Meet Waves Association members: Sander de Mooij
Sander de Mooij, Waves’ active community member and the host of the WavesAssist node, talks about prospects of the Waves Association and the blockchain space in general.
Q: Could you, please, tell us briefly about your background?
A: I have over 10 years of experience in the IT landscape and I have fulfilled a lot of different roles, but in the last 5 years, I have been specialized in the cyber security field, working as a security engineer. In 2017, I got in contact with crypto for the first time, and I was soon attracted to Waves because of the potential I saw in the project and because of its great community. In 2018, I became a Waves ambassador and also hosted my own node, WavesAssist. This year, I stepped up my activities by also hosting a WEST node, and I became a member of the Waves Association.
Q: When and how did you get interested in blockchain?
A: As I said, in 2017, a friend suggested that I should invest in crypto because I could earn a lot of money with it. This was the first time I got in contact with crypto and after losing a lot of money back then I started to look at the blockchain technology instead of trading. The tech behind crypto attracts me more than the “money” and speculative part of it, and so I continue to learn more about the tech. Because Waves has always been a leader in the development of the newest tech, I have kept connected to Waves and I am proud to be a member of the Waves Association!
Q: How long have you been involved with Waves and what was your first encounter with the project?
A: 2017 was the year when I got in contact with Waves. First, it was just an investment, but by 2018, I got more aware of the tech behind Waves and I tried to support the project by doing more than just holding some tokens. Back then, I became part of the community and helped a lot of people answering their questions. I also helped Waves with some small tasks, such as translations, and I set up my own public Waves node.
Q: What specifically have you been doing as part of Waves’ community? What are your main achievements, and what needs to be improved?
A: I am very active in the community and I’ve assisted many people by answering their questions and helping them to set up and maintain their own node. On my website, you can find some easy guidelines that will help people to do it by themselves. In my opinion, as we look at the community, it is good to focus on spreading awareness of Waves among businesses, so that the platform will also be used by established products as opposed to only start-ups. In addition to that, it is good to raise awareness in the crypto world, educating people on Waves has that other platforms don’t and by doing that to attract more projects to build on top of Waves. I think the Waves Association can help a lot in this respect!
Q: As a member of the Waves Association, what do you think are the most vital tasks that lie ahead for the association?
A: I really like the way how Waves is moving forward and that the Waves Association was formed. The most vital tasks, in my opinion, is that the association should be placed in the center of upcoming development of the Waves platform. The platform should continue to meet the demands of those who would use it to build their applications etc. Also, the association should be active in stimulating projects to build on top of their platform, and I think the working groups that have been formed can fulfil a lot in that area. And, again, it is very important to show others what makes Waves stand out among other platforms, not only on the tech side, but also on the support side.
Q: What are the main challenges that the blockchain space is facing at this point? What are major opportunities?
A: The main challenge in the blockchain space is that its potential still remains unknown to wider audiences, and many people and businesses don’t use it because they don’t see the benefits of it. But this is also where major opportunities for Waves are, like, for instance, educating people about the tech and helping them with using the platform and showing them that it’s much better than some other tech. If people are more aware of it, Waves tech will be used more actively. Another big challenge is that there are many blockchain platform that don’t communicate with each other. But I think Gravity will offer a good solution to that. I hope this will result in the arrival of one global network connecting multiple platforms!
Q: What is your take on the rapid growth of the DeFi segment in recent months? Do you think we’re seeing a bubble?
A: The DeFi evolution is good because it leads to better awareness of what can be built on top of blockchain and I think this is good for the future of blockchain. The recent growth has occurred because people have been following the money, rather than because there has been mass adoption. After a while this new hype will end and we will see if DeFi becomes widely accepted or not. I hope it will be accepted because I like DeFi ideas so far!
