Apollo Creator Contests: How They Worked
The Creator Contest was Apollo's core product: a weekly competition in which token holders voted to fund one creator. This page documents how it worked and what each season looked like.
How a contest worked
- Nomination. Creators nominated themselves (or were nominated) through the Apollo DAO site. Each nomination was recorded in the DAO database on IPFS and on-chain.
- Promotion. Each nominee got a unique link to share with fans, friends and family.
- Voting. Voters needed a DeFi wallet holding APOLLO, connected to the DAO site. Votes could be cast on-chain (with a gas fee) or as a signed IPFS message (free).
- Results. After voting closed, a full summary of nominees, voters and the vote hash was published to IPFS with an on-chain pointer.
The original step-by-step guide is preserved as Creators can fund their next project with Apollo.
Season 1 (May – August 2022)
| Contest | Winner's discipline |
|---|---|
| #1 (beta) | DJ |
| #2 | Filmmaker |
| #3 | Recording artist |
| #4 | Music artist |
| #5 | Crafts maker |
| #6 | Singer-songwriter |
| #7 (first on "DAO 2.0") | Music artist |
| #8 | Fine artist / painter (prize reported as $12,510.83) |
| #9 | Abstract artist (prize reported as $9,089.71) |
| #10 | Fitness content creator (prize reported as $11,316.38) |
| #11 | Painter |
| #12 | Painter |
All twelve winners returned for the Season 1 All-Stars contest held August 8–22, 2022. The project later reported Season 1 totals of 54 contestants, 1,468 votes and $185,000 in prizes awarded. Press coverage from August 2022 said more than $153,000 had gone to the twelve weekly winners before the finale. Individual winners are not named in this archive, as they took part as private individuals.
Apollo x Centre (September – December 2022)
A sponsored sneaker-design series with a $40,000 prize pool. Full details: Apollo x Centre.
Season 2 (autumn 2022 – early 2023)
Season 2 consisted of four general contests, which ended in December 2022, and an All-Stars round announced in January 2023. The last general contest awarded first, second and third places, to a photographer/filmmaker, a musician and a pixel artist. A "free vote" option was announced in November 2022. No further contest seasons appear in the archive after early 2023.
POAPs
Apollo issued POAP badges (Proof of Attendance Protocol NFTs) to contest participants and voters as on-chain proof of taking part, for example for Creator Contest #2.