Finally Coming Out of the Shadows - An Introduction from a Dev

Hello Steemit!

This may be one of the first times you have heard from me, but it certainly not the first time I have spoken to you. You just may not have known it. My name is Michael Vandeberg, one of the Developers of Steem. I have been excited and happy to see the Steem community grow over the past several months. It is one of the most rewarding feelings to see new faces discover the joy and magic of Steem.

Before I go any further I want to address verifying my identity. I have linked to my Steemit profile page from my github profile. https://github.com/mvandeberg

You can see that I have made 141 commits to the Steem Repository. (As of this writing). If you need any more proof, I am sure @dan or @ned would be willing to step in to confirm my identity. Here is a photo of me from a few years back.

Why did I join Steemit?

I actually got a little lucky with timing. I have learned that perceived luck, both good and bad, has more to do with timing than anything. I was working on my PhD in Computer Science for a year and decided that it wasn't a good fit for me. There was too much reading and not enough doing. I was hardly programming and felt that, for the most part, the skills I had learned as an undergraduate were going to waste. I started looking for work and found Cryptonomex in the area. I had never heard of BitShares before applying for the job. I was familiar with BitCoin, but had never actually owned any. I was still in the place of dumbstruck awe that a digital asset could have any value. I was intrigued by the idea of working with blockchains, so I applied. Apparently @dan saw potential in me, and I was hired. When we started brainstorming Steem, the light bulb came on and I began to see the true potential of blockchain based technologies. I have been extremely fortunate to have @dan as a mentor as I begun to explore the crypto space. When the opportunity arose to work on Steem full time, I jumped on it and have not looked back! My days are so much more fulfilling than as a graduate student. I get to program all day and have been able to help make Steem a reality!

Why Post Now?

As I have been learning more and more about blockchains my ideas regarding them have been branching out into other aspects of life, society, and technology. I know many of you that have been in crypto for a while or are just discovering it for the first time through Steem have experienced the same thing. This is a revolutionary technology! And now that I am having some unique ideas of my own, I am wanting to write them down and share them with all of you. What better place to share my ideas than with the community that is making my dream a reality?

Before I start writing more posts, I want to add a disclaimer. My ideas do not represent Steemit. They may be heavily influenced by Steem (It is probably safe to say they will be), but I don't want anyone thinking this account speaks truth for Steemit. I am going to borrow @theoretical's disclaimer:

All content posted by this account:

• Is not a statement of the official policy of Steemit, Inc. (or any other company)
• Is not a statement of the consensus of the Steem development team (or any other group of people)
• Is not guaranteed to be error-free, factually correct, or up-to-date
• Is not guaranteed to be able to accurately predict the future
• Is not regulatory, legal or investment advice
• Is not an offer to buy or sell Steem or any other cryptocurrency, online token or fiat currency (except orders in the on-chain market or off-chain crypto exchanges)
• Does not create a binding contract with any person or entity
• Is provided on an "as-is" basis; if you act (or fail to act) based on content posted by this account, you do so at your own risk

https://steemit.com/theoretical/@theoretical/what-my-posts-arent

Oh, and my requisite verification picture! It wouldn't be a complete #introduceyourself without it!

I look forward to getting to interact with you all of you more directly.