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Jeroen Leenarts: Hi, and welcome
to another special edition of my
podcast. I'm sitting here with
Dmitry, best Paulo. And he is a
lead at Gnosis a company that
actually builds Gnosis safe,
which is the most trusted multi
signature wallets on Aetherium.
That's quite a mouthful,
Dimitri. So let's just pick that
apart first, because otherwise
people listening to a podcast
have no clue what we're talking
about. Can you tell a little bit
about what product you are
working on?
Dmitry Bespalov: Hi, it's Ron.
Thanks for having me. Yeah, so
if you want to jump right in.
What we are working on is we're
building a platform. That is
that is based on the multi
signature wallet solution that
we already built. So multi
signature wallets for those who
are not into crypto at all. It's
like a shared vacant bank
account or shared money pool
that maybe people used with
PayPal, but it is a shared
wallet, for groups that want
they want to manage their funds
together.
Jeroen Leenarts: So am I correct
that with a multi signature
wallets, that you need multiple
people or parties to actually
approve on a transfer of
Aetherium? For example, before
it can actually proceed? Yes,
that is right. That is exactly
what it is. Okay, and what is
your role in all of this?
Because you are the technique,
and you're the tech lead at
diagnosis.
Dmitry Bespalov: Right. So I'm,
I'm leading the mobile team
here, hypnosis safe. We are
building and supporting and
enhancing our two mobile apps,
Android and iOS. And I'm
leading, I'm leading both
platforms.
Jeroen Leenarts: So are you
mostly focused on day to day
development on iOS or on
Android? Or do you hardly get to
code? Anything at all nowadays?
Dmitry Bespalov: Well, for me, I
do I do get time to code. Well,
maybe not. Not in the last
month, but before that I could
manage also to contribute
something and also do other
things that are related to
requirements definitions and,
and other administrative tasks.
So it's a bit of both
Jeroen Leenarts: so and and what
did you do? Before you started
working at Gnosis? Let's spell
that name. So that's g n. O S is
correct.
Dmitry Bespalov: Correct. But it
pronounced with the dampened G
at the beginnings of Gnosis.
Gnosis.
Jeroen Leenarts: Okay, so, um,
so what did you do before you
got involved with Gnosis safe?
Dmitry Bespalov: Um, well, if I,
if I would tell my story, in
short, I was, I was, I was
always, I was always interested
in computers since since since I
was a kid. And from my
university time, so I knew that
I want to do something with
software. And so I studied,
studied informatics back back in
khazana, that's where I'm from.
Cuz I'm Russia. And at some
point, I wanted to get level up
in this field and get lucky and
got grants to go for education
abroad in the US. Then I
studied, studied or at
Rochester, in computer science,
and then came back to Russia
worked a little bit there, and
then moved to Germany.
Jeroen Leenarts: And Germany is
where you are at right now.
Right? Right.
Dmitry Bespalov: This Berlin is
where we're in based. Okay. So,
coming coming up to notice is
that here in Germany, I was
working together with was a
great team of engineers on this
alando iOS app. And this is
where I met my colleague country
who work who is a contributor on
the iOS was my colleague on the
iOS team, and the contributor to
Wallet connect library. And,
yeah, so three years ago, I
joined Gnosis as an iOS
developer. And then as the time
went, and we did, we did our
job. I got I got a chance to, to
lead I esteem and then later
lead, both mobile mobile team
systems is
Jeroen Leenarts: so good. You
say that you you did a lot of
coding at solando as a as an
individual contributor on their
code base. Yeah, I would say so.
So and how many years that you
work at some Oh, no.
Dmitry Bespalov: I've worked
there for four years. And here
working for three years.
Jeroen Leenarts: What is it that
solando actually does as a as a
platform or as a service?
