Ark Community Digest Ep. 11 — Michel ‘ItsANameToo’
Welcome back to our Ark Community Digest series, where each week we interview a community member and get to know how they found out about Ark as well as a bit about them! This week we have Michel ‘ItsANameToo’ who is an integral part of the Ark community and also a delegate!
What Made You Join The Ark Community?
Basically: Lisk. I found out about Lisk first, and after diving into what they do, it brought me to Ark. As a bonus, Ark had bounties which I thought was a nice touch to have (since most cryptos were loaded with money anyway, and some still are) and a way to give back to your community. These bounties are also what got me to stick with Ark after I decided to participate in them.
What Got You Into Cryptocurrencies In The First Place?
Monies. I heard of bitcoin in 2013, when it shot up in value to about 800 usd, then forgot about it and heard from Ethereum in 2017 when it first reached the 400 usd mark. I saw the price drop below 200 usd again and thought it was a nice way to earn some money on the side (since interest was shit anyway) and decided to step in. This lead me down the rabbit hole of all the available cryptocurrencies that are out there.
What’s Your Background & What Are Your Hobbies?
Computer Science, so my hobby is also my work. I like to learn new things, which Ark has also been able to provide me by being able to contribute to their different repositories. Other hobbies include gaming, but I don’t have much time for that at the moment.
What’s your Ambition For The Future
Keep learning new things and see where that takes me. I’m not one to plan ahead, instead I try to take opportunities whenever I see fit.
If You Could Think Of One Thing You’d Like To See For Ark, What Would It Be?
I would like to see ARKVM take place, as that would open up a lot of opportunities. The plugin system in v2 and webhooks can be used to add some additional functionality, but I don’t think that will really enable as many possibilities as a true VM would.
Who Is Your Favourite Ark Community Member & Why?
Hmmm. There are a couple that fit that description.
Brian, even though he’s technically team too, since he has made a lot of open source tools / plugins for Ark (e.g. v2 payroll, noah, etc.)
Not sure if I’m allowed to say it here, but Colby and Jolan from The Golden Horde are two of my favourites too (omg, who would’ve guessed). Due to all the cool stuff they put out, like the contests, art and other things like Arkvatar, even though the Ark price is not at a point to properly sustain this.
Where Do You See The Price Of Ark This Time Next Year?
Honestly, no idea. Nothing make sense regarding price in crypto, so I think it will either be higher or lower than it currently is.
You Can Have Your Dream Company Implement Ark’s Tech, Who Would It Be?
The public transport companies around here. Instead of having to work with cash or a not-so-well implemented “OV chipkaart” system, we should just be able to use Ark with the mobile wallet and scan a QR code when we hop on / off.
What Movie Quote Do You Think Could Be Used To Describe Crypto?
Not a movie quote, but a game instead:
“Keep your expectations low and you will never be disappointed.” — Kratos
Segment: Getting To Know Michel
In this segment we try to deep dive into asking some questions that have been on our minds at TGH after reading the answers above. Make sure to get in touch with Michel and let him know what you think of the article!
What’s The Idea Behind Your Username: ‘ItsANameToo’
Long story short: I suck at coming up with nicknames and needed one for Reddit. I tried “itsaname” but that was already taken. So I tried “itsanametoo”, which is a name too, and that one was still available. To save myself from having to choose another nickname again, I stuck with it and here we are.
You Mention Your Ambition Is To Learn, What Do You Want To Learn Next?
Lots of things, but currently I’m looking more into databases as my knowledge is lacking in that area. After I’ve upped that, I have a lot of other languages / flavours / frameworks that I want to get more familiar with, such as Laravel and React, and possibly look into Solidity to better understand how some of the smart contracts on Ethereum work.
You Like Ark’s Bounty System But Any Ideas On Ways To Improve?
From what I’ve heard they are possibly going to change the way the bounties work, so hopefully that’s for the best. The thing I would like to see is more specific assignments that you can work on, much like other GitHub projects have. So this would mean that the team would open an issue on a project and describe what they would like to see done (for example a specific feature to add, or simply adding more test coverage) and propose a bounty to get this done by someone from the community. Then you can claim such an issue and know what you will be working for, instead of having to wait until the end of the month to hear whether you have earned any extra Ark.
Conclusion
That marks the end of this article with Michel! Thanks for reading and let us know what you think and who you’d like to see next. As always stay tuned for next Monday’s edition!
