Introducing YGG’s Illuvium Lead Game Ambassador: Zom

Zom, the YGG lead game ambassador for Illuvium, runs for Illuvium’s Illuvinati Council

Yield Guild Games has chosen Zom, the guild’s lead game ambassador for the sci-fi and fantasy auto battler game, Illuvium, to be its representative for the 5th epoch of Illuvium’s Illuvinati Council elections.

As one of YGG’s earliest game partners since March 2021, Illuvium has shown a strong alignment with YGG’s mission of growing the play-to-earn ecosystem. The Illuvium community follows a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) model and manages the game through governance proposals presented by the Illuvinati Council, a group of five people who will lead the community’s governance within the game. Each council member holds the position for a single epoch, equal to three months. To ensure decentralization within the decision taken for the community, Illuvium uses a quadratic voting procedure, a concept that removes the problems of voting paradox and majority rule. ILV, as a governance token, is utilized in every council election.

Zom cites this article by Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, as one of many threshold moments that drove him “deeper and deeper down the blockchain rabbit hole.” That rabbit hole then led him to discover YGG and the world of blockchain gaming. Through YGG, he soon found out about Illuvium and was immediately struck by the caliber of the founding team and their vision, in addition to the protocol’s tokenomics and style of governance; Illuvium governance is similar to that of synthetic asset issuance platform Synthetix, founded by Kain Warwick (brother of Illuvium co-founders Kieran, Aaron and Grant Warwick). Zom notes that this initial impression has only been further reinforced over time, building a strong conviction in this team and its community to be the force for mainstream adoption that the blockchain gaming space needs.

While trying to remain pseudonymous, Zom has an eclectic plethora of previous professional experience: ranging from Harvard research to the United Nations to, most recently, time as an executive at a gaming company. This diverse background has made him no stranger to high-stakes decision-making involving diverse, often competing, interests: experience he hopes to bring to the table as YGG’s representative in this upcoming epoch.

Zom sees the ideal role of the Illuvinati Council as being an accelerator and augmentation of the Illuvium core team as it pursues development, not as a bureaucratic shackle to be tolerated for the sake of decentralization. He sees Illuvium as the first project at the crossroads of blockchain and gaming to have a real shot at competing for audiences beyond those native to the space.

“Simply put, the priority at this point should be to make the best game possible,” says Zom. “That said, if I had to point to an area of potential improvement pre-launch, I would single out governance. The process as it stands is completely sufficient for this point in the lifecycle, but we have a great opportunity to increase both the transparency and level of automation that exists to prepare governance for the burden of efficacy at scale.”

With his deep interest and involvement in both Illuvium and YGG, coupled with his background, Zom will be a bridge between the two communities: helping them to become closer than ever. As a Lead Game Ambassador and Illuvinati Council candidate, he will be the voice of YGG within Illuvium and the representative of Illuvium within YGG.

All holders of ILV are eligible to cast a single vote for a candidate where voting will run from March 11- 14, 2022, 11 a.m. UTC. To participate in the Illuvinati Council Vote, please head to this page. Click here to know more about the Illuvinati Council Election.

YGG also hosted a Twitter Spaces event with Zom, where he discussed his role, and the upcoming council election that you can check here.

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