I'm not new to the internet or social networks. I cut my teeth on talkers and IRC in the late 90s and into the early 2000s. I had a LiveJournal and then a Xanga, and I was one of the foolish few who beta tested Facebook back when you had to be a university student with a .edu email account to get access. I ran a WordPress server off a machine in my living room, and even as a non-coder, I helped out with testing and QA and coming up with ideas for all the stuff we were building at the time.

At the end of 2022, I was hired at CoinDesk and started learning about crypto. I was aware of Bitcoin because I was working in tech when it was invented and I had some friends who bought in, but I was poor back then and never made the leap myself. (Yes, I see the irony, and hindsight is 20/20.)

You might be wondering why CoinDesk hired someone who didn't know crypto inside and out. In their defense, my job at the time was to represent the editorial team to the engineering team as a product manager. I was to own the CMS and help improve the editorial experience. Suffice it to say, I do quite a bit more than that now, and I've also had to dive down a rabbit hole of crypto culture.

So I quietly stalked crypto Twitter through some lists that one of my co-workers shared with me, and I read stuff that people were putting out, and I read what the projects and coins were publishing themselves. Despite all that, joining Warpcast earlier this week immersed me in crypto culture in a way Twitter hasn't over the last year.

Last night, I was reflecting on how I could contribute. I can't actually make NFT art or mints or games or whatever. I'm a product manager and sometimes technical writer. My real strength and passion is in leading and developing teams. I love building teams of people and helping them achieve success. What good is that to a bunch of random people out there building?

Then I found /replyguys and realized...

1. I'm good at encouraging people, and

2. I'm good at taking complex subjects, gaining an understanding of them, and explaining them to other people.

I've seen some people questioning the value or purpose of what's being built (in a general sense; like, they'll reply in a thread and be somewhere on the spectrum between confusion and animosity), and that's a place I can help.

I can reply in the thread if it's brief, and I can use this Paragraph account when more space is needed.

So that's how I'm plugging in. There are so many beautiful builders and projects out there, and I want to make sure they know how amazing they are. And for those who, like me, are trying to figure this stuff out, maybe I can help make it all a little bit clearer.