Dmitry Bespalov: For those who
might might not know it Zalando
is the fashion retailer here in
Germany and in Europe. It
provides fashion like fashion
items to customers across the
Europe. And it's quite popular
here in Germany. And they have,
they have one of the best I
would say mobile experiences in,
in this in this area. So yeah,
Jeroen Leenarts: yeah. So and
then you got started at at
Gnosis three years back. How did
this all happen? Because, of
course, you're, you're an iOS
developer at Solano. And then
obviously, Gnosis was looking
for an iOS developer as well. So
were you looking? Were you
trying to get into this specific
area? Meaning crypto, or what
was the what was the way for you
there?
Dmitry Bespalov: No, I think I
think it was, it was a happy
coincidence, coincidence for me.
Since after, after four years, I
was I was already thinking that,
like, I tried myself in many
areas in the in the iOS app, and
also in the iOS team. And so it
was, it was somewhere in the
thoughts that maybe something
something comes up that that
might be interested. And that's,
that was the time when there was
a lot of hype in the, in the
crypto in the crypto industry.
And my colleague, Andre, was
actually actually by
coincidence, met Mehta, co
founder of Gnosis. And from from
from there, we learned that
there is an opportunity to join
Psygnosis team. And we took a
chance,
Jeroen Leenarts: okay, and
Gnosis as a company. How many
people work there?
Dmitry Bespalov: We have right
now, Around 5050 people,
Jeroen Leenarts: and are in the
states that are continuously
looking for people for new
talent to to add to the team, or
is it more a stable number of
people that are working on their
products.
Dmitry Bespalov: So over time
that we work there, the company
stayed roughly the same size.
However, we were in the company,
there were there were multiple
projects that were running
through the years, some of them
were successful, some of them
had to be closed. But roughly
there were always this, this
number of people. Right now, we
do actually hire and then
specifically in as a safety, we
are looking for product
managers, we're looking for
front end developers, and we're
looking for marketing, marketing
people and potentially community
managers. So there are some
quite some positions open in
our, our team,
Jeroen Leenarts: so And why
would somebody want to work on a
mobile product that is related
to crypto? So what's the
challenge there? What is the
what is the fun aspect of this
field?
Dmitry Bespalov: Um, well, I
think I think specifically, if
you want to take the mobile
perspective, it is it is on the
cutting, I would say it is on
the cutting edge of the
technology in a way that crypto
itself is a new area, even
though it has been around for
more than seven years, I think
it is still in the face of the
early adopters. And it gets some
cycle cycles of hype and then
disillusionment. But still there
is quite some, I would say
revolutionary technologies and
really innovations that are
being developed. And right now
most of it is happening on the
webs web area in the web apps.
But it slowly starts to become
happening in mobile to. And from
the mobile perspective, it is it
is just that there was no not
many things that it was not many
apps that were built for crypto,
there are there are quite some
but comparing compared to the
web and the spread of the
weapons. It's a different story.
Jeroen Leenarts: So what is the
role of the mobile app then in
this entire field because you
mentioned already that there's a
lot of things happening on the
phone On the internet on the
web, so and I think they call it
web three dot O, I think that's
right. And what is the role of
something like a crypto wallet
on a mobile device in all of
this because
Dmitry Bespalov: well, we see
the mobile device as, as,
basically its primary primary
device that most of the people
use. And this is something that
people trust or something that
people use everyday for
different things. And it is also
a good good case where you have
both convenience of use and
security because wallet, the
role of the wallet or mobile,
mobile wallet apps is to hold
this hold the private keys or
hold the encryption keys in the
app in a secure way. And use
them to connect to the other
obligations to make transactions
to interact using those private
keys or wallets with with the
crypto ecosystem.
Jeroen Leenarts: And this is
also the area where an SDK like
wallet connect comes in.
Dmitry Bespalov: Yeah, that's
right. One of one of the
problems already I get the
problem that wallet connect, is
solving and was solving at the
time when there was nothing on
the mobile on the mobile space
is that there are lots of mobile
apps or mobile, different mobile
wallets. But it is hard to
connect the mobile wallet where
the key is scoped to the
website, or to the other mobile,
mobile. I don't know web
application, or another mobile
web mobile decentralized
application. And this is where
what it connects comes into
play. It is a standard that
promotes a way to establish a
secure connection between
decentralized application the
maybe uniswap or something or
something else. And the wallet,
the actual account that
represents the user.
