Authored by @arielfl , Co-Founder and Product Lead at Blockchain na Escola
Introduction
Blockchain na Escola is a project that empowers Brazilian public school students with the skills to build social-environmental impact applications on Web3.
Our mission is to promote collaboration and decentralization through blockchain education, empowering schools and students to walk the path of regeneration. We aim to disseminate training in regenerative technologies in schools, transforming society through a decentralized and collaborative approach.
The project was founded by @Marcelo in Q1 2022 in the city of Serra, Espírito Santo. After a 6-month interim, we started a new chapter through a Prezenti grant completed in 1H 2023 (many thanks to our stewards @MayaRB and @Wade !).
The Prezenti grant allowed us to experiment with a novel educational approach in Salvador (Bahia), Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais) and Rio de Janeiro. Below is a quick summary of what we accomplished so far:
- Learn more about the impact generated from the Prezenti grant in our report.
- Learn more about the project’s history in our Substack and in @MilaRioja 's LATAM recap.
- Check out the short version of the workshop we taught in 1H 2023 in the Celo Academy.
Proposal
Our initial experiment has paved the way to develop a 3-month educational program - named Roots of Innovation -, which combines blockchain, environmental education and entrepreneurship.
We are already testing the new curriculum with students in the semi-liberty regime at the Foundation for Kids and Teenagers (FUNDAC), and students from the Logistics, Buildings, Legal Service and Occupational Safety courses at Severino Vieira’s State Center for Professional Management Education (CESV) - both in Salvador, Bahia.
We aim to complement the curriculum with a dapp - EDUC-NOS -, an educational journey curated to onboard students and teachers to web3. It aims to train students in a selected career path, train teachers to apply blockchain content at schools, and provide a trustless learning tracking for schools and government.
While we have been able to lay the foundations for this robust educational approach with the remainder of the Prezenti grant, we’re running out of cash to maintain the project.
We really wish to continue on our journey with Celo given its mission of creating the conditions for financial prosperity for all. That is the main reason we have been focusing on public schools and what motivates us to overcome the infrastructural challenges they present.
We believe our presence at public schools present a great opportunity to accelerate the expansion of Celo’s wallets, transactions and user base. We could also have an opportunity to spearhead the institutionalization of ReFi education at the Brazilian public school curriculum.
Hence, we’re currently requesting funding of 108,247 CELO ($50K USD at an average CELO price of $0.4619 in the past 90 days) to further develop our initiatives within the next 12 months. This grant would allow us to maintain a full-time team to:
- Develop the EDUC-NOS dapp MVP and acquire its first 1K users,
- Expand the reach of the Roots of Innovation program within Brazilian public schools,
- Make ReFi education a public good through a decentralized teacher training program, allowing other educators to bring a ReFi fundamentals curriculum to their schools.
For details about our plans for the next 12 months, check our pitch deck. It includes the dapp’s prototype, additional information about our project, and our impact goals.
Expected Impact
We have set ambitious goals for the next 12 months and aim to keep the bar high in terms of impact measurement. In terms of quantitative goals, here’s an outline of what we’re set to accomplish:
We also have recently hired a Marketing Analyst to streamline our communications and grow our social media channels organically. We would tag Celo in all of our posts related to education to spread the word - to students, teachers, and our partners in Brazil - about the great job the ecosystem is doing to push the ReFi narrative.
Finally, we have made promising contacts within the Department of Education (SEC) and the Department of Science and Technology (SECTI) from the Bahia state. Our current plan is to use the results we’re collecting in 2023 to create a proposition to institutionalize ReFi education at public schools. This presents an opportunity for Celo to become the leading blockchain in terms of ReFi education in Brazil.
Milestones for Disbursement
We aim to manage Celo’s community fund resources in an accountable and transparent manner. We use Celo’s multi-sig to manage our treasury, so the community can audit how we’re spending our funds (our address is: 0x2e07c3467D3EcBEe6750eF69cdBf30D494e105D2).
