This is not a race, this is an ultramarathon: the spread of cryptotechnologies

The wide distribution of cryptographic technologies will not happen in one fell swoop. We will have to do some work, but it will be fun.

I wanted to share with you some thoughts about the distribution of cryptotechnologies and long-distance running. This first post within our blog is based on my experience with the Waves blockchain platform - I work there as a director of public relations. However, at once I will make a reservation that everything written further is my personal opinion, which does not reflect any official position. </ end of disclaimer> I spent almost 3 years in the world of cryptotechnologies, having witnessed all the best and worst events in this area, so this post also explains to some extent what I like so much about Waves and why I’m sure I will stay with the company for a long time.

Recently, I began to run long distances again. I have been running for 15 years, but chronic inflammation of the Achilles tendons has led to the fact that recently my weekly mileage rate has decreased to a single digit. For me, running is a good means of preserving mental acuity and general working capacity, given the fact that this year was terrible for me personally, and I realized that if I couldn’t do anything about this situation, I would not reach this rate to forty years not to mention seventy. And here a few months of physiotherapy, improvement of technology using barefoot running and minimalist shoes, as well as shifting the main load from the heel to the front of the foot did their job, and I decided it was time to formalize my return to the race and signed up for an ultramarathon end of October, promising to be a very difficult 8-hour test.

Cryptotechnology and running have one thing in common - they are addictive. That is, they occupy your head entirely, so much so that this obsession can go beyond any boundaries, except, of course, if your border is a gradually opening horizon. It is easy to draw parallels between the proliferation of cryptotechnologies and ultramarathon jogging, and here I invite you to familiarize yourself with some thoughts that visited me during the exhausting 17-mile training last week.
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The main thing is not victory, but also not participation. The main thing - to cross the finish line

Marathons and especially ultra marathons are not like other events. Most participants of the marathon will not even think about winning or getting into the top ten. They may have some sort of personal, personal goal that they want to achieve. For example, run 100 miles in 24 hours or meet at 10 o'clock in the race for 50 miles. However, in most cases it all comes down to just getting to the end of the race. It doesn't matter if the participant comes running second or fiftieth. No, he is not worried about this, but the prospect of ND is not to reach.

No matter what the radical supporters of Bitcoin may say, there is plenty of room in the world for a variety of blockchains. This is exactly what the industry will look like in the next 5-10 years. There will not be one “chain of absolute power”. There will be dozens, maybe even hundreds or even more. After all, in the end, decentralization is good. And the main question, therefore, is not whether any one project, like Waves, will receive the title of “Chain of the Future”. No, the most important thing is whether it will still exist in five years. That's what we should focus on - at the intersection of the finish line, to maintain our place at the table. We must continue to be part of the changes taking place, offer real examples of the implementation of the technology and a meaningful approach to its application. All the rest is ND, and we do not want ND to happen.

Plan everything down to the smallest detail.

Preparing for a marathon, you can afford many things: skip workouts, ignore corns and minor injuries, disrupt diet. Despite all this, you still have a good chance of still hovering to the finish line. However, when the distance reaches 40 miles and more, this trick you will not pass. Here any, even the slightest mistake, made before or after the start, will cost you dearly.

When you are responsible for the investment millions invested in your project and developing a platform capable of supporting work with assets totaling tens, hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, you cannot allow anything to happen. You find the right people, you work through the main project plan, you have a vision, and you don’t even hope that some problems can be solved temporarily with crutches. The phrase "come off so much" is not about you at all. The same applies to all attempts to come up with solutions on the go and improvise. In short, plan as a BOSS.

Accept the fact that mistakes are inevitable.

Do not hesitate on this. If you are not making mistakes, then probably you are doing something wrong. Well, or just your work does not bring any results, and this is equivalent to doing something wrong.

Planning is vital, but mistakes will still happen. If you go to the gym on one of the hottest days of the year, it will be wise to take an extra supply of water with you. Otherwise, you will move at the speed of a cochlea, you will be terribly dehydrated, “worn out” and eventually you will eagerly swallow the water from the hose on the pier (yes, the plastic taste of that water from the hose was just fine; even better it became when I learned that it was drinking water).

