Grants Council Reviewer Nominations: Season 5

[system]

Please post your self-nominations for the Season 5 Grants Council here, according to the template and process outlined here.

Nominations must be posted on this thread by 19:00 GMT on Wednesday, November 1st.

[Michael]

Michael Vander Meiden Self-Nomination

Council sub-committee: Growth Experiments

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: Delegate Commitments [OLD] - #21 by Michael

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: 1.62%

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date:
100% participation since becoming active July 7, 2022

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared:
The best place to look is my “vote with reason” section under agora, however moving forward I will also populate my delegate communication thread where a longer explanation is required.

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

• Community Governance Call Host. This involves creating an agenda, sourcing agenda topics from the community, running the actual calls, and creating recap posts for the calls.
• Season 3 & 4 Grants Council Member & Season 2 Committee Member
• Contributor to Optimism codebase (link to pull request )
• Multiple Educational Videos about Optimism, L2-related EIPs, The OP Stack, and Optimism Protocol Tutorials.
• Host of The RetroPGF Podcast interviewing contributors to the OP Collective

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:
Yes.

• I worked as a machine learning engineer and have been coding smart contracts for 3 years.
• I’ve placed in multiple web3 hackathons, including 1st out of 27+ teams (this was the Arbitrum hackathon at Devcon Bogota, lol)
• Code contributor to Optimsm (link to pull request )
• Master of Science in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, focus on machine learning & incentive systems.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:
Yes. Grants councils in Season 3 + 4 and NFT committee in season 2.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:
During my tenure as a member of the Grants Council in Season 3 & 4, I followed through on my commitment and plans made before the season in a number of ways. Through strong feedback, projects under my review altered their grant requests to create stronger milestones-based targets for their proposals. They shifted away from mercenary-style grants and more towards community engagement grants with a long-term focus. In many cases, I also worked with proposers to drastically reduce the size of their grant.

Consumer facing product manager at high-growth tech startup, learned how to understand and capture users.

Crypto educator. 350k+ views on YouTube, ability to communicate complex topics to a youtube audience

Technical ability: contributor to Optimism codebase, machine learning engineer, smart contract dev

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: Having served 2 seasons on the growth experiments sub-committee, I have accumulated a lot of knowledge that will be valuable moving forward. First, general ecosystem context and being able to understand how each proposal fits into the broader ecosystem. Next, communication and how to provide constructive feedback to the proposers while still making sure they are satisfied with the grants council experience. In addition to what I’ve learned on the grants council, growth experiments were a key part of my work as a product manager, and understanding what gets web3 users interested about crypto was a key learning from my youtube channel.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:
Guiding Principle: Grants should be an efficient use of funds to drive us closer to the Optimistic Vision.

Specific things I’d like to see with grant proposals:

• Clear milestones with milestone unlocks.
• Definition of what “success” of grant use would be, with trackable metrics.
• Accomplishes something that would be difficult to accomplish without the grant (bootstrapping liquidity, competitions, meetups, education)
• Solid logic for why grant will push forward the goals of Intent #2.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?
While we don’t quite have all of the intents published, here are some ideas that I like:

• supporting account abstraction wallets
• projects/applications that bring brand new users to crypto
• auditing services for projects on Optimism
• analysis that lets us better see the effectiveness of previous grants and frameworks for judging future grants/projects

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:
I have my own educational youtube channel, am soon launching opdelegate.com, and have a sizeable delegation from a16z as part of their delegation program.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct: Yes.

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: Yes.

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes.

[nanobro]

## Grants Council Self-Nomination Template

Please keep your answers as concise as possible while conveying all relevant information.

Council sub-committee: Grow experiment

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment:
https://vote.optimism.io/delegate/nanobro.eth

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you:
0.02% from 42 delegators

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date:
https://optimism.karmahq.xyz/profile/nanobro.eth#votinghistory

Just became a delegate and have never miss 3 last votes.

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared:
https://vote.optimism.io/delegate/nanobro.eth

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:
I have been educating people about blockchain, especially OP ecosystem for almost a year.
I’m proud of my works.
Check selected-quality contents here: bit.ly/nanobrocontent

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:
Not yet.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:
I educating people about retroPGF, Grants. How Optimism collective works.
I use OP mainnet almost everyday.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee:
I’m a business owner. Also a marketer.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:
Grant should go to projects that can support OP ecosystem in short, middle and long terms.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?
I’d love to support various type of defi projects.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:
I’m also an educators aiming to receive fund too.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct:
Agree

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5:
Agree

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Agree. I’m writing for OP more than 20hrs a week too.

[jackanorak]

Hello, I am running to keep my place on the Builder Grant subcommittee of the Grant Council, which evaluated an unprecedented number of applications and maintained a sound process. As with last season, I am proud of the work I’ve done with this team – and of the directions I’ve continued to help push it in – and would like to continue this work.

Council sub-committee: (if applicable)
Builder

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment:

Delegate Commitments [OLD]

Name: Jack Anorak Address or ENS: jackanorak.eth Discord username : jack-anorak#6505 Verification (Tally profile or tweet): https://www.tally.xyz/profile/0x4f41877773e44F2275dA1942FEe898556821bf66 I have read and understood the Delegate Commitment Process: Yes I understand that becoming a delegate is a significant commitment: Yes My reasons for wanting to be a delegate At their core, delegates have one main immediate function: direct Optimism’s administrative capacity to best aid the eco…

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you:
2.61%

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: (You may link to your profile on Karma, if applicable. If not, you can divide the number of Optimism votes under your Snapshot profile by 87, which is the number of Token House votes through Season 2, and add all possible votes from Agora.) https://optimism.karmahq.xyz/profile/jackanorak.eth#statement

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared: (You may link to your Snapshot and/or Agora profile for voting history. You may link to your delegate communication thread, or any other medium you use to communicate with your delegators, to share your voting rationale.)

Jack anorak - delegate communication thread

I scatter my opinions everywhere but will try to maintain an ongoing record in a single place. Current votes are on the Grants Council, the Protocol Delegation Program, and Badgeholder votes. I voted for the grants council and the protocol delegation program – I’ve been an advocate for movement in these directions, and these are really thoroughly thought out. Feedback sessions on these have been fun and constructive. Re badgeholders: everyone on the list is fantastic; choosing between them se…

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

• Integral contributor to Velodrome’s design and launch, with coordination of OP Labs
• High level of contributions to OP governance as delegate, commenter, grant council member
• Aided in the onboarding of some 50-odd protocols to Optimism, made introductions, advised on optimal product and liquidity strategy
• Advised several OP protocols as they applied for governance grants
• Published Optimism’s first review of passed grants, which was directly responsible for making builder grants in scope for Governance
• Led first comprehensive retrospective of OP grants to date, which has already surfaced major insights and revelations of protocols’ handling of OP (Recieved RPGF for this) and inspired other efforts furthering this project
• Was voice influencing major changes in direction of grants, including the implementation of the Grants Council itself, requests for grants, and increased focus on builder grants
• Helped conceive and led inaugural RFG process, placing Optimism squarely at the vanguard of governance and ecosystem grant processes
• Contributed to several governance process improvements including many that went into this coming season

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:

I’m technical right up to the point of the actual software engineering of protocols. Conversant in code and design. Deeply involved in quantitative protocol construction and am credibly ‘technical’ in defi. Regularly code to extract insights and perform actions onchain.

