Cats, Music and PoolTogether
PoolTogether Community Interview #14: Tim
Welcome to the latest PoolTogether Community Interview. Today we feature a newer member of the Community who has really thrown himself into the PoolTogether DAO and volunteered to become involved in many different aspects in true Web3 style.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Describe yourself in a few words/facts:
I live in Brooklyn with my best friend and pastry chef Karen. We have many cats, and we take care of cats in the neighborhood. I enjoy bouldering, making music with modular synths, coffee, and beer.
I'm new to crypto and I'm happy to have found the PoolTogether community. My goals in crypto are to build, invest, learn, and onboard others.
How long have you been into crypto?
I started in early 2019, then jumped in again in Jan 2020 but both times I was a bit put off by fees (ha!). It's the ENS, Uni, and POOL(!) airdrops that brought me back and gave me something to work with. So I've really been involved for a month and a half tops!
Do you want to tell us about the main lessons you have learned since then?
My ADD is a superpower that helps me intake a lot of info, and I have to list and prioritize what I'm doing based on the goals of building, learning, investing and onboarding others.
What was your best crypto moment?
Leighton approached me at a brewery in Williamsburg just to say hi and catch up. I told him about how I was trying to figure out what the next step was for me professionally, and told him I was looking into technical analysis/trading. He encouraged me to focus on crypto, and told me about airdrops.
I had no clue! It took me awhile to find all of my login info, but my exploration of crypto back in 2019/2020 was rewarded!
So thanks to Leighton for the encouragement and my buddy Shawn for introducing me to crypto in the first place.
And your biggest fail?
I really haven't had one yet?? I'm very scared about this.
What are your thoughts on Music NFTs?
Yeah I love making music, especially through improvisation. I think releasing tracks/albums in NFTs is cool, but I would like to see the medium shape the music and vice versa. When I perform live, the live experience is integral to the piece of music and the performance itself. I'll use a filter in a way, or emphasize a phrase that was generated only for that time and place (randomly or chaotically) and each decision is made based on the room and the people and the vibe.
All that to say, I think music NFTs will be their own music. Each NFT can be a sample, or a wavetable, or the sound of my cat Lucy gnawing on my finger, an ableton project file, really any element of the computer musical process from how I'm understanding things.
AND they can be a part of how you experience music. They can control how you experience a show, your access to the show, the bundle of things you take home from the show. Winamp for NFTs is a thing now, right? Vinyl is like old school NFTs.
So how you make music, how you experience music.... I need a third thing. How you identify yourself. The rise of the profile pic has been foundational for NFTs. What is that with music? Ringtones? The playlist for your NFT gallery? I would love to be the owner of "Hadouken!" or "Shut up, Wesley!" Both are very on brand for me.
How did you find out about PoolTogether?
I've known Leighton from his startup days, and when I was exploring crypto, PT was my first stop. I put $100 in and was upset about the fees (ha!) and when I didn't immediately win something I thought it was for whales so I explored elsewhere.
What made you stick around?
PolygooooOOoOOOOOoooon
Being self employed, I need a place to set aside tax monies (hello feds). PoolTogether is. the. perfect. place. for. this.
So, eliminating the fees, having an easyish fiat onramp (Dharma), having a good use case, and the community interactions in the Discord sold it for me.
I'm really impressed at how the community handles difficult people: new people with questions, entitled whales, even poap hunters! Like, we are really nice to poap hunters.
I also see tons of potential in product expansion, though I think even with v4 we win.
Do you have any other thoughts on Polygon?
I'm a big fan of low transaction fees, and if a project isn't on a low txn fee protocol I'm not going to use it unless I HAVE TO. The hack and the slowdown are troublesome, but I'm loving that the protocol and folks like Decentraland are working together to improve the experience.
Eventually, I don't want to have to think about which protocol I'm using. I just want to do the thing I want at the lowest transaction fee with the highest yield. Everything is an optimization problem, so happy to give in certain areas to gain in others.
How are you involved in the community? Tell us about it.
I'm working with the Community Podcast and the Marketing Working Group. If I've got time, and I see a need I'm going to help someone.
Have you got any crypto words of advice for other self-employed people who may not yet be into crypto
The great resignation is huge for this space. I think the DAOs and dApps that win in this space are the ones able to attract, retain, and... I really can't think of the word here... something like see the potential in the individual to take what they're best and and build up a stronger product and community around that product.
So my advice for those trying to enter the space: do what you can to alleviate the pressure to "make it" immediately, and research how you invest, build, and explore this space. You'll be rewarded for all three. I also think PoolTogether is a great place for my tax witholdings!
Would you recommend PoolTogether to others? How would you describe it to them?
I do. It's my crypto killer app. I'm still working on my spiel but basically I tell my friends that they need to become conversant in crypto, and encourage them to put a chunk of their savings into a pool and to watch what happens.
From there I think they'll see an NFT with interesting utility, or a new project that they'll want to get involved with, and they've got some stables already in the ecosystem.
We hope you have enjoyed this interview. Please look out for the Community Newsletter coming out on Sunday
