Digital Democracy on Celo — Season 1 Funding Proposal [FINAL]

One month has passed since Vocdoni first post [DRAFT] Digital Democracy on Celo — Season 1 Funding Proposal, and now, after receiving valuable community feedback and strengthening our ties through a successful @Prezenti.grants and our selection for @upright, we’re glad to present V2 of Vocdoni: Democracy on Celo — Season 1 Funding Proposal.

This new version integrates key feedback, including the allocation of DAVINCI’s native protocol tokens to the Celo Treasury, further ensuring the decentralization and long-term sustainability of this public good.

It also introduces community-focused activities, supported by matching funds and incentives for Celo Builders, marking the first step toward a broader, ecosystem-wide rewards distribution.

As next steps, we’ll be moving this proposal on-chain in the coming days, allowing time for additional comments and feedback.

A huge thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, especially @celocouncil @CPG_Stewards @Alon @marek @ericnakagawa @LuukDAO and others, for your feedback, support, and collaboration over the past months in making this proposal stronger and better aligned with the ecosystem.


[FINAL V2] Digital Democracy on Celo — Season 1 Funding Proposal

Proposal Key Aspects

  • Receiving Entity: Celo Governance

  • Status: [FINAL]

  • Authors: Jordi Pinyana (@jordipainan), Pau Escrich (@p4u)

  • Type of Request: Funding

  • Intent: Season 1

  • Funding Category: Infrastructure / Partnerships, Comms, Marketing, Events, Programs

  • Funding Request: 39,630 cUSD


1. Summary

This proposal seeks to further consolidate Vocdoni, a state-of-the-art digital democracy protocol, as a key building block of the Celo ecosystem.

During the past 9 months Vocdoni started, hand by hand with Celo EU, the journey of bringing value aligned and state of the art technology to Celo.

Thanks to that, Vocdoni has discovered a unique ecosystem, sharing the same “ethos”, and even the same language (Vocdoni means “to give voice” in Esperanto).

Multiple ecosystem players have recognized our unique fit, including Prezenti grants support, Celo Camp incubation process ,Self integrations, the scalability of Opera Minipay and the Celo Foundation support.

At the same time, Vocdoni has already processed 400,000+ transactions, supported 200+ organizations, and raised $1M from industry leaders for becoming the ultimate democracy public good.

This proposal covers three main areas:

  • Online Community Adoption → consolidation of the DAVINCI protocol on Celo through webinars, workshops, documentation improvements, and builder activation in coordination with Regional Hubs and the Growth DevRel team.

  • Onboarding Integrations → technical integrations with Self and MiniPay, enabling identity-based governance and mobile participation.

  • Ecosystem Activations → including online events and Devconnect Buenos Aires (November 2025).

The requested budget is 39,630 cUSD.

Vocdoni will also contribute matching funds to key activities, ensuring shared commitment.

As a public good, and with the benefits of decentralization in mind, the protocol will also allocate a portion of its native tokens to the Celo Treasury during the Token Generation Event (TGE), along with community incentives to promote the broader adoption of this tool. Both initiatives aim to create a long-term, win-win relationship between both protocols.


2. Motivation

Celo has always championed financial inclusion and real-world impact. One of the most underdeveloped yet transformative use cases for blockchain is digital democracy: enabling secure, transparent, and censorship-resistant governance for communities, institutions, and DAOs.

Over the past months, Celo EU has been building a structured funnel to onboard meaningful projects into the ecosystem. This funnel connects internal resources such as CPG, Prezenti, and Celo Camp with external partners like the Blockchain for Good Alliance (BGA) and UNDP, aligning them into a coordinated path that supports projects across different stages, from initial grants to ecosystem adoption.

Vocdoni is the first example of this funnel in action:

  • Started with a Prezenti grant ($10k) and a BGA grant ($10k).

  • Supported by Celo EU co-funded activities.