Without going into specifics, my professional background is quantitative in nature.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:

Builders subcommittee of Grants Council

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

In addition to the experience leading up to the founding of the grant council, I was an inaugural member of the builder grant council and not only contributed but helped shape several policies and processes related to the work.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: (if applicable)

I am a builder and have gone through the process of going from zero to a major ecosystem player, building something while facing a threadbare budget, maximum skepticism, and vocal detractors. My team has gotten an OP Labs Grant and several follow-on grants from Governance. I believe our team has set the bar on applying for and reporting on grants of this nature, and we continue to blow past every performance expectation set and lead the ecosystem in results.

As a delegate, I’ve voted on grants, and as a member of the Shadow Defi Committee, a self-started group helping to provide context on grants, I’ve helped to push people’s thinking on what grants ought to be used for.

As a Grant Council member, I pushed for a more proactive stance on what sorts of grants we want to give out and introduced a new level of rigor to our selection process. This work directly led to the RFG program.

As an individual, I’ve proposed ecosystem-wide initiatives rethinking how Optimism manages its resources and how OP Mainnet positions itself in an evolving Superchain context, and I’ve staked much of my career in crypto on making Optimism succeed.

In short, I’ve experienced virtually all tasks and perspectives that could go into the construction of grants, and there’s little in the way of subject matter that I haven’t personally worked with, from crosschain messaging to staking to security to new NFT token standards.

I’ve now also been on the Grant Council and have an intimate understanding of how it works and how processes will improve next round.

I initially chose to apply for builder grants instead of growth experiments for three reasons.

• I already have a track record of independent voting and have advised my delegators that I would always vote and argue against Velodrome’s immediate interest if it was in conflict with what I thought was best for Optimism. That said, it seems that perceived conflicts of interests are less pronounced in this group; more growth experiments are likely to touch velodrome than builder grants.
• This vertical also plays well into my day job, which has me doing a lot of outreach to builders. In this capacity, hopefully it’s not a stretch to say I’ve likely spoken with more active and prospective builders on Optimism than anyone outside of the OP Foundation. In this way I can help guide builders to the program and get the initiatives we’re looking for.
• I think builder grants at this stage are more critical for the long-term viability of the Optimism project; establishing a major builder hub is one of the few things we can control in the current macro climate, and it is one that yields substantial network benefits down the road. We must be the single best place to launch a new project.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

I believe in a structured approach, where the council articulates where OP is and where it wants it to go. It should outline what sorts of people, teams, and activities are needed to get to this desired future, and it should shape and approve grants that get Optimism those people, teams, and activities.

Grants should be designed with justifiable, measurable, and achievable objectives, and they should be reviewable periodically so that the Grants Council can guide them and retain the ability to withhold future grants. They should be scaled appropriately to the objectives (and the objectives’ value to the ecosystem), not to the projects’ size or perceived importance.

Although there is room to take a slight shotgun approach, grants should go to the projects that are most promising in their domains. This requires the Grants Council to have an informed opinion about the likely winning teams in each space.

Just like the best tools are multifunction tools, the best grants will have second-order benefits affecting the largest number of builders. That is, you fund the project that makes other projects more achievable. This is how you accelerate ecosystems.

In the course of a grants program, major things might change. This is crypto. So the grants council should also allow for some opportunism in approving grants.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?

Please refer to a thread I wrote some time ago on what sorts of grants I"d like to see.

A more recent thread outlined my overall thesis for Optimism as a builder launchpad: https://x.com/jack_anorak/status/1684228367028043778?s=20

Top of mind remain a generalized, robust price oracle, further subsidization of typical upfront needs of new protocols such as RPCs, audits, etc., and proofs of concept highlighting the OP stack, Account Abstraction, and new forms of lending (especially with staked ETH). We also need to sort out how the Superchain is going to work ASAP.

That is, we want to fund the things that let builders know that we can offer the best ecosystem to work in, the best tools to work with, and the best funding to derisk experimentation.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:

If I am elected, I will review grants that could have a material impact on Velodrome. As I did last season, I will make clear to my subcommittee when a grant seems to be in Velodrome’s area.

They will attest that, as before, I’ve consistently voted in Optimism’s interest, even when doing so would be against Velodrome’s immediate interests. I do so because I want Optimism to win, and in any case I see Optimism’s success as more necessary for Velodrome’s success than any individual grant.

This has continued to be the case season after season.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct: Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes, though realistically this number often goes way higher, especially for those in more specialized positions.

[katie]

Hello Community! After 2 successful season of the Grants Council, I am hoping to participate again for a third season and further improve on the process and experience for everyone involved!

Grants Council Self-Nomination Template

Council sub-committee:
Growth

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment:

Delegate Commitments [OLD]

Name: Katie Address or ENS: 0x75536CF4f01c2bFa528F5c74DdC1232Db3aF3Ee5 Discord username: katiegarcia#4914 Verification (Tally profile): Tally Profile I have read and understood the Delegate Commitment Process: Yes I understand that becoming a delegate is a significant commitment: Yes My reasons for wanting to be a delegate: As a long time member of MakerDAO and former employee of the Maker Foundation, I have extensive interest and experience in governance. I thoroughly enjoy participating …

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you:
2.14%

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date:

My voting rate is 100%

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared:
My voting rationale is listed a comment on individual proposals.

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:
Started the Community calls in Season1
Lead of Defi Committee A in Season 2
Grants Council Season 3
Grants Council Season 4
Badgeholder for Citizen’s House

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:
I don’t have a technical background but I have extensive experience and knowledge in the defi space.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:
I was the Lead of Defi Committee A and on the Grants Council for Season 3 and 4.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:
I worked at the Maker Foundation for 3 years and am now a partner at an investment firm where we invest in early stage defi projects.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: (if applicable)
I have been in the defi space 2018 and after 2 seasons on the Grants Council, I have a firm understanding of how to make the process efficient and positive for applicants.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:
The things I like to see the most in a proposal are very clear milestones that will hold the project accountable and a comprehensive token distribution plan that incentives long term use and brings new users to Optimism that will stick around long term.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?
I would love to see Missions that make it easier for new users to get on chain, such as account abstraction wallets and anything that makes it easier to bring newbies into the space. I would also love to see anything related to the superchain and solving some of the issues there, such as bridging.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:
Any of the UDHC portfolio companies would be a conflict of interest for me.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct:
Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5:
Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations:
Yes, although it actually ends up being more than a 20 hour/week commitment.

