In the interest of expediting the launch of House of Stake, the NEAR Foundation chose an initial, interim Screening Committee which was responsible for picking the initial set of Endorsed Delegates. The members of this interim Screening Committee today are:
Bianca Guimaraes-Chadwick (NF)
Lane Rettig (NF)
Bowen Wang (NEAR One)
Gauntlet (one seat)
What Happens Now?
It’s now time to transition the interim Committee into a community owned team via the House of Stake voting mechanism. To that end, we propose the following:
we (NF) will publish a proposal (Screening Committee Charter) as soon as possible post-launch, targeting mid August. This proposed Charter will lay out all of the details around how a Screening Committee is elected, how large it should be, how members are added, removed, and replaced, etc., as well as containing more information about the role of the Committee in HoS governance.
the existing, interim Committee will continue to serve only long enough to see this proposal (or another Screening Committee Charter proposal) pass, along with an election process to replace the interim committee. Ensuring that a Charter proposal passes, and that a replacement Committee is elected, will be the interim Committee’s highest and first priority. Details about this election process will be contained in the Charter proposal.
Next Steps
If you want to nominate someone for the Screening Committee (or self-nominate), please reply below with a short justification for your nomination. This isn’t a formal application process yet – the details will follow once we publish the Charter proposal – but this will give us a head start when the process does begin.
If you have an opinion about how the incoming Screening Committee should be chosen, and about how it should be governed on an ongoing basis, feel free to share those thoughts here, too.
Please watch this space, and the usual channels, including Telegram and the proposals repository, for more information on this process, including the Charter proposal.
I would like to nominate myself for the Screening Committee.
I have been an active contributor to governance discussions in the NEAR ecosystem—focusing on transparency, accountability, and incentive design. I’ve consistently provided constructive feedback on proposals, frameworks, and delegate performance.
Deep familiarity with NEAR’s governance structures, having participated in every major experiment and DAO framework—from contributor to operations lead
Strong commitment to decentralization and community-led decision-making
Proven track record of analyzing delegate and committee work with a critical, yet constructive approach
Willingness to collaborate, challenge assumptions, and work transparently
Beyond discussion, I’ve developed and implemented critical tools and processes that improved how governance functions:
Authored numerous documents to simplify governance and engage the community
Built a system to track delegate performance and committee accountability end-to-end
Led and optimized the full lifecycle of direct funding operations—covering intake, eligibility, due diligence, KYC/AML, evaluations, and the disbursement
Designed governance tracking systems, ensuring transparency, and frameworks’ compliance
Personally reviewed over 1000 grant proposals within Ecosystem, created standardized scoring rubrics, and accelerated the grant cycle by 21 days
Architected and launched multiple DAOs with scalable, community-aligned governance frameworks, contributor models, and transparent processes
I also support @Dacha for the screening committee role. His leadership in cohesively managing community operations and grant programs has been invaluable to the NEAR & Aurora ecosystems.
@Dacha has been a consistent and long-term contributor in the NEAR ecosystem, with a deep understanding of its governance structures and a strong commitment to transparency and decentralization.
He actively contributes to the House of Stake with daily input, feedback, and weekly updates. His experience across DAO design, funding operations, and performance evaluation makes him a great fit for the Screening Committee.
I support @Dacha for the Screening Committee based on his contribution, experience, performance for transparency and decentralization so far in the ecosystem.
Dacha is one of the OGs who has always demanded transparency and openness from the community. In my opinion, he’s the most suitable candidate for this role.
Fully support @Dacha without any doubts, use to work with him and know what i’m talking about, He is the true candidate for the Screening Committee on the way to make NEAR great again
Fully support @Dacha to be the Screening Committee role. So far I worked and know him, He is totally professional and willing to contribute extra miles without hesitate. We should consider his previous contributions & achievements to the Near ecosystem.
Leader and visionary for community autonomy, decentralization and openness.
Decentralization, Validator, Founder, Governance, Shadow CEO
Openshards Alliance the Validator network that launched and decentralized near
NDC Champion Community Led Governance
Cheddar yield farm and gaming - long standing projects on near
Balloon Community driven crowdfunding and governance - on testnet
Validator openshards.poolv1.near
Prior Board member of several key protocols (resigned due to NDC conflict of interest)
Deep knowledge of tech, ai and marketing related to 0 to 1 startups, partnerships and grassroots growth.
As a screening committee member my focus would be near external growth:
talented founders
killer apps
consumer driven defi
I look forward to reviewing the charter and to see how the HoS addresses nepotism, centralized control and other systemic issues the ecosystem has faced to become a flourishing founder and community driven powerhouse that it is envisioned to be.
near≅ a world where people control their assets, data, and power of governance.
I’ve known @Dacha for quite a while, and honestly, he’s one of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met in the NEAR community. He’s always supporting projects, connecting people, and pushing for true decentralization and transparency. He doesn’t just talk about community led governance, he actually lives it, so i definitely support him
