Featuring Nathan Rempel — OIG Candidacy Short Interview

Support Nathan — Together, make blockchain governance fun, engaging, and accessible

About OIG:

Office of Inspector General — A watchdog committee that publishes monthly reports recognizing the value WAX Guilds are creating for the WAX ecosystem.

It’s the 4th OIG Elections ongoing right now! As part of the election process, one of the three positions in the OIG team gets filled and the winning candidate will serve 18 months term as Inspector General(IG).

Candidate Introduction:

Nathan Rempel has been part of the EOSIO community and working with the technical stack since its inception. He is the co-founder of charity-focused and day-one block producer GenerEOS. His numerous contributions to the ecosystem include:

• Creating the original EOSIO multi-tool EOSToolkit [https://eostoolkit.io]
• Mentoring at two EOS hackathons.
• Created the first “airgrab” token model.
• Has assisted multiple projects with smart contracts and staking functionality, and expanded Layer-2 functionality as Principal Engineer at LiquidApps.

Nathan’s Journey to WAX:

Nathan transitioned heavily to the WAX ecosystem at the start of 2021 seeking to innovate the potential and capabilities of NFT’s by introducing his half brother Byron Rempel and his ZBCats and other zombie-related NFTs to the ecosystem. He also created the procedurally generated GeneKeys based randomized NFTs, as well as automated sales smart contracts.

His contributions to WAX also include:

• Assisting the Uplift World project
• Implementing transfer+upgrade for YoshiDrops memberships with exciting new capabilities in the works
• Has been a key player in bringing the premier fine art marketplace LGND.art to life.

Nathan believes that WAX blockchain is an incredible resource to create a new world of innovative, environmentally friendly, enterprise and mass adopted NFT technologies, and Nathan wants to help ensure the ecosystem continues to grow in an innovative and healthy fashion with key criteria:

Performance | Innovation | Community | Environment

We at the WAX Galaxy team put together some specific questions for Nathan to understand where he stands on various topics related to the OIG. Please find the answers below:

1. What brought you to WAX?

I’ve been involved in EOSIO based blockchains since the EOSIO Mainnet first launched, initially as a co-founder of the Block Producer GenerEOS, mentoring at hackathons, and assisting and becoming involved in a number of projects and dApps.

WAX had always interested me, and by the end of 2020, I became highly involved in seeking to innovate the way NFTs could be used. This led to joining the projects LGND.art, Uplift World, and YoshiDrops.

2. WAX Inspector General role is a very important position in the WAX governance model, what is WAX governance to you and what does this position mean to you?

At its most basic level, the governance model means determining who the primary Guilds responsible for operating the chain should be, however at a high level it should involve the community being directly involved in determining the direction of the continuous improvement of the WAX technology stack and ecosystem.

The Inspector General’s primary mandate would be to provide information to the community members to make informed voting decisions and ensure the Guilds are performing their duties based on a fair set of criteria and ensuring the health of the network. Ultimately, the role should seek to improve community engagement with the governance process and seek to guarantee the tools and widespread accessibility exist so all stakeholders can take a greater part in a decentralized governance model that covers all aspects of the chain’s growth and success.

3. What are the different issues you have identified in the OIG framework so far?

The roles and responsibilities of the OIG appear to be somewhat loosely defined, and the number of members within the OIG appears to be insufficient to progress many of the secondary goals of the governance framework at the desired pace.

The reporting and monitoring requirements appear quite significant both for the OIG and the Guilds which reduces the effort available to pursue secondary goals, and may be discouraging new Guilds from forming unless they already have significant connections to the ecosystem.

Programs such as the WAX Worker Proposal, the OIG, and how to become a WAX Guild would benefit from improved documentation that is easier to find.

4. What is your stance on bias-related issues in OIG evaluations? Do you have any plans to avoid potential biases?

Personal bias should always be avoided and should not play a factor in evaluations.

Some Guilds may focus on fostering community, investing in projects, creating community tools, generating documentation and quickstarts into the ecosystem, or on creating the most technically proficient nodes.

Ensuring these various criteria are fairly weighted and that fair metrics are used across the board should be a key priority. The stakeholders of the network should also have a voice as to which criteria are considered most vital to them when evaluations are made.

5. How do you plan to improve the communication related to WAX Governance activities in WAX Community?

Ideally, governance-related activities should feature as a more prominent component of official WAX websites and communication channels. The community should also be empowered to propagate this information and encourage direct involvement in the governance, potentially through various incentivization.

6. Do you have any specific proposals or ideas you want to implement to the OIG framework?

WAX is an NFT focused blockchain. Guilds and community members should be incentivized and promoted through NFTs that create an aspect of gamification and market engagement potentially in the form of an “achievement” type system through various tradable and non-tradable NFTs. The collectable motivation may present a powerful factor to increase general stakeholder engagement in the governance system.

Additional automation where it’s not already present should also be explored to streamline evaluation and reporting processes.

7. If you are to win the nomination for the WAX OIG, what should guilds do to stand out in your opinion?

Technology, Innovation, Community, Environment. These are the cornerstones of a successful chain and steps to improve these and increase public awareness of them will be important.

8. What direction would you like to see the OIG move towards in your opinion in comparison to the existing framework?

Increased automation, community involvement, gamification, and expanding direct stakeholder involvement in the governance process.

9. Why should the community vote for you? — One-line pitch

Let’s make blockchain governance fun, engaging, and accessible. Together.

That’s it! Thanks for your time in reading the short interview! If you want to support Nathan, find the voting link below:

https://oig.wax.io/candidates/nathanrempel

If you have any questions for Nathan, you can reach him directly on the following channels:

• Telegram: https://t.me/nsrempel
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nsrempel

Do check out the other candidates here: https://oig.wax.io/candidates