Meet Phoenix Zerin, our new VP of Engineering

Originally from the United States, Phoenix has spent his recent years traveling around South America and Southeast-Asia before making his way to New Zealand where he fell in love with the Kiwi culture and way of life.

Phoenix got into blockchain around 6 years ago when he discovered a company called Invictus Innovations. At the time, they were building a system that would eventually evolve into BitShares (the precursor to Steem and EOS). He found the idea of a network of anonymous participants all working together without relying on a coordinator fascinating, and continued to dig deeper, discovering Bitcoin (and all of its clones).

“I became convinced that we were at the start of something big” he understates.

Several years later, Phoenix started to get involved in blockchain development, while working in a Fintech company, architecting and developing systems for real-time data analysis. To scratch his blockchain itch, he built PyOTA, the python API library for the IOTA cryptocurrency - technically is not a blockchain, but let’s not got too deep on that!

Phoenix is a developer with a passion for platforms.

“I’m really passionate about the ‘meta game’: creating value for value creators. I love to enable developers to build their products, and create opportunities for entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses,” he says.

In his spare time, Phoenix volunteers at a code academy, rides motorcycles, and has recently become interested in the apt Kiwi pastime of bushcraft when he’s not taking care of his extremely lovable feline, Sirena.

At Tatau, Phoenix will be managing the engineering side of the company, overseeing development of the platform. He’s excited to grow his team, maintain high code standards, and build the future of distributed computing.