Ambassador Stories, Journal #20: Mike & Peyton

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Ambassador Stories, Journal #20: Mike & Peyton

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Welcome to the 20th journal of the “Ambassador Stories” series! :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 Mike (@papa_carp) & Peyton (@bigpey) down below! :open_book:

Part 1: Mike, Ambassador Content Creator:

Mike has been active in our midsts for quite a while and became especially active during the start of the Shelley ITN. He started contributing by providing useful answers to potential stakepool operators, contributed in the stakepool specific community and built Pooltool.io, the website everyone in the Cardano community knows by now and where you can find all kinds of useful stakepool information. We are extremely fortunate to have you active in our community, providing that value! Thank you for your time and effort. We hope to hear and see more from you in the coming time.


(Mike likes to go skiing from time to time :skier: )

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

I am a quiet, somewhat perfectionist, soul that loves to code. I have a lovely wife, and 2 kids and live in a beautiful part of the USA called Lake Oswego, Oregon. My kids are 3rd generation at the same High School so we have a bit of history here. I like to ski in the winter and sail in the summer and my favorite movie is Interstellar. I love psychology and was close to having a minor in it during college - people fascinate me - although I’m a bit of an introvert. Someday I hope to get a large boat and sail around the world.

I spent years in the high tech world of flat panel displays (LCD). With a background in Electrical Engineering, my job titles spanned from ASIC developer to Director of Marketing and just about everything in between. I was fortunate enough to live abroad in South-Korea and China for about 5 years as part of my work in High Tech and got my MBA from a University in Shanghai.

For the last 10 years I’ve been running my own SAAS business for companies that sell into Big Box Retail in the USA, Canada and Mexico. My software helps manage my clients’ inventory, sales reporting, and other facets of this unique business model.

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

I watched bitcoin from afar since 2012 or so, but didn’t commit until mid 2017. The concepts simply made sense to me for so many reasons all of us in crypto can see. I have no doubt crypto is the future, the only question is when and how many times it will need to be outlawed before it wins.

3) Why Cardano?

I’ve been involved in enough engineering projects to know what works and what doesn’t - and winging it (while useful for getting things off the ground) is no way to build a financial system. For crypto to succeed in the financial services sector the foundation has to be rock solid (like mission to mars type rock solid) and this is what I’ve heard from Charles and others since the start. I don’t care about delays - I’m not in this for the short term - if we build the foundation right, the rest will build itself. Get the foundation wrong, and get relegated to the trash bin of crypto.

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

While I’d like to do more, I mainly focus on PoolTool.io at this time. I take great pride to see smaller pools get noticed and stake as a result of some of the tools I’ve put together. I’m excited about the current mission to decentralize Cardano.

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

This question can be answered in one sentence or a 30 page term paper. Since we all suffer from TLDR, I’ll answer it in one sentence:

My vision for Cardano is that it becomes ubiquitous.

u·biq·ui·tous (adjective)

present, appearing, or found everywhere.*

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

Focus on the fundamentals and the rest will follow. Please let me know how I can help you succeed.

Don’t forget to like, follow, share Mike’s hard work! He can be followed on the Cardano Forum, via Twitter, or his own website.

—The End of Part 1.

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Part 2: Peyton (@bigpey), Ambassador Content Creator:

Peyton has recently joined the Cardano community, however became quite active with creating content right away. Helping explain difficult concepts, answer questions, and providing value to the overall community and to anyone new in the space. We’re looking forward to your upcoming content and are thankful to have you with us! See you around!

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

I am studying at a big university in the states to become a developer. I really enjoy learning about technology and the impact that it has on the world. In my free time I make videos on my YouTube channel and maintain my stake pool Pey ADA.

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

What first got me interested in crypto currency was when I first read an article explaining decentralization. I read this when I was very young but it just gave me that limitless energy you get when you find something that really speaks to you. For months I spent most of my time learning about bitcoin and how it could provide financial freedom to people all over the world. To actually be a free being in the world that we have created you must also be financially free.

3) Why Cardano?

Like many Cardano community members I became interested after watching Charles’ whiteboard video. What was lacking to me with other currencies was transparency and peer review before implementing the code. Like many others I was also worried about the longevity of these tokens, Charles proposed a democratic system in which the users can vote on where the network goes. These three things in particular are what brought me to the Cardano community and what keeps me active here.

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

I help produce blocks for the ecosystem with my stake pool. I also make simple videos to help users that are not tech savvy to understand and participate in the ecosystem.

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

My future vision for the Cardano Ecosystem is that we break away from our attachment to bitcoin and provide enough value to the world to a point where the world can’t ignore Cardano any longer. My hope is that Cardano can help people in impoverished nations and give them the freedom that comes with a decentralized currency. My biggest hope is that developers come into the ecosystem and stay once dApps are released.

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

The more we educate ourselves and each other on Cardano the stronger we will become. Read the papers, voice your complaints, voice your complements, together we can better the ecosystem.

Don’t forget to like, follow, share Peyton’s hard work! He can be followed on the Cardano Forum, Twitter and via his YouTube channel.

—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:

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I really enjoy these stories. Great to have you both @bigpey and @papa_carp.

PS: Happy 20th anniversary @Katsumoto :star_struck:

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Big Welcome!

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Happy to be here!

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It’s great to learn more about ambassadors and what drives them to participate in this wonderful open source project, Cardano! :clap:t3:

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@bigpey I just watched the video on staking pools explained. Thanks so much for helping those of us who are trying to wrap our heads around all the newness and changes. I’ll check out your YT channel for more now. Cardano is lucky to have you on their side :smile: All the best.

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Thank you Melanie, I wish the best to you too!

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Interesting