[Proposal]: CGP 63: Learn to Earn Campaign with cReal and Celo in Brazil

Governance
1

Introduction

The advance of cryptocurrencies in Latin America grew between July 2021 and July 2022, a period in which the region received US$ 562 billion in cryptocurrencies, a number 40% higher than last year’s total. The survey, conducted by Chainalysis using also MercadoBitcoin data shows that Latin America is home to five of the top thirty countries in the cryptocurrency index, including Brazil, which appears in the first place with almost US$ 150 billion.

To get an idea of ​​the driving force that Brazil represents for Latin America in terms of transactions involving cryptocurrencies, especially retail investors who, according to the document, were responsible for the largest share of growth in the region, transfers made by professional players in this segment, between US$ 10 thousand and US$ 1 million, represented more than 60% of the total volume of negotiations, while the rest of Latin America did not reach 40%.

The percentage presented in the report took into account the volume of transactions on the platform of the Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin (MB), which also surpassed transactions related to small, less than US$ 1 thousand, and large retail investors, between US$ 1,000 and $10,000, although it has lagged behind when it comes to institutional investors.
Source: Chainalysis

We believe that one of the key points to make sure this growth is stable and durable is to increase awareness and education in the markets. While web3 is growing, it is relevant to onboard new users in the ecosystem by means of appropriate educational and awareness initiatives.

Besides educating the Brazilian market and democratizing access to new and exciting technologies, we believe that an increase in awareness and knowledge of the CELO ecosystem could boost its liquidity locally, tackling one of the main challenges of the community as a whole (source).

PROPOSAL
Hello dear Celo community! My name is Débora Conconi, and I am part of Mercado Bitcoin, one of the largest exchanges in Latin America.

In an effort to bring more transparency and get community feedback on the initiatives we are working on, we would like to share with you all some of the projects that we believe have synergy with Celo and its community.

We seek to give access to Celo’s projects to the almost 4 million Brazilians registered on the MB platform, and adoption throughout Brazil and the Celo community.

1. Objective

Connect with Celo and its projects, giving visibility to Mercado Bitcoin customers and the Celo Brasil Community.

Also, more users could be onboarded to the Celo ecosystem which could prove to be another driver of adoption for its dapps and use cases.

2. About Mercado Bitcoin: https://www.mercadobitcoin.com.br/en/

Mercado Bitcoin is an exchange that operates in Brazil, with a focus on Latin America and has more than 3.8 million customers and more than 200 digital assets, including NFTs.

  • We are among the most trusted exchanges in the world.
  • Pioneer of the KYC and AML best practices in the Brazilian market
  • More than USD 15 billion in trading volume since our foundation in 2013.
  • More than 8 years as custodian without material security breaches
  • Mercado Bitcoin is a multi-solutions crypto, blockchain, web 3 and regulatory infrastructure, building the future of the new digital economy.
  • Became part of the select unicorn startups group in LatAm and the only Brazilian Company among the 102 Blockchain unicorns in the world after investments led by Softbank (source).
  • As part of the group, we proudly have Blockchain Academy, our education arm that is continuously looking for innovation and new ways to bring web3 to retail and institutions.
  • Currently in partnership and support with the government authorities in building the regulation of the cryptocurrency sector in Brazil.

3. Projects

  1. Celo asset listing

Listing of the CELO asset on the Mercado Bitcoin platform for more than 3.8 million customers to negotiate the purchase and sale of the asset.

  1. cReal asset listing

Listing of the cReal asset on the Mercado Bitcoin platform for more than 3.8 million customers to negotiate the purchase and sale of the asset, in addition to being the reward offered in the Learn to Earn program.

3. Learn to earn program

MB will be the 1st exchange in Latin America to offer an educational rewards program for users from all over Brazil to learn more about crypto assets and earn assets, which is directly aligned with the LatAm Celo community needs of usability and circulation of cReal.

What?

Learn to Earn is an educational program where each user can receive cryptocurrency rewards after watching and answering questions about the specific network or asset. The purpose of Learn to Earn is to provide knowledge to users who participate in the program in order to learn more about the Celo ecosystem and its projects. In this way, the user will have more knowledge about the crypto market and about the protocol, purposes and principles of the network.

How it works?

We intend to educate Mercado Bitcoin customers, with quality content developed in partnership with Celo, making the cReal and Celo assets available as a reward for each completed program.

Each user will be able to watch videos and then answer a quiz with questions about the content watched.

