This is a concept for a Regional Hub program to replace the traditional Regional DAO concept. The aim of this thread is to get community input and potentially merge into CeloPG 2025 proposal or submitted as a standalone proposal.
TL;DR
As Celo prepares to join the Superchain through the CEL2 migration, the importance of a global network of agile and impactful hubs has never been more apparent. This thread presents a reimagined framework for Regional DAOs, drawing insights from Celo Regional DAOs: A Retrospective on 2024. It serves as an open invitation for Regional DAO operators and other stakeholders to share their perspectives and help refine this process.
1. The Vision
With the L2 Migration on the horizon, Celo stands at a pivotal crossroads in refining its role within the Superchain and broader Ethereum ecosystems. Since its inception, Celo has explored a variety of narratives. Still, none have resonated as strongly as the Home of Impact, Stables, and Financial Inclusion. As Celo moves into 2025, the focus is on solidifying these core narratives and fully embracing the Impact Era
This vision requires a balance between top-down alignment and bottom-up innovation. Regional Hubs are positioned as the operational backbone of this strategy, fostering innovation, creating feedback loops, driving grassroots adoption, and aligning local initiatives with Celo’s global mission.
Key pillars of this approach include:
- Localized Impact: Tailoring global strategies to address individual regions’ distinct cultural and economic needs, ensuring relevance and engagement.
- Scalable Systems: Implementing tiered funding models, measurable impact frameworks, and onchain tools to enhance transparency, accountability, and sustainable growth.
- Ecosystem Integration: Establishing connections between Celo and the Superchain, facilitating collaboration with other Superchain members, and scaling innovation across the broader ecosystem.
2. Why a Global Network of Hubs
A global Regional hub network is essential for scaling Celo’s vision. These hubs act as localized impact drivers, ensuring Celo’s narrative and solutions resonate in diverse cultural and economic contexts. These are some key reasons they’re critical for growth and development:
Why | Description |
---|---|
Localized Impact and Adoption | Regional Hubs tailor Celo’s mission to the unique needs of their communities, fostering trust and engagement that drive wallet adoption, stablecoin usage, and ecosystem growth. |
Scalable and Decentralized Expansion | A distributed network allows Celo to scale its presence across regions, enabling faster, more sustainable growth. |
Bridging the Global and Local | Regional Hubs ensure Celo’s global strategy aligns with regional realities, translating high-level goals into actionable initiatives on a local level. |
Strengthening the Superchain Presence | As part of the Ethereum Superchain, Hubs can collaborate with other ecosystem players to build Celo’s identity and create attractors for developers and partners. |
Driving The Impact Era | Regional Hubs enable bottom-up innovation, empowering local communities to shape solutions to reinforce Celo’s overarching financial inclusion and sustainability mission. |
3. The Challenge
While Regional DAOs have made significant strides in advancing Celo’s mission, the following challenges are in the way of them realizing their full potential:
Challenge | Description |
---|---|
Inefficient Fund Allocation | Limited transparency on spending and inconsistent processes have led to funds being allocated to projects with unclear impact. |
Difficulty Measuring Impact | A lack of standardized metrics and reporting frameworks makes it hard to track success and demonstrate the value of initiatives. |
Fragmented Efforts | Regional DAOs often operate in silos, resulting in duplicated efforts and missed opportunities for collaboration. |
Regional Alignment with Global Goals | Poor communication between DAOs, and the Foundation leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for collaboration, resource-sharing, and alignment. |
Overreliance on Celo Capital | Regional DAOs rely exclusively on grants from Celo, limiting their ability to diversify funding streams or build self-sustaining revenue models. |
Lack of Accountability Mechanisms | Weak accountability structures make it difficult to track whether DAOs meet their goals and utilize resources effectively. |
4. Proposed Improvements
To address these challenges, the following key improvements are recommended. These recommendations aim to enhance the program’s scalability, transparency, and impact while fostering collaboration:
Improvement | Description |
---|---|
Improve Communication and Collaboration | Establish channels between Regional Hubs, Ambassadors, and the Celo Foundation to align efforts and share resources. |
Implement an Impact Framework | Develop onchain standards for tracking success and demonstrating measurable outcomes. |
Diversify Funding Sources | Build sustainable business models, reduce grant reliance, and explore external partnerships. |
From DAOs to Hubs | Transition to agile and efficient hub models, reducing governance complexity while maintaining accountability. |
Expand Cross Regional Collaboration | Foster initiatives that encourage knowledge-sharing and alignment between hubs. |
Superchain Integration | Position Regional Hubs to collaborate with other Superchain members, leveraging shared opportunities for growth and innovation. |
5. What Would Change?
The following changes are proposed to achieve the vision for 2025. These adjustments are designed to streamline operations, enhance collaboration, and establish scalable frameworks that strengthen the role of Regional Hubs.
- From DAOs to Hubs:
Not all regional DAOs currently operate as DAOs, and the requirements to run a proper DAO can slow down the nature of these hubs. Hubs should be agile, flexible, and able to test ideas quickly. Regional DAOs should transition to Regional Hubs and operate as initiative-driven teams if the scope allows.
