Arbitrum DAO in ETH Bucharest 2025

[paulofonseca]

Hey there fellow Arbitrum DAO Delegates!

As you know, we approved a DAO proposal for Arbitrum DAO to fund a partnership with ETH Bucharest 2025, which is a conference happenning from April 2ⁿᵈ to April 5ᵗʰ, in the National Library of Romania, in Bucharest. This is the third event that Arbitrum DAO has been involved in partnership with the ETH Bucharest organizers after we had a booth at ETH Bucharest 2024 and partnered for the first Arbitrum Stylus Hackathon in the world, last November.

To make this happen and for Arbitrum DAO’s presence in the conference to be impactful, with need to decide, as a DAO, how we are going to participate in the conference.

Taking the original proposal as reference, here are the decisions we need to make, as a DAO:

1. who is going to have the speaking slot on the main stage (which can be a 1-hour talk or three 20 minute talks and therefore, 3 speaking slots by 3 different speakers)
2. who is going to give the in-person technical workshop session pre-hackathon (which can be about Stylus for example)
3. which hackathon bounties do we want to fund, how do we design them and how do we split the total prize money of $19,350 USD between the several hackathon bounties. (the total amount approved on snapshot for these hackathon bounties was $21,500 USD, but the whole proposal had a 10% discount, which should also needs to be applied to this amount, therefore $21,500 - 10% = $19,350 USD)
4. who are going to be the judges of the Arbitrum hackathon bounties (and potentially also the mentors during the hackathon)
5. who is going to be at the Arbitrum DAO booth, to man the booth during the 2 conference days, and represent Arbitrum DAO to the 1500+ expected attendees of the conference.
6. who designs the prime exhibition space of 25 square meters for the Arbitrum DAO at the conference (ETH Bucharest takes care of the production of it)
7. what merch will we distribute, if any on the Arbitrum DAO exhibition space, who designs it, who produces it, and how much we should spend on it (this would have to be funded by the DAO, or from the $5,000 USD budget mentioned below, or some other way)
8. who designs the digital roll-ups displayed on screens in key areas that loop across all vertical TV screens, digital and print branding, and main stage branding as well as the branding on website, social media, and print materials, and the chair covers on the main stage.
9. which Arbitrum DAO delegates get selected to win one of the 10 general tickets and 5 VIP tickets (which give access to the exclusive Speaker’s Dinner for VIPs)
10. who gets a discount code to buy tickets with 50% off for the conference.

To help with the DAO making these decisions and ensuring that Arbitrum DAO presence at ETH Bucharest 2025 is a success, the organizers of ETH Bucharest 2025 asked @ZER8 and I to work with the DAO to make this happen (since we are Arbitrum DAO delegates local to Romania).

Also, and most importantly, the organizers made available up to $5,000 USD from their own payment, so that the DAO can make these decisions above and to make sure we can make this happen in the best way for the Arbitrum DAO. So we also have to decide, as a DAO, on how to spend, up to $5,000 USD to make this happen.

There is also a specific topic on the private telegram group for Arbitrum DAO Delegates where we can discuss all of this. If you are an Arbitrum DAO Delegate that is not in that private telegram group, please send me a DM on Telegram to paulofonseca1987 so that I can add you there.

Please reply to this post with your ideas and opinions about each of the 10 decisions above, and with your suggestions as to how we should spend up to $5,000 USD to facilitate all of this as well.

I would also like for the Arbitrum Foundation to have a more hands-on approach in the organizing of this event (and give their input on all the decisions above that we need to make), and also for them to help contribute for the event to be a success for Arbitrum, by having someone from the Arbitrum Foundation that would come to the event and officially represent Arbitrum DAO.

We need to decide all of this in the next few weeks, since the conference is happenning in less than 6 weeks and we should decide all of this, at least a month before the conference.

Also, tell us if we are missing anything else in here that we should think about, discuss, and decide on, to make sure Arbitrum DAO presence at ETH Bucharest 2025 is a success!

LFG!

[andreiv]

@paulofonseca

who are going to be the judges of the Arbitrum hackathon bounties (and potentially also the mentors during the hackathon)

I can help with mentoring and maybe judging as well, if necessary. I was a mentor and judge during the Stylus Hackathon and it was a cool experience, happy to do it again.

Some of the issues the hackers ran into last time were deeply technical and specific to Stylus, so I think it would be amazing to have someone from Offchain Labs as well. Their experience will likely be needed during the hackathon, and I’m sure it would be very much appreciated by the hackers.

