Digital Democracy on Celo — Season 1 Funding Proposal

Governance Governance Proposals
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Proposal Key Aspects

Receiving Entity: Celo Governance
Status: [DRAFT]
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 integrate Vocdoni — a state-of-the-art digital democracy protocol — into the Celo ecosystem. Vocdoni has already processed 400,000+ transactions, supported 200+ organizations, and raised $1M from industry leaders.

The proposal covers:

  • Technical deployments (contracts, SDK, frontend support for Celo)
  • Onboarding integrations with Self and MiniPay
  • Ecosystem activations, including digital webinars and a Celo Builder House during Devconnect Buenos Aires (November 2025)

The budget requested is 39,630 cUSD, and all funds will be used exclusively for ecosystem-facing onboarding tasks (not salaries). Vocdoni will also contribute matching funds for the Builder House, ensuring shared commitment.

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.

Vocdoni is a battle-tested protocol with:

  • 400,000+ transactions processed
  • 200+ institutions worldwide (including civic groups and governments)
  • $1M raised from leading Web3 ecosystem investors

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In the past season, some Celo stakeholders supported Vocdoni’s first steps into the ecosystem through projects such as Prezenti grant ($10k), Blockchain for Good Alliance(BGA) grant ($10k), Celo EU with cofunded activities, and joint activations at ETHCC (UNDP <> Celo event) and the Impact Brunch (Vocdoni<>BGA<>UNDP<>Celo). These collaborations confirmed a natural fit between Vocdoni’s governance technology and Celo’s mission.

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This proposal seeks to anchor Vocdoni inside the Celo ecosystem with technical deployments, integrations with Self and MiniPay, and ecosystem activations — directly aligned with Season 1 intents and community growth.

3. Problem Statement

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

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

4. Specification (September – December 2025)

  1. Deployments & Tooling
  • Deploy smart contracts on Celo
  • Add Celo support to DAVINCI SDK
  • Add Celo support to DAVINCI frontend
  1. Infrastructure Costs
  • Vocdoni managed sequencer ($400/month)
  • Sequencer tx costs (~$110/month at 1,400 tx/day, CELO price as of 23/07/25)
  1. Digital Meetings & Webinars
  • Online events coordinated with ecosystem stakeholders for showcasing and promoting adoption and integrations
  • Focus: DAVINCI SDK + new governance possibilities, adoption worldwide
  1. Builder House (Devconnect BA)
  • Celo Builder House at Devconnect Buenos Aires (November 2025)
  • Supported by regional hubs, hosting builders and stakeholders (Self, MiniPay, Vocdoni)
  • Matching funds: Vocdoni contributes 3,500 cUSD; additional partners may co-sponsor
  1. Onboarding Integrations
  • Integration with Self (decentralized ID in DAVINCI protocol)
  • Integration with MiniPay — leveraging prior deployment on Farcaster miniapps, enabling governance via MiniPay (not payments, but participation)
  • Scope co-defined with ecosystem teams

5. Metrics and KPIs

  • Transactions → Avg. ~1,400 daily tx expected through sequencer
  • Ecosystem Events → 2 webinars + 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, tested with 400k+ transactions and 200+ orgs.
  • Celo EU and ecosystem stakeholders already supported initial onboarding (Prezenti + BGA grant, ETHCC event, Impact Brunch).
  • This proposal continues and expands that trajectory.

7. Timeline and Milestones

Milestone Timeline KPIs / Deliverables
Smart contract deployments Month 1 SDK + frontend support for Celo
Sequencer live on Celo Month 2 Avg. ~1,400 tx/day confirmed
Webinars (2x) Month 2–3 Delivered with ecosystem partners
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
Deployments & Tooling 9,000 Smart contracts, SDK, frontend support
Infrastructure Costs 1,530 Sequencer hosting + tx costs
Digital Meetings / Webinars 600 2 online events with ecosystem partners
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

Budget Narrative

  • Onboarding Integrations (25,000 cUSD): Covers exclusive onboarding tasks with Self and MiniPay — technical integration, testing, and joint ecosystem activations. Importantly, these funds will not be used for salaries, but strictly for ecosystem-facing activities.While 25,000 cUSD may appear significant, it represents a very low “reward” for the scope of work delivered. Other Celo ecosystem stakeholders have followed this methodology when onboarding and deploying key technologies, proving it to be both fair and highly valuable.
  • Builder House (3,500 cUSD): Organized during Devconnect Buenos Aires (November 2025), supported by Vocdoni’s own 3,500 cUSD contribution and potential partner co-sponsorship.
  • Extra activities will be bankrolled by the Vocdoni team at no cost to the community.

9. Payment Terms

  • One time disbursement.
  • Funds managed by Vocdoni Association multisig (signers: Jordi Pinyana, Pau Escrich).
  • Exclusively allocated to onboarding tasks — no salaries.

