PCM vol. 3 issue 5

expert interview
Expert Commentary:
Blockchain’s Future
Fabian is the Tech Lead of the the Mist Browser
project and creator of the Ethereum Wallet. He is a
strong advocate of open-source software and has
built and contributed to a lot of open-source libraries
and projects. Fabian also wrote a book on Meteor.js
a open source JavaScript Framework. His interested
in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin led him to be part
of one of the most ambitious Blockchain projects to
date, the Ethereum Project where he works today
with the Ethereum Foundation.
by Fabian Vogelsteller
Two years ago blockchain
technology was being considered
the dominating factor for the
future of finance. Today most
global enterprises are experimenting
with Blockchain technology to unleash
the cost saving and operational
efficiencies value proposition. To get
an idea of where we stand now with
Blockchain technology and some of the
major challenges we’re still facing, we
interviewed Fabian Vogelsteller, the
Ethereum developer and creator of the
Ethereum Wallet and the Mist Browser.
PCM: Tell us about yourself? How did
you find yourself as a developer?
Fabian: I’m working since the age of 7
with computers. I started out building
websites for myself, which quite quickly
lead to people asking me to help them
build theirs. This was in the late 90s
and I’ve built a portfolio of more than
40 websites for small and medium
companies since then.
While building and designing websites I
had the need for a Content Management
System. But at the time most of them were
either large like typo3, and/or ugly and
restrictive in their templating system.
So, I decided to build the feindura flat file
CMS. This CMS didn’t need a database
as all content was stored in files. With
this I could build websites and simply
deploy them on any webhosting services
with PHP and without the need for an
additional database server. Over the
years feindura grew quite a lot and
based on my client’s needs, I decided to
open source it and make it free to use
for anybody.
Making open source is hard - as you
do not simply publish your code, but
you need to take care of it, maintain
and ensure it is well documented and
presented, otherwise it won’t get any
interest or contributors.
This led me deeper into the world of open
source where I operate today. Almost all
the code I produce is open source and
publicly available. You make money by
building and you gain reputation by open
sourcing.
Over the time my programming
preference shifted from PHP to
JavaScript, and I later wrote a book
about Meteor.js - a reactive JavaScript
framework, which caught my attention.
JavaScript grew from in the ‘00s from a
funny scripting language for websites,
which annoyed people with popup
windows, to be the main driver of today’s
websites and applications.
In 2013, I discovered Bitcoin and I
quickly immersed myself deep into the
– back then – smaller cryptocurrency
space. This was the time where the first
altcoins like Litecoin and colored coins
on top of bitcoin were created, such as
the Mastercoin project.
At the time I worked at startups totally
unrelated to cryptocurrencies, but my
main interest and hobby was following
the development in this space.
When Vitalik Buterin wrote the Ethereum
whitepaper it caught my attention, but
it was 1 year before even the presale
started. I followed the updates, but was
caught up on other projects and raising
my son Joschua at that time. I always
wanted to work in this space, but at the
time most projects where in their infancy
and ICOs where not yet a thing.
All of that changed when the Ethereum
project raised 32,000 Bitcoin, which at
the time surmounted to around 18M
USD. This was the second ever ICO, after
the Mastercoin project (which collected
2000 Bitcoin) and allowed Ethereum to
be funded after one year of voluntary
contribution.
When I heard they were to open an office
in Berlin, I was very excited and reached
out to them. It took another half a year
and a second approach before Alex van
de Sande the UX designer of the Mist
project within Ethereum contacted me
in December 2014. In the first months,
I built a chat application that used
Gavin Woods whisper communication,
a protocol built to broadcast messages
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