Then, the user will receive a reward within the Mercado Bitcoin platform, being able to use their wallet the way they want.

Reward distribution:

10 cReal for each user for studying cReal program content and 3 Celo for each user for studying Celo program content.

What are the criteria to participate in Learn-to-Earn?

For anyone who has been approved in the appropriate KYC process in Mercado Bitcoin platforms.

Budget:

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This CGP is requesting 160.000 Celo and 1.000.000 cREAL from the on-chain governance Community Fund.

The funds will be divided into:

  • Learn to Earn rewards
  • Internal and external marketing costs, for the dissemination of the Learn to Earn program, on the main press and social media platforms, in addition to the technical efforts required to supporting Celo and cREAL.

The distribution model is detailed in the tables below.

USD
Total Celo 114,000.00
Total cReal 190,000.00
Total USD 304,000.00

Disclaimer: Distribution and marketing cells (highlighted in green) are fixed numbers. Celo amount can change due to CELO/BRL price changes between the proposal itself and the distribution of funds.

4. Timeline

Listing of Celo scheduled for Q1/23

CReal listing scheduled for Q1/23

Learn to Earn Program with CReal reward: Q1/23

Link GitHub: CGP63: Learn to Earn Campaign by deboraconconi · Pull Request #179 · celo-org/governance · GitHub
GitHub

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Hi Debora!
I usually like all this learn2earn programs and I think they are a great way to onboard new users.
I have 2 questions:

What’s the max user cap for this initiative?
What’s the cost per users assuming we reach the max cap?

Thanks,
Lorenzo

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Hi @DeboraConconi
I have a question about the presence of MercadoBitcoin in Colombia.

Would be great to have the same support in Colombia, because we are trying to get out a proposal to have a $cCOP pegged to the Colombian Peso.

Would be great if you tell us the possibility of listing this new StableCoin at the momment we develop it.

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Correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t MercadoBitcoin Founders the richest people in Brazil today? Having a 0,7% taker and 0,3 maker fee on all transactions, as MB does, you are profiting R$1.2M PER DAY on fees, considering just the top 10 tokens on the actual volume. Without considering the (OTC) off-the-counter trades and all the services provided under the many 2tmgroup umbrella corporations in the country.

I would like to bet 100 CELOs that MB is actually doing more than R$10 million per day just on fees, specially now that they have a pure speculation Program to teach young people how to become traders. We have been hearing many stories of poor people sinking on these illusions.

Another point to consider is that we (the DeFi community) have been learning more-and-more (as with Luna and FTX fiascos) that we should bring efforts to move out of Centralizes Exchanges, not the opposite. We should move in such a way that centralized rent-takers making a few billionaires don’t have to exist anymore. MB today is bigger than many TradFi banks! Actually, they created their own bank.

Of course it could be good to have Celo and cReal listed on the biggest exchange in Brazil, but -let’s be honest!- that a multi-millionaire company/bank asking R$1.6M from the Community Fund to teach more people to learn to trade crypto on their platform sounds super odd.

Anyhow, I hope MB list CELO without touching the Community Fund. They really don’t need it to play their own earn-to-earn games.

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Hi @DeboraConconi, Valora would like to partner with MB on this campaign, to help users discover and explore all the ways they can use their cREAL and CELO via Celo’s ecosystem of dapps. We’ve partnered with a CEX before and ran a very successful campaign together. Valora is available in Brazilian Portuguese and already supports all Celo assets. Let me know!

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Hello @0xGoldo , thank you very much for the question.
Mercado Bitcoin is one of the largest exchanges supporting educational programs, and with Learn to Earn, we will be the first exchange to launch this program in Brazil with Celo, as well as other blockchain networks.

What is the maximum user limit for this initiative?
We have no estimated limit for user adoption, but each user can only take the quiz once for each module.
For example: Ana answered the quiz referring to cReal, she only wins the defined amount of cReal once, but Ana can answer the quiz about Celo, and here she only wins once about Celo too. Ana cannot receive twice on the same module and asset.
MB wants to reach as many users as possible from the Celo community and people who are still unfamiliar with the crypto market and Celo.
An important point, for the Learn to Earn program, anyone who wants to participate must open or have an account with MB so that we can transfer the asset and register it for auditing and transparency purposes.

What is the cost per user assuming we hit the cap?
We do not have a cost per user, but a cost for publicizing and structuring the program, as described in the chart below, but when we reach the total reserve of rewards for users, Celo will be asked for a new amount, as is happening in this forum.
It is important to point out that the reward will be passed on 100% to the users of the program, the MB will not have any gain with each participation.