Jeroen Leenarts: Okay, so and
yeah, you just casually
mentioned uni swap their uni
swap is what people call a
decentralized, decentralized
exchange, if I'm correct. So
that's pretty much a place where
you can sell and buy your
cryptocurrency into other
cryptocurrencies. Correct.
Dmitry Bespalov: Yeah, it is.
uniswap is one of the one of
decentralized exchanges that
exists. There are others for
example, there is there is a
recent but they're but gaining a
lot of traction, call swap
exchange. There, there are
different services that are that
are there that are there in
crypto such as balancers,
balancer services, that allows
people to invest with their with
their cryptocurrencies. So a lot
of different opportunities to
use to use the funds to use the
money which is all part of the
bigger, decentralized finance
movement or ecosystem that that
has grown over the last one and
a half or two years.
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah, cuz,
because you also mentioned
something called private keys.
And those are pretty much the
secrets that you have to
safeguard as a user of anything
related to crypto, because with
that private key you can
actually create and sign
transactions onto a blockchain
correct are actually submitted
to whatever blockchain you are
working with, because the
details vary a little bit here
and there.
Dmitry Bespalov: Right. So, in
the in the blockchains. In the
blockchain space, every user
represented by an account and
account has has has an address
the same way as as we have a
bank, bank account numbers or we
have our emails not well, maybe
not as emails, but IP addresses,
there is an address for an
account in the blockchain that
holds the balance and is
responsible for transacting with
with other entities and to
control the accounts. One of the
one of the type of accounts is
called externally owned
accounts. And those accounts are
controlled by secret keys. There
is a way if you hold the secret
key there is a way to give to
make a signature that would
verify or authenticate that it
is actually your account that
making that signature. And if
you can make such signature that
that are accepted by the
blockchains then that means that
the blockchain can execute the
transactions on your behalf. And
this is this is why this like
yes, eventually secret keys,
this is an I would say, a key
component, no pun intended, key
component in all of this
Jeroen Leenarts: structure. And
the role of a wallet application
is to first of all safeguard
those key so that you have them
to some extent, stored securely.
And but also that you can use
these keys in a way that is that
your keys remain private and
protected. But still you can do
the signing and creating of
transactions. So with those
keys, correct?
Dmitry Bespalov: Yes, that's
right. However, there is there
is a risk with the with this
secret keys. It is that if you
are using this externally owned
account, and usually externally
owned account is controlled just
by one secret key. And this is
where you have a risk that if
you lose this key for some
reason, or you expose your
secret key somewhere, for any
reason, then you might
potentially compromise this
account and might lose access or
basically, anyone who has such a
secret key could take control of
this account and issue
transactions the same way as you
would do. And there are multiple
solutions to secure such keys,
for example people use called
wallets for is known as hardware
wallets such as lead ledger
hardware wallet, to to generate
their secret keys and store them
on this hardware Ledger Wallet
hardware wallet that never
leaves the device. And then you
could connect that hardware
device to mobile app or to the
web to the desktop, and use your
security keys from there.
However, it is also not not the
most secure solution because if
you still lose such a key, or if
you still somehow gets
compromised, there is no way
back. And this is where Multi
signature or smart contract
based wallets come into play.
And our wallet is an example of
such such a smart contract based
multi signature wallet. This in
this case, you can secure access
to this to your to your account
by using multiple keys. Okay,
and maybe.
Jeroen Leenarts: And does that
allow use cases like for
instance, you have like, I don't
know 10 keys on your multi
signature wallet. And that if
you then lose, or that one of
the keys gets compromised or is
not trustworthy anymore, that
you can just mark that key as
not trusted anymore, so that you
still have nine valid keys
remaining? Or how do I look at
this.
