xGov Council Election 2025

Governance xGov Council
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Thank you to all the candidates in the first xGov council election. This is a pivotal time for our community as we start evolving how we approach decentralized decision-making.

As we start this journey, the xGov Council powers are still very limited in scope, with the foundation retaining control over the xGov platform operations. Over time, we intend to transfer the platform management to the xGov Council for a truly decentralized process.

The application criteria for the council were very simple in this first iteration, where the candidate had to:

  • Be an Algo holder and part of the community;
  • Apply, including their name on the Algorand Foundation repo on Github, following the template supplied; and
  • Go through the KYC process with the Algorand Foundation.

At the end of the application review period, two candidates were eliminated through the KYC process: one for their country of residence, and the other for not completing the process within the requested timeframe.

The Candidates List

Click on the application number below to see their complete submission.

Application PR-01 Ludo Scholtz @scholtz on X EAlgonaut

Application PR-02 Wilder Stubbs @Wilder on X WilderStubbs

Application PR-03 John Mizzoni @fisherman.algo on X prob_fishing

Application PR-04 Simon Belingar @simonb on X SimonBelingar

Application PR-05 Kieran Nelson @Xxiled on X xxiled1

Application PR-06 Joseph Wu @josephw on X scripledger_jw

Application PR-07 Nicholas Shellabarger on X NicholasShella2

Application PR-08 Naoki Yamamoto @aper_nft on X aper_algo

Application PR-09 Robbie Baxter @fifth.race on X fifthrace

Application PR-10 Mohamed Majdalawieh on X TheAngelOfAres

Application PR-11 Patrick Bennett @PatrickB on X patrickbennett

Application PR-12 Paul Hinrichsen @Conscious on X conscious_algo

Applicatio PR-14 Gábor Lipovszki @Maugli

Application PR-15 Pawel Pierścionek @urtho on X Urthoo

Application PR-16 Scott Bolasevich on X FlippingMfer

Application PR-18 Taras Hirniak on X GirnakT

Application PR-19 Sean Menstell-Fraser @Algohodler on X Sean3Algo

Application PR-20 Julian van der Welle on X Jdvanderwelle

Application PR-21 Andrew Kotulak @HumbleShaman on X AndrewMKotulak

Application PR-22 Dr. Uroš Hudomalj on X _uhudo

Application PR-23 Mohamed Ghaisi @emg110 on X emg110

Application PR-24 Michael T Chuang on X michaeltchuang

The Election Process

We will use the governance portal, of course, without the rewards. We made a few modifications to remove mentions of rewards, but the structure and function remain the same.

Governance Period 15 will run for the first two weeks of July. The commitment phase will kick off on 1 July for seven days and be immediately followed by the voting phase from 8 to 15 July.

There will be one measure for each candidate, and governors will be required to vote on all measures, selecting one of three options: yes, no, or abstain.

Sorting the Candidates After the Vote

Michele Treccani has posted the details about how the votes will be counted, but simply put, the post-election list will be ordered from most to least voted. The 11 most-voted candidates will form the first 12-month council cohort. The candidates in 12th and 13th place, respectively, will form a reserve pool. If any of the 11 elected councilors requests to exit the program before the end of their term, one of the reserve candidates will take their place.

After the Election

Elected candidates will sign a contract with the Algorand Foundation and be paid 5,000 Algo for their 12-month membership, as voted by the community in GP14. We expect to have all contracts signed over two to three weeks, overlapping with the xGov enrollment period. Once the xGov Council is fully set up, the platform will be ready for the first grant proposal.

Time for Action

We are excited about the election, both for the candidates and the community, and about taking one more step towards decentralization.

Please post questions and comments for the candidates below. Remember to treat each other with respect.

It’s almost time to vote, Algofam!

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Happy to answer any question sent my way - thank you all for considering my application. Regardless of the outcome i’m looking forward to finally getting xgov started and some much needed funds getting injected to our eco!

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Will any LSTs be used on the voting portal (especially thinking of dualstake tokens, xalgo, talgo, calgo, malgo)? Will LP still be usable? I’m assuming those in reti pools will need to unstake?

Kinda stinks that those who want to vote will need to either run their own node or unstake. Guessing the vote will be skewed to those who can afford to miss out on rewards or run their own node.

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Vote for who ?
How can i vote for someone i know absolutely nothing about ?

