Budget Request: Prezenti Grant funding: Season 0

Governance Governance Proposals
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Proposal

  • Receiver Entity: Celo Governance
  • Status: [FINAL]
  • Title: Prezenti Grant funding Season 0 2025
  • Authors: Prezenti (Aaron Boyd, Wade Abel, Maya Brown)
  • Type of Request: Funding
  • Funding Request: $335,000 cUSD

Summary

This proposal is a request for a continuation of funding for Prezenti, enabling us to provide the only regular grass roots grant funding within the ecosystem at present. This proposal acts as bridging, seeking Celo Community approval to provide one grant funding round during Season 0 [the first half of 2025]. This will ensure the continuation of Prezenti operationally, offering grants to builders while working closely with the Seasons initiative to see where/how Prezenti might fit into the wider strategy in H2. This interim period covers the runway until Celo’s Governance 2.0 is fully established following the L2 migration and the introduction of Celo ‘Seasons’.

Prezenti is central to the essence of Celo. We are a steady foundation—stable, reliable, and committed to directing community funds toward visionary individuals and projects that embody thoughtful innovation. There has, and always will be a need for small/medium sized grants within a blockchain ecosystem. Prezenti brings this to Celo.

In our 2024 retrospective, we highlighted the three phases of Prezenti, with 2025 identified as the year of "fusion."Below, we outline what Prezenti aims to achieve and support for the Celo Community in Season 0.

Motivation

The Prezenti team aspire to continue offering grass roots builder grants to the Celo Community for Season 0 so there is some grant funding available to the ecosystem. Due to new initiated discussions around Celo Seasons, this proposal is for the first half of 2025 only and for one grant round. We plan to:

  1. Continue to offer grassroots grants. Seeking an additional ‘Scale’ pool for 2025.
  2. Increase collaboration with key stakeholders, including (but not exhaustive) the Celo Foundation, Regional Hubs, Celo Camp, Venture Capitalists.
  3. Expand our reviewer team to reflect the increasingly cohesive and global nature within Celo.
  4. Input into the Celo ‘Seasons’ strategy and support the changes for Governance 2.0 and the L2.
  5. Help define and operate an Optimism-style “Grants Council” in conjunction with the Celo Foundation’s intents for ongoing Seasons

Specification

1. Expanded Grant Pools

Introducing a fourth grant category to our grant rounds, whilst continuing to administer these grant pools:

  1. Micro Pool ($2,000): Early experimentation

  2. Pilot Pool ($10,000): Prototyping and feasibility

  3. Growth Pool ($25,000): Scaling and development

  4. NEW: Scale Pool ($50,000): larger scale initiatives

    2. Global Collaboration

  • Continue to strengthen partnerships within the community, including Foundation, , Regional Hubs, Celo Camp, Celo PG, and others, by including additional stakeholders in our review and due diligence process.

  • Collaborate with VC funds (to begin with Verda Ventures and 0XLabs) to connect promising grantees with downstream investment opportunities.

    3. Expanded Reviewer Team

We believe it is essential now to decentralize aspects of Prezenti to incorporate flourishing initiatives within the Celo ecosystem to provide fresh, differentiated eyes on applications. With this, we have put the pieces in place to welcome 2 new review contributors:

  • CristĂłbal Pereira GarretĂłn (cLATAM Lead) joined as a reviewer for Mint 2024, with plans for Season 0.

  • Ronald Nzioki (Celo Africa DAO Program Manager) will join the review team for Season 0.

    4. Strategy input for 2025 and beyond

Prezenti to actively participate in helping shape the grant offering of the new Celo Seasons.

Metrics & KPIs

During this interim period (Season 0), Prezenti will focus on the following metrics.

  • Reporting: can be found here
  • Multisig Transaction Logs: can be found here
  • Governance Engagement - can be found here
  • Grantee feedback - post grant surveys
  • % of projects completed
  • % of active projects after one year
  • Total blockchain transactions driven by grantees
  • Additional funding secured by grantees
  • Success stories highlighting transformational outcomes
  • Bi monthly showcasing calls highlighting previous grantees as they complete their grants

Current status

At the present time Prezenti has no funding to open any more rounds/distribute any further grants. The team is delivering on supporting 19 ongoing grants, due to complete by 31 May 2025 at the soonest.

If no further funding was to be secured then once these 19 grants had completed, Prezenti would begin to close its company and cease trading.