Dmitry Bespalov: As I said
before, there, there are
accounts that are called
external accounts that are
protected just by when punky but
also on Aetherium. There is
another type of account is
called smart contract based
accounts, those accounts or
protect or like those accounts
are controlled by the program by
the smart contract. In this
case, in the case of the smart
contract based wallets, the
program that controls this
account acts like a wallet, so
it is able to make transactions
when you direct. When you say to
this program, Hey, make a
transaction for me. And the
program can verify that you are
the owner of it, you are the
owner of a multi signature
wallet by verifying your keys.
So stores you can store
references to multiple addresses
who will be the owners. And in
case one of the owners is
getting compromised, you can
programmatically remove it by
making a transaction to modify
your multi SIG wallet. Or you
can replace it with some some
other key. Or if if if you know
it's compromised, and you cannot
remove it for in some case, you
can maybe execute some
transactions still to move the
funds out of the wallet to some
other to secure us to your
security account. So there is a
flexibility
Jeroen Leenarts: there. So if I
understand this correctly, the
the wallet itself actually lives
as a smart contracts on
blockchain. That's right. And
but where are the private keys
stored in this situation then or
is that different?
Dmitry Bespalov: smart contracts
and the private keys obviously
they are different. And in the
case of the smart contract
wallets wallets represent. They
exist in the logical space of
the blockchain. So they exist in
the in the EVM, or virtual
machine. When you execute
transactions.
Jeroen Leenarts: You mentioned
EVM. That's the Aetherium
virtual machine. So that's like
a virtual computer that is
conceptually created by the
Ethereum blockchain. And that is
also your execution environment
for your smart contract. So
that's what actually runs your
contract code.
Dmitry Bespalov: That's right.
And the difference between the
contract accounts and the
external, externally owned
accounts is that contract
accounts are not controlled by
the by the keys, they are
controlled by the code, okay,
and you still hold your keys,
you still hold your secret keys.
But our contract is written in a
way that we can validate the
signatures that are coming to
it. So each signature can be
resolved or recovered, so that
we can know who signed which
address has signed. And we can
then check if all of the
signatures that we receive for
some transaction that we want to
execute if all of them are owner
soaps, the smart contracts and
the owners, owner addresses are
stored in the smart contract
state. So in memory, so then the
smart contract can check. Okay,
I have all the addresses that
are owners, then I can let the
transaction through.
Jeroen Leenarts: Okay, yeah, so
that's a bit of public private
key that's being used, right. So
you have to private key still in
your multi SIG wallet. And the
smart contract is aware of the
public key that is related to
this private key so that any
transactions that you submit to
the contract can be verified by
checking it with public key.
Correct. So, okay, just grasp
things a little bit here.
Because this is all I know
something about crypto, but
multi SIG wallets is something
that is completely foreign to
me. So but that's where Gnosis
comes in, right? With Gnosis
safe, that they actually create
something that allows you to do
this in a way that is, well that
even a non technical person can
can can work with these kinds of
tools, correct?
Dmitry Bespalov: Right, we have
have many teams working with no
safe, who use who use not safe
as a, as a wallet for their
community, or as a as a wallet
for their group that they want
to manage their account
together. So this is it's
specifically for, it's useful
for that case, when you have
multiple people who are managing
different keys to the same
account. But also we have
individual users who also store
their funds on another safe and
use them from the safe.
Jeroen Leenarts: So and as an
individual user, what would be
the benefits of using a multi
signature wallet as a single
person.
Dmitry Bespalov: For for user as
a single person, the most the
biggest benefit is a security as
I said, if one of the keys is
compromised, and you hold a
significant amount of funds on
your account, then you lose you
lose access, you potentially
lose access to those funds. And
if you have different
authentication schemes that you
have a backup you have multiple
keys as a backup you still you
still can get access to it and
Jeroen Leenarts: okay basically,
and does the smart contract that
runs all this is that also
created by Gnosis or is it
something that is available in
the community and that Gnosis
has selected as a as a good
contract to work with to create
this feature.
