Empowering the Celo Community with Mento Governance Rights

Governance
,
1

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:

  1. Initial Phase (Now):

    • 50% of the allocation (25M MENTO) as veMENTO
    • 2-year cliff with 2-year linear slope
    • Enables immediate community participation

  2. 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:

  1. When a new Mento Governance Proposal (MGP) is created
  2. A corresponding no-code CGP is created for Celo community voting
  3. After the Celo governance vote concludes, the result is queued in the approvers multisig
  4. 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.

8 Likes
2

Hi @RyRy79261! Thank you for this outline and putting so much thought into how the Celo community can immediately participate in Mento’s governance.

One thing I’d like to hear more about and discuss here is does Mento plan to have any kind of cycles in governance? We are currently in the process of Governance Evolution at Celo with January to June 2025 being Season 0 where we lay the ground work for a more cyclical approach to governance as shared in this post Celo Governance Seasons, a conversation about Governance Evolution ahead of Cel2 Migration 🍃

One of the key aspects of it is to align closer to Optimism Collective’s Seasons to operating community funded initiatives as we move towards Superchain future. Another is to reduce burden on governance by having proposals submitted on a more predictable cadence. This could potentially impact creating parallel CGP’s if Celo governance moves towards a more set schedule and it may not align with Mento’s timelines.

I think it would be great to have Mento in this conversation since this is still the design phase and we have the opportunity to shape it in a way that will work best for the community.

4 Likes
3

Hey Anna!
Intuitively, a seasonal cadence seems like it could make things easier and more efficient in the future and sounds like an interesting evolution of governance. I’ll certainly read more about it, thank you for sharing!

For this concrete proposal, we see it more as laying the technical groundwork to enable the Celo Community to participate in Mento Governance in the first place. A possible subsequent evolution towards a more seasonal governance approach could then be something that the Celo Community can also have a stronger voice in when enabled with veMento voting power :slight_smile:

5 Likes
4

If I may ask when is the Mento tokens on the mini app readyto be claimed?
Will it also take 2 years so that it can be transacted?

5

Dear Mento Team,

Thank you for your continued efforts in integrating the Celo community into Mento governance. Your commitment to fostering collaboration and decentralization is greatly appreciated.

That said, we would like to raise some concerns regarding adherence to the Current Celo Governance Overview & Procedures, as recent proposal submissions have presented challenges for governance tooling and process consistency.

Specifically, we have observed that proposals have, at times, been submitted on-chain before PR approvals and without prior presentation in governance calls, which has led to:

  • Technical disruptions, impacting governance tools such as Celo.stake.id and Celo Mondo.
  • Limited discussion and transparency, reducing the opportunity for broader community engagement.
  • Process inconsistencies, making it more difficult to ensure that all governance participants follow the same standards.

To ensure a smooth and predictable governance process, we kindly request that all proposals adhere to the Current Celo Governance Overview & Procedures before submission. This includes:

  1. Initial [DRAFT] Forum Post: Submit an initial [DRAFT] proposal post on the Celo Forum and allow at least 7 days for community feedback.
  2. Governance Call Presentation: Schedule and present the proposal in a Governance Call (held biweekly) for discussion.
  3. [FINAL] Forum Post: After incorporating feedback from the Governance Call, publish a [FINAL] version of the proposal in a new comment or editing the previous post on the Celo Forum.
  4. Celo governance Guardians Approvals: Seek approval from Celo Governance Guardians before moving forward with an on-chain submission.
  5. PR Submission: Submit a PR to the Celo Governance Repository that reflects the [FINAL] version of the proposal.
  6. PR Approval & Merge: Wait for Celo Governance Guardians to approve and merge the PR into the main branch.
  7. On-Chain Submission: Once the PR is merged, the proposal can be submitted on-chain for voting.

We fully recognize that governance is an evolving process and appreciate the complexity involved in coordinating multiple stakeholders. However, following these steps is essential to ensure transparency, prevent technical issues, and uphold fairness in governance decision-making.

We also acknowledge that certain Mento proposals may need to be executed before their corresponding proposals in the Mento Governance Framework conclude. However, with careful planning and coordination, it is entirely possible to follow governance procedures while meeting necessary execution timelines.

We look forward to working together to refine these processes and ensure governance operates as effectively as possible. Let’s continue to collaborate to maintain a well-structured, inclusive, and transparent governance system.

4 Likes
6

Hello Mento team! Wanted to echo the sentiments above that this is a huge step towards bridging together Celo and Mento governance and I’m very excited to work together to implement it.

I know there’s a few proposals coming up in Mento governance and it’s a great opportunity to revisit this discussion. Is there anything still outstanding in the next steps that you’ve outlined here and is there anything we can do to support you with from the Celo governance side?

I think bringing this to the next governance call could be helpful to give the Celo Community a notice that you are moving forward with this and address any outstanding questions. Also creating a forum post documenting the workflow will be great to keep the community informed on the difference in Mento vs Celo proposals as well as ensure that Approvers are ready to execute it once the vote is over. Please let me know if we can help tee this up for the next call or if there’s anything else we can do move this forward!

3 Likes