Community Staking Fleet: Bitskwela @ Manila, Philippines
The Community Staking Fleet Pilot is over! This is our first time formally engaging as Community Lifeguards with local crypto communities, and it has been vital to understand the current state of community stakers on the ground and what the next steps should be.
I’ll start by sharing my experience with Bitskwela with a little extra context because I think what’s happening there is very interesting and deserves attention.
@enti will follow shortly after with his.
Bitskwela
If you’re interested in the rough outcomes of the pilot only, feel free to jump to the next section
5 key data points make the Philippines fertile grounds for crypto adoption.
- A fast-growing nation with a young and highly tech-savvy demographic—with GDP growth of 7%, a population median age of 25 years, and a 73% social media penetration.
- Its population of 117M are adventurous and adopts overseas trends (& regulatory stances) rapidly.
- Progressive regulatory position on cryptocurrencies—e.g., regulatory sandboxes for Philippine peso-based stablecoins.
- Large and pro-crypto distribution channels—e.g., Local eWallets such as GCash and Maya have roughly 70% and 50% market penetration, respectively.
- The emergence of generative AI is putting pressure on the country’s business process outsourcing industry, which currently contributes ~7% of GDP
Probably the most notable trend culminating from the above is the massive emergence of play-to-earn guilds and scholars between 2020 to 2021, driving crypto penetration in the country to 20% during that period.
Amidst the allure of money, however, it is easy to be sucked into spending all of one’s time farming points/airdrops and trading meme coins. These activities do not scale as artificial incentives dry up sooner or later.
Bitskwela wanted to take a different approach.
Believing that education is the great equaliser, a group of friends still in university set out to create long—and short-form content focused on core blockchain concepts and provide it for free to anyone who wants to learn.
Check out their repository of educational resources for yourselves!
Bitskwela — Learn Crypto in English, Tagalog, Cebuano, or Ilocano 
Over time, this community grew to almost 50k on TikTok and 12k on Facebook, the two main social channels Filipinos use.
Bitskwela did not rest on its laurels, however. It proceeded to expand its educational efforts to traditional institutions and government agencies, holding regular sessions and conversations to help improve crypto adoption and regulatory protection in the Philippines.
Today, many Web3 projects work with Bitskwela to reach the Filipino population from an education-first approach.
And so did Lido recently, through the Community Staking Fleet Pilot.
Lido x Bitskwela
Bitskwela proposed a bold education campaign that serves fluent and non-fluent English speakers in the Philippines.
(Despite popular opinion, ~50% of Filipinos actually do not have good English proficiency)
There were 3 main components to their proposal:
- An in-person event symbolising the “arrival” of ETH home staking education and opportunities to the Philippines through coordinated efforts by ETH projects and local communities.
- Adaptation and translation of Stakesaurus’s open source guide on ETH solo staking into Tagalog, the majority local language of the Philippines.
- Series of short form content to drive engagement to both items above.
In-Person Event
The in-person event titled “Make the most out of your ETH” was well-received.
There were a total of 85 signups and 38 attendees (~45% conversion rate) against a target of 30, with a post-event rating of 4.8/5.0 by participants on Luma.
The event started with a conceptual walkthrough on ETH staking and solo staking that was simplified for laymen. Then, it showcased how the Lido CSM can be a powerful tool to increase access for aspiring solo stakeholders significantly.
Participants were highly engaged, and many misconceptions about solo staking (e.g., slashing by simply going offline, expensive hardware, and electricity requirements) were clarified. Everyone also received exclusive Lido x Bitskwela t-shirts that were printed locally!
We then moved into a solo staking workshop showing how participants could practice using Google Cloud credits for free.
The third segment saw a panel discussion with Web3 & fintech projects/organisations in the Philippines (e.g., GCash, Pendle, Router Protocol, Blockchain Council of the Philippines) on how ETH staking can be a legitimate source of supplementary income for Filipinos.
And finally, we wrapped up with networking for the attendees, refreshments, and group photos to commemorate a successful event.
Translated solo staking guide
A Tagalog version of the ETH solo staking guide is now live on the Bitskwela website and listed as 1 of their 6 current core courses (for free).
Activation via short-form content
An activation strategy consisting of a series of short TikTok videos, Facebook and Twitter posts, and a media article complemented our strategy to introduce home staking to the Philippines by maximising reach.
Below, Bitskwela has compiled a list of these content, along with their reach and estimated Earned Media Value.
](Bitskwela x Lido Community Fleet l Tracker - Google Sheets)
Lido Community Staking Podcast: Bitskwela
Additionally, as part of the community engagement efforts by the Community Lifeguards, we have begun a series of podcast interviews showcasing the communities—allowing the Lido DAO and community stakers to get to know these local communities better.
Takeaways & Recommendations
| Takeaways | Recommendations |
|---|---|
| Solo staking is an extremely new topic in the Philippines. Although this presents a challenge in terms of driving adoption, it also provides an opportunity to shape the narrative optimally—e.g., learning how to solo-stake = self-improvement and acquiring a monetisable skill set | Ramp up localised home staking campaigns by tapping on Bitskwela’s network of KOLs and influencers in the Philippines. - Lido Community Lifeguards provide content input, while Bitskwela provides creative input. |
| Given the abundance of opportunities and preferences of specific social media channels such as Facebook and TikTok, Filipinos are highly sensitive to friction throughout the user journey. E.g., Discord + Galxe might not be the best way to get started. It would be worth exploring dedicated user journey flows or other workarounds for this market. | Funnel interested individuals into a friction-minimised satellite community maintained collaboratively by Bitskwela and Lido Community Lifeguards. |
| Coordinated education efforts simplifying both the technical aspects and the incentives involved in solo staking (and using the Lido CSM), which will help drive adoption in this market. | Include Ethereum home staking (leveraging on Lido CSM) as a module in Bitskwela’s upcoming online lectures on Web3 across universities and other events nationwide. |
| A solution that bifurcates the bond provider and the node operator trust-less-ly will be a good fit for the Filipino market due to its similarities to the Play-to-Earn Scholarship model. | Spearhead initiative for Philippines-based student blockchain (or IT in general) organisations to spin up self-hosted staking hardware, potentially leveraging existing university resources. Thereafter, working with organisations with ETH treasuries to serve as the CSM bond providers. |