[Gonna.eth]

Council Reviewer Self-Nomination Template

Council sub-committee: (if applicable) Builders

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment:
Link

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: 0.31%

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: 98% I missed: Qi DAO, BarnBridge, and Test 2 votes.

Please link to your voting history (and delegate communication thread, if applicable):
Voting History: https://optimism.showkarma.xyz/profile/dhannte.eth#votinghistory
Gonna.eth (Dhannte) - Delegate Communication Thread - #2 by Gonna.eth

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:
I funded EthernautDAO which brought 17 core developer contributors to different projects in optimism. Synthetix, Aelin, Grateful, Optimism, and Kwenta. I’ve been part of both grants councils and I was the operations manager of the last grants council.

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:
I made a career as a game designer and I understand code, graphics, and narrative on the base layer while focusing on project management and creative solutions.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which: Yes, DeFi Committee C, first Grant Council, Second grants Council as a reviewer and operations manager, currently GovNerd. I’ve been also hosting all Citizens community calls.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:
I’ve been working as the founder of EthernautDAO to grow the developer space for the last year and a half, my experience so far:

• Developer mentorships coordination: Mentorships - EthernautDAO
• Envision and coordinate dev hackable smart contracts for educational purposes:

1. Staking | Address 0x805f02142680f853a9c0e5d5d6f49aec28c31e8b | Etherscan
2. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0xbbcf8b480f974fa45adc09f102496edc38cb3a6c
3. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x4b90946ab87bf6e1ca1f26b2af2897445f48f877
4. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0xc357c220d9ffe0c23282fcc300627f14d9b6314c
5. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0xa5343165d51ea577d63e1a550b1f3c872adc58e4#code
6. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x445d0fa7fa12a85b30525568dfd09c3002f2ade5
7. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0xf3cfa05f1ed0f5eb7a8080f1109ad7e424902121
8. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x00f4b86F1aa30a7434774f6Bc3CEe6435aE78174
9. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x66408824a99ff61ae2e032e3c7a461ded1a6718e… https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x07abfcced19aeb5148c284cd39a9ff2ac835960a… https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x012f0c715725683a5405b596f4f55d4ad3046854…
10. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x66ec6b0f30754123bdf9acf4d8f4e2bdf5d36f4f
11. https://goerli.etherscan.io/address/0x43ff315d0003365fe1246344115a3142b9ebfe0b

• Developer community growth: Discord Developer Portal
  Active Ethernauts (voters) on discord: 102
  Past mentors: 24
  Future mentors role picked: 187
  Mentee’s role picked: 1.100

• on-chain developer attestation, EXP soulbound token given by nomination of peers when an educational contribution is done

• developer bounties for NFT creation, smart contracts and hackable smart contracts

• Developer partnership searcher, my main job today, looking for new projects who want to expand their developer teams and deploy their contracts in optimism. Last project to be onboarded by governance proposal: Shapeshift (working with the team on the proposal) and Game7 (sponsoring a developer educational game to run in optimism)

• Sponsoring developer meetups like “Crypto para mortales” https://twitter.com/CryptoPMortales/status/1575962741877379072

• Hosting knowledge online talks for developers to hear from peers about their projects, last one: https://twitter.com/EthernautDAO/status/1594488959022895107

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee:

• Deep understanding of what works to maximize the number of developers’ growth.
• An active member of big developer communities.
• Worked on the first Grants Council as a reviewer and promoted ideas for the rubric.
• Worked on the second grants council as a reviewer and led operations.
• was trusted with the decision to pick a platform to run grants and I chose Charmverse which is highly praised for all the good work and easy to use.

Soft skills:

• Adaptability
• Communication
• Decision making
• Self-motivation
• Empathy
• Work Ethic

Hard Skills:

• Multilingualism
• Product design
• Project management
• Research skills
• Toknomics, code, and narrative at a base level

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

• Clear objective to be accomplished
• Clear milestones and math distribution of the fund
• Target onboarding solutions for new users
• Accurate and simple project communication
• Active and positive feedback loops on the proposal thread

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?
I would like to see:

• Tooling proposals, like a new and better hard hat or foundry.
• Developer educational games like https://ethernaut.openzeppelin.com/ or https://www.damnvulnerabledefi.xyz/
• Online hackathons with job interviews at prices
• On-chain auditing prices
• Hacker teams to incentivize projects security (Hats Finance, Inmmunefi)
• GitHub, Twitter, Online developer history integration for developer on-chain attestation and anti sybl attacks systems.
• All kinds of experiments involving developers to get their hands in the mud and build something
• Research teams at the protocol level
• Tooling and infra, avoiding revenue models, giving a free experience to users and committed to being supported by RPGF

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:
None, even if there’s an EthernautDAO fork I’ll promote it and consider it a peer.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the delegate code of conduct: Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 4: Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes

[MoneyManDoug]

Council sub-committee:
Growth Experiments

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment:

Delegate Commitments [OLD]

Name : Doug Address or ENS: Sugma.eth Discord username : MoneymanDoug#3039 Verification (Tally profile or tweet): https://www.tally.xyz/voter/profile/42NXMY I have read and understood the Delegate Commitment Process: Yes I understand that becoming a delegate is a significant commitment: Yes My reasons for wanting to be a delegate: i simply want to see optimism succeed, i have a passion for the Ethereum and optimism ecosystems. early on i invested in and believed in Defi and Ethereum a…

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you:
0.43%

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date:
99% https://www.karmahq.xyz/profile/sugma.eth#optimism

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared:
Communications thread can be found here Doug Sugma.eth Delegate communication thread

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

• Previously served in the first batch of committee’s
  -Served on grants council for two seasons and helped built the best grants program in the history of web3 with my fellow councilors and lead.

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:
Solidity, Security “contract monitoring”, Professional background in aerospace.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:
Defi Committee, Grants council season 3, Grants council season 4.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:
I have been involved in this space since Ethereum’s beginnings and have always followed the extensive research and accomplishments made by Plasma Group. Was on the ground floor for the creation of defi and have been blessed to be able to network and get involved with some of the most innovative and experimental protocols before they caught the publics eye. Years of watching projects problem solve fail and innovate has given me a wide reaching array of understanding for various types of protocols.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: (if applicable)
served the previous two grants cycles and helped shape the grants framework from the ground up along with our other amazing council members

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:
A good grant returns value in the form of users/engagement and capital inflow, team/culture is also a major factor and our grantees should be held to highest level of standards and ethical practices.
Additionally projects seeking grants should have an organic interest in furthering the reach/impact of Optimism.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?
Ideally would like to see mission requests working towards further decentralization, would also like to see a request which seeks to onboard public education institutions in the US through the formation of classes/clubs furthering the collective talent pool for the collective in the future.
Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct:
Yes
Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5:
Yes
Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations:
Yes

[GFXlabs]

Council Reviewer Self-Nomination Template

Council sub-committee:
Growth Experiments

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment:
Our delegate commitment can be found here . A thread with our total activity as delegates can be found here.

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you:
3%

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date:
The only voting participations that were missed were due to technical limitations with Snapshot, and are documented in our delegate communications thread linked above.

