I would like to nominate myself and, if elected, I promise not to do anything at all.
Of course, I will perform my duties required as Director, and do the due diligence and paperwork necessary but it is my opinion that the foundation should serve as a shield, not as an action. I don’t think the foundation should own a bank account, real estate or even a google account to give out emails. I would be happier if the ecosystem was comprised of 3 or more different companies providing these. My model is the Ethereum Foundation, in which me and nick worked for many years (for my case, 2014 to roughly 2018). The EF was the first big provider of resources and the only other company was Consensys. But slowly, many other companies were birthed as the foundation slowly got leaner, ENS is actually one of them, and I would like to repeat the model. With the difference that the funds are already controlled by a DAO, something that the Ethereum Foundation always spoke of doing but never really accomplished it.
I am not super keen in having the job, I’m a background kind of guy, but a lot of people asked me to step forward and I had to check with my lawyers and accountants if that would pose any issues for me. As a Brazilian citizen, I think it also adds more resilience for the foundation, since it would mean yet another jurisdiction. I do not intend to receive any compensation in the first year. Of course we might revisit that in the future if there is significant more legal risk/managerial tasks but I feel I have already been compensated by the ENS DAO and I hope to give back more.
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Have you served on a Board of Directors or something similar? If yes, short details.
a. I have founded many companies, in Brazil, Estonia and BVI, where I served as director/board. They weren’t large, but they gave me the experience of having to deal with lawyers from multiple countries. -
Communications at the highest level (with whom, general topic, and how often)
a. In my previous jobs (Ethereum Foundation, Unilogin, Balancer) communication was often my top priority. I’ve had to present my ideas to investors in San Francisco, Paris and of course, (after Covid) Zoom. I’ve sat in meetings and talked about blockchain technology to politicians, heads of NGOs, and owners of banks and Stock Exchanges. I’ve also had often to do the opposite: to present findings of how simple users perceived the complexity of our products to the CFO and VPs who were too technical to see it in simpler terms. -
Evidence of high-level decision-making, using your independent judgment and discretion:
I’ve been in multiple moments in my career entrusted with large amounts of other’s people money and responsibilities and I believe I have done my best to do the right thing. During the DAO hack I was entrusted with a private key of the White Hat attacker that eventually held millions, which I kept safe (the recovered funds eventually were transferred to JBaylina who safe kept them until the recovery contract was deployed - by Nick!). When I was a manager at the Ethereum Foundation I eventually ended up having to manage a fund worth a few million dollars (initially collected from donations to the community). I was also entrusted with the mission to attain the name ethereum.eth for the foundation– no names were reserved and we had to bid like anyone else. Both the name and the tip jar funds were kept by me for years–after I had left the foundation– until we were properly able to set up a structure to receive them. -
Ability to comprehend and speak on legal matters (you don’t have to be a lawyer).
a. Have you ever had to explain to a Swiss auditor the difference between purchasing and staking ether when they had questions on why a million dollars from the foundation were apparently going to your care in exchange for a domain name you had invented? Have you ever had to explain to the cybercrime police of your country how exactly were you connected to the heist of a hundred million dollars from a decentralized autonomous organization? Or had to explain to an accountant what exactly is an airdrop and why you received one? I’ve done them. Turns out, they’re not as hard as that, accountants and lawyers are not that different from the rest of humans in planer earth. -
Ability to comprehend and speak on accounting matters (you don’t have to be an accountant)
a. See above. I’ve had to explain cryptocurrency to my accountant so I could declare it on my income years before the tax authorities in Brazil ever heard about it. -
Activity that required the handling of confidential or sensitive information
a. Yes.
b. ENS activity (link to your profile summary): Profile - Avsa - ENS DAO Governance Forum
- Activities of significance for ENS (e.g., stewards): Founder, delegate, Public Good stewards.
- ENS Trust Level: ?
- Other links of significance:
- Web3 expertise: 8 years.
- Other relevant matter to add: None