Fund a Solar-Powered Nogles Biorock Reef with Gili Eco Trust

A permanent underwater Nouns monument in the Gili Islands

Nouners ⌐◨-◨

We are requesting 13,000 USDC to build a solar-powered Nogles-shaped Biorock reef with Gili Eco Trust in the shallow waters of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia.

This proposal gives Nouns something rare: a public, permanent, highly photogenic monument that is also a real piece of ecological infrastructure. It will restore reef habitat, create a recognizable underwater Nouns landmark, and generate ongoing visibility for the brand in one of the world’s most visited marine tourism destinations.

TL;DR

• We are asking Nouns DAO to fund one highly visible, shallow-water Nogles Biorock reef in Gili Trawangan for 13,000 (rounded up from 12,761) USDC.

• This will be a public-facing Nouns monument that snorkelers, divers, underwater photographers, and tourists can actually see, film, and share.

• Gili Eco Trust brings 20+ years of reef restoration experience and an existing track record with roughly 180 Biorock cathodes installed around the Gili Islands. All research helps expand the knowledge base globally for coral restoration.

• The project combines real coral restoration with real brand proliferation: a living Nouns landmark in one of the world’s most photographed marine tourism environments.

• This proposal is complementary to, not duplicative of, Gili Eco Trust’s Octant Epoch 7 funding for the larger Wave Donut system. The Wave Donut is designed for larger, higher-output reef structures farther from shore. The Nouns reef is intentionally designed to be closer, shallower, more visible, and more frequently visited.

• In other words: Octant helps scale the offshore renewable-energy reef system; Nouns funds the iconic, visible, culturally legible reef that people will remember as Nouns.

Why this is good for Nouns

This is not just conservation funding. It is brand proliferation through ecological regeneration.

The Nogles are already one of the most recognizable visual marks in crypto. This proposal turns that mark into a real-world object people can visit, photograph, and share. Not a banner. Not a logo wall. A living underwater installation.

That matters because Gili Trawangan is a high-traffic marine tourism destination with a large snorkel and dive audience. The right Nouns project here is not something hidden offshore. It is something legible, accessible, weird, beautiful, and impossible to forget.

What Nouns gets

1. A permanent public artwork A Nogles-shaped reef is the attraction itself.

2. Brand proliferation in a tourism-heavy location Snorkelers, divers, instructors, eco-tourists, and travel creators will encounter it in person. Tourism visibility, quantified Published research describes Gili Trawangan and the wider Gili Matra marine tourism area as receiving roughly 500,000 to 1,000,000 visitors annually, with up to 2,000 new visitors per day in peak conditions and more than 45 SCUBA centers operating in the area. That makes this proposal unusually strong for real-world Nouns exposure: the audience is already there, already in the water, and already taking photos.

3. Organic social distribution A recognizable underwater Nogles structure gives people something unusual and memorable to post across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, dive forums, and travel channels.

4. Long-tail content value Nouns gets installation footage, underwater photography, reef-growth updates, and milestone + continuous content over time.

5. A simple public-good story Nouns helped build a living reef.

Why Gili Eco Trust

Gili Eco Trust is not pitching a theory. They are a long-running local operator with a proven reef-restoration track record.

Their project materials describe more than 20 years of coral restoration work around the Gili Islands, with approximately 180 Biorock cathodes already installed. Prior campaign materials describe Biorock-supported reefs as enabling significantly faster coral growth and improved resilience under low-voltage mineral accretion conditions.

That matters because Nouns is not funding an untested experiment from scratch. It is funding a proven local team to build a new, highly legible, Nouns-native structure using methods they already know how to install and maintain.

## What will be built

The project is a Nogles-shaped steel Biorock structure installed in shallow water at approximately 2 to 3 meters depth.

The frame will be designed and welded by local artisans and installed by Gili Eco Trust’s experienced team. Coral fragments will be transplanted onto the structure. A safe low-voltage current will be supplied from the existing solar setup, triggering limestone accretion and creating an ideal surface for coral growth.

The result is a structure that is:

• clearly recognizable as Nogles,

• accessible to visitors,

• ecologically useful,

• and likely to become one of the most distinctive underwater visuals associated with Nouns.

-Other art installs

Why this is separate from the Wave Donut

Gili Eco Trust’s Octant Epoch 7 campaign successfully raised funding for the larger Wave Donut blue-energy system, with 35.191 ETH total donated and matched, from 144 unique donors.

