Thank you, Loopring
Yesterday was my last day acting as Head of Business for Loopring. I can’t believe I am writing these words, as Loopring has been such an incredibly important part of my life over the past 3+ years. In some sense, it has been my life. As many of you reading this know: it is hard to have a work-life balance in the world of crypto, especially Ethereum. Days vs nights, weekdays vs weekends — it all blends together when your passion is your job and your job is your passion, and when a month feels like a year of progress with new industries born in front of your face. I am thankful for this fact.
I wanted to write this short post to express my feelings, and convey to the Loopring community, and broader Ethereum community, what is on my mind. I feel grateful towards so many people; lucky to have been part of this team and community; sad it is over (at least in this capacity); excited for what’s next, and a hundred other things.
I joined Loopring shortly after its inception, and have seen it grow from a fledgling idea, into a leading Ethereum project, helping solve one of Ethereum’s most pressing problems: scalability. If you think about it, Loopring started as an orderbook DEX protocol, and ended up being the first rollup on Ethereum, absolutely crucial to the layer-2 story — what a wild journey. And it is really just beginning.
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Loopring is a global and borderless project by nature, but primarily a Shanghai-based team in terms of location. I am in Canada. Loopring is primarily an engineering-focused team, with 21 of the 25 teammates being engineers. I am not an engineer. With these ingredients — being in the West, and being on the business side of things — I’ve had the privilege to play a unique role, and to some, I was the face of Loopring, just by virtue of going around to all the Ethereum events or being on interviews, while my teammates actually built the important stuff that moved the needle. I always said I had the easiest job — I had the best team building some of the most innovative and important tech in the space, and I was just there to help spread the word as best I could. Because of this front-facing role, I have developed such a tight bond with our community, adjacent communities, and our users, and so I felt doubly due to pen this post.
To the Loopring community: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have been so good to me. I feel like we have been through so much together that I have more in common with many of you than my IRL friends! After having navigated pivots, protocol upgrades, product launches, and not to mention the brutal bear market together — we all have a special bond as Loopringers, and always will. I thank each and every one of you. From the people that have been around as long as I have and help answer and onboard noobs, to the users joining more recently, and to the critics who pushed us hard. None of this is worth a thing without you. I am excited to see where you take it, as much of the direction will rest in your hands.
To the Loopring team: As I said above, I had it easy representing and evangelizing the technology we have built. You are all world-class. From smart contracts, to ZK circuits, to backend relayer, to web and mobile products — it is unbelievable what we have accomplished. I think many people don’t realize the scope of the engineering effort that is Loopring. Implementing the first zkRollup on Ethereum, a smart contract wallet, and products that tie it all together. I always felt so incredibly proud to try and grow the business of a team that built so many meaningful things. I have absolutely zero doubt that Loopring’s future is bright. We have never been caught up in the hype, just heads down contributing, making an impact. To Daniel specifically: we first spoke because I found Loopring interesting, and I wanted to write the English whitepaper. Fast forward, and it is incredible how far we’ve come. It’s impossible to describe how much I’ve learned from you. You like to say you are ‘just an engineer’, but you are the best business mind and leader I have ever had the pleasure of working with. You inspire confidence in everyone around you because you are bright, humble, and hard-working. Most importantly, though, you are so kind. You’ve had a massive impact on my life, and are forever my friend and mentor.
So what’s next. I am not leaving Loopring because I am tired of it, or because I am not interested in its future. I think you may see from my sappy message above, that is not the case. The fact is, an opportunity has presented itself that I am extremely excited about, and I feel I simply must take. I view it as a once-in-a-lifetime, perfect-timing, far-reaching opportunity/challenge that I need to pursue for its own sake, and for my personal development. I cannot give more information at the moment, but I will be sure to do so when the time is right — I hope on the order of a few months. This opportunity will keep me firmly in the blockchain (Ethereum) space, so I hope to be seeing many of you around real soon :).
I will remain an advisor for Loopring. And not just the symbolic kind, but the real kind. I still hodl LRC, own equity in Loopring Technology Limited, and look forward to remaining part of Loopring’s bright future.
Thank you all for reading,
Matthew
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