Delegate Proposal - Chainflow

Governance Delegates
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Please answer the following questions in the body of your post:

Identity and background

Chris our founder and Othman our protocol specialist will be involved on Chainflow’s behalf.
You can find Chris @Cfl0ws and Othman @OthmanGbad on X.

What is the delegate’s identity and background?

Chainflow runs a secure, high-performance Solana validator trusted by thousands of stakers. We have supported Solana since before the public launch, and continue to invest across the ecosystem. Here’s a list of contributions we have made to the Solana Ecosystem:

  • We helped to design Tour De Sol, the original incentivized testnet event that helped build the foundation for Solana’s thriving validator ecosystem.
  • With our friends at Vitwit, we have built Solana Validator Mission Control, an open-source toolkit to make alerting and monitoring easier for independent validator operators.
  • We provide high-performance RPC nodes on a project-by-project basis to support community-oriented dApps on Solana.
  • We provide capacity for Extrnode, the decentralized RPC gateway from our friends at Everstake.
  • We maintain Nakaflow, an open-source Nakamoto Coefficient aggregator, cited in reports by the Solana Foundation and other researchers.
  • We are leading an initiative to support Solana’s next generation by researching open-source wallets and onboarding experiences.
  • We co-founded the Staking Defense League, a coalition of independent validator operators working together to keep stake decentralized on the leading Proof-of-Stake blockchains.
  • We organize and lead the monthly community Validator calls
  • We organized the first validator-focused conference, Block Zero, in Solana along with other main players in the infra space

Unlike many validator operators, we are fully self-funded, completely independent, and proudly values-driven. Chainflow operates non-custodial Solana staking infrastructure to support a more inclusive, equitable, fair, and decentralized future.

Has the delegate historically contributed to the Jito Network?

We have contributed and collaborated with Jito in several ways over the past two years. We have been running the Jito MEV client for quite some time and our validator is co-located with the Jito Tokyo servers.

We recently conducted a StakeNet-focused Twitter space where the Jito team educated the community about the product and provided a summary you can find on our Twitter @ChainflowPOS for those not able to attend.

Additionally, we hosted a Staking Defense League podcast with Jito to discuss MEV on Solana, the implications for users, how the ecosystem was developing, and the push for decentralization across the stack on Solana.

Has the delegate historically been involved in protocol governance?

Chainflow has had the pleasure of creating and hosting Block Zero along with other great minds. We moderated the governance panel.

We currently continue to push and lead efforts in Solana governance by leading the community validator calls and through thoughtful discussion on different platforms such as Twitter, Discord, the protocol governance forum, and Solana governance Gitbook.

We also bring experience gained through participation with other networks that have more developed governance systems. We’ve been active in the Cosmos governance process, arguably one of the most active governance ecosystems across crypto, since their Mainnet launch. We helped found the Validator Commons which is a chain agnostic made to develop better standards for community governance in the future of the web.

Our founder also led the product team at Aragon, a DAO tooling development project, leading to their successful mainnet launch. He also participated in the early development of Aragon’s grant program.

Is the delegate committed to helping the Jito Network and Solana succeed? Explain.

At Chainflow we believe we have exhibited our commitment to the Jito network through our use of the Jito client while collaborating with them many times because we believe that our vision and values align with the Jito team and community. This vision is to create a healthy decentralized network where all stakeholders can thrive while democratizing access to MEV. On the other hand, we have displayed our commitment to Solana through the many contributions we mentioned earlier. Our other significant Jito-specific contributions involve the SDL podcast episode and our X spaces event highlighting StakeNet

Candidate views

How should JitoSOL validator delegation balance performance (yield) versus decentralization goals?

Decentralization in Jito creates a positive feedback loop: more users means more security and accessibility, as well as a wider range of validators, reducing overall risk to Jito and the Solana network.

Generally, we’d lean slightly toward prioritizing decentralization over yield. Why? Because ultimately decentralization leads to a stronger and healthier network and community, increasing their longevity and staying power. In return, yield increases over time, as the network continues to thrive. We’re here for the long haul and our decisions would support resilience and longevity over short-term games.

