Send Avidlearner to Lisbon Hacker House & Breakpoint Nov 1st - Nov 7th: $1500 USDC

[Avidlearner]

Hacker House: Nov 1 - Nov 3.
Breakpoint: Nov 4 - Nov 7

• This amount will cover travel (part) and accommodation. Part of my expenses is already taken care of by the Solana foundation through the Solana University scholarship (Solana global student fellowship).

Reference

Note: Didn’t share full email because I’m not sure if there are legal implications

I’m willing to network at the Hacker House and speak to colleagues and others about Grape, its ecosystem, and Dean’s List —I provided details around these in the acceptance/attendance form I filled for the Solana Foundation.

As some of you might have known, I deferred the opportunity to get a breakpoint ticket here because I wasn’t sure if all the things that have come in place now will be possible before the event. Now I have my ticket and some expenses covered by the Solana foundation, so will really appreciate if the DAO considers my latest application and proposal.

Also with regards to KYC, my identity is getting verified by the foundation. I’m willing to share any necessary details regarding this with Grape Labs if that’s in the interest of the DAO.

If accepted, I’d like to hear any suggestions/recommendations on goals to achieve at the Hacker House.

This is the address I’d want the funds sent to:
26gQiDrDHBj6VmcLMUnUCHe9UDXzJTwt56gemRJuRdUY

[billy.grape]

Congratulations on your acceptance to the Solana Fellowship program!

I do support sending @Avidlearner to Breakpoint and covering the expenses requested above, although a more detailed breakdown would be greatly appreciated.

@Avidlearner You have been a active community member from the early Grape days.

You are currently actively involved in the Deans List sub dao and the GCT, and have been actively participating on exploring the Solana ecosystem.

I applaud you for not accepting the Breakpoint ticket from the Grape DAO, as you were not sure if you can financially support this trip in the initial proposal. You then tried to apply for the ticket from Solana directly as a student and got accepted.

Now you took the time to draft a proposal here which could be accepted and rejected, this is up to all the DAO members to decide.

Personally, I am proud to see members in our community who are actively participating and want to contribute even more. This will be a great opportunity to also meet other DAO members during one of the most fun and productive Solana conferences you could attend this year!

If accepted, I’d like to hear any suggestions/recommendations on goals to achieve at the Hacker House.

Some ideas:

• Meeting other protocols, learning more about how they are using or planning on using governance possibly introduce them to our DAO.

• Its also very valuable to share your experience, and what you learned attending the conference. I am sure there will be so much to digest.

[DyNite]

This is amazing! Congrats avid!!!

[Avidlearner]

Thanks for the support and acknowledgement!

A breakdown on expenses:

After receiving the acceptance email from Solana Foundation, I went ahead and tried booking accommodation and flight (from Nigeria) to get an idea of the cost. In the process, I realized the $1k+ compensation package the foundation is gonna give me will not be enough.

Round trip + covid tests and other insurances costs: 700k+ in Naira (Flight booking gets more expensive closer to the time of flight).

Accommodation at a location with good reviews costs: ~ 550k Naira for my whole stay. (Other cheaper options I came across have 0 reviews).

Also, my choice of accommodation is refundable. This is important because I need to book a hotel first to be able to request for a letter of invitation from Solana which will aid in getting my VISA ASAP.

Invitation request form attached below

Microsoft Forms

[its.kirk]

Congrats! Absolutely supportive of this!

[butter1234567890]

Awesome Avid! I think it’s a proud moment when one of us ends up being recognized by the foundation. More power to you.

[Avidlearner]

Thanks guys. Absolutely appreciate all the support

[discolove007]

absolutely remarkable. Also looks like we will be hosting a workshop which might need help and the more hands the merrier.

[potrok]

I’m pumped to see you there!

[SgtSavage4]

Congratulations Avid well deserved and support this

[Avidlearner]

Hello Grapers!

As we all know, I couldn’t make it to breakpoint.

This post is to give a breakdown on how the funds were spent after I received them and plans for reimbursement.

I converted all the funds I received to FIAT immediately and booked flight (part) and accommodation (full) with them. This was before I traveled to the Capital of my country to make VISA enquiries.

A few reasons why I did the above:

1. I never thought VISA application was suspended and I was very confident I’d get VISA if I went with the invitation letter from Solana Foundation
2. The cost of travelling gets ridiculously expensive closer to the time of departure, same with accommodation, you struggle to find cheap/affordable rooms if your check-in time is nearby. Add to the fact that many people globally will be visiting Lisbon at the same time for Breakpoint.

Note: This is my first time dealing with international travel, so maybe many of my decisions were made out of ignorance and naivety.

As I mentioned here, I was gonna make flight and accommodation choices that are refundable. When I realized my travel won’t be possible after exhausting every means possible, including a letter from the Solana Foundation to the Portuguese foreign ministry, I reached out to the travel agency to request a refund. But it turned out they had some tricks up their sleeves. I went into details on the refund issue in this thread.

I received refund for accommodation after a fierce back and forth with the travel agency, but soon realized I would be in huge loss if I converted it to crypto as the value of our local currency has slumped further since I off-ramped into FIAT.

To add some clarity: I received funds from the Solana Foundation for Breakpoint, but have since used it to purchase a laptop (I’ve been operating in crypto on mobile for the longest time and it’s been very stressful and limiting —I believe my growth in this space, and tech in general, is thwarted due to lack of adequate tools for learning and progress). I also bumped up my GRAPE holding to Neanderthal status (netting a value of $1k+ at the time). Also, the disappointment of breakpoint was accompanied with the comfort of a fully sponsored scholarship to study computer science at Medina, Saudi Arabia. I’ve been running around trying to fulfill all the necessary follow-up actions as well as getting my documents ready and authenticated before VISA issuance.

Lastly, I’ve been avoiding making a post on the Breakpoint funds until I’m ready to reimburse the DAO fully. It’s only honorable I come to the DAO with the complete funds, not part reimbursement and hard to believe stories —so why I haven’t talked about it yet.
Following the discussion in the DAO channel on discord today, I thought it’s best to share some light on the current situation for the awareness of everyone. I currently have 500 USDC liquid as my total savings for the reimbursement of the breakpoint funds. I have no solid deadline for the complete reimbursement as I have no guaranteed source of stable income, but I can only hope that my assets appreciate enough, or I run into an opportunity, or the skills I’m learning now with my newly bought PC accelerate the timeline.

Thank you for the support and I apologise for not being transparent early on.

[nanko.sol]

i would like to say that avid can keep his liquidity for now…and can wait for the reimbursement…once reimbursed to avid we can decide whether the dao would like to receive the payment or not…just my 2 grapes

[Avidlearner]

Refunded:

Thanks for the opportunity/trust.