2025 GMC Nomination Thread (Year 4)

Governance
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This thread serves to collect nominations for the election of nine newly appointed GMC members. The new roster will go into effect around November 11.

What GMC Members Will Do

  1. Thoughtful Evaluation: Evaluate grant proposals meticulously, ensuring that incoming applications contribute significantly to the growth of the Rocket Pool’s ecosystem.
  2. Collaborative Decision-Making: Work closely with fellow committee members to collectively finalize decisions on grant proposals, fostering a collaborative atmosphere for informed choices.
  3. Expert Facilitation: Negotiate with applicants, assisting in the restructuring of project scopes and the establishment of achievable milestones, ensuring projects align with the network’s objectives.
  4. Quality Assurance: Upon request from the admin or grantees, verify that project objectives have been met and assess if acceptance criteria have been fulfilled.
  5. Active Participation: Attend award discussions, retrospectives, and general meetings, actively engaging in meaningful discussions.
  6. Governance Voting: Actively participate in voting processes related to internal adjustments, contributing your perspective as the GMC evolves and optimizes itself.
  7. Financial Verification: Verify payment amounts, verify payment addresses, and sign transactions.

Expected Time Commitment

There is an expected max time commitment of 3 to 4 hours per week. Demand can vary at times. Currently we have seen lower activity, however, higher activity should be anticipated going into Saturn 1. Please only apply if you have the availability for to satisfy the max time commitment.

Here’s what a month in the GMC can look like:

  • Example of an awards period:

    • Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 3:00 PM - Discussion Call
    • Tuesday, October 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM - Decisions Due
    • Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM - Declare Amendments
    • Friday, October 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM - Amendment Discussion And Voting Closes
    • Saturday, October 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM - Rejection Vote Ends
    • Sunday, October 26, 2025 at 8:00 PM - Awards Decision Posted

  • Attendance of three 1-hour meetings per month. There are additional meetings depending on applications. Calls with the team and public town halls are recurring events that are added to the monthly agenda.

  • Discussing, negotiating, and deliberating on 3 - 10 applications per month.

  • Discussing and voting on around 1 process change per month.

  • Verifying payment addresses and transactions for around 30 minutes to 1 hour per month.

Note that these are all averages and can fluctuate.

Here’s a look at the month of October:

October 2025 Schedule
October 2025 Schedule2918×2416 362 KB

Subcommittees
Subcommittees empower committee members to specialize in specific areas. In the past, members were expected to have a broad understanding of all systems. Now, knowledge can be more focused. The current subcommittees include:

  • Development: focusing on tools built on top of the protocol, such as Rocket Scan, RescueNode, RocketWatch, etc.
  • Research: dedicated to research papers, governance writing, etc. Examples include: OpenUX Research, Tokenomics Rework, Rapid Research Incubator, etc.
  • Marketing: creating educational content, videos, graphics, etc. Examples include: Cyfrin Educational Courses, Beaconcha.in Advertising Campaign, etc.

Subcommittees are utilized in award rounds when needed to distribute the workload. With the reduced workload recently, applications have been deliberated upon by the entire committee.

Compensation
Members are compensated based on their monthly contributions based on metrics such as, verifying payments, meeting attendance, message count, decision participation, etc.

Current Roster Member Activity
You can view recent contribution metrics here, as well as how much each member was compensated each month:

How To Nominate

Per RPIP-10 (RPIPs/RPIP-10.md at main · rocket-pool/RPIPs · GitHub 26 3), this thread will be live at least 5 days.

  • Anyone can nominate anyone, including themselves
  • Anyone who is currently a GMC member or previously a GMC member can be nominated again
  • Anyone can remove themselves from consideration simply by saying so
  • After 5 days, there will be a “this thread is closed” comment, and the final list will then be generated

If you are nominated and don’t remove yourself from consideration, please read the “Nominee information sharing” section of RPIP-10 so you can be ready to provide your statements. It is also recommended to choose a subcommittee you are interested in.

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I nominate the current members, as they represent a diverse range of expertise and talents.

