Thank you for your support and voting “FOR, with POAP”, @Tekr0x.eth ! 
Was great meeting you in Brussles, during GovHack. We’re excited about 2025 and agree that Arbitrum’s presence at ETH Bucharest will be key to growing the ecosystem.
We’re also glad you’re a fan of the POAP activation—it’s a great way to engage attendees. Fingers crossed we’ll see you in Bucharest next year! 
Thank you for your support and vote “FOR with POAP”!
We completely agree—attracting builders through events like ETH Bucharest is key to fostering innovation and discovering those “killer apps” that drive ecosystems forward.
Thank you for taking the time to review the proposal and for sharing your concerns.
We completely understand the importance of ensuring clarity and value when allocating funds. While ETH Bucharest isn’t solely ARB-focused, it provides a great opportunity to showcase Arbitrum, especially Stylus, and engage with developers in a rapidly growing region like Eastern Europe.
The hackathon, speaking slot and workshop are specifically designed to onboard builders into the Arbitrum ecosystem, aligning with the DAO’s goals.
Thank you for sharing your perspective and for acknowledging the potential impact of ETH Bucharest.
We completely understand your concern about maintaining alignment with the recently established governance framework. The decision to apply through the DAO Events Budget was primarily driven by timing constraints, as waiting for the domain allocation process would likely result in missing key preparation milestones for the event.
That said, we appreciate the suggestion to refocus on Arbitrum-specific components and align with the 50k cap if pursuing a domain allocation route in the future.
Thank you for your detailed feedback and for voting for! Your continued trust, based on our past collaboration, means a lot to us. 
We completely understand your concerns regarding the POAP’s cost and the challenges in using it as an attendance metric. While we included it to enhance engagement and Arbitrum’s visibility, we respect the community’s feedback and are happy to proceed without it if that’s the consensus.
While the $8,000 booth cost may seem high, it reflects premium placement, logistics, branding, and production within the context of this event. ETH Bucharest’s scale may not compare to global conferences like DevCon, but it’s a leading Ethereum event in Eastern Europe with strong developer engagement, making this a strategic investment for Arbitrum’s presence in this region.
We appreciate this suggestion and understand its importance for safeguarding the DAO’s interests. While sponsorship agreements often require upfront payments, we’re open to exploring milestone-based releases for specific components, such as hackathon bounties or post-event reporting, to ensure accountability.
We agree that this project would typically fit under Questbook’s Domain. However, as you mentioned, the timing of Questbook resuming operations in February leaves too little time for event preparations. The decision to apply through the DAO Events Budget was solely to accommodate this tight timeline.
Thank you for addressing this transparently. We greatly value the collaboration we’ve had in the past and appreciate your confidence in evaluating this proposal as a separate and independent initiative.
Hi @AranaDigital ,
Thank you for your thoughtful response and for taking the time to share your perspective. We deeply appreciate your recognition of our previous hackathon’s success and the potential of ETH Bucharest 2025 as a significant event for the Ethereum space.
We completely understand the importance of aligning with the DAO Events Budget guidelines. While this proposal exceeds the $50,000 threshold for Questbook, the decision to apply through the DAO Events Budget was driven by timing constraints. Waiting for the next Questbook cycle would leave insufficient time to cover critical upfront expenses, such as venue rental and hackathon preparation.
Your suggestion to rework the proposal for a reduced budget within Questbook is well-noted. Should the current proposal not pass, we would be open to revisiting this approach while leveraging the feedback received here to ensure a stronger fit.
We understand and respect your position on following the DAO Events Budget structure.
The decision to apply through the DAO Events Budget was driven by timing constraints, as waiting for Questbook in February wouldn’t leave enough time for critical event preparations.
We understand your concerns about maintaining the integrity of the DAO Events Budget for Arbitrum-specific initiatives.
The decision to submit via the DAO Events Budget was due to timing constraints that made Questbook unsuitable for this cycle. However, we fully respect your view and appreciate your feedback on seeking alternative pathways for future iterations.
We truly appreciate your recognition of ETH Bucharest’s potential and your interest in seeing Arbitrum represented at the event. We understand your concerns about aligning the proposal with the DAO Events Budget’s focus on Arbitrum-specific initiatives and the feedback regarding Questbook grants.
The decision to submit through the DAO Events Budget was made to address timing constraints, but we respect your stance and will take this feedback into account for refining future proposals.
We’re happy that you found the updates to the proposal helpful and aligned with delegate feedback. Incorporating input from the community has been a priority, and it’s great to see this effort resonate with you.
We’re also glad you see the value in the POAP activation. It’s not just about engagement at the event but also about creating a lasting connection to attendees, which can help track and support future contributors to the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Your support and trust mean a lot!
The following reflects the views of L2BEAT’s governance team, composed of @krst and @Sinkas, and it’s based on the combined research, fact-checking, and ideation of the two.
We’re voting FOR the proposal while opting out of the POAP option.
Last year, ETH Bucharest proved to be rather successful, and we believe that doubling down on it is sensible. Bucharest, although not a prominent crypto hub, is a huge hub for IT people, and it would be wise for Arbitrum to have a presence there, especially now with the launch of Stylus.
When it comes to the budget, we believe that a good approach would be to earmark the requested budget but then have the ‘DAO Events Budget’ team work with ETH Bucharest to create a tailored sponsorship that fits our needs. We treat the requested $55,800 budget as the maximum amount, but we’d rather keep the spending to the necessary needed.
We should also keep in mind that the proposal, and by extension the requested budget, doesn’t touch on the creation and the running of the booth during the event, nor the costs associated with it.
gm,
While I am generally supportive of on-the-ground initiatives, I am voting AGAINST this proposal.
The event’s size (100 hackers) and its location do not justify the outlined cost, which I believe should be significantly below $50k.
Additionally, the proposal does not account for other operational costs the DAO would need to cover. While I understand timing was a factor in bringing this directly to a DAO vote, the purpose of the Event Program track is to ensure events are selected and coordinated as part of a broader strategy.
This proposal has passed with more than the 3% necessary quorum.
The quorum amount needed was 123,154,471.08 ARB, as calculated at either the 21388489 or 21388490 ethereum block.
And this offchain proposal results were:
| Vote Choice | ARB |
|---|---|
| FOR, without POAP - $55,800 | 60,513,976.77 |
| Abstain | 52,293,137.21 |
| Against | 24,904,213.10 |
| FOR, with POAP - $69,300 | 18,548,347.79 |
By adding the voting power for both FOR choices and the Abstain choice, this proposal achieved a quorum of 131,355,461.77 ARB
P.S.: Funny thing about this offchain vote is that, literally the last vote that was casted in this proposal, casted just 28 minutes before the proposal ended, with 12.3m ARB of voting power on the FOR, with POAP - $69,300 choice, which by the way, was the vote that made this proposal go over the necessary quorum threshold to be approved, was casted by none other than… @coinflip
so… you know… one could say that this proposal passing or not… was a literal… coinflip. =)