Shutter PEN Membership Challenge
The Manifesto Needs a Treasury.
1. Application
Applicant name or organization:
Alex Soto — Independent Contributor
Primary contact / forum handle:
@alexsotodigital
Wallet address for payment (if approved):
0x3cd5fEC7FA9827cf0d262D6be5421A61CF615794 - alexsotodigital.eth
Application type:
Round 1 — Proactive grant for defined future work
Round 1 objective:
Objective 6 — Advance Shutter PEN Adoption, Operations, and Funding Readiness
Contribution area:
Ecosystem development, partnerships, or business development
Operations or coordination
Other: Product / frontend development
2. The Shutter need or opportunity
What specific need, opportunity, or gap does this contribution address?
Shutter PEN is designed as a long-term funding institution for projects aligned with the Ethereum Cypherpunk Manifesto. To become a credible community institution, however, PEN needs a broader membership base.
The current SEAT purchase flow works technically, but joining can still feel like purchasing an unfamiliar governance credential.
This proposal tests a different onboarding model: make PEN membership feel like a public commitment to Ethereum’s cypherpunk future and a personal invitation to others who should have a seat at the table.
The experiment creates a simple loop:
Take a SEAT → Say why you joined → Save or nominate a SEAT for someone else.
Why is it relevant to Shutter now?
Recent PEN discussions have explicitly asked how to bring more people into the network.
In that discussion, I proposed testing a public challenge around a simple provocation:
The Manifesto needs a treasury.
The idea was to make joining PEN a public commitment: get a SEAT, explain why you joined, and invite someone else who should care.
This grant would turn that initial community proposal into a small, measurable experiment.
Who benefits from the outcome, and how?
The primary beneficiary is Shutter PEN and its existing and prospective SEAT-holder community.
If the experiment works, PEN gains new members, additional principal through SEAT purchases, public member testimonials, and a reusable onboarding mechanism.
If it does not, PEN still gains evidence about whether this approach is worth iterating or abandoning before investing in broader distribution.
Value pathway
Durable ecosystem, adoption, or public-goods value aligned with Shutter’s mission
This is primarily an adoption experiment, not a revenue initiative. SEAT purchases will increase PEN principal, but the central hypothesis is:
PEN needs a membership base before it can credibly become a meaningful perpetual funding institution.
Beneficiary group: Shutter PEN and existing/prospective SEAT holders.
Shutter capability advanced: PEN SEAT-holder onboarding and participation.
Current PEN interface: Shutter PEN — Seats
What will this contribution enable?
By the end of the experiment, Shutter should have enough evidence to decide whether this onboarding model should be discontinued, iterated, or incorporated into PEN’s ongoing membership strategy.
What evidence will demonstrate progress?
Primary metric:
- new unique SEAT holders during the experiment.
Secondary evidence:
- SEATs purchased;
- PEN principal added;
- peer-sponsored SEATs (
payer ≠ recipient); - public “Why I joined” statements;
- invitations/nominations and secondary propagation where observable.
Proposed experiment
The grant will produce and test a lightweight social onboarding microsite for Shutter PEN.
1. Understand
Introduce PEN through a simple institutional framing:
The Manifesto Needs a Treasury.
Explain why PEN exists and why taking a SEAT represents participation in a long-term institution supporting Ethereum’s cypherpunk future.
2. Join
Take a SEAT
Connect wallet → quote current SEAT price → approve USDC if necessary → purchase one SEAT through the existing PEN contracts.
3. Express
After joining:
Why are you taking a SEAT?
The participant writes a short statement and receives prepared sharing options for social networks such as X or Farcaster.
4. Invite
Save a SEAT for someone
Enter an Ethereum address or ENS name → resolve and confirm recipient → purchase one SEAT directly for them through PEN’s existing purchase(recipient, ...) functionality.
The recipient does not need to connect, pay gas, or claim the SEAT.
Participants may alternatively nominate someone to purchase their own.
5. Propagate
The recipient is invited into the same loop:
Join → Say why → Invite.
Scope boundaries
This does not include new smart contracts, changes to PEN governance, accounts/profiles, a backend/indexer, EAS attestations, a Farcaster Mini App, referral rewards, leaderboards, DAO-funded SEAT purchases, or paid media.
The current PEN frontend already implements much of the wallet connection and quote → allowance → approve → purchase infrastructure required.
Existing frontend repository: shutter-network/pen-interface
Distribution and activation
I will prepare a lightweight launch kit with campaign framing, social assets, participation instructions, and sharing prompts, and coordinate outreach to existing PEN holders, Shutter contributors, and aligned ecosystem participants.
Support from Shutter-owned communication channels would provide an important initial distribution surface and is requested as part of the experiment, subject to coordination with the relevant contributors.
If organic distribution shows promising conversion, broader or paid distribution can be evaluated separately.
Deliverables and milestone
Duration: 5 - 6 weeks
Final deliverables
- Public Shutter PEN onboarding microsite.
- Functional Take a SEAT flow.
- Functional Save a SEAT flow supporting Ethereum addresses and ENS.
- “Why I joined” sharing flow.
- Public launch kit and initial activation.
- Public results recap with adoption metrics, observations, limitations, and a recommendation to discontinue, iterate, or incorporate the approach.
Reviewable milestone for second 50% payment
A publicly deployed microsite with:
- wallet connection and Ethereum mainnet handling;
- functional Take a SEAT flow;
- functional Save a SEAT flow;
- social-sharing flow;
- campaign materials published;
- initial activation launched.
Public evidence
Evidence will include the deployed microsite, source repository subject to the code-reuse clarification above, Ethereum transactions and PEN contract events, campaign materials, observable social participation, before/after SEAT-holder metrics, and the final experiment recap.
3. Funding request
Amount requested: $2,500
The grant covers experiment and UX design, microsite development and Web3 integration, campaign preparation, ecosystem coordination, launch, measurement, and the final public recap.
It does not fund paid advertising or SEAT purchases.
4. Prior compensation and disclosures
Have you, your organization, or a related party received or requested compensation for this work from Shutter or another source?
No
Do you have any financial, professional, or organizational conflict relevant to this application?
No
I am applying as an independent contributor.
5. Public discussion
Questions or feedback requested from the community
I would particularly appreciate clarification or feedback on:
- Frontend reuse: Can this experiment reuse/adapt the relevant logic from the public
pen-interfacerepository given its current licensing status? - Distribution: Would relevant Shutter contributors be open to coordinating organic distribution through Shutter-owned communication channels?
- Operating counterpart: Is Shutter PEN and its SEAT-holder community sufficient as the beneficiary group, or would identifying a specific PEN contributor as operating counterpart be preferable?
6. Applicant attestation
I confirm that the information in this application is accurate to the best of my knowledge; that I have disclosed relevant prior compensation and conflicts; and that I understand any award remains subject to the published process and DAO approval.
Name / handle: Alex Soto / @alexsotodigital
Date: September 23, 2026
