We are the first Military inspired project in the NFT space here in Australia. This project has been initiated by 3 Australian Veterans with a passion for connecting Veterans, Veteran owned businesses and true supporters.
We value community. We value fairness. We value equal opportunity. Our mission is to give back to the Veteran community while also allowing everyone the opportunity to become part of something larger than life.
A bit of background about the founders and how this project started
My self, James, Tom and Ryan all served in Australian Army together as riflemen. We all deployed to Afghanistan, Ryan and Tom together and me, on a later deployment.
We have a combined 17 years in the army, and we wear that service with pride. It was our honour to serve our country and, on operations.
Since discharging from the army, we have all stepped into businesses and now also in web3/crypto.
We came up with this idea obviously over a few beers
We ummed and arred for ages on how to roll this out but we knuckled down and pulled the trigger.
Ryan is our in-house artist. It meant a lot to us that our artist was a founder. Tom is our business director and the voice of reason when I am thinking of making any silly decisions. He’s quick to pull me up and make sure we are always making sound decisions.
We are a team. Brothers by choice.
The current post service veteran situation is in absolute disarray
For too long the government has just handed out money, in an attempt to, band- aid the situation at hand.
Soldiers lose identity and find it hard to assimilate back into everyday civilian society. Whilst the money that veterans receive is vital, it is also a free ticket to drugs and alcohol without the right help to get them through the dark days.
The drugs and the alcohol then turn to ropes around necks and guns in mouth and overdoses. I stand here Infront of you today only because I took the right steps to make sure my personal wellbeing and mental health was in the right place to continue on and fight the good fight for those who couldn’t.
How are we planning on solving the issues at hand?
WarDogs is a registered business and I just have to make that clear. We aren’t aligned with any charities and there is a very valid reason for that.
How do we know that the money we give them directly goes to veterans? I can tell you that barely any of it does.
Wardogs has a solution and that is to build a business here in web3 through security and through building and training from within.
We are giving veterans purpose again through employment and a place of work that is enjoyable and gives you the chance to prosper again in life. All whilst returning rewards back to your NFT holders.
At this current point in time we have a cold wallet in development which is more than exciting!
In conjunction with this, we have 8 of our holders on a course to improve their financial wellbeing and they will then fall under the Wardogs banner.
We have been conducting construction work on the future Wardogs retreat and that continues to employ veterans on a casual basis.
This is what Cardano is about, inclusivity and collaboration
Whilst on this journey the team has learnt many lessons. One of those lessons was that our ambition didn’t quite meet our talent and knowledge of the space. We learnt the hard way when it came to web3 marketing and community building.
Hindsight is a marvellous thing but what we did do well was stick to our words and continue to deliver on them.
Many problems arose when we first started minting.
The bear market hit, we had a huge whitelist but couldn’t convert them to sales and we didn’t have a clear path on who to market to. That vision is clear now and Cardano is a big part of that vision. We have found a second home here at Cardano.
Shane Holt and Joel Clifton
Two of my best mates that committed suicide from their mental health battles once their duty had finished. Every day I dedicate myself to making sure Wardogs succeeds so that I don’t have to add any more photos in my memory vault. This happens far too often and in the last few months and weeks there have been more servicemen and service women finish their time on this planet. Remember their faces.
WarDogs will not stop in attempting to remedy this dire situation our service men and women face.
