Meet Cedric — Head of Technology
ixo’s 3D-printing enthusiast
Today we introduce Cedric Franz, Head of Technology for ixo, who also likes to 3D-print drones.
Cedric was born in Paarl, which is a wine-growing region in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Cape Town is one of the biggest tech hubs on the continent and has a fast-growing and enthusiastic blockchain community.
Cedric — how do you describe what you do to your children (ELI5)?
I write computer programs that make it cheaper and easier to do good work to save the planet, take people out of poverty, and in general to make the world a better place for everyone to live.
What does a typical day at work look like for you?
My typical day at ixo involves, firstly, checking in on how the software development is going. I sort out any problems that are slowing down development. Then I focus on looking ahead to plan out the architecture and the future product development that needs to be completed to align with the needs of the organization. I do a lot of research to keep up to date with all the new technologies and ways of solving problems.
How did you learn about blockchains?
I have always been in the payments space and it was a natural progression to get involved in cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are very interesting, but more so the blockchain technology that cryptocurrencies are based on. Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, so it is really exciting to be involved in this space at this time.
What is another exciting project in the blockchain space you’ve heard about recently?
What really excites me are the blockchain technology platforms themselves. There is a lot of very interesting work being do around improving performance, scalability, and making it easy to use the blockchain platforms. At the moment I am looking at dapp.tools, which are building amazing tools for building blockchain based applications on Ethereum.
What is the professional accomplishment of which you are most proud?
Building and architecting the Fundamo Mobile Payment Platform, which pioneered mobile payments in Africa.
If you had six months with no obligations or financial constraints, what would you do with the time?
I would travel with my family for half the time to non-mainstream places that have interesting cultures. For the remainder of the time I will spend time researching and building some amazing tech.
What is your life motto?
To balance my personal life and my work life; continue learning and treat people with respect.
What was the last book you read?
“I Am Pilgrim” by Terry Hayes.
We just got a 3D printer in the office, what are you printing now?
A “Kame: 8DOF small quadruped robot”. I just need to add in the servo motors and connect this to the app on my mobile phone.
Which Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) are you most passionate about?
SDG #15 — Life on Land. I spend a significant amount of time in the outdoors and I am passionate about animals and their environment. I’m very excited to see which applications are built on ixo to have big impacts relevant to this SDG.
You can learn more about our work and how to get involved at ixo.foundation
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ixo_impact
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ixofoundation/
Github: https://github.com/ixofoundation
Slack: http://bit.ly/2jleltO
Email: info@ixo.foundation
