 3D technology in general, with Blender as a core". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_Foundation Blender is GPL licensed, ensuring that the code will be free as a public good for all time. It protects the developer and user community from malicious patents, hostile forks, lock-down attempts, bait-and-switch-to-closed. Other software that is GPL licensed include the Linux kernel and wordpress. [Learn more](https://www.blender.org/about/license/) It'll be iconic for Decentraland to be the first crypto-native project to be a sponsor and have its logo displayed here next to tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple, Unity, Epic, Nvidia, Steam, Microsoft, etc: https://i.imgur.com/oK3sIrw.png Costs for corporate gold (based on 11/3 MANA price of $2.88): ~12,100 MANA per year ~60.5k MANA for 5 years It's ~ <1% of the MANA released (https://vesting.decentraland.org/#/0x7a3abf8897f31b56f09c6f69d074a393a905c1ac), a small cost to send a large industry message about where we stand on software freedom and the open metaverse. I think it's a smart PR move, like how Visa bought a Cryptopunk. Blender currently employs 26 full time employees, and 12 freelancers remotely. Unity has over 5000. We need more open source in gaming. Link: https://fund.blender.org/

Voting Power

00.5M1MRequired to pass11/0311/0511/0711/0811/09
YesNo

10 Comments

HPrivakosOct 01, 2024

Probably because no update has been posted about it. We sponsored Blender as Patron for a year then the Foundation sponsored them as Gold for another year.

OzymandiasSep 30, 2024

The DCL logo is of course not currently on the Fund page of Blender, however it is on page 94 of [Blender-Foundation-Annual-Report-2022.pdf](https://download.blender.org/foundation/Blender-Foundation-Annual-Report-2022.pdf). But can someone explain why [Join the Blender Development Fund](https://decentraland.org/governance/project/?id=86fc5973-0151-41d5-b43d-8a595f5abee4) is still in [Pending](https://decentraland.org/governance/projects?status=pending) ?

EibrielNov 04, 2021

Hi! A modifier for this proposal has been created to change the membership level from 5 years Gold to 1 year Patron. All other details (including amount of money) remaining the same. That would put the Decentraland logo not alongside Steam, but alongside Facebook. A stronger message. Please vote here: https://governance.decentraland.org/proposal/?id=835f7c90-3d94-11ec-be0c-afec86cba5e5

EibrielNov 04, 2021

Jin sent an email to Blender, so we should have news soon on that. EDIT: answer by Ton https://twitter.com/tonroosendaal/status/1456282832863703040 > We mostly use Coinbase for collecting crypto donations. Jin contacted us already.

EibrielNov 04, 2021

100% real, you can see that the Ethereum address is on the Blender site here: https://www.blender.org/about/donations/ Jin is a well known member of the "metaverse" community

yemelNov 04, 2021

This is a great initiative! We should contribute to projects developing the infrastructure Decentraland's is based on. Blender Foundation has a great track record of building open and free software. [quote="wacaine, post:4, topic:2704"] Are we sure this is not a scam? [/quote] In case this proposal is approved the DAO Committee and/or the champions of this proposal should contact the foundation to ensure the funds go to the correct destination. If someone wants to go ahead and loop them in on this thread would be great. Contact info: https://fund.blender.org/contact/

wacaineNov 04, 2021

Are we sure this is not a scam? Someone rallying around a great idea just to take it and run? I am all for being a supporter of Blender. Love their product. Asking the question. Are we sure this will go to Blender

EibrielNov 04, 2021

Here is why I think is an awesome idea: Blender is a gigantic community of designers, Decentraland needs designers. Decentraland designers use Blender. Facebook is also in need of designers. Facebook, Google, AWS, NVIDIA (I think even Apple) are already members of the development fund. That Decentraland is also a member means: Advertising in the Blender community to gain not only users but also designers. Putting the Decentraland brand on par with Facebook, etc. demonstrating its importance. At the same time it is an Opensource project supporting another OpenSource project, which will make people see Decentraland in a positive way. Being a member allows us to redirect Blender resources to improve the tools we use in DCL.

EibrielNov 03, 2021

Awesome idea! Just imagine the Decentraland logo alongside the Facebook (or Meta) logo

daoNov 03, 2021

Join the Blender Development Fund This proposal has been ENACTED by a DAO Committee Member (0xfe91c0c482e09600f2d1dbca10fd705bc6de60bc)