Lil Nouns is a protocol for exposing the world to all things Nounish

That means exposure to on-chain governance, a treasury, meme propagation and NounsDAO itself.

To understand how Lil Nouns does this, we have to look at Nouns as an L1 protocol that’s been designed to be built upon by other projects.

Projects are free to adopt the artwork, code-base and distribution mechanism. Projects that interpret these in ways that fit new subcultures create new layers within the ecosystem.

Everything in Lil Nouns has been adopted from Nouns. The artwork, distribution and governance mechanism are all forks of NounsDAO, with the aim of creating a layer in which Nouns are kids.

At the moment, subDAOs offer exposure to Nouns via fractional ownership. But the aim of creating a ‘Nouns as kids’ layer, is to make something that:

1. Gives people complete ownership of something within the ecosystem…
2. while being strongly tied to the OG…
3. and offers participation in a Nounish DAO at a much lower price point

Lil Nouns being ‘Nouns as kids’ ties it to the OG aesthetically and narratively, while giving people something to call their own, within the Noun ecosystem.

More importantly, the narrative gives people the opportunity to participate in a Nounish DAO with a meme to propagate in ways they see fit: are Lil Nouns, Nouns when they were kids? Are they kids of Nouns? Both?

Exposure to NounsDAO itself is established through the DAO purchasing a Noun. Four weeks in and we’ve already purchased two. Given the rate at which the treasury is growing, it’s likely the DAO will own more Nouns in the future. How many, is up to the community.

But to fully realize Lil Nouns as a protocol that exposes the world to all things Nounish, we should leverage the treasury in ways that increase the surface area through which people can gain exposure. Some ways we can do this is by:

• propagating the meme and NOUNSpilling the world through Lil Nouns.
• educating the world about Nounish culture, on-chain governance, art and more.
• reducing the friction of on-chain governance, finding ways of integrating it into peoples lives.
• enriching the ecosystem with tools that improve DAO-to-DAO interactivity.

We’re seeing that for some people, Lil Nouns is their first time interacting with the Noun ecosystem. If this is an indicator, it shows that we have a unique opportunity to provide the world an accessible and inclusive entry point to all things Nounish.