Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024 - Impact Report
Title: GovHack ETHcc Brussels 2024
Proposal ID: Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024
Executive Summary
Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024, a three-day event held just before EthCC, brought together over 200 participants from 16 countries to drive governance innovation within the Arbitrum ecosystem. The event culminated in the submission of 25 high-quality proposals across 10 tracks, each designed to enhance the DAO’s operations and strategic direction. This hackathon not only fostered deeper community relationships but also showcased the transformative potential of decentralized governance.
Highlights:
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ArbitrumDAO participated in a mapathon process, involving 50+ delegates and contributors to identify and prioritise key challenge areas for the DAO, 10 key tracks and challenge statements as strategic focus areas were identified
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185 registered, 110+ participants attended in 28 teams
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200+ total participants across 3 days
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16 Countries represented
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25 proposals submitted, 6 being continued
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9 Pitstop Experts provided a total of 168 expert feedback sessions to teams on their proposals
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20 scholarships offered
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3 panels
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5 winning finalists with a $20k prize pool awarded
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9.5 star rating and 83 NPS from participants
To capture the essence of the event, checkout the 4-minute after-movie:
Introduction
The Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024 was conceived as a pivotal event to further the decentralized governance efforts of the Arbitrum ecosystem. Building on the success of the GovHack held earlier in Denver, this Brussels edition aimed to elevate the community’s engagement and solidify Arbitrum’s position as a leading force in decentralized governance.
Background and Motivation
GovHack Brussels was strategically scheduled to take place on July 5-7, 2024, just before one of the most significant Ethereum-centric events, ETHcc, in Brussels. This timing was chosen to maximize the impact of the event, ensuring that Arbitrum had a strong presence during a crucial gathering of the Ethereum community.
The success of the Denver event (GovHack Denver Impact Report) had already demonstrated the value of in-person collaborations in fostering innovation and strengthening the network of contributors, delegates, and service providers within the DAO.
Hack Humanity, the organiser of both GovHack events, secured $309k in funding from the Arbitrum DAO to execute this initiative (actual funds spent $262k detailed in the finances section of this report).
The DAO voted 99% in favour of producing GovHack and continuing the tradition that started in Denver.
The goal was to leverage the momentum gained from the Denver event, while expanding the scope and ambition for Brussels. This included a larger prize pool, the introduction of a subsidy pool for high-value contributors, and enhanced community engagement through a dedicated afterparty and a community showcase day.
Objectives of GovHack Brussels
The primary objectives of GovHack Brussels were to:
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Strengthen Trust and Relationships: Build deeper connections between Arbitrum contributors and foster a high-trust environment essential for decentralized governance.
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Ideation and Implementation: Encourage the creation and eventual implementation of innovative proposals that could benefit the Arbitrum ecosystem.
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Attract New Talent: Position Arbitrum as the go-to platform for new and existing talent to build and contribute to the DAO’s growth and success.
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Enhance Brand and Community Presence: Ensure that Arbitrum maintains a strong and influential presence at industry-leading events, particularly those focused on Ethereum, to continue attracting users, developers, and key contributors.
GovHack Brussels was designed not just as a standalone event, but as a critical step in a broader strategy to cultivate a resilient, innovative, and inclusive ecosystem and sustainable DAO. By focusing on in-person interactions and providing a structured environment for proposal development, the event aimed to produce tangible outcomes that would drive the DAO forward.
In the following sections, this report will delve into the specific outcomes of GovHack Brussels, examining how it met its objectives and the impact it had on the Arbitrum community and ecosystem.
Methodology
Implementation Process
GovHack Brussels 2024 employed a comprehensive and structured approach designed to maximize the potential for innovative governance proposals within the Arbitrum ecosystem. The event was built upon a series of carefully planned activities to identify key challenges, facilitate collaboration, and guide teams through the proposal development process.
- Pre-Event Mapathons: The event preparation began with two virtual mapathons, strategically scheduled across different time zones to ensure broad participation. These sessions provided a platform for participants to express their concerns, hopes, and brainstorm potential problems and solutions. The ideas generated were clustered, prioritized, and organized into thematic tracks, which were then explored through SWOT analyses and challenge statements developed in breakout rooms.
- Access the recordings and Miro boards from the mapathons:
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Mapathon Round 1 - recording - Jun 17 04 PM CET
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Mapathon Round 2 - Jun 26 10 AM CET
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Combined results
- Track Identification and Participant Alignment: The mapathon process led to the identification of ten key tracks, each aligned with the most pressing needs of the DAO. These tracks provided a focused framework for participants to align their skills and ideas. The contributor roles were designed with two main objectives:
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Skill Diversity: Encourage the formation of teams with a balanced mix of technical, design/research, and business/governance expertise.
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Proposal Relevance: Assist contributors in developing proposals that directly address the specific challenges outlined in each track.
Track hosts:
Engagement from key stakeholders really makes GovHack shine, the following valued members of Arbitrum community stepped up to be Track hosts to guide participants in rapidly getting high context on each track, selecting or developing a challenge statement and were supported by HackHumanity’s co-facilitator team with helping individuals in team formation.
Track hosts and their talks:
1. Ana María Yanakieva - Ventures @ana.vc
2. AnaTech and Rezvan - Marketing @AnaTech.eth @ZER8
3. Disruption Joe and Raam - IRL Community @DisruptionJoe
4. Matt Fiebach - DAO budget & revenue @MattOnChain
5. David - Orbit, Stylys, & Infra @davidgarcia
7. Siddharth Shah - RWA @sid_areta
9. Rick - Gaming @rickjohanson
10. Lucca Gets - Decentralized sequencer
Track Hosts overview video:
Expert Pitstops
During Days 1 & 2 of GovHack, three educational talks were hosted, and one of the standout features from GovHack, the “Expert Pitstop,” saw nine Arbitrum experts providing live feedback and consultation to 25 teams. This support significantly enhanced proposal development, offering insights and clarity beyond what is possible through forum posts.
Pitstop Experts:
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Alex Lumley
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Cliffton
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CoinFlipCanada
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Disruption Joe
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DK @dk3
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Frisson
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George Beall
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Krzysztof Urbański and Sinkas (L2Beat)
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Lucas Fulks
The Expert Pitstops allowed participants to not only improve their proposals but also to deepen their understanding of the Arbitrum ecosystem, fostering a sense of confidence and trust in their projects.
Grants Programs Overview
GovHack Brussels 2024 offered participants several key grant opportunities to support the development and implementation of their proposals. These resources were crucial in encouraging participants to think about the long-term impact of their projects within the Arbitrum ecosystem.
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Thank Arbitrum Grants Programs Overview:
A guide to the available grants within the Arbitrum ecosystem, helping participants navigate the funding landscape effectively. Explore the guide here. -
SeedGov - QuestBook:
This platform provided tools and resources for proposal development and grant applications, aiding participants in refining their ideas and securing necessary funding. Access SeedGov - QuestBook here. -
Uniswap Arbitrum Grants Program:
Aimed at supporting innovative projects within Arbitrum, this program offered another funding avenue for teams. Learn more here. -
Arbitrum Foundations Grant program
A video summary of Grant programs is here:
The intent here as an improvement over GovHack Denver was to guide teams towards smaller and easier funding opportunities beyond going direct to the DAO and main treasury via Snapshot and Tally which is an intensive process. The hypothesis to make this addition to GovHack was well-received, in fact participants requested more guidance on this path.
Proposal Development
After the pre-event mapathons and expert pitstop sessions, participants were fully equipped and motivated to create impactful proposals. These proposals were developed in teams, with each team working diligently to address the specific challenges identified during the mapathons. The expert guidance provided by the pitstop sessions was instrumental in refining these proposals, ensuring they aligned with the Arbitrum ecosystem’s needs.
Judging and Community Vote
To ensure a fair and comprehensive evaluation of the proposals, a panel of experienced judges was assembled. These judges were selected based on their deep understanding of the Arbitrum ecosystem and their ability to assess the potential impact of the proposed solutions.
