An Interview with Humanode Lead Dev: MOZGIII

MOZGIII, please introduce yourself - what’s your background before joining Humanode and what got you to the team?

Hello, I’m MOZGIII. I’ve worked on various projects before Humanode, in a wide spectrum of industries - aerospace, web development, games, enterprise - you name it. This is my first blockchain project, although I’ve built different ledger kinds before.

How did you stumble across crypto-biometrics for the first time?

If we’re speaking about the secure handling of the biometric data - I’ve had this concept ever since I learned about how biometrics work and how they’re usually processed.

In a crypto-as-in-blockchains sense - I’ve just started thinking about it last year, and it just so happened that soon after I joined the Humanode project.

In your opinion, what is Humanode doing that is special in this industry?

It’s in the name. We’re solving the sybil attack problem in a novel way that is sensible as a foundation for building a consensus logic that can deliver on the goal of building a system that makes the participants equal. This, in turn, allows everyone to build DAOs on a platform that is in-line with the fundamental principles behind the DAO concept.

We’re also building our own DAO (Vortex) atop of the Humanode chain for project self-governance. It is truly a unique project, I haven’t seen anything like it out there.

These are just a few of the things that I find most interesting, but we actually have a ton of cool features in one project - and this is also something rather unique to our industry.

What are some technical challenges you as the lead developer face?

Ah, that would be the cryptographic scheme for biometric handling. We’re taking special care to ensure the data is handled privately and securely, and it’s an area of constant research. I would say this is the main challenge.

Then, we’re building the public chain, so we have to make it economically resilient to attacks. Ensuring this requires keeping a lot of the properties of the system in mind when landing the design. We have to make sure that our system stays strong, such that even when the properties that we have end up combined in non-trivial ways in the wild - there’s no way to exploit the system.

Tell me, what is your focus in your role at Humanode?

I’m about all the technical sides of the project. The main focus is building the Humanode architecture design and code. I also do all our infra work.

Please describe your work routine — where do you usually work and how do you set up your work environment? What’s a must for you?

Well, my days are always different. Sometimes it’s calls from morning till evening, sometimes coding all day, sometimes a mix. Generally, we have a daily stand up, but other than that we’re at our own pace, and sync up as needed.

Due to this my work environment is also flexible - I can work from any internet connected location.

As for the technical side of things, I’m mostly using the Debian OS family. Just lately I’ve started experimenting with Apple’s M1 system - which is amazing btw - but it’s been all Linux for years now. macOS is fine.

What unique stuff do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I like browsing Github and reading random code just for fun.

Do you have any books you like to recommend?

It’s hard to recommend non-technical stuff - books are so good yet so different. Books are great but it’s so hard for me to actually read something nowadays, so I don’t think I’d recommend anything now.

But for technical stuff, it’s easy - I like Introduction to Algorithms. Great book for setting your mind to computer science. If you want to find it - there’s an article on wikipedia on it.

Who are the thought leaders you follow on the topic of cryptography?

There isn’t anyone I’d specifically pick as a thought leader in this area. Instead, there are a lot of great people doing the work, exchanging ideas.

Any useful tips about privacy that the normal person should be aware of?

Well, privacy is virtually dead now, we’re living in a world that’s pretty much transparent and controlled. The best tip is to just stop worrying about privacy and live a happy life, as the battle for privacy was lost long ago. People didn’t care about it then, but now it’s too late. You have to have a very good understanding of the modern day systems to beat them. I still have some old habits, and they somewhat help - but not really.

And no, using VPN, Tor and a secure browser does not make you private.

How do you personally maintain your privacy?

I don’t have social networks (besides Github of course), and I don’t use my real name on the web. The basics, pretty much. But I don’t care anymore really.

How do you see the future unfold in the next 50 years?

I presume the quality of life will go downhill, due to overpopulation. Might be somewhat better due to automation. We might also all die from a rogue AI in like 10 years, or another supervirus.

Of course, Humanode will emerge as the best blockchain in existence. :D

Any advice for people looking to embark on a career in this space?

Don’t waste too much time, start learning now. Learn always, never stop.