This document sets out the criteria the Security Council Lead (the "Lead") must apply when nominating key holding participants ("participants") to the Security Council.

# **Security Council Member Selection Criteria v0.1**

## **1. Purpose**

The Security Council has the essential task of performing onchain actions on behalf of governance in order to keep Optimism secure and decentralized. This requires that participants are demonstrably qualified, available, independent of one another, and geographically distributed.

The Lead is responsible for applying these criteria and for demonstrating, in each Council Appointment proposal, that the nominee meets them. Delegates may veto any nominee they believe does not.

## **2. Definitions**

- **Candidate:** An individual or entity being considered for nomination.
- **Entity:** An organization that holds a seat and designates the individual who holds the key. An entity needs to designate one individual to represent the entity on the Security Council; this individual does not need to be the signer.
- **Associated:** A candidate is associated with an entity if the candidate is its owner, employee, contractor or affiliate.

## **3. Composition requirements**

These requirements apply to the Council as a whole. The Lead must confirm in each nomination that the Council, as it would stand if the nominee were seated, satisfies each of them.

| **Requirement** | **Standard** |
| --- | --- |
| Geographic distribution | The number of participants that reside in any country should be less than the quorum required for multisig action. |
| Independence from the Core Team | At least 50% of participants are not part of the Optimism Core Development teams. |
| Diversity of interests | No more than one participant is directly Associated with any one entity. |

To avoid requiring participants to publish their locations, the Foundation verifies this requirement during KYC/KYB screening.

## **4. Candidate criteria**

Each candidate must meet each of the following.

| **Criterion** | **Minimum standard** | **Evidence** | **Verified by** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Technical competency** | Proficiency with the OP Stack, Ethereum or related technology. | Public track record (e.g. prior signer, auditor or protocol engineering experience) backed by public data, such as GitHub. | Lead |
| **Operational security** | Able to custody and use a signing key securely, on dedicated hardware used only for Council actions, and to pass periodic liveness checks. | Interview | Lead; Council rehearsals |
| **Reputation** | Known, trusted, with a demonstrated record of consistent alignment with the Optimism Collective and/or Ethereum ecosystem. | Public contributions; references. | Lead |
| **Alignment and conflicts** | No conflicts of interest likely to regularly impair impartial decision-making. No history of exploiting projects or self-dealing.<br><br>Candidates who are customers of Optimism, such as OP Enterprise customers, or who are active contributors to Optimism, show strong alignment. | Written disclosure of: any elected or appointed position in another DAO; any signer role on another security council or community multisig. | Lead |
| **Availability** | Able to commit approximately 5 active hours per month, plus on-call availability. Able to attend Council calls and operational rehearsals. Quick response time in case of emergency. | Written commitment; interview; time zone. | Lead |
| **Legal and compliance** | Passes Foundation KYC/KYB screening and signs the Security Council agreements, and related agreements, with the Foundation. | KYC/AML and sanctions screening; background check; confidentiality agreement; Security Council agreement. | Foundation |

## **5. Lead's process**

In nominating participants, the Lead must:

1. Conduct outreach to a pool of candidates broad enough to satisfy Section 3, and keep a record of candidates considered. The Lead should also provide a public method for anyone to apply to be on the Security Council.
2. Interview each promising candidate and assess the candidate against Section 4.
3. Submit the candidate for Foundation KYC/KYB screening before the nomination is posted.
4. Decline to nominate any candidate whose seating would cause the Council to breach Section 3.
5. Not nominate any candidate Associated with the Lead, or any candidate with whom the Lead has an undisclosed conflict.
6. Post an overall summary of the proposed cohort, and the process that was used to select it.
7. Post each nomination as a Council Appointment proposal containing the nomination statement in Section 6.
8. Respond to delegate questions on the proposal thread during the review period.

## **6. Nomination statement & Selection Process documentation**

Each Council Appointment proposal must include:

- The nominee's name (and, for an entity, its designated representative).
- Statement of qualifications, including references to verifiable data sources.
- The nominee's disclosures under "Alignment and conflicts."
- Confirmation of Foundation KYC/KYB screening having been completed.

Additionally, the Council Lead is required to publish details surrounding the execution of the selection process, such as number of applications, number of candidate interviews, and the criteria applied by the Lead in addition to the Member Selection Criteria.

## **7. Amendment**

This document may be amended through the Change Process in the [Operating Manual](./manual.md). Material amendments take a new version number and are ratified by the Token House.