Argument-0002: Retention at Rank II

Report Date	2026/09/25
Submitted by	Victor Oliva

Member details

• Matrix username: @voliva:matrix.org

• Polkadot address: 16JGzEsi8gcySKjpmxHVrkLTHdFHodRepEz8n244gNZpr9J

• Current rank: Rank 2 (Proficient)

• Date of initial induction: 2026/06/09

• Date of last report: 2026/06/09

• Area(s) of Expertise/Interest:

  • Developer tooling
  • Runtime and node API ergonomics
  • FRAME pallet UX

Reporting period

• Start date: 2026/06/09
• End date: 2026/09/25

Argument

I am applying for retention at Rank II: Proficient Member. During this period, I continued work in the two areas: a direct contribution to pallet-referenda in Polkadot SDK, and Forklift, a local forking tool.

Polkadot SDK: pallet-referenda

I continued preparing polkadot-sdk#11524, [referenda] Add slash_submission_deposit extrinsic, which is now ready for merging.

This has kept me engaged with FRAME extrinsic design, API compatibility, weights, and the review process for a production SDK change.

Forklift

I continued leading development of Forklift, a local fork-aware testing tool for Polkadot applications and tooling. I merged seven PRs during this period:

• #1, #2, and #3 improved correctness of runtime calls and block creation. This includes supporting mock signature host to all runtime calls, changes on best block handling, and preventing invalid block/finalization states when creating or skipping blocks.
• #4 and #9 fixes a few issues found while adding new test scenarios in PAPI: dev_ RPC errors are propagated, chainHead_v1_follow state is cleaned up on disconnect, and operations are cleaned up before emitting completion events.
• #10 fixed a crash triggered by Hydration HRMP messages, added configurable logging, and optimised block production by pre-loading the next block.
• #11 based on external feedback, adds CORS preflight checks so that it can be used from a browser..

Forklift is deliberately focused on cases that are difficult to reproduce with a single linear chain: competing heads, finalization changes, chainHead subscriptions, queued messages, and RPC operation lifecycles.

Together, this work demonstrates continued, hands-on contribution to Polkadot SDK and the reliability of ecosystem developer tooling. I therefore request retention at Rank II.

References

• polkadot-sdk#11524 — slash_submission_deposit
• Forklift merged pull requests

Voting record

Ranks	Activity thresholds	Agreement thresholds	Member's voting activities	Comments
I	90%	N/A	N/A	No eligible referenda
II	80%	N/A	0 of 0 (100%)	No eligible referenda
III	70%	100%		N/A
IV	60%	90%		N/A
V	50%	80%		N/A
VI	40%	70%		N/A

Misc

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