Judges:
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Disruption Joe - Head of Decentralization at ThriveProtocol, Arbitrum Delegate
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Krzysztof Urbański - Governance Lead at L2Beat, Arbitrum Delegate
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George Beall - BD/Governance at Gauntlet, Arbitrum Delegate
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CoinflipCanada - GMX, Arbitrum Delegate
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JoJoCow - Strategy at JonesDAO, Arbitrum Delegate
These judges reviewed all 25 submissions, evaluating them based on innovation, feasibility, and alignment with the DAO’s strategic goals. By noon on Day 3, they had selected five finalists who were then invited to deliver live pitches during the event’s Open Community Day.
Winners!
GovHack Brussels 2024 culminated in the submission of 25 high-quality proposals. Each proposal adhered to the established guidelines, which included a written document of 400-1500 words, a 2-minute video pitch, and the “GovHack Brussels” tag for identification.
The following five finalists delivered a live pitch on Day 3’s Open Community Day, where winners were selected by the votes of those who attended the Community Day.
- First place: Team 16 - Proposal App : A one-stop-shop to all Arbitrum proposals, regardless of their different lifecycle stages. The app aims to aggregate information from Discourse, Snapshot, and the Arbitrum Onchain Governor contracts so as to understand the context of each proposal. The team asks for $93K for a three-month project development. Full proposal here.
- Second place: Team 26 - DevRel Uni Cohort: A six weeks training program to develop and deliver Developer Relations (DevRel) skills and knowledge, ensuring that more protocols within the Arbitrum ecosystem can benefit from DevRel support. The team is asking for $30K for a cohort. Full proposal here.
- Third place: Team 12 - Transparency and standardised metrics for Orbit chains on growthepie: A dedicated Arbitrum Orbit Stack page on growthepie.xyz listing 20 chains. Their goal is to aggregate important metrics on a chain level, including revenue for each chain, so that users, builders, and DAO members can make better data-driven decisions. The team is asking $ARB 305.2k for a 5-month development window. Full proposal here.
- Fourth place: Team 9 - Arbitrum DAO Dashboard: An aggregated dashboard reflecting the spending of Arbitrum DAO in 2024 available for all via a public website. The team’s aim is to ensure long-term sustainability and informed decision-making, insight into the current state of DAO. They ask $90K for 8 months of work. Full proposal here.
- Fifth place: Team 4 - Jumpstart fund for DAO improvement: A Questbook fund to support early-stage initiatives focused on problem definition (root causes, gathering requirements), alignment, and scoping proposals for operational and governance improvements. The team is asking for $431K which $350K of them are for funding research initiatives. Full proposal here.
The remaining 20 submissions were also of high quality, reflecting the dedication and creativity of the participants.
To view these proposals, visit the Arbitrum GovHack Submissions on the Forum.
Post GovHack
After GovHack, the following proposals have significantly advanced their proposals and have either submitted or are preparing to submit proposals to the DAO:
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1st place winner Proposals.app is being evolved on the Forum and plans to go to snapshot
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2nd place winner - a dedicated Abritrum DevRel Uni has gone to QuestBook.
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3rd GrowThePie Orbit went to snapshot and didn’t pass
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4th place Arbitrum DAO dashboard plans to continue and produce a proposal
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5th place winner Jumpstart Fund moved to snapshot vote but didn’t pass
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EIP-4824 powered daoURI for Arbitrum DAO is continuing and plans to post to snapshot in the coming weeks
Panels
Panel 1: Organizational structure & oversight
Panel 2: Impact of grant programs
Panel 3: End goal for ARB initiatives
Interviews
Talks
Sam Martin from Entropy Advisors - Crafting a DAO Proposal
Patrick from the Foundation - Arbitrum Technologies
Sinkas - ARDC
Maggie Love - SheFi talk
Quantitative Results
The Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024 delivered significant outcomes across various metrics, showcasing the event’s success.