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I am also nominating the following (in no particular order):
@haloooloolo
@Snocones
@Valdorff
@epineph

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thank you for the nomination. however, i would like to politely decline at this time.

i wish the GMC the best of luck going forwards. i’ll be happy to support in any way you all might need in the future.

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Thank you Shf, I accept the nomination and would also like to nominate @samus

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Thank you for the nomination. I unfortunately will need to decline due to capacity constraints. (I am willing to be a backup in case there aren’t enough applicants.)

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I graciously accept the nomination and would also like to encourage others to apply and serve.

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Thanks for the nomination. I am happy to accept.

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=== Closing nominations here ===
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 previous nomination thread.

Nominees Part 1

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Nominees Part 2

Deadline for Nominee Statements is Friday October 24, 23:59 UTC.

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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 am an IMC member and NodeSet Node operator. I own rETH, RPL, and am a Rocketpool Node operator. I have no significant holdings of other tokens other than ETH.

Identity Statement

I am a 33 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. I have been following Rocketpool’s development since before it went live and have been impressed by the talent it has attracted. I have kept up with the space for years and have been active in the Rocketpool and Daily gwei communities.

I have served on the GMC for one full term and filled in for one previous term. I have also just started working for the IMC recently.

Contribution Statement

I feel I have served as a solid GMC member for some time now. I sign transactions in a timely manner, create transactions, participate in discussions, fill out decision sheets, and attend most meetings (minus the team meetings which are too late for me). I also participated in the STAR initiative and the rETH incubator.

Additionally, I have been learning the ropes of the IMC process the last few months by attending a meeting, participating in some discussions, and signing transactions. I am excited to continue to serve on the GMC if elected.

Preferred Subcommittee: Development

With my software background I believe this would be the best fit for me.

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Alignment Statement

I’ve had the privilege of serving on the GMC since its inception. This experience has been immensely rewarding and has provided me the opportunity to make meaningful contributions to the RP community. Together with my fellow GMC members, we have been instrumental in establishing foundational processes for managing and reviewing grant applications. I anticipate that the coming year will be pivotal for RP with the launch of the Saturn upgrades. This will be a challenging year as the reduced RPL price point is adding strain to the pDAO and GMC’s budget, so it will take steadfast engagement and planning by the GMC to budget and engage in protocol funding and building. The launch of Saturn 1 opens a critical opportunity for the protocol to make some advances in the design and efficiency of the protocol. The GMC needs to be fully engaged to make the most of this opportunity. We are nearing a pivot point with more mainstream and tradfi adoption of Ethereum, so there is tremendous potential to grow the protocol. While it is essential to support and fund deserving applicants, we must also exercise financial prudence to safeguard the GMC’s treasury for future protocol needs, ensuring that we have sufficient funding reserves to support the mint rETH campaign.

Identity Statement

I work at a public institution of higher education in the US and have been a proud node operator since Rocket Pool’s inaugural launch (Stage 1). I am deeply aligned with the core principles of Ethereum and actively engage in discussions focused on its design and future enhancements.

Contribution Statement

My dedication to the Rocket Pool community remains steadfast. I co-host RP community calls and have served as a Rocket Scientist for several years, mentoring many along the way. This role has deepened my understanding of the protocol, enabling me to assist others with node-related issues. I have represented our community in various forums, including discussion panels and interviews. On the research front, I have authored papers and introduced a procedure that pairs the Aegis Key with RP nodes, enhancing the physical security of home-based staking nodes.

Additional Information

I fully recognize the significant time and effort the GMC role requires. However, I believe Rocket Pool and its community deserve the dedication of committed GMC members. If re-elected, I am ready and willing to contribute to any of the GMC’s subcommittees.

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Alignment Statement

I’ve been hanging around Rocket Pool for several years now and still consider it my home in crypto. Been in the space about 10 years, mostly ETH with some BTC and alts to hedge my bets. I check in on #trading most days to see what I missed overnight.

Rocket Pool aligns with what I think matters - actual decentralisation and getting things done efficiently. With Saturn coming up and RPL prices being what they are, we need to be even more careful about how we spend our resources. I want to help make sure we’re getting real value for money.

