European Cardano Community Town Hall - Operation and Country Hubs

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Ricardo Burgos

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

77300

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

6

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

A multilingual European Cardano Community for collaboration of SPO and projects with a focus on region-specific aspects. Also, we drive Cardano's growth by hosting face-to-face events in EU countries.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

We decided on GNU. Because like the Apache or MIT license, it requires documentation and referencing our original documents. However, GNU would enforce open sourcing of our blueprint also for closed source projects.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

We leverage the European Cardano Community events (i.e. Zoom calls we call Fireside Chats) as a central hub to facilitate collaboration.

Our focus is on ecosystem projects and information about EU regulations. We do not endorse projects but engage with a positive mindset to increase awareness. Our intrinsic motivation is knowledge exchange, fostering growth, and helping overcome language barriers.

Since our inception in 2022, we have engaged key stakeholders, including Stake Pool Operators (SPOs), project teams, community members, and policymakers.

We are already building strong strategic partnerships to address the unique needs of projects building on Cardano in Europe.

With this proposal, we intend to increase the intensity of our endeavors.

We are featuring indy projects as well as prominent Cardano projects and organizing multilingual X spaces; we ensure inclusivity and broad participation and cater to diverse linguistic needs.

This approach enables us to connect with regional values, drive the adoption of Cardano within Europe, and provide a platform for projects building on Cardano to network and share insights.

We care about transparency and compliance. We understand compliance as the responsible trajectory of a project or ecosystem to comply with our community's expectation and prevent getting into the crosshairs of regulation.

Amongst others, we are already fostering collaboration among projects building on Cardano. However, with this proposal, we want to furthermore contribute to the community's knowledge about local regulatory compliance, and enhanced growth of the Cardano ecosystem in Europe.

As Cardano ecosystem participants often care about business and philanthropy, we see us as a founders' hub. Creating a blueprint regarding general compliance, funding mechanisms, and business ideation will help us and the greater community to improve on everyone of these aspects, reaching far beyond the Cardano ecosystem.

The blueprint will be a non-imposing set of suggestions for communities to build on, regarding their specific needs and region-specific aspects. A bundle of strategies, internal rules, and tools to formalize ideas into a tangible pathway assisting projects to navigate through their own unexplored realms.

Furthermore, we will actively foster alignment and collaboration with other regional Town Halls, such as the African Town Hall, Eastern Town Hall, LATAM Town Hall, and MENA Town Hall, promoting cross-regional knowledge sharing and driving synergistic growth within the global Cardano community.

We are already working on a Stakepool delegation rotation to add to already existing initiatives of the xSPO and the F2LB communities. These initiatives help small pools receive enough delegation to mint blocks. They also foster their interexchange. We see the need for additional delegation pillars like these to bridge the gaps between the rotation cycles.

Our fireside chats are building a solid foundation for physical meetups. These will be coordinated by local country hubs, for which we will establish a treasury to work with some of our trusted and active community members.

These events are comparable with the meetups supported by Cardano's founding entities: however, this time, they are 100% community-led, community-financed, and following the principles of our blueprint to the likes of the Cardano Community.

The budget for these country events will be dramatically lower, but we like the grass-roots aspect of it.

To be clear, we are not working against any of the founding entities, but we observed the expression of independence around the community and this is one way to fulfill it.

By offering a platform that facilitates networking, knowledge sharing, and strategic alignment, our solution amplifies Cardano's visibility, adoption, and influence in the European market, strengthening its position as a leading blockchain platform.

With Fund 11, after having been funded in Fund 10 - we will establish country hubs - with a strong focus on building local communities via face-to-face events.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

As the platform that EuCardano is now, we already provide an open platform for established and new projects either based or operating in Europe.

We have already fostered the incubation and promotion of a community podcast to promote fellow SPOs towards delegators. Another initiative we are promoting is the foundation of a delegation rotation similar to other initiatives in the ecosystem. With both tasks, we enable growth amongst smaller SPOs to increase the decentralization of Cardano.

Our Blueprints will help other communities and projects to bootstrap transparent processes for general compliance. The outcome will also help to get more clarity on how to treat donations in a global setting (e.g. how to consider the jurisdictions for beneficiaries and donors).