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared:
A thread with our total activity as delegates can be found here.

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:
GFX served on the DeFi Committee A, and also on the Growth Subcommittee of the Grants Council in the previous two Seasons.

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:
The GFX Labs governance liaison does not have a technical background, but has access to multiple senior engineers.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:
GFX served on the DeFi Committee A, and also on the Growth Subcommittee of the Grants Council in the previous two Seasons.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:
GFX Labs is most well known for governance work at Optimism, MakerDAO, Uniswap, 0x, Arbitrum, Compound, and Hop.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee:
GFX served on the two previous Growth Subcommittees, as well as DeFi Committee A (a precursor to the existing grants structure).

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:
Successful, strong grants are those that aim to migrate some combination of users, assets, and developers to Optimism that were not previously on Optimism. Chains, including Layer 2s, are frontiers, and their value is determined by the number and quality of those that settle them.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?
We prefer to evaluate grant plans on a case-by-case basis, and don’t have existing priors except that they clearly target migrating users, assets, and developers to Optimism who are currently not engaged or only lightly engaged with Optimism.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:
GFX Labs is active in governance and development of multiple protocols. Current and recent relationships include Uniswap, MakerDAO, 0x, Optimism, Arbitrum, Wormhole, and Interest Protocol.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct :
Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5:
Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations:
Yes, though we anticipate that commitment may need to be raised if the volume of grant applications remains steady.

[MattL]

Hey folks! Super excited to toss my hat into the ring for Season 5 for the OP Grants Council. I hope to participate and continue to improve the experience we’ve cultivated to this point. I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and the team I’ve been able to do it with.

Grants Council Self-Nomination Template - Season 5

Council sub-committee: Growth Experiments

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: Commitment 3

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: ~7.77% is delegated to the SNX Ambassadors.

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: The original SNX Ambassador wallet faced multisig issues from the start, and the new OPSNXAmbassador wallet was created after a few rounds of voting. In my opinion, it wouldn’t be helpful to judge participation based on this.

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared: OPSNXAmbassador Snapshot + SNXAmbassador Snapshot + Voting Rational for Shadow Committee

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

• Grants Council Season 3 & 4
• Shadow DeFi Committee Member (recognized by Optimism)
• Badgeholder for Citizens House
• Elected member of the SNX Ambassadors and a Core Contributor at Synthetix.

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate: In my role as a Synthetix core contributor, I explain complex technical matters and core mechanisms of the protocol. I do not have direct technical experience, though I do have a deep network of members of the SNX Ambassadors (& SNX core contributors) who have solidity, sql, and other development expertise.So even without ‘technical expertise’, I feel I’m still able to hold my own

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which: Yes, I served on the Shadow Committee (recognized by Optimism) and the Grants Council for Growth Experiments.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

• I am a Season 3 & 4 Optimism Grants Councillor for Growth Experiments, helping to provide valuable feedback to hundreds of projects.

• Currently a Core Contributor for Synthetix, focusing on Communications, Marketing, and Partnerships.

• Re-elected as one of the five SNX Ambassadors, working on governance and partnerships/business development.

• Collaborated with many protocols across Optimism to support their growth.

• Ability to concisely communicate complex technical topics in an understandable way.

• Extensive knowledge of the DeFi landscape.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: Not specified in the provided information.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

• A great product/use case for the protocol within Optimism and the greater DeFi ecosystem.

• A clear path to non-incentivized growth.

• Clear KPIs and milestones tied to token amounts.

• Quality team across development, community, marketing, etc.

• A healthy Treasury to reduce the chance of OP token misuse.

• A potential contingency plan or alternate path to distributing governance fund grants.

• A path to protocol decentralization/governance structure.

What types of grant applications do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents? Very similar to my prior Season 4 intent, but I think decentralized scalable stablecoins, derivatives/financial products, oracles/bridging tools, and most importantly, cross-chain messaging tools for the OP stack.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest: I am an elected member of the SNX Ambassadors and a Core Contributor at Synthetix.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct: Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours/week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes

[ocandocrypto]

Ocandocrypto Self-Nomination Template

Council sub-committee: Milestone and metrics (operations)

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: No.

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: None.

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: None.

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared: None.

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

I have not actively worked with the Optimism ecosystem, however the last 3 months I have been actively studying Optimism governance framework and learning more about the ecosystem and community.

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:

I studied computer science (i dropped out) and have worked in technology for the last 4 years. I am not currently dedicated to programming, I worked in education for the last 3 years in operations and growth roles at the largest ed-tech startup in LATAM (Platzi). I currently study economics and work in research.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:

Not in the Optimism community, but the last few months I worked very closely in the governance of Push Protocol leading the efforts to build the LATAM Push Ambassador Program (Sub DAO) and promoting the creation of ambassador programs in other regions.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

I led and worked on build one of the most important Blockchain schools in Latin America. In my daily role, I reviewed content proposed by reference teachers, managed operational processes for content execution, development, and communication, and implemented growth strategies for the school. I also developed open educational programs for thousands of students, such as the Ethereum Developer Program road to Devcon 2023 in Bogotá, Colombia. Although I haven’t actively worked in the OP ecosystem, I have closely followed the Ethereum ecosystem in recent years. With my hybrid background in technology, communications, and growth, I believe I could fit the needs of the proposed role in the Optimism Grants council.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: Milestones and operations.

In my previous professional roles, I gained practical knowledge to establish and achieve milestones, optimize operational processes and ensure smooth project execution. Decisions driven by metrics but also communication processes with suppliers, partners, teachers and students, which in monitoring processes is essential for good operational execution.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

A good fund grant program should generate value through user engagement and increased return of investment for both grantee and ecosystem (not just money related metrics). It is also important for the grant recipient’s team and culture to meet the highest standards of ethics and practices. Furthermore, projects applying for grants should have a genuine interest in expanding the reach and impact of Optimism.

To ensure that grants are successful, it is necessary to have clear objectives to be accomplished and well-defined milestones for the fund distribution. Additionally, targeted onboarding solutions for new users, along with accurate and straightforward project communication, are crucial. Lastly, establishing active and positive feedback loops on the proposal thread is important for ongoing improvement and collaboration.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?

I would love to see clear documentation for onboarding more developers to the Optimism ecosystem, as well as proposals for products or clear MVPs to be deployed on the network as exercises in research and creation of tools and infrastructure.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest: None, I work in research and actively learn about content curation, education, communities and ecosystems.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct: Yes.

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: Yes.

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes.

[mmurthy]

Hello! The work and impact that the Grants Council has achieved in such a short time frame is truly remarkable. I’m extremely excited about the opportunity to apply and play a meaningful role in this endeavor.