Conflict Statement

I’ve received some GMC bounties for helping out in #support. I run Rocket Pool minipools, NodeSet validators, and Lido CSM nodes. I use other protocols but don’t hold meaningful amounts of other LSTs or their governance tokens. Running validators across different protocols helps me understand the competitive landscape, but my main bags are still ETH and RPL.

Identity Statement

I’m over 50 with a long IT career - mostly networking, security, project management, and managing teams. I’ve been the guy who makes sure projects actually ship on time and don’t blow the budget. My focus has always been on finding the best path forward and helping teams deliver real results that matter.

Contribution Statement

I’ve been active in discussions, helping in #support, and participating in governance. I’ve created performance dashboards and performance exit analysis reports that have been used to help find operators with performance difficulties.

If elected, I’ll focus on making sure grant recipients actually deliver what they promise. Too many grants get approved based on good intentions rather than solid plans. We need better accountability and clearer success metrics.

Additional Information

I work 9-5 GMT but I’m also a night owl, so timing for calls usually works out. Happy to put in the hours needed for GMC work.

My approach is simple - if you can’t explain how your project makes Rocket Pool better and how we’ll measure success, you probably shouldn’t get funding. We need less “wouldn’t it be cool if” and more “here’s exactly what we’ll deliver by when.”

Preferred Subcommittee: Development or Research, and can help in Marketing if necessary.

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Alignment Statement

I’m part of Rocket Pool since August 2020, and node operator since launch. I have always seen RP as the best decentralized permissionless staking protocol.

I’ve met the team and other community members at various conventions and am always amazed by the shared drive and values everyone has.

Conflict Statement

I am running NodeSet validators. No other LST or staking related links. I did win a NUC with a Lido sticker on though…

Identity Statement

Outside crypto I’m working part-time for a local organization where I do event management. I also founded a makerspace with now 3 other people where I try to support people who want to materialize ideas.

Inside crypto I’m Kevster, a #trading local who’s trying to visit crypto conferences.

Contribution Statement

I’ve been on the GMC for a year now and always submit my scores. I manage to stay up to date about most discussions running in the GMC server, and give my opinion when I feel like I can contribute. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to attend a lot of meetings, mostly due to me living in EU and having hard time schedules. The past months have been easier to schedule however, and I hope to continue that going forward.

I’d be happy to be on the GMC for another year, but also fine with passing my place for someone with a more flexible timetable.

Preferred Subcommittee

I prefer marketing the most. Development the least.

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Alignment Statement

I run minipools from home, hold RPL and rETH, and am an RP delegate. I am monetarily aligned with all major stakeholders in the RP ecosystem.

Conflict Statement

I have received compensation (for grants) from the GMC in the past and may do so in the future, although this will be called out to reduce any conflicts of interest. I am not substantially involved with any competitors to Rocket Pool. I am also an RP delegate.

Identity Statement

I have a background in science, engineering, cryptography, software development, and data analytics. I started to be involved in Rocket Pool ~3 years ago, and in that time have been involved in and learned about the technical aspects of how RP functions, tokenomics rework, governance, research and data analytics, RPIP writing, and documentation. In my professional experience I have also managed people and projects.

I currently sit on both the GMC and IMC.

Contribution Statement

The main mindset I aim to bring the GMC is reliance on data to make decisions. I will be pushing for metrics with which to compare projects more objectively as well as to assess how they are performing. The GMC of the past will differ from me in that I may vote against projects that are not able to measure their success and will be substantially more in favor of research projects that give us higher quality data. My belief is that good decisions come from good data and the way I show up will reflect this.

Additional Information

None

Preferred Subcommittee:

Research.
While I could fill in for Development, we have a great number of very capable candidates in this area. I could learn Marketing, but do not have much experience in the field.

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Alignment Statement

I am about as aligned with Rocket Pool as you can get. I’d consider myself an RP maxi. I think Rocket Pool is worth the effort even when its yields are not the best because of what it represents. I also believe it is an experiment in truly having a protocol run by a DAO. We are not there, yet, but this is the most real large scale example I’ve seen and I want to see it keep pushing the boundaries.