  • Activated at ecosystem moments such as ETHCC Paris (UNDP <> Celo event) and the Impact Brunch (Vocdoni <> BGA <> UNDP <> Celo).

Through these collaborations, Vocdoni’s technology proved to be a natural fit with Celo’s mission and values. But to fully unlock its potential, we now need to move from initial onboarding to consolidation and adoption.

This proposal seeks to anchor Vocdoni inside the Celo ecosystem as a key building block, complementing Celo’s own vision of prosperity for all, and the use of the technology in favor of a better world.

Our goal with this proposal is to keep completing integrations with Self and MiniPay, driving adoption with builders through Regional Hubs and DevRel, and activating the community with online activities and the Builder House.


3. Problem Statement

Despite progress in identity (Self) and mobile payments (MiniPay), the Celo ecosystem still lacks mature, institutional-grade governance infrastructure. Many DAOs and civic groups, Web2 and Web3, rely on fragmented or insecure tools.

Without trusted governance infra, Celo risks missing a core pillar of its inclusion narrative. Vocdoni directly addresses this gap with a real-world tested protocol, ready to integrate into Celo’s mobile-first stack.


4. Specification (September – December 2025)

Online Community Adoption (9,600 cUSD)

  • Consolidate DAVINCI protocol adoption on Celo.

  • Organize online webinars, workshops, and training sessions for builders.

  • Improve documentation and onboarding materials.

  • Leverage Regional Hubs, Celo Public Goods and the Growth DevRel team for activation.

  • Engage at least 200 builders in governance-related use cases.

Onboarding Integrations (25,000 cUSD)

  • Integration with Self (decentralized ID in DAVINCI protocol).

  • Integration with MiniPay, leveraging prior deployment on Farcaster miniapps to enable governance participation.

  • Scope co-defined with ecosystem teams.

Infrastructure Costs (1,530 cUSD)

  • Vocdoni sequencer hosting ($400/month).

  • Sequencer transaction costs (~$110/month at 1,400 tx/day, CELO price 23/07/25).


5. Metrics and KPIs

  • Transactions → Avg. ~1,400 daily tx expected through sequencer.

  • Community Adoption → 200+ builders engaged via webinars/workshops.

  • Ecosystem Events → 2 online events + 1 Builder House delivered.

  • Integrations → Self and MiniPay integrated into DAVINCI protocol.

  • Adoption → Number of organizations using Vocdoni on Celo (tracked in final report).


6. Current Status

  • Vocdoni is a live protocol with 400k+ transactions and 200+ orgs onboarded.

  • Celo EU and ecosystem stakeholders have already supported initial onboarding.

  • This proposal builds on that trajectory, shifting from initial integration, consolidation and ecosystem adoption.


7. Timeline and Milestones

Milestone Timeline KPIs / Deliverables
Online Community Adoption Month 1–2 200+ builders engaged via webinars/workshops, docs improvements
Sequencer live on Celo Month 2 Avg. ~1,400 tx/day confirmed
Builder House (BA) November (M3) Celo Builder House hosted at Devconnect
Self + MiniPay integrations Month 3–4 Governance pilots live with identity + MiniPay
Final adoption report Month 4 Transactions, orgs onboarded, adoption roadmap

8. Detailed Budget

Category Amount (cUSD) Notes
Online Community Adoption 9,600 Builder activation, online webinars/workshops, docs improvements, DevRel + Regional Hub coordination
Infrastructure Costs 1,530 Sequencer hosting + tx costs
Builder House (Devconnect) 3,500 +3,500 Vocdoni matching funds + potential co-sponsorship
Onboarding Integrations 25,000 Exclusive to Self + MiniPay onboarding tasks — no salaries
Total 39,630

9. Budget Narrative

  • Online Community Adoption (9,600 cUSD): Covers builder-facing activities such as webinars, workshops, documentation improvements, and adoption campaigns in coordination with Regional Hubs and DevRel. Goal: engage at least 200 builders to integrate governance infra into their projects.

