Name/ENS: polynya.eth

My reasons for wanting to be a delegate: Over a year ago, I published a checklist for what it'd take for me to consider a delegate role. ZK Nation also falls short of this, and initially, I decided against considering delegate candidacy. However, it seems outside of Optimism almost all major projects have fallen woefully short. ZKN at least gets one criterion right - <33% to insiders - welcome at a time when ~50% regrettably seems to have become industry standard. The two areas where ZKN falls short for me are - circulating supply well below 50% - but even here, it's doing better than recent projects at 5%-10%; and the lack of a non-plutocratic voting body - but this is something that can be implemented.

So, ZK Nation falls short of my personal requirements, but it's the closest (or, least far) we've gotten in the last couple of years. So, I'm not enthusiastic, but in the end, I decided to give it a shot for a while. Please consider voting for someone else who is more committed instead.

My view on the ZK Credo: I have a simpler thesis, which I've discussed in great detail on my blog. I don't think crypto is particularly good for things like sovereignty, trustlessness, or freedom - indeed, it can be a detriment. However, it's amazing for accessibility and verifiability, and I'm happy to focus on those.

My skills + areas of expertise: I have been a delegate for the Optimism Collective since day 1 - it's now been two years. In these two years, I have not missed a single vote. Previously, I wrote 150+ blog posts on Mirror and Medium, and contributed my thoughts on Twitter. In 2021, most of these were about sustainable scaling, with ZKSync being a regular mention. Later, from 2022, I moved to writing about economics, sustainability, governance, and applications. However, I have stopped writing as crypto industry's values broadly have diverged farther from mine. I still share occasionally some thoughts on Farcaster.

Disclosures/Conflicts: I'm a delegate for Optimism, and I may hold $OP tokens at times as delegate rewards. I'm also an investor in ZKSync, Scroll, and Starknet.