Wietze has been with the team for a long time — we’re happy to have him as our next spotlight!
The previous team spotlight was on Michael “Blurpesec” Hahn — read it here.
What is your role at MyCrypto?
My role is to provide both support and education to users of MyCrypto, but also to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. My goal is to make this space easier for everyone, by providing support where needed, but also by writing knowledge base articles explaining various concepts and fundamentals of the Ethereum and cryptocurrency space.
What did you do before you joined MyCrypto?
Before joining MyCrypto, I used to be part of the MyEtherWallet team, joining them in summer of 2017.
It was a period where the hype around cryptocurrencies was massive, with ICOs happening almost every day, and people getting their funds stolen via fraudulent messages sent through Slack servers on the daily. Of the hundreds of support tickets we would get on a daily basis, a major chunk would be from people getting phished, and asking us what they could do to get their funds back, and preventing this from happening in the future.
This sparked my interest in security, and has since become a topic I’ve been wanting to learn more about every single day. One of the MyCrypto team members, Harry, writes some great articles about phishing and security, which you should check out on the MyCrypto Medium page.
What do you love about what you do?
Not a single day is the same in this ecosystem. I love that every day, I’m able to learn something new, be it about Ethereum or security, and that I’m able to educate users about the new advancements being made in the ecosystem.
I’m very thankful that I get to work with such a talented team who shares the same interests and follows the same outlook to this ecosystem as I do.
What’s challenging about your job?
Often times, I find it difficult explaining Ethereum fundamentals to an absolute newcomer to this space. What is “gas”? Who does this extra “fee” go to? These are by far my favorite people to interact with, as they often are very willing to learn something absolutely new to them, and with full ambition.
Obviously, we do sometimes receive angry people reaching out to us, and putting all the blame on us for a mistake that they made, but I don’t blame them. Blockchain is insanely confusing to a newcomer of this space, and is something that I, and MyCrypto, strive to make more accessible for everyone.
What’s something you’d like to learn more about?
User experience (UX), without a doubt. You can create the best, new, advanced technologies, but have zero adoption due to it being unusable to the general public. UX is an insanely important aspect to any product, which often appears to be forgotten or neglected in this space. A product should be easy to use, intuitive, and not have a complete handbook that needs to be read by anyone who wishes to use the product. Could you imagine having to explain TCP/IP to your grandparents, so they can try this new ‘internet’ thing which has got everybody talking?
Aside from UX, security is a topic I want to continue learning about. With every tiny bit of personal information being stored (and sold) somewhere on the internet, security has undoubtedly become a massive focus for companies, hackers, but unfortunately, not so much for your average Joe. I wish to contribute to making security easier for the latter.
What’s one of your favorite teams/projects/cryptocurrencies in the space? Why?
MakerDAO has been high in the list as one of my favorite projects in this space for a while now. I can tell that they are aware of the educational shortcomings of this ecosystem, and are putting a major effort in providing education to the rest of the people in this space.
I’m a big fan of their in-depth articles about their experiences developing with Ethereum. A great example would be their Oasis contract upgrade postmortem, in which they explain the issues they faced, and how they went about solving them. MakerDAO is in no sense obligated to write these articles, yet they do so, and the community is able to learn from their experiences.
What’s the number one thing that you would like the cryptocurrency community to hear?
Do not be afraid to ask questions! With this space being so new, everybody knows things that others will not. By asking questions, everyone is able to learn something new, and can share this with others. There’s no such thing as a silly question, especially not with new and confusing technologies as Ethereum.
You asking questions helps everyone in this entire ecosystem.
More About Wietze
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
As someone who sits on a chair for weeks on end, I’ve lately been putting an effort into exercising more. I love the freeing feeling of moving about, and the accomplishing feeling of getting a workout done keeps me motivated to do even better next time. For anyone who feels like they’re stuck at their desk for way too long, I can wholeheartedly recommend getting some exercise in, even if it’s just for a little while every once and then.
Where is your favorite place you’ve lived? Where do you live now? Where is your dream location?
For all my life, I’ve been living in tiny villages in the North of the Netherlands. As I’m 18 years old at the time of writing, I haven’t had the opportunity to move to many different places of the world just yet. I love travelling, so I’ll see where I’ll end up in 10, 20 years.
What’s an interesting random thing about you?
I’m trilingual! Growing up, I was brought up speaking Frisian, which is one of the few official languages in the Netherlands. It’s almost exclusively being spoken in Friesland, a province in the North of the Netherlands, and knows about 400,000 speakers. Besides Frisian, I also speak Dutch, English, and a few words of German that I remember from school many years ago.
Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself with us today! If someone wanted to get in touch with you or follow you, where should they go?
You can always reach out to me through Reddit, Twitter, or Keybase. I’m down to reply to any questions you might have!
Thanks Wietze! To send us off, share a cool picture with us! It can be anything — a pet, a traveling experience, or more!
Though I don’t have any pets myself, here’s a picture of my brother’s cat, Joey :)
