dRep - Delegate Representative in Cardano governance and my application
The following text is my submission for becoming dRep - Delegate Representative in Catalyst, Cardano governance (DAO, or Decentralized Innovation Fund).
My name is Andrii, I’m from Kyiv, Ukraine. Last 5 years I study crypto protocols, and blockchain governance is one of my main areas of interest. For an even longer time, since childhood, I’m interested in political science, and governance theory in general. I even have a second education master's degree with honors in political science. But my interest in not only theoretical but practical too. In 2012 I stopped working in an IT company where I had a good salary and decided to run for office, and conducted myself campaign for becoming a member of parliament. I spent all my savings and got only 650 votes (less than 1%) but it was an interesting experience. As my budget was tiny compared to big candidates, my tactics were to speak with the biggest amount of voters personally and I handled myself 10 000 flyers (obviously it was not enough as the number of voters was 10 times bigger). During the next few years, I had experience working as an advisor with members of parliament.
In 2017 when I joined the crypto space, obviously the governance element was one of my major interests. I observed and participated in the governance of the following blockchains: Cardano, Algorand, Steemit/Hive, Telos, EOS, Decred, Cosmos, and Cosmos-based blockchains such as Secret Network. In the future, I plan to write more about this in my media Cryptotexty which I founded in 2018, as well as I plan to conduct a series of interviews about blockchain governance.
In Project Catalyst, Cardano-governance I have taken part since the beginning, since the Fund1. That’s actually an interesting experience. It’s interesting to observe how the project evolves, even if I might be not so happy with all the aspects of the recent development. In proposals, I had some small victories, but mostly losses - the big part of my proposals were not supported, but who knows maybe on the level of an idea they helped somebody. For example “Cardano Hub” idea I proposed in Fund1 and then in time there is a whole category.
I also took part as CA (Community advisor) by writing reviews and vCA (Veteran community advisor) by assessing CA’s reviews. Both roles are interesting because since Fund1 I read and analyzed many proposals, and being CA and/or vCA you can get paid for doing something interesting for you. However I’m skeptical about the whole idea of CA/vCA, I think this system should be reformed and changed.
I think voting is an act of political will, and the whole dRep concept is aimed to help the voters to make better decisions. One time during the fund I remember I used to vote for all proposals. It took me a long time, even though I already knew most of the proposals and had ideas in mind about how I would vote. Just technically it takes a long time. Whales, big ADA holders are very rich people and the vast majority of them don’t have time for such voting. They don’t have time to analyze projects, they don’t know the history and background of companies and individuals. So as the concept that's very good. Like in politics, members of parliament, and deputies vote for the laws, dRep will be voting on proposal.
These are the points I would like to raise and I might develop the whole “political program” of how and which criteria I will vote:
It seems that in Catalyst there is a particular group that has a major influence, which controls a lot of roles, and budgets and keeps winning more and more proposals. And in general, the Catalyst bureaucracy seems to be big and growing. I plan to face this challenge with positive critics, and to be in opposition to this process.
CA / vCA concept should be changed. CAs are just random people (like me, even if I study crypto protocols for years, the more I learn - the less I know) - I think this whole part of Catalyst should be rebuilt. For example, there could be professionals assessing proposals. If it’s in the development category - developers, if event section - those who already organized successful events.
I will vote for those people, areas, and geographies which I feel are underrepresented.
I know that my influence in the Cardano community is rather small, but still, there are some people whom I know and with whom I continue communication, I have a youtube channel and crypto-blogs which have their audience.
If compared with real politics: there are authorities (power) and opposition, most probably I will have to stay in opposition. I criticized Cardano Foundation, as I and other known members of the community had very negative experiences dealing with it. I even criticized Charles Hoskinson for his negative position on supporting Ukraine. This is what you need to know before voting or approving my application. Cardano governance is important but real-world geopolitical governance is much more important for me. Here in blockchain governance in the worst case I can lose my money, time, and reputation, but due to russian invasion to Ukraine people are losing their lives, russians are conducting genocide.
I thought you need to know everything written above, before approving my application or voting for it. In any case, I would be happy to know your opinion and if I’m elected as dRep - you can always speak with me no matter how much ADA you hold.
Thanks for reading this!
