Humans of Ethereum, Ep 1
Announcing a Second Season of Spotlight Interviews From The Ethereum Community.
When Kate and I set out to create a series of articles highlighting the amazing humans of Ethereum, I couldn’t help but think “Someone has to have done this already” and I was not wrong !
Lane Rettig started Humans of Ethereum back in 2019 with his first Episode featuring Austin Griffith which you can catch here 📹
I reached out to Lane about possibly firing up the show with a new series in the same spirit of season one, in true open-source fashion he said:
“My only ask is that it remain something like a "GPL license" - what I mean is, you're free to use the brand, but others should be free to as well. Does that make sense?”
It made perfect sense to us, with that I am proud to announce that we are the new stewards of Humans of Ethereum, Season 2 🔥
A note from the author Kate Hall: About a month ago, when Yalor first approached me to ask if I would assist him on a project that he’d been dreaming up for the last year—a project with a simple, yet potent vision: interview humans of Ethereum and share their stories. While Yalor is very much in the Ethereum community, and I am just getting started, we both had a mutual curiosity about how folks ended up in this space, what keeps them here, what they are up to, and why. We wanted to uncover the heart in people’s experiences here – beyond the technical jargon and list of “successes or failures--” we wanted to feel into what makes each human unique in the mosaic of individuals that work with Ethereum.
The full 60 minutes video interview is available at the bottom of this article 👇🏼
Season 2, Ep 0x: “Simona Pop”
“You’re a tidal wave,” Yalor said halfway through the interview. At this point I had forgotten I was interviewing Simona as I stared attentively at her through the Zoom app, fully invested in her story. It is not often that I meet someone that carries out their values with such passion and matter of fact pragmatism. And speaks five languages.
Simona is originally from Romania. “I was a kid when the Romanian revolution happened”, recalling the restrictions around freedom of speech, opportunities and resources. She lets us know that as a child, this problem of access wasn't a pressing one but its pervasive restrictive force and its effects did shape her motivations—her desire to remove constraints on people from going after what they believe in. This would be a theme throughout our interview.
She started trading cryptocurrency a few years ago, but “jumped right down the rabbit hole” into blockchain and its applications once she saw the potential within this technology. “I felt blockchain could power, enable, and reshape some of the dynamics that definitely are not working in the current economies, societies and so on.” Another theme for Simona is value – creating and adding value is at the core of what she does, regardless of the project. With that being said, she wanted to find projects that were doing work on things that would have “relevance in the real world.” She saw value in being able to send cryptocurrency internationally without a reliance on outside institutions or bank accounts and with the Bounties Network, she worked to incentivize the cleanup of the ocean in the Philippines as her first major project.
While Simona did let us know that she had taken the “standard” path of attending a university and working in communications in various companies, she described the difference of the feeling of her work within the Ethereum community versus her previous jobs. “The main shift is feeling like you're just doing a job vs feeling empowered— versus being in a position where you can generate and create the space for others to also feel this way…where opportunity isn't something that's determined by where you were born, by your current social economic status, or by the friends and family you have. Those things should not be factors that define what you can and cannot do.” She also noted the fluidity of the space and the feeling of a lack of restrictions. For those who are more rooted in social conditioning around what we can and cannot do based on our circumstances, she acknowledged that this feeling of freedom might be overwhelming or out of reach. For Simona, however, she noted that the lack of borders and limitation has provided her with “a real liberation in the way that I think about what is possible for myself and others.”
As we moved through our conversation, it became more and more clear that Simona Pop is a doer. She finds something that she sees value in, and that she can add value to, and she gets moving. At one point she shared, “I am a firm believer in showing versus telling. I think it's important to illustrate what you say you're going to do. It is important to provide those examples and those spaces where exploration and experimentation are done in a relevant and effective way. And when I say effective, I mean, with genuine effects in the world. It's the difference between evangelizing and creating impact.” And she creates quite a ripple of impact in this community. As of right now, Simona is a part of several DAOs, including Raidguild, Meta Gamma Delta, Whalerdao, and Metacartel. She is also heading up community for Status. Upon being asked what she believes is the key to success of a DAO, she answered, “Shared purpose. And multitasking.”
It was an absolute delight to speak with Simona. Her eyes lit up as she spoke; her gestures mimicked the passion in her voice; her vibrance left Yalor and I feeling inspired and chatty. It seems that Simona is creating the world that she wants to see – where value is not equated with money, opportunity is beyond race or class, ideas are followed by action, intentional collaboration is at the core of the work, and joy is part of all of it.
She has a spirit you do not forget, and I am confident that her presence in this community will continue to create waves of impact out in the world.
Many thanks to Lane Rettig for his use of Humans of Ethereum brand & Simona Pop for sharing her heart and soul with us !
🕊 Find more from Lane on Twitter
🕊 Find more from Simona on Twitter
This article was a collaborative effort by members of Meta Media, @YalorMewn and @Kate Hall if you would like to publish content with the support of Meta Media please @ us on Twitter.