That is a strong signal of outside validation for the team and the broader Blue Energy Reef vision.

But the Nouns proposal is not asking to fund the same thing.

The larger Wave Donut system is best suited to larger structures farther from shore, where higher-output blue energy can power bigger reef systems. That is good for scale, broader research and learning.

The Nouns reef has a different job.

It is designed to be:

• closer to shore,

• more visible to tourists,

• easy to access for snorkelers and divers,

• highly photographable,

• and unmistakably Nouns.

So the logic here is simple:

• Octant funded scale and research for offshore power.

• Nouns funds visibility, cultural legibility, and the iconic public-facing reef.

Those are complementary pieces of the same larger story, not overlapping asks.

Why coral restoration matters

Coral reefs cover only a tiny fraction of the seafloor, but they support an outsized share of marine life and coastal livelihoods. Restoring reef structure matters because reefs are not only beautiful ecosystems; they are also physical infrastructure for biodiversity, fisheries, tourism, and shoreline stability.

Key ecosystem benefits

Biodiversity habitat Healthy reefs provide shelter, nursery habitat, feeding grounds, and spawning areas for fish and invertebrates.

Coastal protection Healthy reefs reduce wave energy and help protect beaches and shorelines from erosion and storm damage.

Tourism and local livelihoods Reefs support dive tourism, snorkeling, guiding, education, hospitality, and other local marine-economy jobs.

Oxygen production through photosynthesis Coral reef ecosystems support intense daylight photosynthesis by symbiotic algae living in corals, along with other reef-associated algae and marine plants. That helps produce oxygen locally and supports one of the most productive shallow-water ecosystems in the ocean.

Carbon cycling and long-lived reef structure Reef-building corals lock carbon into calcium carbonate skeletons that become long-lived physical structure. Coral reefs are not the same kind of blue-carbon sink as mangroves or seagrasses, but healthy reef systems still play a meaningful role in carbon cycling, habitat formation, and protecting nearby coastal ecosystems.

Climate resilience and adaptation Restoration helps rebuild habitat complexity, improve ecological resilience, and strengthen coastal systems that depend on living reefs.

UN Sustainable Development Goals alignment

This project aligns most directly with:

SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth By supporting reef-linked tourism, local fabrication, installation labor, marine education, and community-based conservation work.

SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production By promoting a more sustainable tourism and stewardship model around fragile reef ecosystems.

SDG 14 — Life Below Water By restoring coral habitat, improving marine biodiversity, and investing directly in reef recovery.

## Deliverables

If funded, the project will deliver:

• One solar-powered Nogles Biorock reef installed in shallow water in Gili Trawangan.

• Coral transplantation onto the structure.

• Photo and video documentation of installation.

• Follow-up visual updates showing reef development.

• Clear attribution to Nouns in project communications and storytelling.

• Nogles-themed visibility in the Gili Eco Trust ecosystem where appropriate.

Success metrics

This proposal should be judged not only on installation, but on Nouns proliferation.

We propose the following success metrics:

• Structure fully installed and energized.

• Coral fragments transplanted and documented.

• Photo/video update at installation, publicly available.

• Follow-up visual updates at 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. Publicly available.

• Evidence of visitor engagement and shareable visual content. Publicly available.

• Ongoing use of the reef as a recognizable Nouns story and media asset.

The value to Nouns is not just that the reef exists. It is that the reef becomes a persistent visual symbol people continue to encounter and share.

Budget

All costs below are denominated in USD / USDC.

Item

Cost (USDC)

Steel rebar for Nogles frame

470

Titanium mesh (anode)

880

Solar panels and system maintenance

1,765

Cables

353

Barge materials, maintenance, and repair

1,470

Mooring buoys

1,176

Tools, resin, and miscellaneous materials

176

Design / artist

1,765

Supervision and labor

4,706

Total Request

13,000 USDC (rounded up)

Why vote yes

This is a chance for Nouns to fund a project that is:

• visually iconic,

• genuinely useful,

• easy to understand,

• easy to share,

• and built to last.

A lot of proposals promise reach. This one creates a place. A lot of proposals promise attention. This one creates a landmark. A lot of proposals promise impact. This one creates brand impact and ecological impact at the same time.

Nouns has a chance to put its mark somewhere unexpected and unforgettable: under the sea, in living coral, as a reef people can actually visit.

Vote yes to build a living Nogles reef with Gili Eco Trust. ⌐◨-◨

Prepared in collaboration with **Gili Eco Trust **