# Argument-0007: Retention at Rank II

|                 |                                                                                             |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Report Date** | 2026/03/02 (YYYY/MM/DD)                                                                     |
| **Submitted by**| Francisco Aguirre                                                                           |

## Member details

- Matrix username: `@cisco:parity.io`
- Polkadot address: `129EYiTbv2J4LkYqRNssUfMuxNLYN8TW2LgfG1Gqyj8wCcs7`
- Current rank: `2`
- Date of initial induction: `2024/05/31`
- Date of last report: `2025/12/03`
- Area(s) of Expertise/Interest: `XCM, Bridges, Smart Contracts, JAM, Storage`

## Reporting period

- Start date: 2025/12/02
- End date: 2026/03/02

## Argument

This period I expanded my focus to include decentralized storage and fellowship tooling, and continued work on GrayMatter, our JAM client at JamBrains.

I spent the bulk of my time this period working on decentralized storage: improving Bulletin Chain and prototyping a file transfer protocol usable in the upcoming Polkadot App.

I created a UI for Bulletin Chain[\[1\]](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-bulletin-chain/pull/223) to reduce barrier of entry for product teams wanting to use decentralized storage, as well as accelerate our own development and testing of the chain.
I tweaked Bulletin's XCM configuration[\[2\]](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-bulletin-chain/pull/201) to change it from a system parachain to a regular parachain, making it easier to launch multiple ones if needed for scale.

The most substantial piece of work was designing the hand-off protocol[\[3\]](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk/tree/hop-prototype), or HOP for short.
It is meant to enable file attachments in the Polkadot App, among other use-cases.
This took most of my time during the period.
The problem required reasoning about authorization, incentives, fallback mechanisms, peer-to-peer networking and latency trade-offs.

I made XCM configuration adjustments in both Collectives and Asset Hub[\[4\]](https://github.com/polkadot-fellows/runtimes/pull/1072) to make sure fellows can manage their own treasury without the need to create a proposal on OpenGov's Root track.
I also created a tool I call Xcm Wizard[\[5\]](https://github.com/franciscoaguirre/dca-wizard) to allow anyone to create a DCA proposal for managing the fellowship treasury.
The goal in both of these is to facilitate and improve ongoing fellowship operations.

During this period, I submitted our JAM client, GrayMatter, for Milestone 1 acceptance[\[6\]](https://github.com/w3f/jam-milestone-delivery/pull/31).
I continued working on the client to prepare for the future Milestone 2 submission.

My work during this period demonstrates continued depth in XCM and runtimes while expanding into storage infrastructure design.
The hand-off protocol took me into the unfamiliar territory of peer-to-peer networking and required both independent research and collaboration with people who knew the topic better than I did.
The fellowship tooling work made use of my XCM knowledge and came from recognising that the operational layer needs as much attention as the technical one.

## Voting record

|  Ranks | Activity thresholds | Agreement thresholds | Member's voting activities | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|I  |90%   |N/A   |   |  |
|II |80%   |N/A   |100%   |I have voted on 0 out of 0 referenda in which I was eligible to vote (i.e 100% voting activity).  |
|III|70%   |100%  |   |  |
|IV |60%   |90%   |   |  |
|V  |50%   |80%   |   |  |
|VI |40%   |70%   |   |  |