The Cardano Atlantic Council

Interim CC candidate - The Cardano Atlantic Council

Country of Residence United States

Are you an individual or representing an organisation or a consortium of individuals or organisations? Consortium Are you an Intersect member? Yes If you are an Intersect member, are you currently contributing to any working groups or committees? If so which? Yes - multiple team members including Chair of the Community Advisory Board, the Civics Working Group, and the Governance Parameter Working Group.

Please summarise your contributions to the Cardano blockchain, ecosystem, and community to date. The Cardano Atlantic Council is composed of 6 individuals each representing themselves as Cardano community members and individuals, not representing a specific company, organization or any regional community at large. Our team members are:
 Adam Dean, USA

Beatrice Anihiri, Norway

Mike Hornan, Canada


Jennifer Brito, USA


Thiago Nunes, Brazil


Richard McCracken, USA


Team Contributions to the Cardano Blockchain, Ecosystem, and community include:

1. Network Operations and Node Management

Pioneer Stake Pool Operators on ITN, HTN, Pre-prod, and Sancho Net participants with extensive knowledge of the Cardano network construction, parameters, and needs.

Operates nodes across all Cardano testnets.

Deploys the newest Cardano node versions on the mainnet and supports the latest Mithril technology after testnet assessments.

2. Tool Development on Cardano

Built the Cardano Mercury payment system that uses Cardano native assets.

Created and managed the CNFTCon and NFTxLV events with thousands of attendees.

Created a cheat sheet for the Cardano-cli command-line interface, updated with new commands from version 8.0.0.

Provided technical support and guidance to other Cardano community members.

Contributed to the testing and development of the Sancho testnet.

Developed a SoulBound SDK using NFC chips with crypto signatures compatible with Cardano, successfully achieved in Milestone 3.

Marlowe pioneer.

3. Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs)

Co-authored CIP 27, assisted with CIP 20 and CIP 83, wrote CIP 88 and CIP 99.

Contributed to the development of the Cardano Constitution and translated CIP-1694 into French.

4. Governance Support, Development, and Strategic Initiatives

Participated in multiple governance workshops to beta test the concepts of governance, improve the content, and provide inputs on CIP-1694.

Contributed to the testing and development of the Sancho testnet.

DRep pioneer leader on the team.

Held the first on-chain voting event on Cardano.

Created and executed a governance workshop in San Diego.

Hosted or supported governance workshops in New York, Indianapolis, France, England, Norway, Japan, Brazil, Argentina and virtually.

Participated in discussions on the Cardano Constitution and provided detailed explanations of referendum organization for Voltaire.

Served on the Governance Parameters Working Group.

Hosted the Governance Security community working group to identify potential threats to Cardano governance and possible mitigation strategies.

Worked on the bootstrap of Intersect MBO and contributed to governance initiatives through the Catalyst Voting System.

5. Community Engagement and Event Participation

Host of Cardano Over Coffee, a daily Twitter (X) space interviewing key figures and projects in the Cardano community.

Cardano Ambassador Meetup Organizer for the Cardano Foundation.

Onboarded ADA holders and projects to Intersect and served on the Governance Parameters Working Group.

Hosted virtual and attended in-person governance workshops.

Worked on the Cardano Ambassador Program and Community Project Funding initiatives.

Developed the Cardano Foundation's Spanish and Portuguese communities.

Assisted with the introduction of the Local Community Centers challenge in Project Catalyst Fund 4.

Supported the development of a Fortune 500 partnership with Petrobras.

Contributed to Cardano Spot | Catalyst Team Reflections and advanced the state-of-the-art of the Catalyst Voting System.

Created marketing video content for Cardano Girls.

Founded Konsensis.

Established a partnership between Cardano Foundation and Petrobras, facilitating expansion in Latin America, including a partnership with Governor Rogelio Frigerio of Entre Rios.

Chair of the Community Advisory Board at Intersect, providing strategic guidance to enhance community engagement.

6. Educational Content and Community Outreach

Engaged in Cardano community-related content creation, social media, and community engagement for 6 years.

