Ambassador Stories, Journal #14: Marek & Matthijs

Ambassador Stories, Journal #14: Marek & Matthijs

Welcome to the 14th journal, the FIRST “Ambassador Stories” series for the year 2020! :star_struck: :tada:

New stories will be shared with you, whenever new ambassadors join our ranks and provide their stories.
You’ll be able to enjoy the various, unique stories of our Cardano Community Ambassadors: what motivated, and still motivates them, to be part of this amazing and wonderful community?

The Cardano Community Team would also like to thank the Ambassadors for all their continued efforts and participation in sharing their stories with us. :writing_hand:

Please read all about Marek (@mmahut) down below! :open_book:

Part 1: Marek Mahut, Ambassador Moderator:

1) Tell us a little about yourself. What is your background?

My name is Marek and from day to day, I’m mainly a beer brewer. Before going to the beer industry, I spent more than a decade as a system engineer. I missed the industry, so I’m working part time as an IT consultant now too. Oh and I’m in love with NixOS.

2) How did you get interested and involved with Blockchain/Crypto?

Marek „Slush“ Palatinus introduced me to Bitcoin in 2011. I remember buying my first BTC at around $1. About a year later he teamed up with my friend Pavol „Stick“ Rusnák and founded SatoshiLabs, the inventors of Trezor, the first and for me the only trustworthy hardware cryptocurrency wallet. I did keep an eye on the cryptocurrency industry but felt like it’s not for me, I really did not care about the overall mood that dominated most of the crypto related projects. After I discovered Cardano, it got my attention, which is why I am here today.

3) Why Cardano?

The scientific approach behind the technology makes me believe this project has what it takes to become a solid protocol. It was also nice to see something serious in an otherwise pretty saturated industry.

4) How are you contributing to the Cardano Ecosystem as an Ambassador?

I’m one of the active people around the staking pool operators channels, mainly Telegram. If you are interested in running a staking pool, join us, we will help as much as we can.

5) What is your future vision for the Cardano Ecosystem?

As for what it will become, only time will tell. Ideally, one day it will become a standard for blockchain protocols. And maybe even a standard protocol for liquid democracy.

6 ) What is your personal message to the Cardano community?

Cardano always had a vibrant community, and with the Shelley release, the real work is just about to start.

Don’t forget to like, follow, share Marek’s hard work! He can be followed on the Cardano Forum, on Twitter, or on Telegram!

—The End of Part 1.

17 Likes

Part 2: Matthijs (@matthijs.aeon) Ambassador Moderator:

To those that already know Matthijs, know that he’s been with the Cardano project and community for quite some time! To those that don’t, here’s an introduction!
Matthijs has been supporting our online chat rooms with answering questions, but also asking them in order to get educated! This is exactly what we need, people who are willing to go the extra mile helping those that need help with general info, or any sort of troubleshooting issues. Matthijs will be helping out on our Telegram chats and Cardano Forum. Matthijs also runs his own stake pool, has contributed extensively to the Cardano Stake pools Best Practice Telegram channel and Github, and is well versed in the technicalities of how to run his pool. If you ever need help, he’s your guy! Thanks for all that you do! We look forward to collaborating with you.


(Matthijs holding a Cardano Foundation branded Tangem card)

1) Tell us a little about yourself. What is your background?

Hi Cardano Community! I’m the new Cardano Official Telegram moderator from Perth, Western Australia.

Although my beautiful fiancée and I have only one son (12), I consider myself to be a bit of a family man. We are lucky to enjoy some of the most picturesque beaches and countryside in the world, so we often spend our weekends swimming or hiking through national and state parks.

*As a minimalist I’m a fan of modern, clean design aesthetics but we are also very intentional about the products we buy and the food we consume.

We appreciate this philosophy and it extends to everything we do.*

*In addition to my obsession with Cardano, I also have an interest in renewable energy and sustainable food production.

My preferred music is ambient electronic, although I do have very eclectic tastes. As far as film and literary works, cyberpunk is by far my favourite genre.*

Professionally, I am a CISSP certified Cybersecurity Engineer for an enterprise scale network. My background is in computer networking so I am also Cisco certified in routing, switching and network security domains.

2) How did you get interested and involved with Blockchain/Crypto?

I’ve been involved with the Cardano Community since I was first introduced to crypto in October 2017. Combining a number of my existing interests such as economics, liberalism, computer science, and cryptography, I’ve been obsessed ever since.

3) Why Cardano?

No other project has ever captured my imagination in the way that Cardano has.

Be it the structure of the project, comprised of the Cardano Foundation, Emurgo and IOHK or the breadth and calibre of the three entities respective teams. The scientific method and academic rigour behind the whitepapers or architectural decisions such as the use of high-assurance functional programming.

With the introduction of the Treasury in the Shelley release and governance in Voltaire, I think Cardano will be uniquely positioned to evolve with technological advancements and industry challenges.

Even the design aesthetic, music and artwork (such as IOHK Symphony of Blockchains and artwork from community member Projekt from the Cardano Community Podcast)!

Most importantly it’s the amazing community, comprised of intelligent, thoughtful and passionate individuals from every possible region and walk of life.

It wouldn’t be possible to do the project justice in so few words!

4) How are you contributing to the Cardano Ecosystem as an Ambassador?

I will be assisting the Cardano Foundation Community Team by helping to moderate several of their social media channels, to help foster a positive and grow the amazing community we all belong to.

5) What is your future vision for the Cardano Ecosystem?

While it is very difficult to predict the applications of a revolutionary technology so soon after its inception, I hope that Cardano will one day offer a platform to truly empower those individuals who would benefit most. I believe the technology has the potential to promote real economic development and financial inclusion in the most underdeveloped regions of the world.

Additionally, I would love to see research into its application in use cases such as energy generation and distribution, food provenance and disintermediation.

I think a great use case would be for a transparent, Distributed Charitable Organisation (DCO).

6 ) What is your personal message to the Cardano community?

Value your time. This is the youngest you will ever be again.

Don’t forget to like, follow, share Matthijs’ hard work! He can be followed on the Cardano Forum, on Twitter, or his Telegram!

—The End of Part 2.


We are truly blessed with such motivated community members we have in our ecosystem! Thank you all for reading, and don’t forget to leave your comments/likes and give our Ambassadors some Cardano community :heart: and follow their work!:100::muscle:

Until next time, with new people and new Ambassador Stories! :wave:

19 Likes

I’m happy to see two very well-known community members here as Ambassadors.
:hugs: @mmahut @matthijs.aeon :hugs:

9 Likes

Welcome to you both! :+1:

4 Likes

Great to have two very experienced and capable guys within our Ambassador ranks! Big welcome! :clap: :grin: :cardano:

6 Likes

Good to see your comments herein.

2 Likes

Congrats and welcome to the ambassador group!