Council sub-committee: Milestones and Metrics

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: Not a delegate

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: N/A

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: N/A

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared: N/A

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:
I have contributed to the Optimism ecosystem by building a number of products which are all being actively maintained. Below are few products our team has built:

1. Karma Delegate Dashboard - Dashboard to provide visibility and accountability into delegate activity, facilitate delegate discovery and delegation for tokenholders.
2. Snapshot Proposal gating - Built using EAS on Optimism, community members can endorse who can create proposals on Snapshot.
3. DAO Delegate Registry - Onchain delegate registry on Optimism we built in collaboration with other DAO tooling companies. The registry has already been integrated into delegate dashboard.
4. GAP - Grantee Accountability Protocol to let grantees post milestones and updates onchain through EAS on Optimism.

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:
Yes, I am a full stack developer by profession. I have been writing code for a really long time. These days, I spend my dev time programming contracts in Solidity. In 2017, I started a website to teach blockchain programming to developers and ran it for 5 years. I am comfortable reading code in most programming languages, can fully read and understand smart contracts. In the past, I have architected and built highly scalable systems from scratch.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which: N/A

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:
We’ve received grants from Optimism and numerous other DAOs, gaining firsthand experience with the entire grant process—both its strengths and weaknesses. I’m confident that I can contribute to enhancing and streamlining this already successful program.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee:
Over the last 3 months, along with my team, I have been working on improving visibility into grantee milestone progress and updates. We built a product called GAP - Grantee Accountability Protocol to let grantees post milestones and updates onchain. I have spoken to a number of grantees and grant managers and have deep understanding of the importance and benefits of tracking milestones. I would like to bring this knowledge and insights to help improve operations in the Grants council.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:
A good governance fund grant like any other good project clearly articulates what it aims to accomplish, who the target audience is, how it helps the protocol get wider adoption (short term or long term) whether through onboarding new users or builders, how the progress can be measured and impact assessed.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?
There are a lot of builders building in the Optimism ecosystem. A few mission requests around helping spread the word about all the projects will go a long way imo. Also, as the number of OP chains grow, there is a need for developer tooling to seamlessly interact across chains, abstracting away chain specific logic etc. Also, there are a number of great ideas here that I recommend.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest: None

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct: Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes

[brichis]

Grants Council Self-Nomination - Brichis

Council sub-committee: Growth

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: Optimism Agora

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you:
.08% according to Curia

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date:
100% according to Curia

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared:

Voting history

Voting rationale

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

• Badgeholder for RetroPGF 3

• govNERD

• Co-Founder of Ethereum México (RetroPGF 2 recipient and Alliance for a Mission Proposal in Season 4)

• Contributor for H.E.R. DAO LATAM Mission Proposal: I created a workshop about Optimism’s Governance for Beginners and conducted 1:1 calls with individuals to advise them on how to become delegates and/or contribute to Collective Governance.

• Moreover, I have been actively assisting numerous projects in their pursuit of Mission Proposals, Grants, RFPs, and RetroPGF. My support has been diverse in approach. For projects that I saw as aligned with the Season 4 Intents, I initiated personal contact and provided step-by-step guidance through the entire application process. In other instances, I conducted one-on-one calls to discuss the range of available options or addressed their queries regarding the distinctions between these options.

Do you have a technical background?

Although I don’t have a technical background, I bring a valuable set of skills to the table (mentioned below).

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee?

No, I would love for this to be the first time.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

• In Season 4, I delved into the world of Optimism, actively supporting multiple projects with grant and mission applications. As Season 5 approaches, my commitment to the Grants Council remains strong, and I aim to expand my support to any project in need. I’ve already aided in +25 missions, grants, and RetroPGF applications, establishing a track record of tangible assistance and guidance.

• I leveraged every available platform, from podcasts to Twitter Spaces, to reach out to diverse communities and encourage their exploration of Optimism’s grant opportunities. For instance, I discussed Optimism’s potential with Criptonikas during a Twitter Spaces, which ultimately led them to apply for a Growth Grant.

• My journey in web3 began as a Community Manager, a role that honed my ability to translate technical content into easily understandable terms, as exemplified here. This ability bridging the gap between technical and non-technical audiences holds significant relevance in a grants-related capacity. In general, I approach communication with great care and thoughtfulness. I make a conscious effort to be precise and assertive in my written communications, a quality that I believe can be quite beneficial in this role.

• My bachelor’s degree in accounting has honed my ability to be efficient, organized, and systematic in my approach.

• Before venturing into the world of web3, my professional background centered on the restaurant industry. I held a range of roles, from operational positions such as hostessing to administrative responsibilities as Head of Human Resources. This multifaceted experience has finely tuned my soft skills, particularly patience and kindness, which I believe can greatly benefit the Grants Council. I have the ability to address the same question with a smile, even if it’s asked a hundred times.

• In addition, I consider myself an incredible networker, with the unique ability to identify connections that others might miss and foster synergies that enhance projects within the ecosystem. With these soft skills, I am confident that I can ensure that all individuals involved in the grants process have an exceptional experience, making them eager to stay engaged and inviting others to join.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee:

During Season 4, I diligently attended the majority of Grants Council Office Hours, which afforded me an in-depth comprehension of Optimism’s diverse funding avenues, encompassing both Builders and Growth Grants. Specifically, I’m inclined towards Growth/Experiments as it resonates more closely with my values. My aspiration is to witness projects that not only expand the user base but also contribute solutions to the real-world challenges prevalent in our varied contexts.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

In my view, a commendable Governance Fund grant should embody several fundamental principles. Firstly, efficiency stands as a cornerstone – the ability to utilize assets judiciously to yield maximum impact is paramount.

Moreover, a well-defined strategy assumes utmost importance. A grantee should possess a clear, well-articulated vision of their objectives, demonstrating a profound understanding of how their project aligns with these goals. Such alignment should naturally extend to the broader objectives of Optimism, effectively supporting the Collective Intents.

Equally pivotal are measurability and achievability. Grants should incorporate quantifiable outcomes and realistic milestones, allowing for the meticulous tracking of progress.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?

• In Optimism, we find ourselves not only driven by the Collective’s vision and support for public good projects but also by the ever-present considerations towards decentralization and security. For Intent #1, I hold a desire to witness the emergence of additional proof systems and projects that pave the way for the decentralization of the sequencer. I advocate for initiatives that simultaneously bolster technical decentralization and enhance security for end-users.

• It’s worth noting that certain categories, like Hackathons, presented classification challenges in the previous season. However, these events serve as invaluable hubs for discovering and nurturing talented builders. I’ve observed growing interest from local communities in such opportunities, and I believe they hold the potential to significantly impact Intent #2.

• Initiatives centered around Account Abstraction and efforts aimed at enhancing web3 accessibility are of paramount importance. I would love to see Optimism close to enabling individuals to seamlessly engage with cryptocurrency without even realizing it.