Event Participation and Engagement
- Mapathon Involvement: Over 50 delegates and contributors participated in the mapathon process, identifying and prioritizing key challenge areas for the DAO. This process led to the creation of 10 strategic tracks and challenge statements, guiding the focus of the hackathon.
- Registration and Attendance:
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185 individuals registered for the event.
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More than 110 participants actively engaged in the hackathon, forming 28 teams.
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The event saw a total of over 200 participants across the three days.
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Representation from 16 different countries contributed to a diverse and inclusive environment.
Proposals and Expert Feedback
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Proposals Submitted: A total of 25 proposals were submitted, each addressing different aspects of governance and innovation within the DAO.
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Expert Feedback: Nine Pitstop Experts provided 168 expert feedback sessions, significantly enhancing the quality and relevance of the proposals.
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Scholarships: 20 scholarships were offered to participants (15 fully eligible and distributed), ensuring a wide range of contributors could attend.
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Panels and Discussions: Three panels were held, featuring in-depth discussions on key governance topics.
Event Outcomes
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Finalists and Prize Distribution: Five winning teams were selected, sharing a prize pool of $20,000.
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Participant Satisfaction: The event received a 9.5-star rating and an impressive Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 83 from participants, highlighting the high level of satisfaction and engagement.
Media and Storytelling Deliverables
- Daily Recaps: Three daily recap videos were produced to capture the essence of each day, engaging the wider community through social media.
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Day 1 Recap:
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Watch it here | 34K views | 51 reposts | 270 likes
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HackHumanityCo status | 43.8k views | 20 reposts | 57 likes
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Day 2 Recap:
- Watch it here | 21K views | 22 reposts | 62 likes
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Day 3 Recap:
- Watch it here | 1.9K views | 13 reposts | 49 likes
- Community Showcase Day: On the final day, four demo showcases of existing Arbitrum projects were presented alongside three panels and two technical talks, further enriching the participants’ experience.
Social Media Impact
The event’s social media presence significantly amplified its reach and visibility within the broader community:
- Mentions and Impressions:
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Over 70 real-time mentions of “Arbitrum GovHack” during the event, with additional mentions post-event.
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HackHumanity generated more than 116.8k impressions solely through event-related tweets, all prominently featuring Arbitrum’s branding.
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In total, tweets about the event accumulated 343.3k views, 2.2k likes, 500 retweets, and over 180 comments.
- Vox Pops and Interviews: More than 30 attendees were interviewed live (Vox Pops), creating content for use during and after the event, further extending the event’s impact.
The robust media strategy, combined with the active engagement of participants and the quality of the proposals submitted, underscores the success of the Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024 in achieving its goals of fostering innovation and collaboration within the Arbitrum DAO.
Qualitative Results
Impact on Arbitrum DAO and Ecosystem
The Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024 had a profound impact on the DAO and its broader ecosystem, aligning with the DAO’s core values of social inclusiveness, collaboration, and innovation.
Social Inclusiveness
The event drew participants from various stages of engagement with the Arbitrum ecosystem, with demographics reflecting a wide range of experience levels and geographic diversity:
- Experience within the Ecosystem:
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The majority of attendees had between 6 to 24 months of experience within Arbitrum, highlighting GovHack’s role as a magnet for committed community members who are eager to shape the DAO’s future.
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A significant portion of participants were new to Arbitrum, using GovHack as a rapid and immersive entry point to understand the nuances of DAO governance, decision-making processes, and funding mechanisms.
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This diversity of experience levels suggests that GovHack serves as a critical mechanism for both integrating new members and enhancing the contributions of established ones.
- Geographic Diversity:
- Participants hailed from 16 countries, primarily from Europe, but also from North and South America, and India. However, there is room for improvement in terms of representation from the African continent and the Global South.
- Participant Roles:
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Attendees primarily identified as Builders, Contributors, and Service Providers, indicating that GovHack attracts individuals who are not only interested in contributing to the DAO but are also focused on building and enhancing its ecosystem.
