Infracon V1 - 6 Months In Deep Pockets

A reflection of my first six months, topped off with my experience at Pocket’s inaugural conference.

Tl;dr I’m incredibly excited to announce that I’m now leading Pocket’s V1 Protocol R&D team! This post gives a glimpse into the exhilarating 🎢 during my first six months at Pocket and the community behind this 🚀 shaping the future of Web3.

A bit of background

A little over six months ago, I published about my life-changing trip to Mexico on the Day of the Dead, which is basically half a decade in crypto years. Since then, the only constant in my life has been change, and I’m fortunate enough that almost all of it, though not always easy, still gets me excited and motivated to get out of bed every morning.

I’ll start with a quick recap for those who didn’t read my previous post.

I spent the better part of a decade living in different places, working various big-tech jobs across different parts of the technical stack with a major focus on MLOps and cross-team integration. I would always have a side project I was working on or ideating on, and Crypto was an ongoing side hobby since Vitalik’s early crypto-economic talks first lured me in. I even gave my own startup a shot in the construction industry with a couple of friends, but that’s a story for another day.

Through crypto Twitter, I became friends with @o_rourke, and got to be an early advisor for Pocket, though keeping a distant eye through most of its early growth years. After getting lured into their offsite in Mexico back in October, getting hooked on the vision, and succumbing to some untraditional recruiting techniques, I had zero hesitation that I needed to join the team full-time. Though I’m past the honeymoon phase at this point, I still can’t believe I get to wake up every morning and spend my day working on what I know will be one of the most influential infrastructural technologies of this decade. The day-to-day void I’ve had since the beginning of my career is gone, and the recurring thought of “What’s next in my career?” has transitioned to “What’s next for Pocket?”

Outside of work, I made a few personal changes as well. I moved from Mountain View, CA, to Bellevue, WA, managing a couple of health-related hiccups, and am deep down the neuro-hacking longevity rabbit hole. Though the blurring line between my personal and work life is something I know I should stay mindful of, I believe that when you love what you do and have the support from your team, friends and family to do it, including the occasional reminders to take breaks, there’s no better place to be.

My first 6 months

They say time flies when you’re having fun, but my first six months at Pocket show that time can dilate both ways when every day is as full of surprises as the last.

Day 1 - Things started pretty simply. My team was trying to figure out if they should call me Daniel, Dan, Danya, big-D, Olshansky or something else. I introduce myself as Daniel and identify as Olshansky, but am cool with whatever feels right. Some people just call me Olsh or Shansk.

Day 2 - The discord meetings we were having were done entirely verbally, so I suggested we start taking notes, which we still do to this day.

Day 3 - My CTO told me that given my interests and prior experience with distributed systems, I could drive the R&D component of our V1 consensus module. I had never implemented a BFT consensus algorithm before, so I was as excited as a 🐶, but I still can’t determine which of the following best reflects what was going through my mind:

Week 1 - I realized our documentation, tooling and onboarding docs aren’t good enough. If you’ve ever started a new job, none of this should be a surprise. I believe that starting a new job is always the best opportunity to update, improve or create these documents and processes that everyone on the team appreciates down the road.

Week 2/3 - Everyone on the team had their own workflow, and I struggled to differentiate personal preference from standard practice. I gathered what I could, hacked around a bit, and did a small presentation on improvements I made to the tools, along with suggestions on how to streamline our shared processes. Though it didn’t quite catch on, those learnings still play a role in our day-to-day work today.

Week 4 - The Pocket Network experienced a chain halt. I was utterly useless in every way possible but absorbed as much information as possible while transcribing it into our first crisis playbook! In retrospect, it was a fun team bonding experience and an eye-opening glimpse into how much support the core team gets from the greater node running community - one of many unique elements of Web3.

Week 5/6 - We started getting listed on crypto exchanges!

Week 7 - I flew out to Miami for a Pocket meetup hosted by one of Pocket’s most prominent OTC mediators and was surprised to find out that thunderheadotc.com was created and managed by two brothers (a.k.a the thunderboys): 13 & 17 years old. The meetup took place approximately when $POKT was at an ATH up to that point in time, so the environment definitely felt a little “forthy.”

Week 8 - I finished the very first pre-prototype of our consensus algorithm: HotPOKT.

Weeks 10/11 - Our team finished the very first integration of our V1 pre-prototype.

Weeks 11/12 - I flew to ETH Denver on behalf of Pocket. I had the opportunity to do my first conference talk, participate in my first panel, make new friends, build closer bonds with existing friends, meet some of my crypto idols, and most importantly, get a shit ton of free swag.

Months 4/5 - Things quieted down a little as we went heads down into an R&D phase during which I learnt about Elliptic Curves, Merkle Trees and learnt that code reviews come in all shapes and sizes after seeing my first 10,000+ line pull request.

Somewhere in the timeline above, I also learnt that having a public profile in the Crypto space, no matter how small, makes you a target to hackers, but that’s a story for another day.

Up next, the entire team was preparing for www.infracon.org, Pocket’s inaugural conference in the Dominican Republic!

Infracon

Infracon Genesis

Back in Mexico, everyone on the team had the opportunity to share and showcase what they and their teams were working on. It was a welcoming space to disseminate knowledge, align on the vision and spur healthy debate. But, more importantly, it was a source of inspiration that fueled everyone with ideas, ambition and delicious food in preparation for what was to come next.

During the offsite, Michael mentioned Infracon to me several times. The idea was to expand the offsite to include both the core team and the greater Pocket community. It made so much sense that I never questioned it. Only upon my arrival to the Dominican Republic did I learn that the presentations given at that offsite were the Genesis to the idea of Infracon.

The Conference

Unlike other conferences I’ve attended, Infracon isn’t just a glorified marketing campaign where Pocket gets everyone to BUIDL using our tools and products. Instead, Infracon is itself a tool, a platform, an infrastructural landscape to connect with our team, the community, showcase our work, immerse ourselves in big-brain discussions, inspire one another, relax on the beach, and enjoy a drink or two, or three, or four at night.

Rather than trying to put it into words myself, I’ll let the words of other team and community members speak for themselves:

*Shamelessly using this opportunity to remind you to sign up for updates to future events at www.infracon.org

Approximately 50 members from the core team and about 200 individuals from the community gathered in the Dominican Republic. Knowing that it was likely to be the first and last time Infracon would stay within the confines of Dunbar’s number was bittersweet. However, it was exciting to know that we got to share that experience with everyone who managed to make it.

Everyone who was there had a unique daily experience. Some team members brought their +1s, and some community members came with their entire families. Some people enjoyed the spa, while others took their kids to their first swimming lesson. Personally, I started my day drenched in sweat at a non-air-conditioned hotel gym, attending various talks and panels throughout the day, listening to community member proposals over lunch, discussing attack vectors with my team on the beach, getting to know people from other projects while wading through the ocean, and discussing the US judicial system on the way to a nightclub called “The Cave.”

The Panel

I had the opportunity to mediate a panel titled “Decentralize All The Things.” It was my first time moderating a panel, and with the help of a very supportive set of speakers, I got feedback that the discussion was both interesting and engaging. We covered various topics and honed in on what’s slowing down institutional and mainstream adoption of crypto use cases. Unfortunately, this panel was not recorded, so I’m hoping we can recreate it next year with the same panellists. One of them even suggested that we could reflect on what we, as individuals, as organizations, and as community members, have done to drive decentralization in the 12 months that will have gone by.

*To Pocket’s marketing team: if you’re reading this, please treat it as a formal request to have the same panel next year.

There was one topic in particular that stuck out to me. During the panel, and extending to multiple discussions off-stage, is how many people at the conference were already working professionals during the dot-com bubble. Being in my young ripe 20s*, though I was physically around during the 90s, the dot-com bubble is something I read about rather than experienced. I generally hover around the median of most crypto events, but I could tell I was surrounded by many more experienced people than I at the conference. What gave me energy was seeing all the similarities they were drawing from personal experience in crypto today relative to the internet in the early 90s. Though there is a lot of noise in the market, and some may disagree, I still believe it’s very early days.

* Note that I’m turning 30 at the end of the month, so still very much in my 20s*

I also have a very particular set of skills enabling me to sneak in Liam Neeson references where possible, and this panel wasn’t any different, so mission success.

The Presentation

I presented various aspects of our Research & Development progress on the Pocket Network V1 Protocol. Though parts of the presentation could have gone better, it was still a ton of fun. I think there was a moment when I started laughing so hard at one of my own jokes that I lost complete train of thought, but we’ll all be able to see once the videos are published.

I plan to personally dissect different parts of the presentations into their own detailed blogs and videos, so stay tuned for that.

The Offsite - Шашлык в океане

After the conference, the core team stuck around for another few days for a company-wide offsite. I’ve seen many companies try to breed a culture that is simultaneously inspiring, fun, inclusive, promoting work-life balance, but also supporting a blurry line between work, life and passion. The team here managed to fit it all in one Pocket without it feeling forced. After dozens of attempts of trying to put it into words, I’ve decided to to put it plain, simply and literally in Russian: Обсуждение блок-чейна с коллегами проходило на курорте в Доминиканской республике с текилой и прекрасными закусками прямо в океане рядом с морскими звёздами.

Pocket doesn’t simply operate by the mantra of “Work Hard, Play Hard.” Instead, it defines it, lives by it, embodies it, and seeing this culture trickle down from the top is absolutely incredible.

If you know me personally, you’d be very well aware that I’m not the wild party animal my tweets and hair tend to insinuate that I am. Though I can scramble up some ideas to crack a joke or two and can get very animated when I get excited about a particular topic, I’m otherwise a pretty reserved person. However, when you’re on a boat with your team, and your colleagues’ +1 starts teaching you how to Salsa, even Shakira would agree that my hips don’t lie, no matter how stiff they may be.

Growing Pains Learnings

In the months after Mexico and the weeks since Infracon, too much has changed to list out here. The worldwide macro landscape has shifted in more ways than one, the team has grown, several key early team members left, and a lot of our focus has started shifting towards working more closely with external community contributors.

Some tough conversations are taking place, and it’s not all roses and butterflies. Almost daily, I find myself on both sides of conversations exchanging technical guidance, mentorship, and emotional support. I went through a short phase needing to accept that the team and community aren’t always going to remain a small, tight-knit tribe. For a few, it will likely be their life’s work. For others, it’ll be a major path or stepping stone in their personal and professional journey. For many, it’s a learning opportunity, a side hustle, a hobby, a business or just an interest. Eventually, for some, it may just be another job. However, I know that everyone involved in Pocket today was bitten by the bug, and if you’re reading this, you likely know what I mean.

I’ve seen a couple of companies grow from mid to large-sized startups but am currently treading new waters, and I’m not referring to those of the Caribbean sea. The major difference this time is that Pocket is not just a product of the team but is a public good of the community. The only way it will fulfill its vision is not just by growing internally but by incentivizing and enabling the community to be as effective, if not more, as the core team. Part of this is just me shilling the ethos of Web3. Still, Pocket is a living and breathing example of this, with initiatives such as Triforce Shard Income Proposal, Universal Contributor Income or the new contributor program:

Move Fast and Test Things

The biggest lesson I’ve learnt about blockchain development to date is that we need to Move Fast and Test Things.

As a startup, especially in crypto, we must constantly learn, grow, adapt and move fast. However, in a world where one can’t just redeploy or roll back their service, there are often thousands of jobs and millions of dollars on the line if there is a bug, vulnerability or hack. For this reason, the importance and emphasis of the QA cycle exceed even those of most Web2 companies.

The primary issue, which extends beyond Pocket and most of the Crypto industry, is that the supporting tooling, documentation and ease of onboarding to protocol development is:

However, I see this problem as an opportunity in disguise.

As we continue the development of V1, we’re going to set a new standard for protocol development tooling, documentation and understanding. Pocket Network is laying the foundation to help Web3 live up to its full potential, and one of my personal goals on the V1 Protocol team is to lay the foundation to make understanding, testing and contributing to our protocol accessible to all.

We will publish the colouring book and let you bring it to life.

Self Reflection

One of the many reasons I got into Crypto is the beautiful mix of math, economics, distributed systems and cryptography. One of the many reasons why I’m staying is because of the opportunity I see of what we can achieve with the necessary tooling, documentation, processes and community support.

However, I still struggle to strike the balance of transparency, privacy and inclusivity. Should everything I write, do, say or plan be public? Should it all be raw and uncut or reviewed by the team? Where do we draw the boundaries between what’s shared within the group and what we can share with the community? I don’t have the answers, but I’m simply sharing some of the questions I ponder daily. When we nail the answers to these questions, Pocket will be a self-perpetuating unstoppable movement, and I can see that we’re on the right path.

What’s Next?

I’ve always wanted to be a Zero to One guy, and it took me a long time to accept that I might not be. The original team at Pocket did the hard part and brought me in to do the fun part. I will help take it from 1 to 100 and enable those around me to further scale it from 100 to 1000.

As I write this, I simultaneously feel fear, excitement, nervousness and joy. I can’t wait to get back to this feeling tomorrow because I know I have the support of my team, friends, family and community to keep going.

Shoutout to @photosfla for not only 📸  a lot of these moments, but also doing so with style.

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Thank you to AdamLiposky for proofreading and reviewing this blog post.