We still believe yield is important but a sustainable amount of yield over an extended period will benefit the community in the long run. We prefer that instead of high yield rates that could potentially compromise the economic stability of the protocol over a short time.

Also, market forces and human nature, as we’ve seen from our 8 years in crypto, tend to default to maximizing yield. We believe it’s our responsibility to act as a counterbalance to that tendency. Because if we’re not here to build a more inclusive, equitable, and accessible economic alternative to the legacy system, well, then what’s the point?

What should be the priorities for JTO liquidity mining and DAO token grants?

In regards to liquidity mining, we believe it is important for the network to have enough liquidity to support all transactions and are open to collaborating with others to ensure the best steps are taken to ensure the network has enough liquidity without compromising its integrity and long-term vision.

DAO token grants should prioritize funding research, bug bounties, tools to create a smooth user experience, and public goods that the community deems necessary through governance. This is because members of the DAO deserve to have their voices heard and collective vision responsibly brought to life. Not one that limits and constrains innovation but leans into creativity, ingenuity, and objective reasoning.

What are your goals for the DAO as a delegate?

Our general goal as a DAO delegate is to be transparent, accessible, and supportive of the community we serve. We aim to set high goals and foster a united vision for the DAO while providing our unique perspective as an independent validator. Decentralization, equity, and inclusiveness will be at the forefront of our decision-making.

The goal of the questionnaire is to be high-signal. Please answer with as much detail as you feel is necessary to inform the community of your views.

Solana delegation address: 5gemVBzCGRVCzt3ZAzqx47xL7MoCeXcjHaTu1c3zYtgz

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Our gratitude to the Jito community for hosting us on last Friday’s X space. The conversation got us thinking more about the liquidity mining question.

Regarding liquidity mining, we feel it’s important to take a long-term approach when thinking about establishing a liquidity mining program. Our founder’s been working in the proof of stake economy since 2017, has lived through more than one cycle and believe crypto’s here to stay and are here for the long haul. This includes Solana, Jito, Jito Sol and StakeNet, as well as our support for these communities.

To realize this vision and establish a lasting legacy, it will be important to work backwards. For example, by asking what the Jito communty’s goal or goals would be in establishing a liquidity mining program?

For example, one primary goal could be to incentivize governance participation. Our attention is our most valuable asset and competition for it’s fierce. Despite our best intentions, there are only so many conversations and efforts we can contribute to in a valuable way.

Our experience helping guide the ongoing Solana governance process is no exception. The effort kicked-off in July, activity was strong until the first signaling vote took place in October, after which participation dropped off significantly. We’re now in the process of trying to re-spark the conversation, which takes much more work than keeping an existing conversation going.

Incentivizing governance participation could motive interested and capable community participants to consistently direct their attention toward and add value to the Jito community. Done right, a liquidity mining program can provide consistent participation, which is required to support a healthy and vibrant governance process, for many years to come.

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We would also like to follow up and share our answer to a good question posed during last Friday’s X space: “What is the good we can take from the Cosmos ecosystem vs the bad we can leave?”

When it comes to learning from the Cosmos governance ecosystem, there are some successful things that we observed during our long time participating and helping shape their governance. These include active engagement in terms of voting, a lot of discussions (some progressive, some not so much), and various meta-governance experiments due to the many chains that Cosmos is able to support. This is helpful because we have examples of failures and successes to build on.

It is important to learn from these experiments. However, we need to use the one that fits our ecosystem and serves our goals best. An issue we have seen the ecosystem get stumped on was the overcomplication and scattered dissemination of information/communication. Due to their communication vectors being so decentralized, it’s hard for an idea to be properly evaluated by all important stakeholders. When information is not made easily digestible and simple to understand, participants check out, and it increases the barriers to entry/participation, which in turn leads to less alignment. Perhaps electing a single platform where succinct summaries of proposals live can be the catalyst to a culture where important information is not as difficult to find & understand as it has been in the past.

With the right foundation, Jito can foster a flourishing governance landscape.

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