Humans of Ethereum, Ep 2
Meet Jaclyn Lenee: An archer with RaidGuild who wields the brush and the bow.
Season 2: Ep 2 “Jaclyn Lenee”
The full 60 minutes video interview is available at the bottom of this article 👇🏼
When Jaclyn was in high school, she dreamed of becoming an oil painter. “I had always been very creative. I loved making colorful messes,” she told us on a Thursday afternoon over zoom. Even through the computer I could see Jaqi’s creative touch; the apartment behind her looked like a display room for a magazine--interesting art sat on shelves next to plants and thoughtfully organized books. A cool jean jacket hung off her shoulders. She says, “I just had this idea in my head. I want to make it to the Bay area, the big city, and become an artist.”
Like many amid the tech boom, Jaqi moved to San Francisco and was met with the startling, expensive reality of the Bay Area. She quickly realized that she would need to pick up some additional skills in order to pay for things like rent, and resolved to learn graphic design. Her first gig was designing fancy banner ads, to which she chuckled and said, “really impactful work.” It was here, however, that she discovered UX design and seemed to find her stride. She was able to begin doing freelance work for startups--“like two to three guys hacking in a closet together kind of startups”-- she specified.
This is when Jaqi began to feel the value of being a highly visual person in a highly technical world. She was able to hold both the vision of her tech clients and the mindset of their customers and find a way to connect the two very different worlds. “That’s the space I love to be in,” she said. One day her design mentor asked if she could help out one of their clients, the Purse IO team. “I don't know if you're familiar with that service, but their whole mission is to incentivize the use of Bitcoin. They've created this whole e-commerce system to enable people to buy things on Amazon using Bitcoin,” she told us. Jaqi was tasked with building out the site so that it looked enough like a standard eCommerce site that people would be comfortable using it.
As she familiarized herself with the world of cryptocurrency, she began to see and feel the appeal of the space. “One thing that I really love about the crypto community is there's this lighthearted fun element to the work that we do. Animated gifs are everywhere. We're working together. We're building cool stuff. We don't take ourselves seriously, but we take our work seriously.” This was her first exposure to cryptocurrency, and absorbed as much as she could--especially since she herself was being paid in Bitcoin. At the same time, a flaw within the community was nagging at her.
It did not take long for Jaqi to realize that the technical knowledge of the people inside the community was a barrier to entry for the people outside of the community. “It's almost like when they're so immersed in the space, they forget how much they actually know and how much they've learned”. She describes the user experience as one of the major things holding people back “There is there's a steep learning curve for newbies in this space. That combined with high transaction fees often turns people off from using it” Her empathy towards the end user is constantly present as she shares her own feelings entering into Bitcoin and Ethereum spaces as a cryptocurrency novice. “People just want to use it and they want to use it now. They don't want it to be hard or difficult. One of the major hurdles I've seen to adoption is that there's just too many steps.” Ironically, it was her own beginner’s mind that allowed Jaqi to see where some thoughtful UX design could play an immense role for any crypto start up. At the time, not too many other people were trying to bridge this gap. When she got started (when Bitcoin still cost about $200), she didn’t know a single other designer in the crypto space. “It was a new, crazy wild West new frontier kind of feeling,” she said.
At this point in the interview, I asked Jaqi if her work as a designer satiates her creatively. She told us that while she still does actually paint (We find out that the two paintings behind her are hers), she really feels fulfilled by the creativity that comes along with connecting the dots between concepts and reality--by creating something that is accessible to a wider group of people. She begins to talk about her more recent work with RaidGuild, a DAO in the Ethereum community she was introduced to by her friend Darren. She spends about 80% of her time working on projects with the DAO, and chooses work that aligns with her visions and goals. Right now she is learning how to code, and loves how the people in that community empower her to just go for it.
As for the other 20% of her time, Jaqi is working on a thoughtful side hustle: Citrine Labs. “My mission is to help creative solopreneurs build websites fast and cheap,” she tells us. She wants to help her creative friends realize that they can manage a website with just some basic coaching. Once again, Jaqi is attempting to make tech more accessible and less intimidating. “I really do see my role in the work that I've done as trying to bridge the gap between highly technical things and people who see themselves as not so tech savvy,” she says.
As someone who fits the not tech savvy category, I deeply appreciate Jaqi for the work she is doing. Her creative mind and generous spirit are motivating her to make incredible, useful technology approachable and understandable. She is excited about DAOs and their potential applications, and I cannot wait to see what this human builds as she continues to give her energy to the Ethereum community.
Many thanks to Jacyln for taking this time and sharing her experience and hope for Ethereum with us!
🕊 Find more from Jaqi on Twitter
This article was a collaborative effort by members of Meta Media, @KateHall & @YalorMewn, if you would like to publish content with the support of Meta Media please @ us on Twitter.