Tell me something that’s true, that almost nobody agrees with you?
Capitalism is the new modern religion, at the expense of traditional ones, like Catholicism. Growth allows everyone to get richer together as we live in a positive-sum game. People won’t accept the status quo of the previous society, like the Middle Age, and strive to build their own wealth in this free market. The interesting part is how heavily they both rely on beliefs and shared storytelling, to sustain.
How did you get interested in web3 and what you are currently working on?
Came for the money, stayed for the tech. I discovered Bitcoin and Ethereum in the 2017 bull run. Went into the tech rabbit hole and never came out.
I’m working on Zilly, a web3 social network to connect communities of builders in web3 and show their contributions.
What soft & hard skills have been most helpful in helping you succeed in web3?
Soft: Curiosity and open mindedness
Hard: Programming to build, and engineering to model and understand complex systems
What do you focus on to differentiate Zilly from other competitors?
Main aspect we are focusing on is to enable web3 builders to signal their work through peer-verified NFT badges. Also, we want to give each community a place on-chain by representing its members’ structure through NFTs. We’ll build on top of the LENS protocol for that.
What problem does your project solve? What is your vision?
We give communities and builder the tool to build and own their network while signaling their contributions. The vision is to build a better reputation system, composable and borderless by design, that adapts to new ways of working, DAOs and web3.
What would you say is the most challenging aspect of managing a team in web3?
Right now we’re only 2.5 people. So there isn’t a team to manage, just tasks to split.
Twice a month,
the best stories straight into your inbox
What’s the best thing about your job? The most challenging?
I’m passionate about what I do and rarely feel like I’m working.
Doubt and FOMO. This space is moving fast, there is no playbook on how to do stuff the web3 way, everything is experimentation. It often puts me in a situation of doubt about my vision and ideas, plus, it makes me feel like I’m missing out on financial opportunities.
What is your favorite web3 Project? Among the people you’ve worked/interacted with in web3, who do you admire most and why?
Arweave, the decentralized permaweb protocol. Lifetime storage of data with a single upfront cost. The protocol design is brilliant, they have no direct competitor, and the founder gives very good vibes!
Favorite web3 thinker on social media?
Balaji (a classic).
What is your vision for your niche? What do you expect to come in the next few years?
Wallets are opening the door to Single Sign-On (SSO). They are becoming the base layer of our digital identity, replacing email thanks to their supercharged abilities of built-in payment and cryptographic signature. While we have a lot of financial tools to track and showcase our wealth, we lack the means to express what matters even more: our identity, our contributions, and our connections.
For us, LinkedIn is a joke and all we have left to show our achievement is a Twitter bio of 160 characters. In Web3, your reputation travels with you. It doesn’t live on a siloed platform. However, we still need a place to curate and showcase this new digital identity.
I expect NFT to extend to many (any?) digital applications, not only art and pfp as it is right now. L2 scaling solutions (both optimism and zk rollups).
What quote has actually stuck with you and changed your life?
Folies are the only thing that we never regret - Oscar Wild
I would not say it changed my life though ahah but it stuck with me.
What is the question that has not been asked here that you would have enjoyed reading the answer to from one of your peers? Answer it.
What’s your advice to start working in web3? Just be proactive and build stuff. Stay curious and open. Start with small things, collaborate on projects you like.
Everybody is open to new motivated people, the more you do, the bigger your network, and thus, the more opportunity you get :)
