slashVeto council

Aztec
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We are looking for applications to join a 5 of 9 multi-sig which will have very constrained powers to veto specific slashing proposals during the network’s first year of operation.

The Aztec Network is a decentralised proof of stake network. Sequencers in the network can propose to slash other sequencers if they misbehave, read more here. Enacting a proposed slash requires a randomly selected subset of sequencers to vote and reach consensus.

This slashing mechanism is critically important to the performance and stability of the network. While it has performed well in Aztec Network testnets, the Aztec Foundation has decided to suggest an initially conservative approach in the first deployment of the network’s smart contracts on Ethereum layer 1. This mechanism ensures that if a bug or unexpected sequencer behaviour occurs, the network can avoid unjustified slashes while maintaining full decentralisation and transparency.

In this initial deployment, we implement a slashVeto function which 1) allows for proposed stake slashes to be overruled in case of a bug or unforeseen misbehaviour of the sequencer set. And 2) allows slashing to be completely disabled for a maximum of 72 hours. This veto function is limited to one address, hard-coded during contract deployment. This address has no other responsibilities or rights. It can only cancel a proposed slash and pause all slashing proposals temporarily, and CANNOT unilaterally slash stake.

On top of the complete slashing pause for up-to 72 hours, this veto function can only be called for up to 72 hours after any particular slashing proposal reaches consensus. Consensus is reached by the block proposers of at least 65 of the next 128 blocks voting in favour of the slash. Each slash must be individually vetoed.

We expect the system to be used in extremely rare circumstances and be sunset after one year, or whenever the decentralised Aztec governance system believes it to no longer be necessary. The slashVeto multi-sig has no special governance rights.

This forum post is an open call for members to give a brief description of their background and to give a good reason as to why they think they’re a good fit. No persons associated with Aztec Labs or the Aztec Foundation can participate as members.

The Aztec Foundation will be making a selection based on the backgrounds and fit and present a selection that we ask the community in the Townhall scheduled for October 16th 2025 at 14:00 UTC.

FAQ

  • Will I be compensated? No, but the network’s Sequencer set can be petitioned to issue a retroactive grant.

  • How long will I be a member for? For 1 year.

  • What is the expected time commitment? We do not expect a significant and regular time commitment. All members must stay up-to-date on the state and behaviour of the network, and must be reachable by other multi-sig members.

  • How fast do I have to reply? The time limit for vetoes to be executed is 72 hours, so a 48 hour max response time will be required. The Aztec Foundation chose a 5 out of 9 multi-sig to ensure brief periods of inactivity from a subset of the multi-sig does not adversely affect its operations.

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Application for SlashVeto Multi-Sig Member

Twitter: @real_0s

Discord: fanthomX

I’d like to apply to join the 5-of-9 multi-sig for the slashVeto function.

I’ve been a strong believer in the Aztec vision since December 5, 2022, back when Aztec Connect was live. I joined the Aztec Forum in December 2023, and since then I’ve been following the network’s growth closely.

While I’m not the loudest voice on X or the most active role-grinder on Discord, I’ve always valued the long-term mission of Aztec building privacy and security into Ethereum in a way that’s truly decentralized.

Joining this multi-sig would give me the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way to the network’s early stability and fairness. I understand the responsibility involved and will remain reachable and responsive within the required timeframes.

Thank you for considering my application I’d be hopeful for a positive response and the chance to serve the community.

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Hi team,

I’d like to present my response to the Open Call for members of the SlashVeto council.

I’m Lanski, the CEO of Dappnode, an open-source company providing home and enterprise infrastructure for running decentralized networks, including Aztec sequencers, Ethereum validators and privacy-preserving AI workloads. Our mission is to make self-sovereign infrastructure accessible, reliable, and verifiable.

I’ve spent the past several years deeply involved in network operations and governance, particularly around validator decentralization, MEV fairness, and staking integrity. Dappnode powers thousands of validator setups globally and interfaces directly with slashing, consensus, and uptime mechanisms across multiple PoS networks.

I believe I’m a good fit because I understand both the technical and governance implications of slashing systems, and I’m committed to safeguarding the credibility of decentralized networks through measured, transparent, and minimal-intervention governance.

I would ensure the veto is used only under clearly justified, consensus-driven circumstances, preserving Aztec’s decentralization while protecting against critical edge cases in its first year.

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This looks promising and we hope for a good outcome

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Twitter: https://x.com/SergeyShylo

Discord: serhiishylo

Motivation:
As a passionate and active Aztec community member, I’m committed to ensuring the network’s stability and fairness as it progresses toward mainnet. Serving on the council, I aim to protect operators from unfair slashing due to external bugs, strengthening trust and resilience in Aztec’s privacy-first L2 ecosystem.

