NathanVDH Delegate Communication Thread

Delegate Name: NathanVDH
Delegate Address: 0xf9551c66995eD3Ff9bb05C9Fd7ff148Bd75dc99a
Forum Handle: @NathanVDH
X handle: @nathanvdh0x

My values:

  • Skepticism: I like to start with that one because even though it doesn’t define my platform, I think it sets me apart. Enough years in this industry has taught me that believing blindly leads to catastrophes.
  • Neutrality: I don’t work for anyone, I don’t have any other interests than those of the communities I serve as a delegate.
  • Focus: Too often, the attitude of ecosystem funds is spray and pray. This leads to bad teams applying en masse and great teams being discouraged. Money isn’t a giant hammer that makes problem go away, though it certainly helps.
  • Availability: My twitter is right there, my DMs are open, if you’ve delegated to me please reach out and ask me the hard questions.

Empowering Early Contributors: The community Arbiter Proposal 2.0

Voted YES

The funds requested are reasonable and I’m glad that a lot of discourse led to this outcome. The people that have been there in the trenches from the beginning are getting a reasonable financial compensation, what’s not to love?

Expand Tally Support for the Arbitrum DAO

Voted YES

Having worked in DAO tooling myself, I can see when a company takes feedback seriously. The amount of work Arbitrum and people like @Frisson put into making Tally serve Arbitrum’s needs is honorable, really good to see. The funding requested is reasonable, if we translated that to an hourly salary this would look very cheap for the DAO.

Request for Continuation of the Arbitrum DDA Program Request

Voted YES

Very thorough proposal, I’m glad to see everything laid out in writing. I’m unimpressed by the amount of milestones completed by Arbitrum grantees but the team isn’t at fault here. The DAO needs to think long and hard about how we accompany grantees and how we make sure they complete what they set out to do. Reputation systems anyone?

Double-Down on STIP Successes (STIP-Bridge)

Voted YES

$43M is steep just to hold users in the protocols they’re currently using, but that’s the name of the game at the moment. Let’s remember that we’re here to encourage businesses that stand the test of time unaided. No reason to pretend that’s where we are now though, so this is a yes from me.

Arbitrum Stable Treasury Endowment Program

Did not vote

I wanted to take more time to get into the specifics of this proposal and time got away from me, hence I missed this vote. I think in the end I would’ve voted yes as this is an initiative that could lead to much more financial stability for the DAO long term - something we should take seriously during the bull market we’re going through right now.

Security Council Election

Voted for bartek.eth

I decided to vote for bartek due to his relative neutrality compared to other candidates. This is one of my key values, and I believe independent individuals can add much more security and decentralization. Of course, Bartek is part of L2BEAT, but I consider L2BEAT to be an independent organization whose most important interest is the progress of all L2s.

Snapshot Votes of May 2024:

ACryptoS Protocol - Funding Approval for LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted AGAINST
I believe the size of the requested grant is still too big considering the size of the project. This is in line with my stated value of focus.

GovHack at ETH CC (Brussels)

Voted FOR
The success of the Denver GovHack is enough to trust the team to reiterate and deliver a great event in Brussels. The price is high, but that’s events for you and the team has said that extra cash will go towards future events.

CVI.Finance - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
After the substantial reduction in grant ask, I believe this proposal is now requesting a decent amount of ARB.

Rage Trade - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
Council feedback has been taken into account by the team, I now believe this proposal is ready to go!

D2 Finance - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
Council feedback has been taken into account and I like their product, I think it goes in an interesting direction and could become big over time.

Bedrock - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
A lower ask and a clearer proposal, it’s a yes from me! Still quite a large ask but it’s conditional on TVL growth and if it does reach $25M then this is a great deal for the DAO.

Yearn Finance LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
This is a lot of money for a product that doesn’t yet have traction on Arbitrum but the grant should help with that and this is attracting top quality builders to the ecosystem - a yes from me!

Deri Protocol - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
The reduction in grant ask is significant, and this would provide competition in a key field for the Arbitrum DAO.

Tradao - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
Despite the significant grant ask and the unproven project, I think this grant presents a risky bet for the DAO that could turn out great. In general, I would’ve said no, but in this context of competition between layer 2s for projects it seems like a decent bet to me.

DODO LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
Good team with a good track record, the feedback from the Council was seriously considered and the proposal looks a lot better, happy to vote yes!

Clipper - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted AGAINST
I think the arguments put forward by the council in the first rejection of this application still apply, the grant reduction is small and I don’t think all concerns were mitigated. No from me.

Synthetix - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
Good opportunity to attract an OG team to Arbitrum and keep them here, where there’s more liquidity, DeFi users, and incentives. All things considered, this is a very interesting proposition for the DAO.