  • Onboarding Integrations (25,000 cUSD): Funds the technical integration of Self and MiniPay into the DAVINCI protocol — no salaries, only ecosystem-facing tasks.

  • Builder House (3,500 cUSD): Co-organized during Devconnect Buenos Aires, co-funded by Vocdoni and potential partners.

  • Infrastructure (1,530 cUSD): Covers sequencer hosting and transaction costs.


10. Payment Terms

  • One-time disbursement.

  • Funds managed by Vocdoni Association multisig (signers: Jordi Pinyana, Pau Escrich).

  • Exclusively allocated to onboarding and ecosystem-facing tasks.

  • Multisig wallet will be shared soon.


11. Team

  • Jordi Pinyana — Co-founder of Vocdoni, CEO.

  • Pau Escrich — Co-founder and CTO of Vocdoni, architect of DAVINCI protocol.

  • Backed by Vocdoni Association, stewarding digital democracy since 2017.


12. Additional Support/Resources

We welcome support from Celo stakeholders in the form of:

  • Testing of the DAVINCI SDK and integrations.

  • Feedback on governance use cases aligned with Season 1 intents.

  • Introductions to civic organizations and regional partners for pilots.

  • Collaboration with Self team and Celo DevRel.


13. Conclusion & Feedback

Vocdoni is not just another governance tool — it is a state-of-the-art digital democracy protocol, with a proven track record since 2017, supported by key industry leaders, and already integrated with 200+ organizations.

This proposal is about more than funding integrations — it’s about consolidating Vocdoni within the Celo ecosystem, amplifying visibility, and unlocking new governance use cases with partners like Self and MiniPay.

By approving this proposal, the community ensures:

  • Direct contribution to Season 1 intents (transaction growth + ecosystem activation).

  • Institutional-grade governance infrastructure aligned with Celo’s mobile-first stack.

  • A powerful narrative that positions Celo as the blockchain of digital democracy.


Additional Resources:

After more than a month of work on this proposal, it’s time to move it on-chain. Could you grant permission to proceed? @celogovernance @0xGoldo @0xj4an-work

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Note: We’ve supported the Vocdoni team in applying for two grant programs in GG24, which they are part of, and they are likely to earn 15–25K USD to fund their development.

In addition, there are the Support Streams and Proof of Impact programs designed to allow projects like Vocdoni to grow their incentives and usage proportional to their adoption on Celo.

This proposal seems redundant. At a minimum, we would like Vocdoni to commit to reducing the request to the Celo Treasury proportional to the funds they receive from the other programs, or to wait to see if they receive sufficient resources from the other proposals before requesting funds directly from the Celo Treasury. We generally believe this is not something individual projects should do and is part of the reason why we started Season in the first place.

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Thank you for submitting your proposal and for your continued interest in contributing to the Celo ecosystem. After reviewing the content and context of this submission, we would like to provide some clarifications regarding its path forward.

This proposal sits outside the defined scope for Season 1 Intent which was submitted, voted and approved through Celo Governance.

The defined Ecosystem Growth budget for this season has already been fully allocated among several proposals already approved and being executed, and the Community Fund isn’t meant to continuously reopen outside the agreed-upon cycle. Governance should be predictable; otherwise, it turns into a reactive funding faucet.

Of course, Celo Governance is permissionless meaning anyone can submit something on-chain. But being able to doesn’t always mean it’s the best move for the ecosystem right now.

The governance Guardian’s role is to review that the submission process & proposal structure are correct and signal alignment, not to gatekeep.

Our suggestion would be to see if you meet the specification of Prezenti’s current offerings although they are tied to specific filters aligned with the Season 1 Intent. If you do not meet the criteria there are alternative initiatives such as CeloPG and Proof of Ship. They’re built to support exactly this type of initiative, and it would likely be a smoother and more effective path

4 Likes