Ark Community Digest Ep. 7 — Jorma
It’s that time of the week again! Ark Community Digest is back again with episode 7, this time we have Jorma with us whom you may know from the Ark Slack and Reddit! Jorma is the creator of Ark Directory which is a great place to find Ark related content and we’re grateful for him taking the time to answer some of our questions for all of us to get to know him!
What Made You Join The Ark Community?
I found out about Ark in May of 2017. I had no idea what DPOS was, had no awareness of what Ark was all about, but once I installed the wallet I was immediately impressed (similar story as a lot of folks reading this I am guessing). I was checking out every alt coin in the top 50 on CMC, Ark’s tech and friendly community really stood out. After learning more about DPOS I really liked that consensus model and started learning more. The Ark Slack channel was/is a welcoming place and I liked the focus of the Ark Team on tech instead of hype.
What Got You Into Cryptocurrencies In The First Place?
I first heard about Bitcoin in about 2012, but like most other folks I didn’t think too much of it and didn’t take any action. After about the 100th time of hearing how Bitcoin had died again and was doomed to fail I thought I should check it out and buy some. In 2013 I opened an account at Mt Gox. I was in the process of hooking up my bank account when Mt Gox started to collapse. After that I figured Bitcoin and crypto were done and forgot about it for the next few years. After listening to Andreas Antonopoulos on the Joe Rogan show in 2016 I was immediately intrigued again. By that time Coinbase was around so I opened up an account and bought my first BTC. As I remember, BTC was about $600 and ETH was going for around $20… wish I would have bought more.
What’s Your Background & What Are Your Hobbies?
I live in Hawaii, so lots of fun ocean activities out here. I kiteboard and dive, but also have a wife and 18th month old little boy, so not a whole lot of extra recreation time for me these days. I work full time doing Development and Project Management work for a software company here on Hawaii. I tend to keep busy building stuff… digital projects as well as physical. I like building things.
What’s your Ambition For The Future
Keep on keeping on. I would enjoy getting more involved in the dev side of Ark. I spun up an Ark dev node and have forged some DARK, but have been too busy lately to keep up with that. It would be nice to find time to dive into the Ark tech more with a real dev project.. So much to do, so little time… good to just enjoy the moment. “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” — John Lennon.
If You Could Think Of One Thing You’d Like To See For Ark, What Would It Be?
They really need to make more exciting dinosaurs. The current ones are too easy to kill except for the level five velociraptors… wait, this interview isn’t for the Ark Survival video game? Sorry, had to do it ;)
Like everyone else I’m excited to see what V2 brings. Seems like that will make the barrier to entry even easier for folks who want to spin up a blockchain. In terms of new ideas for the ecosystem, I like the idea of a delegate marketplace so new companies deploying their own bridgechains don’t have to worry about finding delegates to power their chain (see this thread on Reddit). I think DPOS is a great consensus model with Ark being at the forefront. If folks could easily spin up a blockchain, have a pool of delegates to utilize for consensus, and keep it decentralized… that would be quite awesome.
I am excited to see what the Ark team brings to the table in the next few years. Those guys are way smarter than me and have all this stuff on their minds 24/7. We are off to a good start and have got some runway ahead of us.
Who Is The Person You Look Up To The Most?
No one specific person comes to mind. I like Elon Musk’s big thinking and attitude. Mad props to him for wanting to better humanity. Andreas Antonopoulos’ dedication to promoting bitcoin is what initially got me interested in crypto, so have to mention him. Pretty sweet when the community came together and made him an overnight millionaire when it came to light that he was not as rich as we thought he was. Community wins like that make me happy.
Who Is Your Favourite Ark Community Member & Why?
Can’t say I have a favourite. So many folks contribute in so many different ways. You guys (TGH) have been doing some great work with all the new art and articles. I’m a big art fan so I really dig that stuff. Justin and Jarunik are machines when it comes to putting out content. They were both also a huge help when I started putting Ark Directory together. Marc has got some pretty classic one liners on Slack, not to mention his dev efforts. That new bird wallpaper skeuo put out.. Goldenpepe’s contributions… cams logoworks… coins from arkmoon… new boldninja game from arkfun.io… folks been crushing it. Team effort.
Where Do You See The Price Of Ark This Time Next Year?
These markets are so hard to forecast… but I would say $5 — $15 seems reasonable. How about $9.42?
You Can Have Your Dream Company Implement Ark’s Tech, Who Would It Be?
Amazon. Walk into Whole Foods, buy some groceries and pay with Ark… that would be pretty awesome.
What Movie Quote Do You Think Could Be Used To Describe Crypto?
“We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.” — Star Trek: First Contact
You’ve spent a lot of time on your project, Ark Directory.. can you tell us a little about it?
Jarunik talked about the idea of an Ark Directory on Slack and I took his idea and ran with it. There was lots of amazing content flying around with no easily searchable record of it. Ark Directory is a hub of all things Ark for folks to use. A little centralisation can be a good thing sometimes.. ;)
There we have it! Thanks to Jorma for his answers and make sure guys and gals to check out Ark Directory as it’s a great hub for all your Ark related content both from community and team ventures!
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