Melon is delighted to announce the members of the inaugural Melon Council — a new body which is responsible for overseeing the future development of the Melon protocol. Like the protocol itself, the Melon Council is a groundbreaking development in the on-chain asset management industry, championing the principles of openness, decentralization and transparency.

Melon Council Members

The Melon Council is composed of the Melon Technical Council (MTC) and representatives of Melon Exposed Businesses (MEB). The first seats of the MTC have been assigned by the outgoing Melonport team to:

Will Harborne (CEO of Ethfinex/Deversifi)

Nick Munoz-McDonald (Former Head of Audit at Solidified)

KR1 (represented by Janos Berghorn)

Matthew Di Ferrante (Founder ZK Labs)

Woorton (represented by Zahreddine Touag)

Martin Lundfall (Formal Verification Researcher at Dapphub/MakerDAO)

Fabian Gompf (VP Technology Partnerships at Parity)

Former Melonport team / Madeeba (represented by Jenna Zenk)

“I’m excited to be joining the Melon Council as chairman. Asset management is an obvious application of smart contracts, and so likely to be one of the first categories to hit real mainstream level usage as the technology matures. It is equally amazing to witness the first Swiss Association forming that will be managed via smart contracts in an entirely decentralized manner, consistent with and ratified under Swiss law, and I expect it to be a first of many that leverage the autonomous organization faculty of smart contracts.” - Matthew Di Ferrante, Melon Council Chairman

About the Melon Council

The Melon Council is the body responsible for looking after the Melon protocol and its users. This entity will be responsible for the future developments/upgrades of the Melon protocol, the resource allocation and the adjustment of network parameters. It is bound by fiduciary duties, guiding principles and governing statutes. The Melon Council is tasked with maximising user adoption, promoting innovation and incentivising token holders, future developers and maintainers of the Melon protocol. It is organised to streamline the decision-making process and to make sure that decision makers have the necessary skills and incentives to act in the best interests of the Melon protocol and its users (see here).

Why is this important?

The Melon protocol is an open-source, decentralised, public good; developing the right governance structures is essential in making sure it remains so. The governance of public blockchains/protocols is the subject of intense discussions at the moment — in part because what happens now could dramatically shape the future of the whole blockchain space. Blockchain technology has the potential to drastically transform organisations and allow community-owned networks to support innovation in powerful ways. However, this will only happen if we get the governance arrangements right. This means creating a system which prevents co-option and capture by vested interests and ensures the legitimacy of decision making processes. We hope that our governance system, which is the first of its kind, provides such a model and could set out a blueprint for the governance of other public protocols.

Notes to Editors

Melon

Melon is an open-source protocol for on-chain asset management. It is a pioneering blockchain software system that seeks to enable participants to set up, manage and invest in technology regulated and operated funds in a way that reduces barriers to entry, whilst minimizing the requirements for trust.

The Melon Technical Council (MTC)

The MTC is responsible for protocol upgrades, allocating resources to developers, adjusting network parameters including the Melon gas price (see Melonomics 2) and managing the ENS subdomains pointing to the “official” Melon smart contracts. MTC members are incentivized to protect and grow the network as they are compensated in MLN tokens (20% of the annual inflation pool is used for MTC compensation).

Melon Exposed Businesses (MEB)

The MEB will bring together businesses which rely heavily on Melon to ensure that their needs are represented. It will include fund managers, applications or projects with a minimum threshold of assets managed on Melon, or investors in Melon funds. The MEB will elect their representative to sit on the Melon Council with the MTC. The MTC and MEB representatives will work closely together to raise and address the needs of users. The MEB aims to provide checks and balances by scrutinising the decisions made by the MTC and will elect its own delegates to represent its interests on the Melon Council. The membership of the MEB will grow in line with usage of the protocol.