PIP: 77
Title: 2026 Polygon Protocol Council Membership Update
Authors: Christopher von Hessert
Description: Proposal to update the membership of the Polygon Protocol Council
Date: 2026-02-01
Abstract
This proposal seeks to update the membership of the Protocol Council established by PIP-29 to ensure continued operational efficiency and governance transparency. This proposal supersedes and should be read in conjunction with PIP-29.
Motivation
Refreshing the Protocol Council membership ensures alignment with evolving community representation, and maintains operational transparency and efficiency.
As part of our recertification process, all current members of the Council were asked to reconfirm their interest, alignment, and availability to serve on the Council.
As a result of this process, the updated membership list reflects the removal of Gauntlet, Mariano Conti & zackXBT. The removal of each member is proposed with their full consent and in no way is a reflection on their skills, abilities, or the quality of their contributions.
The below individuals are furthermore proposed to fill the seats left vacant by the above members:
Ryan Wegner
Ryan is currently the CISO at Sentient Labs, an AI startup with roots in the crytpo industry. Previously Ryan ran Cyber Security at Gauntlet and Scroll. Ryan has spent over 20 years in Cyber Security with a focus on cyber intelligence, security incident response and investigations.
Vahe Karapetyan
Vahe Karapteyan is a cybersecurity veteran with 15+ years of experience spanning low-level system security, offensive research, and blockchain internals, and is the Co-Founder & CTO of Hexens. He is a multi-time international CTF winner known for pioneering audits in zero-knowledge technologies and for building scalable vulnerability research tools for smart contracts.
Sameep Singhania
Sameep Singhania is a DeFi builder and product-driven founder working at the intersection of DEXs and zero-knowledge infrastructure. He is the co-founder of QuickSwap and the founder of KalqiX. Sameep is deeply focused on building high-performance, liquidity-efficient trading systems and rethinking how modern DEXs should be designed. His work centers on creating scalable, non-custodial exchanges that deliver CEX-level speed and execution while staying true to DeFi’s core principles of transparency and trust minimization.
Specification
This PIP proposes the reform of the signer composition of the Protocol Council, to be updated to the list below. The existing multisig contract specification, including signature policies and timelock delays, will remain unchanged.
Updated Protocol Council Members
| Name | Affiliation | Address |
|---|---|---|
| L2 Beat | — | 0xaE8B85DcaBb12EB2dDb11dAd1ed968b7eD81B410 |
| Mehdi Zerouali | Sigma Prime | 0x6d52F5F1A46304Ee51dd63D33cf1A7Be67EB9250 |
| Vahe Karapetyan | Hexens | 0x21887c89368bf918346c62460e0c339113801C28 |
| Ryan Wegner | Sentient Labs | 0xda66df3920091ef4b54782b9463587c314dadd41 |
| Sanmeep Singhania | Quickswap & Kalqix | 0xb771380f912E4b5F6beDdf81314C383c13F16ab5 |
| Liz Steininger | Least Authority | 0x6860Ab2888f71AC09bEdEBB594b5B50299aC7889 |
| Viktor Bunin | Coinbase | 0xBb9D37Ae9e63a4517bE5CE1D98eB9D89938fb651 |
| Jerome de Tychey | ETH CC | 0x1aE033D45ce93bbB0dDBF71a0Da9de01FeFD8529 |
| Zaki Manian | Sommelier Finance | 0x096CA3674329bB66dD7CC14D1511dfB7728b9193 |
| Multisig Signer | Polygon Labs (Engineering) | 0x4e981bae8e3cd06ca911fffe5504b2653ac1c38a |
| Multisig Signer | Polygon Labs (Security) | 0x9d851f8b8751c5FbC09b9E74E6e68E9950949052 |
| Pablo Sabbatella | Opsek | 0xAB4045C93e4eFFa9b325F706C9a690Ed00d08958 |
| Jack Sanford | Sherlock | 0x342EBaca3ACC54d6f5Ee78073FeC4af07f42B94e |
Backward Compatibility
This change is fully backward compatible, changing only the council membership.
Security Considerations
Key security parameters remain unchanged. Considerations need to be made to ensure new signers are selected to maximize jurisdictional diversity, availability, and responsiveness.