[NOMINATION]: 2023 Arun S M

[arsulegai]

Nomination 🗳️

Nominee Name

Arun S M
@arsulegai

Short Personal Bio

I am a Staff Software Engineer at Walmart Global Tech, Bentonville, US leading blockchain initiatives. Prior to this I worked at Intel's India facility on their blockchain initiatives. My blockchain journey started as an experiment to run chaincode in TEE when Hyperledger Fabric was at 0.6 version. At present I serve as vice-chair for the Technical Oversight Committee, it is my 3rd term. I co-lead the Hyperledger India Chapter until the beginning of this year. My first code contribution was to Hyperledger Sawtooth project, where I also became a maintainer. Now I am a maintainer of Hyperledger Bevel, a lab HLF Connector, and Blockchain Explorer. I also lead and maintain the Hyperledger Tooling repositories.

Short Personal Pitch

I would like to nominate myself to serve on the Technical Oversight Committee. My position at Walmart places me uniquely in the community where at one end we experience use of blockchain at scale like nowhere else, and on the other end we are pioneers in adopting new features. At the same time, this position helps in determining what as an end user organization would like to prioritize when it comes to the advancement in the blockchain technology. My approach to lead a team at work is to follow clean code, and clearly defined process. Hearing everybody's voices, listening from the grounds up and also listening to the people who use the technology will pave the way to better decision making.

In my 3rd term as a Hyperledger TOC member and being a vice-chair I focused on strengthening security, bringing transparency and simplifying processes. The efforts were made to bring in new contributors, encourage continued participation for the current projects, reviving much needed projects. The year saw majority work in multiple task forces. At present, I am leading the Artifact Signing Task Force.

It is my honor to be seen as a leader in blockchain technology space. The Hyperledger Explorer project was proposed to end of life. However, through the continued efforts of many first time contributors we were able to bring it back to life as a new lab. There was also a blog post announcing the release of 2.0.0 version. I have always supported diverse participation, enjoyed educating learners about the technology. Continuing on what is setup last year, I am mentoring couple of projects this year, one of which is to have a new user experience for the Blockchain Explorer lab, other one to add new and improved features to the Blockchain Explorer lab. There's a revival for https://start-here.hyperledger.org website too as part of another mentorship program. Introduced an automated reminder for quarterly project reports. Proposed an annual review process for the Hyperledger Foundation projects. Led the task force to come up with the list of recommendations and the best practices to be followed to strengthen the security of Hyperledger Foundation projects. Also, wrote a blog article in collaboration with Hart announcing the new security policy at the Hyperledger Foundation. Identified the future leaders, handed over the leadership baton at the Hyperledger India Chapter before relocating to the new location.

That's not all, code contributions is still my top priority. Hyperledger Foundation's podcast talks through my journey so far. From the time I started to help out the community based in India, it has been my pleasure to meet several tech enthusiasts. It is amazing to see how people are willing to join back, contribute back once they understand the technology. Often times it is lack of awareness that makes one think that Hyperledger community is out of their reach. The TOC representation will help me to bridge the voices and bring in new perspectives. My next year priorities are to continue investing in improving the security, think towards simplifying the infrastructure setup and adoption.

There is a saying in India/Sanksrit "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" which translates to world is one family. Having a diverse representation in the TOC, from different demographies and geographies will make it a much stronger blockchain community in the world.