Full name and timezone
Luca Poggi (CET - Italy)
Founder of Iceberg Nodes
X account | Telegram account | Discord username: lucapoggi
Relevant experience
I have invested in several crypto projects as an angel investor since 2020. This allows me to have a good knowledge of tokenomics analysis, legal documentation (SAFT, SAFE, NDA, etc.) and investment/fundraising methodologies by a project, as well as the needs (both in terms of funds, technical support and infrastructure, and community start-up) that a project in the initial fundraising stages faces.
In addition I’m user of the DeFi world since the early days when it born on Ethereum and in general within the Polkadot and Astar Ecosystem world, an activity that has allowed me to know, study and analyze the various dynamics of this world (types of AMM, stablecoins, liquid staking, etc.), all accompanied with a special attention on the security side and risk analysis: my “technical” approach allows me to apply the motto “don’t trust, verify!”, not only understanding how the underlying mechanism works, but also on a practical level (for example by reading the Solidity code and therefore evaluate the correct/honest behavior of the application in use).
Finally, in the last period I have dedicated a lot of time to the study of the techniques and methodologies of market making and various delta neutral strategies, as well as the understanding of the key elements required by a project that approaches the listing on exchanges for the first time.
Track record of contributions to Astar
Having known the project since the early days, my contributions to Astar go hand in hand with its history, which I will tell below (in part, as there is much more), hoping that you will enjoy it and that it can be of added value to all those who have known the project in more recent times.
I met Astar in the months preceding the first Lockdrop on Ethereum, which took place in April 2020. I immediately got in touch with Sota Watanabe (Founder), Hoon Kim (former co-founder and CTO), Alexander Krupenkin (core dev). I can assure you that the situation was not like the current one, everything was much smaller as the project had just been launched, so imagine the difficulty for the team to start everything up, consequently any help from the community was certainly welcome (today the situation is different: the Astar team is among the most structured and best economically covered, in the entire crypto world). I immediately supported the project as a validator node in the “Dusty” testnet (yes, the testnet before Shibuya was called Dusty and was a standalone chain, with its own set of validators, not collators). A month later, around May, Iceberg Nodes was alongside the team’s validators, producing the first blocks of the newly-born Plasm (this was the previous name of Astar): a huge personal satisfaction. In the same period, the Italian community of Astar was born, which found its home in the Telegram group Astar Italia.
In the following months and in the summer, I still remember as if it were today, Sota asked me to be interviewed by an important Asian VC (I don’t feel like naming names, but the information is public), because before investing in the project, he wanted to question and hear the opinion of a member of the community. The satisfaction for me in this case was twofold: the first related to the fact that Sota had turned to me for that role, the second because months later the completion of the investment round was announced, where the same VC had acted as lead investor.
At the end of 2020 the second (and final) lockdrop on ethereum took place for which I prepared a guide that I believe helped thousands of people who decided to participate (if you are curious about what lockdrops are, how they worked, etc. I recommend you take a look at the link above). Among other things, the second lockdrop was a very successful event in terms of ETH locked, and in my opinion the event marked the beginning of Astar’s climb to success.
In the following months and years the Astar team grew a lot, and I still remember the entry into the team of Maarten and bLd, as well as that of Ramz, Gaius_sama, and many others that I don’t mention. In parallel to this, the current networks were launched: Shibuya was launched (Dusty had been turned off, moving towards Shibuya as a parachain model), Shiden (Kusama parachain) and finally Plasm which changed its name to Astar (Polkadot parachain), all supported by Iceberg Nodes, since the launch and still today.
I don’t remember exactly when the Agents (ambassadors) program started, probably at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, I think I was among the first to be part of it, if not the first member. My activities were among the most varied (tutorials, translations, etc.) but above all a special attention was paid to the growth of the community in terms of numbers and knowledge: to date, the Italian Telegram group has more than 400 members and I believe it can claim to be among the key communities of the project (despite Italy being a state of small size, both geographically and demographically, as well as still far behind on the subject of cryptocurrencies).
Within the ambassadors program I met Vasaking, who immediately felt at home in Astar Italia and subsequently, as time went by, I started to introduce and bring new people to the role of ambassadors (in particular I introduced Simone and Emanuel), which allowed me to reduce my workload in terms of contributions such as tutorials, translations, etc., focusing time and efforts on community management, live calls and explanations via messages (especially audio messages) on the most advanced and interesting topics of the projects, those topics for which a well-started and managed discussion can lead to high-level content that constitutes the added value of being part of our community.
Since the beginning of the ambassador/agent program I have not had a demonstrable track record of my contributions, as I have never requested compensation as an ambassador, I have never produced reports in this regard, I apologize for this.
Motivation to join the AFC and goals for your term
I consider the opportunities offered by a correct and valid management of the AFT fund by AFC to be extremely important, as well as likely to have a large impact on the project, on the sentiment of the community and on the consequent price action of the token. Therefore, it is in my interest to try to apply for a position as a member of the AFC for the following reasons:
- I feel obliged to make available my skills acquired to date, as well as part of my available time, to help the project in the activities of the AFC;
- I believe that it is a compliant and growth activity linked to my actual role as an agent (as written above);
- being the members of the AFC responsible for managing a very high number of tokens via multisig, I think that having an adequate “skin in the game” is a “must to have” property in order to be a trustworthy person and suitable for the role: let’s remember that the members of the AFC do not only have an operational role about the choices, but also have a role related to the security of the AFT funds.
- connected to the previous point, having “skin in the game”, I want to be at the forefront in contributing and trying to bring Astar to success, with the maximum possible motivation: remember that the minimum target is 1 ASTR = 1 USD
Weekly availability (minimum 5 - 8 hours/week)
Not an issue, fully available to reorganize my agenda to include this new commitment in my weekly routine (also on a weekly basis based on the different expected workload from week to week).
Verified onchain identity on Astar
Yr7ZxQJX6Ho4qBFywoA5hvFSxpBtLQv5T4LnLpzy3MffKJa
Disclosures of any project affiliations or potential conflicts
Apart from being collators operator in Astar L1, participating in the ACS campaign (with relative preference for some projects over others) and the partnership between Iceberg Nodes and Bifrost (liquidity and community support), I have no other conflicts of interest to report with dapps deployed on Astar or Soneium at the moment.
I can ensure my integrity as part of the AFC, and if the situation changes in the future, I am available to immediately report any new conflict of interest that arises, in addition to committing to abstain from any eventual decision regarding them (previous and new ones).
Commitment to attend live meetings and operate transparently
Fully committed to this topic. Just for information purposes I want to point out that my identity has never been hidden and it is possible to find my personal details (and profile picture) clearly visible in the accounts of the various social platforms.
I conclude by saying that regardless of the outcome of the election, my support for Astar will not suffer any difference, and that if other people are considered more deserving than me, I am available to support them anyway in case of need, if instead Astar Foundation Team wants me on board, I could not but with immense pleasure participate in this new adventure. I wish good luck to all the applicants.
I have tried to keep the text of this application quite short (except for the contributions to Astar ahah), and have also had to omit some sensitive and confidential information, which I am however willing to discuss with members of the Astar Foundation, if requested.
I’m available to answer any questions related to this application.
Best Regards
Luca Poggi
(Make Astar Great Again)
