What up Optimism Collective fam! For the last year I have be working at the Optimism Foundation as a contribution manager, mostly leading the Ambassador program.
I have since left the Foundation and I am excited to begin participating in governance again! You will notice that there is a gap in my governance participation over the last year due to the fact that Optimism Foundation employees are restricted from participating in governance.
Previous to joining the Foundation I was a delegate as well as the lead of the NFT and Gaming Committee during Season 2 of Optimism governance.
I will be using this forum to post all my future voting rationale
Season 6: Intent Budgets Vote: Yes
Focusing on intent 3 (vast majority of the budget): this budget nicely aligns the Foundation’s work with that of the DAO… where the Foundation supports intent 3 through providing ancillary benefits for builders like infrastructure partnerships while the Gov Fund distributes grants for those builders.
Intent 3: Grow Application Devs on the Superchain -18M OP, broken down as below:
Intent 3A: 6M OP for grants supporting OP Mainnet
Intent 3B: 12M OP for chain-specific grant programs supporting the Superchain (to be run by these Chains).
Season 6: Grants Council Operating Budget Vote: Yes
The grants council’s increase in operating budget seems to be directly attributed to internal optimizations that were implemented based on their retrospective as well as an estimate in expected volume of future applications. For this reason I have voted to approve the budget.
Season 6: Developer Advisory Board Renewal Vote: Given both proposals would drive the right outcomes I am voting yes for both.
The most important thing to me is that both proposals have KPIs focused on what is most important from my perspective:
Ensuring that Protocol Upgrades have a non-technical summary and that the nontechnical summaries are increasing voter participation
Support the Grants Council on evaluation of technical Mission Requests and measure the associated impact
Season 6: Intents Ratification Vote: Yes
In order to sustainably fund public goods in perpetuity we need to be generating demand for the blockspace that contributes to public goods funding. Intents 2 & 3 are precursors to that demand generation.
Intent 1: Progress Towards Decentralization
Intent 2: Bring Chains to the Superchain
Intent 3: Grow Application Devs on the Superchain
Season 6: Code of Conduct Council Renewal Vote: No.
Although I recognize the value of having a highly trained entity (Code of Conduct Council) with a specialized skillset to oversee the Rules of Engagement, I am voting not to renew the council because:
The budget has expanded while much of their prior seasons responsibilities have fallen elsewhere or been accounted for in the new gov design
I also believe the SupportNERDs are capable of overseeing the Rules of Engagement in the absence of a CoCC
Protocol Upgrade #8: Changes for Stage 1 Decentralization Vote: Abstain
Although I agree in principal that this upgrade is important to move to stage 1 decentralization (as L2.beat defines), a technical delegate @Luckyhooman.eth I highly respect has dissented and I do not have enough expertise about the subject to make an informed decision. Therefore I vote to Abstain.
Protocol Upgrade #7: Fault Proofs Vote: Yes:
Based on the non-technical summary provided by the DAB. This upgrade moves us to stage 1 of technical decentralization (dependant upon Protocol Upgrade #8) while implementing certain safeguards that keep users funds secure.
Season 6: V2. Code of Conduct Council RenewalVote: Yes(voted no in cycle 16a)
My preference would be the same budget as the prior season (18,000 OP) with any additional impact being rewarded through Retro Funding. However I am voting for as I believe it is a net positive for the Collective to continue the council this season.
Chain Delegation Program AmendmentVote: Yes
There is a tradeoff we are making to prioritize the Superchains growth at the expense of current OP tokenholders. But that is a tradeoff I am willing to make assuming this is a carrot potential Superchains care about.
Upgrade Proposal #9: Fjord Network UpgradeVote: Yes
Based on the nontechnical summary. This upgrade is a big win for users as it
will reduces L1 gas costs which results in cheaper transactions. It also makes it more economically feasible to create “smart accounts” controlled by your phone which will aid in on-boarding new users
Mission Requests: Intent #1, 500k OP Vote: Yes to all except “Request 2: Research and Develop a framework to measure potential capture of the Token House” as there is a similar Foundation Mission Request with a lot of overlap. Ideally there will be some learnings from the Foundation Mission Request we can use for writing a similar Mission Request in a future season.
Mission Requests: Intent #3A, 6M OP Vote: Yes to all. With good applicants I believe an argument could be made for all these Mission Requests directly or indirectly bringing more developers to OP Mainnet.
Mission Requests: Intent #3B, 12M OP Vote: Yes. I think it is the right move to provide grants for Superchain chains to make grants within their own ecosystems