during this winter, i kno many ppl leavin crypto and that's normal. i did learn smart contracts in 2020 when the resources are still few, eth still $200. a year later, that's one of the best decisions that I've made in my life.

now, I do think it was easy to write a smart contract. from the supply & demand perspective, u prolly didn't have any leverage to get "high paid salaries"

but I do think it's still a way to have those leverage on the next bull market (if you still believe in blockchain/crypto)

my bet is on rollup.

why? cz it cheap and agnostic (didn't have to be Ethereum as long as it was evm ekv).

from a talent perspective, it was easier to find a smart contract dev that alrd familiar with evm. tool, libraries & framework on evm is also already battle tested on prod.

from a decentralization/security perspective (can be debated) is leveraged by the L1.

many companies will need a cheap way to have their own blockchain for their use cases (ex: gaming).

takeaway

if you are still betting in crypto/blockchain on this winter. it prob good to learn how to setup a rollup on evm, somewhere in the future prob many companies will be needed.

optimism bedrock can be a good start nor polygon miden.

a skill to setup a rollup system will be the next high paying job during the bull market I think.

i might be wrong, but givin a shot on a rollup is not a bad thing ig

just my 2 cents ✌️

The Past

Mom

In June 2022, My mother passed away. It came so fast, no more than 3 days, and it's hard for me to process what happened that day. She's my safest place to talk to. I usually wake up in the morning and talk to her about what happened yesterday and what will come next. I always spoke to my mom about everything because I knew she always prayed for me, the obstacle I was facing, and the big wall that I should overcome.

One day I talked to her, "ma, I have an xxx amount of deal. This is my first time, hopefully, I can get it". And she said, "Aminn." After that, for every opportunity/deal that came to me, I didn't hesitate to say yes and ask my mom to pray for me. All the things I want in this world, the goal, the number, are granted because of my mom's prayer. She always prays for me.

Losing her changed how I see the world. Now, My goal isn't to get rich but to be a good person. Because when ur dead, no one really cares about your title, degree, position, etc., rather than, "Is this person a good person/bad person??". It shaped me to look at wealth as a tool/vehicle to help people around me. In the end, when I was dead, I hoped people testify that I was a good person.

Graduate from college

After my mother passed away, my number one priority was to get graduated this year. Why? Because that's my mother's wish when we had a convo that morning. She asked me to graduate ASAP so I could focus on work/side projects. In April 2022, I told her that I'd probably didn't graduate this year because I just got an opportunity to work on a project that can be called "once in a lifetime." She said, "okay, but I hope kakak can graduate on this year."

I started contacting my supervisor, who helped me to write my paper. Within like 2 weeks before the submission closed, I wrote the paper on time and entirely in English (because the journal will be submitted at the international conference). Alhamdulillah, my paper got accepted & I already presented my paper at the international conference on Nov 2022

Initiating "Siti Maesaroh Funds"

It can be said that I was privileged to get access to education without thinking about money, to do anything wherever I wanted without getting dictated by my parents, and to take a lot of risks without thinking about what I should eat today / where to sleep tonight. Even though I had to work my ass off to get money and didn’t use any connection from my parents.

But looking back on how my father & mother got to this point, it was all because of education. Back then, my grandfather was a farmer and couldn't afford to pay tuition for his child, who wanted to attend college. One day, my father met with his adoptive parents and paid his tuition 100% so my dad could get a degree.

30 years later, that moment really changed our family. Education helps not only my dad's family but also my mother's family, his child, and probably his grandchild. Education is key to changing not only one generation but prob can impact more than 3 generations.

Thus, I'm initiating this fund to help people who didn't have access to education (degree/particular skill) get access. In 2022, we've just had 1 Grantee for this fund. The fund covers 100% of college tuition and all college-related matters. We aim to get more grantees in 2023.

Currently, this fund is funded by my personal salary but starting in December 2022, this fund is also financed by my consultant business called "2Pai Solution".

This fund is named after my mother. I hope that one day we can meet again in Jannah, ma!.

