Proposal: Setting up the first Arbitrum Community House in the Greater Helsinki region in Finland
Please note that this initial proposal may be changed according to community feedback. This is a temperature check. The proposer requests an eligible address to create an accompanying Snapshot poll for this proposal, as described in Section 2 of the Arbitrum DAO Constitution.
Abstract
Grant of €850,940 to form the first Arbitrum Community House (ACH) in the Greater Helsinki region in Finland to drive Arbitrum adoption, awareness, and developer friendliness within the region. The grant will fund the operations of the ACH for a 30-month period. Simultaneously, the proposal aims to set precedent in forming ACHs and therefore distributing Arbitrum’s footprint from a mostly internet-based community to a distributed, local, and community-driven initiative.
Background
Arbitrum mostly exists as an internet-native community. To reach more potential developers and other ecosystem participants at the grass root level, and in order to decentralise the community’s presence by setting a precedent, the initiative to set up an Arbitrum Community House is proposed.
Motivation
The motivation for creating the first ACH is four-fold; reaching new audiences, increasing decentralisation, creating local supportive communities, and setting precedent.
Reaching new audiences. Arbitrum awareness is still taking its first baby steps. By setting up a local community, optimally located near a university, we can reach new groups of potential users.
Increasing decentralisation. By funding an ACH initiative, the Arbitrum DAO sets up a new decentralised base of operations, open to any Arbitrum user. With enough ACHs, Arbitrum can become a decentralised force.
Creating local supportive communities. By creating a network, community, and a library of knowledge around an ACH, which can focus on issues deemed important by the community at the particular ACH location, Arbitrum can foster stronger local communities.
Setting precedent. The ACH is a new concept and this proposal seeks to set precedent for the minimum viable transparency, details, level of execution, and operational frameworks expected from other ACHs. All of the work done for this ACH will be open-sourced and publicised, as far as permitted by governing law while respecting individual privacy.
Rationale
Any decision made by the ACH will follow the spirit of the Arbitrum DAO constitution.
This AIP aligns with the Arbitrum community values:
- Ethereum aligned: the ACH will serve as a body of knowledge about Ethereum and the EVM to the same extent it serves as a body of knowledge about Arbitrum
- Sustainable: the ACH will be set up in a sustainable way that can allow for long-term operations.
- Socially inclusive: no person will be denied entry to an ACH on the basis of any ethnic, social, knowledge, or other quality. The ACH will foster a diverse community.
- Technically inclusive: the ACH will strive to provide resources to access Arbitrum in means that support the inclusion of the local users in the Arbitrum ecosystem.
- User-focused: the ACH will provide grass-root help to anyone who needs it, regardless of who they are.
- Neutral and open: the ACH will not discriminate on projects based on their attributes, teams, or other characteristics but will foster an innovation-friendly environment.
Key Terms
- ACH: Arbitrum Community House
- ACH HEL: The ACH described in this AIP
- AIP: Arbitrum Improvement Proposal
Specifications
Timeline & Milestones
This timeline is provided solely for illustrative purposes. It should serve as an ambitious benchmark for future ACH proposals.
- 2023/04: Proposal is ratified and proposer receives the funds to start the project
- 2023/05: Month 1. Preliminary work on enabling the ACH, along with technology choices and setting up of appropriate operations begins.
- 2023/07: An appropriate location is found and the rental contract is signed.
- 2023/09: The ACH is adequately furnished and staffed. The ACH opens. ACH community channels (such as, but not necessarily, Twitter and Discord) have been set up.
- 2023/11: First hackathon
- 2024/02: 300 people have visited the ACH.
- 2024/04: At least three (3) live, production applications have been deployed by the ACH community
- 2024/05: Two summer research interns start working on community-suggested problems, solving real problems.
- 2024/08: 500 people have visited the ACH
- 2024/11: Second hackathon
- 2025/04: At least twenty (20) live, production applications have been deployed by the ACH community
- 2025/05: The second cohort of summer research interns starts.
- 2025/08: 1500 people have visited the ACH
- 2025/10: Month 30. Either the ACH has received further funding, has become self-sufficient, or will be wound down with any excess funds returned to Arbitrum as defined under “Budget”.
Mission
The ACH aims to
- Support existing and prospective Arbitrum developers, builders, and contributors by providing a space and community in which they can share knowledge, tap into in-house legal help, and utilise the other resources provided by the ACH
- Build a library of resources and knowledge available, free of charge, to anyone who is using Arbitrum
- Improve awareness of Arbitrum in the Finnish community, focusing especially on reaching: a) University students and recent graduates; b) Developers who have not previously developed EVM applications; c) Entrepreneurs, start-ups, & founders; and d) Researchers.
- Create an inclusive space for anyone interested in Arbitrum.
This instance of the ACH, preliminary named ACH HEL after the nearest international airport to the prospective location, seeks to set precedent in setting up ACHs and also provide other ACHs with learnings from the journey of setting up an ACH by the means of recurring open reporting.
Any decision made by ACH HEL should always follow the spirit of the Arbitrum DAO Constitution.
Goals
- Open up a physical location for Arbitrum-related discussions to take place in the Southern Finland region by the end of September
- Facilitate information sharing, community building, and networking
- Build an online library of knowledge related to Ethereum and Arbitrum, aimed to serve the needs of the local community
- Support entrepreneurs and builders by connecting them with the right companies, such as legal firms and consultants, in the region
- Reach a) 500 people in-person during the first year of operations; and b) 1500 people in-person during the second year of operations.