[TempeTechie]

@paulofonseca

5. who is going to be at the Arbitrum DAO booth, to man the booth during the 2 conference days, and represent Arbitrum DAO to the 1500+ expected attendees of the conference.

I’d be interested in this, I imagine some other delegates will be interested too. So we could divide the time spent at the booth between each other.

[paulofonseca]

We just added to the Arbitrum DAO Community Calendar, a recurring weekly call, on Monday at 3pm UTC, from next week until the week of the start of the conference, on April 2nd.

You can join the call every week, on this Zoom link.

These calls will be recorded and the recording, transcripts and chats posted on this thread.

[paulofonseca]

That’s exactly the spirit @TempeTechie! Awesome! =)

Also, I will put up a simple form shortly, for Arbitrum DAO Delegates to fill in and show their interest in getting one of the free conference tickets we have available as a DAO. (we have 10 general tickets, and 5 VIP tickets with access to the Speakers dinner)

[TempeTechie]

@paulofonseca

I will put up a simple form shortly, for Arbitrum DAO Delegates to fill in

Perhaps you can also ask in the form who wants to be a speaker; a hackathon judge; and present at the booth.

[Tekr0x.eth]

I decided to attend ETH Bucharest this year. I’m super excited about it. I’ve never been to Bucharest. I would be happy to help with the organization and offer my time to present Arbitrum DAO in the best way possible.

1. I suggest we start with the list of who is coming. Delegates, anyone from the foundation, etc.? The speaking slot can be offered to the biggest delegate or most qualified/interesting person.

2. I can’t. Not technical enough.

3. Isn’t the bounty size defined by the organizer? What topics do we have to pick from? We can do a forum poll for that.

4. I suggest anyone who is technical (delegate) or anyone from Arbitrum Foundation.

5. I would be happy to assist. During Arbitrum Day at Devcon in Thailand, I was at the booth for a few hours presenting Arbitrum DAO. I enjoy it very much. I would be happy to do that here as well. We can create a schedule and pick time slots.

6. Not sure.

7. I suggest we produce it locally.

8. Does the organizer have an in-house designer? Maybe we can give them our graphics and they design it.

9. Let’s start with the list, then I suggest first come, first serve.

10. Anyone who is or will build something on Arbitrum or any Arbitrum Orbit chains.

[TempeTechie]

I see that the conference dates also align with the SOS Feedback Period. So we could have a delegate meeting there to discuss the proposed objectives.

[ostanescu.eth]

That’s a great idea!

[ostanescu.eth]

Great news!

1. @chrisco512 will join ETH Bucharest on site. Chris will help with the bounties design and will be able to do the workshop (2nd April). He is also one of the judged for the ARB bounties.

2. Srinjoy from OCL is also joining the event, but remotely. He will help with the bounties design and will be also one of the judges for the ARB bounties. Big s/o as he agreed to get up at 5.00 AM to make it in time for the judging.

Super grateful for their support!

LFG

[tamara]

@paulofonseca

what merch will we distribute, if any on the Arbitrum DAO exhibition space, who designs it, who produces it, and how much we should spend on it (this would have to be funded by the DAO, or from the $5,000 USD budget mentioned below, or some other way)

Connected you already with a local manufacturer (whom I have visited in my past life working in Ecom & know they are producing under fair conditions - lmk how that goes and if you need any further support (designing etc).

My general thoughts on merch

• less but higher quality (and have people do quests to get it)
• local, sustainable and maybe upcycled? (the world is already full of rubbish)
• something else than the usual T-Shirt (maybe a fanny pack, re-usable stainless bottles, succulents etc)

→ just fyi on Merch: we would need to order it around 1 month before the event

[ZER8]

Amazing to see this partnership accelerate, to me this is an natural evolution of the presence Arbitrum DAO had last year at Eth Bucharest.

Judging from last years experience in which I had to juggle with all the decisions above myself, I would advise to strive for simplicity with most of the non-crucial decisions, such as merch, design, etc

Just like last year I’m certain the booth will be a ‘hub’ for the Ethereum/Arbitrum pees out there, the decentralization maxies at the event and to those that want to build, have built or are curious to learn more about Arbitrum.

[paulofonseca]

Hey there!

We had our coordination call today, and you can check it’s recording.

Some updates on the decisions we are trying to make, as a DAO, in the same order as in the original post:

1. Speakers: it turns out, we can have 3 talks of 20 minutes each, instead of 2 talks of 30 minutes as I stated in the original post. One of the talks is going to be done by someone from the @Arbitrum Foundation (still to be confirmed by who specifically), another talk is going to be done by @Sinkas (still to be confirmed as well), and we have to find another speaker to represent the DAO (I was thinking about @JoJo maybe in partnership with @CastleCapital folks to talk about the grants program that was just recently approved onchain)

2. Hackathon workshop: Chris from @offchainlabs (also still to be completely confirmed) is going to be the one giving the technical workshop for the hackathon participants, and will also mentor the hackathon participants and be a judge for the Arbitrum hackathon bounties. Srinjoy from @offchainlabs will also be one of the hackathon judges, and will be waking up at 5 am on the US West Coast to do so remotely.

3. Hackathon Bounties: This is one of the most urgent decisions we need to make, by next Monday, and I will be setting up a Telegram group and a working call with Chris and Srinjoy, to figure out the hackathon bounties that we will have for the participants. For each hackathon bounty we want to do, we need to fill in this template, that the hackathon organizers provided us with.

4. Hackathon Judges: besides Chris and Srinjoy from Offchain Labs, probably @andreiv, @ZER8, and me will also help judge the hackathon submissions since we’ve also done that for the previous Arbitrum Stylus hackathon last November. Anyone else who is coming to ETH Bucharest, and has technical context about Arbitrum is also very much welcome to be a mentor and judge in the hackathon. Just a reminder that the hackathon starts 2 days before the actual conference days, on the 2nd of April, and lasts until the 5th of April which is the second and last day of the actual conference.

5. Manning the booth: All Arbitrum DAO delegates, contributors, Arbitrum Foundation, and Offchain Labs members are welcome to help man the Arbitrum DAO booth at the conference and represent Arbitrum to the +1500 conference attendees and hackathon participants.

6. Design of the booth: This is also one of the most urgent decisions to make right now, since the booth needs to be produced in time for the conference in less than 5 weeks. This is the type of booth Arbitrum DAO will have at the conference and it is the biggest type of booth at ETH Bucharest and there will only be one other booth of this size. The folks at the @Arbitrum Foundation will help design the booth based on designs of previous Arbitrum events. So, just imagine this, but Arbitrum branded.
   

   

7. Merch: This is the other decision we need to make that is kind of urgent since the merch also needs to be produced in time for the event. @Sinkas mentioned that MetaFactory could help figure out some cool merch ideas and we ask the community to come up with ideas for the merch we could do. We have up to $5k USD for the production of it, and the Arbitrum Foundation can also help with designing some of the merch. We were aligned that we might just do less quantity of merch but more high-quality merch that should be given away selectively.

8. Digital roll-ups: These are FullHD (1920px by 1080px) vertical videos that will loop across the several TVs spread across the venue and can be up to 120 seconds long. We will probably need the Arbitrum Foundation help with the design of these. Or if anybody else wants to create this, be more than welcome to.

9. Free tickets: I’ve put up this Google form so that anybody that is coming to ETH Bucharest and wants one of the 15 free tickets (of which 5 are VIP tickets with access to the Speaker’s Dinner) we have available for DAO members can submit their interest. If 2 weeks from now, we will have more people requesting tickets than tickets available, people will be selected based on their delegated voting power.

10. Ticket Discount Code: we need to figure out how to share the Arbitrum DAO specific discount code that gives 50% off on the ticket prices. You can check the current conference ticket prices here.

So, to summarize, our next priorities are:

1. Defining the bounties for the hackathon with Offchain Labs
2. Get a Booth Design from the Arbitrum Foundation
3. Figure out, as a DAO, what kind of merch we want to have at the booth.

If you have suggestions and ideas please share them here in this thread.

See you Monday next week, on the next call.

Thank you all!

[TempeTechie]

@paulofonseca

3. Figure out, as a DAO, what kind of merch we want to have at the booth.

I think it makes sense to first see who can be the local provider of the merch, and what type of merch they offer (shirts etc). And then we can choose from this offering.

[paulofonseca]

Hey Everybody, we won’t be able to do the scheduled call today, so we will cancel it and meet next week at the same time. I’ll still post a progress update in here, tonight or tomorrow! Thank you!

[paulofonseca]

gm!

Quick update!

We did a Hacker Warmup meetup this past Monday, in Bucharest, it was pretty cool. You can learn more about it here.

