From Techno DJ to PoolTogether Super Contributor
PoolTogether Community Interview #18: Tjark
Hello,
Welcome to the latest PoolTogether Community Interview featuring Tjark who has taken the PoolTogether DAO and Community to a completely different level in just a short space of time.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Describe yourself in a few words/facts:
I’m a German Hamburger that identifies himself as Global Citizen. A Poolboy by day, a Techno DJ by night. I’m good with stuff around Discord, Notion, Discourse and Community and I have way more interests that I can handle.
My Web2 Me was a Logistics Manager for 9 years and Scrum Master.
How long have you been into crypto?
Only since 2021 - nobody ever told me before that it wasn't all about finance. I got tipped about a coin called Nano by a stranger on some random place on Reddit. I had finished a course about Sustainable Development & Post-Capitalism not long ago, so I was inspired by their approach of being environmentally friendly and supporting charitable causes.
From there, I somehow got into their Meme-Fork Banano, which was my crypto training ground. Over there I was able to try out all sorts of things for free where beginners would usually lose their investments. I have to say that community really accelerated my learning process.
In the end, Web3 got me hooked because of the high emphasis on open source and systemic change. After pinching the surface of scammy airdrops and get rich quick schemes I found a wholesome space with people that are looking for the mutual good.
Do you want to tell us about the main lessons you have learned since then?
The lessons I’ve learned are countless and I feel like they continue every day. That’s a special thing of having a community - there’s always someone to learn from. Some major lessons for me include:
Crypto is not just about money
DAOs are the future of organizations
Open Source is the gwei
Our future heavily relies on distributed collaboration and human interaction across all social levels
Memes can go far and can say more than just words
Don’t just read, also write; don’t just listen, also speak; don’t just plan, also do. The hard work starts after having an idea.
What was your best crypto moment?
That’s easy. The best moment was the offer to go full time as a freelancer for PoolTogether Inc.
I was about to sign another contract to be the Head of Growth (lol sounds so fancy) for another Web3 project that I was already working with, when I got a Discord DM asking me if I could imagine working for the PoolTogether protocol in any way.
Before, I was super afraid that I was going to be less active in the PoolTogether Community because of the other job, so the timing was on point. It’s still impossible to describe all the trust and appreciation that made me feel, and I’m absolutely grateful it all worked out like it did.
And your biggest fail?
Knock on wood, but luckily enough this didn’t happen yet. I did stupid things like sending some MATIC to the wrong network, but I’m not really a risk taker or speculator so I was able to stay clean from any rugs or bad investments. I’m not counting any opportunity costs of course...
Apart from that it would be not taking the time for my girlfriend or my friends because I tried to stay in the loop or wanted to stay up to date. That’s just not possible, so I’m trying to focus more on a few things that are important instead of the broad noise.
How did you find out about PoolTogether?
That was in August 2021. Thinking back to it, it feels weirdly staged because it was all just too good to be true. I had a blog where I was posting an article a day to most effectively learn about everything crypto. I was casually scrolling Twitter for inspiration when I came across a retweet to a Kris Kay giveaway. Same day I posted this by the way.
I won, so I naturally decided to stay with Kris and deposit my winnings into PoolTogether, a DeFi protocol which he seemed to be quite fond of. Here it was - the inspiration for new blog content.
What made you stick around?
I wrote an article about PoolTogether and joined the Discord server to get it fact-checked. I expected criticism or someone telling me I was using bad graphics but I got POOL-tips and compliments instead. I felt welcomed from day 1.
I was active in the Banano discord and was super inspired by their Discord Wizard Oops for some time already. Hearing his voice on the PoolTogether Community Call probably sealed the deal, so I was fully able to trust in PoolTogether and their community.
How are you involved in the community? Tell us about it.
I’ve joined those calls regularly as often as I could (RIP DJ career, they’re on Friday nights in Germany) and Poolers kept bringing the request for a newsletter and more information coverage around the ecosystem up. We had multiple people thinking about this already so in the end the PoolTogether Community Substack was formed.
Since then, my involvement is all over the place. I create content about everything that relates to PoolTogether, help others where I can, think a lot about DAO Onboarding & contributions, drop an occasional meme here and there and try to keep our social places clean from scammers.
My contract says I’m a Community Builder & Content Creator if that makes it easier.
Would you recommend PoolTogether to others? How would you describe it to them?
Sure! My Twitter has turned into a full on PoolTogether shill and I can’t even feel bad about it.
Face to face I always describe it as a Crypto-Based Prize-Linked Savings account and an easy way to build better financial habits. Some of my friends use it and are super happy with it! It’s just my father in law who’s a bit mad that his Christmas Card did not win yet so I better delegate him some chances, before I get myself in trouble.
Are you involved in any other projects or communities?
Yessir, although right now I don’t manage to spend as much time on them as I’d like to. I’m super excited about a project called wgmi. They help newcomers and community professionals with education around Web3 and Community Management skills.
It’s all about open sourcing resources, standards, strategies & tools and most of what I know I either learned or shared on their Discord. Their workshops are definitely worth a visit as well. Some familiar faces on their Discord are Oops, Taliskye, Andy & TangFeng.
Please Tell Us More About Your Techno DJ Career
I like my music loud and fast. One of the reasons I got into DJing was that I’m a big fan of large sound systems like Void Acoustics or Function One. That’s not really something you can put into your living room for multiple reasons like neighbours, size or your sense of hearing.
When I moved to a bigger city a group of friends and I started renting out bigger sound systems. This usually ate up most of our budget so we had to sort out the music ourselves.
Over time we’ve gone from organizing tiny private open air events to helping set up raves in big venue clubs and building festival stages. I’ll never forget the moment I hit the play button in my favorite club and the sound system started blasting.
I’m absolutely lucky to share my life with the most incredible girlfriend, so we’re teaming up on all our gigs. If you really want to know more you can listen to some recordings on our Soundcloud.
We hope you have enjoyed this fantastic interview.
To join Tjark and the PoolTogether Community, please come to our Official Discord.
To learn more about PoolTogether including to deposit into v4, please visit PoolTogether.com.