- Host a hackathon in November 2023 and November 2024 with €10,000 in prizes and at least 50 participating projects.
- Create a new community-led physical footprint for Arbitrum
Budget
The budget will be denominated in Euros and all funds received by the proposer will be converted into Euros. Funds are kept on-chain and withdrawn on a monthly basis or as needed. A retrospective spending report will be provided no later than 2 months after the end of the reporting month. All receipts, invoices, and related documents will be published to the extent permitted by law.
The budget breakdown for the 30-month period is as follows:
- Setup costs: €57,000.00
- Premises: €189,000.00
- Marketing & exosystem: €18,950.00
- IT: €6,620.00
- Staff: €498,000.00
- Events: €30,000.00
- Other: €51,370.00
In total: €850,940.00
For the full breakdown please see the spreadsheet located here: Arbitrum Community House Initial Budget Proposal - Google Sheets
The proposer seeks a total of 970,000 USDC. The USDC will be converted into 850,940 Euro stablecoins and the excess USDC, less 500 USDC (see section 1 under “Notes”), will be returned to the treasury. The USDC amount sought is approximately 5% higher than the Euro amount sought to account for possible foreign exchange rate changes between the date on which the proposal is first proposed and the date on which the currency was converted to Euro stablecoins.
The ACH may apply for further funding at a later date if the goals of the project have been met. Should the ACH be terminated or if it does not receive further funding, any excess funds, should they exceed 1000€, will be returned to the Arbitrum treasury no later than 12 months after the close of the fiscal year during which the ACH was ceased.
The ACH may monetise its space or presence in such a way that does not harm its mission as long as at least 75% of the proceeds, net of taxes, are distributed to the benefit of the ACH, its members, community, or Arbitrum in accordance with the mission of the ACH. Such monetisation methods could include the hosting of hackathons, sponsored workshops, or selling ad space in either the physical location or the ACH’s social media. Such advertising should never undermine the mission or presence of the ACH, Arbitrum, or affiliated parties. Advertising may never take precedence of the ACH or Arbitrum.
Funds may be invested in DeFi protocols in accordance to the risk parameters set by Ape Capital LLC. Any investment returns will be used for the benefit of the ACH.
Technologies
This proposal does not make any suggestions for the technologies used by ACH HEL. The technologies used shall be determined at a later time, focusing on the sustainability of those technologies, their focus on privacy & data security, and usability in the long-term while preferring open-source software where possible.
Steps to Implement
This proposal should be executed as follows on the Arbitrum One mainnet:
- Sell ARB to receive 970,000 USDC on Uniswap (or any other highly liquid DEX)
- Transfer 970,000 USDC to 0x82C224dB3038F146Ae1A6288f6278f58BE0d87f4
The legal entity receiving the funds is Ape Capital LLC. Ape Capital LLC will provide a receipt of the transaction.
Notes
- The creator of the proposal does not have sufficient voting power to create a new governance vote. Therefore, subject to the temperature check succeeding, any entity with sufficient voting power can propose the proposal for governance vote on behalf of the original proposer, honouring the proposal exactly. The entity doing so will be compensated a flat fee of 500 USDC if the vote passes successfully.
- This instance of the ACH may be referred to as ACH HEL, where HEL is the airport code of the nearest international airport in relation to the planned location of the ACH.
- This AIP is Non-Constitutional
Appendices
A1: About the proposer
This proposal is made by Juuso Roinevirta on behalf of Ape Capital LLC, a limited liability company duly incorporated in the Republic of Finland with the business ID 3240316-2. All payments related to this proposal shall be made to 0x82C224dB3038F146Ae1A6288f6278f58BE0d87f4, an address controlled and held by Ape Capital LLC.
Ape Capital LLC will serve as the legal vehicle for the execution of the proposal while Juuso Roinevirta will be appointed as the general manager of ACH HEL.
About Ape Capital LLC
Ape Capital LLC is a for-profit company which provides product management and related services to crypto-native businesses. Learn more at ape.llc
About Juuso Roinevirta
Juuso Roinevirta is currently the Head of Growth at Membrane Finance. Notably, he has previously worked at Tracer DAO (an Arbitrum native derivatives protocol) and Tesseract Investment (an institutional cryptocurrency credit company). He has a BSc in Business Economics from Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and a partially completed MPhil in Computer Sciences from the University of Helsinki. He has spearheaded the growth of the Finnish blockchain community by organising events such as “Crypto Get Together”.
Links:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roinevirta
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/roinevirta
Conflicts of Interest
Juuso works for Membrane Finance which issues EUROe, an EU-regulated Euro stablecoin.
A2: ACH Location
The location must fulfil the following criteria:
- It has the capacity to host at least 50 people at any one time
- It has the capacity to host at least 10 working stations
- It has a stable internet connection
- It has the capacity to host a presentation with at least 30 sitting attendees
- It has a toilet and a kitchenette, or a small kitchen, to accommodate for on-location working for extended periods of time. These may be shared with other occupants of the building.
- It has a shower to accommodate participants arriving by bike or running. These may be shared with other occupants of the building.
- It is no further than 1km from the nearest public transport stop
- It is no further than 60 minutes by car from the Helsinki Airport
The ACH may be located in Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen, or Vantaa (collectively “Greater Helsinki region”)
Preferably, the location also fulfils the following criteria:
- It is located at or near a university (campus), such as the Aalto University which hosts the Aalto Crypto Society
- It has multiple rooms to enable quiet working spaces
The location is planned to be staffed from Wednesday to Sunday between 4pm and 10pm daily. Should a volunteer workforce enable it, the opening hours may be extended.