Why Me?
I’ve been deeply involved since the alpha-testnet, running a validator node with near-perfect uptime through adversarial testnet phases. On Discord I share updates and technical recommendations, helping operators and provers optimize their setups. I’ve contributed a pull request to Aztec’s GitHub, addressing a minor protocol improvement. My expertise in distributed systems equips me to make informed, timely decisions on vetoing or pausing slashing within the 72-hour windows, ensuring fairness for all stakeholders.

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Application for Slash Veto Multi-Sig Council — kudretthunder

Hello Aztec community,

I’d like to apply for a position in the Aztec Slash Veto Multi-Sig Council.

I’ve been an early and consistent validator across multiple testnets , including Celestia, Mina, Dymension, Redbelly etc. and Aztec’s own S&P Testnet , where I was among 200–1,000 selected validators trusted to help test consensus stability, uptime, and network behaviour.

Through these roles, I’ve gained a broad technical understanding of validator operations, telemetry monitoring, and coordination under live testnet conditions.

Beyond the technical side, my academic background in Marketing and Sociology gives me a strong foundation in communication, group dynamics, and understanding community incentives.

I’ve also completed Crew Resource Management (CRM) training, which focuses on decision-making, leadership, and teamwork under pressure , skills directly relevant to maintaining calm and consensus during network-critical events such as slashing disputes.

In addition, I’m experienced in community content creation and outreach, which helps me empathize with different stakeholder perspectives and communicate technical topics clearly.

Why I believe I’d be a good fit:

  • Experience with complex multi-chain validator ecosystems (Celestia, Mina, Dymension, Redbelly, Aztec).

  • Proven reliability and quick incident response; nodes are monitored 24/7 with alerts.

  • Skilled in human coordination and crisis communication (CRM background).

  • Active contributor who values transparency, empathy, and balanced governance.

My approach to this role is simple: act as a stabilizing bridge between technical operators and the community, ensuring fairness, transparency, and swift but thoughtful action in the rare case a veto is needed.

Thank you for considering my application.

I’ll be honoured to serve responsibly if selected.

– kudretthunder

Discord: kudretthunder

Twitter: @kudret024

Location: Turkiye / Europe timezone

Availability: 24/7 monitoring, responsive within 24–48h

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hi!

i’d love to join :slight_smile:

i qualify because i have experience from other security councils and multisigs like taiko and zksync, via my research role @ L2BEAT, which is professionally participating in a bunch of those (am applying as myself though ;).

i actually gave a presentation in berlin this year talking about problems with some security councils. it makes such focused mini-council sound really promising!

check it out here if you like: https://watch.protocol.berlin/65a90bf47932ebe436ba9351/watch?session=68513a834ac43bf73d1c5926

my main reason for joining would be because it might just become the first such multisig i’m in with people that really know what they are doing and what is expected of them. and honestly, i love aztec as a privacy scaling project and have onchain-simped them from the early days, and i still sometimes go back to our old l2beat pages about their rollups.

i do not use twitter (@yperioun) to post, so you won’t find much there, but my github is /sekuba.

thanks for reading, i’m excited to review aztec as soon as it’s live, and maybe even participate :slight_smile:

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My motivation is simple: I want to be part of this historic project.

I’m doing this so that one day, my grandchildren can proudly say — “my grandfather was a member of the Aztec Council.” ( not kidding :smiley: )

-kudretthunder

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Chris Wessels - Application for SlashVeto Council

Hey everyone,

It would be an honor to serve on the SlashVeto council.

My background is in software engineering, and I joined the crypto industry full time at Consensys, where I worked as a Technical Lead across their products. It was there that I first found Aztec, with my first involvement as a participant in the Aztec Ignition Trusted Setup ceremony in 2019. I was also a long time user of zk.money, and then Aztec Connect. I have also made core contributions to seminal web3 protocols including The Graph, Yearn and Liquity.

I am deeply passionate about preserving privacy in our modern world, particularly as the deepening integration of digital technology in our lives has silently let state and corporate surveillance proliferate unchecked. No one voted for this, and yet here we are.

By day, I run GraphOps, a web3 data & infrastructure team, and Summerstone, a DeFi market operations team. By night, I am an avid enjoyer of homelabbing, DeFi and other emerging technologies.

At GraphOps, we own and operate our physical core infrastructure in order to minimize our dependency on public cloud and to ensure we have the freedom and flexibility we need to thrive as a web3 infrastructure player.

GraphOps currently operates the #1 prover on Aztec’s adversarial testnet, and our sequencer has 100% performance across attestation and block proposal duties. We operate an automated Aztec Snapshots service, making it easy for new users to bootstrap their sequencers quickly and we also provide Aztec bootnodes.