Some updates on the decisions we are trying to make, as a DAO, in the same order as in the original post:

1. Speakers: We still need confirmation on who is going to be the @Arbitrum Foundation speaker. We just got confirmation from @Sinkas to do that DAO focused talk, and we need one other speaker from the DAO, maybe @Atomist to do the grants focused talk, since they are managing the “New Protocols and Ideas” Domain in the recently onchain approved grants program.
2. Hackathon workshop: We can have another, technical hackathon workshop, which maybe will be done by Alex the CTO from Fluidity Labs, on gas optimization. They have a cool concept for a competition and we will probably do it at ETH Bucharest and have a prize money for it.
3. Hackathon Bounties: This is not completely done but we made good progress. We’ve defined the following bounties and prizes, with 2 main tracks. One of the tracks is going to be about Stylus, and we still don’t know what the second one should be about. Please give us suggestions on what you think the second Arbitrum Hackathon track could be.
   Also, we’re thinking of having a participation pool to award all valid projects that submitted an Arbitrum focused project but didn’t won an award.
   
   
4. Hackathon Judges: Alex, the CTO from Fluidity Labs will maybe come to Bucharest and if so, he would also be an hackathon judge.
5. Manning the booth: Anybody is welcome to come. We are still waiting on the Arbitrum Foundation confirmation, of who they will send to Bucharest for the conference.
6. Design of the booth: Morgan from Offchain Labs is working on this and we will have a design by the end of this week.
7. Merch: @ZER8 is coordinating this and we decided with AF and OCL to do some small item merch, like Arbitrum had in ETH Denver, (stress balls, stickers, beanies, small fannypacks, etc) and some minimally branded high quality t-shirts. We will use the $5k USD available budget for this.
8. Digital roll-ups: These will be similar to what we had in ETH Denver
9. Free tickets: We’ve had some submissions already, please fill in this Google form to get a free ETH Bucharest ticket.
10. Ticket Discount Code: we still have to figure out how to promote this discount code.

So, to summarize, our next priorities are:

1. Decide on the second track for the hackathon and the bounties distribution.
2. Have confirmations of all 3 Arbitrum DAO speakers
3. Start production of the booth, with Offchain Labs designs
4. Have merch designs ready for production

If you have suggestions and ideas please share them here in this thread.

See you Monday next week, on the next call.

Thank you all!

[TempeTechie]

@paulofonseca

Please give us suggestions on what you think the second Arbitrum Hackathon track could be.

An idea for the second track:

• AI on Arbitrum: e.g. AI agents or bots that do onchain actions on Arbitrum. Users can interact with these agents either via social networks (Twitter, Arbitrum, Discord etc.) or via dedicated websites.

[TempeTechie]

A poll for everyone attending ETH Bucharest on whether you’d like to have a meeting on 3 April to discuss strategic objective submissions (SOS).

If there’s enough interest for the meeting, we can get a conference room and go through SOS submissions together and discuss them. If not, we can skip the meeting.

Would you like to have a delegate meeting about SOS submissions at ETH Bucharest?

• Yes
• No
• Other (elaborate in a reply)

CC everyone who’s confirmed going to ETH Bucharest: @ZER8 @Tekr0x.eth @paulofonseca @krst @Sinkas @andreiv @Aarcii @armsves @daniy310

[paulofonseca]

Hey there!

We had our coordination call today, and you can check it’s recording.

Some updates on the decisions we are trying to make, as a DAO, in the same order as the original post:

1. Speakers: We will have three 20 minute keynotes in the main stage, the first speaker will be ChrisCo from Offchain Labs to talk about Arbitrum 101, then we will have Ryan Soury from Usher Labs (a Stylus Sprint recipient) to talk about unique use cases that Stylus unlocks, and then we will have our dear @Sinkas from L2Beat to talk about the Arbitrum DAO itself. Also, Ricardo “Gordon”, from the Arbitrum Foundation will be at the conference representing the foundation.

2. Hackathon Workshop: We will have 2 main tracks, one where participants can build whatever they want using Stylus, where Chris from Offchain Labs will give a technical workshop and be a mentor of, and then we will have another track where Alex, CTO of Fluidity Labs will organize a Gas Optimization Challenge for hackers to compete in, and will also mentor that hackathon track.

3. Hackathon Bounties: We will have 2 main tracks with a winning prize of $5400 USD and a runner-up prize of $1200 USD, and then 3 Honorable mentions of $840 USD each. Then we will also have up to $240 USD per team, for the teams that don’t win any main prizes but submitted a valid Arbitrum project. You can check all amounts in this spreadsheet.
   

   

4. Hackathon Judges: Chris, Srinjoy, Alex, @andreiv, @ZER8, and I will be the hackathon judges. Maybe Ryan and Ricardo would join in as well, and maybe @krst and/or @Sinkas could help here as well.