We also believe it’s fair to receive the funds as we prove we’re progressing in the work we promised to do. Hence, we propose the current disbursement schedule to maintain accountability (also available here):
| No. | Milestone description | Expected Completion | Amount (USD) | Measurement of success to release payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upfront payment to cover operational costs | N/A | $6,000 | Proposal approved |
| 2 | Deploy EDUC-NOS MVP on Celo Mainnet | Nov-23 | $5,000 | Dapp launched (txn hash) |
| 3 | Achieve 1,000 registered wallets in EDUC-NOS | Jul-24 | $10,000 | On-chain data (unique wallets) |
| 3.1 | 100 registered wallets | Dec-23 | $1,667 | |
| 3.2 | 200 registered wallets | Feb-24 | $1,667 | |
| 3.3 | 300 registered wallets | Mar-24 | $1,667 | |
| 3.4 | 500 registered wallets | Apr-24 | $1,667 | |
| 3.5 | 800 registered wallets | May-24 | $1,667 | |
| 3.6 | 1000 registered wallets | Jul-24 | $1,667 | |
| 4 | Mint 3,000 NFT certificates in EDUC-NOS | Sep-24 | $10,000 | On-chain data (EDUC-NOS NFTs certifications minted) |
| 4.1 | 300 certificates minted | Dec-23 | $1,429 | |
| 4.2 | 600 certificates minted | Mar-24 | $1,429 | |
| 4.3 | 1000 certificates minted | Apr-24 | $1,429 | |
| 4.4 | 1500 certificates minted | May-24 | $1,429 | |
| 4.5 | 2000 certificates minted | June-24 | $1,429 | |
| 4.6 | 2500 certificates minted | Jul-24 | $1,429 | |
| 4.7 | 3000 certificates minted | Sep-24 | $1,429 | |
| 5 | Match 100 students to career mentors through EDUC-NOS | Sep-24 | $10,000 | Students’ survey results, Proof of first meeting with mentor (eg, picture or screenshot) |
| 5.1 | 5 students matched | Dec-23 | $1,429 | |
| 5.2 | 10 students matched | Mar-24 | $1,429 | |
| 5.3 | 20 students matched | Apr-24 | $1,429 | |
| 5.4 | 30 students matched | May-24 | $1,429 | |
| 5.5 | 50 students matched | June-24 | $1,429 | |
| 5.6 | 70 students matched | Jul-24 | $1,429 | |
| 5.7 | 100 students matched | Sep-24 | $1,429 | |
| 6 | Publish Roots of Innovation training in Celo Academy | Dec-23 | $3,000 | Course published |
| 7 | Launch online teacher training for ReFi fundamentals workshop in the EDUC-NOS dapp | Feb-24 | $2,500 | Training launched in the dapp |
| 8 | Certify 10 teachers on ReFi fundamentals | Aug-24 | $3,000 | Exam results, On-chain certification minted |
| 8.1 | 1 certified teachers | Feb-24 | $500 | |
| 8.2 | 2 certified teachers | Mar-24 | $500 | |
| 8.3 | 3 certified teachers | Apr-24 | $500 | |
| 8.4 | 5 certified teachers | May-24 | $500 | |
| 8.5 | 8 certified teachers | Jul-24 | $500 | |
| 8.6 | 10 certified teachers | Aug-24 | $500 | |
| 9 | Final report | Oct-24 | $500 | Report published in the Celo Forum |
| TOTAL | 50,000 |
We’d create a post in the Celo Forum’s LATAM category where we’ll report monthly on our progress and share evidence from completed milestones. This would provide the community with a clear and concise way to track our progress.
The Education Flywheel
We have a long-term vision of ensuring our project’s financial sustainability to decrease our dependence on external resources. That’s what we call our educational flywheel.
We aim to earn revenue by selling subscriptions for dapp usage and through our consulting services, where we support partner institutions in developing and applying educational ReFi content.
We believe the funds we’re requesting today would be enough to lay the foundations for revenue generation and financial self-sustainability within the next 12 months.
Team
We have a highly motivated multi-disciplinary team with a proven record of tackling challenges in ReFi education for public schools.
We’re also committed to inclusivity and aim to onboard more women to our project in 2024 to ensure a fair distribution within the workforce. That was a challenge across 2023 given our limited resources and time to dedicate to hiring and professional development.
Here are our LinkedIn profiles:
- Alan Silva: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alansilvacriatividados/
- Ariel Leite: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariel-leite/
- Leonardo Teive (marketing analyst, currently in evaluation phase within the project): https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardo-teive-726189147/
- Marcelo Silva: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelo-silva-0581b9216/
- Valter Lobo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valterlobo/
- Verber Souza: https://www.linkedin.com/in/verber-s-095a17145/
- Tassiane Almeida: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tassianealmeida/
- William Caldeira: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-caldeira/
Conclusion
We’re really thankful for everything the Celo community and the Prezenti team have done for our project.
We really believe this funding request would also provide great benefits for the Celo ecosystem. We have observed great excitement from public school students as we bring blockchain and ReFi subjects within the classroom and we’re super excited to continue on this educational journey.
We’d greatly appreciate feedback from the Celo community to understand if this proposal would make sense at this time.
Best regards from the Blockchain na Escola team!
I will be happy to help. 