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 somem available mentors and tips on working with them.
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, feedback 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 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 questions targets a specific mentor, feel free to tag them. Your question should be technical and topical. Avoid general and unnecessary messages.
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 |