Thank you for the nomination @ShfRyn. I accept and plan to deliver if given the chance.
I plan to focus on helping with marketing the opportunities in the community via EthereumStakingGuide and to give hands-on support to grantees in need of support with achievable milestones & measurable impact with the Rocket Pool communities’ objectives.
I appreciate the nomination, but currently do not have time to be on the GMC.
=== Closing nominations here ===
The nominees (part 1): @Dondochaka @jcrtp @rplmaxi.eth @waqwaqattack @drdoofus @FeelingoodFeelingrt @Destroyaaa @lookingforowls @find_your_moon @epineph
Nominees: please provide the info requested in RPIP-10 in this thread. Please structure as “Alignment statement, conflict statement, identity statement, contribution statement, additional information, preferred subcommittee" Good format examples can be found in the first round.
You can see previous member’s contributions here.
Alignment Statement
Before I start my alignment statement, I would like to say I had the most incredible time as a GMC member, and I cherished working with the best people in the Rocket Pool community. If chosen again, I will do my utmost to bring my best self to the GMC.
Thank you @ShfRyn for nominating me.
I live and breathe Rocket Pool. Most of you will know me as the face of Rocket Fuel, a daily news show about everything happening in the Rocket Pool community. Through that, I have gained the trust and respect of the community, and I work tirelessly to help Rocket Pool be the most amazing protocol aligned with Ethereum.
Conflict Statement
I have some conflicts. The vast majority of my crypto worth is in RPL and Eth, but I was given an “OG” allocation of tokens of the Diva Staking protocol. This is currently worthless, but it is likely it will gain value during my next term on the GMC. I did not seek these tokens out. Regardless, I have become one of the bigger voting delegates on that protocol (mostly votes delegated by people in the Rocket Pool community who also received tokens), and I take the votes delegated to me very seriously. With all that said, I have always, and will continue to, put Rocket Pool first.
Rocket Fuel is significantly funded by the GMC, but I have never let my grant impact my work.
Identity Statement
I have met more than a hundred people from the Rocket Pool community in person, and a lot of those people know my name. People have my phone number and even know my home address (please don’t wrench me!).
Discord: waqwaqattack
Reddit: Reddit - Dive into anything
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/waqwaqattack
Wallet: waqwaqattack.eth
Contribution Statement
I am extremely proud of the way I have contributed to the GMC in the last year. My member contribution record speaks for itself. By almost every metric, I have been the most present and engaged member of the GMC. On top of the GMC work, My work with Rocket Fuel means that this protocol is something I contribute to every single day. It is through that work that I have the honour of being one of the biggest vote delegates in the community. I take voting in pDAO matters extremely seriously, and I have not missed a single vote.
Behind, and in front of, the scenes, I have built relationships with dozens of people in different protocols with the intention of spreading integrations for RP tokens.
Preferred Subcommittee: Marketing
I am currently on the Marketing subcommittee, and I feel this is where my work on the GMC will be most impactful.
Alignment:
In this situation, chaotic good. My prevailing values are democracy and equity, with a slight tilt towards anti-establishmentism. My primary goal is decentralization of Ethereum, which puts me in lock-step with Rocket Pool and RPL for at least the next 18% staking market share. My foremost priority within Rocket Pool is strengthening the governance structure, which is a soft spot in the protocol and thus the broader ecosystem. I also have some interest in improving the efficiency of the protocol to increase the attractiveness of our products.
Conflicts:
My crypto holdings are probably 98% in ETH and RPL; I have some wstETH dust somewhere. My solo staker node has transitioned to minipools. I have some BSV I haven’t been able to get rid of yet. I’ve bought some worthless NFTs and have some airdrops. I, myself, cannot be bought.
I may be writing some grants/bounties from time to time. My grants will not include any money to myself besides reimbursing expenses I fronted, and I will of course recuse myself from voting on them.
Identity:
I’m a healthcare worker that lives in the United States. I’m unwilling to publicly share my identity or node, although I will privately with the GMC. I have very little programming knowledge, but do have experience with non-governmental organizations and other complex systems. I am proud to call myself a hobbyist node operator.
Contributions:
This is a tough one. I have been running minipools since the first day of phase 4. I have contributed to many of the major debates regarding collateral, voting, and other governance discussions. I’m not sure any of my major ideas have made it to fruition, although often bits and pieces sometimes get implemented in other ways. I apparently spend more time on the forum than all but two other community members (you know who you are).
Additional information:
I’m running for a position on the GMC out of civic duty. I think the DAO deserves some real choices, and I’m happy to serve as an alternate if not selected. Having more frequent rotation of positions helps the GMC members and the general community. By serving on the GMC, I can also free up others to serve elsewhere. I am fully on-board with the time commitment and will serve at least one year or until the next election.
The ideas I volunteer in the forum often fall outside the mainstream; I do this knowing most will be rejected, as most radical ideas should. I will be far more restrained in control of the GMC purse. However, I would not be surprised to find myself as the sole vote for or against a proposal.
My general biases regarding grants and bounties would be:
Dear fellow NO’s and RPL-enthusiasts, please find my application below:
Since being exposed to the Rocket Pool project on Reddit and finally biting the bullet, buying my NUC-parts and flashing Ubuntu Server in March 2022, I’ve learned a great deal of new, useful skills and an insane appreciation for all the hard work that the thriving Rocket Pool community is doing to advance this project that I’ve come to hold dear to my heart.
As one of the more recent roster changes of the GMC, I’ve only served the pDAO for the last 4 months. During this time, I’ve come to greatly appreciate all of my fellow GMC members, who work very hard to serve the community. During this time, I’ve enthusiastically contributed to a lot of the recent process changes and am happy to have been implicated in this highly interesting process.
Other than ETH and RPL, I only hold the dust of past rookie mistakes I’ve commited during the last 2 cycles as a token of rememberance.
I do not have any intention of requesting a (retroactive or new) bounty at the present time.
I am a 33 year old father of one from Central Europe. I work in Marketing for the financial sector, having a background in Communication/Marketing/Advertisement and Event Management. I do work a 9-5 but have sufficient downtime to assume my potential GMC duties. I do have to communicate, coordinate, and write copies in a lot of different languages for my 9-5. I speak, read, and write 4-5 languages (depending if you count my mother’s tongue as a relevant language).
Even though I am not as frequently partaking in the daily #trading shenanigans as most of my co-applicants, I do actively participate in the GMC channels and am always reachable and available if there needs something to be done (as you can observe in the GMC Members activity sheet).
Some people might also know me from some charity POAPs I have designed (#FreeInvis, Agtprvctr Slashing Relief fund or the most recent: Ramana.eth Arb Hack Support, which have collectively yielded more than 3ETH for the charity recipients.
My background in marketing has helped me to evaluate and decide on all of the grants that fall into the responsibility of the marketing Sub-Committee and I would be proud and happy to continue serving along my current colleagues @Dondochaka and @waqwaqattack, should they decide to stick to the marketing Sub-Committee.
Thank you for your consideration.
I accept the nomination, thank you!
I’m on vacation and limited on time, so please forgive me for keeping my statement brief. If you want to get a sense of my background and perspective, my original statement is still applicable: GMC Nomination Thread - #34 by Dondochaka.
Here’s what I think you should know:
My life is and will be unusually busy at least through the rest of this year. I want to be very clear: I am not able to keep up with all of the discussions about grants, attend every meeting, and think deeply about precisely what fair compensation looks like and what should be funded (I do my best with the time I have). I’m not sure that going the whole nine yards is a feasible volunteering effort, with the current system, but we have some extraordinary members who get close.
I will do my best to keep the ship moving forward. I believe my participation to date has been at least average, as far as regular duties go. I’m most interested in contributing to incremental improvements to the GMC, from the inside. I suggested the treasury diversification initiative and have contributed some tweaks to internal processes.
If you have any questions, feel free to DM or ping me. Cheers!
Alignment Statement
I believe in the vision of Ethereum as a decentralized platform that enables anyone to build and use applications that run on a global network of nodes. I think that Ethereum has the potential to transform many aspects of society.
I also think that Rocketpool is very aligned with the ethos and values of Ethereum. I support Rocketpool’s mission to make staking accessible, secure, and fair for everyone.
Conflict Statement
I do not have any conflicts of interest that would affect my role as a GMC member. I do not work for or have any affiliation with any other project or organization that is related to or competes with Rocketpool.
However, I do own some other liquid staking tokens for diversification purposes. These tokens are not significant in amount or value compared to my ETH, RPL, and rETH holdings. I do not intend to use them for any malicious or unethical activities that would harm Rocketpool or its community.
Identity Statement
I am a 31 year old software engineer in the US. I work a 9-5 but I have enough time to dedicate a few hours a week to this position.
I have been a node operator with Rocketpool since a few months after it went live. The video that Joe made with staking on a Raspberry Pi gave me the confidence to set up my own machine.
I have been following Rocketpool’s development since before it went live and have been impressed by the talent it has attracted.
I am not working in the cryptocurrency industry at the moment, but I am very passionate about it. I have met many people from the Rocketpool community and other Ethereum communities at ETH Denver.
I am active on the Rocketpool Discord, mostly in trading and the node operator channels. I am also very active in The Daily Gwei Discord to keep up with all things happening in Ethereum. I listen regularly to The Daily Gwei, Bankless, Rocket Fuel, and The Weekly Orbit to keep up to date with all things Ethereum and Rocketpool.
Contribution Statement
My contributions to Rocketpool have mostly been as a community member spreading the word and engaging in discussions across Rocketpool and The Daily Gwei Discords. Additionally I have participated in some beta testing, volunteered at ETH Denver, and assisted a friend in becoming a node operator along with being a node operator myself.
Additional information
I think that this is a great opportunity for me to help grow Rocketpool and also for me to grow personally. I want to contribute more to Rocketpool and this is a perfect opportunity to do so.
Preferred Subcommittee: Development
With my software background I believe this would be the best fit for me.
Nominee Candidate Statement for Ken
Conflict Statement:
I hereby confirm that I have no conflicts of interest that could compromise my responsibilities on the GMC. While I have contributed to other Decentralized Staking Services in the past, such as NodeSet and Diva, I can categorically state that these affiliations will not influence my commitment or duty to the GMC.
Alignment Statement:
I’m currently privileged to serve on the GMC’s research subcommittee. This experience has been immensely rewarding, and it has granted me the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the RP community. Together with my fellow GMC members, we’ve been instrumental in crafting foundational processes for managing and reviewing grant applications. Given the surge in significant grant applications and considering the GMC’s existing funding commitments, the next cohort of GMC members will need to strike a delicate balance. While it’s vital to support and fund deserving applicants, we must also exercise financial prudence to safeguard the GMC’s treasury for future protocol needs.
Identity Statement:
I work at a public institution of higher education in the US. I’ve been a proud node operator since the inaugural launch of Rocket Pool (Stage 1). I’m deeply aligned with the core principles of Ethereum, and I actively engage in discussions focused on its design and future enhancements.
Contribution Statement:
My dedication to the Rocket Pool community remains unwavering. I co-host RP community calls, and I’ve held the role of a Rocket Scientist for several years, mentoring many along the way. My Rocket Scientist position has enriched my understanding of the protocol, and I’ve been able to assist others with node-related issues. I’ve represented our community in various forums, including discussion panels and interviews. On the research front, I’ve authored papers and introduced a procedure that pairs the Aegis Key with RP nodes, boosting the physical security of home-based staking nodes.
Additional Information:
I’m fully cognizant of the significant time and effort the GMC role demands. Nevertheless, I believe Rocket Pool and its community merit the dedication of committed GMC members. If re-elected, I’m ready and willing to contribute to any of the GMC’s subcommittees.
Hi! I’m Joe Clapis - I go by jcrtp on the forum here and on Discord. I’m on the East Coast of the US but work Australian hours (8 PM to 4 AM my time, 00:00 to 08:00 UTC). I’ve been a core member of the Rocket Pool team for about 3 years. You can find my contributions here: jclapis (Joe Clapis) · GitHub. I’m currently on the GMC as the lead of the development subcommittee.
In my previous alignment statement, I mentioned that what first attracted me to Rocket Pool was the mission statement of making validation on the Ethereum network more accessible than the solo staking requirement permitted, while simultaneously providing a decentralized platform for people to stake without running a validator. This hasn’t changed since then. It still mirrors my own personal values and why I continue to work in this industry. As a demonstration of those ideals, I started contributing to the project in my free time back in 2020; I focused on the node operator experience, making it more palatable and augmenting it with more client choices to promote diversity and overall network health.