10. Team

  • Jordi Pinyana — Co-founder of Vocdoni, leading deployments and integrations.
  • Pau Escrich — Co-founder and CTO of Vocdoni, architect of DAVINCI protocol.
  • Backed by Vocdoni Association, stewarding digital democracy since 2017.

11. 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
  • Self team and Celo DevRel support

12. Conclusion & Feedback

Vocdoni is not just another governance tool — it is a state-of-the-art digital democracy protocol, unique in its kind, with a stellar team building since 2017 and already supported by key industry leaders. With 400k+ transactions processed and 200+ organizations onboarded, Vocdoni combines technical maturity, real-world adoption, and civic impact at a scale few Web3 projects can claim.

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This proposal is about more than funding a deployment — it is about solidifying the relationship between Celo and Vocdoni, amplifying visibility, and unlocking a new world of possibilities with ecosystem 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 globally as the blockchain of digital democracy.

13. Additional resources

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Gm @Vocdoni

Thanks a lot for sharing this draft. A few comments regarding formats and procedures to make sure it fits the governance standards:

:wrench: Format Adjustments

Please fix the initial part with this schema:

Proposal Key Aspects

  • Receiver Entity: Celo Governance
    (This is the entity to whom the proposal is being presented, not the organization receiving funds, In case the proposal is not presented to Celo Governance, please indicate to who will be presented)

  • Status: [FINAL]/[DRAFT]
    (Pick one status, first one should be [DRAFT], and after discussion you can edit the proposal and change the status to [FINAL])

  • Author(s): Celo User1 (@celouser1), Celo User2 (@celouser2) & Celo User3 (@celouser3)
    List of all names/aliases aand their repective forum handle.

  • Type of Request: Mento Proposal / Network Decisions & Protocol Improvements / Smart Contract Changes / Temperature Check / Funding
    Pick one of the possible types of requests listed above.

    • Intent: Season X
      Add the requested Season # here.

    • Funding Category: Protocol Development / Infrastructure / Partnerships, Comms, Marketing, Events, Programs / Builder Programs / Direct Grants / DeFi Flywheel Infrastructure and Incentives / Regional Community Growth / Community Operations
      Pick the Funding Category of the Season where you aim to present your proposal.

    • Funding Request: Describe your funding request if it is the case of your proposal.

:bookmark_tabs: Structure

Please adapt your proposal to this structure.
Important: preserve the section numbers and titles exactly as below, you can add sub-chapters inside each, but don’t change or rename them.

1. Summary

Provide a concise overview of your proposal, explaining how it contributes to the development of Celo, outlining the timeline, and highlighting the key objectives to be achieved if approved.

3. Motivation

Explain why this proposal is important for Celo's growth and well-being, referencing past initiatives or market developments that demonstrate its significance.

4. Specification

Provide a detailed explanation of the proposal, including relevant resources, data supporting its relevance, and specific plans or track records.

5. Metrics and KPIs

Outline the specific metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to evaluate the success of this initiative.

6. Current Status

Indicate whether this initiative or proposal already exists. Share progress updates and references to previous proposals, if any.

7. Timeline and Milestones

Outline a clear timeline or roadmap for the initiative, including key milestones to track progress. Detailed Budget: Specify the detail of the budget requested in terms of activities, milestones, or any other clear description.

8. Detailed Budget

Specify the detail of the budget requested in terms of activities, milestones, or any other clear description.

9. Payment Terms

Specify how withdrawals will be made from the Community Fund or how payments are expected to be managed by CeloPG.

10. Team

List the individuals involved in the proposal, along with a brief background for each team member.

11. Additional Support/Resources

Highlight any non-financial resources or support needed from Celo Governance Guardians or Celo Public Goods Stewards, such as testing, feedback, or introductions to specific stakeholders.

This way the community can easily review, and your proposal will be aligned with the Celo Governance process. If you wanna see the full template please check this document

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Thank you @celogovernance, could you confirm if the format is now correct?

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Hello Celo Community. I’m Pau, co-founder of Vocdoni, current Tech Lead and the principal author of the DAVINCI protocol paper (davinci-paper/v2/build/main.pdf at main · vocdoni/davinci-paper · GitHub)

I am really enthusiastic on our recent relation with the Celo project. I think both projects share the same principles and long term objectives, building stuff for the real people, not just unicorns. Which is something hard to find nowadays on the web3 space.

So I’m here to answer any question or to share ideas regarding this potential partnership.

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Hi Celo Community :waving_hand:

I’m JP. Aulet from the Vocdoni team (product & ecosystem). Really happy to see this proposal and the possibility of working closer with Celo. As Pau commented, we feel there’s a strong connection in the way both projects care about people and want to build tools that make a real impact.