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The significant presence of Delegates underscores GovHack’s importance as a forum for deepening IRL feedback and fostering stronger connections among established DAO contributors.
Participant Experience
Detailed IRL schedule here.
Arbitrum’s goal of fostering an ecosystem that thrives on open innovation, interoperability, user choice, and healthy competition was clearly reflected in the participant experiences at GovHack Brussels:
- Overall Sentiment:
- The general sentiment during Day 1 was overwhelmingly positive, with participants using words like “fun,” “inclusive,” and “connected” to describe their experience. By Day 2, the focus shifted to words like “intense,” “productive,” and “impactful,” reflecting the rigorous work and networking that characterized the event.
DAY 1
DAY 2
- Social Connectivity:
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On Day 1, most attendees reported knowing few people within the ecosystem. However, by the end of Day 2, participants had significantly expanded their networks, with many reporting they had met between 6 and 15 new people. This increase in social connections was facilitated by structured networking exercises and track explorations.
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Quotes from participants like Cliffton highlight the value of in-person interactions:
“Having a lot of in real life feedback, a lot of in-person iterations and improvements, is a big value add… We found out that the main takeaways from the DAO was that everyone just got to know each other better, everyone could collaborate on a quicker pace.”
Skill Development and Confidence Building
GovHack also played a crucial role in enhancing the proposal-making skills and confidence of participants:
- Confidence in Proposal Success:
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Participants’ confidence in getting their proposals passed increased from an average of 6.4 on Day 1 to 7.0 on Day 2, marking a 9.4% improvement. This boost was attributed to the expert feedback and educational talks provided during the event.
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As Raam noted, “I think the quality of the proposals that we saw at GovHack were probably equivalent to one month of progress for a typical proposal that’s worked on remotely.”
DAY 1
DAY 2
Quotes from Participants
The positive feedback from participants underscores the value that GovHack added to the Arbitrum ecosystem:
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Disruption Joe: “The DAO is really spearheading the evolution of decentralized technology and governance. And we’re seeing this governance innovation live in action here at GovHack.”
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Srijith: “GovHack makes it super easy if you’re not a coder because there is a lot of value that you can add based on your experience… Bringing us together makes it a lot easier for us to move the DAO forward.”
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@ocandocrypto: “I’m feeling excited just for the fact that I’ve been learning a lot. So it’s quite exciting, this real experience of sharing with others and also learning from others.”
These qualitative results highlight GovHack Brussels 2024 as a pivotal event that not only fostered collaboration and innovation but also strengthened the social fabric and skill sets within the Arbitrum community.
Finances
The original proposal was executed with $309k, including contingencies.
The final costs come in at $262k
Original estimates:
Hack Humanity received Milestone 1 & 2, we did not request Milestone 3 payment ($46,350) the final 15% as it was not needed.
Note the plan was to distribute $10k (20 x $500) scholarships, we awarded 20 scholarships, yet 5 people didn’t show up or were in eligible, the final scholarship spend was $7,500.
Actual costs
Underspent $1096 returned from Hack Humanity wallet to GovHack mutlisig
Remainder in GovHack Multisig:
This can be used towards GovHack Devcon to secure a Bangkok venue early, or returned to the DAO main treasury.
Recommendations for Future Events
Based on the challenges faced and feedback received, several recommendations were made to enhance future GovHack events:
- Increase Prize Amounts:
- To encourage a greater variety of projects, it was suggested to increase the prize pool and consider separating prizes by track. This would ensure that all tracks are well-represented and encourage more focused project development.
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Change the number of Tracks
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We had 10 tracks, while that meant we had a breadth of engagement, was that at the cost of depth of engagement. We could do the next GovHack to a much greater depth say on 3 tracks that are top priorities for the DAO for that quarter for instance.
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Larger Scholarships:
- The $500 scholarships provided were not sufficient for participants travelling from outside Europe. One major delegate suggested increasing the scholarship amount to $2,500 per participant while curating the talent pool more selectively would better support the participation of high-value contributors. Ideal 20 x $2,500.