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Hi @0xj4an, thank you very much for your question!

Mercado Bitcoin is one of the exchanges that support educational programs, we want to bring education to all countries, as one of the safest exchanges in LATAM, however, we still don’t have an arrival date in Colombia, something we really want.

For sure, as soon as we arrive, we will take the program to our Colombian friends too!

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Hello @Polo , thank you very much for the question and questioning.
It is important for everyone to know that the MB is one of the biggest supporters of the decentralized movement, through the governance process, where everyone can express themselves, and whose purpose is to guarantee that decisions will be respected by the participants of the voting network and have transparency of the projects involved.

The Mercado Bitcoin (MB) as one of the largest LATAM exchanges, seeks to approach all people who know and still do not know the opportunities of the crypto market, and we understand that some people seek to have access to this segment in a more centralized and secure way, looking to invest and trade on an exchange, and there are people looking for decentralization and security without depending on a platform or exchange. We seek to serve both profiles with security and transparency in transactions and information. MB clarifies its operation process through the link below, so that everyone is aware of how we secure the platform. Here you can consult: Segurança e Transparência no Mercado Bitcoin

Regarding the fees charged by MB, you can find out more here: https://www.mercadobitcoin.com.br/comissoes-prazos-limites
And about our volume also on major market indicators such as coinmarketcap and coingecko.

The incentive we are requesting is exclusive to the Learn to Win program, marketing costs are required for adoption throughout Brazil and in the community.

More than 80% of this amount will be passed on to the end customer without using the exchange, as a reward for those who complete the L2E program, as detailed in the table.

MB is the creator and defender of the best security practices and market transparency, here you can find all the practices and information regarding our security and operation processes.
Link: Segurança e Transparência no Mercado Bitcoin

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Hi @denisse thank you for your interest in partnering with MB.
We were thrilled with its project and possibility of connecting to L2E.
Let’s talk more?
I also answered you via linkedin proposing a chat. :grinning:

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Olá Debora!

It is good to bring the discussions on taking part of the Community Fund… Do the Celo and cREAL listing on MB are subjected to this Campaign? How it would cost taking the Marketing/Gamification out of it?

For context, I use MB APIs since 2013 (FunFact: I sold there my 5 BTC for $150 to buy a ticket to Berlin with no return :sweat_smile:) and helping brazilians cross-bordering thousands in assets, I recognize that MB have the potential to become a relevant FinTech much beyond the actual cryptocasino.

But it is good to remember that cREAL has a very distinct non-speculative character that would be great if maker/taker fees could be abolished in long-term, as a counter-proposal; this way MB would really help with the stability and the ecosystem.

Mercado Bitcoin is one of the exchanges that support educational programs, we want to bring education to all countries. […] we proudly have Blockchain Academy, our education arm…

Sincerely, Blockchain Academy $5k courses doesnt convince as an “educational” reference for brazilians or LATAM, with unrealistic prices for most of us, and when The British Council estimates that only 5% of Brazilians speak English and only 1% speak it fluently. What have MB been doing for Education in Brazil? Teaching people to day-trade? This is tragic to be considered Education, if so. Celo’s mission on Prosperity for All should go beyond speculation or how-to-use-platforms, on my naive view. But I must confess I could not follow (or find) how this learn-to-earn is structured. Education is indeed needed.

OMHO, a ~$75k request for a marketing program (masked as education) paid to a CEX/Bank in Brazil sounds absurd, plus the distributed R$1.2M (wow, m-i-l-l-i-o-n-s) that would also become new trading fees for MB – but I hope more people get involved in this discussion. I’m a bit biased having a multi-millionaire Company with no true social responsibility (nor grants or ventures) endorsing degens, payed from the Community Fund – I believe this should feed new teams and ideas, not Mammutes.

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@Polo I very much appreciate you posting and highlighting about the cReal distinct features and bringing comments aimed at growing value to the community.

I am also curious and supportive of different players working together to achieve greater good for all of us. This is a discussion that I am interested in following.

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Hi @Polo

Thank you for posting, it is very important that all community members have clarity and transparency about our program.

I wanted to highlight the link you sent is about an international certifier, which has no relationship or partnership with MB. The official website of Blockchain Academy is: https://blockchainacademy.com.br/, where courses are offered for much more affordable prices and focus on topics way beyond trading, such as blockchain technology in general and legal/tax aspects of cryptoassets. .

