Threshold
PolkaWorld votes AYE
Based on their activities, website, and Twitter presence, we believe Polkadot Africa has successfully laid the groundwork for Polkadot’s presence on the continent. Given that the budget is reasonable, we support this initiative’s continued development. In summary, we believe this proposal deserves support for the following reasons:
1.Clear Strategic Relevance to the Ecosystem
Africa is one of the most promising regions for Web3 growth globally, yet Polkadot’s developer reach, local engagement, and brand awareness remain limited in the area. This proposal aims to bridge that gap through consistent IRL events, education programs, and localized BD efforts—laying the foundation for a developer network and narrative system tailored to Africa.
2.Proven Track Record and Reliable Execution
The team has already organized over 45 in-person events, attracting more than 3,000 participants, and successfully onboarded local developers to the Polkadot Blockchain Academy (PBA) and global hackathons. Their work spans education, SDK guidance, Runtime contributions, and community building—demonstrating solid delivery capability.
3.Clear Budget Structure and Role Distribution
The proposed budget is well-structured, with detailed breakdowns of roles, compensation, working hours, travel, and infrastructure costs—meeting expectations for transparency and good governance. The team composition covers key areas such as DevRel, regional ops, content, design, and developer support, showing strong potential for sustained progress.
4.Developer-Centric & Sustainable Strategy
The proposal emphasizes a structured journey of developer activation → retention → engagement, supported by workshops, bootcamps, and mentorship programs. This reflects a focus on building a long-term, stable local tech community, rather than relying on one-off events—ensuring ecosystem sustainability.
5.Establishing a Regional Node to Support Global Collaboration
The team actively collaborates with W3F, Collectives, DAO bounties, and other ecosystem initiatives, while also planning to expand to seven countries. This effort will create a multi-lingual, cross-regional foundation for collaboration within the Polkadot community—supporting future tech pilots, product feedback, and governance participation.
You can read more here.
Dear Proposer,
Thank you for your proposal. Our first vote on this proposal is NAY.
The Medium Spender track requires 50% quorum (at least 5 aye votes) and simple majority of non-abstain votes according to our voting policy v0.2, and any referendum in which the majority of members vote abstain receives an abstain vote. This proposal has received zero aye and three nay votes from ten available members, with four members abstaining. Below is a summary of our members' comments:
The referendum was met with criticism, with several comments citing the proposal’s broad scope and the full-year funding approach as problematic. Reviewers noted the impressive community engagement and event numbers but deemed the large sums requested insufficiently paired with clearly defined short-term milestones. They recommended dividing the proposal into shorter intervals with quarterly benchmarks and clear key performance indicators to track progress, instead of a continuous annual commitment. Concerns were also raised about expenses related to mentors, travel, and infrastructure, and about verifying the accuracy of the financial figures, which ultimately led to an overall negative outcome.
The full discussion can be found in our internal voting.
Please feel free to contact us through the links below for further discussion.
Kind regards,
Permanence DAO
Decentralized Voices Cohort IV Delegate
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🗳️ Delegate
TruthDAO votes AYE
In the current sluggish market, continuing to build the community and market presence is a top priority.
From their events, website, and Twitter activity, I believe Polkadot Africa has already laid an initial foundation for Polkadot on the continent. With a reasonable budget, it deserves support to keep growing!
This proposal’s budget structure is clear and well-balanced — detailing roles, salaries, work hours, as well as travel and infrastructure costs — aligning with expectations for transparency and good governance.
See more feedback here.
📖Truth DAO Governance Statement
💭 Contact: open@truthdao.cn, Telegram
🗳️ Delegate
JAM DAO voted NAY on this Proposal
The proposal was met with some skepticism from JAM DAO members. Key concerns included:
Lack of justification for budget allocation, particularly $28.8K for an unnamed DevRel working part-time over a year. Some members felt this deviated from the more effective practice of requesting event-specific funds via the Events Bounty track.
Doubts were raised about inflated engagement claims and whether tangible outcomes justify the $350K ask, with a specific critique of $48K reserved for infrastructure.
A member called for stronger track records and measurable impact from previous hackathons organized by the proposers before committing additional funds.
Despite support in principle for grassroots community efforts, the DAO ultimately rejected the proposal due to budget opacity and unclear ROI.
Hello,
You've done a great job. I'd like to share my questions:
Do you have any financial statements showing how the funds were used in the previous proposal?
Could you please detail the specific infrastructure costs you're mentioning?
Thanks