Proposed Board Lead: Zach Obront
Proposed Board Operating Budget: 90,000 OP (+20k from last season)
Contact Info: zobront@gmail.com
Previous Work & Qualifications
- I work primarily as a security researcher.
- My work focuses substantially on the OP ecosystem. For example, I placed 1st in the audit contest on the Bedrock Upgrade. I’ve also audited Base, Blast, and Fraxtal (all OP stack chains).
- I am organizing the Fault Proof CTF event this summer, which will serve as the final line of defense for the security of fault proofs before deploying to mainnet.
- I served on the Developer Advisory Board for Season 5, taking an active role in streamlining DAB processes to ensure the members were well coordinated.
- In my work with the DAB, I provided private feedback to the Grants Council, as well as providing public feedback on many Mission Requests and applications (ex: 1, 2, 3).
- In a past life, I co-founded and ran Scribe Media. This is irrelevant technically, but provided helpful experience in leading a team of 100+ people that will carry over to this role.
Board Charter:
- Link to original Charter: Season 5 Charter
- The Developer Advisor Board should be greatly expanded in Season 6 to make better use of the technical expertise of the group.
- Here is the proposed & expanded charter:
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- Support the Optimism community through important technical decisions.
- Provide plain English explanations of all protocol upgrades for the community.
- Act as one of four delegate approvals that will be required before a Protocol Upgrade can move to a vote.
- Be available for consultation by delegates regarding important technical decisions, especially protocol upgrades.
- Support the Optimism community through important technical decisions.
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- Support the Grants Council on evaluation technical Mission Requests.
- Review Mission Request drafts and provide guidance to the Grants Council, specifically focusing on their technical merits and whether the grant size is reasonable.
- Review applications for Mission Requests and provide guidance to the applicants as well as the Grants Council, specifically focusing on the team’s detailed plan and whether they seem to be capable of executing on the mission.
- Review work product delivered for milestones on existing grants to provide guidance on whether the milestones have been successfully achieved.
- Use “veto power” to keep Grants Council technically grounded (ie. a unanimous “no” vote by the DAB on any of these topics will block the Grants Council from voting “yes”).
- Support the Grants Council on evaluation technical Mission Requests.
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- Bring an additional technical perspective to thinking about the vision of the OP ecosystem and what needs to happen to get there.
- Be available for discussions for any core OP devs to provide an outside voice on technical and security related decisions.
- Support in finding technical talent to fill important roles at OP Labs.
- Generate ideas for the Builders Ideas list to spur community contributions.
- Bring an additional technical perspective to thinking about the vision of the OP ecosystem and what needs to happen to get there.
- Other Logistics:
- All members will be accountable to governance as they remain removable via the Representative Removal proposal type outlined in the Operating Manual
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Breakdown of Board Operating Budget:
- Lead (1) = 25k OP (+5k from last season)
- The increase in pay for this role represents the increase in responsibilities based on the changes outlined in this proposal.
- Specifically, the Lead will be responsible for:
- (a) leading all board meetings,
- (b) interfacing with other areas in OP governance to ensure the DAB is supporting where possible,
- (c) working with Upgrade Czar on approving protocol upgrades,
- (d) providing feedback for DAB members on their performance,
- (e) exercising decision-making authority in the event that the board cannot come to consensus, and
- (f) writing & sharing the retrospective after Season 6 on changes to improve the DAB going forward.
- Upgrade Czar (1) = 17.5k OP (+5k from last season)
- This role did not exist last season. All Members were paid 12.5k OP, and the increase in pay for this role represents the increase in responsibilities.
- Specifically, the Upgrade Czar is responsible for:
- (a) understanding the OP Stack deeply and reviewing all upgrades,
- (b) leading the DAB in discussing and approving these upgrades, and
- (c) writing up non-technical summaries of the changes for the community
- Ops Lead (1) = 17.5k OP (+5k from last season)
- This role did not exist last season. All Members were paid 12.5k OP, and the increase in pay for this role represents the increase in responsibilities.
- Specifically, the Ops Lead is responsible for ensuring that all DAB tasks are well orchestrated and happen on time, including:
- (a) improving the IOPs,
- (b) scheduling meetings,
- (c) interfacing with other Councils,
- (d) organizing spreadsheets for feedback, and
- (e) looking for any other opportunities to make changes that will keep the DAB’s efforts focused and effective
- OP Labs Representative (1) = 0 OP (equal to last season)
- Additional Members (3) = 10k OP each = 30k OP (-7.5k from last season)
- All Members were paid 12.5k OP last season, but also shared some of the responsibilities that will be taken on by the other roles this season.
- I believe 10k OP is sufficient to incentivize top talent to participate, especially given the possibility for RetroPGF.
Note: If you’re paying close attention, you’ll see that the math on the changes doesn’t exactly add up. This is because, last season, one of the members (Noah) was unpaid. However, this budget includes the “worst case” assumption that all Members are paid, although it is possible that Noah (or someone else) opts to forfeit compensation.
KPIs & Measurements
User Experience KPIs:
- Did 100% of Protocol Upgrades have a non-technical summary posted within 72 hours and get approval or comments from the DAB?
- What NPS score would the Grants Council reviewers provide (answering: “On a scale from 1-10, if it were up to you, how likely would you be to renew the DAB next season?”)
- What NPS score would the Citizens give the DAB (answering: “On a scale from 1-10, how much value do you feel the DAB provided the community this season?”)
Performance KPIs:
- Did voting participation on Protocol Upgrades increase (including abstains) since the non-technical summaries were implemented?
- Did the number of milestones missed by grant recipients decrease on DAB-approved grants relative to grants before the DAB?
- Did the quality of technical grants chosen increase, as evaluated by members of the OP Labs engineering team?