I have previous experience serving on protocol multisigs, and I currently serve on The Graph Council, which oversees all on-chain protocol upgrades and ecosystem funding, and the Graph Protocol Pause Guardian, which can act in defense of the protocol in emergency situations.

I believe I would be a good fit to serve on the SlashVeto given my deep technical understanding of blockchains and web3 protocols, my strong experience as a key participant in protocol governance and operations, and my longstanding commitment to the cypherpunk values that brought so many of us together.

You can find me on X as @undefinedza. I’m also on Discord as chris.eth.

Privacy is normal. Privacy is for everyone.

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edit: socials: https://x.com/jimwavefive

Background:

Wavefive has been contributing to modern Aztec since early 2024, before the first prover competition. We took part in the ceremony back in the day aswell. We’re focussed on sequencing and governance. We run self-hosted infrastructure in a remote, tiny data centre in the North of Scotland for most EVM chains as well as a mainnet validator for Celestia, and operate one of the largest, most successful and most remote Graph Protocol indexing operations on Arbitrum. We also run private staking operations on mainnet.

Why might I be a good fit?

I have experience in governance for Cosmos, Polkadot and Ethereum-related protocols, have served on other councils before, namely the Graph Council as a representative for infrastructure operator’s and their interests in the network. I’ve seen a lot when it comes to governance so my skills come with a level of wisdom (and maybe ptsd) that has been challenging to acquire and I would be glad to apply that wisdom in a formal role for the protocol.

Aztec, being much further out on the decentralisation spectrum, requires well-aligned, long-term stewards to contribute along the way. This is one way I would like to contribute in the near term alongside our infrastructure and governance contributions.

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Hello Aztec community,

I’m applying to join the Council to help uphold fairness and reliability within the network, especially when it comes to protecting honest operators from unjust slashing.

As an active node operator, I’ve maintained 100% attestation and block proposal performance, 141 attestations and 7 block proposals, all successful, with zero missed events over 1,891 epochs. My priority has always been operational consistency, validator transparency, and contributing to a stronger decentralized infrastructure.

Beyond Aztec, I actively run nodes for projects like Allora, and Nubit, and participate in governance and technical discussions within their communities. I’ve also attended multiple Aztec Discord townhalls, following development updates closely and contributing feedback to strengthen network resilience.

I’m deeply aligned with Aztec’s mission to combine privacy with accountability. I believe the council’s limited powers, vetoing or pausing slashing when necessary, are critical safeguards for maintaining operator confidence and preventing penalties caused by factors outside their control.

If selected, I’ll represent the staking community with integrity, technical diligence, and transparency, ensuring decisions are fair, data-informed, and in the best interest of the network’s long-term health.

Thank you for your consideration.

Cuneo
Discord: cuneo0525 | X: @AScuneo01

(Node Operator | Community Contributor)

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Hi Aztec folk!

I am zkGeorge, and would love to throw my hat in the ring for this role…A bit of background about me, I have been involved in the ZK ecosystem since the Coda Protocol days (now Mina) back in 2019! I was a Mina GFM and have been involved with community work there ever since, including multiple roles in their zkIgnite grants process as an elector and mentor. My day job is that I am a medical doctor currently working in London and largely motivated to stay in the ZK space through applications of ZK in healthcare and medicine. Aztec is a project I have followed for years and immensely excited for more zkApps built with Noir. I am personally looking to build with Noir for initial healthcare related proof-of-concepts. Day to day you can find me tweeting from @georgethms1 but I go by zkGeorge. I am currently running a sequencer node on the Aztec testnet, am hugely bullish on the protocol and aligned with its mission, and keen to help out in any way possible - such as this important role in the community!

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zkGM Aztec community!

My name is Porter and I love cryptography. Some people know me from the ZK class I taught back in 2022. Aztec is a project very close to my heart, and I really want to see it succeed; it would be an honor to contribute by helping with this council.

I’ve loved cryptography since high school; I would pass encrypted notes back and forth with my friends during class. All of my jobs have been cryptography or security related. Currently I am working on the ZKsync ecosystem at Matter Labs.

For Aztec, I run a sequencer node, play with Noir, and might be a little obsessed with Aztec cryptography :slight_smile: I care deeply about Aztec succeeding and bringing programmable privacy to the world :heart: I’ve done a lot of cybersecurity and incident response, so I think I’d be able to help a lot.

Thank you for consider me! Twitter: https://x.com/portport255

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Application for Slash Veto Multi-Sig Member

X: @Aisuskii | Discord: aisuski | Telegram: aisuski

I’m an active member of the Aztec community and a long-time supporter of privacy-preserving technology in blockchain. My interest in privacy deepened when I discovered Aztec, because it made privacy programmable and optional, not forced. That philosophy, the freedom to decide what to reveal and what to protect perfectly aligns with how I believe blockchain should evolve. I follow Aztec’s development through Town Halls, governance discussions, and explorers updates on discord because i run a sequencer node, and I’m currently learning Noir to better understand how Aztec’s programmable privacy functions at a technical level, also have a solid understanding of how sequencers, proofs, and governance mechanisms interact in rollup architectures.

