Hello Horizen community members,
I am writing to announce my candidacy for re-election to the Horizen DAO Special Council.
When I asked for your vote last year, I promised to bring a developer’s perspective, an active voice in Discord, and a clear focus on prioritizing ZEN holders. Over this past term on the Special Council, I worked to turn those promises into actual results for our ecosystem.
Key Achievements & Special Council Track Record
- Bringing Back Staking: I strongly pushed to bring staking back to empower holders. I also helped out with the design, features, and overall user experience for the new staking platform, and I don’t think anyone has an issue with how staking works.
- Grant Oversight & Hands-On Mentorship: Serving on the Special Council, I joined the review group which votes and decides on incoming grant applications. Having applied for and completed a Thrive grant myself, I know what it takes for a team to actually ship a working project, what the main issues are and how to solve them. I use that experience to make the proposal process smoother and support new builders through their milestones.
- Building Tactizen: I didn’t just sit in governance discussions, I also kept building. Through the Thrive grant, I launched Tactizen, which reached over 1,000 registered accounts. Tactizen isn’t just sitting on the network—it drives real, daily ZEN utility:
- Players directly swap in-game gold for ZEN and vice versa.
- Players mint utility NFTs every day on the network.
- Players trade these NFTs using ZEN, creating consistent daily micro-transactions.
Background & Foundations
For anyone new around here, my journey with Horizen started back in 2017 as a GPU miner and investor. I hold a Master’s degree in Software Engineering and have a professional background in IT development, sysadmin, support, and online sales. Before getting into crypto, I developed and owned browser-based games, which provided the seed capital for my initial crypto investments. I live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, fully satisfying the non-US candidate requirement.
Over the years, I’ve served as a Horizen Ambassador, created hundreds of memes and charts, wrote step-by-step smart contract tutorials, and helped edit the Horizen Academy. My priority has always been looking out for ZEN holders.
Vision & Priorities for the Next Term
If re-elected to the Special Council, my primary focus stays the same: driving direct, real utility for ZEN.
- Direct ZEN Utility Over Everything: Having dApps built on Horizen is good, but creating actual demand for the ZEN token itself is what matters. My top priority is supporting and approving projects that build ZEN directly into their daily mechanics, tokenomics, and payments—the same way I did with Tactizen.
- Helping Builders Actually Ship: I will use my experience as a grant recipient to help refine grant criteria, guide incoming teams, and ensure community funds go to projects that actually finish their work and add value.
- Building New Projects: Even tho I am not eligible to apply for another grant, I plan to keep building new web-based games and projects that integrate ZEN directly, helping grow the ecosystem from both a developer and governance side.
- Holder-First Governance & Active Protection: I will always be the bridge between the community and the Horizen Foundation, making sure community interests always come first. Beyond governance, I will maintain an active social media and Discord presence daily—where I’ve personally banned hundreds of scammers over the year to keep our holders safe. I will keep consulting with ZEN holders, gathering feedback before any major votes, and making sure the community’s voice comes first in every decision.
Thank you for your trust over the past year. I would appreciate your vote to keep serving on the Special Council and pushing Horizen forward.
Sincerely, Vladan Nikolić (Trololino)