Grant Request - Curve Finance

Voted FOR
Incredible opportunity, great testament from Michael to put up his own money on this - I’m very excited to see Curve change DeFi on Arbitrum! What a great sign.

Sushi - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
I thought the 1.2M ARB grant requested was crazy, the name of Sushi doesn’t carry the weight it did in 2020. 600k is still major, this is certain, but maybe more in line with the amount of TVL they could bring over. Let’s see! Congrats on the grant council on that one btw, they’re earning their salaries and then some.

Buffer - LTIPP [Post Council Feedback]

Voted FOR
Significant reduction in grant ask and integration of the council budget seem sufficient in this updated proposal.

Proposal for Approval of DeDaub as the ADPC Security Advisor

Voted FOR
DeDaub has passed the necessary checks to make sure they’re the right firm to take care of the security advisor role. The budget is also very reasonable.

Pilot Phase: M&A for Arbitrum DAO

Voted FOR
Big fan of this proposal, I believe that the DAO is ready to move on to more active roles in the projects it funds and I hope that one day part of the grant process sorts of morphs into a more active role through this program!

Arbitrum Multi-sig Support Service (MSS)

Voted FOR:
#1 MS+Report
#2 MS
#3 Against
#4 Abstain
Very worthwile service that comes at a small cost to the DAO but could prevent major headache down the road, easy yes from me!

Streamlining the LTIPP Bounties

Voted FOR
Yes please let’s streamline this process! I think there are too many pairs of eyes that have to look at individual small decisions and I’m afraid that governance fatigue will set in quickly.

Kwenta x Perennial: Arbitrum Onboarding Incentives

Voted FOR
Really good opportunity to attract more high quality builders to the network! Very happy to see it.

Front-end interface to force transaction inclusion during sequencer downtime

Voted FOR
This is a key part of rollup decentralization, I’m very happy to see this proposal go through and am looking forward to seeing the results.

Pilot Phase: M&A for Arbitrum DAO

Voted FOR
Big fan of this proposal, I believe that the DAO is ready to move on to more active roles in the projects it funds and I hope that one day part of the grant process sorts of morphs into a more active role through this program!

Catalyze Gaming Ecosystem Growth on Arbitrum

Voted FOR
I voted for because I think these are the types of bold moves a DAO must make in such a competitive environment. However, I would’ve much rather seen the funding distributed in tranches on the condition that the Fund manages to spend the money, which I’m still very unsure it will be able to do.

Constitutional AIP - Security Council Improvement Proposal

Voted FOR
Important update to the security council framework, I think the update fixes some vulnerabilities and provides necessary clarification, good job L2BEAT

ArbitrumDAO Contribution; Safeguarding Software Developers’ Rights

Voted FOR
An important role of the DAO is also to safeguard the industry we’re part of, and as we’re getting bigger it’d be sad to freeride to current efforts being made to make sure crypto has a regulatory leg to stand on. Happy to support this initiative with what constitutes as small investment from the DAO.

Set up a Sub-Committee for the Security Services Subsidy Fund

Voted AGAINST

I believe in favoring protocols already building on Arbitrum and committed to staying there. Additionally, there’s no need in my view to create a new committee here with these responsibilities when others could add these responsibilities to their plate for a fraction of the cost.

AIP: Nova Fee Router Proposal (ArbOS 30)

Voted FOR
Important decision that will allow more flexibility and speed in making sure Nova can develop correctly. All for it!

AIP: Activate Stylus and Enable Next-Gen WebAssembly Smart Contracts (ArbOS 30)

Voted FOR
Excited to see Stylus arrive on Abritrum, this is a key decision to make it happen. Another easy yes!

AIP: Support RIP-7212 for Account Abstraction Wallets (ArbOS 30)

Voted FOR
Important improvement for wallet security and flexibility - something that’s sorely needed in web3. Hope this is a good first step to make sure Arbitrum becomes a home for smart wallets!

Election of STEP Program Manager

Voted for steakhouse
Here, I voted for consistency and experience. For the first edition, we want an experienced team to start things before we can experiment with new ideas.

[NON-CONSTITUTIONAL] Pilot Phase: Arbitrum Ventures Initiative

Voted FOR with no IRL event
I’m very excited about the Arbitrum Ventures Initiative. I think it has a lot of potential to change how we think about DAOs and make them active participants in their own ecosystem. I voted for no IRL event because I believe it’s very important to Arbitrum’s image to not be seen as splashing cash around.

AIP: BoLD - permissionless validation for Arbitrum

Voted FOR
Excited for BoLD! It’s a very important upgrade to Arbitrum and I believe we should give the team all the resources necessary to make it happen.