Timeline and Milestones

Season 0 / 2025 PLAN
Jan Business as usual - support ongoing grants. Budget from previous round.
Feb Business as usual - support ongoing grants. Budget from previous round.
Mar Launch Almond Round
Apr Close Almond round / start reviews
May Finish review and begin KYC
June Grants activity - month 1
July Grants activity - month 2
Aug Grants activity - month 3
Sep Grants activity - month 4
Oct If no follow on funding begin closing Prezenti

Detailed Budget

We request a replenishment of the grant ‘pools’ and support funds with a top up from the Celo Community Treasury for Season 0.

Season 0 No. of grants Cost per Pool Round 1 All Q
Admin 54,000 54,000
Contingency 10,000 10,000
Micro 3 2,000 6,000 6,000
Pilot 9 10,000 90,000 90,000
Growth 5 25,000 125,000 125,000
Scale 1 50,000 50,000 50,000
335,000 335,000

Due to the nature of grants, we need budget to be able to support ongoing grants past the June/July season change.

Payment Terms

Upon approval, the total budget will be deposited to the Prezenti (2/3) Multisig in a single transaction from the Community Fund. From there, Prezenti will allocate to individual Pool SAFEs money for each round.

  • Prezenti ‘Master’ Multisig Wallet for receiving funds: celo:0xA5c9389A0Ce1bFe24FF883E761Ff313225C77D44

Grant ‘Pools’ Multisig Wallets:

  • Micro Pool: celo:0xa0BfA96a40Cb3aEaD1a34CFFc1301226dBc5D2EC
  • Pilot Pool: celo:0xdCc89C89c3705D90EebFF3db911CCefA8C0B8d5F
  • Growth Pool: celo:0x3C9a27cd6d3CaF595aa5088001482664215f8Da7
  • Scale Pool: to be created
  • Admin Safe: celo:0x03344b9FCDdE6BE2FEF42876dB8fDc0696Ec688F
  • ETH Safe: eth:0x03344b9FCDdE6BE2FEF42876dB8fDc0696Ec688F

Team

The team remains unchanged, although roles and responsibilities have become increasingly streamlined.

Aaron Boyd - Prezenti Founder, independent validator operator, Celo PG Steward,

Wade Abel - Prezenti Founder, independent validator operator, Celo Governance Guild,

Maya Brown - Prezenti Founder, previous Celo PG steward, web3 grant proposal writer

CristĂłbal Pereira GarretĂłn - cLATAM Lead.

Ronald Nzioki - Celo Africa DAO Program Manager

For more detail see our website: About us

Additional Support/Resources

For more details, visit: prezenti.xyz

See our past alumni here: Funded Projects

Grant program history and information: charmverse.prezenti.xyz

Our initial proposal: Reopening of the Celo Community Fund

Our second funding proposal: Prezenti follow-on funding request

Our third funding request (with Celo PG (2024)): Prezenti funding 2024 H1

Our forth funding request (with Celo PG (2024)): Prezenti funding 2024 H2

22 Likes
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Seems like the team are managing the program well.

Excited to see what the eco-system looks like a couple of yrs.

Very much in support.

8 Likes
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We believe that @Prezenti.grants is an important part of Celo Ecosystem growth. Continuing to fund Prezenti = continuing to fund the Celo builders ecosystem.

At Glo Dollar we received a Prezenti Growth Grant to expand Glo Dollar and sustainable public goods funding within the Celo ecosystem. This grant has helped us launch v1 of our Glo Dollar Liquidity Flywheel For Celo Public Goods, while strengthening stablecoin diversity, resilience, and overall ecosystem growth. By fostering Glo Dollar adoption through protocol integrations, ecosystem partnerships, and community engagement, we have boosted TVL, increased transactions, and accelerated Celo’s development, while driving funding back into the ecosystem.

We used our Prezenti Growth Grant to:

  • Scale to 775k+ transactions on Celo (at time of grant submission - we are currently at 812k+)
  • Kickstart our Our Celo Public Goods flywheel which drives TVL and liquidity on Celo and with Celo based tokens and projects.
  • Grow our marketcap on Celo to $1.7M
  • Increase our unique holders on Celo to 1.1K+
  • Donate over $10,000+ USDGLO to Celo Public Goods and Celo Public Goods projects, with more funding going back into the ecosystem every month.
  • 11 Celo dApp integrationsYou can dive deeper into our Celo impact metrics on our Glo Dollar Prezenti Grant Retrospective on the forum.

Thanks for the great work @Prezenti.grants - we’re in full support of this proposal!

7 Likes
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I believe Prezenti plays a pivotal role in supporting developers in the Celo ecosystem.

At Ubeswap, we were able to build Ubestarter with the help of @Prezenti.grants (x.com)

These resources also helped us build the Ubeswap dashboard (x.com)

We completely support any future grant program funding by Prezenti and believe this is an ideal way to help integrate & build new projects on Celo.

