Qualification Criteria

DEP 3 selects social-impact projects that are ready to scale what already works — not projects still searching for an idea, and not projects that need to prove they can earn. A strong application meets three core criteria and two practical conditions.

The three core criteria

1 · An innovation solution in hand. You already have a working solution — a real innovation in use, serving real people — not a concept, a plan, or a pilot that hasn't run yet.

What we look for: a clear description of the solution and the problem it solves; who uses it today; how long it has been running; and evidence it works — links, outputs, photos, testimonials, usage numbers, or press. The solution should already be doing its job for real people.

2 · Regeneration proven. Your project has shown it can regenerate value, not only spend it — it has some proven way of sustaining itself. DEP 3 is about growing that, not discovering it.

What we look for: a description of how the project sustains itself — earned income, service or product revenue, memberships, recurring sponsorship, or a mix — together with evidence that it has actually happened, not just that it could. This does not mean the project must be profitable or large; it means it has demonstrably brought value back, over some period, rather than depending entirely on one-off funding.

How this is checked: through the records and links you submit (a simple revenue history, sales or booking records, sponsorship agreements, or an operating history that shows sustained activity), confirmed in the review conversation. We are looking for a real, checkable track record — modest is fine; unverifiable claims are not.

3 · A local community. Your solution serves a real community, and that community is part of how it grows. The DAO scales impact through community, so a living community around your work is essential.

What we look for: who the community is, roughly how large and how active, and how they take part — as users, members, contributors, or partners. A project with a genuine community that already carries some of its work is a strong fit; a solution with no community around it is not, however good the solution.

Two practical conditions

DEP 3 runs online and pays contributors in cryptocurrency, so two conditions must be in place from the start — onboarding cannot fix them later:

• Reliable internet access. You and your members can get online reliably enough to take part in an online cohort — the weekly check-ins, the syncs, and the day-to-day work all happen over the internet.
• Cryptocurrency is not banned where members are. The cohort pays contributors in USDT and uses crypto wallets. Crypto does not need to be formally regulated where your members are — a place without settled crypto law is fine — but it must not be banned there.

How applications are assessed

Kambria reviews each application against the three criteria, followed by a conversation to understand the project and whether the cohort is a good fit for it. We select three projects for Cohort 3 — chosen for fit, from a place of choosing well rather than filling slots.

Meeting the criteria makes a project eligible. Beyond eligibility, we also look at feasibility — whether a DAO of around 10–20 people could realistically help scale this project within a cohort, and what that collaboration would concretely involve (reaching new people, telling your story, running online sessions or events, building partnerships, producing content, and so on). We shape this collaboration direction together in the review conversation, so both sides start with a clear, workable scope — and so it's understood from the outset that the DAO's seed funding is capital for that collaboration, not a grant to the project.