In addition to strong alignment with both Rocket Pool and Ethereum staking in general, I bring a link to the development team. That provides insight on what we’re working on internally and what we want to do but don’t have the resources to accomplish in the immediate future. The latter directly informs my opinions on what makes for a good grant or bounty.
I’m a member of the core Rocket Pool development team, so I have the protocol’s best interests at heart. 100% of my crypto investments have been sent to my node, which is currently about even between ETH and RPL in terms of value (bonded ratio of 97%). I am also consulting for NodeSet on their Rocket Pool integration / node operator tooling; as NodeSet is heavily dependant on Rocket Pool, this should not produce any conflicts of interest either.
I’m responsible for maintaining the Smartnode stack, ensuring it can leverage the latest features of each Execution or Consensus client, is up-to-speed with Ethereum network hardforks, and works with new upgrades of the Rocket Pool protocol. I added support for Nethermind / Besu / Nimbus / Teku / Lodestar support, the service config TUI, the Smoothing Pool, and maintain the canonical implementations of the Rewards system specification. I also spent much of my early time building up the Rocket Pool documentation and user guide, which have been well-received by the community.
I have also been a contributing member of the GMC since its inception, as referenced by the nomination in the first reply to the thread here.
I’m strongest in software design and engineering; I don’t have much experience in the wonderful world of marketing so I’d like to stay where I am, though I can certainly commingle with the other subcommittees should they need me.
First off, thanks to Val for the nomination. I would love to serve with you all, but after some more thinking I don’t have enough time to adequately support this role.
As such, I am withdrawing from the running. I hope that I will have more time on future cycles, so don’t forget about me next time around. 
Best of luck to the rest of the candidates. I believe you will all do well and represent the community appropriately. Thank you!
I’ve been a Rocket Pool node operator since January 2022, a baby compared to some others. I don’t have exact percentages handy, but a very large proportion of my crypto holdings are in my node. I do have some small moonshot allocations to other alts in an account I hardly look at, migrating them to ETH/rETH is on the todo list.
I found Rocket Pool around the time I started a full node on testnet in late 2021, likely from EthFinance → EthStaker → Rocket Pool. I’m very supportive of the way things have been done, the drive to do thing as right as possible the first time, and make them better (e.g. more trustless) as we’re able. I wear my EthDenver Rocket Pool shirts in public on the regular. Sadly, no one has stopped me yet.
I’ve been “in crypto” since late 2017, but feel like I’ve only grown up since 2021. I’m an avid watcher of The Daily Gwei and Rocket Fuel. I fill in with Weekly Orbit and Bankless when I can.
I don’t see any of the following as conflicts to contributing fairly to GMC processes and proposers, but here is more of a disclosure statement for you to consider.
I support other permissionless liquid staking protocols, I currently run a node for another protocol, and am almost certain to run node(s) for additional permissionless protocol(s). I hope Rocket Pool needs to self-limit someday, to make that easier, I want to support permissionless LSTs in their infancy. I am in the first cohort of NodeSet node operators, but don’t see this as a conflict.
I am currently spending a lot of my free time upskilling in web3 technologies. There is a desire for, and some chance I’ll be paid for contributions to web3 projects sometime in the future. There is nothing specific as of now, and nothing I’m targeting, just that this potential exists. I would be careful for that not to interfere on a time dedication / availability perspective to GMC, and wouldn’t contribute to anything damaging to Rocket Pool such as a vampire attack, or the like.
I have not submitted any grant or bounty as of now, and have no current plans to do so. I don’t know of any personal or professional relationships with current or known future applicants which could cloud my judgement.
My name is Chris Rock, I go by rocknet here, on discord and Twitter. I’m a software developer / architect for a tradfi company on the East Coast of the US. I’ve met dozens of community members, and all of the then-current core team members at EthDenver. I even got socks from Superphiz. Not sure what else to share here. I’m moderately doxed if someone looked around, I guess the famous name gives me some cover in google searches though.
I have spent some time in #support, though not lately. I created the Rocket Pool flash briefing skill on Amazon Alexa, I supported the booth at EthDenver this year, and will likely do so next year. Not sure how much of a Rocket Pool contribution it was, but I helped organize 14 of us to run 50,000 Holesky validators from genesis, for the life of the testnet.
