Hey readers!  I’d officially like to announce that I will be running for Illuvium governance council in the upcoming Illuvinati election, which will be held from December 5-7 (12 am UTC).  Please check out my post on the election and voting process here for more information.

If you’d like to learn more about me and why I’m running, read on!

Brief Candidate Bio & Statement

Candidate: Deraji#0798

I’m announcing my candidacy for Illuvinati council, expanding on my commitment to the Illuvium community.  If elected, I seek to drive transparency and knowledge for all while being true to myself by sharing an impartial, balanced, and informed perspective for the betterment of Illuvium's long-term success. 

Background:

• Ph.D. Scientist from a Top 25 Global University
• R&D Manager for 10+ years at a USA-Based Fortune 500 company, leading a team of engineers and scientists in the development of new consumer products
• Blogger with an emphasis in distilling complex technical and financial topics to educate, entertain and inform.
• Knowledgeable in finance, management, economics, and psychology capable of nerding-up everything I do, often with excessive use of spreadsheets. 

Illuvium Qualifications:

• Highly active in Illuvium Discord since August, directly or indirectly helping many understand crypto and staking.
• Long term Illuvium investor, locked for 12-months in all transactions. Illuvium is my largest single entity investment.
• Founded an Illuvium-focused blog, sharing 40+ articles and videos since August to engage and educate within the P2E space, generating over 100,000 views (publish0x.com/ilvfi)
• Creator of various tools, calculators, and dashboards to promote transparency in Illuvium staking
• Lifetime gamer, from original Nintendo to a decade of raiding in WoW, now more focused on Hearthstone Battlegrounds, converting to Illuvium in Q1 2022. 

As a council member, I will listen to core contributors and community alike to guide the project for long term success. I will advocate for further transparency while not impeding the vision and implementation of the project during this critical period.  Not being connected to Illuvium or any other crypto organization, I will do all of this with honesty, integrity, and independence, committed to help anyone who asks.

Why am I running?

If you’re still reading, you likely know that I’ve been sharing information on Illuvium here since late August.  In that time, you’ve been part of a group that has read or watched my work more than 100,000 times.  You know my intent is to build a more informed, knowledgeable Illuvium community.  If you’re one of the dozens of people who have reached out directly to me in comments or Discord, you know that I’m good to my word to help you understand Illuvium, Illuvinati governance, staking, and crypto in general.  It is my intent to leverage my passion for the project, providing my talents to the community to help lead the DAO at this critical time in Illuvium history.

Honestly, I have largely agreed with the decisions made by the council so far.  I may disagree at times with rationale or communication style, but holistically, the project has been guided in the right direction, with an appropriate reliance on the core contributors with input from the community, represented by the council.  Over the next epoch, it is critical that the council listen actively to both sides, the community and the contributors.  They need to hold a long term view of the project, not bend to the whims of the community, and enable an appropriate transparency to the thinking and decision making while enabling a successful launch of both Illuvium Zero and Illuvium.

In my professional life, I have been a strong project and people manager, leading teams within a Fortune 500 company to launch product innovation worth well over $100 million.  My natural style is to be a servant leader and a good listener, taking in information, conducting deep analysis, and providing a clear direction.  To me, this is the critical skill set needed to guide the DAO and I bring a unique background to past council members.  

What is my skin in the game?

I am invested in the project, staked in the Sushi Liquidity Pool, locked for twelve months, with no available tokens to sell (aside from some purchased sILV) in the next three months.  I am by no means a whale, but have a not insignificant portion of my net worth in the project, currently representing “fish” level (100-200 ILV).  I do follow a more traditional investing approach and being a “boomer” (aka geriatric millennial) in the crypto space, with a majority of my net worth in stocks.  That said, with the recent increase in ILV price, Illuvium does represent nearly 10% of my wealth at this point, so I am quite tied to the success of the project.

I have no potential conflict of interest and am not tied directly or indirectly to any other relevant crypto projects.  Illuvium is 51% of my crypto holdings (54% if you count sILV), with my next most significant holdings being ETH, BTC, SOL, MATIC, and LINK.  The rest of my holdings represent less than 2% of my crypto assets, with no other P2E or metaverse projects represented.  Like I said, I’m conservative in the space.

Why not vote for this Deraji guy?

Since I took the most crap for my why not to invest in Illuvium video trying to make people think and do their own research, I’ll give myself the same treatment here.  So, why shouldn't you vote for me?

