Hi Horizen Community,
I’m Emmanuel Umoh, mostly known on X and Discord as Nhuel…. I just wanted to put that out first. Well this my second attempt running for the Horizen DAO Special Council, last time in January I didn’t make it to the selected winners by votes, but I’m back again with so much positivity.
I hold a degree in Marketing and began my career as a marketing associate with several Web2 companies before transitioning into the Web3 space. My journey into crypto traces back to my university days. In 2019, a friend introduced me to crypto trading, and that spark quickly grew into curiosity about the wider Web3 space. By the following year, I was diving deeper, joining DAOs, engaging with communities, and picking up content marketing as a skill along the way.
That experience opened doors for me to work with several Web3 projects as a content marketer on X and through KOL initiatives. In 2021, I came across Horizen, and by 2022 I had become an active community member. That passion and commitment eventually led me to becoming an ambassador for Horizen. As a Horizen ambassador, I created content across X and LinkedIn, represented the project at major Web3 and tech conferences (including one with 1,700+ attendees), supported new community members, and hosted engagement campaigns like Discord quizzes.
I love $ZEN even more after the migration to Base… lower fees, wider access, stronger liquidity, integrations are growing and fresh community energy. It puts Horizen right where the next wave of Web3 innovation is happening, while staying true to privacy, security, and trust.
I’m grateful to serve as a Community Steward at Horizen, supporting growth across X and community channels. Since the launch of Zkverify by Horizen Labs last year, with my passion and commitment for the ecosystem I volunteered at first as a moderator on Telegram and Discord, and now i actively participate in the testnet and also part of the Zkverify Mod team, keeping the communities engaged and organized.
The migration to becoming a privacy L3 Appchain on Base has been a huge success, and I really commend the team for executing it so seamlessly. With such a significant shift on the technical side, I imagine the marketing approach must have evolved as well. Marketing and communications are areas I’m deeply passionate about, and I believe that’s where I can contribute most and make my voice truly resonate.
Here are some things i would suggest;
-
Community Co-Creation: Instead of top-down announcements, campaigns should activate micro-communities (builders, researchers, validators, privacy advocates) to co-own content. This drives earned distribution.
-
Content Discovery with Kaito Meta: Kaito’s mindshare meta tracks which protocols dominate attention across narratives (e.g., “ZK scaling,” “modular infra,” “data privacy”). Horizen should align campaigns to trending mindshare curves, ensuring its messaging shows up where discourse is heating. For example, if “ZK + AI privacy” spikes, Horizen should seed thought leadership pieces and dev stories into that stream in real time.
-
Narrative Synchronization: Horizen should ensure its taglines, founder insights, and community memes are synchronized with those trending narratives so the project doesn’t just participate in the conversation, it frames it.
-
Proof of Engagement: Horizen could leverage social bounties, zk-based quests, and proof-of-participation campaigns to convert attention into on-chain actions.
-
I mentioned this in my previous attempt to join the council members “Allocate ZEN to incentivize builders and developers through grants, hackathons, or accelerator programs”. I’m glad that this has been implemented with the Developer Grant program on Thrive Protocol.
-
I suggest global expansions, relating to more adoption, a strategic plan for Horizen regional communities, bringing capable regional leads from various regions.
With these thoughts shared, I’ll leave the decision to the community, as it should be in a DAO-driven project.
If you’re willing to delegate your ZEN to me, it would mean a lot. Let’s shape the future together. Thanks for taking the time to read this