I want to get back on this thread after a few months of observation and working in the field with communities.
When I opened this conversation, my hope was to create a safe container for dialogue, repair, and shared accountability. I still want that and I still believe many people here care deeply about Celo.
At the same time, I feel the need to name something that has become increasingly important for us at Grassroots Economics Foundation, and for many of the communities we work alongside on the ground.
Celo has meant a lot to us because it pointed toward a deeper possibility for blockchain: not only payments, scale, or distribution, but actual decentralized governance connected to real-world communities, public goods, local economies, and regenerative coordination.
We invited communities, cooperatives, farmers, savings groups, builders, and public goods actors into this ecosystem because we believed that mission was real.
The recent strategic shifts have had a significant impact on us.
Technically, financially, and relationally. They affect the trust we have built with people who were told that this ecosystem stood for community, regeneration, and shared governance.
Celo has changed. It is no longer the same L1 many of us joined. The network is now an L2. Validators no longer play a consensus role. Sequencing appears centralized. Governance remains strongly shaped by CELO holders, large stakeholders, whales, core entities, and institutional coordination. Now, with Opera being positioned as a major network stakeholder through a very large CELO allocation, Celo’s direction seems increasingly tied to MiniPay distribution and related growth.
Maybe that is the right strategic move. Maybe this is what survival and scale require. Maybe I am missing important context.
I feel I need more clarity about what Celo is becoming. And i miss communications and actual conversations where the future can be explored.
- Is Celo still a community-governed regenerative economy?
- Is it a public goods network?
- Is it becoming primarily a strategic distribution and settlement layer, with community governance around the edges?
- Is it a token-holder network where “community” mainly means those with voting power?
- Is it still a mission-driven ecosystem where grassroots builders, validators, public goods actors, and local communities have meaningful voice?
For Grassroots Economics, we have put our name, reputation, and field relationships into this ecosystem. The opportunity to show what blockchain can do for real-world decentralized governance and community coordination is something we also invested in. I am searching for how all of this makes sense within the Celo ecosystem as it is now.
So I want to ask directly, while remaining open to correction:
- What kind of community is Celo now?
- Who is included in Celo governance in a meaningful way? And how? Is there any existsing meeting where things can be discussed and not just decisions taken?
- What real power do non-token-rich builders, validators, local communities, and public goods actors have?
- What accountability exists for large stakeholders, core entities, major treasury recipients, and ecosystem programs?
- What protections exist so that treasury decisions do not appear to move quickly for strategic insiders while smaller actors are asked to wait, report, compete, or absorb cuts?
- What is the credible path toward decentralizing the sequencer, or otherwise restoring meaningful decentralization?
If Celo is now becoming primarily a strategic network for MiniPay distribution and related growth, then perhaps that should be named clearly. And if Celo remains committed to being a regenerative, community-governed public goods ecosystem, then I believe we need stronger proof in the form of governance design, transparency, audits, conflict-of-interest rules, decentralization milestones, and real voice for those affected by decisions but not powerful within them.
I still want Celo to succeed. I still want repair. I still want the bus to move. But I also want us to be honest about who is helping choose the route, who is carrying the risk, who benefits from the journey, and who is being asked to trust the process from the back of the bus.
Please tell me where I am wrong. And guide me through these questions. 
Please help me understand what Celo is now, who it is accountable to, and what kind of community we are actually building.
those communities first.