Steward Nominations — ENS Ecosystem WG (Q3/Q4 2023 Term)

DAO-Wide
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To nominate yourself to be a steward of the ENS Ecosystem Working Group for the Q3/Q4 2023 Term, complete the steps below before 9am UTC on June 9.

Three Stewards will be elected for the ENS Ecosystem Working Group.

The nomination process will be followed by a five day election window for the ENS Ecosystem Working Group.

Nomination Steps

To nominate yourself to be a Steward of the ENS Ecosystem Working Group, follow the steps below.

Step 1

Forum: Reply to in this thread with the following information:

  • Link to Snapshot: (fill this in after Step 2)
  • Preferred Name and/or ENS name:
  • Forum username:
  • Twitter profile link (optional):
  • Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?
  • Any other information you wish to share with Delegates (e.g. potential conflicts or existing engagements)

Step 2

Snapshot: Create a Snapshot vote in the ENS WG Steward Nomination space HERE. Select “New Proposal” and use the following template:

Template
Title: [[Name of Working Group]] Nominate [your preferred name or ENS name]

  • Example: [ENS Ecosystem] Nominate yourname.eth

Body: Copy and paste your forum reply from above which includes:

  • Your preferred name/ENS name
  • Forum username
  • Twitter profile link (optional)
  • Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?
  • Any other information you wish to share with Delegates (e.g. potential conflicts or existing engagements)

Vote Timing
Select the start date and time of June 6 at 9am UTC.
Select the end date of June 9. The time will automatically be set to end at the same time the proposal starts (which should be 9am UTC).

voting-period-snapshot
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Please note, Snapshot will use your current timezone to set the time. Please convert 9am UTC into your local timezone when setting up your proposal.

For reference: 9am UTC = 5am ET / 2am PT / 10am BST / 11am CEST

Any nominations submitted to the forum prior to the start of the nomination window will become active when the nomination window opens on June 6. All votes to support a Steward nomination must be made during the nomination window.

Step 3

After successfully nominating yourself to be a Steward, you require 10k votes in support of your nomination on Snapshot between June 6 - 9.

Any nominee with 10k votes supporting their Steward nomination will be included in the ballot for the Steward election of the relevant Working Group.

Steward Elections

Anyone who completes the steps in the “Nominations Steps” section above will be included on the ballot for election. Steward elections will use approval voting.

Election begins: 9am UTC on June 10
Election ends: 9am UTC on June 15

Gitcoin Passport

If you have trouble submitting a proposal on Snapshot, please make sure you set up Gitcoin Passport first. You can set up your Gitcoin passport at passport.gitcoin.co.

Video Walkthrough

Before creating a Snapshot vote, please watch this video walkthrough of the process.

Questions

If you have any questions about the Steward election or nominations, or if you need help setting up your Snapshot vote, please comment below or DM Alisha on Twitter.

Forum Write-Access

In order to nominate yourself as a Steward, you must have write-access to all of the categories in the governance forum. Please submit the Participant Request form if you require write-access. If you have submitted the form and have not received a response it is because there is an invalid entry in your form. Please DM me on Twitter (@futurealisha) to follow up with issues.

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  • Link to Snapshot: Snapshot
  • Preferred Name and/or ENS name: limes.eth
  • Forum username: limes
  • Twitter profile link (optional): https://twitter.com/EnlightenedLime
  • Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?:
    • I am passionate about continuing as an ENS ecosystem steward because of my lively long-term vision for our community. Over the past 3 terms, I have been privileged to foster strong relationships within our ecosystem in the form of IRL events at NFT NYC twice and ETH Denver. These connections have not only enriched my experience but have also served as a catalyst for others to engage, collaborate, and innovate. I take pride in having facilitated numerous productive encounters, and I am excited by the potential these newly formed relationships hold for our community.
      Moreover, I am particularly motivated by the remarkable resilience of our ecosystem. Despite the prevailing bear market, our community calls are attracting more participants than ever. This is a testament to the strong foundations we have laid together and the dynamic, robust community we have cultivated.
      Moving forward, I am eager to nurture this momentum. I see our community as a launch pad for the future of ENS, a fertile ground for innovation and growth. As your ecosystem steward, I am committed to sustaining this vibrant community, fostering its health, and guiding its continued evolution.
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  • Link to Snapshot: (Snapshot)
  • Preferred Name and/or ENS name: cap - thecap.eth
  • Forum username: cap
  • Twitter profile link (optional): https://twitter.com/TheCapHimself
  • Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?

