Establishing a DAO Events Budget for 2025

Description

This description has been shortened to meet Snapshot character limits. Please find the full proposal on the forums: https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/establishing-a-dao-events-budget-for-2025/26734

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:

1. Delegate Gatherings aimed at streamlining operations through in-person meetups such as a delegate retreat.
2. 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.

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

1. September 10th: “Establishing a DAO Events Budget for 2025” Forum post (4 weeks)
2. October 10th: Snapshot Vote
3. October 24th: Tally vote (If Snapshot passes and depending on feedback)
4. November 11th: 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.