Keep up the great work @Prezenti.grants :clap:

8 Likes
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Thank you for your support!

4 Likes
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Great to see lots of new things coming out of Ubeswap recently, thanks for the shoutout!

7 Likes
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Supportive of Prezenti and feel this Season 0 proposal is the right scope. In favor.

8 Likes
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Absolutely in favor of Season 0.

Prezenti is an integral part of BitGifty’s success story as they have supported us from the beginning.

Amazing work by the @Prezenti.grants team

6 Likes
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Thanks for all the comments guys! much appreciated.

4 Likes
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Fully in support of this program. Prezenti is already doing a great job and i believe this should continue.

6 Likes
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Thanks for those that joined the Governance call yesterday. We think this version reflects the conversation and so we’d like to move forward to final submission and go to vote. Excited!!

4 Likes
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Thanks @Prezenti.grants and team for updating the proposal and post the [FINAL] version, at my end this proposal is fulfilling all the requirements:

  • Post a proposal in the Celo Forum and leave it for discussion at least for seven (7) days.
  • Present Proposal in a Governance Call and address the feedback received: Proposal was presented during Celo Governance Call #60 | February 20th, 2025

With the above said, from my end the proposal is ready to move into the voting phase when proposer wants to move forward or consider is appropriate.

:bangbang: Remember Current Celo Governance Overview & Procedures

To proceed to the submission and voting phase at least two Celo Governance Guardians must post explicitly that the proposal fulfills the requirements to be able to move into the Voting Stage in the proposal thread on the Celo Forum.

Remember next steps

  • Submission of PR to Celo Governance Repository
    Proposers needs to fork the Celo Governance Repository and add a PR including the proposal .md file and json file.
  • Approval of PR by Celo governance Guardians and merge into main branch of Celo Governance Repository.
    Celo Guardians are responsible for conducting a comprehensive review of every Pull Request (PR) to ensure that there is complete alignment and consistency between the final proposal posted in the forum post and the specific files that are being requested to be merged.
    This review process is strictly technical in nature, focusing solely on verifying the authenticity and good faith of the proposers. It does not involve any personal opinions or biases regarding the merits or content of the proposal itself. To maintain the integrity of the Celo Governance repository, it is mandatory to obtain approval from a minimum of two Governance Guardians for each PR before it can be merged into the main branch.
  • OnChain Submission of Proposal
    After PR is merged into main Governance Repo the proposers needs to fork locally the Celo Governance Repository and submit the proposal onchain using the guidelines described in the Celo Docs.

CC: Governance Working Group (@annaalexa @Wade @0xGoldo)

4 Likes
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I confirm I am a multi-sign signer for Prezenti grants: 0x208D1CCc4877366216F3c0aBc22F3008ed12A926

2 Likes
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Thanks, @Prezenti.grants and team, for updating the proposal and posting the [FINAL] version. Also from my perspective, the proposal now meets all the necessary requirements:

It has been posted on the Celo Forum and remained open for discussion for at least seven (7) days.

It was presented during Celo Governance Call #60 on February 20th, 2025, and the feedback received has been addressed.

With that in mind, I consider the proposal ready to move to the voting phase whenever the proposer decides to proceed.

3 Likes
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Thanks so much @0xGoldo and @0xj4an-work for all your help!

4 Likes
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Hello @Prezenti.grants,

To ensure a smooth approval process for this proposal by the Approvals members, please include the names of the multisign members along with their respective addresses in the Payment Terms section—just below the multisign address would be a good fit.

Additionally, please ensure that each multisign member comments on this post to confirm their participation, as @MayaRB has already done.

Your confirmation is essential to avoid uncertain from approvals when you move forward to the voting process.

Thank you!

2 Likes
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Appreciate the opportunity but update my network fluctuations and empower others

1 Like
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I confirm I am a multi-sign signer for Prezenti grants: 0x3fA757A1bA226B52dF46769631c66356151fa4ac

1 Like
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I confirm I am a multi-sig signer for Prezenti grants: 0xd07B6140a682D367A38eA4B2f3b3460acEecDdb1

1 Like
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hello hello.

I had lost of conversations with builders over Eth Denver, some of which received Prezenti grants and others which applied but did not make it.

As a steward of CeloPG, it would be incredibly helpful to have a record of all those that have applied to Prezenti in the past, who got funding, how much etc… Is this data that Prezenti currently keeps track of?

In the past I had started to explore what some form of registry to be able to share grant data for the Celo ecosystem could look like. Have done some research on the daoip-5 standard being developed by DAO* and Metagov. Happy to explore this together with Prezenti if sounds interesting!

4 Likes