However, the errors themselves do not mean that you are not suitable for solving the tasks set, provided, of course, that in the future you will not repeat them. Cryptotechnologies are still very young. People have never had to work the way they do now, that is, in teams whose members are scattered around the world, communicate with each other on Skype or Slack and create the most advanced technologies, whose existence seemed incredible only some ten years ago. It all seems very unusual, if you think carefully. Of course, some new problems will manifest themselves. However, all you need is to try to avoid mistakes whenever possible, and in cases where you cannot avoid them, just accept them as a natural part of the workflow.

Get ready to change your plans.

Mistakes happen, and life, like a pitcher in baseball, will somehow find a way to run a “twist” in you. The forecast promised that the weather in the second half of the day would be moderate, but in fact the temperature was only a couple of degrees lower than in the Sahara. You thought that the trails chosen for running would be in good condition, and they turned out to be uneven and overgrown with nettles. Nuts, eaten by you to replace the lost salt, as a result sucked the remnants of moisture out of your already dehydrated face, because of which the tongue looked like pork cracklings. Well, or you found previously unknown errors in the framework used that need to be fixed before publishing a stable and secure release of the node code. Something like this.

All these circumstances not only make following your detailed plans and schedules elaborated to trifles stupid, but also are capable of leading the project to collapse. And you adapt not so much to improve the results as to survive. This may mean a delay in achieving one or another goal set in the main plan or lead to the fact that you disappoint someone, it is possible that you yourself. However, ultimately it does not matter, because the only alternative is ND.

Start slowly

Accelerated work in the first ten minutes hardly guarantees that you will reach the finish line on the dates set by you. Attempts to accelerate from the very beginning do not allow you to get a start in advance. On the contrary, this approach is very wasteful and deprives you of any chance of long-term success. You should start slowly, increasing the speed only later, and only if this desire seems reasonable to you. Such an approach may seem discouraging against the background of the behavior of other participants who are trying their best, whereas you are “lagging behind” compared to them. However, if you take the correct pace, you will meet them and go around the later part of the distance.

One of the least attractive elements of the world of cryptographic technologies is speculators who waste money on the development and commissioning stage, while having a very poor understanding of the goals that the project is trying to achieve, and then they troll you in Slack and on forums when they don’t receive instant triple return of investments, which, in their view, for some reason from the very beginning they owed. We have already seen quite a few projects practicing this and even deliberately abusing the trend, announcing initiatives and innovations in search of a “pump” that will pump them with money. Probably the worst example is Paycoin, which can be compared to a runner who has overcome the first 200 meters of the 50-mile marathon, and then with a crash that fell to the ground. But besides him there are quite a few other projects that flirt with the public. And although their approach cannot be formally called criminal, it is, nevertheless, in fact very close to this definition. Choose the right pace, and you will still see these guys when you run past them. Do not forget to wish them all the best for last.

Search for the right people.

Most people do not understand anything in long-distance running. Similarly, they do not understand cryptographic technologies. Both of these areas of activity are very difficult to understand without having direct experience of contact with them, which, by the way, as I already wrote, can lead to the fact that people really like it, and it will develop addiction. In both groups you will find loyal like-minded people. These people tend to stick together, because explaining to an outsider the attractiveness of what they are doing is very difficult.

About 15 years ago, Jim Collins wrote a great article in the Harvard Business Review about the difference between great companies and great ones. You can read her summary here . Jim led the bus analogy. Of course, you need to know where you are going. However, as Collins writes: “The leaders of companies that have turned from good to great ones do not begin with the question“ where ”, but with the question“ who ”. They start by inviting the right people to the bus, make sure that the wrong people get out of it and seat the right people in the right order. And they always adhere to this attitude: first people and only then direction. It does not matter in which difficult situation the company is. ”

There is one saying, often quoted by non-governmental organizations and social entrepreneurs: “People first, and then profits”. Ultimately, this principle is true for any business in the sense that well-chosen people and well-built relationships are indispensable conditions for achieving long-term success. If you rephrase this expression so that it more accurately reflects the meaning of what was said, you get: "profit thanks to people."

Work should bring you pleasure

Finally, the process should bring you pleasure. Supermarathon distances and the development of cryptographic technologies are united by the fact that there is something rebellious and even countercultural in both of them. Both of these activities are still perceived as something that goes beyond the norm. And may people not always understand them. It does not matter. The main thing is that the fruits of your work in these areas are always worth the effort.