This blog is a part of our ongoing “Life at Arcana” series where we give you a sneak peak into the work and lives of our team. This week’s blog is featuring our blockchain developer Rohith Narahari. Read on as he shares how he discovered Arcana, what got him into blockchain specifically, and advice for aspiring blockchain devs.

How Did You Discover Arcana?

After finishing my third year of my bachelor’s, I was getting ready for campus placements. Blockchain had piqued my interest by then, and I was keen on getting into the blockchain space. Being a student with zero experience, I ended up applying to many companies in the crypto space for any opportunity that I can grab. Around this time, I came across Arcana Network on AngelList. Despite the requirement being for a senior role, I ended up applying for the job and secured an interview opportunity for myself.

The interview questions mostly revolved around my previous experiences and interests. My understanding of cryptography at that point helped me do well in the first round of interview. In the second round, I got to chat with Mayur Relekar, Arcana’s CEO. We had a friendly chat about my background and what Arcana was all about. In the end, it was determined that I wasn’t the right fit for the role and there wasn’t enough clarity as to what I could bring to the table. That being said, Mayur granted me an internship opportunity, sensing my interest towards web3 and blockchain. He has always been a web3 advocate and likes helping devs such as myself onboard into the space.

From there on, I worked as a research intern for five months where I went on to write some basic smart contracts and also did research work on both blockchain and cryptography concepts. In February this year, I got converted to a full-time role as a blockchain developer. And things are going pretty great since then.

Why Did You Choose To Become A Blockchain Developer?

Like many good crypto stories, my story also started in the pandemic when I stumbled upon the terms bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. I got curious and started watching videos on YouTube around the aforementioned topics. Somewhere along the way, I wanted to get my feet dirty, and ended up investing in crypto markets. Analysing charts every day and following crypto markets closely solidified my interest in the space. My interest in blockchain and crypto kept growing, inspiring me to start building. I watched several tutorials on building smart contracts with Solidity for Ethereum. After applying to various internships in the web3 space, I ended up getting an unpaid internship opportunity with a startup. I learnt about ERC standards, NFTs, DeFi projects such as UniSwap, and more about the web3 space. Following the internship, I did a couple of minor projects and ended up applying to Arcana.

How Does Your Typical Work Day Look?

At Arcana, my work mainly revolves around helping our blockchain team with smart contract development, testing and researching any potential projects which can be helpful for our use case. To be even specific, my work is generally around exploring various bridge solutions that are available and testing them out with Arcana.

My typical workday starts at around 10 in the morning, which is usually when the standup for our Engineering/Product team takes place. This is a place where we get to know what other team members are working on, and I try to keep myself updated with the development that is done. After that, I continue working on my tasks.

In the meantime, we will have internal calls with our blockchain teams where we discuss, resolve, and clarify what needs to be done. Weekly once, we have a planning call where we prioritize the tasks at hand. There will always be someone from the team to help me if I’m stuck with anything. We get on a call to clarify issues then and there.

What Is Something You Like The Most About Working At Arcana?

What I like the most at Arcana is the level of commitment the team shows to the work we do. Everyone takes responsibility for what they do and everyone makes key decisions on how things can proceed. The level of freedom and importance given to each of us is immense.

The blockchain team at Arcana is with which I spend most of my time, discussing how to approach a task and resolving blockers, if any.

Building what Arcana is building is not so easy. We naturally deal with issues at various stages. That is when having a solid team can be really helpful as it allows us to develop the best possible solution.

In summary, the fact that everyone takes ownership of their work is what I like the most about working at Arcana.

Any Word Of Advice For Developers Looking To Learn Blockchain And Work In Web3?

Keep educating yourself about blockchains, decentralization, and data privacy. Because they are here to stay. I have seen the space rapidly evolve in the last couple of years I spent in the web3 space. Be it the increase in number of resources to learn and build or the ever-growing opportunities.

Keep learning, do your homework, and try to work with teams that are building web3 projects. Take it even if it’s an unpaid opportunity because you will get to learn immensely about the space. Doing so will not only earn you a work opportunity but will also open your eyes to plenty of investment opportunities that can be unlocked by a thorough understanding of the web3 space.

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About Arcana Network

Built for Ethereum and EVM-based chains, Arcana is the web3 infrastructure to easily onboard dApp users and enable user data privacy and ownership. Web3 developers use Arcana’s SDKs for a seamless, familiar user onboarding experience via social authentication and passwordless login. All user data is encrypted, secured with data access fully controlled by the users, and powered by blockchain.

Arcana has raised 2.7Mn USD from some of the leading investors and founders in the ecosystem such as Balaji Srinivasan, Founders of Polygon, Woodstock, Republic Crypto, and Digital Currency Group.

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