# Evidence-0087: Retention at Rank III

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| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Report Date** | 2024/11/25                                                             |
| **Submitted by**| Oliver Tale-Yazdi                                                                        |

## Member details

- Matrix username: `@oliver.tale-yazdi:parity.io`
- Polkadot address: `16a357f5Sxab3V2ne4emGQvqJaCLeYpTMx3TCjnQhmJQ71DX`
- Current rank: `III (Fellow)`
- Date of initial induction: `2022/11/21`
- Date of last report: `2024/04/24`
- Area(s) of Expertise/Interest:
  - `cross-chain message passing (XCMP, HRMP, DMP & UMP)`
  - `the Polkadot business-logic (aka the 'runtime')`
  - `pallets utilised by the Polkadot (Main) Network and its system chains`
  - `the internals of the frame pallet framework`
  - `runtime and host APIs`
  - `standard RPCs`

## Reporting period

- Start date: 2024/06/07
- End date: 2024/12/07

## Evidence

I present evidence to demonstrate my continued alignment with the Fellowship and Polkadot to retain
my rank.

### Core Fellowship Work

My work in this area was focused on maintenance of the Polkadot runtime[<sup>1,
</sup>](https://github.com/polkadot-fellows/runtimes/pull/322)
[<sup>2</sup>](https://github.com/polkadot-fellows/runtimes/pull/381) and integration of governance
requests. Integrating governance requests shows the community that The Fellowship listens to it and
cares about its wishes. For example, I removed unwanted accounts from the Ambassador
collective[<sup>3</sup>](https://github.com/polkadot-fellows/runtimes/pull/422) and implemented the
new inflation model[<sup>4</sup>](https://github.com/polkadot-fellows/runtimes/pull/471). I think it
is important to keep the Fellowship well positioned in public perception, which I see as my task as
a Rank III Fellow.

On the SDK side, I mostly focused on review work. This was due to increasing demand from new
developers and a personal preference. I believe that Polkadot has a very good feature set. Keeping
existing parts maintained is equally - if not more - important to me than adding new functionality.
A recent insight of mine was that the effort of adding a new feature is bounded, whereas the effort
of maintaining a feature is possibly unbounded (when integrated over time). I therefore believe that
we need to be very careful with how many things we add, while having to maintain them with
constrained resources. In our context, it is also easier to add things than to remove them,
worsening the dilemma.

One big thing that I am collaboratively working on is the Asset Hub migration as preparation for
Plaza. This is a very high-impact topic and shows my focus on important tasks that have the
possibility to affect Polkadot positively in the long term.

### Tooling and DevEx

I created a way to keep the Polkadot ecosystem informed about our
releases[<sup>5</sup>](https://github.com/paritytech/release-registry/) while improving internal
workflows[<sup>6</sup>](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk/pull/4795). I try to improve
DevEx by adding automation[<sup>7</sup>](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk/pull/5331) and
simplifying configurations[<sup>8</sup>](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk/pull/4716). I
think that automation is very valuable, since it increases the productivity of all developers
through a small effort.

### JAM

I maintain resources for people to learn about JAM[<sup>9,
</sup>](https://jamcha.in/)[<sup>10</sup>](https://docs.jamcha.in/), try to help developers interact
with JAM[<sup>11,
</sup>](https://dev.jamcha.in/)[<sup>12</sup>](https://github.com/JamBrains/polkavm-examples) and
work on a JAM client in my free time (currently closed-source). I think acquiring this knowledge now
will enable me to help other Fellows understand it later - once Polkadot switches to the JAM chain. This is in line with the Manifesto's requirement of "Demonstrable presence of knowledge sharing within the ecosystem".

## Voting record

|  Ranks | Activity thresholds | Agreement thresholds | Member's voting activities | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|III|70%   |100%  | I have voted on 89 out of 95 referenda in which I was eligible to vote (i.e 93.68% % voting activity). I believe to have voted in agreement with higher ranks in all cases, although I did not check the data. | |