Hey Celo community,
I’d like to open up discussion on how to onboard the Celo community into Mento governance. We have allocated 50M MENTO tokens to the Celo community. This will be over a 6 year issuance period which will be expanded later on.
In this proposal, I will outline how we intend to issue the tokens, the cliff & vesting schedule, and the way that the actual voting could work.
The Token Allocation
Because Mento governance has a maximum 2-year cliff and 2-year slope for veMENTO, we’re proposing a two-phase approach to make this allocation work effectively:
-
Initial Phase (Now):
- 50% of the allocation (25M MENTO) as veMENTO
- 2-year cliff with 2-year linear slope
- Enables immediate community participation
-
Second Phase (After 2 years):
- Remaining 50% (25M MENTO)
- Another 2-year cliff with 2-year slope
- By the end of year 6, all tokens become withdrawable
How Voting Will Work
Direct, Celo → Mento governance voting at present is a non trivial process. As such, we propose leveraging the existing Celo governance approvers for executing the community’s voting power in Mento governance. The approvers already play a crucial role in safeguarding the Celo governance process, making them well-suited for this responsibility as their role is inherently aligned with the community’s interests.
Here’s how the process will work:
- When a new Mento Governance Proposal (MGP) is created
- A corresponding no-code CGP is created for Celo community voting
- After the Celo governance vote concludes, the result is queued in the approvers multisig
- The approvers execute this decision in Mento governance, reflecting the community’s vote
While we might work toward a fully automated, on-chain voting system in the future, using the trusted approvers multisig provides a secure and practical solution for now. This approach ensures the community’s voice is heard while maintaining operational security.
To accommodate this process, we’ll extend the Mento governance voting period to 6 days, giving the Celo community an extra day buffer to cast their votes on any Mento governance proposal.
Next Steps
With your feedback, we’ll move forward with:
- Setting up the veMENTO allocation
- Implementing the extended voting period
- Creating documentation for the proposal creation and voting process
- Working with approvers to establish the operational workflow
Your Input Matters
We want to hear from the community about this proposal. Are there aspects of the voting process or timeline that could be improved? We’re also interested in any operational considerations we might have missed, and what kind of documentation or support would be most helpful for the community.
The goal is straightforward: give the Celo community a strong voice in Mento’s stablecoin governance through a secure, efficient process. Your insights will help us get this right.