Panel Session: Finding the right path to protocol development and growth as a Web3 Developer

Transcript

And this wonderful panel session is going to be hosted moderated by Moritado. Please a round of applause for them as they come to the stage. >> JM I hope I've been enjoying the wonderful talks by the speakers so far. All right. Yeah. Um this panel session actually is something that is kind of personal to me because personally I'm a web3 developer trying to make my journey into protocol development and that is exactly what this panel session is about and if you are a web 3 developer like me who is trying to get into protocol development I'm going to advise that uh you listen to the insights by my wonderful panelists and take um note of

what they're going to be talking out. So, we're just going to get started. Uh, I have limited time, so I'm just going to ask the question first and then when I give you the microphone, you introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about what you're doing and then you can answer the question, right? Does that work? All right. Yeah. Thank you um very much because you are the closest to me. So, I'm just going to start from you, David. My first question to you David would be, what core skills do you think every web 3 protocol developer should master beyond just coding?

>> Hi everyone. Uh my name is David. I'm the co-founder of Polytop Labs, the team behind HyperBridge. Uh so the a core skill I think uh protocol developers should master would be Yeah. A core skill I think protocol developers should master would be uh learning how to read technical papers. Yeah. And technical documentation like you have to be able to like uh read the let's say the Bitcoin white paper now and be able to understand what it's saying and be able to like implement it to some extent. So I would say that's the core skill that a protocol developer requires because most of protocol development is research. So you do research, you find issues you're

trying to like uh solve, problems you're trying to solve, you do research into different protocols, then you come up with a solution and this research mostly involves reading technical papers. So that's one core skill I would say like a protocol developer should develop. >> Um thank you very much David. That was a wonderful answer. uh research reading technical documentation is a core skill for any aspiring protocol developer. You must be able to read white papers and all. Thank you very much once again. Uh Francis, hi. Okay, so my question to you Francis is going to be what drew you into web3 development and how did you decide to focus on protocol development rather than building DAPs?

>> Okay. Hello everyone, my name is Chinaso Francis. Um, what drew me to protocol development? Well, um, I think like getting into the space, it has it's it always like interested me like getting to understand how everything works under the hood, right? like getting to know how every other thing like how the infrastructure works >> that every other thing um is built upon. So um that's basically what drew me to protocol development like having that technical understanding of how everything works under the hood.

>> Yeah. Uh thank you very much Francis for that answer. So for him, what drew him into protocol development is he wants to know what goes beyond just building DAPs. We're building DAPs on blockchain and he wants to know what exactly is powering this blockchain. How is everything coming together? And I think that's that's like a wonderful inspiration. All right, wisdom. Uh my question to you is there are many blockchain protocols blockchains and protocols out there. How should a developer who is trying to like find their feeds in protocol development decide which ecosystem or which protocol we should build on cuz everything almost

just they come. >> Okay. So everyone my name is wisdom. Um I am a zk research engineer. So um before I was a protocol engineer at dash protocol and then I worked with scro as a senior zk engineer and now I am Francis and which are building like a zk research lab here in Africa. So um that's the very wrong question to ask me in particular because of that's not something that I optimize for right um in my head the idea or the main idea here is that you need to search for growth like that's what you should be maximizing for. So you are at a certain

level you have a certain set of capabilities that you can do right now and then the idea is that don't be stagnant right you need to figure out some plan some strategy to increase your capability set right so in the case now it's not like a chain per se might give you that it's more like this internal drive to want to know more and know more and know more so protocol development is just like one instantiation of this problem, right? Like if you are at the DAP layer, you have like competition, right? Like a lot of people go into that because of it has minimal barrier to entry and then that increases competition and then that reduces the pie that you could take. So protocol

development is now like the next phase, right? So you can basically like optimize for something more difficult that has a higher barrier to entry and then that basically increases the opportunities that you could have. So sorry I have no answer for like which particular chain you should do because I feel like that was like optimizing for something that might not necessarily be what is most important. >> Okay. Um I love that you mentioned you are a ZK researcher, right? And you're building something around ZK for Africans.

>> A research lab. Yeah, >> a research lab. Exactly. So how did you choose ZK? What was what was that um what was that click for you that oh this this is something I'm interested in this is something I want to build on >> exactly that same idea right when I started my journey I started as a front-end developer right and I stumbled on like HTML CSS I just stumbled on a book and then I was like wow so all this website I've been visiting I can actually build it right so I started learning that and then after a while I was like this is too easy I've gotten to the point where I can't like understand it but I want to improve. So then I went to backend development and I did that for a while for a very long while and then and I realized that same problem I

have gotten to the stagnation point I need to improve. So then I started learning like Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchains and then I learned so much that I got a job at Dash right where I could like practicalize this stuff and then at the same time I got to a point where okay I have gotten stagnant I kind of like know what I need to know now I need to move on again and then that's where ZK now came in. But ZK is still a journey that I'm kind of on. But it's just this like search for more and more and more and more. >> All right. Uh thank you very much. Um wisdom that was very very insightful and packed. All right. Uh back to you David.

Yeah. So my second question to you this afternoon, what advice would you give to developers who want to not just build but also leave a lasting impact in the web 3 ecosystem beyond building? Uh okay. So I'll say the first thing you need is you need to understand the core offerings of web 3 and blockchains. So the most successful protocols are built around these core offerings. So you need to understand that okay blockchains provides majorly three things. They provide uh decentralization, verifiability and permissionlessness. So any protocol that is being built on on a blockchain or using decentralized technology should somehow offer these

core values. If you are building something that is not offering these things then the chances of success are very low. So you need uh you can even see the uh a lot of protocols that are not really they don't really have these core values but they still uh market themselves as having all these values because everyone that is in web3 and blockchains they come here because they want to use something that is permissionless that is verifiable or uh decentralized and that's why defi is the most successful application of uh blockchains because generally financial applications they are much better when you don't have to KYC um uh like be some give up your sovereignity. So you you need to build around these core values if you want any

success. Yeah. >> All right. So um building around these core values that you've mentioned uh thank you very much. Uh next question is going to be to you Francis. Right. So my next question to you is if you were starting your web 3 journey today what path would you take differently? Okay. I was starting my web pro journey today. I think um one thing people or let me use like an example to illustrate out um what I'm to drive at.

Some people when starting web three they tend to just jump right into web three, right? But one thing they tend to forget is that web 3 is kind of like an extension of web two, right? So if you know the fundamentals of web two very well, it's very easy to get into web three and perform excellently in web 3. But then like some people just jump into web 3 without like any basics in web two. So I think like um mastering the fundamentals of web 2 is something that um I would say if I was to do it differently right I would have gone say that part and then like well

generally I think my journey has been there's nothing I would like to change but like I enjoy my journey. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. So uh as a developer that is trying to get into the web three space, you need to know that mastering the uh basics of the web two is very very important because like it like everybody knows web 3 is not just web 3, it's powered by something and it's it's powered by web two. So without web two there's almost no web 3. So mastering those basics in the web two is very very important. Thank you once again, Francis. Uh, wisdom, my next question for you, looking back, what were the biggest challenges you

faced when you were first navigating the web tour space and how did you handle it? The biggest thing is time, right? Um, the biggest currency to get good is time. You can use money to buy time, but money is not the direct currency. Time is the direct currency. So, the biggest thing for me was figuring out how do you survive while also optimizing for the long-term goal, right? you know, it's not just short-term um okay, I'm trying to survive and then you're just stuck in

this local maxima where you always have this idea that okay, I need more money. I need more money. I need more money, but I want to do this thing, right? And then you never break out of this local maxima to go and pursue what you really want to do. So the biggest challenge is figuring out some kind of structure to survive and also pursue longterm right then once you have that time obviously that's a very hard problem but assume that okay you somehow found time we can discuss more about like how to do that but then once you have that time it's now like okay fundamentals really matter right like really learning the

fundamentals allow like the because there's a lot of variations in knowledge like certain things are instantiations of something more fundamental like once you understand this fundamental stuff all these other stuff are really easy they're just like oh it's this thing but you change it this way it's this thing but you change it this way so some people can make might get overwhelmed learning all the variations but then once you focus on like fundamental knowledge you can basically pick up these things really easily So time that's the biggest thing. Figuring out some mechanism is hard but there's a way to figure out some mechanism to get that time currency and then exchange that time currency for growth which can give

you more money which can give you more time which can give you more you see the flywheel. >> Yeah. >> Right. Thank you very much. I love how you mentioned that that um you know most of us now we're trying to um study for the long term. you want to focus on one thing but at the end of the day you have bills to pay you have to survive right so you need to find a way to like balance it I think I was having this conversation today with Tiana about how okay I want to do this but then I also need to survive I can't fully lock in on one thing because I need to lock in on something else that's going to keep me going right my natural next question for you is going to be you said there's a

way my natural next question for you is going to be what is that way. >> So I'll just give an example of the way I did it, right? >> Okay. >> So I have this idea whereby if you present to me two opportunities, okay, one of them pays me a certain amount. Let's say um X, right? And then another but it gives me minimal time, right? So it pays me X but I don't have any time to learn anything. Then I have another opportunity below my skill level.

earning less money but gives me more time. To me, the choice is simple. It's really simple because I'm not optimizing for the local maxima. This salary, this X is not the it's not the end, right? So, I will take the thing that will actually give me less money enough to survive but gives me time. Now, I have that currency that actually matters for growth. So I do my work and then I take out time to learn something more advanced something that can fetch more long-term and then when you keep on doing this you so it's hard right that now I can't do that anymore but before I could so when you do this what happens

is that you now get to a point where you have developed another skill to a certain level now you can cash in that skill in the market for more money and potentially the ability to learn something even more advanced and then it's just this mechanism that you're just like pushing forward. Now, the way I do it is I go into the market full-time for a long period of time. I accumulate savings and then I just so that right now I've not been working for like a year, right? Just doing stuff, trying to build stuff. But that's like I'm relying on like the savings that I accumulated over time. Yeah.

>> All right. >> But it's just time. Time is the currency. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much um wisdom for that. I believe every one of us would have picked one or two from from that um insight. Yeah. Uh my next question to you David which is also going to be my last question. It's actually a question we would all answer uh is going to be if you had one piece of advice to developers looking to find their path in protocol development what would it be? >> Uh I'll say contribute to open source. That's one of the major ways to get ahead in protocol development. There are many open source uh protocols that have fellowships that allow you to contribute and they might even pay you to to do

this like I think Ethereum has a fellowship, poker has a fellowship. So you have to like be willing to contribute even if even if it's for free like even if they won't pay you anything you you need the experience because generally no one will give you a chance if they have not seen what you can do and the only way to show uh what you can do is through uh your open source contributions because web 3's most projects in web three are based on open source and if you have no significant contributions in open source protocols that most of these projects use then there's really no way for you to get the required experience and usually for for you to get uh ahead in something you need to study like you need to do an

apprenticeship so open source contribution is the way to go yeah >> all right thank you very much David for that guys open source contribution only does not just focus on the ones that are going to be paying you try to contribute to project as well just to get the experience all right Francis if you had one advice to give to a developer trying to find their path I think protocol development what would it be? >> Okay. Um for me I I would say they should build interesting stuff, right? So like sometimes we see people or we hear people build let's say an LLM or let's say build a protocol from scratch like there are some of these um examples out

there right and like there are tutorials basically to help you build let's say a blockchain protocol from scratch and you can take one of those tutorials walk through it because it will give you like fundamental understanding basically firsthand knowledge right on how this the different parts of this protocol work. So it may not be easy but then like if you try to see that you finish it and probably like make it public that that will be a very good um way to show that you truly know this protocol right you truly understand it like building a protocol from scratch if you don't

understand that protocol you can't build it from scratch right so I think that would be like one example just pick a protocol you're interested in um find out if they have like tutorials on how to build the protocol from scratch. If they don't, you can as well like do that, right? Try to break down the protocol, try to understand the different components of the protocol and then you can try to build say one part of the protocol. After building that part of the protocol, you can look for the next part to build. And after building the different components of this protocol, you can decide to stitch them up together to to build like a product. I don't know if that makes

sense, but that's >> all right. Thank you very much, Francis. Guys, try to build a protocol. It's one it's one very good way to learn. Actually, you learn more by doing rather than just sitting down watching tutorials, right? Um wisdom, one advice for a developer trying to find their path. So I'm sorry that my advices are not very like concrete. They're more like abstract but there is a reason I love I know everything like that. So um for me now in this case so depend on what you're optimizing for right if you're optimizing for alo like a job or for impact if you're optimizing for impact what's the most important thing

you are you know what you're doing right you have the capability and then you can solve impactful problems in the space right that's if you're optimizing for impact if you're optimizing for lost a job or you need to do two things right you need to have the capability And you need to show that you have the capability. Like those two things are really important. And that's where both of the advices come in, right? Like you cannot build if you don't know, right? But then when you know, you should also like build. So the way I look at it is like you pick like a hard problem beyond your skill set right now, but it's relevant to whatever it is that you're trying to do and then you go for that. Right? Once you have solved that

problem, you would have increased what you can do now, right? And you also have a shipable intermediary. So shippable intermediary is like you have like a long-term goal, but then you need to like produce stuff that people can see, right? So those are shippable intermediaries. So you take a target that is shippable. So project based building, right? And then you learn everything you need to learn to achieve that. Once you have achieved that, you publish that. Now you are showing you have the capability and you are also building the capability and then now that you have gotten better you can pick something even more advanced and then just continue doing that. So open source is like an example of like a way to show and also learn right but then there are other ways you could do that like just

follow curiosity build and then just like show that's that's just the that's the key thing to be honest but it's not limited to protocol it's just doing hard stuff like doing the stuff that like really hard and really impactful the things that actually move the needle. Yeah >> those are things guys. All right. Um, thank you very much Wisdom for that. Uh, with this I we have come to the end of this panel session. I know we would love to keep hearing from these wonderful speakers. You can connect with them later at the event. I'm sure they're going to be around. If you have questions for them, you can ask them questions and they'll be available to answer your questions. Thank you very much, David. Thank you, Francis. Thank you, Wisdom. And thank you guys. A round of applause for my panelists, please.