It is worth noting that one of the major social and educational projects that the Blockchain Academy carried out in 2022 was Cripto Dev, a training program for blockchain developers, aimed at young people in situations of social vulnerability (according to IBGE criteria ). The Cripto Dev program was carried out online, free of charge and focused on the inclusion of indigenous people, women, residents of the North and Northeast regions of Brazil and low-income youth. The program trained 40 professionals as blockchain developers.

Below is more information published by Valor Econômico, one of the main media outlets in Brazil: Jovens em situação de vulnerabilidade social viram desenvolvedores do Ethereum

Other social projects carried out this year were the NFTs de Impacto. Mercado Bitcoin, in partnership with one of our invested companies, Tropix, launched NFT de Impacto, a project that allocates up to 95.5% of the amount collected from NFT works to social projects, a project that contributes to the artistic, cultural sectors and social causes.

The dynamic varies according to the project and each artist can choose how they prefer to link their works to the cause. In addition, there is also a concern to promote the sustainable development of NFT emissions.

The social NFTs prepared by Tropix seek to offset the emissions caused by the processing of NFTs around the world, according to a specific methodology built by the company Green Domus. In addition, it continues to seek alternatives to reduce the environmental impacts of the NFT preparation process, such as migration to lower impact programming languages. Here you can also read more about it.

As already highlighted, the costs involved in the proposal involve all the dissemination and structuring of the educational program, as well as video production, technical support of a new chain and assets, dissemination on all social media, partnership with press channels, production of lives and podcast, preparation of content in order to reach the maximum adoption of users and community in Brazil. MB currently has around 3.8 million customers, and our objective is to reach as many of the base as possible so that they participate in the educational program and thus, with knowledge in Celo and cReal, they can disseminate the knowledge and increase their participation in the whole ecosystem.

Also, as part of the content curriculum for these initiatives in the Learn-to-earn, we do not plan to highlight the financial speculation of the assets itself. Among other topics, we’ll teach about the benefits of decentralized technology and the possibility of self-custody using the most common Celo wallets.

MB strongly believes in and encourages education, we have a blog with various free educational content and articles. You can consult it here: Blog: Educação com o MB

Happy to discuss further any of these points! Cheers!

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Oh, I’m glad to be wrong on my previous comments on the Blockchain Academy and the Social Responsability! :upside_down_face:

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I noticed that the on-chain proposal has the following address listed for the ERC20 approvals, however, this address has not been used before and is not mentioned anywhere in the forum or in the github proposal. It might be nice for the include the address in both to confirm that this is in fact the correct address. Additionally, a test transaction on-chain from the address could also serve as proof of possession.

0x1782E82C8321100013c99c298F964641a3EBF072

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@DeboraConconi Unless I misread something, there’s an open question from @Polo:

I’ll rephrase it, as it’s a question I have myself: is Mercado Bitcoin’s listing of Celo and cREAL conditional on this proposal being approved?

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hello @ProfesorJirafales and @Polo yes, we considered the approval of the campaign, to continue with the listing of Creal and Celo together with the L2E program.

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I’m interpreting your reply as “yes, this CGP’s approval is a necessary condition for listing”.

In that case, would it be too wild to frame it as payment to list?
Under this framing, in order for the community to decide whether to approve or not, I believe everyone should have a better understanding of the price set forward on this proposal.

@DeboraConconi Would you mind sharing how much Mercado Bitcoin has asked for to list other tokens in the past?
@MilaRioja Is there a precedent for the Celo community (or foundation) paying for a listing? If so, would you be aware of the amounts paid?

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@ProfesorJirafales Mercado Bitcoin is not charging to list the tokens on the platform, the proposal refers to the implementation of the Learn to Earn program with marketing costs, as well as creation of the landing page, elaboration of videos and questionnaire, for example, the second value is exclusive to award customers who adhere to the Learn to Win program, the two will be launched together, both the listing and the educational program campaign for greater adoption of participation in the L2E program.

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Considering the market prices used on the proposal, there’d be 400k BRL worth of tokens assigned to “Marketing”, which according to the proposal also includes “technical efforts required to supporting Celo and cREAL”. Others may disagree, but to me it looks a lot like a payment to be listed (even if it only covers costs incurred by the exchange). With that in mind, I think it’d be beneficial to the community if there were more transparency around this ~400k BRL price.

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On another note, the proposal on GitHub is missing a link to this forum discussion.

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