1. I’m new to crypto - I’m not a crypto OG.  I’ve never lived through a crash.  I started learning about the space in early 2021 and the more I learned, the more interested I became, and the deeper I researched.  I follow many Warren Buffett adages, but one that stands out is “Invest in what you understand, and nothing more.”  I started to understand ETH.  I started to understand LINK.  I came across this Axie Infinity thing, and started evaluating P2E gaming.  I understood the value of NFTs with regards to being a tangible, owned asset by the gamer, and then I found Illuvium.  Just know, you’re not getting a council member with a decade of deep knowledge in crypto.  You’re getting a guy that goes deep when he finds a new area that excites him, and crypto and Illuvium have been that for the past year.
2. I’m not a programmer/coder - Dammit Jim!  I’m a doctor, not a programmer!  And I’m not even a real doctor! (just the Ph.D. kind) I have started a bit of interpreting blockchain data, but I’m more a spreadsheets and data analysis guy.  You’re not getting someone who knows smart contracts.  You’re getting a generally smart guy with a completely unrelated Ph.D. that likes writing blog articles and teaching.
3. I have a full time job - I work a lot.  Illuvium and the blog are my side hobby, and I have no intention of quitting my job to focus on them.  In "real life," I help people through creation of new products, understanding my consumers and developing solutions to solve their problems.  I love coaching my team of scientists and engineers, helping them understand themselves and guiding them in their careers.  I hope to continue advancing in my professional career, growing in my influence and impact at a great company.  I am married, but no kids.  Illuvium gets what’s left of my time.  I do have experience working with international teams and managing weird hours successfully, and should you choose me as your representative, I will do just that.  I have thought extensively if I can manage my high personal expectations of a council role, and I am committed to serve to the best of my abilities if selected by the community.
4. I’m “old” - I’m definitely one of the old guys around here (I’m 40).  I’m potentially out of touch with the Gen Z and young millennial dominating this space.  That said, my day job is actually focused on understanding consumers, their motivations, needs, and interests.  I definitely bring diversity to this project in terms of age.
5. I’m not an insider - While I’ve been active in Discord for months, I’ve done so with the perspective of an outsider.  I’m not a moderator.  I’m not a crypto expert.  I’m not bringing connections to other projects, and I’m not even invested in anything else in the P2E space.  Everything I’ve learned, I’ve done by researching myself, asking questions, and gathering public information into a meaningful story.  If you want someone that will unlock doors in crypto or bring original knowledge of Illuvium, vote for someone else.
6. I’m generally anti-social media - Don’t expect a huge Twitter presence or any other social media from me.  I participate on Discord.  That’s what you get.  I’ve tried a few times to get into various platforms, but only Twitter and LinkedIn have stuck with any longevity.  And I’m not sharing my LinkedIn profile.  I’ve doxxed myself enough, I have to leave something for you to search for if you really care.

What is my platform?

My unique skills are my background, temperament, and personality.  I’m a good listener.  I’m a negotiator.  I’m strategic.  I’m a realist and modest in my intellectual abilities.  My modesty is only exceeded by how awesome I am.  

I’m not bringing a radical vision or platform to my candidacy.  We invested in Illuvium because we liked the vision of where the founders and core contributors are taking us.  They need someone to bridge between the core experts bringing Illuvium to life and a huge, diverse, global, opinionated community on Discord.  I understand intellectual property.  I understand corporate secrecy and NDAs, and live them every day.  I can help teach and inform a community as they hunger for more information. 

The one aspect I would like to bring is a perspective on how to enable Illuvium to be more accessible to mainstream gamers and those not yet versed in crypto.  I often hear a perspective reminiscent of The Field of Dreams (I mentioned I'm old, right?), believing “if you build it, they will come.”  I disagree, and for those versed in crypto, my perspective is that people who believe this do not truly understand human psychology and laziness.  Certainly, crypto adoption is growing, but we are still at the cutting edge of participation.  To maximize the value of Illuvium and reach the vision of rivaling traditional gaming studios, a significant amount of effort will be needed to provide education and resources to “ease their pain” of joining the P2E world.  Regardless of whether I am chosen to help guide the project, this will likely be a focus of my blog, helping people understand how to get involved.  The more Illuvium can do to make the project accessible to crypto averse gamers, the more we investors benefit.

Thanks for reading and for your support, this time for your consideration as a candidate to represent you in Illuvium.  Regardless of whether you choose to vote for me or not, please strongly consider voting.  Above all, I want this project to succeed, and doing so requires decentralization and engagement from the community.  I’ll see you at the virtual after party on December 7!

I'll be dressed like this.