It Couldn't Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done

But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

At least no one ever has done it;”

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat

And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

There are thousands to prophesy failure,

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

— Edgar Albert Guest

Figure 1.0:
YoY Inflation Rates Since 2013, fromRateInflation

Figure 1.0:

The YoY inflation data (starting at January 1st, 2013) was fetched from a RateInflation.com API provided byNASDAQ Data Link (formerly known as Quandl). Per RateInflation's website, they state that their data source is theU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); however, RateInflation chooses to use their ownbase period, 1982-1984=100, which is different than what BLS uses, 2000=100. (This specific base period can be found by the BLS's database Series Id "CUUR0000SA0" and Series Title "All items in U.S. city average, all urban consumers, not seasonally adjusted").

Portfolio

Strands ->

Contract Full-Stack Engineer

Jun 2022 - Apr 2023

• Assisting product design and assisting with the development of an option’s vault on top of Lyra and owning all frontend development of Strands' interface, an options protocol on Optimism

• Leading strategy for the company’s web3 vision, including selecting company’s starting tech stack & developer tools and doiing research/analysis on potential business partners that have the best Lyra integrations

Kwenta ->

Community Frontend Engineer

Feb - June 2022

• Built and implemented several new features for Kwenta’s decentralized futures exchange on Optimism

• Built a new NFT contract to denote investors in Kwenta’s new DAO

OptiMarket ->

Core Contributor

Nov 2021 - Jun 2022

• Led team of 4 open source contributors to design and build an Optimism-native NFT marketplace from scratch and bootstrap a small community in Discord

• Collaborated with core contributors to analyse design/engineering tradeoffs of new product features

• Taught a less skilled front - end engineer effective learning techniques, debugging skills, and several web3 software tools

Vennity ->

Advisor/Contract Full-Stack Engineer

Jun - Nov 2021

• Built Vennity’s first NFT contracts to create NFT rewards

• Assisted in implementing WalletConnect support for Vennity’s mobile app, enabling support for sign - ins with a mobile wallet

• Advised company strategy on most viable NFT product features and current NFT product trends as well as chose the web3 stack and chain to use for the company

Experience

Optimism ->

Contract Community and Developer Support

Mar - Nov 2021

• Assisted with minor feature improvements for both Optimism’s core codebase and UI of their bridge/gateway product

• Led community and developer support for Optimism, an Ethereum layer 2 solution, by assisting and debugging developer issues when using Optimism’s network and developer tools, including assisting strategic partners, such as Synthetix, Chainlink, Uniswap, Kwenta, Hop Exchange, and other projects

• Led weekly community retrospective meetings, reviewing analyses of Discord server metrics to improve community engagement and retention

Neuo ->

Full-Stack Engineer

Mar - Aug 2020

• Successfully deployed a dockerized full-stack production React app in under 3 months as Neuo’s first release of their talent development platform

• Built REST-APIs using Sequelize.js: for Neuo’s core personality assessment; and user authentication that allowed our Brand Ambassadors to begin Neuo’s invite - only first - user registrations

• Collaborated twice per week with our UI/UX designer on Figma designs to improve Neuo’s future customer journey/experience with curated job and personal development resources

Gies Disruption Lab ->

Co-Product Manager/Full-Stack Engineer

Jan 2019 - May 2020

• Oversee Solidity and web3 development for Ethereum app to be used to teach students about blockchain and cryptocurrency

• Built first SPA prototype by implementing responsive React hooks on landing page for capturing user information and requiring university IDs during logins

• Implemented REST - APIs using Sequelize.js to store student login data and tutorial progress to improve app personalization through future notification features

• Collaborated with Gies College of Business to bootstrap blockchain and cryptocurrency education through a web-app soon-to-be integrated into the college’s new emerging tech curriculum

• Led design of the Supply Chain Simulator, a web-based Ethereum app built with React and Solidity to educate business students about supply chain management and blockchain/cryptocurrency fundamentals

SIG Blockchain ->

Co-Founder/Chair

Jan 2019 - May 2020

• Led weekly intro workshops, meetings, and a hackathon to increase campus blockchain/cryptocurrency adoption

• Took over previous leadership of Champaign Blockchain Meetups, a local community meetup group, as an ACM Special Interest Group to further increase reach of our new blockchain organization for students

Synchrony Financial ->

Emerging Technology Intern

Feb - Mar 2020

• Designed proprietary blockchain architecture to secure a company patent for a blockchain-based claim management system

• Assisted building base infrastructure of a proprietary proof-of-concept React app for tracking and managing client credit cards for an upcoming payment product integration