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Even after 3 years of being in this space, I still feel like a complete beginner with most weeks trying to keep up with what is going on. It is a space that can wear you down over time, but at the same time so rewarding too.
Some reflections on my experiences so far...
Some reflections on my experiences so far...
Late 2017, first discovered Ethereum, bought some and didn't think much about it, started reading through what space was about. This was when the crypto meetup scene in Sydney was at its peak. Hundreds packed venues.
I learned what I could, but I still never 'got' it.
I learned what I could, but I still never 'got' it.
That was when I attended my first ever Ethereum developer workshop run by @BokkyPooBah where I learned about hashes, key management, and learned to deploy an erc-20 contract. I saw a light node sync and was instantly mesmerized by this idea of a global computing network.
I couldn't yet properly comprehend why crypto was going be important but I knew it would be. I also was aware that being a newbie, there was a pretty big information gap I needed to cover before I could create an impact in the space.
At the end of 2017, I decided to dedicate one entire year towards learning about crypto/blockchains. I consider this to be my first rational bet into space.
I was pretty aimless initially but started unpacking my knowledge gaps. Never having a computing background to start with so I initially asked: What was a blockchain? How did they work? What was the technology behind them?
These questions led me to understand how the internet worked, how data was transported across the net, what was data, how it was encoded, how it was stored, and how mathematical properties of discrete math were used to create probabilistic securities that we know as cryptography.
Blockchains being this composition of all these technologies, I traveled down these layers of abstraction to realize our world was essentially mathematics scaled via series of abstractions.
Aside from trying to gain an appreciation for maths, I spent more time understand the historical context behind their inventions and by who they were created. It was when I was digging through the origins of cryptography from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I realized a major theme.
It was that all of the individuals that played a major role in crypto were fairly ordinary individuals. Most of their important contributions were values-driven, something that ultimately positioned them uniquely to solve the problem in front of them. https://medium.com/@pet3rpan/history-of-things-before-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-part-one-e199f02ca380
Through history books, we lose the sense of humanity behind what we read, we put them on a pedestal and romanticize their stories. But when you actually dig through their lives and read their mailing list chat logs, you'll find a much more humbling reality.
The future is idiosyncratic, chaotic, and random.
Those that did great work before use lived in just the same world as we do. Full of unknowns but guided optimism and ideals.
Anyone can do great work in this space. You just some patience and to be ready when those moments come.
Those that did great work before use lived in just the same world as we do. Full of unknowns but guided optimism and ideals.
Anyone can do great work in this space. You just some patience and to be ready when those moments come.
I urge anyone who is deciding to take the dive into crypto to spend the necessary time to understand the historical context behind our world of crypto. You'll develop a richer, more rewarding human perspective for the work we are all contributing to in the space.
I spent about 3-5 months nearly full time in early 2018 reading, learning, and studying the history and technology behind crypto.
In May of '18, I attended my first ever crypto conference which was EDCON Toronto, funded as a grant by BokkyPoohbah. An entire experience of me basically realizing that even after months of self-research, I still knew very little about what was happening on the frontier.
I knew also no one then at the conference and mostly hung out with the other Sydney crypto folks. For beginners and those that don't have a platform, crypto was and still is a very cliche space whether for the better or worse.
Mid-2018, I started trying to contribute to whatever projects were out there from doing documentation, to spell checking projects, to graphic design. Some of my fondest memories back then was me trying to make myself useful via efforts like EIP0, and Ethereum governance surveys.
I joined a Sydney based crypto project and worked full time for $1000 dollars a month. At this point, I was still too useless to get hired anywhere else so I just took it. Despite learning after 6 months I learned tons. During this time, it was also when @Meta_Cartel emerged.
In 2019, I spend my time trying to initially get a job, still couldn't get hired so worked on MetaCartel. Wanted to launch a dapp incubator. Failed to get that off the ground so I tried to join Moloch DAO. Rejected. Forked it to launch MetaCartel DAO with a seed of a good crew.
At this point, I was mostly driven by the idea and belief that our work with MetaCartel was important and mattered. I often thought about the work of those before during the cypherpunk saga of the 90s.
Late that year I crash-landed in LA nearly broke in @ameensol's house and together started @VENTURE_DAO. I was heavily leveraging my credit card at this point in time too, and selling nearly all of the little crypto I did have at the point.
This has been my path in crypto since. Most of my time was spent pretty broke scrapping together gig work to pay for the next conference/flight/hostel/airbnb or trying to find a job and just trying to do something useful in the space.
Not every story in this space is of buying BTC in 2012/2013. I would consider myself proudly part of the 2017 cohort that was swept in that never left.
I'm sharing this as I hope it can shed some light for those who are new and considering focusing full time on crypto.
I'm sharing this as I hope it can shed some light for those who are new and considering focusing full time on crypto.
3 Years in, still feel dumb most of the time.
Just still as rewarding though.
Just still as rewarding though.