I am a Node Operator from the beginning (came here in the beta tests at the end of 2020), I am steeped in RP lore and have contributed quite a bit to the community

Rocket Pool is one of the most 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.

Conflict Statement

I run a NodeSet Node, but believe we must always do what is best for Rocket Pool first and foremost. I have no affiliation with anything else crypto related.

Identity Statement

I am, in fact, a real doctor. I am a non-practicing physicist who graduated from Northwestern University some decades ago with a PhD in Physics and Astronomy, then did some other things in physics and some other things not in physics. BTW, RIP Chen Ning Yang whose theorem on vector particle decays caused me a lot of fights with old guys who couldn’t let go of the past. Now I am old and can’t let go of the past, so karma, I guess.

I am semi-retired (sort of) but I do some freelance programming among other things. I try to think outside the box, but often wander too far outside the box into mysterious lands that are hard to describe and probably not real.

I am really glad people like Steely and Sckuzzle have been on the GMC. As they say, they are looking at numbers and definitive returns on investments. I see it a little differently and sometimes there are intangibles that can make larger returns down the road but take a little leap of faith. We need both types of people. Of course, in the end we agree on 90% of the items, anyway, and these days we have no money so its moot.

Contribution Statement

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 spearheaded the SEWRPOO (Staking ETH With Rocket Pool Organization and Outreach) initiative that attempted to bring rETH into other DAOs with some success and I repackaged it during the rETH incubator into the STAR initiative.

I am manager of the Rocket Pool merchandise store (https://rocketpoolstore.net). One stop shopping for Christmas and other holidays. All items now full price.

I have also done a lot of small community building things like create a Rocket Pool fantasy football league, made a bunch of the in-house memes/emojis, and try to keep things friendly and fun in the discord. I authored RPIP-74 closing the minipool queue before Saturn 1 and spearheaded a major initiative to bring funding opportunities to the protocol.

Mostly, I consider myself an avid supporter of the people of Rocket Pool. I have engaged/helped/bought into many new projects and/or adventures begun by other RP members: from buying rocketeers (and participating in the Rocketeer writing challenge) and logibots, encouraging Kevster’s Belgian Beer NFT and $PEEPEE, helping RPIT fractionalization to writing NC-17 movies and a bonding paper for cryptohoots/ShuffleDAO. I even bought Dybsy tokens. As long as I have ETH, I will support fellow Rocket Pool Peers.

I have served on the GMC on the marketing committee. With maybe an exception, I attend everything, calls, chats, etc. and feel I make significant input, especially in regards to what we should and should not do as a committee and a DAO. The GMC takes a lot of work, imo, and despite the stipend I think many of us have lost money being on it, but it’s necessary work.

Additional Information

There are some large marketing items I would like to see through to completion and there might be some important thoughts to be had on the directions of the pDAO and committees in general that I have been deeply involved with. There are some serious issues that I believe stunt the growth of RP and the pDAO and I am considering addressing those in another term, if I am re-elected.

Priorities: rETH, rETH, rETH, Saturn 1 (marketing and BD, etc.), setting up RP for long term success

Preferred Subcommittee:

I could stay in marketing or go somewhere else.

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I would gratefully like to accept the nomination and run for a spot on the GMC.

Alignment Statement

I’ve been with Rocket Pool since before launch and followed it as the team and community matured. I’ve lost a lot of money, fiat and crypto, on RPL; many of us have. I still believe as strongly as ever in the motivations that drive Rocket Pool, in particular decentralization. I feel that if a project like Rocket Pool fails there is little hope to keep Ethereum itself away from government or corporate capture. Simply by existing Rocket Pool has provided a model to force others in the space towards decentralization. It is that important to keep the project moving forward and growing for the ideals that brought most (many?) of us into crypto.

Conflict Statement

I run CSM validators. I have some various airdrops. I run a node set validator.

Identity Statement

I have been a NO since launch. I was a GMC member 2 cycles ago, and elected not to run the past cycle sharing the burden of office (my own personal needs) and widening the leadership pool of the RP governing bodies. I am very aware of the needs of the committee and the time commitments.

