Stellar Community Fund

By ChimpDAO

Stellar Merch Shop

SCF #38

$105.0K

Build

Awarded

A global, community-driven Stellar merch platform blending premium physical products with blockchain-native features like NFT-based proof of authenticity, creator royalties, and community-driven governance.

Products & Services

The Stellar Merch Shop will be a global, official merch platform combining premium physical products with blockchain-native features.

Official Stellar Merch: for this project, we are in collaboration with the Stellar Development Foundation to build a high-quality, globally accessible storefront (Shopify-based) with limited drops, exclusive collaborations, and localized production through verified suppliers.
NFT-Linked Products: each item will carry a unique NFT (QR/UUID tag) serving as proof of authenticity, enabling resale and unlocking utilities such as access to exclusive collections, community events, or future reward programs.
Creator & Ecosystem Support: independent designers and Stellar ecosystem projects will be able to launch their own branded merch lines, with automated royalties on primary and secondary sales.
Community Governance: a DAO layer will let the community co-select new designs, vote on collaborations, and participate in co-creation contests.
Collection Management dApp: users will manage, trade, and showcase their NFT-backed merch in a dedicated dApp with Web2-like onboarding.
Open-Source Modules: core components (NFT minting, royalty engine, governance) will be released as reusable building blocks, encouraging other Stellar marketplace initiatives to build on top.

Soroban

Yes

Requested Budget

$105.0K

Success Criteria

Platform Launch: Shopify + Soroban-based platform live on mainnet
NFT-Linked Sales: 1,000+ merch items sold and NFT-linked within the first 12 months (including event distribution).
Event Presence: 100% of Stellar official events using the platform for merch distribution within 1 year.
Community Engagement: 3,000+ registered users and at least 2,000 NFTs actively held/traded in the dApp within the first year.
Ecosystem Adoption: 5 Stellar ecosystem projects launching merch lines on the platform in the first 12 months.
DAO Participation: 1,000 votes cast on design drops and collaborations within the first year.

Go-To-Market Plan

Our go-to-market strategy leverages Stellar’s existing brand equity and community presence to ensure rapid adoption without the need for traditional, high-cost market entry campaigns.

Official Stellar Partnership: as the exclusive provider of official Stellar merchandise, our platform will immediately benefit from Stellar’s global visibility, credibility, and established audience. At in-person events, we will fully integrate into Stellar’s existing merch operations, replacing the current fragmented process with a unified, blockchain-enabled system.
Online Store Launch: the Shopify-based global store will serve as the official online destination for Stellar-branded products. The platform’s “Official Merch Provider” positioning ensures instant trust and adoption.
Exclusive Collaborations & Limited Drops: we will work with renowned artists and designers to create unique, collectible pieces. These will generate hype, attract new audiences beyond the core Stellar community, and drive recurring engagement.
Ecosystem Integration: we will partner with Stellar-funded projects to design, produce, and distribute their own merch lines. This creates a powerful B2B growth loop, as each project brings its own audience to the platform while benefiting from our infrastructure.
Community Engagement: through the DAO layer, social media activations, and co-creation contests, the community will actively participate in shaping future drops and collaborations, fostering loyalty and repeat interactions.

In terms of monetisation, we will discuss with SDF and the community. We could take a commission on (re)sales and for specific actions being performed on the platform. Another option would be to enlist this project as a Public Good project.

Traction Evidence

While the platform is in its pre-launch phase, there is significant validation from within the Stellar ecosystem:

We have been in discussion with SDF and they would support our initiative. SDF already has a supply chain setup and we would build a platform on top of it. In the end, SDF will be one project on the platform (keeping a central position of course.)
Event Demand: hundreds of merch items are distributed at every Stellar-hosted event, with attendees consistently expressing strong interest in accessing products outside of these occasions.
Ecosystem Demand: each SCF round funds a dozen of projects, many of which seek to launch branded merch but lack the resources or expertise. Our platform directly addresses this gap.
Community Feedback: informal discussions with Stellar community members and project founders reveal strong enthusiasm for a unified, NFT-enabled merch platform.
Market Gap: there is currently no centralized, scalable, or blockchain-integrated merch solution within the Stellar ecosystem, making the transition to our platform a natural next step for the community and the SDF.

Tranche 1 (Deliverable Roadmap) - MVP

Shopify based store;
- A merch store where products can be added, browsed, purchased and get delivered to you,
- First version of the live store where you can place real orders (limited access upon invitations), being able to pay in USDC,
- W1 to W8
- USD 15K
Non Fungible Tokens discovery;
- Discussions with partners on technical feasibility,
- Have a technical and economical solution to bind NFTs to Merch (sample tests),
- W3 to W6
- USD 15K
Supply chain discovery and SDF partnership;
- Understand the existing supply chain and integrate SDF’s flow into our platform,
- We can list real SKUs from partners and make orders,
- W1 to W2 and W6 to W8
- USD 5K

Tranche 2 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Testnet

Non Fungible Tokens backend;
- Custom NFT contract allowing SKUs to be on-chain.
- Logic to create a NFT which can be traded, used for
- W1 to W5
- USD 15K
Non Fungible Tokens link with merch;
- Bind NFTs to SKUs,
- We can add a SKU and a NFT is created. Single items from a series can be traced back on-chain,
- W1 to W8
- USD 5K
Non Fungible Tokens frontend;
- Build an experience around the NFT and Merch on the platform,
- It can be transferred, traded, viewed, directly from the platform,
- W3 to W8
- USD 15K

Tranche 3 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Mainnet

Decentralized organization backend;
- Create a decentralized organization for content creators and the community,
- Make a proposal of design and be able to execute a vote,
- W1 to W3
- USD 15K
Decentralized organization;
- Frontend for the DAO with different flows for content creators and community,
- We can use the DAO though the dapp, creators can propose new design,
- W3 to W8
- USD 15K
QA and scale up;
- Platform stabilization (testing, maintainability, documentation),
- Code is in a good state and all features are stable,
- W3 to W8
- USD 5K

Team

ChimpDAO is led by Barth Houot and Pamphile Roy, combining product, branding, Web3, Stellar ecosystem experience, and deep technical expertise.

Pamphile Roy is a Principal Software Engineer at The Aha Company and provides consulting services through Consulting Manao GmbH. He previously worked as a senior Engineer at Bitpanda, the largest crypto broker in EU; deployed transformer models to more than 10 million users at iTranslate and contributed to AI/ML solutions for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Within the Scientific Python ecosystem, Pamphile is widely known for his open-source contributions, serving as a maintainer of SciPy, which receives millions of daily downloads, and SALib, while also participating in the Scientific Python Steering Committee. Pamphile has been active in the Stellar community for the last two years, contributed to Stellar developer documentation, participated in two SEPs, and received multiple SCF grants for Tansu, his Soroban-based project. He is a long-time Stellar ecosystem contributor and an SCF Pilot and an SCF Delegate / project reviewer.

Barth Houot is a French engineer, developer, and Web3 entrepreneur with a background in product development, branding, e-commerce, and digital marketing. He has led several projects combining user experience, technical innovation, and go-to-market execution. His experience with Stellar, product design, community-driven brands, and physical merchandise positions him to lead ChimpDAO’s product direction, user experience, and go-to-market strategy. Barth is also an SCF Pilot and an SCF Delegate / project reviewer.

Together, the team has the right combination of hardware-secured blockchain experience, Stellar ecosystem knowledge, mobile app development, smart contract architecture, product strategy, and community credibility to execute this integration.

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