Establishing a DAO Events Budget for 2025
Abstract
To ensure Arbitrum’s continued presence at the industry’s most prominent events, and to enable the DAO to host in-person initiatives to accelerate collaboration and increase efficiency of operations, we (Entropy Advisors, the ADPC, and Disruption Joe) would like to earmark a budget for events for 2025 and take lead on running ongoing RFPs to satisfy the DAOs event demands. The 3 members of this group will lean on OCL and the Arbitrum Foundation to ensure that any events organized by the DAO are aligned with the broader ecosystem of contributors, work towards a unified message/brand, and are synergistic with events led by the Foundation and OCL.
Our proposed Events strategy should focus on 2 key categories:
- Delegate Gatherings aimed at streamlining operations through in-person meetups such as a delegate retreat.
- Ecosystem Growth Events to foster innovation and community engagement, ideally coinciding with other major crypto conferences (specifically ETHDenver, Bitcoin 2025: Las Vegas, EthCC, among other potential events) at the same location. These events can include, but are not limited to:
- Virtual hackathons
- Non-crypto conference presence (RustConf, CES, etc.)
- In-person hackathons
- Side events
- Sponsorships of major events
- Arbitrum Days around the world (not just EthCC)
- Educational workshops (Stylus & Orbit)
The selection of event provider(s) will follow a two-step process: Together with the ADPC and Disruption Joe, we will gauge community sentiment/attendance levels regarding certain events. If there is consensus to put on a certain event but there is no PM/event coordinator to lead the effort, the group will procure, select, and support service providers to make the vision a reality. It is highly likely the OCL or the Arbitrum Foundation will lead many of these events, which is made apparent by the preliminary schedule proposed below. Alternatively, if an events provider comes to the DAO with a proposal for an event that passes a Snapshot vote that garners at least 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority For/Abstain, the funds for that proposal will come from the 2025 events budget brought forth in this proposal.
We propose the earmarking of $1.5M USD to fund this initiative, with any unused funds at the end of 2025 to be returned to the DAO treasury. 4M ARB will be sent to a Foundation-controlled address to be liquidated into stablecoins, with any excess ARB immediately returned to the DAO treasury and the stablecoins to an MSS-controlled address. The ADPC, Entropy, and Disruption Joe will be waiving payment to get this stood up, but we expect this initiative to fall under the OpCo once it becomes fully operational. We also envision a dedicated employee to lead the DAO’s event strategy within the OpCo, so this is more of an effort to get the ball rolling so we are properly prepared for 2025. We plan to have the OpCo established in mid 2025, and once an events coordinator is employed by this entity, the funds will be transferred to the OpCo while Entropy, the ADPC, and Disruption Joe will be relieved of their duties thereafter.
Motivation
Events play a crucial role in strengthening the Arbitrum community and brand, attracting more users and developers to the ecosystem, expediting DAO initiatives by facilitating in-person collaboration, and providing avenues for alliance with other partners within the industry. While the Questbook program has done an excellent job in ensuring the Arbitrum brand is represented at smaller conferences across multiple regions, the DAO does not currently have a dedicated plan or budget for events. Larger Arbitrum events, such as Arbitrum Day, are left to the Arbitrum Foundation or Offchain Labs to organize. The DAO certainly appreciates what the Foundation and OCL do on the events front, but the DAO should serve a complementary role – which if enabled – will maximize Arbitrum’s overall ability to grow a healthy ecosystem and capture network effects in our speed and flexibility for deployment.
There is significant value in aligning on the scope/timing of hackathons, GovHack-type events, and major events presence (such as EthCC, DevCon, etc). For example, Stylus represents one of the most significant software upgrades in Arbitrum’s history – it could be wise for the DAO to ensure a Stylus-focused hackathon is planned for 2025 in an effort to bring more developers into our ecosystem and to improve dev tooling/infra. In addition to ecosystem events, it is very important for delegates to meet up in person at a regular cadence. We see how much more we can accomplish in-person time and time again, and we believe the DAO could formulate and execute on a grander strategy if these delegate offsites were formally planned/coordinated.
