Retrospective: 1 Year at PoolTogether
What I’ve Learned. The Good. The Bad. And What’s Next.
The Good
PoolTogether is a small team with a big vision… Prizes. Prizes everywhere!
Ethereum, more specifically EVM compute environments, are continuing to grow in scale and usage. And gamification of a no-loss prize network is a
no-brainer when it comes to Decentralized Finance. Especially as a primitive.
PoolTogether is solving is difficult problems required to create a robust MultiChain PrizePool Network that is both fun and safe to use.
People want it. And we want to build it for them.
After almost 1 year at PoolTogether I’ve learned several important lessons.
Adapt & Evolve
The first lesson I learned working at PoolTogether is…
“Maintain a steady focus towards small iterative improvements.”
Small iterative improvements solve problems. Sometimes it’s not a “sexy problem” or mentally stimulating, but the problem being solved is important none-the-less.
From what I can tell the best growth is the growth that contends with today, while also creating space for tomorrow. Or put simply a modular codebase that allows you easily solve problems you didn’t for-see, while also allowing a team to double down on what works.
Sometimes an initial hypothesis was so wrong an entirely new codebase is required. But that should be a last resort. First, iterate and test. Find out what Users like, what Users don’t like. Make small, iterative improvements until the big vision becomes clear and approachable.
Test Everything. Then Test It Again.
The second lesson I learned working at PoolTogether is…
“Test driven development is the key too engineering quality products in Web3.”
Security and speed is essential in the Web3 space. First, it’s absolutely critical to protect user’s from malicious actors and to minimize all possible external risks. No questions about it. Security is priority numero uno.
After security though, it’s essential to quickly adapt and evolve to survive.
New features matter. Competitors exist. Partnerships are essential.
As a self-taught Engineer in the Web3 space, starting my journey down application development with Open Source Content Management Systems almost 15 years ago… I ultimately trained myself “to do” by breaking, learning and building.
Unfortunately I never pushed myself to learn the fundamentals of test-driven development and proper scoping of unit tests from end-to-end.
That’s not the case anymore.
Decentralized Systems Are Powerful
The third lesson I learned (relearned) working at PoolTogether is…
“Web3 has the power to transform people’s lives for the better.”
While, it’s not always easy to see, because it feels as if mania and speculation has again taken over. At the end of the day I have to remind myself that what I am building can positively impact people’s lives in ways I don’t understand.
“Banking the unbanked” was the message that originally drew me to Ethereum.
And ultimately… while I lost sight of it too. It’s the vision, when I am reminded of, is the one that drives me towards action with conviction.
PoolTogether is my opportunity to wake up excited everyday to solve interesting technical problems, but also more important, one day positively impact 1,000’s or even 10,000’s of people around the world with better financial systems and tools.
The Bad
Community Is Difficult
PoolTogether has a vibrant community. People are engaged. The meme economy is strong and people like (I think) the product.
But… The question of “How to optimally activate all the PoolTogether community members?” I don’t think has been answered, yet.
The PoolTogether Community (Inc, DAO and Partners), along with many other CryptoNative communities, collectively still need to learn how to scale community and contributions. Moving quickly with a community, alongside an evolving protocol is a difficult problem. And requires a lot of ongoing coordination and communication.
People are knocking at our door 🚪
But we’re still putting in the foundation 🏗
What’s Next
PoolTogether is solving important problems, both from a protocol and ecosystem perspective. Ethereum Mainnet is still King, but no longer the only Player in the game.
EVM compute environments will continue to grow in scale.
Distributing prizes (interest) across these EVM environments is a challenge.
Requiring both a deep technical understanding of what’s possible in the EVM and also the construction of protocol layer incentives via fluid asset management. An interesting but difficult problem.
People love PoolTogether. It’s simple to understand. Actually gamifies decentralized finance. And provides a great APR! What’s not to like?
But as an evolving organism we’re still not quite ready for symbiosis.
However… that won’t be the case forever. Reaching similar conclusions to other DeFi protocols, PoolTogether is arriving at a high-resolution understanding how to optimize Tokenomics in a secure and scalable decentralized finance protocol.
What’s next for me is helping construct PoolTogether’s core systems while also preparing for greenfield growth that comes with an ecosystem powered by fluid value/resource/energy distribution.