Amongst others, we had as our guests the likes of:

Ada Domains

Website: https://adadomains.io

Andromeda Way

Website: https://www.youtube.com/@andromedaway

Atrium

Website: https://atrium.io

Blueshift

Website: https://www.youtube.com/@andromedaway

Cardano Gaming Community

Website: https://cardanogamingcommunity.com/

Carving The Divine

Website: https://carvingthedivine.com/

Clarity

Website: https://clarity.community/

Demu Pro

Website: https://demu.pro/

Endubis Wallet

Website: https://endubis.io/

GameChanger Wallet V2 Beta

Website: https://gamechanger.finance/

Genius Yeld

Website: https://geniusyield.io/

Iagon (2nd visit in our Fireside Chat)

Website: https://iagon.com

Littlefish Foundation

Website: https://littlefish.foundation/

Mehen

Website: https://mehen.io/

NuNet

Website: https://nunet.io/

Pudgy Cat

Website: https://pudgycat.io/

Socius

Website: https://socius.io/

SoundRing

Website: https://soundrig.io/

Sundae Labs

Website: https://sundae.fi/

Sustainable ADA

Website: https://sustainableada.com

T minus 1

Website: https://tminusone.pro/

Token Allies

Website: https://tokenallies.com/

Unlearn

Twitter: https://x.com/kavdelos

Unpopular EL

Twitter/X: https://x.com/UnpopularEl

Wolfram Blockchain Labs

Website: https://wolframblockchainlabs.com

This is just a small list of the amazing people and projects we had with us in our Town Hall.

In addition, we also had alignments with the other regional groups, for example:

Recently - we are intensifying our alignment with the Eastern Town Hall as well as the Africa Town Hall.

Following our path in Fund 11, we want to continue expanding our reach to more and more European countries, connecting founders, providing insights into their projects, and nurturing the ground for fruitful discussions around their realms.

We strongly believe, that by providing this extra information, we can elevate the discussions around projects to a mature level, liberated of speculation or witch-hunting. As these projects will be interconnected with “regular” users and other founders, their ecosystem and as such the Cardano ecosystem will grow and bond stronger.

With support for this community proposal, we will be able to unlock at least four languages spoken in Europe and hence cover the vast majority of the continent.

Our community will find and co-create information regarding, but not exclusively related to EU topics.

By providing a framework for countries to develop their face-to-face activities in bigger European cities, we contribute to removing entry barriers for builders, investors, and students. Europe already has a crypto-friendly regulation and our goal is to maximize the opportunities arising from it.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

The core team of the European Cardano Community Town Hall (ECC) is composed by the following individuals:

• Davide Lucchesi 
• Marcus Ubani
• Mauro Andreoli
• Ricardo Burgos

Since the inception of the ECC in 2022, the members have dedicated time and resources in order to plan, execute, and publish the Town Hall Meetings and the X Spaces in multiple languages. Our detailed profiles (see section below) contain information on the background of the respective members and other projects and initiatives they have been involved with.

In Fund 10, the following process was established in order to ensure that the community funds are managed in a proper and transparent manner:

• Creation of a multi-signature wallet 
• Definition of workflows including documentation of payouts
• Publishing of monthly reports showing inflows and outflows

All transactions are being done from/to the multi-sig wallet and the respective justification for outflows are recorded on-chain.

We are happy to have received funds already from the Cardano Community and have internal processes for transparency in the distribution of rewards for engagement in the different activities (e.g. X-spaces in multiple languages).

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

• Fortnightly EU Town Hall meetings planned, executed, and published
• X (formerly Twitter)-Spaces held and recorded
• Concept and preparation for physical MeetUp events in 5 EU countries
• Planning and execution of giveaways (merch + NFT)
• KPI tracking file and goals for months 1 and 2

Acceptance criteria:

• EU Town Hall meetings took place and the recording is available on YouTube
• X-spaces in different European languages were hosted and recorded (with links on the website)
• GitBook documentation about the detailed planning for the MeetUp events incl. clear responsibilities for their execution
• Merchandise and digital assets (e.g. NFT books, NFT music) were obtained and distributed via raffles. NOTE: Team Members are excluded from the raffles.
• The PDF report for Months 02.24 and 03.24 were submitted to the Challenge Team and published to the Cardano Community (via Discord and X)

• Fortnightly EU Town Hall meetings planned, executed, and published
• X (formerly Twitter)-Spaces held and recorded
• The first set of physical MeetUp events in 5 EU countries
• Planning and execution of giveaways (merch + NFT)
• KPI tracking file and goals for months 3 and 4

Acceptance criteria:

• EU Town Hall meetings took place and the recording is available on YouTube
• X-spaces in different European languages were hosted and recorded (with links on the website)
• GitBook documentation about the execution of MeetUp events incl. clear responsibilities for their execution
• Merchandise and digital assets (e.g. NFT books, NFT music) were obtained and distributed via raffles. NOTE: Team Members are excluded from the raffles.
• The PDF report for Months 04.24 and 05.24 were submitted to the Challenge Team and published to the Cardano Community (via Discord and X)

• Fortnightly EU Town Hall meetings planned, executed, and published
• X (formerly Twitter)-Spaces held and recorded
• The first set of physical MeetUp events in 5 EU countries
• Planning and execution of giveaways (merch + NFT)
• KPI tracking file and goals for months 5 and 6

Acceptance criteria:

• EU Town Hall meetings took place and the recording is available on YouTube
• X-spaces in different European languages were hosted and recorded (with links on the website)
• GitBook documentation about the execution of MeetUp events incl. clear responsibilities for their execution
• Merchandise and digital assets (e.g. NFT books, NFT music) were obtained and distributed via raffles. NOTE: Team Members are excluded from the raffles.
• The PDF report for Months 06.24 and 07.24 were submitted to the Challenge Team and published to the Cardano Community (via Discord and X)

Closing Milestone

(A) The closing report contains at least:

• An update of KPI for the complete proposal
• A report showing all inflows and outflows by category
• An overview of all recorded YouTube events and X-Spaces (via the EU Town Hall Website)

(B) The closing video:

• Summarize in 5 minutes the main aspects of the closing report

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Davide Lucchesi

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/odiobill/
• https://twitter.com/studiomalaka

An IT Professional with more than 25 years of experience in the software development an systems engineering fields. Indie game developer. Recently moved back to Italy after almost 15 years in the Netherlands, to focus 100% on the current project and other Cardano-related activities.

Marcus Ubani

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-m-ubani/
• https://twitter.com/marcusubani

Father of 4. Socialpreneur from Germany, deeply rooted in the service industry. 

Working in web-related services since 2010. 

SPO of BIRTH Pool, Atala Prism Pioneer, CEO & Co-founder of Larissa.Health, a Cardano-related project.

MA in Marketing, BA in international management, background in legal, design thinking, full-web-stack. Certified by Emurgo Acadamy Haskell, Cardano, Blockchain. Contributing member Trust over IP foundation.

Worked with various APIs, as well as in finance and transportation.

Has attracted big brands through solutions-based marketing strategies.

Ricardo Burgos

• https://twitter.com/Bug8bue

From San Salvador, El Salvador. Living in Germany since 1996. IT guy through and through. Auditor in Stuttgart. Father and Husband. Ricardo has been an active member of the team and community since day 1 of the European Town Hall. His background is in project management and cost control. For the last 5 years, he has been working as an internal auditor in the corporate environment. With friends, in 2022 he initiated the “Web3 User Group e.V.” (W3UG) - a registered non-profit association with headquarters in Wiernsheim, Germany. The W3UG plans and executes projects aiming to generate donations for IT education in developing countries.

Mauro Andreoli

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauro-agust%C3%ADn-andreoli-7b58621a0/

Cardano Ambassador and legal expert with a strong focus on blockchain aspects.

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

The following table summarizes the planned budget for the EU Cardano Community Operation extended by the Country Hubs in five EU countries.

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Our Town Hall enables creators, SPO, project teams and blockchain enthusiasts to exchange information about Cardano and learn from each other on a regular basis and thus creating a knowledge base for continuously expanding the ecosystem.

By setting a strong focus on language diversity we contribute to the adoption of Cardano in more and more countries.

The cost planning premises are based on symbolic compensation for the team members, and extended team members (e.g. those hosting X Spaces).

The average wage in the EU for IT architects, programmers, etc. is approx. 65 EUR/hour.

We create value by offering a platform in a friendly and relaxed environment where blockchain enthusiasts can connect directly to the project teams.

Also - this proposal helps the founders of EU Town Hall to recover from the opportunity cost of not working only on their own projects - thereby sustaining the platform and communication channels for the broader Cardano Community.

The planning and execution of face-to-face events in major EU cities will be key to reaching out to interested people who so far have not touched points with Cardano. We foresee a growing community in key cities in Europe with increased regulatory clarity and institutional adoption in 2024.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund Rules and also that data in the submission form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept