Aqibtab

TL:DR

 

I am a competent and ambitious individual with a background in both technical, consultative and client facing roles across the engineering, technology and cryptocurrency industries. I have worked for some of the largest engineering and tech organisations in the world helping solve technical problems and drive new business through relationship building and value proposition. In the space of crypto I have been an investor since 2017, in 2020 I founded my own project, TRUiD, based on decentralised identity and as of 2022 I have been working with smaller projects within the space helping architect smart contracts, define branding, manage communities and implement strong marketing initiatives. As such I am a well rounded individual with a real drive and passion to succeed in the crypto sector. 

I am currently at a crucial stage in my career in which I have developed comprehensive knowledge of the crypto world and have in my opinion significant and valuable experience in knowing the inner workings of the space, but remain keen to further develop myself amidst larger entities within the space. 

 

As such I am currently looking for new opportunities that fit my background and profile. Despite not being a developer myself I have a strong understanding of the mechanics of blockchain and the framework upon which smart contracts work. My previous experience in both technical, business and consultative roles alongside the exposure I have to crypto as an investor, Founder and Consultant means I am very well equipped for a number of growth, product placement and business orientated roles within the field. 

 

I therefore firmly believe I will be a strong asset to any team. My journey over the last few years demonstrated my determination and passion for crypto and as such I am certain given the right environment and position I can be a real catalyst for growth in any crypto focused organisations.

Please read below for a more detailed account of my experiences to date. 

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I have had an interesting journey in both my traditional career path and also in my exposure to the world of blockchain, cryptocurrency and Web3. I graduated from the University of Nottingham with a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering and immediately took up a position as a Graduate Engineer at a leading infrastructure design consultancy in which I took on technical design work, feasibility studies and 

Through my tenure as a Junior Engineer I identified my preference for high level technical designing and for working in a client relationship focused environment. Brainstorming, planning, presenting and conveying potential options to our clientele is where I excelled. However I felt the sector of Engineering in which I was working lacked the energy and growth that I desired in my work environment. I subsequently moved on to secure a position with Adobe as a Business Development Representative working under the Digital Marketing Cloud business. Here my role was focused on pushing new business primarily under the Retail Sector working with global brands to assist them in their digital journeys. This role required me to identify new partnerships and business opportunities, build relationships with key personnel from management to C-Suite within our potential client organisations and ultimately work with wider teams to present the value proposition of Adobe's suite of digital marketing solutions. 

It was during my time at Adobe that my journey with Web3 began. In early-mid 2017 I began my research into the Crypto sphere. My first ever investment was in Ethereum after its decline from a new all time high of $400+ down to $100. However I was quickly exposed to the world of Altcoins and a new thriving and innovating tech sector and began a successful investment journey investing in projects such as Neo (previously Antshares) and Cardano. I must reiterate here that my approach to investing was not to follow the recommendation of the largest influencer at the time, but rather to deepen my understanding of projects through due diligence, research, understanding the value proposition and potential and most importantly deeply investigating the team behind each project.  

Despite the market downturn in early 2018, I believed with conviction that there was certainly a huge future in crypto. I decided to leave my position at Adobe and take on a more flexible daily position that would give me the freedom to further explore opportunities within the crypto space. As a result I took on a role as an educator in Mathematics and also established my own private tuition business, during this period I also completed a Masters Degree in Education from Kings College London. This was the perfect recipe to maintain a stable income during the bear market whilst also giving me the time needed to work on other crypto related initiatives. This was truly the beginning of what was to become an eventful few years in my life. 

In mid 2020, following the Covid crash, there was a real momentum developing behind the 'DeFi' narrative. I aggressively began to look for investment opportunities and allocated funds towards an appropriately risk managed portfolio. I also took this time to fully understand emerging narratives such as Layer 2 technologies (Matic/Polygon) and the need for data input into blockchains through Oracles (Chainlink). This ultimately led me to my next significant endeavour in late 2020 which was to start my own crypto project. In particular I saw the need for decentralised identity management and verification and how this could potentially be a significant bridge in enabling the integration of DeFi and TradFi. Although decentralised identity technology seemed a tall order, my personal approach was to tackle a more specific problem within the industry that I knew existed and required an immediate but simple approach, namely whitelisting. Whitelisting was a significant problem in the area of Initial DEX Offerings (IDO’s), whereby user differentiation was being determined through wallet addresses and social media accounts which allowed for easy exploitation by bots and consequently had an adverse impact on project launches.  TRUiD proposed a decentralised solution to the problem with the implementation of zero-knowledge proofs and self-sovereign identity profiles.

I established a team very early and was able to secure incubation and support from a up and coming VC. As a result we were able to secure funding from several major VC’s and a significant partnership with another crypto project that allowed TRUiD to white label their tech and redefine it for our chosen narrative and use case. In addition to this we partnered with several other entities to assist with launch which included community management, brand narrative, product development and marketing. Unfortunately however from mid 2021 to early 2022, many VCs started pulling funding and achieving the target raise required to launch the project looked difficult, as a result the project had to be put on hold. 

Despite the disappointment from a failed project launch I spent the start of 2022 operating in the more anonymous side of crypto, assisting smaller projects across multiple business divisions. These projects were heavily focused on implementing simple but sophisticated smart contract models in order to provide utility to the end user. During this period I was heavily involved with working with different teams to architect their smart contracts, manage their communities and deliver unique marketing initiatives to increase engagement. This was most certainly the most raw business experience I have had to date in which the consequences of ideas and business decisions were immediately witnessed, competition was rife and low-level innovation was crucial. Unfortunately many of these projects operated in an anonymous, non-regulated environment, therefore limiting my ability to produce traditional references, nonetheless I’d be more than happy to discuss this part of my journey further during the application process. 

I am currently at a crucial stage in my career in which I have developed comprehensive knowledge of the crypto world and have in my opinion significant and valuable experience in knowing the inner workings of the space. However whilst the market remains slow, I am keen to grow my knowledge and experience amidst larger entities within the space. As such I am keen to look for new opportunities that fit my background and profile. Despite not being a developer myself I have a strong understanding of the mechanics of blockchain and the framework upon which smart contracts work. My previous experience in both technical, business and consultative roles alongside the exposure I have to crypto as an investor, Founder and Consultant means I am very well equipped for a number of growth, product placement and business orientated roles within the field. I therefore firmly believe I will be a strong asset to any team. My journey over the last few years demonstrated my determination and passion for crypto and as such I am certain given the right environment and position I can be a real catalyst for growth in both medium sized and large crypto focused organisations.