- Phased Tier Structure for DAOs:
After two years of development and refinement, Regional DAOs have naturally evolved into various forms, sizes, and purposes, influenced by their unique contexts and goals. To better support their growth and ensure alignment with broader objectives, a tiered framework is recommended:
- Tiered System
- Seed Hub: New hubs | 3 months | $2,500 to $10,000. Focussed on quick results, building grassroots community engagement, and testing initial ideas to establish credibility and impact.
- Growth Hub: Proven track record | 6 months | $10,000 to $50,000. Focussed on building a more structured and extensive program in regions where earlier success has been demonstrated.
- DAO Hub: Mature DAO | 12 months | $50,000 to $150,000. Focussed on driving community-wide adoption, developed onchain governance system, and established frameworks to onboard regional contributors within their DAO.
- Mission-Driven Ambassador Program:
The lack of clarity on collaboration opportunities on an individual level often hinders the bottom-up impact potential for newcomers. To address this, an ambassador program is proposed to foster individual-driven initiatives. This helps cultivate a talent pool to transition into more significant hub roles.
- Ambassador Program
- Small Grants: Funding of $500 to $2,000 for short-term, impactful projects.
- Short Timeframes: Missions are designed to be completed within 1–3 months for quick, measurable results.
- Mandatory Training: Ambassadors must complete a short crash course on project planning, impact measurement, and community engagement training.
- Predefined Missions: Work on seasonal missions set by Celo PG or the Regional Hub Council, such as promoting stablecoin adoption or organizing ReFi events.
- Not Meant For Hub Members: This program is targeted at newcomers who are not involved yet in a Regional DAO.
- Regional Hub Council or Lead: There is a clear need for improved communication between Regional Hubs and Ecosystem Partners. This gap often leads to missed collaboration, resource-sharing, and alignment opportunities. Creating a Regional Hub Council can address these issues by facilitating:
- Monthly Meetings: Once a month, each hub, ambassadors, Celo PG, and the Celo Foundation can share updates discuss growth, and surface challenges.
- 1 v 1: Ideally, every hub lead meets with the Regional Hubs program lead monthly to provide support or address concerns.
- Proposal Discussions: Act as a forum for reviewing and refining proposals to ensure alignment with ecosystem priorities.
- Strategic Alignment: Establish overarching goals, address regional overlaps, and find synergies to amplify.
- Resource Sharing: Share best practices, resources, and tools across hubs to drive efficiency and effectiveness.
- Accountability: Track progress and ensure hubs and ambassadors are meeting key deliverables.
The Regional Hub Lead can provide guidance based to new and existing hubs on the knowledge gathered across hubs, ensuring successful strategies are shared and there’s active support across regions.
- Impact Framework
Measuring the success of Regional Hubs and the Ambassador Program requires a clear and transparent framework. By standardizing KPIs and leveraging onchain metrics, we can track outcomes to ensure accountability, and demonstrate the value of initiatives across the ecosystem.
- Measurable Impact Framework
- Standardized KPIs: Define metrics for winning verticals.
- Onchain Data Points: Use tools like POAPs to track attendance, validate wallet activity through transaction records, and measure referrals onchain.
- Monthly Reporting: Require hubs and ambassadors to submit updates detailing their achievements against KPIs, challenges faced, and proposed improvements.
- Accountability Audits: Periodically review on-chain data and reports to validate results, address discrepancies, and improve the system over time.
- Budget
In the past cycles, up to 70% of the budget went to a smaller number of groups. While this approach has supported key initiatives, it has limited opportunities for smaller hubs and individuals to explore untapped markets. A refined budget allocation is proposed to ensure a more equitable distribution in 2025.
- Budget Changes
- Expand Access for Smaller Hubs: Seed Hubs enable quick, high-impact initiatives and provide feedback on new markets.
- Support Individual Missions: Dedicated to grassroots projects through the Ambassador Program.
- Diversify Resource Allocation: Reduce over-concentration of funds in a few groups to open opportunities for smaller hubs and new initiatives.
- Increase Accountability: Implement benchmarks and audits to validate spending & track outcomes.
6. Budget
The following budget distribution for 2025 opens up the conversation for a more equitable distribution. This approach encourages mature hubs to streamline expenses by focusing on high-ROI activities and eliminating less impactful initiatives that may inflate proposals.
Regional Hubs should be encouraged to engage with third-party co-funders, including local grants, sponsorships, or new ways of funding that come with joining the Superchain. By involving third parties with vested interests, the overall costs to Celo can be reduced while increasing commitment and accountability from external partners.
Budget Overview
Category | Amount (USD) | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Program Management and Ops | $50,000 | 7% |
Hub Support | $35,000 | 5% |
Seed Hubs | $70,000 | 10% |
Growth Hubs | $170,000 | 25% |
Mature Hubs | $325,000 | 46% |
Ambassador Program | $50,000 | 7% |
Total | $700,000 | 100% |
7. Proposed next steps
The following steps are proposed to ensure the successful start of the Regional Hub Program in 2025. These actions focus on refining the program, finalizing its scope, and integrating it into the prospective CeloPG 2025 proposal. This marks the transition from the existing DAO structure to the enhanced Regional Hub Model and provides a clear timeline for implementation.
8. To Conclude
This proposal outlines a vision for evolving the Regional DAOs program to address current challenges and establishes a more detailed framework moving forward. To create a final, well-rounded perspective, It is requested that Regional DAO leads, CeloPG members and the broader community provide their insights, as this is essential to reflect the ecosystem’s diverse needs.