I’ve been an active member of the ENS DAO for a year now. I’m a regular on the discussion forum, participating in various conversations and a wide range of topics. I attended all Ecosystem meetings since I joined last year. I wrote articles (most notably Meet ENS and Who will drive ENS adoption) and created tutorials about ENS aimed at promoting a better understanding of ENS. Through these endeavors, I’ve met amazing people and fellow builders who never fail to impress with their expertise and creativity.

My dedication to the ENS ecosystem extends beyond my involvement in the DAO. I have already fully dedicated myself and my career to ENS by building Namespace - a subname management platform built on top of ENS, which also allows me to have a unique insight into the industry, community, and broader ecosystem.

To stay connected with the ENS community, I spend a significant amount of time on Twitter spaces and events. These platforms have allowed me to engage in meaningful conversations with ENS users, gaining invaluable insights and fostering a stronger sense of community. As someone with a background in Computer Science and International Business, I see myself as a bridge between the ENS and its broader community, helping everyone to better understand the DAO and the protocol, and helping community-led initiatives as much as I can.

If I had to give a one-sentence reply to what would I do as a Steward, I’d say that I will work towards growing and strengthening the relationships between all parties that make the entire ENS ecosystem including the ENS Labs, the DAO, ENS Partners, Ecosystem projects, and Community, while helping everyone get whatever they need to run their end of operations smoothly.

I work great in teams but am also a proactive self-starter who is comfortable taking initiative on his own. Most of my professional career revolves around partnership management and business development, and I have almost a decade-long experience in launching startups from the web2 world.

I believe I’m easily coachable, eager to listen, learn and continually improve myself. With utmost confidence, I believe that the ENS ecosystem working group offers the ideal environment for me to contribute meaningfully and maximize my personal growth. As a Steward, I will continue to help people on the forum, social media, and in real life to understand ENS better, and will continue to represent the DAO to the best of my abilities regardless of any circumstance.

  • Any other information you wish to share with Delegates (e.g. potential conflicts or existing engagements)

For me, ENS checks all the boxes for being a perfect DAO and a protocol in every conceivable way. One aspect I would personally like to help slowly explore is ‘biz-dev’, preferably by incentivizing and harvesting the power of the community which would simultaneously improve governance activity and participation.

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Nominate 184.eth

Snapshot: Snapshot
ENS name: 184.eth
ENS Profile: 184.eth | ens.184.eth
Forum username: 184.eth
Twitter profile link: 184eth

Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?

I am deeply passionate about ENS and committed to its growth. As an active member of the ENS DAO, I champion builders and endeavour to connect them to available tools and resources to thrive.

Engaged across platforms, i’m participating in WG calls, initiatives, advocating, grant programs and have grown relationships with stewards and contributors on these joint endeavours. I’ve formed connections with ecosystem builders, projects, and the wider community, providing feedback, testing, and in support.

As a Steward, I will build upon the achievements of past stewards to attract, recognise, and empower builders, leveraging my core knowledge, existing relationships, and commitment to ENS the public good. Additionally, I take pride in enhancing the visibility of projects within the ecosystem. And unapologetically, i’ll add my enthusiasm for name records.

I’ve a lot to contribute in the Steward team & ENS Ecosystem as a whole. My involvement includes:

  • Supporting the community as a Mod in the chat.ens.domains discord
  • 100% attendance of weekly MetaGov, Ecosystem, and Public Goods WG calls (Q1/Q2 2023) - (see dates)
  • Composing detailed minutes for WG calls - (metagov | ecosystem | public goods | tweet)
  • Actively participating in discussions & content across twitter, twitter spaces, discord, and the discussion forum - (e.g. forum summary | townhall notes)
  • Engaging in the initiative of promoting the setting of name records, profiles, and reaching out to projects and individuals (incl small grants submissions) - (e.g. setrecords | primary+avatar)
  • Providing advocacy, feedback & testing, and support to ecosystem builders, including reaching out about grants programs and pathways
  • Being vocal against misinformation and continued sharing about ways to participate in the DAO

I will proudly take on the responsibility of WG Steward and opportunity to be of service.

Regards,

184.eth

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Snapshot : snapshot
Preferred Name : slobo.eth
Forum username : slobo.eth
Twitter profile link : https://twitter.com/AlexSlobodnik

Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?

I want to be an Ecosystem Steward because I believe in ENS and want it to grow.

As a three time Ecosystem Steward I am well positioned to build on the progress the group has made. The ecosystem group’s impact has only increased with each successive term.

In the last 18 months, we’ve seen the ecosystem working group calls evolve from a lightly attended call to an engaged audience of 25+. I am proud of the information sharing that occurs weekly between ENS builders, core contributors, and ecosystem participants. We have also had the honor to support and fund dozens of worthwhile builders and projects.

