Look here if you’re interested in learning more about the Catblazer Initiative.

I mentioned at the end of the report on July/August that I wasn’t likely to have much time in September, and this was indeed the case. I’ve rolled the little that I was able to do into this month’s report.

EthernautDAO

EthernautDAO was founded by Dhannte and the Ethernaut himself in order to deal with the shortage of senior-level developers in the smart contract space. The proposed plan was to allow talented Solidity devs to open up apprenticeships on the behalf of their places of work for senior-level devs from other fields who are looking to get involved in the space, potentially offering them positions in the protocols and platforms they represent.

I’ve opened a slightly less traditional group there. As a Cat Herder I’m not looking to employ anyone directly, but am using it for the opportunity to help onboard more devs into the space.

KERNEL Block 4

I’ve been involved in Gitcoin’s KERNEL program since its Genesis Block, and have been involved as a mentor since Block 2. KERNEL excels at bringing in an incredibly diverse, talented, and creative cohort each time, and I’m honored to be able to contribute in my own small way. KERNEL provides an excellent chance for onboarding, both in being able to answer general questions in the channels dedicated to building, but also with the introduction of pods centered around the various alumni and mentors, and also individual onboarding sessions.

I’ve put in a number of hours in both group and individual sessions. I’ve watched many of the alumni over the blocks grow platforms, protocols, and more in the year and a half that KERNEL has been around, and believe strongly in dedicating resources there in order to help people get the support they need as they come into the space so that they’re positioned for success.

Cat Herders Onboarding

Pooja Ranjan has created an ECH onboarding call which lets us meet people interested in being involved with the Cat Herders or in the ecosystem at large. I’ve been involved with these calls, and have tried to help people find their place either in the Cat Herders or in the wider space.

In addition, there are people who have found me through other means. I try to offer whoever I can the time for a 1-on-1 to see what I can do for them. If the rate of people asking for them increases I might not be able to keep up, but in the meantime it’s still sustainable.

ERC Involvement Initiative

I’m happy to announce that we’ve begun work on an initiative that has its roots in suggestions from Jamie Pitts of the Ethereum Magicians. There has been a terrific amount of innovation in platforms building on Ethereum, but much of this has not been converted back into ERCs.

As the space grows there is an increasing need to have clear standards and templates for building in the space. If we don’t take our collective innovations and make them as easy to access as possible, then firstly it decreases the quality and interoperability across the space as builders all build in their own ways, but there is also another possibility. As we see major Big Tech players increasingly interested in the space, there becomes the possibility of concepts without clear standards falling into the predatory patterns that have been such a part of web2.0 if major platforms create standards that receive enough traction to drive more builders to their platforms.

This initiative will be looking to help platforms and other major ecosystem builders identify innovations that can become ERCs and to help them through the process. I am currently being assisted by Supreet Gupta, a newcomer to the Ethereum Cat Herders. We’ve started reaching out to platforms, and can add more resources if the initiative finds traction.

If you are interested in helping, or if you’re a platform interested in bringing some of what you have created on Ethereum to an ERC, please reach out!

EIP Championing

Speaking of EIPS, aided by lightclient’s excellent EIP editor sessions, I’ve been trying to increase my involvement in the larger EIP process, particularly in the realm of ERCs. I started with a bit of a focus on EIP-712, an ERC that already has a large amount of traction, and is used in a number of other ERCs, but was still in Draft status as of roughly half a year ago. lightclient moved it to Review, and I added some motivation for pushing it to Final. I recently made a PR to move it to Last Call, and per the suggestions of one of the editors (Micah Zoltu) I’m working with one of the authors in order to try and make some changes so we can get the PR merged.

Micah also proposed that I take on some other ERCs in a similar capacity, championing them and helping them get over the finish line. The current state of ERCs often sees even popular and well thought out ERCs abandoned in Draft status, and we’re looking for ways to move the quality ERCs further along the process. I haven’t started work on this yet, but have expressed interest.

Peep an EIP

And speaking about EIPs, I’ve continued my involvement with Peep an EIP, Pooja Ranjan’s content series focusing on EIPs and other similar efforts in the space. I’ve been lending my skills in researching topics and as a co-host since its inception, and continued over October.

We have some very interesting news to announce regarding the Peep an EIP series. Its success has shown us that there is a demand for Cat Herders technical content. The Peep an EIP series has found a very definite format for itself, relying on guests presenting a slide set on a particular topic followed or mixed with Q&A. We’ve felt that we should expand our efforts and would like to expand to include a podcast focusing on long-form interviews on technical topics. I’ll be taking point in trying to identify topics and potential hosts, and also in the interviewing, and will be assisted by Pooja Ranjan.

Future Efforts

I’m looking to keep up the efforts above, and also have a number of things to look towards in November.

• I had begun assisting Hester Bruikman from Status in organizing an initiative around wallets, wallet middleware, and wallet integrators, but had tapered off a bit, and will be looking to reinvest some of my time there
• I would be very interested in helping facilitate the development of emergency protocols for Defi platforms. If you would be interested in being part of such an initiative, please reach out.

As always, if you think I might be able to help you, or if you’re interested in helping, don’t hesitate! Reach out. I’m @William94029369 on Twitter, and wschwab#7045 on Discord where I can be found in the Ethereum Cat Herders Discord (I can also be found as wschwab on a number of platforms).