• In the previous season, I noticed individuals eager to actively participate in governance. Therefore, for Intent #4, I hope to see innovative initiatives that lower the barriers to entry for those interested in engaging with Optimism Governance. Additionally, I would love to see missions that draw in communities from regions that may not see so much movement in previous seasons. It has been heartening to witness the emergence of active Mexican participants and alliances in Optimism, and I eagerly anticipate similar developments from other countries. Diversity of perspectives is of utmost importance, and we are on an exciting path towards further enriching the ecosystem.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:

Currently, I am actively contributing to General Magic, where I collaborate closely with Griff Green, who has been instrumental in founding numerous Public Goods projects.

Additionally, I must disclose that I am a co-founder of Ethereum Mexico and maintain strong relationships with several Latin American projects. However, I am highly conscious of setting clear boundaries and consistently prioritize over-communicating any potential conflicts of interest.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct: Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes

[mastermojo]

MasterMojo Self Nomination

Council sub-committee: Builders

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: Delegate Commitments [OLD] - #65 by mastermojo

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: (voting power can be referenced here 2) ~7.77% is delegated to the SNX Ambassadors.

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: (You may link to your profile on Karma, if applicable. If not, you can divide the number of Optimism votes under your Snapshot profile by 87, which is the number of Token House votes through Season 2, and add all possible votes from Agora.) The original SNX Ambassador wallet faced multisig issues from the start, and the new OPSNXAmbassador wallet was created after a few rounds of voting. In my opinion, it wouldn’t be helpful to judge participation based on this. Between both wallets, voting participation is 100%, and since the new wallet no votes have been missed.

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared: (You may link to your Snapshot and/or Agora profile for voting history. You may link to your delegate communication thread, or any other medium you use to communicate with your delegators, to share your voting rationale.) OPSNXAmbassador Snapshot + SNXAmbassador Snapshot + Voting Rational for Shadow Committee 1

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

• Lyra Grants Council for three epochs (almost a year) https://grants.lyra.finance/
• Kwenta Grants Council (1 epoch) https://twitter.com/KwentaGC
• Shadow DeFi Committee Member (recognized by Optimism)
• Optimism Badgeholder for Citizens House
• Elected member of the Synthetix Ambassadors (for 1.5 years) https://twitter.com/snxambassadors

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:

While I don’t have direct technical experience, I have a robust network of individuals I’ve collaborated with in various Grants Councils I served on and fellow SNX Ambassadors, as well as counterparts from different protocols like Synthetix, Lyra, and Kwenta, who possess significant development skills. Therefore, I believe I can effectively contribute, even in the absence of direct technical expertise.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which: Yes, I served on the Shadow Committee (recognized by Optimism)

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

• I served at the Lyra Grants for almost a year, actively promoting community engagement and integrations while recognizing and rewarding initiatives that contributed to the protocol’s advancement. We used the DAO format with public voting and discussion where we were both transparent and decentralized.
• I served at Kwenta Grants for their very first epoch. I gained knowledge on establishing the grants council framework from the ground up.
• Re-elected as one of the five SNX Ambassadors, working on governance and partnerships/business development.
• Collaborated with many protocols across Optimism to support their growth.
• Extensive knowledge of the DeFi landscape.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: (if applicable)

My extensive experience in participating in multiple DEFI Grants, such as Lyra Grants and Kwenta Grants, has provided me with valuable insights into the DEFI Grants landscape and framework. This includes assessing protocols seeking grants, discerning legitimate projects from potential scams, and gaining an understanding of the field.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

I think a good governance grant is one that promotes long-term sustainability. This includes projects that have a plan for continued development, maintenance, and support beyond the grant period.

I am also a fan of community benefit. I think a good great should benefit the broader crypto community, not just the project or individuals receiving the funds. This could mean open-source projects, public goods, or initiatives that enhance the ecosystem as a whole.

IMO another metric for a good grant is one that has clear milestones and deliverables. The grant should outline clear milestones and deliverables that allow for progress tracking. These help ensure that the project stays on course and delivers results.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?

• I’m particularly interested in observing mission requests that actively promote increased decentralization.
• DEFI derivatives/option products
• Developer Educational Games
• Missions to simplify the onboarding process for new users onto Optimism
• Social Products on Optimism

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest: I am an elected member of the SNX Ambassadors and a Core Contributor at Synthetix.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct: Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes

[ethernaut]

Alejandro Santander Self-Nomination

Council sub-committee:

Builders

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: Delegate Commitments [OLD] - #41 by ethernaut

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you:
0.66%

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date:

5% - My participation has been minimal because, shortly after becoming a delegate, I took an extended break from crypto due to health issues. Essentially, I overexerted myself and needed time to recover from burnout. I’m back now.

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared:

Active delegates of Optimism

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

My primary contribution was during the early days of Optimism. I collaborated with Karl and Kevin to implement Synthetix on the Optimism L2. I believe ours was the first complex protocol to run entirely on an L2. At that time, developing for Optimism was challenging. I think my efforts significantly influenced the improved developer experience on Optimism today.

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:

I’ve been a smart contract developer at the application layer for nearly 7 years and a developer for a total of 15 years. I’ve served as a Core Contributor for Synthetix, been part of the Aragon One team at Aragon, and worked as a smart contract auditor for Open Zeppelin. Among the various applications I’ve audited is the Solidity compiler. Furthermore, I’ve played a role in developing numerous smart contract tools, including pioneering the router proxy architecture technology, which is now instrumental in building some of the most intricate smart contract systems out there.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:

No. This would be my first

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

If this refers to my experience with councils or committees:

• I served on the Synthetix Spartan Council for over a year.
• I was also a member of the Synthetix Core Contributor Committee for more than a year.
• I’ve been on the EthernautDAO council since its founding.
• I am a candidate for the Optimism Security Council.

While I haven’t yet served in such a capacity within the Optimism ecosystem, my involvement in other Ethereum sub-communities has given me a strong understanding of the dynamics at play.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee:

My extensive experience as a developer is pivotal. The ability to technically evaluate a project is crucial for the committee’s overall success.

Furthermore, my role in the Synthetix Core Contributor Committee, tantamount to founder-level management, has broadened my perspective beyond just the technical. This understanding is vital for the success of any entrepreneurial venture. Such experience will be invaluable in identifying projects with the highest potential for success.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

Projects should:

• Add genuine value, not just financial. They should resonate with the core values that unite this industry and build with that depth of understanding.
• Stay grounded. While this industry is groundbreaking, it’s vital to avoid getting lost in overambition. Balancing disruptive creativity with iterative progress is key to staying rooted in reality.
• Exhibit resilience. Navigate the challenges of the Ethereum landscape, recognizing the hurdles and strategizing effectively in the dark forest.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?

For season 5’s success, I advocate for small, straightforward, and open tools and applications. This means tools that elegantly address specific challenges in the Optimism tech stack and applications on Optimism tailored to specific human needs.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:

None that I am aware of.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct 1:

I am perfectly aligned with all the items discussed in the code of conduct.

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5:

Yes, I understand.

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations:

Yes, I can.

