Mentorship

During EPF cohort, participants have an opportunity to be mentored by core developers and researchers. The mentorship is different from a traditional mentor - mentee roles, mentors in EPF act more like your colleagues who provide feedback and will not guide your path. Here you can find a list of some available mentors and tips on working with them.

How to get mentorship

In general, program participants are expected to take personal responsibility for their work. Working as a core developer requires you to be able to do self-directed work, and this program is no different. You should speak up and ask when you have questions, but you should also take responsibility for asking well informed questions.

Mentors from the list below are open to help you during the program. They can propose project ideas, answer your questions, provide feedback on a PR or guide you if you get stuck on solving a problem. Keep in mind that each mentor has different capacity since they work on the protocol full time.

Mentors are primarily available in R&D Discord channel and some will occasionally attend EPF office hours or standup calls. Before reaching out to a mentor for the first time, we recommend to check with cohort organizers who can provide you with a connection to the mentor. It's important to reach out with a specific and relevant issue rather than questions which can be answered by searching or reading epf.wiki.

Each mentor is covering a certain area of the protocol and representing their development team. If you choose a project they proposed or your project is within their area, suggest setting up a project group for easier communication. Otherwise, ask for the advice in Discord channel.

Make sure to do your own research before you ask a question, e.g. making sure something like this hasn't been discussed previously in the channel or answered at stackexchange. If the question targets a specific mentor, feel free to tag them. Your question should be technical and topical. Avoid general and unnecessary messages.

Mentors

Here is an overview of core developers and researchers who are aware of EPF and willing to help fellows with their contributions. Keep in mind that even if they are listed here, their availability might have changed. And there are also other potential mentors in client teams who will be happy to work with new contributors but are not signed up here.

Name	Team	Area of focus
Axic	Ipsilon	EVM, EOF, Solidity compiler
Fredrik	EF Security Research	General Security
Sina	Geth	Execution Layer, EVM
Alex Stokes	EF Consensus Research	Consensus layer, MEV, (consensus layer) light clients
Barnabé Monnot	EF Robust Incentives Group	Cryptoeconomics, economic modeling, data science
Ignacio	Stateless team	Verkle Trees
Mario Vega	EF Testing team	Execution Clients Testing, End-to-end tests, State Tests
Tomasz K. Stanczak	Nethermind	Protocol Engineering, MEV, EVM
Mikhail Kalinin	TXRX	Engine API, Consensus Layer, Optimistic Sync, In-protocol PBS
Michael Sproul	Sigma Prime (Lighthouse)	Consensus layer, fork choice, block fingerprinting
Cayman Nava	ChainSafe Lodestar	Consensus layer, browser compatibility
DappLion	Lighthouse	Consensus layer
Advaita Saha	Nimbus	Nim, CL, Verkle and crypto
Agnish Ghosh	Nimbus	Nim, CL, Verkle and crypto
Radosław Kapka	Prysm	Consensus layer, Beacon API, light clients
Potuz	Prysm	Consensus layer, PBS
Manu Nalepa	Prysm	Consensus layer, p2p
Ognyan Genev	Portal Network	Portal Network, trin client
Mike Ferris	Portal Network	Portal Network, rust, Glados
Kolby ML	Portal Network	History/State Network, (execution layer) light clients
Justin Florentine	Besu	Besu, Java, Ethereum roadmap and EIPs
Simon (siladu)	Besu	Besu, Java, Engine API, EIPs
Mehdi Aouadi	Teku	Consensus Layer, software engineering/architecture
Paul Harris	Teku	Consensus layer
Georgios Konstantopoulos	Paradigm / Reth	Execution layer, Rust and reth client
Cayman Nava	Lodestar	Consensus Layer, Lodestar
N.C.	Lodestar	Consensus Layer, Lodestar
Nico Flaig	Lodestar	Consensus Layer, Lodestar
Vid Kersic	Independent	Account Abstraction
Saulius Grigaitis	Grandine	Consensus Layer, Rust