Contribution Statement

I was a member of the GMC during the 2023-2024 period, where i both contributed directly and played a sizable role in guiding reimbursement towards the community members researching tokenomics changes; I would say my GMC activity was “upper quartile”. I was instrumental in setting up the reimbursement for #support to move away from a retroactive model to a prospective model with clear reimbursement.

I have been a voice for smaller NOs to ensure they get a balanced benefit from changes to the protocol. I was one of only a few who argued strongly against using 10% of protocol_ETH for a staking during RPIP-8, and while very unpopular at the time i think my arguments have generally been proven correct. I spoke out in favor of allowing NOs with <10% RPL to vote, which given the current number of NOs with >10% RPL was prescient. Often, I have a viewpoint that is abnormal, sometimes the lone person out, and I think that is useful in this committee.

Additional Information

The RPL price means that our resources are far fewer than they have ever been before; selling inflationary rewards without significant benefit also harms the team wallet, which is a finite resource. I intend to try to trim spending as much as possible- an austerity platform. This includes:

  • evaluating recurring grants with need to show effective use of resources
  • evaluating stipends for GMC itself- continue to improve efficiency to decrease the time needed to perform duties
  • communicating strategic areas that have better chance of bounty/grant approval, and enacting pretty high thresholds for grant approvals if they don’t fit in these strategic need areas (for now rETH demand and Saturn deployment).

I will also say we have an extremely strong group of people on the GMC and in the community, and if I’m not chosen I will continue to help and assist RP in whatever ways I can.

Preferred Subcommittee

Research

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Alignment Statement

I have been an avid Ethereum supporter since the ICO and a Rocketpool Node operator for 3 years. I want to see Ethereum flourish and become the platform for decentralized and democratized systems and public goods.

I fervently believe that Rocketpool, as a technology and a community, is unique and critical to the success of Ethereum by promoting home staking and supporting small ETH holders to be part of a decentralized validator network.

All RPL tokens that I have purchased, received in stipend/rewards have been, or will be, staked!

Conflict Statement

I no longer have any company affiliations. My last employer was the dominant credit card company - I would happily see them disrupted by a fairer system!

My crypto investments are in ETH and staked RPL. I do have some CRO tokens that are staked in order to access a credit card.

I have received RPL rewards for efforts relating to Saturn 0, and have been operating a NodeSet node since the deployment of Constellation.

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. This included a short time at a Decentralized Identity startup.

I have been a passionate follower of Ethereum since the ICO (although I didn’t participate!) and lost a few dollars in the DAO hack. I learned a lot, and continued my crypto education via a Masters degree in Blockchain and Digital currencies at UNIC. I have also participated in several EthGlobal online hackathons.

I have been a Rocketpool Node Operator for 3 years, as well as a NodeSet operator since the release of Constellation.

Outside Rocketpool, I am a member of BlockchainNZ advisory group educating NZ politicians on blockchain and decentralizing technologies.

Contribution Statement

Being newly retired from paid employment, I have found that I have the time and energy to pursue my passions - Ethereum and Rocketpool being high on the list. I was a participant in the Saturn 0 initiative (ETH only LEB8s).

I have been a member of the GMC for most of the 2025 term. During that period, the GMC has had to make difficult and contentious decisions, relating to personal liability and the handling of RPL price volatility. I do my best to ensure that we consider all options and avoid group-think.

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 experience of delivering software projects and general understanding of Ethereum/Blockchain landscape would be of value to the Development Subcommittee.

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According to RPIP-10, the deadline for statements actually cannot exceed 3 days.

Within 3 days of the final list being posted, each nominee SHALL provide the following:

AND

  • If any of the above four statements is not provided, the nominee shall be removed from consideration. If this results in insufficient nominees to fill the spots, the Management Committee Selection process fails and must be restarted from the beginning.

We currently have 8/9 required statements to fill a GMC roster.

With the process to reduce the committee size to seven underway, the committee believes it is most appropriate to restart the GMC Selection Process once that vote has concluded.

1 Like