Polkadot Fellowship
Prelude: Decentralization
- Decentralization can come in many fashions.
- Some of my (somewhat) personal opinions.. 💭
Prelude: Decentralization
1. Technical 🔐
- Can the software be executed in a decentralized manner?
- Can multiple nodes actually run the software and come to consensus?
Prelude: Decentralization
2. Operational ⚙️
- The software is capable of running in a decentralized manner. But is it actually?
- Intermediaries, gateways, pools.
- Is the right "software" being executed by node operators?
Prelude: Decentralization
3. Intellectual 🧠
- How many people know the existing protocol well enough to understand it.
- Which subset of these people make decisions about the future?
- Important to remember that node operators are usually in neither.
Prelude: Decentralization
3. Intellectual 🧠
My trust in Polkadot’s credible future should not rely on knowing that Parity, Gav or Shawn will continue to act benevolently.
- This is where a meta-protocol, and rule-based upgrade systems becomes important.
Prelude: Decentralization
Geopolitical 🌎
- How many of protocol experts/node operators are under the same juristiction?
The Fellowship
The fellowship is a technical decision making body onchain, aimed at alleviating the above facades of centralization, but more so than anything else, the intellectual aspect.
The Fellowship
- Imperfect, not for everyone, opinionated 🥲!
- Strictly better than not taking an action.
The Fellowship Lifecycle
- Initial seed
- Entry
- Promotion
- Continuation
- Gradual demote every 3-6 months.
The Fellowship Lifecycle: Evaluation
Evaluation is subjective, based on merits of "core blockchain engineering".
The manifesto provides one such example
- API and code design.
- Code contribution.
- Social interactions.
- Voting.
- Activity
- Agreement.
The Fellowship Structure
| Dan | Name | Group | Exp from Dan I | Material |
| 0 | Candidate | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 1 | Humble | Members | n/a | Graphite |
| 2 | Proficient | Members | 1 years | Stibnite |
| 3 | Fellow | Fellows | 2 years | Galena |
| 4 | Architect | Architects | 3+ years | Obsidian |
| 5 | Architect Adept | Architects | 4+ years | Ilvaite |
| 6 | Grand Architect | Architects | 5+ years | Magnetite |
| 7 | Free Master | Masters | 6+ years | Black Spinel |
| 8 | Master Constant | Masters | 11+ years | Carborundum |
| 9 | Grand Master | Masters | 19+ years | Carbandos |
Dan 0: The Candidate
- No requirement, no implication
- Deposit held for storage usage etc.
Dan I: The Humble
- The (potentially) softest of the materials
- Wide range of hardness (1-3 Moh)
- Shares the exact same chemical composition as the material of the highest rank Grand Master—the hardest material—symbolizing the individual’s potential to go all the way.
Dan I: The Humble
- Clear aspiration to learn and evangelize the protocol.
- Deep knowledge at least one key component.
- Independent, vision-driven contribution.
- Being available and playing a crucial operational role for a network fix.
Dan II: The Proficient
- ~1 Year of experience passed since acquiring Dan I.
- Responsible for research, analysis and implementation of a key component of the system.
- Potentially "on-call" for the same component.
- At least one published long-form semi-technical article concerning Polkadot.
Fellowship: Kusama
- Used in conjuncture with
pallet-whitelistandpallet-preimage. - The fellowship can whitelist certain pre-images, which in turn can lead to faster execution.
- End of the day, it is all (virtual) runtime origins:
Fellows,Fellowship3Dan,WhitelistedCaller- ...
Fellowship: The Near Future
- Payroll
- Delegation
- Runtimes moved to the fellowship repository
Polkadot Fellowship
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