Horizen DAO is Open for Voting and Announces Inaugural Special Council Members
The Horizen DAO increases community involvement in decision-making for improvements to the protocol and ecosystem.
The Horizen community is excited to announce the Horizen DAO is now open for all $ZEN holders to participate in governance and take an active role in the direction of the project!
Horizen is an open-source, public protocol with a broad and diverse ecosystem that includes developers, miners, node operators, and $ZEN holders across multiple blockchain networks. A strong social layer is crucial for maintaining integrity across the ecosystem. This approach is informed by the guiding values of:
- Transparency
- Accountability
- Security
- Community involvement
- Continuous improvement
- Social responsibility
Read more about the Horizen guiding values on the Horizen governance page.
How to Participate in Voting
Voting for the Horizen DAO is done on Horizen EON, an EVM-compatible sidechain on Horizen. The Horizen DAO uses Snapshot and Discourse for governance.
Voting power is determined by the amount of $ZEN you hold on the Horizen mainchain and on the Horizen EON chain including the $ZEN you have staked with the Horizen EON validators. Therefore, the more $ZEN you hold, the more voting power you have.
The voting period for any given proposal will have a specified start and end date and will last 72 hours. For more information about the process of voting, please start here.
Introducing the Horizen DAO Special Council
What is the Horizen DAO Special Council?
The Special Council serves as a steward for the Horizen DAO and provides oversight of the Horizen Foundation with security of the Horizen DAO and ecosystem as its paramount focus.
What exactly does the Special Council do?
Special Council members serve as a DAO committee and function as a liaison between the Horizen community and the Horizen Foundation. In practical terms, this means providing review and oversight during the improvement proposal process, calling emergency operational meetings as needed to discuss and address security threats to the Horizen DAO, any protocol utilizing the Token, the Tokenholders, or the Foundation, and serving as signers on the Horizen community multi-signature wallet.
Who are the Special Council members?
Initially, the Special Council will be made up of 7 individuals initially appointed by the Foundation Director(s):
Benjamin Charbit
Co-founder and CEO at Life Beyond Studios (Animoca Brands)
Ben is the CEO of Life Beyond Studios and Executive Producer of Life Beyond. After a career in banking and private equity, Ben left the dark side for Ubisoft where he worked as producer and designer. There he held several executive positions, such as Game Director on Assassin’s Creed Blackflag and was in charge of the strategic planning of the online games division at Ubisoft headquarters.
Ben discovered Neil Stephenson’s work in 2014, first with Reamde, and it strengthened his obsession to build one day a new kind of MMO where people would have fun playing but where they could also live a life, for real.
A father of two young kids, he cares about building games that can have a positive impact on the world with low violence, inclusivity and lots of meaningful social interactions.
Brian Rose
Founder & Host of London Real and Creator of the Crypto & DeFi Academy
After graduating from MIT and the Sloan School of Management, Brian spent 15 years trading derivatives in the financial markets on Wall Street, Chicago and the City of London.
For the past 12 years he has been the Founder & Host of London Real, a global media company with 5 million subscribers and over one billion views. Here he has broadcast over 1000 long-form conversations with the most influential people on the planet.
He launched the Crypto & DeFi Academy with the goal to educate the next 1 Billion people in the Web3, metaverse, and artificial intelligence ecosystems.
He founded London Real Ventures in 2021 as the world’s first media-powered investment firm which is very active in early stage Web3, metaverse, and artificial intelligence companies worldwide.
Elias Ahonen
Blockchain Author & PhD Researcher | Head of Operations at Roqqu Europe
Elias Ahonen is a Finnish-Canadian blockchain and legal expert described as “one of the first Bitcoin historians” for his ethnographic book Physical Bitcoins (2016), followed by Blockland (2020). He is an advisor to the ‘Critical Inquiry into DAOs’ state-funded research project at the University of Turku Law School, where he is completing his Doctoral research (PhD in Law) concerning the intersection of blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFT’s, DAOs, and the metaverse with international law. A columnist with over 50 articles on Cointelegraph, his expertise is acknowledged by international media including The Wall Street Journal. Involved in the industry since 2013, he launched consulting firm Token Valley in 2017 and is a Director for Roqqu, a cryptocurrency exchange with 1.7 million users.
