Identity and background
- What is the delegate’s identity and background?
I have a history in blockchain going back almost 10 years, including a stint operating a Bitcoin mining setup in 2016/2017. Int he past three years my focus has been primarily on high throughput blockchains which has brought me to Solana. First operating a Testnet validator from May 2021 then launching a Mainnet valdiator with no Foundation stake or self-stake in August 2022 and bootstrapping this to becoming one of the largest independent staked validators on Solana.
I feel strongly about governance and the network health of Solana, it is a network I believe can underping future economies and financial systems and it is important we grow it in a healthy, sustainable and robust manner.
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Has the delegate historically contributed to the Jito Network?
First staked validator (outside of Jito’s own nodes) to run jito-solana, one of the first to run their own jito-relayer and pushing for others to do so. -
Has the delegate historically been involved in protocol governance?
Trying to help shape the conversation around Solana governance and determininig how we will eventually have top-level governance on Solana. Also participating in Marinade governance. -
Is the delegate committed to helping the Jito Network and Solana succeed?
100%. Solana is the best technological implementation of a blockchain to date, it achieves low cost high throughput at scale and has a very successful staking ecosystem that underpins its economic security. LSTs are critical in driving forward the development of the staking ecosystem and unlocking some of those locked values for use across other applications. Jito is a pioneer in the MEV space but also in the application of LSTs at the crossroads of MEV and regular staking, and will play an important role in maintaining healthy incentives and stake distributions in future which is the part I am most interested in.
Candidate views
- How should JitoSOL validator delegation balance performance (yield) versus decentralization goals?
Given the potential for boosted yield through MEV, it would be nice to see a balanced approach that both rewards performance, but without biasing too much on commission, and decentralization.
Validators need to earn an income, so deciding an acceptable commission range should happen, whereafter commission is then removed from scoring and the focus is on other performance parameters only (credits, block production, MEV tips and operation, uptime etc), as well as decentralization. Additionally, aside from algorithmic staking there is a powerful ability to incentivize projects or behavious through targeted and merit-based delegations to key contributors, i.e. teams that build tooling or contribute to public discourse in a manner that helps shape the growth, health and distribution of Jito and Solana as a whole.
- What should be the priorities for JTO liquidity mining and DAO token grants?
Growing tooling, dashboards, information, content around Jito, but also ensuring there is sufficient liquidity in the markets for trading of course, though this seems less important.
- What are your goals for the DAO as a delegate?
Bring in an objective and opinionated view on network health and drive hard conversations into the right outcomes for overall network and Jito-Solana health.
Edit to add delegate address: C1gbtvmegWZxrUZWXNjXWoYPro3g99Cp2fcmHMqdmNcN