My Matrix Governing Board Platform

I’m running for the Matrix Governing Board as an Individual Member. I work on bridges¹ and backend infrastructure² as a software engineer at Beeper. You may have met me at one of the Matrix meetups³ and possibly even seen me giving a presentation at one of them. I’ve contributed multiple spec clarifications⁴ and been involved in many MSCs both personally and through my position at Beeper⁵.

If elected, my primary goal as a member of the Governing Board would be to encourage a focus on chat and increase ecosystem diversity.

FOCUS ON CHAT: If Matrix doesn’t become the backbone for interoperable chat, the damage that siloed chat platforms do to personal privacy and data sovereignty will continue to go unchecked. The foundation should be SOLELY investing in making Matrix into the best platform for federated, interoperable chat. The Foundation should not invest in speculative ideas such as VR/AR, P2P Matrix, low-bandwidth Matrix, IOT Matrix, etc. until the chat ecosystem is healthy.

ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY: The best way to create a healthy ecosystem is to have ecosystem diversity. We need multiple complete implementations of the (meg)olm protocol for cryptography⁶, multiple viable homeserver implementations, multiple featureful clients, etc. Every new implementation stress-tests the Matrix spec, and introduces new ideas into the ecosystem which benefits all of us.

I am a member of the Matrix community first and an employee of Beeper second. I got my job through TWIM, and I want to see the Matrix ecosystem thrive. I’m concerned with the current direction of the ecosystem, and I want to do my part in turning the tide.