This thread is written by @LuukDAO with input from @MontyMerlin and provides an overview of the CeloPG H2 developments (July 2024 - January 2025).
It will be updated with additional data and learnings until January 31st, 2025, when H2 is finalized and all remaining funds have been returned.
Introduction
CeloPG was created to streamline the Celo Community Governance and Treasury coordination and, through builder programs, help accelerate and strengthen the Celo ecosystem.
Its mission: Make contributing to Celo exciting, rewarding, and impactful.
Through its initiatives and insights, CeloPG contributes to Celo’s (onchain) strategic development in areas including governance, tokenomics, and superchain expansion.
Ultimately, we want to realize Celo’s vision of building a Digital Regenerative economy that funds the conditions of prosperity for all.
The past six months have focused on preparing for the upcoming CEL2 launch and Superchain expansion while nurturing and improving collaboration and reporting in the Celo ecosystem.
Budget and Spending
A total budget of 975,000 cUSD + 1,575,000 CELO was requested, of which 100,000 cUSD and 1,250,000 CELO were reserved as potential matching for a CeloPG <> OP program.
The total spent in H2 was 850,250 cUSD + 325,000 CELO, a decrease of approximately 30% relative to H1. The decrease was mainly due to removing the Celo Incubation Intent from the CeloPG scope, the decline in expenditures in the Regional DAO initiative following a reduction in Regional DAO operating costs, and some leftover budgets from H1.
Initiative | Budget | Spent | Remaining** |
---|---|---|---|
Regional DAOs | 200,000 cUSD | 200,000 cUSD* | 0 cUSD |
Celo Grants | 250,000 cUSD | 250,000 cUSD | 0 cUSD |
QF and RPGF Rounds | 200,000 cUSD + 250,000 CELO | 175,250 cUSD + 250,000 CELO | 24,750 cUSD |
CeloPG Operations | 200,000 cUSD + 75,000 CELO | 200,000 cUSD + 75,000 CELO | 0 cUSD + 0 CELO |
OP x CELO programs | 100,000 cUSD + 1,250,000 CELO | 0 cUSD + 0 CELO | 100,000 cUSD + 1,250,000 CELO |
TOTAL | 975,000 cUSD + 1,575,000 CELO | 850,250 cUSD + 325,000 CELO | 124,750 cUSD + 1,250,000 CELO |
Total excl OP x CELO | 875,000 cUSD + 325,000 CELO | 850,250 cUSD + 325,000 CELO | 24,750 cUSD |
Initiative Progress
Regional DAOs
In H2, the Regional DAO proposal submission and review process was facilitated by CeloPG, who created a novel snapshot strategy leveraging the CeloPG Hats structure to be able to vote on Regional DAO proposals through the Celo Public Goods snapshot.
Eight regional DAO proposals were submitted to the CeloPG steward Snapshot, with five proposals passing. Three regional DAOs: KohCelo, Celo Africa, and Celo Mexico, coordinate closely to ensure each group could request a workable budget to execute their plans while collectively staying within the bounds of the H2 budget.
In November, Celo Colombia requested direct funding from Celo Governance as the H2 Regional DAO budget was already fully depleted. Their proposal passed, making them the second active DAO, after Celatam, that did not receive funding through CeloPG. Despite not receiving funding from the assigned CeloPG budget, Celo Colombia will be included in future Regional DAO initiatives.
Celo EU’s lead, Niko, created a detailed retrospective on the Regional DAOs in 2024, which can be read here.
Celo Grants
In H2, Prezenti was appointed as the operator for the Celo Grants initiative following the inclusion of their plan into the CeloPG H2 budget. Prezenti operated two grants rounds in H2, with a total of 26 grants being allocated across the two rounds following their grant pool structure as indicated below:
- Mini Pool ($2,000): Early experimentation
- Pilot Pool ($10,000): Prototyping and feasibility
- Growth Pool ($25,000): Scaling and development
A detailed report and reflection of Prezenti has been published on the Celo Forum and can be found here.
QF and RPGF Round
The successful launch of the Allo protocol and the Gitcoin grants stack to Celo in July opened up the potential for Celo-native allocation rounds. For this intent, we aim to find an efficient balance between programs that attract new talent and nurture existing Celo-builders while optimizing the program to align with the current roadmaps of leading partners and progressing our data and allocation flows.
In total, CeloPG facilitated one Ecosystem and four Community Rounds through the Gitcoin Grants Stack. By sticking closely to the Gitcoin Grants timelines, we have been able to
Round | Operator | Celo Contribution | Third-Party Contributions | Total Raised | Capital Multiplier |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Real World Builders | CeloPG | 75,000 cUSD | $13,790.09 | $88,790 | 1.18x |
Regen Coordination | Regen Coordination | 65,000 cUSD | $60,000 +$8,450.39 | $133,450 | 2.05x |
BioFi Pathfinders | BioFi Project & Regen Coordination | 25,000 cUSD | $35,000 +$8,813.46 | $68,814 | 2.75 x |
Regen Citizen | Regen Coordination | 5,000 cUSD | $16,000 +$8,867.11 | $29,867 | 5.97x |
Agroforestry | AgroforestryDAO & Regen Coordination | 1,000 cUSD | $2500 +$652.63 | $4,153 | 4.15x |
TOTAL | $ 221,000 | $154,074 | $375,074 | 1.7x |
Note: Third-Party Contributions include additional match funding raised from sponsors as well as crowdfunding donations during the Gitcoin rounds. Capital Multiplier represents the multiple of capital raised on Celo Contribution when compared with the Total Raised.
The Regen Coordination: Incubated by ReFi DAO, Greenpill Network, and CeloPG, The Regen Coordination is a growing movement leveraging Web3 technology to address local needs and create real-world impact. It was initiated in GG22 with the Regen Coordination Genesis round (Retro link), which allocated pro-active grants to ReFi DAO Local Nodes, GreenPill Local Chapters, Celo Regional DAOs. During GG23, additional organizations joined the network through operating Regen Coordination-aligned rounds, including the BioFi Pathfinders (Retro link) and Regen Citizen (Retro link) community rounds. In December, we also saw the first community round outside the regular Gitcoin cadence, with the Agroforestry Round (Retro link) operating on Celo with support from Regen Coordination. In Q1 2025, the first data-driven Regen Coordination retro program will finalize the first cycle of Regen Coordination. In total, $236,284 has been raised by Regen Coordination supported funding programs. With only $80k of this coming from CeloPG sponsorship, this represents a capital multiple of 2.95x, bringing more capital onto the network and multiplying value for Celo builders and projects.
Real World Builders Round: The Real World Builders program was a Celo-ecosystem round run during GG22. It supported teams building Celo use cases that positively impact physical communities and environments, such as financial inclusion, ecological credits, Real-World Assets (RWA), Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN), and more. Donors and builders in this round also received rewards such as $REGEN tip amplifiers.
A detailed retrospective of the Real World Builders round was published on CeloPG.eco.
The Real World Builder round had an outstanding balance between existing Celo projects participating in CeloRPGF0 and new projects recently deployed or launched on Celo. Multiple graduates from the recent Celo Camp batches participated in the program to progress their projects. Simultaneously, some projects that applied for this RWB round received referrals to Prezenti, a Celo Ecosystem grants program, to apply for additional development and funding opportunities.
Average Ratings (out of 5):
- Application Process: 5.0
- Fairness of Outcome: 4.0
- Communication & Support: 4.0
- Overall Program: 4.6
Celo Citizen Retro
The Celo Citizen Retro is still ongoing, but an initial program outline can be found in this Forum thread. This section will be updated at a later moment.
One learning from H1 that was incorporated into the Citizen Retro was expanding the voter pool with Delegates (with at least 1,000 CELO delegated). By doing so we promoted becoming an active delegate while providing influence to the most aligned individuals.
Supporting Technology
All five of the tools deployed during H1 have continued to be used in H2, namely: Ethereum Attestation Services, EasyRPGF, Hypercerts Updated Version, Gitcoin Grants Stack, and Karma GAP creating a strong onchain data and coordination infrastructure.
In H2, Luuk and Monty issued three grants to solutions that further support the development of a digital regenerative economy:
-
Enabling Regen Network Credit Retirements on CELO, developed by ecoToken and already live and integrated into Regen Atlas.
-
Ecological Benefits Framework onboarding tool developed by Spark.eco with support from the Lexicon. A tool to generate EBF Impact certificates on Celo.
-
Prosperity Account, a Celo-native smart account that fetches meaningful onchain progress of all Celo users and assigns levels and perks to them. Used in Celo Citizen Retro round to issue onchain usage based rewards.
CeloPG Operations
The CeloPG program’s overall operations were led by LuukDAO and Monty, supported by five stewards. While the total CeloPG Operations budget remained comparable to H1 through the removal of two stewards while adding in Community Moderations as part of CeloPG - the decrease in the overall program budget led to a higher % spent on Operations relative to H1 (16% vs 12% in H1).
In addition to managing the CeloPG programs, CeloPG stewards also facilitated the following:
- Maintained the CeloPG Budget Sheet and Celo Community Treasury Accounting sheet.
- Supported with the roll-out of Celo Mondo and the Celo Delegate structure.
- Financed the Celo Governance Guardians operations.
- Financed the Celo Community Guild operations.
- Maintained and improved the CeloPG platform and CeloPG Info hub.
- Functioned as an overall extension of the Celo ecosystem, representing both in-person and online and guiding individuals through the ecosystem.
Outlook for 2025
We’re proud of the impact CeloPG has had on the Celo ecosystem in 2024. Hundreds of teams and people have benefits from the programs created and operated by us. We also contributed to the accounting and budgeting of the Celo Community treasury and the roll-out of Celo Mondo and the Celo Delegate structure. We want to thank anyone who contributed to CeloPG in 2024 as a Voter, Steward, Guardian, Grantee, or Supporter—your contributions mean a lot!
Over the past months, accelerated by the launch of Celo Mondo and the progress toward CEL2, the Celo ecosystem and its governance has evolved a lot. In 2025, we expect the Celo ecosystem and governance to change even more in order to facilitate the next age of Celo: The Impact Age. As the Celo ecosystem evolves, so should the role of CeloPG. We are committed to playing a leading role in the evolution of Celo’s governance, tokenomics, and strategy - and are very willing to re-assess the function of CeloPG in the following age of Celo.
At the same time, we believe that the continuance of key Celo ecosystem programs and the re-commitment of CeloPG is important for the health of the Celo ecosystem. As such, we are actively working on a six-month plan for and drafting a CeloPG H1 2025 Funding Proposal which will build on the progress made in 2024 and provide continued for key programs, while simultaneously participating in ecosystem conversations to figure out a new role for CeloPG and its contributors from the second half of 2025 onward.