*In Oct 2020, the protocol undertook a rebrand from Coda to Mina.
Greg joined Mina’s Testnet during Winter Special and has been a valuable community member, taking the initiative to organize a meetup for the community in the San Francisco Bay Area and always being a positive and curious member. If you’re looking for a buddy to test out features on the blockchain together and learn-by-doing, then Greg would be a great candidate. He is a longtime software veteran and was a developer up until 2005 when he moved into management. He feels that due to being in management for so long, he has lost his developer skills and wanted to get them back, and jumped at the chance when he encountered Mina.
How I got into blockchain:
After 11 years of being in management, my career opened up and gave me a clean canvas to work with. Bitcoin/blockchain was the most exciting and inviting area for me to get involved with. I jumped at it.
Resources I use to learn more about blockchain/crypto:
If you’re local to San Francisco, I found the Insight Decentralized Consensus Fellows Program really helpful. It’s a 3-month course where you learn about blockchain and have the opportunity to get hands-on contact with top companies in the industry. For online, blockgeeks.com also has some high quality, free resources. Lastly, I really think it’s valuable to go to conferences. In particular, I find hackathons are the best for me. I’ve attended ETH Denver, WyoHackathon, Stanford Center for Blockchain Research events and more.
Why I joined the Mina Testnet:
All by chance. I attended the SF Blockchain Week 2019 DeFi Hackathon and one of the challenges was to start a Mina node on the testnet. The Mina team was there and were all very friendly and helpful. That got me started and I just continued with it after the hackathon as a way to further my blockchain education and experience.
My favorite things about the Mina technology and community:
The most fascinating thing about Mina is the novel approach of replacing the blockchain with a cryptographic proof. This reduction of space requirements opens the doors for many applications. While the technology is cutting edge, what really makes the project is the people involved, both the o1Labs team members and the Mina community. What’s also nice is how easy it is to install and operate a Mina node.
What I like to do in my free time:
Olympic weightlifting, focusing on the two lifts, the snatch and the clean & jerk. I also practice yoga, specifically hot yoga and Iyengar yoga.
Other projects that I’m participating in:
I’ve attended a few presentations by other protocols such as Oasis and Kraken, but Mina is currently the only project I’m investing significant time in. I plan to get involved with others going forward, but which ones?
We appreciate you being here, Greg! Feel free to chat with Greg (and other community members) on Discord if you have any questions or want to join forces with him for a hackathon or other learning opportunities!
About Mina Protocol
Mina is the world’s lightest blockchain, powered by participants. Rather than apply brute computing force, Mina uses advanced cryptography and recursive zk-SNARKs to design an entire blockchain that is about 22kb, the size of a couple of tweets. It is the first layer-1 to enable efficient implementation and easy programmability of zero knowledge smart contracts (zkApps). With its unique privacy features and ability to connect to any website, Mina is building a private gateway between the real world and crypto—and the secure, democratic future we all deserve.