[Feiwian]

As a long-time lurker within the OP collective, I’ve been closely following the development and growth of this exciting ecosystem, spanning from the application layer to the governance layer, as well as the adoption of the OP Stack. My strong desire for the success and scalability of blockchains, along with its global impact potential, has motivated me to engage and seek an active role being this OP council sub-committee position an excellent starting point. I believe that my background as a builder and analytical researcher has equipped me with a deep understanding of the values, needs, and goals from the community/collective. Now, I’m eager to step out of the shadows and make a meaningful contribution, particularly in this case in the grants approval and tracking process. I’m certain that my insights can make a positive difference for Optimism.

Council Reviewer Self-Nomination - Feiwian

Council sub-committee: Milestone and Metrics

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: -

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: -

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: -

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared: None yet in OP.

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

While I haven’t yet had the chance to make direct contributions to the Optimism ecosystem, I see this opportunity as a great place to begin actively strengthening Optimism. Improving the r/r ratio of the funding provided by Optimism to grantees and enhancing their impact while addressing the KPIs/numbers is an area where I feel comfortable and can contribute. I’m enthusiastic about the prospect of being a part of this community and channeling my dedication to making valuable contributions.
It’s worth noting that I’m familiar with the grants process, rubrics, expected impact, and the framework that takes place in Charmverse. I applied for a grant in cycle 15 as Nata Social, advancing to the preliminary round, and I’ve evaluated numerous proposals not only from Optimism but also from other grant processes throughout the ecosystem (Infra-storage layers mainly).

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:

Technical is relative. Yes, I possess a graduate degree in Biochemistry which involved lots of research, data analysis, math, analytical thinking, statistics, etc, although I’m not an software/blockchain engineer.

Additionally, I have basic programming skills from past courses (Python-Js) and hands-on experience with various tools such as Github/Gitbook, Figma, Notion, Dune, Excel, etc.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:

Not exactly, but I was voted in as a founding member of CultivatorDAO, alongside other talented individuals, in an election where more than 20,000 Web3 users participated (Snapshot). Unfortunately, the DAO’s operations and efforts were later shut down due to external factors.

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

• While leading Nata Social, I’ve gained extensive experience in defining core strategies, leading teams, managing finances, conducting research, and fundraising. This experience has given me a well-rounded perspective on organizational operations, alignment, KPIs, business, etc which I believe is directly applicable to this position.

• In my Product Growth role, I also conducted in-depth research and analysis of numerous projects for Sepana, identified priority integrations, and contributed to the adoption of beta testers (Analyzed number of users, funding, tech stack, etc. +200 researched projects) among other responsabilities.

• I made a report on the current state of Web3 with +20 projects analyzed in detail. I then created a Notion with +100 projects featured about the Social Web3 ecosystem + DAO tooling.

• Contributor/member of SEEDLatam (1, 2). As the largest crypto community in LATAM, they also have a SEED Latam OP delegation. Their goal is to advocate for protocol decentralization and enhance the Optimism Collective’s ecosystem, while simultaneously assisting Latin American communities in gaining benefits and participation

• I also participated in several hackathons (1, 2, 3) and incubators/programs (1, 2, 3).

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: Milestones and operations.

In the previous response I provide an overview of my experience and what I can contribute as a subcommittee member. In addition to that, during my years as an analytical analyst in the Pharma and Biotech industries, I validated methods and procedures through testing, data analysis, statistics. I also achieved compliance by executing protocols, creating standard operating procedures (SOPs), and generating reports.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

In my view, a successful Governance Fund grant should align closely with the overarching vision of Optimism. It should be a catalyst for progress, efficiently directing resources toward achieving the vision. It should promote positive outcomes for the entire ecosystem (grantees, teams, end users, contributors, tokenholders), so that at the end of the day there is heightened demand for blockspace → more revenue from the sequencer → ecosystem flywheel/sustainable growth

In order to get the most out of the initiative, proposals should follow these principles:

• Clear and Accountable Milestones
• Measurable: what does ‘success’ means? → trackable metrics that demonstrate impact.
• Strategic: potential in their respective domains (DeFi, NFTs, Social, Community, Education, etc)
• Alignment with Intent
• Reach

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?

Teams constructing distinct and pioneering solutions emphasizing in native Optimism projects.

Teams and products that have effectively demonstrated their value by achieving PMF (best r/r for funds allocation)

Some random solutions examples that come to mind:

Research on governance incentives. Delegations frameworks.
Better DAO tooling for what matters:
-Discussion
-Execution
-Automation (Approvals-Granting Process)
Migrations/Deployments → Support and Dev tooling/Documentation
Less DeFi-incentives-Tokens distributed between the same people, changing hands and extracting DAO value. More novelty. The vast majority of proposals for the Arbitrum STIP were DeFi protocols (1, 2).

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest: None.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct: I agree.

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: I understand.

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes, I’m available.

[hyprdev]

OP Application

Council sub-committee: Builder

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: Not a delegate.

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: N/A

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: N/A

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared: N/A

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

I have not actively worked within Optimism or crypto in an official capacity but have been on Optimism since the very beginning and was a recipient of the first OP airdrop. I began to really pay attention to Optimism when I discovered Velodrome and their community back in July 2022. Since then I have continued to learn and explore the ecosystem as it has developed over the last year and a half.

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:

I have a bachelors in engineering and work as a software developer / business analyst in my current role.

I work primarily with React, Vue, Javascript, Python, SQL mostly scripting or working to develop new applications or enhancing current applications within the business.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:

N/A

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

I have been in crypto since mid 2020 and have learned a lot about the technology, various ecosystems and apps. I have kept in the loop with new developments on almost a daily basis through various podcasts or YouTube videos such as Bankless, The Daily Gwei or keeping up with various projects through Discord.

As a developer in my current role, I build applications but I also meet with stakeholders and work with them to understand their business needs to manage new projects from start to finish.

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: (if applicable)

As a developer and someone who loves crypto and economics, I believe this would help in evaluating grant applications since I would have the technical knowledge to evaluate the project as well as the broad crypto understanding to be able to determine the effectiveness and purpose of a given project and how it compares to other projects in that specific vertical.

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

The “SMART” (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) framework is a great way to begin on how to best evaluate if a grant does not only makes sense but will be effective. Detailed goals with measurable outcomes should be the foundation for any grant, ensuring that any worthy contribution to the Optimism ecosystem is rewarded and scaled according to the impact being delivered by the project.

A good grant should be focused on achieving desired intents of Season 5. A better grant should go above and beyond that, not only delivering a key intent but multiple intents or have second or third order benefits is even better.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?

In terms of moving towards technical decentralization, I believe projects focused on decentralizing sequencing are important as well as projects providing auditing services and technical support. The best way to ruin a party is a new hot app that goes live without sufficient auditing to only get exploited and leave a bad taste for users, especially if they are new to crypto.

For growing the Superchain, I believe that Optimism needs projects that further research interoperability tech. Also in terms of UI/UX, projects focusing on account abstraction is important to build better experiences for the end user and make it simple for less tech savvy people to experience apps on various OP chains.