To this point, I’ve always felt like the GMC was well represented. I’m not running to replace anyone. I’m just stepping up as an option. My time is easily filled with various interests, but if seated the GMC will be a priority, I won’t let the community down.
Development probably makes the most sense, but since this is my first go around, I’ll be happy to go where I’m told.
First of all, probably don’t vote for me.
I’m willing to do things for RP, so I’m accepting, sort of, this nomination in case there are not enough people who want the job. Not saying I won’t work at it, I will. But vote for everyone else who really wants it first and me as a last resort. Also, I think GMC should get a stipend. If I get voted in, I will cause problems by applying to the GMC for a stipend for being on the GMC. In a future iteration, I would love to be on the GMC, but now is a toughish time for me.
I have been here for quite a long time. Not as long as the “OG” OGs, like astoneta, but since the second wave OGs who came here at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021 to beta test on the test networks. I did briefly disappear to spend more time on CryptoHoots, but that was in support of Rocket Pool members LFO, Silence DoGood and RPLGrime.
Rocket Pool is one of the most well thought out and innovative projects I’ve seen on a blockchain. That is what got my attention and brought me here. What has kept me here is the remarkable community.
I am a “yes” person, generally, on funding projects. If the money exists, I will tend to vote for as many sensible projects as reasonable from within the community. I’m not a pushover, but I believe in spreading tentacles out in many directions and seeing what we snag. I am much less likely to look positively on projects from outsiders.
I have no affiliation with anything else crypto. I am 100% Rocket Pool.
I am probably one of the older RP members, but I have the body of a person half my age and the mind of someone one tenth my age. I am a non-practicing physicist who graduated from Northwestern University some decades ago with a PhD in Physics and Astronomy, did a postdoc at Boston University and worked for quite a while in High Energy Physics at Fermilab. Not that it is relevant here, but my advisor’s advisor won the Nobel Prize and his advisor was extremely instrumental in starting the precursor to the Manhattan Project (but dropped out as it moved from academia to military control). Anyway, where was I…
I am now semi-retired (sort of) but I do some freelance programming amongst other things. I’ve done analysis for groups at Fermilab, some website work, wordpress (yuck) and database design. I ran a charity for a while. I have two St. Bernards, two teen kids, one wife, only one more quail (cry) and one snake that always bites me. I am partially doxxed.
I am an OG POAP issuer and have been creating/distributing POAPs from the earliest of days, including working on behalf of RP with other groups for co-marketing POAPs. I was honored to create Superphiz’s “You’ve met Superphiz” 2023 POAP. I have also participated on every POAP art canvas, working on getting Rocket Pool’s name and logo prominently featured.
I have spearheaded the SEWRPOO (Staking ETH With Rocket Pool Organization and Outreach) initiative that has attempted to bring rETH into other DAOs with some success. This is an ongoing effort that I am currently not pushing very hard because of the lull in Node Operator onboarding (leading to full DP).
I am currently completing Rocket Pool University, a Ethereum Studymaster type course and quiz concept for educating about Rocket Pool in return for “certification” – likely a POAP, but other NFTs are possible. It is written in NextJS 13 with a little Laravel for good measure.
I have also done a lot of small community building things like creating a Rocket Pool fantasy football league, making a bunch of the in-house memes/emojis, and blaming things on knoshua.
Mostly, I consider myself an avid supporter of the people of Rocket Pool. I have engaged/helped/bought into pretty much every new project and/or adventure begun by other RP members: from buying rocketeers (and participating in the Rocketeer writing challenge) and logibots, supporting Kevster’s Belgian Beer NFT and ramana’s $PEEPEE, helping RPIT fractionalization to writing NC-17 movies and a bonding paper for Rocket Pool’s members who created cryptohoots/ShuffleDAO. I even bought Dybsy tokens. As long as I have ETH, I will support fellow Rocket Pool Peers.
Wherever needed.
Reminder, vote for others first. I will happily fully participate in future GMCs.
Thanks for your consideration. I apologize for being late, I just learned about the 3 day turnaround. I’ll do better next time.
