Greetings, dear friends. This time around, we are featuring a very active member of the Expanse family, Mr. John Molina, popularly known as “Bitjohn.”
John graduated in Digital Graphic Design and Multimedia in 1998. It was the time his country, Colombia, like many Latin American countries, was experiencing a transition from traditional design to the era of digital design powered by the boom in desktop computers. John realized the importance of this trend and later focused his energies to also learn web programing, while working in digital design companies.
After finishing his studies, he found that there was great demand for graphic designers, but companies required a combination of designers and programmers. This prompted him to start learning programming.
“From the very beginning, I realized that learning new technologies was not going to be possible in traditional centers of learning, like Universities, since the rate at which technology was progressing was way faster than what Universities were able to cope with and come up with new courses and programs.” John started attending seminars and training groups with other engineers in his city and participated in chats with experts and specialists from other countries to learn programming skills.
Today, John is a Senior Front-End and Back-End Developer, with proven skills in web design. He works for several companies in the United States and Spain.
John remembers his earliest days working in digital technology companies. He says that digital technology at the time was progressing with leaps and bounds and within only months, there were advances and updates in software/hardware they had to be constantly informed of for their clients. “It was a fascinating time for us. I believe I belong to an exciting generation who has seen the coming of technology that is the precursor of all that we see today. The transition we experienced still raise fond memories,” says John of the time he witnessed during the beginning of the new millennium. “Earlier, everything was based on a desktop computer; later I had to keep myself up-to-date with mobile technology and now with tablets and Smart Watches! Everything has turned smart,” says John with a chuckle.
Technology allowed entrepreneurs and developers to break geographical barriers and work for clients across the globe. “I saw this happen to my city, too. Many software companies started during those times and have now consolidated their markets across the United States, Canada and Europe.”
When asked what when and how he entered the crypto field, John says, “I’ve been in the fascinating world of cryptocurrencies since just over two years, but I’ve been reading about Bitcoin since 2010, like many other crypto enthusiasts. I made several faucets that allowed me to have my first digital coins.” At the end of 2017, John started mining ETH on his MacBook using the popular Minergate App. He signed up for the chat and had the opportunity to meet and chat with other miners who helped him in optimizing his mining activities.
Within a few months of his tryst with active mining, John set up his first rig assembled with two GPU’s to mine several alt-coins like XMR. “It was fun but I didn’t see it as a serious way to make money; the minimum payouts seemed to take an eternity!”
On being asked about his earliest experience with Expanse, John fondly remembers the day when he met a moderator in the Minergate community who wouldn’t stop talking about the Expanse project and how interesting it was. “He always told us that Expanse had a low difficulty of mining. I was already finding ETH harder and more complicated to mine. So I thought ‘let’s see what this Expanse is all about!’ ”
John performed some tests together with other miners and started mining Expanse. They were able to mine some EXPs so later they entered the community on Telegram, and then on Slack and finally on Discord.
John says he was surprised to find the open and transparent nature of the entire Expanse community. “It was fantastic how we could talk directly with Chris (Christopher Franko) and other Expanse team members. They kept us constantly informed of the progress of the various Expanse projects. The discussions were extremely informative and insightful. It was like traveling inside the brains of some of the brightest minds in the crypto and tech world!”
Today, as you all know, John is an active member on the Expanse Discord channel as a collaborator for, what he feels is, an “amazing community.” He is particularly active on the Spanish channel, where he offers help to new users who want to know more about the Expanse projects or to fellow miners who are interested in EXP.
John is also in charge of the “ProMineros” community that aims to promote and perform Expanse Collaborative Mining. He is in constant communication with Omar so that this ‘Collab Mining’ can be done effectively.
On being asked what is it about Expanse that excites him the most, John is quick to answer, “The Expanse Army community is the one that I am excited about the most. I have seen firsthand how many of them are constantly following the progress of each project, how they collaborate and how they make sure that everything goes well with seamless collaboration.”
John has high hopes for Expanse in this new year. “I’m looking forward to the launch of Tokenlab as I’m sure the entire community is! I am also excited to see how “Gameboard” progresses and the “Guardian Nodes” that Expanse is developing.”
Lately, John has been receiving a lot of complaints and negativity from members, mostly newcomers, about the low price of the EXP cryptocurrency. He is constantly barraged with questions on when the team is planning to launch new projects. “All I say to them is to have patience and, more importantly, to have faith. I have seen closely the involvement and dedication of the Expanse team as well as active collaborators. I am sure they will adhere to their developmental plans and roll out exciting new projects very soon.”
“As far as the price of EXP is concerned, I tell people that it is not just about Expanse, the entire crypto space is undergoing an important transition. This is a phase of consolidation and the coming months will show which projects survive. Expanse is not just an idea on a paper; it is a living, breathing ecosystem of tools, developers and some really stunning ideas.”
John says that he loves reading Expanse Newsletters as they provide clear, succinct information about new developments and gives a sneak peek into things to come. For other queries, the Discord channel is a great place to ask questions and get quick answers.
When asked about his outlook for the future, John says, “In five years, I think cryptos will have greater stability in price and in terms of blockchain projects, we will have many of them. In ten years, many of the big companies will be rolling on the blockchain technology. I am experiencing a feeling of déjà vu, if you understand what I’m saying. I have experienced this kind of tech transition before and it is so exciting that I cannot wait to see what the future holds.”
John says that he loves being a part of the Expanse community. “I take this opportunity to thank the entire Expanse team for their dedication during these turbulent times of worldwide instability and the indecisive regulatory landscape. The confidence they have in themselves and the work they are doing rubs off on the entire community and fills them with hope. We expect many good things from Expanse in 2019,” he says, signing off.
