Humans of Crypto #2: Interview with Prad
Primer: Prad is a friendly and helpful dev that we had the pleasure to work with. In this episode of The Reading Ape's Humans of Crypto TextCast, we dive into his background to learn about what makes him tick. We are hopeful that more people would come to appreciate the tireless work of crypto devs working hard behind the scenes.
Background
Share with us your background. What did you do before this?
I started my software development journey in 2017. I started with Java and some basic web development. I spent time learning all sorts of frameworks, languages, and tools. After graduating in 2019,
I started working as an independent contractor. I had looked up blockchain at some point in 2018, but I wasn't that good of a developer by then, and also, there were not as many resources as today. Then I started learning about Web 3 and blockchain from a developer's point of view. Soon, I got an opportunity to work at Defipedia, which allowed me to get more involved in DAOs, Web 3 ethos, and economics.
Why do you use your real name in crypto? Why not an anon handle?
When I started, I wasn't really aware of it. Also, I didn't have a decade of experience in different industries, and I was an independent contractor. Hence, it wasn't like I was risking my employment.
How did you find out about crypto? What made you take the leap into it?
I have been curious but not really divided into it for a while as other things were going on in my life. In 2020, I noticed frequent posts about Web3 in DevPost, which led to me getting involved in some projects and learning smart contract development. And I started experimenting with some ETH and USDC in Compound and learned more. And I think the good part was that I got a little bit before the hype, which kept me safe from scams. I am still learning as I deal with my first bear market.
About the leap, I believe that DeFipedia was a big fork in my life. I had some other opportunities that would have kept me safe; those roles were my goal a year ago. But something in me thought of taking that chance with DeFipedia. Above Average Joe played a big part in me being in Web 3 today.
Why and when did you start learning Solidity? How does it compare to other Web2 programming languages?
My reason for starting learning was quite casual. I wasn't really learning because I strongly believed in the ethos and capabilities of Web 3. It was a pandemic, so I had time on me.
I was good enough as a developer that I could manage to learn from the limited resources at the time (I spent a lot of time just dealing with errors in Solidity 0.4), and it felt like it would help my career. Everything about the ethos, Web 3's potential, and the macro-level problems it can solve, E.g. Hyper-inflation in countries like Argentina and managing carbon offers came later for me as I learned about those things after some smart contract development.
I primarily did web development before I got into Solidity, so although syntax was similar, many things are more familiar to Java and C. One big difference is optimization. It is easy to not care about it in the web apps because we don't notice that much of a difference unless you deal with tons of data processing. But in Solidity, you get to see a direct effect on cost.
Did you mention regenerative economics on your Twitter bio? What is it and what does it mean to you?
I was introduced to the concept first by KlimaDAO and later by CitizenDAO. In the last year, I lurked around some public goods projects, and I realized that it is harder to fund them. To me, regenerative finance means parking your capital and relatively good ROI while having that capital used towards communal good.
Are you a gamer? What's your favourite game that is non-crypto related?
Not really. I wanted to be a gamer in high school but couldn't manage to get into it. And when I could, I was more interested in work/study or taking time off when I was not doing one of those things. I got into chess this year and managed to get to an 1100 rating. I enjoy playing blitz and bullets between my Pomodoro cycles. If I got into gaming, I think I would play story-based games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Life Stranding.
Which sector resonates more with you? DeFi or NFTs?
I am more of a DeFi guy. The reason is that getting into DeFI piqued my curiosity in economics and led me to learn about it. And I am not an artist. Although there are other use cases for NFTs like project bootstrapping, I am not an artist, and I enjoy dealing with logistics, code, and maths more than art.
Projects
What projects are/were you involved in?
I have contributed to multiple projects in BanklessDAO here and there, but lately, I have been spending a significant amount of time on Bankless-Checkout, an e-commerce plugin for crypto native payments, token-gating, and NFT redemption. I recently joined Crystalize as a teaching assistant, a 12-week Web 3 Developer boot camp.
How did you get involved with DeFiPedia? Share with us the origin story
This was around August 2020. I have taught myself some smart contract development and other tooling around it. I was working as a freelancer and contributing to hackathon projects to learn more while interviewing for some roles. And I was reached out by Sam. We have worked in the common circle by then. And he mentioned that there's a project named DeFIPedia, and they are looking for a developer. Soon, I was on a call with Above Average Joe and had an offer. This was the same time that I got another offer letter from one of the companies I was interviewing for the UI Engineer role. If I am being honest, my pros and cons list favored that other role, but for some reason, I got a gut feeling to take the role at DeFIPedia.
And I consider it a big fork in my life as it led me much deeper into DeFi, DAOs, economics, and public goods. It also allowed experience leading projects as a developer, from design documents to MVP. Working on all sorts of things, be in the back-end, front-end, smart contracts, DevOp, or project management. It also led to a truly fantastic friendship with Above Average Joe which I treasure.
How did you get started with Bankless DAO? What is your current role in the DAO?
I joined BanklessDAO within the first week of its launch and soon became an L2 contributor. In BanklessDAO, I spend my time running The Knowledge Sessions, a weekly workshop covering all sorts of topics like tokenomics, smart contract development, security, and DAO tooling. And I also work as a full-stack developer on Bankless-Checkout.
On DAOs
What are your best and worst experiences in a DAO?
I got to work with some fantastic and talented people, which I pretty sure wouldn't have been. Being in DAO got in touch with all sorts of people, like Core Developers, Yale Graduates, Standford Alumni, and VC Investors.
Sometimes the concept of being a flat organization can lead to no project managers and poor coordination. I have seen projects with great potential go stagnant due to this.
In your view, are there any ways to improve the DAO experience?
I think the two big lessons from this cycle are :
Diversified, lean treasuries
Maintaining business efficiency while being decentralized.
Trivia
What’s the most controversial thought you have on crypto?
I am actually in favor of regulations. But minimal regulations so we can avoid and/or penalize scammers. We have seen plenty of influencers using NFTs to extract values because it was in the hype. I have seen Web 3 ethos being used as buzz words leading to cash grabs from their "community." This also gave a bad reputation to the industry. This doesn't mean giving all the control, as I don't think that we can trust CDBC given how protestors' bank accounts were frozen in Canada and the SEC couldn't manage their own Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) peg. So, I think that thoughtful, minimal regulations can be helpful.
Name one mistake you have made in crypto and what you have learned from it
Last year, I lost a significant portion of my capital by leveraging my Ether (to stack more ETH) and not regularly selling to take out profits. You lose, You learn.
When was the last time you did something for the first time? What did you do?
Nothing particular comes to mind, but I started working out again in Feb and have been doing it regularly. Last month, I got into Callisthenics and had been trying to learn headstand push-ups.
What is one thing that you know that most people don’t?
I can bet that I can make the best sandwiches, especially in North America (I am vegetarian, and options are limited here)
Conclusion
Can you recommend one person that you know personally and has an amazing story to share?
Above Avg Joe and Nononsense (https://twitter.com/nonsensecodes)