Dmitry Bespalov: So this smart
contract that gets executed or
that the trans on the
blockchain, it is deployed by by
user so when you want to create
another say for yourself, you do
it by yourself. So you make you
make a transaction that creates
Psygnosis safe for you, most
safe account. However, our our,
our team, our company has, has
developed Psygnosis a smart
contracts and my colleague,
Richard Meisner, and our CTO,
Stephen, Stephen George, they
develop the smart the smart
contracts that are actually
being being executed when you
when you work with the most
safe.
Jeroen Leenarts: So but is there
any risk involved with this
smart contract itself? Because
it's still code that is written
by humans that there could be
bugs in there right?
Dmitry Bespalov: Of course,
there's always always risk with
with everything that is that is
in crypto and especially
everything that is with a smart
contract, there is a smart
contract risk for every kind of
contract that it that you're
using. Yeah. However, we we
actively were managing this this
risk in in different forms. So
we have formally verified our
code. And our all of our code is
open sourced everything smart
contracts, the backend services
that we use mobile apps that
mobile apps that we do, that we
made, web apps that we made,
everything is open source and
available for anyone to check to
us to contribute. And on top of
that, the smart contracts are
formally verified, that the
court knows is safe contracts,
has been verified multiple
times. And every, every time we
issue an update to the smart
contracts, it's getting audited
by external, external firms. So
that we would, we would trust
those new updates.
Jeroen Leenarts: And so there's
a high degree of confidence
created by doing all the
necessary steps to at least to
formally verify to get external
review, to do testing obviously,
and, and just good, good clean
ways to actually assess if the
if the, if the code is up to
snuff. But as you mentioned,
just there casually is that
everything is open source about
Gnosis. So how as a company,
does Gnosis creates revenue, how
are they able to pay your
income? Because I, I reckon you
don't do this work for free.
Dmitry Bespalov: Of course not.
The company itself is is still
working from the investments
that have been made during,
during the during the early
stages of the company. And we
are coming to the point of
finding the business model for
our products. Right now the
company right now that Gnosis
and Gnosis, Gnosis Tao, is it
has two main two main products
have actually three main
products there are running, one
is not safe. And other one is
called Zodiac is a suit of tools
based on Jose for decentralized
autonomous organization. The
third one is the decentralized
exchange aggregator called cow
swap Exchange, which is built on
top of Psygnosis protocol. In
the front exchange
infrastructure, and the company
itself is, as I said, it's still
still more or less a startup
that were in a search for the
business model.
Jeroen Leenarts: Okay, that's
sounds like as exciting stuff.
Is it happening at where you're
working right now? And you
already worked out for three
years? So sounds like you're
really enjoying what you're
doing there. And if you if you
look at working in crypto as a
software developer, what are
what are the what are the
biggest challenges that you
face? Day to day? So what are
the things that you need to
learn? Or what makes it
difficult or interesting?
Dmitry Bespalov: I think there
are multiple, multiple steps or
multiple levels that you go
through progressively. And it
also depends on your experience,
right? Obviously, when you well,
actually, I would say I would, I
would say right now, it would be
easy to start because we do have
several starting points in the
community where you can, you can
go and use example projects,
very good tutorials that are
really easy to start and learn
in the ecosystem. The in the
beginning the major difficulty
is is processing all of the new
information, because a lot of a
lot of things like you need you
need to to build a picture in
your mind or the build to build
the concept concepts in your
mind. And it takes some time.
And then it takes practice to
when you start actually playing
it because there are there are
test networks that are available
for you to try out your your
programs or something. But it is
also a bit different when you
start developing and getting
main main networks that are that
are actually in production. So
there are quirks in different
apps, there are quirks and
different wallets. And yeah,
well as I said conceptual face
is something that can be
challenging. And then sometimes
when you work with a technology
that is actually on the I would
say on the bleeding edge. Things
are things are breaking or
things don't work as they
expected or this they're in the
invitation because The
technology move forward. But
that mutation is not up to date.
And you have to figure it out.
Sometimes on a low level of
debugging different transaction
just looking at the binary code,
Jeroen Leenarts: yeah. And then
but you can run your own tiny
little blockchain in like a
virtual machine a like a Docker
image, right? For testing
purposes.
Dmitry Bespalov: Yeah, you can
run it on your computer and it
like, I would say, literally in
five minutes. You can start up
the development, beginner
development environment to start
coding smart contract or or web
up.
Jeroen Leenarts: And do these
concepts do the easily transfer
from like blockchain to
blockchain? Or is it that is an
investment in this
conceptualizing of what you're
dealing with that you have to do
again, and again, depending on
which blockchain you are working
on? Because of course, you have
Aetherium, that that's something
that people tend to know about a
little bit. At least they've
heard about it. But like, I
don't know, I don't know how
many blockchains there are, how
many protocols?
Dmitry Bespalov: There's, I
think there's currently
something like a Cambrian
explosion of different
blockchains and different
different things bunnies
spinning up. A lot of them are
based on the Etherion virtual
machine on EVM. A lot of them
are so called level two, level
two solutions. So things that
are solving performance issues
or transaction fees issues that
are present right now in the
current main net cerium.
Blockchain, regarding the
question, how much of the things
are translated as a developer, I
would say 85 to 90% of the
things would be translatable,
because there is a foundation
that you will learn when you
when you get up to speed. And
then if you would be willing to
stay on the same EVM base
change, then obviously, like a
lot of it, you can you can
transfer, but maybe on different
chains, there is going to be
different start standards or
modifications to the standards.
But in any case, you would be
able to figure it out. I would
admit, like you would, you would
need to ask someone who has
jumped between different chains
development, so maybe maybe
haven't qualified.
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah, you
already mentioned that that one
diagnosis saved us is mostly
focused on the Ethereum based
blockchains. Just to switch it
up a little bit. You mentioned
that you got started, like three
years ago at Gnosis and then you
were doing iOS development
before that, at solando, a big
fashion retail company in
Germany and Europe. And was that
your first job? Or did you do
other things before that when
you got from when you graduate
from university.
Dmitry Bespalov: For me, that
was that was my my second job.
As an iOS developer, the first
job that I had, was running,
like running myself as a
freelancer, iOS developer. And I
also got me a small opportunity
to work to work on the Yandex
Browser, back when I was in
Russia, but most most of the
experience before this alanda
came from the freelance
freelancing. Okay, freelancing.
Jeroen Leenarts: And what was
your first computer that you
actually got your hands on? Even
when you were like, maybe I
don't know what age five years?
Seven years, 14 years?
Dmitry Bespalov: thing when I
was? Wow, well, that's good
question. Five years, not five.
Now, maybe when I was six, my,
my friend had sad, a sad six or
something. It was weird. So
like, 9495 it was the time when
when I remember by the game by
the games that I've played. So
it was a time when there was
Prince of Persia IIPC. So this
is, I think that that's the
first game that I played.
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah, that
probably liked the 80 or XT. And
then it's the 8086 Something
along those lines. So like even
before the 284 and IBM
compatibles, all over the place.
floppy drives. So but so but you
mentioned that you you started
your career as an iOS developer
by freelancing and then picking
up progressing jobs from that.
So at some point, you must have
thought, okay, these mobile
devices from this US based
company, it seems like fun to
write software for that. And I
reckon that for us crypto, you
had like a similar experience,
you already mentioned it a
little bit that you that you
wanted to get into the field
because it seemed interesting,
but how did you get an interest
in cryptocurrencies and
Aetherium? Initially, so what
was it that made you get to know
this, this space and to just
start looking into what a
blockchain is and what all these
cryptocurrencies are? And how
did that happen for you?
Dmitry Bespalov: For me, the
transition from the IRS as
they're fed and alanda, to the
today's diagnosis more was was a
transition from and from working
at the big day company, by the
time they Zalando was like a big
company to startup. So, what was
interesting for me is actually
working in a different in a
different environment. And also,
like, on top of that, at the
time, when I was joining Gnosis,
maybe I was not so interested in
cryptocurrencies, then, rather
focused on iOS development. So I
view the cryptocurrencies as an
application of my skills, in a
way, it's an intersection
between mobile development and
the blockchain, Blockchain
space, so there was a need to
create a mobile app. And so, so
I joined there. And then
gradually over time, when you
work there, and you are engaging
in a community, it is a
completely different
environment. And then you would
work for bigger corporation or
maybe other other spheres. It's
it's fun in a way that that the
community itself is very vibrant
and dynamic. And it's, it's a,
it's a lot of different,
different things that keep you
engaged.
Jeroen Leenarts: So what you're
actually saying is that working
at solando, a really big
company, big development teams,
a lot of teams working
simultaneously, that you wanted
to switch from that to a much
smaller environment. So like he
mentioned, the startup, and this
startup, so happens to be in
crypto.
Dmitry Bespalov: That's right.
So I wanted to try something
new. I wanted, like I didn't
know and what, what, what kind
of thing, and I didn't look, I
didn't specifically look for it.
So when the opportunity came, I
was I was I was really thinking
about it. Because for me, it was
like a big step going from
something known unsure to
something really unknown and
uncertain. And in the end, I
thought that, at least it's a
good opportunity. I have only my
like, I'm not losing anything.
And there's just just the chance
of success there. So there's
obviously risk, but it turned
out to be fun.
Jeroen Leenarts: But if you do
that more often that like, dive
in at the deep end, or what's
your approach to new technology,
or new frameworks or new stuff
that you need to learn?
Dmitry Bespalov: If you if I
need to learn something. I like
reading like, Well, it sounds
weird. I like reading
documentation, where and I
especially like good
documentation. That's partly one
of the things that that
attracted me in the first place.
When deciding which mobile
platform to work on is on
Android. I was I was really
impressed with iOS documentation
at the time, it was 2011 I think
when I started to play with iOS
12. So yes, I read the docs,
then do technical prototypes.
This is something that that I
think should be in the toolbox
of every software engineer when
learning something new. Just try
to specifically answer your
questions or answer your
curiosity with building a small,
small programs seeing how the
API works, does it work, does it
not? Is it not? And yeah, those
those two things I would say a
lot of a lot of support that I
have in learning new
technologies is having the base
foundation layer of computer
science and and knowing the
basics of it, so it helps a lot.
Her with something new, you just
you just read an experiment.
Jeroen Leenarts: And yeah,
actually mentioned something
interesting there. Because if
you want to get into crypto, is
it like really important that
you have some background in
maths for example? Or is it more
like you need to have to be
aware of what protocols and what
encryption schemes that are
available and how you actually
use them correctly.
Dmitry Bespalov: It depends on
the role that you're looking
for. There are different
opportunities and different in
many different teams. And for a
lot of, for a lot of
opportunities, what I'm sure is
because like I wasn't, I was on
the other side of the hiring of
the hiring process here. And
those are safe as well, having
hiring other people. And it
matters more whether whether you
already have good software
engineering or software
development experience and
background, more than knowledge
of crypto protocols crypto
something, it will be definitely
a plus. And it will show that
you are motivated to learn about
the space and you're just
genuinely motivated to join.
This will definitely be a plus.
But I would say at this point is
not a requirement.
Jeroen Leenarts: And as a tech
lead, are you involved with with
the hiring process in any way?
Do you interview candidates on a
technical level?
Dmitry Bespalov: I did when we
were looking for for new for new
developers and the mobile team.
And that right now, when I when
I'm part of the hiring process,
for other teams or for other
roles, sometimes it's not
technical, usually I'm on the
stage when we check the culture.
Jeroen Leenarts: Okay, yeah. So
that's, that's after the
technical screening, right?
Right. So how did you switch
from an individual contributor
role to attack lead role at
Gnosis?
Dmitry Bespalov: It was it was
gradual progression for me. So
it was, it was not something
like overnight success or
something, it just gradually
over time, there was there was,
I would say it was pretty good
about iOS development already,
when when joining us. And
previously, I had some
experience, leading small
smaller teams, and some short
experience leading multiple
teams in Zalando, as well. And I
was I was just interested in not
only just technical, technical
things, although this is
something that that is like a
base of just show your work that
you're able to do. But then I
also got interested in software
engineering topic, and
generally, how to make the
software engineering teams more
effective and more, more
productive or better in any way,
in a good way. That is possible.
And from there, I was making I
was doing some homework in quote
unquote, reading books, looking
for different online courses.
Yeah, so I would say it's first
First of all, it's contributing
a lot. And second, is being
productive showing initiative
initiative, and genuinely trying
to contribute to the team
output.
Jeroen Leenarts: And thus Gnosis
is its distribute company in the
sense that people work for the
company all over Berlin, or is
it mostly focused in in around
Berlin city?
Dmitry Bespalov: It isn't, it is
a mix, because we have we have
people working in different
locations. A lot of people. I
mean, a lot a lot by our, by our
standards. Yeah, we work in
Berlin in full node. It's a
blockchain Co Co working space.
And we have people working in
Spain and Portugal. And before
we we have people working from
Russia, and also we have people
working in us that work on other
projects within
Jeroen Leenarts: Moses. Okay?
And just to cap the Gnosis topic
off. So Gnosis they have to
Gnosis safe. And there were two
other products that they also
have, right?
Dmitry Bespalov: Yes, it is
called swap exchange, and
Zodiac.
Jeroen Leenarts: And where
should people go look for more
information about the company
that you work for, and these
products?
Dmitry Bespalov: To learn more
about, about not safe, you can
just go to our website, which is
Gnosis minus safe.io. To learn
more about the company, you can
go to gnosis.io. And to learn
about the Gnosis protocol or
calls for this change, you can
try it out on the cow swap dot
exchange.
Jeroen Leenarts: Okay, and where
can people learn more about you
are how can they get in touch
with you if they have any
questions?
Dmitry Bespalov: I am a I'm
using Twitter. So if you Want to
say hi. Say, you can send me a
message or follow me on Twitter.
My handle is underscore me three
the spell of. Yeah. Also, I'm on
GitHub the nature of this power
of easy to find.
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah. Well,
I'll make sure to link
everything from the show notes.
Dimitri, thank you so much for
your time. And I know that we
went over a lot of different
things related to iOS, and
especially crypto. So there's
bound people to be listening to
this data that have many
questions. So now they at least
know how to how they can get in
touch with you. And also, if
there's any follow up questions,
they can also ask me about it.
Because I have some interest in
cryptocurrency, not to the level
that I can create stuff with it
like you can. But yeah, it is
something that has an interest
with me. And I'm actually more
into the turtles ecosystem,
because I really liked the way
that they tried to manage their
their blockchain with this
incremental improvements that
are much easier compared to
other blockchains out there.
Because with Aetherium, we still
have to wait for the switch from
what was it now? A work based
proof of net proof of work to
proof of stake, right. So do you
have any clue when that's gonna
happen? Or? Well, actually,
Dmitry Bespalov: proof of stake?
It's already like, the Easter
chain is working. It is called
beacon chain. So it is running
alongside the main chain and the
actual merge of two chains
together. For this, I don't have
a definite answer. Hopefully,
sooner than sooner than later.
Jeroen Leenarts: Okay. Thank you
so much for your time, and well,
we'll talk again in the future.
Dmitry Bespalov: Thanks. Thanks
for having me. My pleasure.