After a career in tradfi with American Express, a stint with the cryptocurrency DASH, and co-founding the first Yuga Labs Centric NFT marketplace that integrated $Ape as a payment option, ApeCoin DAO Contributor Bradley Zastrow wants to combat centralization and overreach and champion transparency as one of the ApeCoin DAO's next Special Council Members!
The winter election season of 2023 is underway at the ApeCoin DAO, with 27 contributors officially running to replace BoredApeG, Gerry, and VeraTheApe on the DAO's Special Council in 2024.
Among the candidates vying for a position on the ApeCoin DAO's Special Council is Bradley Zastrow.
“My motivation is simple: I’ve been a part of the Yuga community since the early days and ApeCoin since the beginning," Zastrow wrote on his candidate page. "I believe My belief is strong enough that the NFT marketplace I co-founded, X Marketplace, was focused on Yuga and was the first to integrate $APE as a form of payment. I want to see ApeCoin be a force within Web3; an ecosystem focused on value for all stakeholders. ApeCoin has huge potential, but success is not guaranteed. I see challenges with the way we approach growth and despite improvements to the AIP timeline we remain highly centralized especially when it comes to the contracting process. I want to help change that and see ApeCoin realize its potential.”
To find out more about Zastrow’s Special Council candidacy, his plans to grow the DAO, and why he’s the right $Ape for the job, the Bored Ape Gazette reached out to him for an interview. Check it out below:
1. In a sentence or two what is your candidacy all about?
“My candidacy is about proactive growth and making a difference across the Value Proposition, Ecosystem and Stakeholders while improving on areas of centralisation and transparency.”
2. When and why did you decide to ape into the Special Council race?
“My desire to serve as a member of the Special Council has always been there; I had run previously. I want to play a deeper role and make an impact on the future of ApeCoin and I believe that I have the experience and plan to do so.”
3. What makes you the right $Ape for Special Council? How has your past prepared you for this role?
“What makes me right for the Special Council is my experience, passion and plan. I bring deep experience across both Trad-Fi and Web3:
1.DAO + Token Employment: I’ve previously worked directly for a DAO as a senior leader. I was the global head of biz dev for Dash Core Group ($DASH) and built the first global biz dev team & GTM strategy. My salary and budget required a quarterly DAO proposal. I publicly represented $DASH as a speaker at Money 2020 SG and Token 2049.
2.Governance: I was a member of the board of directors for 3 American Express joint-venture companies (MY, ID, & PH). Previous Member level of Australian Institute of Company Directors - a professional body for Board members.
3.Web3 / ApeCoin Builder: In addition to $DASH, my crypto experience includes co-founding X Marketplace, a Yuga focused NFT marketplace that was the first to integrate $APE as a form of payment and the first NFT sale in $APE was conducted on X MP. We also burned our MP fee in $APE, always supported royalties and was the first MP to integrate an IP marketplace.
4.Trad-Fi: 18+ year payments industry veteran, primarily American express. Led M&A, strategic partnerships & financial reporting. People leader experience with regional and global responsibilities.
4. What would you like to accomplish during your term?
“I go into more detail in my announcement post, but there’s 2 main areas: Growth and Improvement. To grow ApeCoin, I want to focus execution on Improving the Value Proposition, Growing the Ecosystem and Delivering Stakeholder Value. Additionally there are 3 areas of improvement that I see; Centralization, Overreach and Transparency.
5. Where would you like to see the DAO a year from now?
“A well oiled machine dominating the Web3 space.”
6. What are your thoughts and views on an ApeChain?
“I think it’s needed. Objectively we are a generic ERC20 token with a value proposition that’s not very different from other ERC20 governance tokens. ApeChain delivers an improved value proposition, particularly in support for commerce through cheap transactions and faster speeds.”
7. What’s your favorite book, movie, and show?
“I’ve got way too many favorite books, but to break it down into a few categories: Favorite business book is Diffusion of Innovations, favorite fiction is Brave New World or On The Road and favorite recent book is Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act. Favorite movie - Die Hard. Favorite show is hard as I’m feeling the Friends nostalgia at the moment. Breaking Bad is up there, although my most recent binge was Beef.”
8. Do you have anything else you’d like to add or say?
“It would be an honor to serve the Community as a member of the Special Council. I have the DAO experience, the Web3 experience, the Governance experience and TradFi experience along with the passion and plan.”
ApeCoin DAO Contributors who would like to find out more about Zastrow’s campaign can reach out to him via Twitter @ZastrowBradley
The window to vote in the ApeCoin DAO's first round of Special Council voting opens on December 7th, and $Ape holders will have until December 13th to cast their coins in support their preferred nominees. After the first round of voting, the top five nominees with the most votes will proceed to the second round of voting and officially become ApeCoin DAO Special Council candidates. The DAO will then conduct one more election from December 14th through December 20th. During this second vote, the community will officially elect its three new Special Council Members!
Take a look at the full Election season timeline below:
