L2BEAT Delegate Communication Thread

🏛 Governance
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Intro to L2Beat

L2BEAT is an independent, public goods company who acts as an impartial watchdog for the Ethereum Layer2 ecosystem. Our mission is to provide comprehensive and unbiased analysis and comparative evaluations of Layer 2 solutions . We are committed to the verification and fact-checking of the claims made by each project, with a special focus on the security aspects. What sets L2BEAT apart is our unwavering commitment to delivering accurate and reliable information.

In addition, L2BEAT has a governance team which actively participates in constructive discussions of specific protocol challenges and issues, fostering the discourse toward increasingly permissionless, open source, and trustless systems. Our participation in various DAOs and public debates reflects this commitment.

Governance Team

The governance team currently consists of @Kaereste (Krzysztof Urbanski) and @Sinkas (Anastassis Oikonomopoulos). Both members have extensive knowledge and experience in the broader web3 ecosystem, on both technical and non-technical fronts. Any governance actions of the L2BEAT delegation team will be the product of research, fact-checking and ideation of the 2 aforementioned members.

Our Mission, Values and Approach to Governance

For us, governance isn’t just about casting a vote. The real magic happens during healthy debates and coming to conclusions together. Voting should just be the cherry on top of a great community-driven process.

When participating in governance, we hold the following principles in mind:

  • Transparency & Open Communication: We believe in being open about our decision-making process and keeping the community informed about any proposals or issues we discuss.
  • Community Focus: Our top priority is to always consider the community’s needs and interests in every decision we make.
  • Inclusiveness: We’re committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment, where everyone’s voice is heard, regardless of their background or experience.
  • Accountability: We value accountability and are always open to feedback, which helps us continually improve and better serve our community.

At L2BEAT we believe that crypto is the new infrastructure for the future financial system. As such, we believe that in order for it to be successful, it needs to be:

  • Permissionless, no one should need a third party’s permission to join the network,
  • Censorship resistant, everyone should be free from arbitrary censorship,
  • Trustless, it’s all about cryptographic proofs and consensus, not trusting a central party
  • Decentralised, power and control should be spread across many participants
  • Transparent, everyone should be able to verify and account for transactions, even if they’re private
  • Secure and safe, user safety and security come first, not relying on anyone acting honestly.
  • Open-source, we live by “don’t trust, verify,” so if we can’t see the code, we can’t trust it.

Why we chose to be delegates

We recognize that proper governance is of paramount importance for any protocol that wants to be efficient while remaining decentralized. The precedents we establish today will significantly influence the organizational structures and systems of the future. Consequently, we view our engagement in governance as a professional responsibility, and our team is dedicated to addressing all governance and policy issues that arise within the protocols we’re engaged with.

We assert that governance involves much more than the act of voting; it revolves primarily around fostering constructive dialogue and facilitating the healthy exchange of opinions and viewpoints in order to reach consensus on specific issues.

Skills and areas of expertise:

We consider ourselves experts on blockchain scaling solutions. We have a deep technical understanding of underlying protocols and a broad overview of available solutions. We’ve spent hours understanding the code, documentation and on-chain data of every project listed on our website.

In terms of DAO-relevant work, we served on several grant committees and DAO initiatives and have helped organise the work of the DAOs we’re involved with.

Languages we speak and write

English, Polish, Greek

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest:

It’s not necessary COI but it’s worth mentioning that we are active delegates in other ecosystems, with more coming in the near future. We also have a working relationship with almost every major Ethereum L2 project and with most bridge projects.

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Here’s a quick update on our participation up until now (January 2025).

[Vote] Staking on Starknet - Voted FOR

We decided to support this proposal because StarkWare’s minting curve mechanism is trusted to be research-based. Allowing Starknet Foundation to adjust the constant ‘C’ provides flexibility based on staked supply, with future adjustments possibly made by the DAO.

[Vote] Termination of Transaction Versions 0,1,2. - Voted FOR

We voted in favor of this proposal. However, we’re concerned about the lack of backward compatibility initially. We understand future SNIPs will address this, and we hope they are proposed promptly. Switching to fee payments in STRK tokens raises questions about Starknet’s alignment with the Ethereum ecosystem. With less demand for ETH in Starknet, there might be less ETH bridged, impacting security.

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Here’s an update on what we’ve been up to for the first quarter of 2025.

Voting

[Vote] Staking on Starknet V2 - Voted FOR

Introducing a periodic liveness check to ensure validators are actively tracking the network before being eligible for rewards is a good step to ensure we’re not spending money incentivizing validators who do not comprehensively track activity.

The outlined specifications are sensible, and we do not see any points of concern that urge us to consider voting against them. So, we voted in favor of this initiative.

L2BEAT’s Office Hours

We want to remind everyone that every week, we’re hosting Starknet Office Hours on Google Meets.

The office hours are held every Friday at 3 pm UTC/ 11 pm EST

During Office Hours, you will be able to reach L2BEAT’s governance team, which consists of Kaereste (Krzysztof Urbanski), Sinkas (Anastassis Oikonomopoulos), and Manugotsuka (Manuel González), and discuss our activity as delegates.

The purpose of the office hours is to gather feedback from the people who have delegated to us, answer any questions about our voting activities and rationale, and collect input on topics you’d like us to discuss.

You can add the L2BEAT Governance Calendar to your Google Calendar to find the respective Google Meets links for every call and easily keep track of Office Hours, as well as other important calls and events relevant to Connext that the L2BEAT governance team will be attending or hosting.

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I really appreciate L2BEAT’s focus on governance going beyond just voting, especially with the emphasis on constructive discussions. Given the evolving nature of Layer 2 solutions, I agree that transparency, security, and decentralization are key.

I’m curious to know how L2BEAT plans to tackle challenges in the space and ensure that community feedback is actively incorporated into decision-making, especially with their involvement in DAOs. It’s exciting to see how they’re setting an example for fostering an inclusive, open atmosphere in the Ethereum ecosystem.