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All the individuals are listed above with links to their applications. The entire repo is here.

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my man, a list of the candidates with links to their applications and social media are provided in the post that you left the comment on.

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Dear Adri,
my name is Gábor Lipovszki correctly. (see PR14 author)
Best regards,
Maugli

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Unlike general elections, voters cast a vote of Yes, No, or Abstain for each candidate. If you are not well informed about a candidate and find it difficult to make a judgment, you may choose to vote Abstain. Therefore, if you are unsure about your decision, it is perfectly acceptable to use an Abstain vote.

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Yep, this is the forum to submit questions & @ people. I’ll start with some key points unsolicited:

I literally just showed up - why did I apply? Because I see Algorand as a key technological layer to expand the economic pie in areas of the world that have been largely inaccessible.

I’m a PM by day, which I think gives me a healthy intuition about the way organizations function in practice.

My goal is to facilitate a healthy xGov process, and bolster the field with another enthusiastic candidate, regardless of my experience. I think a fresh pair of eyes is actually a good contrast. It’s easier to notice certain things when you’re new.

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My Vision for the Future of Algorand

In my view, Algorand should evolve into a truly public entity with a highly decentralized governance structure. All decisions should be made transparently and be subject to public voting. Financial accounting, along with all agreements, should be fully open and accessible. Likewise, the management of the Algorand source code and even elections of C-level representatives should follow a decentralized model.

Startup funding could follow a structured approach: The first stage would consist of local or global ideathon events. The next phase would be hackathons, where the best-performing projects are rewarded and offered entry into an accelerator program. The outcomes of these hackathons should be transparent, and constructive feedback must be provided to all participating teams. Continued engagement with funded projects should be prioritized to help them reach a critical mass of users and long-term sustainability.

As a matter of principle, I am not in favor of retroactive grants. Funding should prioritize future potential rather than compensating for work already completed. Projects that aim to achieve mass adoption should enter through the accelerator program. The selection process for this program should be entirely transparent, and applicants should receive clear feedback on how to improve their chances of selection. However, if the Algorand Foundation decides to allocate funding solely through retroactive grants, I will submit proposals for several projects that have not yet received support. In such cases, I will abstain from voting on my own proposals to avoid any conflict of interest.

All projects should be treated equally. There should be no direct funding from Algorand to individual projects. Any project seeking financial support should go through a public funding process—namely, the accelerator phase.

If my presence in the xGov council will help to shape Algorand future with my vision, I would be happy if you vote for me.

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@Adri Please correct the typo in in my name, too. Thanks.

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Fixed! Thanks for pointing it out.

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Yours is fixed as well @Maugli. Thanks for the ping.

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Yes, @trekianov is working on the LP listed today and xalgo, talgo etc will be included.

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By learning about them beforehand. You can read their applications linked in the OP. You can also Abstain, if you’re unsure.

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My view on governance

  • AF will allocate a small portion of funds for xGov
  • xGov governors will decide how this portion is distributed among community project proposals

So, xGov’s role is limited for now. Ludo’s vision about hackathons, incubators, etc. seems rather far-fetched for me at this stage.

About me

  • I am an electrical engineer with programming background
  • I have followed Algorand closely since 2019
  • Active forum member, nickname Maugli
  • Built some small Algorand projects

I believe I can be some help to understand and evaluate community project proposals.

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Here, I created a list of xGov Council candidates.
There are also icons, so I think it’s easier to visualize.
Please feel free to use it for comparison and consideration.
The Japanese community is working hard too!

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Would be really good if myth finance dualstakes are also included, they are all 1:1 algo backed and are participating in consensus so literally same value as liquid staking tokens. And super easy to count their stake 1dualstake token = 1 algo.

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is the list forming somewhere? I wonder if Aramid Algo is going to be counted as well.. the Aramid Algo is liquidity privisioning of the depositers of the Algo tokens of the Aramid Bridge, and is interchangable 1:1 (excluding the bridging fee 0,1%) .. People can deposit/withdraw the algo liquidity here or they can bridge it to Arbitrum or Base for example.

Token id: 2320804780

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The list of eligible LP tokens is built exactly as in the previous periods: all LPs which have deposited more than 10k Algo at a particular snapshot (Block 51208764 for GP15). This Period we are going to include also all the LSTs (xAlgo, tAlgo, mAlgo, cAlgo) as well as all myth finance dualstake tokens.

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