I believe the early stages of Aztec’s mainnet require clear judgment, accountability, and technical awareness. The veto multi-sig’s role is narrow but important, ensuring fairness without centralising power. I approach decisions with reason, transparency, and respect for decentralisation. I’m reachable within the required 48-hour window and committed to safeguarding the network’s integrity and the privacy-first vision Aztec represents.

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Hey Koen & team

I would like to join the 5-of-9 SlashVeto multi-sig council

twitter- RaiAmqn
github- Shiv3132
dicord- Shiv@(assshhh_2127)

  • I’ve known, loved & used Aztec since the Zk money days from late 2021
  • I’m deeply privacy maxi, i don’t treat privacy as a feature, i see it as a necessity. I believe in giving ppl the power to choose what to reveal and what to keep hidden
  • I’m not just a spectator i’ve been following up Aztec’s updates since long and also engaging with community & helping them setup their node & troubleshooting their node errors since June

I believe I’m a good fit coz

  • While I may not be the top technical person,but i have good info about governance & slashing systems(have also make thread about it on my twitter)
    • I’ll stay reachable and be ready to act within that timeframe when required
  • I’m dedicated to protecting the integrity of decentralized networks by keeping governance clear & balanced

If you pick me u’ll get

  • A person who values privacy, fairness, decentralization, and it’s integrity
  • A reliable community member who shows up, stays alert, and acts when necessary
  • someone who’s always been around for the community — helping, guiding, and actually listening to and understanding people

Thanks so much for considering my application❤️

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Hi Aztec team, hi everyone,

My name is Norbert and I work for ZkCloud (previously Gevulot). With ZkCloud, we’ve been involved in generating proofs for Aztec since August 2024, when Provernet 1.0 was launched, and have been doing it for the different networks, including the Aztec Public Testnet, ever since.

I personally believe that Aztec is one of the most important projects in the web3 space now and is unique in many ways. Launching decentralized from day 1 is creating a new standard in itself, but without privacy, the true power of decentralized blockchains cannot be mined. The programmable and composable privacy that Aztec has built is a game-changer for everyday users of web3, and contributes a lot to the freedom and sovereignty of people.

As a big fan of Aztec, I’d love to be part of the Slashing Veto Council, and support the project this way as well.

Thank you for considering my application,
Norbert

Twitter: https://x.com/NorbertVadas

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hey all!

i’m throwing my hat in the ring to be on the slashVeto council

i’m @0xcyp on most socials (twitter, discord, etc), i’ve been in crypto since 2014, first on the academic side, then as a founder and now as the lead for Status L2, where i’m also on the Linea Consortium board

i’ve been an Ethereum and Gnosis home staker since the merge so i’m quite familiar with the operation of a node. i’ve been validating Aztec testnet since last month.

my first experience with Aztec was with Aztec Connect (zk.money) where i did shield some eth until it was sadly shutdown - the first (and only so far!) Stage 2 rollup!

i’ve been bullish on Aztec tech and team since i read the first papers from Zac and i would love to be able to support more by being part of this council!

i’m sitting on other security councils/multisigs so i always have my hardware wallet at the ready

gAztec

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Moving the voting to next week Oct 23rd at 14:00 UTC due to the issues with the testnet and to give some more time for more applicants to submit their application :slight_smile:

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Hello everyone, dropping by to propose myself for the slashVeto council.

I am Netrim, working for kpk (kpk.io) biggest on chain asset manager although this proposal is being done on a personal basis.
I have been in crypto since 2019, first on the sidelines just trying to understand what the hell crypto was about and then taking more of an active role in the different communities and projects I found interesting. I honestly started this journey trying to make money, one fateful weekend in 2019 there was a devluation of my local currency and I lost 50% of all my networth in 1 afternoon.

I was a user back in the day for zk.money, when experimentation was top of everyone mind.

What do I bring to the Council?

Although I have a full time job, this gives me push to keep myself available and informed on all decisions that may be required from me.

You can find me on X as thelyingbear
You can find me on Telegram and Discord as netrim

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Catching the last train here lol.

I am not affiliated with Aztec Foundation or Aztec Labs in any way. I have experience running Genesis validators on Hoodi. I am also Nodeset.io and Rocket Pool operator, but my biggest advantage is that I have been operating a multi-sig wallet (Gnosis Safe) for some time now.

I’ve been working shifts and giving on-call duties for like 9 years, so I should be quite reachable and responsive when needed.

gAztec!

discord: @viletonvaine