Our project invests in mental health on all fronts:
- Raising mental health awareness
- Implementing strategies for promotion and prevention
- Improving access to quality health care and support
- Funding research to identify new treatments.
Market: Millennials (currently 25-40 years) who seek to invest in their health but face limited support and/or resources
Product: An NFT project, Mushroom Mob, that focuses on promoting wellbeing for all. Mushroom Mob is a collection of 10,000 unique pixelated mushrooms (shown in attachment). There are 10 core mushrooms and over 100 different attributes including facial expressions, caps and items, resulting in over a billion possible combinations. We chose mushrooms because of their unique characteristics and think fungi are the perfect metaphor for blockchain and the ideal community.
Process: Use existing social media networks (Twitter, Instagram) and online Discord community to sell NFTs. Holding an NFT unlocks perks that promote mental health and align with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidelines [1]:
- Community accountability for better habits in a gamified way, reinforced using ADA/Cardano NFT rewards and social feedback
- Access to free health & wellbeing workshops
- Access to health & wellbeing providers
- Access to a dedicated ‘Mental health’ channel on Discord (similar to an online forum)
- Join a community network of Cardano wallet holders
- Help fund mental health research
Points of difference:
1) Mushroom Mob NFT holders get free access to online health and wellbeing workshops.
These focus on a multidisciplinary approach, e.g. building resilience, managing stress, positive psychology, nutrition workshops, guided meditation classes and yoga/exercise classes.
This provides valuable skills and resources and strengthens the community network. Using a multidisciplinary approach (i.e. including nutrition and exercise) will help prevent and treat other related non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
2) Workshop attendees will receive an NFT badge/token
More workshops attended = more badges. This encourages engagement in a gamified way. Badges can be used to help pay for e-health services in future, increasing access to quality care.
3) Fund novel treatments for mental health disorders
7.5% of our proceeds will be donated to research psychedelic-assisted therapy for debilitating mental health disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. Respected institutions are exploring psychedelics, with recent clinical trials showing promising results [2,3].
<u>References</u>
[1] Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
[2] Davis AK, Barrett FS, May DG, et al. Effects of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy on Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021;78(5):481–489. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.3285
[3] Agin-Liebes GI, Malone T, Yalch MM, et al. Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for psychiatric and existential distress in patients with life-threatening cancer. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2020;34(2):155-166. doi:10.1177/0269881119897615
Fear, anxiety, and doubt plague the crypto community. Mushroom Mob is a unique project because it uses the mushroom metaphor of a tight-knit, action-packed community to relieve mental health issues. The Cardano community and the Catalyst community will benefit from Mushroom Mob as it inspires and maintains wellness in an innovative way.
We will add value to the Cardano ecosystem with potentially 10,000 more Cardano wallet holders. ADA and Cardano NFT rewards will incentivise people to engage in online events. The Cardano ecosystem will be associated with health promotion specifically targeted to those engaged with the stresses of working with cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.
Cardano’s grand vision and paradigm-shifting goals are stressful to those building it. The Mushroom Mob is here to help.
We build safe and lively environments - that is what mycelium does, literally.
Mushroom Mob is multi-faceted and can scale exponentially, like the mycelial network. There is potential to address numerous other health conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. We actively seek opportunities to collaborate with others, with special attention and outreach to Cardano community groups.
Mushroom Mob provides a path to improved health which also showcases blockchain technology. To our knowledge, we are the first Cardano NFT to provide evidence-based resources and workshops led by health professionals to support the community. Workshop attendees will receive badges/tokens which can be used to help pay for e-health services in future. This allows many to improve their health and wellbeing within the Cardano ecosystem in an innovative and community-focused way. Active collaboration with health professionals and health-related companies will also support the adoption of Cardano and blockchain technology.
We will share updates on our project through our website and social media channels (Twitter, live weekly meetings on Discord, Instagram).
The main challenge is establishing a team of health professionals to create the online workshops and resources. We must ensure that our team is diverse and matches the needs of our community.
Strategies to mitigate: engage within known networks (pending partnerships with Fungi Foundation and Mind Medicine) and create an initial group who are strongly aligned with the project’s goals and values; hold a series of meetings and training sessions; connect with potential partners globally