At Vocdoni, we’ve been building open, verifiable and privacy-first voting technology to help all kinds of communities make decisions they can trust. We think this could fit very well with Celo, opening new ways to try governance both on-chain and in real-world use cases.

Excited to hear your thoughts and ideas :raising_hands:

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Amazing to work so closely with the Self team — @ericnakagawa @marek @remi @rene_celo — and start solidifying those synergies.

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Hey @Vocdoni team!

I’m excited about the solution you’ve built and would be keen to support; however, I don’t believe a direct request to the Celo Treasury is the right avenue. In general, I’m against a project submitting a grant request to the Treasury unless it includes a clear co-ownership, such as a convertible grant or token allocation.

CeloPG has been working on a Gitcoin Program that is projected to start next month, called Solution Development Grants, which will issue milestone-based grants to projects on Celo that have a concrete plan for developing a new feature or expanding into a new market that will create SDG-aligned impact. Grant sizes will range from 5-30k USD.

Do you have a concrete roll-out plan ready on how Vocdoni on Celo would be used and how this could grow?

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Hey there @LuukDAOthank. Yesterday’s Governance Call was great for receiving direct feedback from ecosystem stakeholders, and they were very happy to read this proposal — some even mentioned how amazing it is to start seeing this kind of project on the Celo Forum aligned with the Season Intents.

We’ll also take a closer look at the Gitcoin program, this is great, thanks.

It’s important to clarify that this is not an “infrastructure” grant. The goal is to consolidate Vocdoni-DAVINCI’s role with key ecosystem stakeholders and to strengthen the tools and capabilities of the Celo ecosystem by developing a new digital democracy vertical.

In fact, we’ve put together a growth plan that we’ve been working on for some months, with several things already in motion. A brief overview can be found in the proposal above, which is now being updated following yesterday’s feedback.

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Check, looking forward to seeing your iteration on this proposal. At this budget range, it would likely still be something that could fit inside the GG24 programs - but if you feel it’s better to push forward with a Celo Gov vote instead / in parallel that’s okay.

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Hey everyone,

Seeing proposals like this arriving in the ecosystem, with a clear fit and 100% aligned with Celo’s values and technological integrations, is definetly really exciting.

Fun fact: Vocdoni, in esperanto means “to give voice”

Personally, and together with @Celoeu and @ricaax , we’ve supported Vocdoni throughout different stages of their journey within and outside the ecosystem: first connecting them with @Prezenti.grants and Blockchain For Good Alliance, UNDP, then CeloCamp (@upright) (where we’re still waiting on confirmation), @CPG_Stewards during Cannes (where they had the chance to connect directly with Luuk), and some others such as Self team (@marek Remi…).

Right now, running on top of Celo, we have solutions focused on identity (@Self), payments (@opera_minipay), and now, with Vocdoni we can open the Governance branch. It feels very natural to support this proposal. It truly opens a new world of possibilities, both globally and within Celo.

I can easily imagine a future where democratic processes with legal certainty are run through Self and Vocdoni, directly on top of MiniPay or other platforms. That unlocks whole new markets and use cases.

It might also be worth exploring that DAVINCI will require a utility token, planned to launch in the coming months. Perhaps we should discuss the possibility of allocating part of it to the Celo Treasury, since this is a long-term collaboration and, as a public good, it’s in everyone’s interest to further decentralize these kinds of solutions and technologies.

Really looking forward to hearing feedback from the community, and from Vocdoni core team member @p4u @jordipainan, to fostering these important conversations.

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Hey, regarding DAVINCI’s token. We have not yet public announcements because we are still working on tokenomics. However, you might find a chapter specifying its utility and why it is necessary for the voting protocol here in the Whitepaper. We have run some private pre-sales for angel investors that supported the development, see the blog post here.

That said, we want to make an initial distribution of the token to those who supported the project (not only the angel investors), that includes individual collaborators, testnet users and of course organizations that support us. CELO is one of those organizations. However, we have not decided what will be the distribution rule.

Nonetheless, if you believe it is better to decide an amount in exchange for the Grant, that is fine for us. We might apply the same rate as the angel investors and provide the specific allocation number.

To be honest, I think this are “small details” in comparison to what we can achieve working together in many levels. As @Joan_DeRB said, the integration with Self and the potential usage of the CELO L2 for the coordination of DAVINCI’s sequencers is something very important. Our purpose is to become a public good that helps the world have a healthy governance and democratic processes. I do believe our vision is very aligned with CELO’s one. That’s what actually matter.

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Hi @Vocdoni, pre-applications for the SDG grants are now live!

@p4u this initiative could be a great fit for the program, which issues grants up to 25k cUSD for onchain solutions to develop new SDG-aligned features enabling expansion and growth into new markets.

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