I love Rocket Pool and have been promoting the community since 2022. I run 6 RP nodes now and focus on helping onboard new ETH stakers & node operators. I’ve won grants from the GMC and lost grants for work I’ve done for the community through @StakeRocketPool or @EthereumStakingGuide. I’m aligned with Rocket Pool’s mission and have shown with my efforts I can add value and bring in talented new creators when we invite these creators into our community with TLC and guidance.
I am an active supporter of other liquid staking protocols and I was just put on the Grants Management Committee for Blockswap & Stakehouse Protocol. If there are any conflict of interest votes I will abstain myself.
Kent Philly, I have met most of the team in person at ETH Denver and hope to meet everyone else IRL one day.
Contributions:
Blogs: StakeRocketPool
Tweets: https://twitter.com/stakerocketpool or https://twitter.com/ethstakingguide
Web3: Tape or Tape
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EthereumStakingGuide or https://www.youtube.com/@stakerocketpool
University Token Governance: Snapshot {no longer active}
Preferred Subcommittees: Marketing / Research
However I can be helpful, I’d like to be so.
Additional Information
I agree with @epineph’s general biases for grants and bounties, with one addition - proactive outreach to strategic groups/individuals.
I have been a member of the RP community since testnet and ran a validator from then until very recently. As a rETH only holder now, I hope to represent that side of the community which is somewhat under-represented. I am a known bear, if @drdoofus is a “yes” person I would consider myself a “no” person and feel like proposers need to truly illustrate value for funding.
I hold a small amount of wstETH. That’s about as close to a conflict that I can think of.
I have a background in tech and was 100% crypto for the past few years. I recently took a step back to focus on farming but am a fairly well known community member. Many have met me in person during conferences or ad-hoc meetups. The farming season is now over and I have more free time over the winter months.
Mostly my contributions are social and peripheral and hope this could be one of my first direct contributions.
No preference.
Happy to be an alternate as well as I will be traveling most of Nov and have more time come December.
GMC nominees: Please do not modify your statements any more.
Voters:
Alignment Statement
I want to see Ethereum flourish and become the platform for decentralised and democratised systems and public goods. As such I am not a fan of the ‘crypto-casino’ or ‘VC-capture’.
Rocketpool supports the Ethereum ethos by democratising home staking and enabling small ETH holders to be part of the validator network. For this reason, I think maximising participation in staking (i.e. Node operators) is paramount, and more important than just maximising TVL for its own sake.
Conflict Statement
Having recently left 9-5 employment, I have no company affiliations. Even though my last employer was the dominant credit card company, I would be happy to see them disrupted by a fairer system!
I have no meaningful crypto investments other than ETH and RPL. I do have some staked CRO to keep my tier of Crypto.com credit card and associated benefits.
Beyond my support of Nodeset as a Constellation Node Operator, I do not feel I have any conflict of interests that would prevent me from executing duties impartially as part of the GMC.
I do spend some time overseas however, however I necessarily need to maintain connectivity to monitor my nodes, so will be able to make availability for GMC.
Identity Statement
My whole career was in software development, originally as a developer, then architect and for the last 15 years as a business analyst. My employers were several small startups as well as international corporations such as Reuters, Intel and Visa.
I have been a passonate follower of Ethereum since the ICO (although I didn’t participate!). I lost a few dollars in the DAO hack, learned a lot, and then continued my crypto education via a Masters degree in Blockchain and Digital currencies at UNIC. I now participate in EthGlobal online hackathons when possible.
I have been a Rocketpool Node Operator for about 2 years and currently trying to spin up Nodeset Constellation validators.
Contribution Statement
I was a keen supporter and participant in the Saturn 0 initiative (#ETH only LEB8s).
Being newly retired from paid employment, I have found that I have the time and energy to pursue my passions - Ethereum, Rocketpool (and now Constellation) are high on the list.
I confess that I rely on RocketFuel (thanks Waq) to extract meaningful information from the noise of #Trading, so you may not have seen much of me there. Governance and #Research, #support… are where I prefer to loiter.
Preferred Subcommittee:
“Development”
My early years of employment were as a developer and I have always worked closely within the development team, most recently as a business analyst forming the bridge between stakeholders and the development team. I have also dabbled in smart contract development as part of the Master’s degree program and various hackathons.
I believe that my extensive experience of delivering software projects and general understanding of Ethereum/Blockchain landscape would be of value to the Development Subcommittee.