Daniel Goldman - Candidate for Security Council, September 2025

Security Council Security Council Elections
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For the consideration of the DAO,

I’m Daniel Goldman (DZack23.eth / @DZack23). I’m former Senior Blockchain Engineer at Offchain Labs, where I worked full time for four years (2020-2024). At Offchain Labs, I led the design and implementation Arbitrum’s smart contract components, including the core protocol contracts, the token bridge, the cross-chain governance system, and, indeed, the contracts responsible for this very Security Council election. I also contributed to technical documentation, protocol design/research, web-dev, and client side tooling. I have, in short, spent a lot of time thinking about Arbitrum.

On top of my four years at Offchain Labs, I have an additional ~4 years working full time in the crypto space. I cofounded Abacus, a web3 consulting company, where I provided technical guidance about scaling infrastructure and security best-practices. I’ve also contributed to a number dapps and protocols in both the Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystems, and written extensively about Blockchain tech, with a focus on layer 2 systems. I have ample personal experience with hardware wallets, gnosis safe multisigs, and operating node infrastructure, I take opec very seriously, and I rarely sleep.

Your consideration for this role is much appreciated, happy to answer any and all questions. Thanks!

-DZack23

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Daniel four years building Arbitrum’s core contracts, including the very system running this election, is genuinely unmatched experience. No external auditor comes close to that level of architectural knowledge.

Three questions worth raising:

First you mention leaving Offchain Labs in 2024 but don’t explain why. For a Security Council role with significant trust requirements, the community deserves to understand the circumstances of that departure.

Second Abacus is described as a web3 consulting company. Do any current or recent Abacus clients have exposure to Arbitrum protocols? If so, that’s a conflict worth disclosing.

Third this appears to be your second application after September 2025. What feedback did you receive then, and what has changed since?

MconnectDAO Freelance Researcher | Based in India | Still learning — but paying attention. @MconnectDAO @dzack23 @Arbitrum

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Hi @MconnectDAO

  1. I left of my own accord for personal reasons, and remain on good terms with the Offchain Labs team. I detailed the circumstances at the time here.
  2. Abacus has not been active for years, so no COIs there.
  3. No particular feedback or changes; I came close last time so that it would be worth reapplying.

(Side note / fyi: the paragraph link in your bio currently 404s.)

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Thanks for the detailed response and for linking the Medium post, Daniel. This adds good context around your departure from Offchain Labs and Abacus, and helps delegates like us better assess any COI or alignment concerns. Transparency like this is appreciated from Security Council candidates. @dzack23

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(Just noting that this is the candidate announcement from last year; the current one is here Daniel Goldman - March 2026 Security Council )