Why I chose to work in the Tezos Ecosystem
“No-one can see beyond a choice they don’t understand”
-The Oracle
Cryptocurrency has a messaging problem.
It’s as plain to me as the nose on my face.
Blockchain technology is a massively powerful idea. Its potential applications hold the promise of solving some of humankind’s most enduring and important problems. I firmly believe that, if used responsibly, it could make the world a better place for people all across the globe.
There are massive inefficiencies in the existing monetary systems of the world. Problems with inflation, needlessly complex and excruciatingly slow processes for moving money internationally — despite the increasingly global nature of modern commerce, lack of access to banking/investment platforms for wide swaths of the planet’s population (almost exclusively the poor and underprivileged, of course), the list goes on.
You’d think that an emerging technology with the potential to even the playing field a bit, iron out blatantly obvious inefficiencies in existing systems, and shield the capital of our fellow global citizens from runaway inflation driven by irresponsible government spending would be met with nothing short of a parade from the global community.
“Instead”, as Principal Seymour Skinner once famously remarked, “they spat on me”. News stories about lost and stolen coins, pundits deriding cryptocurrency as some kind of pyramid scheme, comparisons to tulip bulbs, implications that these tools will be used to fund terrorism, traffic humans, launder money, and sell drugs to children abound. They’ve harried the blockchain at every turn.
The crypto community’s response? Lambos, dogs on rockets, and DiarrheaCoin.
If the political landscape of the 21st Century has taught us anything, it is this: the side with the best memes ALWAYS wins. Sadly, we’re currently losing the crypto meme wars. If we continue to do so, the long-term results could be disastrous. The sooner we realize these important facts and step our game up, the better.
I’m here to do my tiny part to help turn the tide.
“I have a very particular set of skills”
-Brian Mills
Who am I?
My name is Stu, and I’m a marketer. In my Linkedin profile, I describe myself as a “nerd whisperer”. I enjoy learning about highly technical concepts and tools, and I translate them into plain language that anyone can understand. It’s kind of my thing. This skill has served me well since I entered the marketing game way back in 2016 (how young I was back then!).
I cut my marketing teeth with an A.I. startup in London. When I was hired, I knew very little about marketing, and even less about artificial intelligence. I didn’t let that stop me, however, and things worked out pretty well. I leveraged that experience and went on to work with brands in industries from eCommerce to drug rehab and a few things in between.
When the fine folks at Tezos Commons approached me about applying my particular set of skills to the advancement of the Tezos ecosystem and offered me the opportunity to work alongside the amazing and talented Marissa Trew on TezTalks Radio and TezTalks Live , I was intrigued, to say the very least.
In the end, I jumped at the chance.
“Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken”
-Tyler Durden
Why Tezos?
According to Statista, there are currently 10,397 cryptocurrencies in existence. I can’t say that I’ve paid attention to them all. Not even close. I’ve held a little bit of a select few of them over the years. That is, up until I fell on hard times and made one of the worst decisions of my life.
I sent that tweet on April 14, 2020. The price of a Bitcoin was about $7,000 USD that day, way down from its previous high just shy of $20K in December of 2017.
D’oh.
Anyway, after punching myself in the face repeatedly for about 9 months as crypto prices dwarfed anything we’d seen before, I returned, humbled, to the loving embrace of the blockchain after speaking with my friend Jev Björsell from ECAD Labs about Tezos.
My previous exposure to the crypto space as an investor had been colored almost strictly by hype cycles and the endless hunt for ‘gainz’. I’d never really scratched beneath the surface to understand what crypto was all about. Here was somebody I knew and respected working to build something meaningful — something with actual utility — with crypto. So, I asked a bunch of questions. What I came to realize is an important truth about the blockchain: not all cryptocurrencies are created equal.
Some thrive on hype and tweets from Elon Musk. Others thrive because their underlying tech is strong, because they have a vision, and because they have quality people who know what they’re doing toiling away behind the scenes to build something that works and solves real-world problems.
Tezos, I came to understand, falls firmly into the latter category. While others have focused their energy on self-promotion and short-term profits, the folks in the Tezos ecosystem have quietly focused on building something sustainable: a robust ecosystem backed by state of the art technology and the finest minds in the game.
Low gas fees, a well-managed and industry-leading environmental footprint, a self-amending chain, an effective on-chain governance model (I could go on, but I promised myself I’d never get too shilly). With large world class partnerships and engagement, the game is changing for the Tezos ecosystem, and it is only a matter of time until the world catches on.
And THAT’S why I’m going to work for Tezos.
