Announcing My Candidacy for Telos Guardian

Dear Telosians,

I’m writing this post to formally announce my intention to run for one of five vacant Telos Foundation Guardian positions and accept the nomination of Justin Giudici, outgoing CEO of the Telos Foundation. It will also be a way for me to introduce myself to the greater Telos Community and why I’m a great fit for the job as a Telos Guardian.

My Background

After graduating from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, I began my career in financial media as a junior developer at the financial media firm Benzinga. Eventually, I switched over to the business side and rose through the ranks to lead the business development department there for 2 years as Director of Business Development

After leaving Benzinga to begin my entrepreneurial journey, I eventually met my co-founder, Robert Konsdorf, at a local blockchain meetup in Detroit. Together we created EOS DETROIT, now Detroit Ledger Technologies (DLT), as a pre-launch block producer on the EOS network in early 2018.

As the EOS ecosystem evolved, we saw the necessity early on to support additional networks despite the move being unpopular. We were one of the first block producers to publicly support Telos and were thought leaders in taking a multi-ecosystem approach. Currently, we operate nodes on 7 AntelopeIO networks and 1 non-AntelopeIO DPoS network. Additionally, I have previously served on the Telos Board in 2019.

Outside of the Antelope ecosystem, I co-founded a 501(c)(3) blockchain education non-profit, Detroit Blockchain Center, and currently serve as a board member. In 2019, I planned the Detroit Blockchain Pitchfest as a part of the non-profit, which attracted over 200 professionals in the metro-Detroit area to hear pitches about practical and business-centric use cases of blockchain technology. Over the years, we’ve doubled the size of the Detroit Web3 meetup to be approximately 1400 strong through thoughtful educational programming and social events.

My Values & Focuses

Transparency

“Candor & Transparency” is one of the core values of Detroit Ledger Technologies. We continuously communicate the following to our team:

• Even if it’s hard to do, DLT members do the right thing.
• Speak your mind when you see room for improvement or cause for concern.
• Be honest with and listen intently to your fellow team members, as this will help solve issues and lead to better outcomes for all.
• Team members owe transparency with respect to knowledge, business metrics, strategy, and other aspects of the business that don’t have a legal requirement to confidentiality.

In my experience, transparency can be one of the hardest things to continually instill in an organization and hold one another accountable.

When I joined the original Telos Foundation board back in 2019, I wrote the Telos Foundation Transparency Amendment, which included ideas like requiring regular financial/operational reporting, publishing of meeting minutes, and public disclosure of director and executive compensation. While the amendment never ended up being created as a formal Amend proposal, I believe that the work done helped lay the foundation for many of the transparency initiatives that the TF meticulously creates today. As a Telos Guardian, I will explore new ways with various stakeholders on how to strengthen Telos’ culture of transparency.

Good Governance & Compliance

Increased regulatory scrutiny in many jurisdictions has reignited the need for blockchain networks and DAOs to operate in a manner that promotes legal and ethical responsibilities. The Telos Foundation should redouble its efforts and develop a strategy for navigating the turbulent regulatory landscape ahead.

Activating Talent

There are many talented individuals and teams within the Telos ecosystem. These entities have not always been activated to their full potential in terms of having opportunities to contribute. As a Guardian, I will actively reach out to community members to open new conversations about how these parties can contribute and find leads for the various TF departments.

Why I make an excellent candidate

As an expert in Telos governance, I currently fulfill some of the specific responsibilities that are expected of Telos Guardians that most of the other nominated candidates do not have. Telos Guardians have the responsibility to “support the use of a governance process that allows for arbitration of intent of code disputes.” I’m currently leading the initiative to reboot Telos Resolve, the Telos arbitration system and proposed governance changes to make that reality.

Additionally, I helped design the Telos RFP system, which seeks to ensure that Telos Works/WPS funding recipients are held accountable and the funds are used responsibly. DLT engineers were also responsible for the full development of the platform. Designing systems like these demonstrates that I have an interest in making sure funds are used appropriately, which is also a requirement of Telo Guardians according to the bylaws of Telos Foundation.

Finally, because DLT operates nodes on most of the public AntelopeIO blockchain networks, I’ve been able to learn from a variety of different approaches to solve problems and can make recommendations based on what works and what hasn’t. This will allow me to help Telos avoid many potential pitfalls and find the right answers faster.

Vote adam.tf for a Telos Guardian position!

Voting for the Telos Foundation Guardian election opens on July 12th at approximately 20:00 UTC and runs for 2 weeks. You can vote for up to 5 different candidates. For more information on how to vote, please read the recent blog post from the Telos Foundation. My account is adam.tf. Thank you and go Telos!

Sincerely,

Adam Zientarski
CEO, Detroit Ledger Technologies