Any other information you wish to share with Delegates (e.g. potential conflicts or existing engagements)

Lastly, as one of the founders of namestone & nftychat which deeply rely on ENS, I’m well positioned to provide a builder’s perspective.

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Link to Snapshot: Snapshot
Preferred name: Daylon
ENS name: daylon.eth
Forum username: @daylon.eth
Twitter profile: @feraldread

Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?

I am among the most consistently engaged, well-informed, and longest contributing candidates.

After trying in all three of the previous term’s steward elections, I began to feel a little disillusioned with the whole process, as if it’s more or less a popularity contest, rather than a way to select the best candidates, based on their relevant merits like qualifications or experience, but in spite of that… here are a few reasons why I would make a good steward:

  • I have been an active participant since the DAO started in November 2021.
  • One way to see just how active is by checking my admittedly absurd amount of governance forum activity. (535+ days visited, 8 days read time, over 12k posts read, etc.)
  • DAO data-tracking platform Karma shows me as the 2nd-most active contributor in ENS DAO, behind only nick.eth, the founder of ENS.
  • I have participated in 100% of all DAO votes, both on and off-chain.

What have I contributed during my time in ENS DAO?

  • I think the most widely appreciated and significant contribution is the ENS DAO Newsletter. Since first proposing and starting it in March 2022, the research and editing involved to publish two new editions per month has required me to stay informed and up-to-date with the latest ENS developments every single day.
  • In November 2022, I was offered the opportunity to provide support in the Governance Forum, which I am happy to continue doing however I am able to, and for as long as my assistance is wanted.
  • During the start of this term, I acted as “archivist” by providing note-taking and call summaries whenever possible. However, since moving back to Seoul in February, the time zone difference made it much more difficult to attend the calls like I was able to originally at the start of the year. However, I’m still willing, able, and happy to assist whenever needed!

What would I do if elected as Steward?

I have maintained a Steward Platform containing a work-in-progress list of ideas I would like to develop further with ENS DAO, if given the chance and support.

The TL;DR is below if you don’t want to click the link.

  1. Secure the .eth TLD.
  2. Develop a second airdrop.
  3. Implement a variation of quadratic voting.
  4. Redevelop the delegation process to include an expiration function.
  5. Request regular financial audits from ENS Labs in order to safeguard against potential corruption and embezzlement.

Some of my other previous ideas include…

  • Here’s a fun one - The first idea I presented to the DAO was the formulation of an official Mission Statement. It never quite reached maturity, but that’s alright. It got the wheels turning and helped the early DAO members begin exploring the collaborative process.
  • Another big idea I developed and presented was a Community Contribution & Steward Performance (CCSP) Awards Campaign. This one also didn’t gain enough traction to be implemented, despite getting a decent showing of support in the forum responses… but I like to think that it at least in some way provided inspiration for the current ENS Small Grants program.
  • ENS Social Club was another small idea that unfortunately didn’t develop past the initial brainstorming steps.
  • (Unreleased) Press & Public Relations Working Group

Any other information you wish to share with Delegates (e.g. potential conflicts or existing engagements)

The responsibilities of a working group steward as outlined in Section 5 of [EP1.8] Working Group Rules can be boiled down almost entirely to “using discretion to disburse working group funds to people and/or projects.”

I believe it is important that there should not be any conflicts of interest, especially financial, in those that hold the position of working group steward.

I worry that with programs like ENS Small Grants, as well as the other grant programs offered and being developed, there are many opportunities for “kick-back” type situations in which an “in group” works to continuously benefit themselves while excluding those “outside” of their group. An example would be a delegate with a large number of votes making arrangements to vote for recipients that would then give them back a portion of the awarded grant money - the approval voting system and lack of thorough applicant vetting in the current Small Grants process is particularly vulnerable to this type of exploitation.

Another example would be if a small group of individuals that hold a large amount of voting power act together to keep themselves in the types of positions wherein they can receive unjustifiably large amounts of compensation, often budgeted by and for themselves, without any type of check or balance in place to monitor or account for where the money is going, and why.

Also, I believe there should be an absolute minimum commitment a steward agrees to in order to justify receiving compensation. Attending each of the weekly working group meetings, unless there is an emergency, seems like a reasonable starting point in my opinion.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

-Daylon

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Nominations have now closed.

The following names will be included on the ballot for the ENS Ecosystem Working Group election:

  • limes.eth
  • cap / thecap.eth
  • 184.eth
  • slobo.eth
  • daylon.eth

Elections begin tomorrow at 9am UTC June 10, and close at 9am UTC June 15.

The top three ranked nominees in the election will be elected as Stewards for the ENS Ecosystem Working Group, for the Q3/Q4 Term, starting July 1.

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