For improving consumer experience, I believe improving UI/UX of crypto is key. Since I’ve been in crypto, I’ve seen some moderate improvements in UI/UX from wallets and various applications, however if we are to grow and get more people onchain then we need projects that do the following:

• take a simplified approach to their frontend (where possible)
• projects that display a clear understanding of what the app does
• goes out of its way to assist users and minimizes mistakes on part of the user.

Furthermore projects working on account abstraction is an important focus in order to achieve this Season’s Intent to improve customer experience.

Lastly on this point of consumer experience I would love to see novel applications working on areas outside of Defi. I love Defi but I do think that in bear market lulls, having “evergreen” type applications with real world use cases, or other practical applications would assist future user retention during boring or brutal bear markets, where application success and user growth doesn’t depend on price action would be great to see.

As far as Improving Governance, I believe that it is important to grow how many users come onchain but also stay onchain. Whenever the next bull market arrives, it will be even more difficult to measure the true success of user retention until that bull market ends. This is where projects that not only increase governance participation but also education users on key crypto values such as decentralization, importance of retro PGF, Ethereum aligned values, avoiding scams etc is key in order to grow not only users by number but users by quality. Users that will stick around when prices go down, that will help grow the community and further enrich the Optimism ecosystem.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest: None

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct 2: Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: Yes

[Juanbug_PGov]

Council Reviewer Self Nomination

Council sub-committee: Milestone and metrics (operations)

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment: PGov Delegate Committment

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you: 1.24% (Here)

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date: Karma Link, Voting and Communication History: 100%

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared: PGov Delegate Thread

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

• Set up and ran FranklinDAO’s (Penn Blockchain) delegation when Optimism governance was first created over a year ago.
• Spearheaded the deployment of Compound III onto Optimism
• Took part on initial Velodrome airdrop to MakerDAO multisig
• Active user for 2+ years, receiving all community airdrops; partaking in governance initiatives and activities (RPGF, Missions, etc.)

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:
I helped review, analyze, and follow up with teams that applied for grants from Near and Aurora ecosystems. Finishing up BS of science in Economics in Business Analytics and Finance with 2+ years of experience in blockchain data analytics as well as basic programming skills.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which: Anticapture Commission

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:
As part of the Uniswap Deployment Accountability Committee, our team has helped oversee and hold teams that are looking to deploy Uniswap v3 onto their chain accountable. Particularly, many chains promise x rewards for deployments and it’s our job to follow up and ensure those are delivered, directly parallel to the milestone and metrics role of this job.

I was a grant reviewer and milestone analyst for the Near and Aurora ecosystems for over a year. An emphasis and focus for me was checking in with the grantees on a milestone and constant basis, seemingly identical to this role.

For the last few years, I led FranklinDAO’s (Penn Blockchain) delegations expanding the delegated projects to Optimism, Uniswap, Compound, Aave, Arbitrum, etc. Now, leading the PGov delegate platform in a more personal capacity has given me even more responsibility and experience. I have voted and participated in over 100 governance votes across over a dozen different ecosystems and have had to review and understand possible conflicts of interest and politics at play constantly as well as upkeep and monitoring of votes that have passed to ensure proper accountability.

Some other relevant experience includes:

• UADP (Uni/Arb delegate program): Responsibly managing delegate relations and interests for Arbitrum on behalf of Uniswap
• Contributing to a fair and decentralized framework for Ichi

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: (Laid out above)

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:
A good governance grant should align first with the general Optimism vision and foundational missions. There should be net positives for the entire ecosystem as well as include impactful and logical milestones for funds.

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?
Requests that emphasize Optimism native projects first and foremost. In favor of add-on grants for teams that have already found a niche in Optimism and have shown product market fit. More emphasis for visibility and novel ideas.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest: Delegate in different defi ecosystems

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct 4: I agree to abide by and contribute to the implementation of the Optimism Code of Conduct.

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5: I understand that KYC will be required to receive council rewards.

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations: I am able to commit 20+ hours/week to the duties of this role.

[Srijith]

Council sub-committee:

Milestone and Metrics (operations)

If you are a delegate, please provide the link to your delegate commitment:

Not a delegate

If you are a delegate, please indicate what % of votable supply is delegated to you:

0

If you are a delegate, please indicate your voting participation rate in OP governance to date:

Not a delegate

Please link to your voting history and any voting rationale you’ve shared:

Please outline any other contributions to the Optimism ecosystem to date:

• Have not served Optimism

Do you have a technical background? If so, please elaborate:

I’ve been a project and product manager in Dehidden (aka Layer-E) for 1.5 years where I had helped scope out 10+ projects and products, from scoping, userflows, to manageing timelines of design and development. I’m well aware of technical timelines, effort costs for a variety of projects, from NFTs, AI, DeFi and more.

Have you previously served on a Token House Council or committee? If so, please specify which:

No Previous committee experience

Please demonstrate any experience you believe is relevant to this role:

I am Grants program Manager for Arbitrum where I oversee and better operationalise 4 domains for the grants program, with my responsibilities including managing funds, approving proposals, providing support and sourcing quality proposals. I am a core team member at Questbook where we’ve lead and managed grants program for reputed ecosystems such as Compound, TON, Polygon, Celo etc disbursing more than $3M in grants to 300+ teams . I have also lead as a product manager at Layer-E , building multiple products that benefitted the Polygon ecosystem, notably the Polygon Copilot, Surfaceboard etc. Leading the product development has helped me understand opportunity landscaping, industry trends, 0-1 product building process and GTM .

Please demonstrate expertise relevant to your Council sub-committee: (if applicable)

Please describe your philosophy on what makes a good Governance Fund grant:

A good governance fund grant starts from the grants committee to setup the right RFPs, asks and examples for grantees to know how to create maximum impact through their applications.

Some of the key criteria include:

• A detailed proposal that aligns with the intent and roadmap of Optimism
• Clear and well defined milestones for the overall funding asked by the proposer
• Accountability to update the community and reviewers on the progress of the project and deliver all milestones
• Onboarding new users to the Optimism ecosystem through various initiatives such as identity, gaming, education, etc,
• Active community participation on project updates

What types of Mission Requests do you think will help achieve the Season 5 Intents?

Mission Requests that are surrounded in solving for Sybil Resistance, Bot protection and proof of person hood is very important in the current landscape. With Zk attempting to go mainstream, there is a lot of good usecases that can be built on top of Optimism and Zk, and its vital that one of the missions is focused on that.

In addition, in terms of grants programs, its important to fund alternate ways of funding proposals and programs that focus on both reviewer and grantee transparency and accountability. Iterating through different models, helps figure out the best model for maximum impact while also making sure all projects become approachable, from ideation stage to integration stage.

Please disclose any anticipated conflicts of interest:

There are no conflicts of interest.

Please verify that you agree to abide by the Code of Conduct:

Yes

Please verify that you understand KYC will be required to receive Council rewards at the end of Season 5:

Yes

Please verify that you are able to commit ~20 hours / week to reviewing grant applications and other Council operations:

Yes