Story of Journey, a mad scientist who makes 0xDAVA — Part 1
DAVA TALK SHOW — Interview with DAVA Frontend developer Journey
How did Journey become a developer?
Soga (DAVA Marketing Officer, from now on, referred to as Soga): Let me start with a brief introduction of Journey.
Journey (DAVA Frontend Dev): I work on DAVA Frontend Development and Tokenomics. I also recently played a role in DAVA Voyage assistant writer, writing The DAVA Voyage story, which was published internally in Discord not too long ago. In addition, I have been in charge of developing various web front-ends and planning the fictional world of the DAVA game we are currently building.
Soga: Wow, you’re playing many roles, but your primary role and responsibility seem to be in development. Can you tell us how you started developing?
Journey: In elementary school, my dream was to become a programmer. My plan changed to fund manager in middle school and eventually switched to being a psychiatrist in high school. It was tough being a programmer, and I wanted to try out different options that make more money efficiently. But, just a day before the college entrance exam, I caught the mumps and didn’t do well on the exam. After the exam, perhaps fatefully, I saw an advertisement about a new software school called NHN NEXT, founded by Naver. I passed the application, and my future as a software developer began.
Soga: I see. Then when did you become interested in blockchain?
Journey: In 2015, when Ethereum was public, I encountered it initially in various articles and blogs. I was surprised that a high school student made it and got to learn more about blockchain and Bitcoins. Back then, it was just mild interest in Crypto. But in early 2017, I was heavily interested due to macro market situations. At that time, my investment portfolio consisted of stocks and cryptocurrencies. Despite the bad macro conditions, the return on cryptocurrency was still satisfactory. Soon later, it went up just by putting it in, and after a while, it went up as much as my salary.
Soga: From being interested in something to starting a career is a big step to take. Can you tell me how you decided to pursue your career in blockchain and how you motivated yourself?
Journey: Back in 2018, I couldn’t concentrate on my work because I was earning well over my salary. The decline began in January 2018 and was very threatening, but it was an opportunity for me to start my mining business. My close acquaintance and I went abroad, searching for every country where electricity bills were cheap to find out where to build our mining business. Unfortunately, business communication is slow in countries with reasonable electricity bills. As a result, the money invested during the crypto winter soon dried up.
Mission Statement and Philosophies for scientists at 0xDAVA
Soga: Is this the first career in a blockchain company? Did you encounter any hardships?
Journey: This is the first time, but I enjoyed it without particular difficulties.
Soga: I heard that you have a strong philosophy in software development. Something named “To Screen and Beyond.” Can you explain what it is?
Journey: Yep: to Screen and Beyond. I slightly twisted Buzz Lightyear’s “To infinity and beyond” quote from Toy Story. Developers should always be good at making what is beyond the screen, not just what’s showing on the monitor. Don’t just think about the visible elements on the screen, but look at the codes on the screen and the people who will encounter them. There’s always someone behind the lines of codes. Users will see the website beyond the screen, and colleagues who work with you will see the documents and decisions beyond the screen. In short, I try to deliver that when you work, you must develop with these various “users” in mind, including your colleagues who work with you.
Soga: that sounds awesome. Can you tell me the main advantage of the ‘to screen and beyond’ philosophy?
Journey: It’s easy to become overly attached to specific problems while working as a developer. It is common to forget the value it brings to the actual user and the business value you create with your code; your vision becomes too focused and only sees a tiny part of a bigger problem. This mentality and philosophy help me decide what is truly important at any specific time.
Soga: I know you used to enjoy trading, but is it true that you love yourself as a trader? Do you believe that you have the skill sets?
Journey: I can firmly say that I do not have a particular talent in trading. I don’t think trading is an easy skill set to acquire unless you make it a job. I often overhear crypto traders complaining that charts are meaningless these days. But I still think that many crypto traders should learn the basics of charts because the mass still believes in the pattern of charts. One thing I can tell you firmly about the chart: the chart is not always correct nor wrong, LOL.
Soga: you are like an encyclopedia of DAVA. Whenever I needed answers or guidance in any field, people would say, “go ask Journey.” I wonder how you got so knowledgeable in various areas and how you can digest such an amount of content.
Journey: Answer: Google and Wikipedia, there’s not much to be remarkable. If you don’t know something or have questions, google it immediately, find your answers, and remember: this is all you need to do. In nature, I have many questions in the world, so I look them up and remember them. But not everyone has to live like this. That is why we have Google and Wikipedia.
The behind-the-scenes story of DAVA that we didn’t know
Soga: You’ve been a developer ever since we started minting DAVA, and DAVA’s first anniversary is just around the corner. Are there any interesting stories, incidents, or episodes people don’t know?
Journey: There’s an episode that happened during the minting. It was initially scheduled for October, three weeks after I joined the team. The happening took place on the opening day of the minting. After I joined the company, which was only three weeks before the sale, DAVA didn’t have a single line of web2 code. Just a bunch of Web 3 Solidity contracts here and there. I didn’t have enough time to study web3, but personally, it wasn’t bad for me because I like challenges. On the public sale day, we sat down at the company and talked while looking at the slow pace it was being sold during the public sale and pre-sale. No one expected that DAVA would be sold out, so we started planning strategies for the future.
So I watched it until 11:30 am, ate, and went home to take some rest from the marathon of programming to meet the sale date. Of course, having low expectations for sale, I didn’t even bring my laptop home! But there was a problem. I didn’t implement the “sold-out scenario” at the front end.
Soga: Wait up, wait up! So you didn’t expect the market to send this much love?
Journey: Yea, I was exhausted from marathon coding to deliver for the minting event. Anyways, at this pleasant but anxious moment, I borrowed my girlfriend’s laptop while eating pork belly and successfully deployed the patched version right before the sale was over. A few seconds later, the entire collection sold out. I remember getting frantic calls from Ggomma asking if the patch is out.
Soga: Haha, okay. ****It’s fun to learn about behind-the-scene incidents. If you go back in time, before the minting event, can you tell us what you want to change in DAVA? What would you have done differently?
Journey: It would have been nice to start from polygon. I think it was a waste of gas.
Soga: Right. I think everyone who participated in minting will agree with that.
Journey: Oh, I also regret not actively investing in other NFTs at that time, being buried under work. Current blue chips like Doodles were minting around the same time as us. I remember showing OpenSea to my girlfriend, “This is Doodles, but it’s about 4 million won.”
Soga: Let me guess. Your girlfriend’s reaction was, “This is 4 million won??!”
Journey: That is correct. But it wasn’t long before Doodle…I’m sure you all know, but now it’s a different world’s story.
Soga: You’ve worked for many companies and have experienced many working environments. How do you value the DAVA team: can you tell us the strengths or weaknesses of the team?
Journey: Strengths are hard work. We communicate fiercely and prepare for it. Usually, in general companies, only a few people think fiercely about the project’s direction. However, since all my team members are Dava holders, I believe everyone communicates and works passionately.
Soga: What about weaknesses? Is there anything you think is disappointing about the team?
Journey: (Thinking) It’s a shame that many products and features we planned were shot down just before the release, and I think it’s a weakness. I can’t deny that there were a lot of discussions and external situations along the way. But on the bottom line, we couldn’t deliver the exciting things we thought and planned.
Soga: I can relate to that a lot.
More about DAVA games continues in part two, follow and be subscribed to learn more!