- Workshops on Grants:
- More workshops focused explicitly on available grants and the application process would help participants better navigate the funding landscape and increase the quality of their proposals.
- Venue Considerations:
- While the venue was generally well-received, future events should take into account the proximity to related conferences, like EthCC, to make it more convenient for participants.
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Post GovHack Support
- Facilitated program to support promising proposals to continue development and submission to the DAO. I.e. run online PitStops, schedule dedicated guidance and feedback sessions per track aspiring contributors can engage with. Ideal a dedicated 4 week online support/incubation program
- Target demographics and IRL program design considerations
GovHack was conceived and created by Hack Humanity for the following purposes:
1. onboarding of new talent to solve issues for the DAO with proposals, success measures being increasing the quantity and quality of proposals.
2. onboarding and development of existing and new delegates to exercise their role live realtime guiding and providing feedback to teams writing proposals
3. a space for delegates and core contributors to network, build high trust relationships and make core complex DAO level decision making
We assess that GovHack is doing 1 and 2 well, point 3 in particular complex DAO level decision-making isn’t something intentionally designed for in the program and facilitation, people in the DAO are showing up and defacto using GovHack in this way in the absence of a dedicated opportunity to fulfil that need.
We have had 2 iterations of GovHack, I’d like to ideate with feedback here on what the 3rd iteration of GovHack needs to be most serving.
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The possibility to either
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have a dual track of strategic facilitation for delegates and core contributors to work through hard problems and make decisions
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use Day 1 as a mini offsite for delegates and core contributors with the support of structured facilitation to work through complex topics and make critical decisions, to sharpen up the most aligned tracks and challenge statements, then move to the hackathon with this enhanced clarity
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By reflecting on these challenges and the lessons learned, GovHack can continue to evolve and improve, ensuring that future events provide even greater value to participants and the Arbitrum ecosystem as a whole.
Conclusion
Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024 showcased the powerful role in-person events play in sparking innovation and enhancing decentralized governance. With more than 200 participants from 16 countries, the event provided a fertile ground for turning ideas into actionable proposals.
The event’s well-organized structure, featuring pre-event mapathons, expert pitstops, and educational panels, gave participants the tools they needed to navigate the complex process of developing proposals. By focusing on key areas relevant to the DAO’s goals, the event ensured that contributions were both meaningful and impactful. The democratic approach to judging and community voting highlighted a strong commitment to fostering genuine innovation.
Participants were highly satisfied, as evidenced by a Net Promoter Score of 83 and robust social media engagement. However, the real highlight was the personal connections and sense of community that emerged—something often lacking in virtual environments.
The insights gained, especially around the timing of educational sessions and team formation, will be invaluable for future events. As Arbitrum continues to grow, the lessons and networks established at GovHack Brussels will be instrumental in shaping the DAO’s future. This event underscored the importance of in-person engagement in driving decentralized governance forward, setting a new benchmark for community-driven innovation.
HackHumanity has thoroughly enjoyed producing GovHacks and wishes to continue this tradition providing GovHacks as a key competitive advantage for Arbitrum.
Have added a Quick Poll for future direction, feedback much appreciated → Poll
Additional Resources
To explore more about the Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024, including videos, proposals, photos, and media coverage, please refer to the following links:
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After-Movie: Watch the 4-minute after-movie
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Proposal Submissions: View all proposals on the Arbitrum Forum GovHack section
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Mapathon Recordings and Miro Boards:
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Mapathon Round 1 - recording - Jun 17 04 PM CET
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Daily Recaps:
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Day 1 Recap | 34K views | 51 reposts | 270 likes
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Day 2 Recap | 21K views | 22 reposts | 62 likes
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Day 3 Recap | 1.9K views | 13 reposts | 49 likes
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Photos: Access all pictures from the Arbitrum GovHack Brussels 2024
. Personally, this event influenced me positively, and I’m sure it had a similar effect on many others. I’d love to see it happen again around other big Web3 conferences such as Devcon.