Launching "2Pai Solution" as a consultant

Last year, I made some videos on youtube, and many people reached out to me and wanted to hire me to do x for their project. But due to my position as a final-year college student & intern at a tech company, I can only take on some of the projects offered. After I launched the "Siti maesaroh Fund." and all of my college tasks is done, I decided to launch a consultant called "2Pai Solution" with my frens from college.

The goal of this consultant is not only to make a profit but to allow the people who didn't have a chance to work in the industry. I often met people who could be called "prodigy", back then; I helped them get their first job, and they have good positions in the industry. But now it's tough to onboard new people, the bar that is already set by the company is very high, or maybe the company didn't want to bet on a "fresh graduate." So, hopefully, this company can help them to get "recognition" to work for a more prominent company.

Currently, this company has already run 2 projects and has one partner. The number was pretty good, considering this company has only been established for 3 months. In Dec 2022, we are already projected to work on the following 5 upcoming projects from our partner.

My hope for this company is that it can be self-sustaining and help many people. The 20% profit from this company will be donated to the "Siti Maesaroh Fund" to help people for getting access to education, either college or Bootcamp.

The Future

I still figured out what the following things are, but my main goal for 2023 was

1. Making the "Siti maesaroh Fund" sustainable & can give grants to more people.

2. Make "2Pai Solution" more organized and secure more projects & partnerships

3. Making youtube videos again

4. Build something that I can be proud of it

5. Fix my lousy lifestyle and try to be a healthy person

Kudos

I want to say thanks to the people that support me during 2022, all my frens & fam

Yoga, disa, bram, fikri, sandi, kondel, yusuf, rezky, albert, pating, abi, athalla, yudha, irzan, wisnu, jimbot, oscar, sk, 2pai, sre team, pintu, gaspack &, etc.

Thanks for the support that u gave to me; it truly means a lot to me.

Happy New Year, frens!

Working in the crypto industry is like investing in crypto using leverage and the collateral was your own life.

Many believers in a bull market, write their own thesis w/ price action (cz everyone is smart in a bull market)

And when winter came, all became to disbelief. Start to compare crypto w tradfi, blaming crypto was not backed, etc yada yada

bath blood was inevitableBera teaches us, a nature election eliminates things that we think were innovations and turns out it's actually a good ponzis.

as we reflect, the industry already pushed the boundary to come this far. and still seeking for another boundary to be tested

we saw that unbanked ppl now can have access to financial products and artists from the middle of the know where can sell their art for fair prices so they can pay their rent.

These things didn't exist 3 years ago in large masses.

I might wrong, I prob wrong, but I'm betting w something that I'm belive

Rejection

Rejection was always being a part of everyone's journey, especially me. I still remember getting rejected from Google Summer of code when I’ve already prepared 2-3 months for the proposal. Applying for Google Student campus lead & Amazon campus ambassador then get a rejection for both of them. Even in my personal life, I got rejected by the people that I loved the most at that time.

Getting rejection makes me evaluate and realize that I’ve not good enough. Rejection makes me use that energy to move forward then push myself out of my limit & do the things that I’ve never become to and that drives me to this point now.

Taking a Risk

We may tend to didn’t to take a risk for anything that we do. But leaving the status quo was necessary if the growth was the end goal. The risk of leaving the status quo will make us to leaving our comfort zone and hedge the risk. The risk maybe will align with the reward (growth) that we’ve projected but sometimes even more! As long as the risk will not bet against our integrity, that’s was the worth bet.

The biggest decision that I’ve been making in early 2020 - now, was:

• Creating Youtube videos

• Publishing my learning process in public

• Move 90% of my savings account to $ETH as a hedge

• Say “Yes” when my lead (Albert & Yusuf) challenges me with things that I’ve never done yet.

• Working with foreign people (Upwork)

• Taking web3 jobs

• Take Cryptography as the main topic for my thesis

• Buy a Desktop (PC) for gaming & hang out with my old friends on discord

What Next?

So, what are the most important goals for 22’?

• Graduated from college

• Grow my youtube channel

• Reach 1B (Networth)

Hopefully, this article will be a reminder for me in the future that I’ve made a progress.