Web3 started online, but real adoption in Davao is happening face to face. Here’s how one community turned meetups into movement.

Web3 communities are born on the internet. Discord servers, Twitter threads, Telegram groups, and Zoom calls have become the standard places for discovery and collaboration. But as observed by Arthur Agullana, a key figure in the local crypto scene and the co-founder of the Davao DeFi Community (DDC), something was missing. People were interested, yes. But were they committed?

In an interview with The Block and Beyond, Arthur reflected on the early days of Davao DeFi. It began in 2021, during the tail end of COVID restrictions, when most interaction happened online. But it was not until July 2022 that the group truly took shape, with its first in-person meetup.

That meetup changed everything.

“July 22, 2022 [was] actually the time when DDC was conceived. Because of that first IRL [meetup].”

Turning Attendance Into Action

The early virtual activities helped raise awareness, but Arthur saw firsthand that awareness did not always lead to engagement. After a few calls or events, many attendees simply disappeared. They showed up, listened, and left. Without a clear path forward or a sense of real connection, there was little reason to stay.

“Last year, we were doing events focused on awareness. I think we’ve done good on that part. But the adoption... it raised, then dropped. There was no roadmap after.”

That was the problem Arthur set out to solve.

In-person events created a new kind of energy. People asked more questions. They stayed longer. They started volunteering. Davao DeFi began building not just a network, but a culture.

“Our events leads are already handling the preparation, all the preparation in doing the IRL event.”

These events became more than community touchpoints. They became onboarding pipelines. Attendees turned into contributors. Team leads emerged. And most importantly, there was now a visible path from curiosity to contribution.

Real People, Real Systems

Arthur believes that real-world interaction changes how people relate to the technology and to each other. With IRL events, he could observe not just who showed up, but who took initiative, who brought others along, and who could grow into leadership roles.

That insight helped him assign responsibilities more intentionally. It also revealed which parts of the community structure needed improvement. Systems were adjusted. Events were refined. And Davao DeFi slowly shifted from being just a meetup group to a functioning organization, working alongside other established Web3 communities in Mindanao.

Even their internal processes improved. Event planning was no longer handled only by the core team. Committees were created. Leads were empowered. The community became self-sustaining in ways that online engagement alone could never deliver.

Arthur is not trying to scale fast. Instead, he is trying to scale meaningfully. Every event is another chance to build trust, to hand over ownership, and to deepen alignment. What started as an IRL experiment is now the foundation of Davao DeFi’s long-term growth. The tech may be decentralized, but the local effort is deeply human.