Hosting events requires substantial upfront time and capital, typically involving 4-6 months of planning and $25-100k in down payments for venues, travel, accommodations, catering, and other expenses. Planning and funding events on a case-by-case basis are impractical due to the lead time and the lengthy DAO voting process. Recently, the DAO approved $309k to host an event at EthCC in Brussels. However, the proposal was not executed on-chain until approximately five weeks before the event. Hack Humanity, the entity behind the GovHack event, took on substantial risk by using its funds to secure a venue, caterers, and other necessities without a guarantee of DAO funding. Although Hack Humanity felt comfortable taking this risk due to previous collaboration with the DAO and assistance from Entropy Advisors, this upfront financial burden should not fall on service providers in the future. One off RFP processes would enable organizers to plan higher-quality events with the extra time & budget provided. Alternatively, any service provider can gauge DAO sentiment directly via snapshot, which will drastically reduce the burden of the Arbitrum DAO governance process put on service providers.
To ensure the Arbitrum DAO has the ability to represent itself at various events and to create new in-person experiences, we propose earmarking funds so this can be achieved in a streamlined manner. While we propose 3 core events in the section below, any DAO member can make a proposal to utilize these earmarked funds at any time. We are also happy to alter the below calendar in accordance with feedback received on the forum.
Proposed Industry Events for 2025, Q1&Q2
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The above events were chosen based on the need to bolster Arbitrum’s presence at the industry’s top events. As mentioned above, the Questbook program has done an excellent job at making sure Arbitrum has a presence at smaller events across the globe. To date (September 10th, 2024) the events track has funded event initiatives in the following regions: Latam (8), Africa (6), India (4), APAC (4), and Europe (2).
There are also ample opportunities to fund events in the back half of 2025 that align with Arbitrum’s strategic objectives (Ex. RustConf, GamesCon, Solana Breakpoint). However, with the expectation that a more comprehensive events strategy will be rolled up into OpCo upon the hiring of a full time events coordinator, we felt it was better suited to only establish a rough strategy for the first half of 2025 while leaving the door open for other service providers and community members to bring forth their own ideas.
ETHDenver - February
ETHDenver is an Ethereum centric conference that has one of the largest attendee lists of any event throughout 2025. Arbitrum has historically had a presence here, but we would like to partner with OCL to bolster the DAO’s representation. We envision a very large floor space at ETHDenver (see photo below of Near’s booth at ETHDenver in 2024 for inspiration), with plenty of room for Arbitrum projects to showcase their products, delegates and other DAO contributors to talk to people who are interested in getting involved, and an area for more technical folks to ask OCL questions about the Arbitrum roadmap and tech upgrades. Last year, Arbitrum had a smaller 10x20 or 20x20 floor space at ETHDenver, but this year we want to go bigger. OCL will lead the charge on this front, but the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy can assist as needed and funnel ideas from the community to their team.
Bitcoin 2025: Las Vegas - May
The Bitcoin conference is the most widely attended conference in all of crypto, and is ofcourse a Bitcoin-focused event. However, as seen with the rise of “BTC L2s”, Ordinals/Runes/other inscriptions, etc, there is a growing appetite from developers, users, and VCs to build out more functionality on Bitcoin. Additionally, there is work being done to enable OP_CAT, which could enable trust minimized bridging of BTC to other chains. As such, we believe the Arbitrum DAO should have a presence here. There is no reason Orbit should not have a presence on Bitcoin, and the DAO recently signaled its support for Orbit deployments on alternative settlement layers via snapshot vote. Bitcoin has served as the “Gateway” for bringing new people onchain in the past, and we believe targeting Bitcoin supporters is a good way to onboard new users into the Arbitrum ecosystem. We would like to work with OCL on this event, similar to the ETHDenver event, but the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy can procure a service provider and act as the point of contact in case OCL does not have interest in partnering with the DAO on this event.
EthCC - July
EthCC, similar to ETHDenver, is one of the largest Ethereum-centric events of the year, and has historically been hosted in the EU. The event in 2025 is currently slated to take place in Cannes, France, but with the recent arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France, this could potentially change. Nevertheless, this is an event that we believe the Arbitrum DAO should have a presence at, and we again suggest supporting OCL and the Arbitrum Foundation to put this event together. In the scenario that OCL/the Foundation does not want to work with the DAO on this initiative, the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy will procure a 3rd party organizer to manage this event and will be in attendance to ensure things go smoothly. We are hopeful that OpCo will be stood up by this time, so there is a strong possibility that this event will fall under its purview rather than the aforementioned individuals/entities.
Other Events:
We estimate the three events outlined above to cost somewhere in the range of $250-$400k, and would thus have a budget approved that is much higher than the actual outlays. We want to avoid scenarios where we are forced to overpay for event service providers, have a limited selection of service providers, or need to rush through the DAO process in order to meet deadlines for future events. Therefore, we are requesting a budget much larger than required so that if other community members wish to push forward an event, they can do so without having to go through the full governance process.
Instead, we suggest that anyone can put forth an idea for an event in the first half of 2025, but that it can pull from these pre-approved funds via a snapshot vote that must garner 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain. From there, the ADPC, Entropy, and Disruption Joe can help procure service providers to put on the event, or the proposer themselves can serve as the project manager/event coordinator. This will cut down on the lead time to put on other events and give the DAO more negotiation power when organizing events on an expedited timeline. Some other events that we had envisioned include presence at non-crypto conferences such as RustConf or CES to attract new developers and users, virtual hackathons specifically focused on Stylus or Orbit with the help of a service provider like Buidlbox, ETHGlobal, etc. It is also important to note, that events with an expected cost under $50,000 should be routed through the Questbook program. The purpose of this proposal is to establish an events strategy for larger initiatives that require substantial funds and active project managers.
It may also be possible for protocols within the Arbitrum ecosystem to partake in events that are put together with funds from this budget. For example, if a community member has an idea for the DAO to have representation at RustConf with an emphasis on showcasing some of the products built with Stylus, Entropy, Disruption Joe, and the ADPC could reach out to protocols building on Stylus to attend the event and showcase their products. Protocols could be expected to “bolster” the events budget. E.g., the DAO spends $100K while 2 Stylus projects put up $10K each to sit at the same booth. This increases the total budget by $20K at no additional cost to the DAO, and these two protocols could showcase their products in a shared booth with Arbitrum branding. This is just one example of how this could look, with the exact structures managed on a case-by-case basis.
We want to emphasize the fact that excess funds will either be moved over to the OpCo once a dedicated events coordinator has been hired, or fully returned to the DAO by the end of 2025. We felt some of the other events required a full-time project manager to ensure they go smoothly, and we do not want to take on more than we can handle. However, by requesting more budget than we require, anyone in the community can take lead on an event if there is DAO support.
Specifications
In order to eliminate the potential for event overload, we are capping the number of delegate gatherings to two for the year - but are leaving the number of ecosystem growth events open-ended. These events should be planned in such a way that no two events align too closely with one another on dates, with the exception of delegate offsites which could coincide with an ecosystem growth event at a major crypto conference given the convenience of planning travel arrangements. While the primary goal of delegate offsites should be aligning ecosystem leaders and providing a dedicated place/time for more efficient in-person working hours, the ecosystem growth category is more vague in nature. However, all applicants should have clearly articulated goals for the events in line with the defined events strategy, i.e., driving the adoption of Stylus through a hackathon, generating thought-provoking governance proposals, or onboarding new people into the DAO similar to GovHack. Events brought forward by either an individual or service provider, must create a post-event impact report (example from Govhack Brussels) that includes a breakdown of actual costs. Service providers that are procured to execute on an event idea will also be required to provide a post-event impact report.
For concrete examples of how this could work, we can take a look at the 2 proposals for events currently on the forum. The GovHack Core proposal (which has since been rescinded) was brought forth by Hack Humanity, which serves as a great example of a scenario where the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy would not have been needed in the process at all. Hack Humanity could have taken their proposal to Snapshot, and because they were the service provider themselves, there was no need for any type of procurement process. If the GovHack Core proposal passed snapshot with 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain, the funds would be sent from the 2025 events budget (this proposal) and Hack Humanity could have begun their planning. This would eliminate the ~4-week onchain voting process and potentially make it possible to put something together for DevCon in Bangkok in just ~2 months.
This is a prime example of how earmarking an events budget will enable the DAO to move more nimbly. Please note that this proposal is only for 2025, so the previous example is only provided for illustrative purposes. However, it is quite possible that the DAO would rather fund GovHacks on an as-needed/case-by-case basis rather than a whole year, or even open up the event type to other service providers to get new actors involved or potentially lower the price.
In an earlier iteration of a proposal from @danielo, there was no defined offsite facilitator. This is an example of a proposal that did not specify the service provider, so the ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy could have worked together in procuring the proper coordinator upon the proposal passing on Snapshot with 3% of the votable token supply and a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain. The procurement process should bring down overall costs by making the process competitive amongst service providers, and again reduces the lead time by foregoing the onchain Tally vote. Note that this is just an example for illustrative purposes.
It is expected that the contributor requesting a specific event is tasked with defining the measurable KPIs. The DAO will be tasked with deeming a specific events proposal worthwhile via Snapshot, and we encourage delegates to hold these authors to a high standard when it comes to measuring a given event’s impact and how it pushes Arbitrum’s mission forward.
Flow of Funds
To cover the $1.5M dollar-denominated expenses, 4M ARB would be earmarked and sent to an Arbitrum Foundation-controlled wallet, with funds liquidated into a preferred stablecoin and then sent to a MSS-controlled address .Surplus ARB will be sent back to the DAO Treasury following the liquidation. Entropy Advisors, Disruption Joe, and the ADPC will be the point of contact for the MSS chair to greenlight any queued transactions. No transactions will be signed without confirmations from all 3 entities/individuals. The MSS may send stablecoins back to the Arbitrum Foundation in order to pay service providers with fiat if required. Excess funds will either be moved over to the OpCo once a dedicated events coordinator has been hired, or fully returned to the DAO by the end of 2025.
Updates related to funds spent, upcoming events and relevant details, a place to provide feedback or recommendations, or any other communications will be posted to the ADPC update thread on the Arbitrum Forum. Alternatively, Entropy can post these to our updates thread on the Arbitrum Forum.
Steps to Implement and Timeline
- September 10th: “Establishing a DAO Events Budget for 2025” Forum post (4 weeks)
- October 10th: Snapshot Vote
- October 31st: Tally vote (If Snapshot passes and depending on feedback)
- November 18th: The ADPC, Disruption Joe, and Entropy Advisors can begin working with OCL/the AF and other individuals/SPs to ensure the events calendar brought forth comes to fruition. Dependent on the outcome of the Tally vote.
We expect this process to take about 2-3 months in its entirety to get underway, which will provide the DAO ample time to prepare for its 2025 events.
Overall Ask
The upfront ask to the DAO is $1.5M and the transfer of 4M ARB with the excess returned to the DAO post liquidation, but with just 3 ecosystem growth events outlined in this proposal, the entire budget will not be utilized. However, as mentioned earlier, earmarking these funds gives the DAO the ability to act more nimbly when there is an opportunity to host an event. This will result in the DAO getting better pricing from potential service providers while ensuring the service provider has ample time to do what they do best - organize great events. The DAO can clawback funds from the MSS at any time via a snapshot vote that garners 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain.