Creator of The Cardano Effect and Cardano Live podcasts, interviewing engineers, operators, and project founders.

Created social media content to simplify complex subjects for the community.

Created infographics, documentation, and scripts to help the community understand Cardano's governance and blockchain.

Provided online meetups on YouTube to train people on Cardano governance..

Supported developers and builders on Cardano to gain visibility for their products and helped users understand the applications available to them.

7. Project Catalyst Involvement

Involved in Project Catalyst as a proposer, reviewer, and moderator.

Supported the Cardano use cases: Concept and Product categories in Project Catalyst.

With regards to the 5 measures of competency, and with regards to your contributions summarised in the previous question, please describe why people should vote for you.

  1. You know how to implement a robust operating model? Yes

  2. You have expertise in credential management and security? Yes

  3. You have expertise in constitutional review and deliberation? Yes

  4. You have knowledge of how to vote with respect to existing tooling and CIP-1694? Yes

  5. You have expertise in communicating with the community? Yes


Mike Hornan’s multi-sig DRep from Sancho Net as an example:
 "scriptHash": "efdba45358856c946183af01d9c1d36a48bdf39f89b10ed26bcabb77"

Why is decentralized governance important to you? Among the team members, people’s positions include: “Decentralized governance matters to me because it makes things open and trustworthy, encourages different and creative ideas, makes systems stronger and more flexible, and gives people a real say in shaping their community's future.” “Decentralized governance in the blockchain industry and on Cardano provides stakeholders more of a direct say in decision-making processes, giving people a chance at a more democratic and transparent ecosystem. Unlike traditional systems where information asymmetry often benefits a select few, blockchain's decentralized gov capability and transparency leans a bit in favor of information symmetry for those who participate. This transparency helps reduce the chances of manipulation and corruption among centralized entities since since the transactions and voting are recorded on an public ledger.” “I'm tired of the tyranny of outdated systems and crave societal advancement through innovation. Cardano represents a pivotal step in the right direction. However, to enact meaningful change, active engagement is crucial. Unfortunately, participation has often been discouraged due to flawed incentives within existing social structures and institutions. I believe the liquid democracy we have is a fundamental piece to evolve as a community, decentralized governance is good but only when we manage to bring effective decisions through democratic election and accountability of the participants.”

What perspective would you bring to the committee if successful? Perspectives among the team members include: “The perspective that I will bring to the committee will be in respect of the constitution with full knowledge of its rules and guardrails established by the community. My expertise at the technical level of Cardano's governance mechanisms as well as each protocol parameters will also allow me to make good informed decisions on the constitutionality of each of the governance actions that I will audit.” “I (we) would like to focus on bringing more clarity and meaning behind the words we’re looking to agree as constitutional. I believe this is an important point to shape our culture and reach a good common ground of what we’re approving. As a fan of the objectivism of Ayn Rand, it inspires me to have clarity on my thoughts, and for the human and economic side Ludwig Von Mises does the same. During my time as CC I also want to expand my knowledge about other important disciplines to bring better argumentations for this group.” “I strongly believe in decentralizing power, and I’m a dedicated advocate for open-source development. My goal is to create valuable connections and empower grassroots communities. I am passionate about transforming Cardano into a network that is truly by the people, for the people. I have experience serving different roles within committees and being at the service of the community. As an ICC member, I will prioritize upholding the interim Constitution, ensuring it guides all decisions. I will be transparent and stay informed on key issues affecting the network.” “As a member of the Constitutional Committee, I view my job is to decide if new proposals follow the rules set out in the approved constitution, much like a charter or a set of bylaws. This constitution outlines what kind of proposals are allowed and which ones aren't. When I vote yes or no on these proposals, I will try to stick closely to what is written in the constitution and interpret as best as possible. If something isn't clear, or not covered by the constitution, I plan to use my experience, personal judgment, and collaborate with team members to help make a decision. My goal is to make sure that proposals comply as they are written, and to make fair decisions when the rules aren't specific enough.”

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