“Being part of the special council allows me to apply my academic research to Horizen DAO as there is no ‘one size fits all’ format for the developing field of DAO governance”
Hervé Larren
Senior Advisor, Horizen Labs
Hervé Larren is a Senior Advisor at Horizen Labs and the Founder & CEO of Airvey.io, an enterprise that builds, supports and advises Web 3.0 companies.
A dedicated advocate of Bitcoin and blockchain since 2013, Mr. Larren became one of the first crypto miners in the US before offering the proceeds to Grayscale prior to public quotation. His expertise has guided over a dozen projects, several of which have achieved valuations exceeding $1 billion.
Mr. Larren’s presence extends to media coverage in publications such as CoinTelegraph and Forbes as well as Bloomberg TV. He is a recognized figure on the international speaking circuit, having delivered insights at more than 30 conferences across 10 countries.
Prior to entering the blockchain space, Mr. Larren held positions at LVMH and Pernod Ricard.
An alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Presidents’ Program, Mr. Larren holds as well an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).
“My early involvement in the Horizen community, coupled with being among the initial contributors to the Grayscale Horizen Trust, has provided me with valuable insights to comprehend both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. I eagerly anticipate this new DAO milestone and am enthusiastic about contributing to the community.”
Jemma Xu
Founding Partner at Fork Ventures | Founding Contributor at Portal Gate
Jemma is a Founding Partner at Fork Ventures, seed investing in and working with Web3 projects since early 2017 with a portfolio of over 35 projects and a focus on infrastructure and DeFi. Jemma is also a Founding Contributor to Portal Gate, a decentralized darkpool protocol leveraging zero-knowledge encryption and backed by some of the top venture and liquid funds in Web3.
Prior to her Web3 endeavors, Jemma worked in investment banking in Australia and was an angel investor in Web2 startups throughout APAC.
Jemma holds a dual Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons)/Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Melbourne, Australia.
“Having followed the progress of Horizen from early Zencash days, it’s great to see the Horizen team leveraging their deep cryptography expertise to build out a unique network of blockchains. I look forward to contributing to the growth of the Horizen ecosystem, particularly in the APAC region”.
Leila Salieva
VP of Special Projects, Xsolla Metasites
Mrs. Salieva is an early adopter of crypto since 2017 and joined Xsolla’s team in 2021 to be a part of the X.LA – a web3 division that builds bridges between web2 and web3. She spearheaded the marketing of the product, and, together with the production team, launched Xsolla Metasites – a product that combines 3D environments, AI, gaming fintech, and web3.
In her current role at Xsolla as VP of Special Projects for Metasites, Mrs. Salieva is building creative gamified solutions for brands and businesses to help them integrate web3 and AI tools in their daily operations.
She recently received a specialization in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the Harvard Business School.
Marwan Alzarouni
Strategic Advisor – Dubai Economy & Tourism. CEO: Dubai Blockchain Center
Dr. Marwan Alzarouni is an internationally recognized blockchain technology advocate, keynote speaker and strategic advisor. Dr. Alzarouni is the CEO of Dubai Blockchain Center (DBCC), an impact business and a strategic partner to Dubai Future Foundation. The center was inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum under the Area 2071 initiative in May 2018. It aims to create a fertile ground and a holistic ecosystem for blockchain companies and projects to thrive in. DBCC regularly hosts a number of blockchain startups within Area 2071 and also conducts educational classes and seminars around blockchain use cases in the government and private sectors. Dr. Marwan is currently heading the Digital Asset Task Force (DATF), a research and advisory team that reports to the Dubai Future Council for Blockchain. The purpose of the task force is to conduct a comprehensive study to provide clear guidance on how digital assets can be encouraged and regulated. The council establishes Dubai as a global blockchain capital, offering a prominent platform for decision-makers from various local and international governments and private sector entities to explore futuristic, blockchain-based solutions.
The Horizen community invites all $ZEN holders to join and have a say in the future of the Horizen Ecosystem by participating in the Horizen DAO!
[Join the Conversation on Discourse Now]