5. Manning the booth: @TempeTechie, @Tekr0x.eth, @baer.eth, Denys from @lobbyfi, @ZER8 and @krst have volunteered to help on this. Everybody else is welcome to do it as well. We will have a big booth and it is important that it is full with cool people representing the DAO. We need to create a schedule of who’s manning the booth at what time, so we can ensure that, at least 2 people, are in the booth at all times of the conference.

6. Design of the booth: Morgan from Offchain Labs worked on it, and this is how it will look like =)
   The copy on the triangular column will say on one side: “The Arbitrum DAO is a collaborative ecosystem of tokenholders, builders and delegates. This community oversees governance at Arbitrum One, the largest L2 on Ethereum. Together, it shapes and make decisions that evolve this critical piece of infrastructure that scales Ethereum.”; on another side: “Arbitrum is a customizable, interoperable set of solutions designed to bring businesses and people onchain. Its flagship blockchain, Arbitrum One, leads L2 protocols in TVL, offering deep liquidity and streamlined deployment capabilities, empowering dApp innovation across DeFi, AI, gaming, and other verticals.”; and on yet another side: “The Arbitrum ecosystem expands through Orbit technology, enabling the development of customizable, interconnected chains, and Stylus, which supports smart contract development in Rust and C++. These innovations cement Arbitrum’s position as the vanguard in blockchain development.”
   

   

7. Merch: We agreed on the type of merch we want to do, but we still don’t have final designs for it. @ZER8 is leading this part and we are having input on it from Morgan (from Offchain Labs) as well. We will have small items merch like small fanny packs, beanies, stickers, stress balls, same as there was in ETH Denver, and then we will have a custom designed Arbitrum/ETH Bucharest t-shirt inspired by this Bangkok one.
   

   

8. Digital roll-ups: We might need to do specific roll-ups for ETH Bucharest, and not be able to reuse the ones from ETH Denver, as originally thought, because the booth design and messaging is different. This can be the last thing we do, because it only needs to be ready the day before the conference starts. We also need to have a video for the TV booth that would loop the whole time of the conference.

9. Free Tickets: If you are an Arbitrum DAO delegate and you want a free ticket, please fill in this form. All VIP tickets with access to the Speakers Dinner are already spoken for. They will go to @TempeTechie, @Tekr0x.eth, Denys from @lobbyfi who have already booked flights and accomodation to Bucharest, and then to @baer.eth and @ZER8 whenever they do. So we now have just 10 regular tickets to give away. Please fill in the form above if you want one.

10. Ticket Discount Code: We still have to figure out how to promote this discount code. The official @Arbitrum account on x.com has not tweeted yet about ETH Bucharest (they said they will) and we could offer this discount code through there and other social media accounts, including the ETH Bucharest one.

So, to summarize, our next priorities, in order of urgency, are:

1. Have merch designs ready for production (@ZER8 and I will work on this)
2. Submit the official Hackathon bounties to the hackathon organizers (I will do this tomorrow the latest)
3. Confirm who is going to be the Arbitrum Foundation speaker (@raam said we will have confirmation by Wednesday)
4. Coordinate what each speaker will talk about so that the content makes sense for the audience and we reduce the overlap (there’s already a telegram group with the speakers to align on this)
5. Organize the hackathon tracks content and goals (there’s already a telegram group with the mentors and judges to align on this)
6. Make a schedule to man the booth (I’ll create a spreadsheet for this soon)
7. Give 10 free tickets away to Arbitrum DAO delegates
8. Give the ticket discount code away to the general public
9. Coordinate with Morgan from OCL to have the digital roll-ups and the video for the TV booth.

If you have suggestions and ideas, please share them here in this thread.

See you next week on Monday, on the next call.

Thank you all!

[Arbitrum]

We have been working closely with the organisers of ETH Bucharest, and are in alignment with the updates shared above.

Re Point 1, we can confirm that ChrisCo from OCL will be giving the Arbitrum 101 keynote. Ricardo from the AF will also be there to represent and help out with the booth and hackathon judging.

Re Point 5, as the booth is quite large, we would recommend coordinating the schedule ASAP so that the booth is always staffed and that volunteers know when they need to be present.

We would also like to point out that prior to this post being made, there was no mention of the AF’s involvement in the original ETHBucharest proposal. Going forwards, it would be helpful if such requests could be made at the time of the proposal being raised, or at least a little further in advance so we can more effectively participate. Tagging the 3 members of the Establishing a DAO Events Budget for 2025 group accordingly (@Disruptionjoe, @entropy, @adpc), for visibility.

We look forward to EthBucharest, and are happy to see the DAO coordinating its first event from the DAO Events Budget.