Humans of Ethereum

"I’m honest about where I am: this is still the early, experimental phase I love most—building, shipping, listening. I even won a hackathon with this project and got nudged to find a co-founder, so I’m “dating” for the right partner now. At home I’m married with a six-month-old daughter, which puts a bright edge on the work: if I’m going to spend the hours, I want them on something joyful, healthy, and shared. If Ethereum gave me the canvas, Farcaster gave me an audience. The rest is just showing up every day and pressing “ship.”"

"I was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and moved to New York when I was seven. My first brush with crypto was… chaotic: in 2013 I bought a few bitcoin on Mt. Gox, watched it implode, and years later a claim payout showed up. I kept tinkering, but my path was winding—wealth management after college, then a coding bootcamp at General Assembly, a stint as a startup engineer, back to investing with a mentor who felt like family. The tug to build never let up, so a few years ago I jumped back in and started shipping: a lending protocol, dev tooling, prediction markets for streamers—lots of experiments, lots of lessons.."

@marianabernado You're amazing ❣️

We leave our countries because we know the world becomes bigger when we remove artificial barriers. Crypto does something similar, it removes the gatekeepers between talent and opportunity, between ideas and capital. (…) In a world of digital communities, crypto enables us to organize around shared values and visions rather than just geography.

@marianabernado with @EspressoSys

"For me, that’s the beauty of Ethereum and crypto: the resilience, the community, the openness, the permissionless nature—something that an immigrant understands well. We leave our countries because we know the world becomes bigger when we remove artificial barriers. Crypto does something similar—it removes the gatekeepers between talent and opportunity, between ideas and capital. It creates truly global markets where your network becomes your net worth, regardless of which passport you hold. In a world of network states and digital communities, crypto enables us to organize around shared values and visions rather than just geography. That’s not just technological progress, it’s human progress."

"My family and friends back home mostly just think what I do is “cool.” They don’t always understand it, but they see me traveling, working on tech or crypto, and they believe I’m building things that matter. I’m from an island in Brazil, sometimes called Silicon Island. It's full of startups, and where some unicorns in Brazil and LATAM were born, so this shaped the way I envisioned my career.."

"Outside of work, I’m competitive by nature. Sports have been part of my life since I was a kid. Swimming, soccer, judo, now padel. I don’t like being bad at things, so I throw myself in completely.."

"I first heard about Bitcoin back in 2016, doing scientific research in a university lab. Some of our group members paid for an Asia trip we did entirely in Bitcoin. At the time, I was still studying engineering, and it just felt like a curiosity. But a couple of years later, while working in the innovation department at AB-Inbev, blockchain kept popping up. It was 2018, and suddenly it wasn’t just theory—it was about finding real applications.."

"I moved from Brazil to the U.S. because of bigger opportunities to explore, where talents can thrive. Miami gives me the lifestyle I want, while traveling to New York gives me access to people and a level of conversations that engage and stimulate you. For now, I like the balance.."

"Ethereum wasn’t something I consciously chose—it was just where everything was happening. The biggest community, the most energy, the most openness. When I first arrived in the U.S., it was Ethereum people who welcomed me, introduced me around, and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll teach you.” That sense of community made it impossible to imagine leaving.."

"When I moved into fintech more on the payment side, though, I felt stuck. Too many intermediaries, too many layers between people and value. I didn’t believe in the model anymore. Crypto felt different. It felt like working on the actual frontier of innovation. So when I got my first chance to move into blockchain full-time, I didn’t hesitate.."

@SethGRosenberg with @GreylockVC

"And beyond investing, I try to support entrepreneurship in other ways. Recently I helped start a conference in Tel Aviv, what we called the “Sun Valley of the Middle East.” It brought together founders and builders from across the region to focus on optimism, technology, and what we can create when we come together. For me, it’s another reminder that entrepreneurship and blockchain tech share the same DNA: building new systems when the old ones no longer work."

"I grew up in Winnipeg, and all the successful people I knew were entrepreneurs. That was the North Star for me early on, but I wasn’t exposed to tech until college. Once I was, it was clear that the next twenty years of opportunity would be in software and technology.."