# EIR at Paradigm

By [luke](https://paragraph.com/@lukevs) · 2022-05-02

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In the back room of a Miami Airbnb, [Arjun](https://twitter.com/arjunblj?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) and I were four hours deep into conversation. The question at hand: _“Why is everyone here so hyped on crypto?”_

I had spent the prior five years heads down at SaaS startup [Drift](https://www.drift.com/) and — besides mining Dogecoin on an old laptop in 2014 — I had mostly missed crypto. I wrote it off as a fad.

But after our chat, I was galvanized. I spent the rest of the trip glued to my phone reading everything from Solidity documentation to the Ethereum rollup-centric roadmap. A few weeks later, I left my job to find a place in it all.

Different people fall down the crypto rabbit hole for different reasons. The global supercomputer. Unstoppable money. Cheaper remittances. 24/7 markets.

Here's what hooked me: crypto's potential to unlock new ways for people to work together.

Coming out of lockdown, seemingly everyone around me was rethinking their relationship with work. Friends were leaving their 9-to-5s to build online lifestyle businesses and move to the mountains. Anti-work and FIRE subreddits were gaining traction. On the internet and in my own circles, the vibe shifted from putting work above all else to finding sufficient work to sustain a great life.

[Worker co-ops](https://laist.com/news/food/worker-owned-food-co-ops-restaurants-labor-shortage-business-model-proof-bakery), [local currencies](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-07/a-depression-era-idea-gets-a-new-look-local-money), the "sharing economy," and other cooperative economic models have been on the rise since pre-pandemic. I think these represent only the start of what's to come as more people explore new ways of working. And crypto offers a platform for us to innovate on and distribute these models more easily than ever before.

In the year since Miami, I’ve spent most of my time working with [Flashbots](https://flashbots.net/) to help increase the transparency of Ethereum. I’m proud of what we built with [mev-inspect](https://github.com/flashbots/mev-inspect-py) and am fortunate to have worked with the incredibly smart and passionate team there.

Now, I'm leaving work again, this time to build a company **in collaboration with Paradigm as an Entrepreneur in Residence.** Paradigm has been a part of my journey from Arjun’s crypto-pilling, to learning about [MEV from Charlie](https://research.paradigm.xyz/MEV), to deploying some of my [first contracts with Georgios’ dapptools template](https://github.com/lukevs/one-free-coupon). The firm has an inspiringly clear perspective on the future of the space and an unmatched research team working to build it alongside their portfolio. I feel extremely lucky to collaborate with Arjun, Matt, Fred, and the whole team to bring these ideas to life.

More to come and much love,

Luke

_Particular thanks to_ [_Arjun_](https://twitter.com/arjunblj) _for his patient explanation and constant guidance,_ [_Nick_](https://twitter.com/NpappaG) _and_ [_Nikhil_](https://twitter.com/nikillinit) _for help getting this post in words, and_ [_Robert_](https://twitter.com/bertcmiller) _for bringing me into mev-inspect, being a mentor throughout and a friend today._

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*Originally published on [luke](https://paragraph.com/@lukevs/eir-at-paradigm)*