Wintermute Governance Delegate Thread

Delegate Platform
1

Name

Wintermute Governance

Address

Wintermutegovernance.eth / 0xB933AEe47C438f22DE0747D57fc239FE37878Dd1

Contact Information

X (Twitter): x.com & x.com

Web: https://wintermute.com

Discord: callen_wintermute

Telegram: @callenvde

Introduction

Hi Lido Community,

We are excited to join Lido DAO as a Public Delegate and begin supporting the Lido ecosystem in our fullest capacity!

Wintermute is a leading crypto-native algorithmic trading firm, specialising in creating efficient markets across centralised and decentralised exchanges. Wintermute was founded in July 2017 by three Optiver veterans. Evgeny Gaevoy, founder and CEO, was previously head of ETFs (screen and OTC) at Optiver Europe, one of the largest ETF market-making desks. Since our inception, we have traded over $4.9T USD in volume and expanded our presence across 80+ (de)centralised exchanges and various (non)EVM chains, continuously supporting the ecosystem for our partners and their communities.

Alongside our trading arm, Wintermute Ventures and Wintermute Governance support and work with leading crypto projects & DAOs with the goal of truly adding value, enabling partnerships, and helping shape a positive outcome for the ecosystem. We’re eager to bring our DeFi, Institutional, and Governance expertise to the Lido DAO.

Motivation

At Wintermute, we believe that a decentralized world needs robust and progressive governance systems. Our goal is to support DAOs along their journey towards such a state through objective, long-term value-add decision-making.

We’ve been an active voter in Lido for some time now and have witnessed first hand the DAO struggle with voter apathy and in a few cases failure to meet quorum on important votes. Our Public Delegate Platform serves as our commitment to maintaining high voting participation and providing valuable feedback where necessary based on our expertise, ensuring we have a direct impact on improving governance efficiency.

The DAO has a clear vision and talented service providers/contributors and our goal as a delegate is to ensure the former and empower the latter.

Values and Decision-Making Approach

Long-term value creation over short-term opportunism.

For example, we do not support short-term rent-seeking token distribution programs; or the redistribution of tokens that carry no positive second-order effects.

In contrast, we do support and encourage purpose-driven mechanisms that incentivize positive behaviour and are value-maximizing; or that improve alignment between token holders and the protocol.

Transparency, alignment, and proactivity.

We are proactive in providing clear and consistent reasoning behind our decision-making and proposals, ensuring the protocol’s sustainability is at the heart of all governance discussions.

Objective data-driven decision-making.

We use data and research to ensure our final decision is objectively value-accretive for the protocol.

Public Acceptance

We accept Lido’s Public Delegate Code of Conduct and our Public Delegate Platform signals our alignment with the mission, vision, and purpose of Lido DAO.

Disclosures

Wintermute participates in various DAOs across the DeFi ecosystem including dYdX, Optimism, Arbitrum, Aave, Compound, Uniswap, and other smaller DAOs. Furthermore, Wintermute Ventures is an active investor across the ecosystem. We will always make appropriate disclosures and remove ourselves from voting when necessary.

You can follow the majority of Wintermute’s voting activity across various DAOs here.

2 Likes
2

Should Galaxy continue in the Curated Module set following the acquisition of CryptoManufaktur?
Vote: For
Summary: Infrastructure, geographic distribution, and teams, as described remain as is in the near short term. Which in our opinion pose no considerable concerns. However, we do believe and trust that the community should be informed if things begin to change at which the DAO should reevaluate.

Organize the Lido Alliance Program as a Lido-DAO-Adjacent BORG
Vote: Approve the Lido Alliance BORG
Summary: We support the Lido Alliance BORG and understand first hand how important these types of legal structures are to ensure the Lido Alliance can function correctly outside of DeFi rails.

3

Increase the Proposal Threshold for Snapshot
Vote: Do Nothing
Summary: As it stands we think the Snapshot space is currently fine and there is no real issue present. Furthermore, as described in the forum discussion, Spam mitigation is currently being handled by Snapshot and a user pointed out that previously the main culprit for spam proposals has a much larger LDO balance so such changes won’t make much of a difference.

Change Easy Track limits for PML & ATC
Vote: Support the change
Summary: We support the revision of easy track limits.

Lido Community Staking Module Mainnet Release Setup
Vote: Approve CSM mainnet release
Summary: We are super excited for CSM’s mainnet release. The management and oversight via the elected multisig is a great addition and we looking forward to seeing the CSM in action.

Should the Lido DAO recognize the wstETH bridge endpoints on Zircuit as canonical?
Vote: Recognize
Summary: We support the DAO’s acceptance of Zircuit’s wstETH canonical bridge. We feel comfortable in its implementation given it follows OPs closely with further confirmation from TheDZhon.

Integrate CSM into the Decentralized Validator Vault
Vote: Yes, vote for the integration
Summary: By adding the CSM to DVV we can begin to drive greater supply to CSM, improving the decentralization of the Lido Protocol.

Lido Alliance application: Bolt
Vote: Onboard Bolt to Lido Alliance
Summary: Bolt’s technical architecture, vision, and strategy, fit directly into the goals of Lido Alliance. Their proposed commitment and alignment are welcomed and we look forward to seeing their work.

2 Likes
4

Should Pier Two continue in the Curated Module Set following the acquisition of Numic?
Vote: For
Summary: We agree with the summary outlined here by Sven and LNOSG. Given there is material change to the infrastructure following the acquisition of Numic by Pier Two we agree with the proposed trial run on testnet and gradual ramp-up on mainnet.

Should Alchemy continue in SDVT and LoP following the acquisition of Bware Labs?
Vote: For
Summary: In line with LNOSG’s review we are supportive of this proposal.

Should Nansen continue in SDVT following the acquisition of Stakewithus?
Vote: For
Summary: In line with LNOSG’s review we are supportive of this proposal.

GOOSE 2024 cycle: Lido DAO goals for 2025
Vote: Adopt Goals
Summary: We support the adoption of Lido Goals for 2025. Lido has successfully (or near) achieved prior goals set out, building a thin & market leading middleware for decentralised Ethereum staking. We are excited and supportive of Lido’s horizontal expansion of products tailored to key user groups. The market for validators is a clear next step that should help in growing Lido’s network, addressing key issues on the infrastructure supply side. Lastly, we agree with the push to begin creating stronger alignment between LDO and the future growth of the protocol.

Reevaluation of Lido on Polygon state
Vote: Sunset Lido on Polygon
Summary: When looking at stMATICs market share, total TVL, and overall growth metrics it’s fair to say that there has been a significant decrease/stagnation across the board. Furthermore, as others have mentioned Lido on Polygon doesn’t necessarily fit into the DAO’s goals, bringing further question as to whether the outsized cost and time required to rewrite it’s implementation is worth the future expected benefit of stMATIC. Therefore, we will be voting to Sunset Lido on Polygon.

5

Establish the Network Expansion Committee (NEC)
Vote: Approve NEC
Summary: While we didn’t necessarily see the recognition of wstETH token bridging endpoints as a burden from the Delegate side, we recognise that from the organisational side, there is a rather extensive and long-winded process that slows down Lido’s expansion across other chains. The proposed optimistic council structure is welcomed and the challenge period is sufficient. We support this proposal.