I know most of you aren’t gonna read this and have already made your mind up months ago on who you’ll vote for. I did this last month and received 0 votes lol so ill just use this opportunity to just say what needs to be said.

What ive done

I’ve probably spent around 100 hours compiling and organizing the first name data from SSA.gov. SSA.gov has the exact amount of first names from every single year in the US since 1880. Its by far the most trusted source for first name data.

What ive done differently than SSA.gov, is I organized the data completely different. Instead of looking at the stats for a specific year, you can look at the first name data from the entire decade. Or you can combine decades, like if you want to see all the top names from 1970-present you can. Or if you want to see the top names of the 2000’s you can. I have all the data.

Why its important

There are no other lists like these on the Internet. I feel like this is pretty special, and something that could be beneficial to the ens community. This is something that could also really help onboard new users. Ask the average person that’s not in web3 what they think. Tell them about the emojis and Arabic 999 club and they will think you’re trying to scam them. But when you explain it using their first name as an example it makes sense. Literally the average person DOES understand why it would be cool if they had their firstname.eth as a decentralized website, payment address, and sign into web3 applications. I always tell them to imagine if their twitter handle was @theirfirstname, like @john. It would be pretty cool if you twitter handle was @john right? They understand the rarity of that. Digits and emojis just confuse them.

Why you wont vote for me

Ive already heard it. “Caden just build a website and see if people like it first” lol who do you think I am? Im very average IQ idk how to build a website. That’s why im applying for this grant. If I won the grant 100% of the money would go to someone to help build the website. I would even let you guys pick, you literally don’t even have to send me the Eth. This isn’t about money for me, its about trying to help gain Ens mainstream adoption!

I also wont receive any votes again because im not promoting 3/4 character domains. The fact that this dao continues to vote for the Arabic 999 club to win grants is pretty telling… I like Bishara too, but do you guys keep voting for this because your friends with him, or do you genuinely believe the Arabic 999 club is going to help gain widespread ens adoption, or do you guys only care about trying to get renewal fees?

My opinion is those kind of groups are 1 step forward to take 2 steps back. The average person sees influencers pumping these Arabic 999 digits, buy some, then find out they expire soon and they have to pay a renewal fee? No wayyyyy the average person wants to buy that and hold it for life paying all those renewal fees. Best case scenario it’s a pump and dump group and maybe the average person can flip it for profit. This is what were going after? Shouldn’t we be going after end users too?

I just asked my girlfriend Jessica if she would rather hold an Arabic 999 digit or jessica5.eth, what do you guys think her answer was? She doesn’t even know about the renewal fees either.

First names immediately make sense to the average person. Obviously Jessica isn’t gonna get Jessica.eth, but maybe she can register jessica25.eth? Maybe her registering jessica25.eth is her gateway drug into ens. Nobody only registers one name. What if she registers multiple, gets involved in the ens community, then eventually realizes the value of these 999 clubs. This is the right way to organically onboard new users.

Vote for me because

Im trying to organically onboard the average non web3 person to ens. First and last names will always be one of the first things the average person searches for when looking for a domain. That makes sense to them, not digits or emojis.

I understand that the 3/4 character renewal fees are important, but sometimes pumping and dumping a lot of these groups isn’t the best look for ens. Deep down what do you guys think? Do you think promoting Arabic 999 club is about money or onboarding new ens members? Like I said its not about money for me, I would literally let you guys give the money to who you think can best help. Im trying to do things the right way and get new people interested in ens.

Ive posting content on my twitter account @namehunt_eth if you want to see more of what im talking about. You can also dm me on my normal twitter @cwall_eth im caden.eth