5.46 SPS per 30*30cm printed pizza box at the time of print: 16:33 Peru, 6th of August 2022. Photo credit: @lobitos
I have been in the Hive community since the end of 2017 and watched Splinterlands grow from the earliest stages of its ongoing journey. I can honestly say that I have benefited from all its linked parts over the years. For those who were around when we were on the Steem blockchain. They will most likely agree that it was Splinterlands that kept us going in those dark crypto winter days of 2018 and 2019. I am grateful for it and I try and give back every so often. @lobitos
I came to this surfing village in Peru over 10 years ago. Over many moons I have worked together with a lot of people in Lobitos and forged a personal connection to the place. I have spent years working in international development doing national level tourism planning, protected areas implementation and integrating within rural communities. Lobitos has been my favourite place by far. I just keep going back to it.
Keeping within the same theme of my background, I find blockchain fascinating and a whole new world is available to us with so, so much opportunity. Over the last year or so, the @lobitos account has been slowly building up its asset allocation with now just over 6750 SPS and a couple of cents of BTC locked away on a ledger. All of which are destined for use by the local community of Lobitos. The short of it is to continue generating crypto funds opportunities derrived via Splinterlands, Hive and Bitcoin. The interest generated from the growing principle will be used to fund projects that are directly voted upon by local community members in Lobitos. There are many layers of civil society here, with their own established systems and aims. @lobitos will just fund and monitor projects within the community.
The first funds to be drawn from principle will commence at the next bitcoin halving in 2024. The time from 2021 to the halvening will be an asset accumulation period. We will publish posts to keep everyone updated on their favorite hive frontends over due course.
The word about Splinterlands is slowly being spread in the village and whenever someone plays, they enjoy it. But, please crack on with polishing up mobile. Not everyone can afford or access a laptop around the world, but people are way more likely to have access to a mobile. Then I can maximise establishing garnished accounts for local players to freely use and share a small % of rewards with @lobitos. This means that they hopefully grow their own personal accounts.
@mocha15 also prepares chocolate and caramel breads. Photo credit: @lobitos
Since the middle of the pandemic in early 2021, I shared with my good friend and Lobitos local, @mocha15, what I knew about baking bread and making pizzas. He is a super fast learner and has a passion for baking. Pizzas seem to be working a storm in the village and he needs pizza boxes to expand and share his love of food with many more. He too plays splinterlands when he can and is trying to rope in his teenage nephew to participate too.
What better way to instigate interest further than plastering Splinterlands on pizza boxes and delivered to locals and visitors. Plus, I can share the story with you to benefit the local community at the same time. The power of the community here is frankly extraordinary.
Getting the ball rolling...
I asked around on discord in the general community feed of Splinterlands, to whom I could bounce my idea of pizza boxes to get it done with permission from the core team. I know this team are aiming to make this ecosystem as organic and unimpeded as possible. But I still feel I have to ask. I was pointed to @chatter and within minutes I had two single coloured logos and a call to action line.
Single colour screen with the Splinterlands logo. Photo credit: @lobitos
Now, mighty Google was asked on where to acquire custom printed pizza boxes in Lima. Quite a few Whatsapp messages later, I found a vendor that was easy to work with for smaller quantities. Only 100 of 30_30 cm and 100 of 40_40cm boxes are to be ordered in this batch. Depositing half the cash to get the job going would have been so much easier if it was done at a minimum with stable coins, but I had to walk to the bank to physically deposit cash into a machine so it could be marked into a legacy two-entry ledger.
They guys are working out of tiny space. Photo credit: @lobitos
Cash was deposited yesterday lunch and next in the afternoon I was off to a random print shop amongst what looked like hundreds in a massive multi-storey complex. A whole cottage industry churning away in the middle of Lima. After walking around for a bit figuring out the complex's numbering system, I found my guys on the second floor literally pulling out the Splinterlands screen to do it's first print. Talk about good timing. The screen was ready on the table and the first pass with the ink was about to be made.
Here we go. The first pass of the screen print. Photo credit: @lobitos
Pretty cool that each box was about to be hand screened. I watched a couple being made, but I had to get back quite quickly. I thanked both of them after organizing with them the shipping of 200 pizza boxes over 1000km to Northern Peru. Hopefully, all is well in Lobitos, more pizza boxes will be needed in the near future.
Freshly printed and ready for shipping. Photo credit: @lobitos
The first screen was proudly presented to me and I was happy with their work. I hope you are too. This is a simple concept that ties in gaming, blockchain and food in one swoop. I mainly think it is a nice way to give a shout out to the whole Splinterlands community.
I will be back in Lobitos later this afternoon and the next blog post will be about filling these boxes with pizzas.
Please note: All rewards derived from this post will be converted into SPS and directed to @lobitos and used for needs at their discretion and voted on by the community of Lobitos, Peru.
Innovative way to spread the good word. Awesome job!!!
Cool!