JR Willett starts first ICO … but still has a daily job – Cointelegraph Magazine

ICOs? He took the first. Stablecoins? He happened to dream about them. Vitalik Buterin tried to invite him to help found Ethereum, but he was too busy. He’s JR Willett, one of the hottest men in the business.

In 2012, Willett believed, now 41, he could improve Bitcoin by allowing anyone to create interoperable tokens that are supported by the protocol. He published a white paper describing the new model and invented a way to fund the project with a token sale. He hesitated for the next 18 months in the hope that someone would take the bait. He eventually gave in and announced Mastercoin’s first coin offering, inspiring Ethereum and every subsequent ICO.

“It feels like I’m just saying what’s obviously going to happen – people have been talking about it and I’m like, ‘Why doesn’t someone formalize this a bit?’ I’m just sick of waiting for someone else. “

In the early days, he feared that cryptocurrencies would lag behind as late adopters became penniless or a one-world government would be formed to regulate our transactions. He’s still worried, but it’s going better than he feared.

In the sea of ​​special and charismatic people who have risen to the top of the crypto world, Willett stands out. Not in his Tyranny over a set of principles, no that the journey from dishwasher to riches, not in “crazy driving “sticking to a project”, No that outstanding charitable pursuit, and not even in his artistic endeavors or big Vision for the future. Are not. What sets Willett apart is that, despite the incredible things he has set out to do, he remains a humble family man who never forgets what is most important.

First ICO

When the world exploded in 2012, Bitcoin was the only game in town. Bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrency are one and the same apart from the new Litecoin fork, which is less than three months old (LTC is generated by mining, just like Bitcoin). Then Willett comes in to stir the pot publish what did he call? “Official Bitcoin report on Monday. “

The Mastercoin prospectus is fascinating. it was the first ICO and according to the whitepaper it was really good. It even carries disclosure risks! it describes many ideas that are to be implemented years later – DEXes, stablecoins, tokenization, onchain government https://t.co/noFt1PKzUD

– nic carter (@nic__carter) December 8, 2020

“We claim that the existing Bitcoin network can be used as a protocol layer on which new layers of currency with new rules can be built without changing the foundation,” he wrote. The idea is to create new functional tokens on Bitcoin so that smart contracts can regulate their interactions. The whitepaper explains: “Mastercoin supports the creation of asset tokens that can be used for titles, deeds, user-supported currencies and even stocks in a company.

That sounds like Ethereum today, complete with interoperable ERC-20 tokens and smart contracts. This is no coincidence as Ethereum was partly inspired by Willett’s ideas.

“Vitalik originally came to us with his idea and we said to him: ‘We have other things that we want to do first.’ He didn’t mean to wait, and it’s good for him that he didn’t. Ethereum is the result of that. “

Willett even launched the idea of ​​stablecoins, writing, “If you think Bitcoin is having a money laundering reputation problem, just wait until you can store ‘USDCoins’ on the blockchain!” That’s a new idea – he invented the concept.

The launch of Mastercoin – and token sales – was announced in July 2013. It was the first ICO and it was possible to buy coins at an exchange rate of 100 MSC per 1 BTC. These first coins were obtained from the “Exodus Address,” which is believed to be the Mastercoin equivalent of the starting block – while Bitcoin is the beginning, Mastercoin is envisioned as the next era.

When Willett announced Mastercoin on the Bitcointalk forum, he saw it as a one-time shortcut to “go the right way” to fundraising. “It didn’t look like an innovation at the time,” he said.

“I think I found a shortcut – I just don’t have time to fly to California, put together a presentation, and speak to venture capitalists, most of whom have never heard of. Bitcoin.”

Eventually, Mastercoin evolved into the Mastercoin Foundation, which in turn evolved into the Omni Foundation, which was founded by Willett and which he still serves as chief architect. Willett says transparency was important to him when he started the nonprofit and explains how he uses a public spreadsheet to keep track of all of his expenses.

“The problem with that was when we ran out of money, everyone knew we were out of money and that took our sails with it,” he laughs. Today, Class omni is a “fully decentralized open source asset platform” that enables “the creation and trading of custom currencies and digital assets”.

When asked if he regretted not becoming a billionaire CEO, he issued a delicious quote. “There must be something interesting about that,” he says happily, but goes on to explain that he is a minimalist who hardly owns anything that his children do not need. “What would be the benefit of being super rich if you had a minimalist state of mind? You just get into a lot of problems, ”he thought. Maybe there is a bit of regret?

“It may be a shame that I could have done a lot of good – but hopefully the people who become billionaires will do a lot of good.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

inventor

Willett had what he calls an idyllic childhood with a father who “always had a knack for money and investment” and began teaching him to program on the family’s Apple II-GS computer when Willett was new.

During his school days in Oregon, Willett spent the summers working as a store clerk doing useless jobs like sweeping and mopping toilets. He once wrote a fake virus and made his employer believe they were hacked. “You had an old IBM computer – I think I wrote it at home and then put it on a floppy disk,” he says with a laugh.

When Willett later learned that he could make a living from “this job I do for fun”, a computer science degree from Seattle Pacific University was “undisputed.” In 2002 he finished his studies.

After two years as a software developer at the dot-com startup Alerio in Oregon, he moved to Dynon Avionics, where he was promoted to a managerial position. During his 11 year career there, he developed flight planning software and calibration equipment used in exotic applications such as SpaceShipOne. plane, Which Finished The first private flight flew in 2004.

In 2012 he moved to his current employer Cozi as head of software development, where he designs mobile calendar apps that help families stay organized. It seems to be a good fit. “I’ve always seen myself as a family person – even before I had children,” he said.

That’s right – Willett, the inventor of both ICOs and algorithmic stablecoins, still does the job every day. “You can’t tie up all of your money in crypto,” he said, referring to parenting responsibilities.

Related to cryptocurrency

Around 2010, while working at Dynon Avionics, Willett “fell into a state of [cryptocurrency] Hole and never come out ”. He watched the Bitcoin price rise to $ 0.25 and remembers setting up a beige computer tower that could successfully mine a block of 50 BTC in just a few weeks using just one central processing unit or CPU.

CPU mining quickly became impossible because GPUs (graphics processors) and later ASIC miners (specialized software chips for mining) were connected to form mining pools. “Even then, it was unusual to get a block from the CPU, but it wasn’t unusual,” recalls Willett.

Unlike some others of his time, Willett does not see cryptocurrencies as a global savior or liberator for humanity. Instead, he foresaw a backward future that terrified him. He never intended to metaphorically burn down banks or destroy the system because those things will hurt many people who rely on the existing structure.

“To me it’s like something that, if it’s big enough, can destroy the whole world.‘s financial system. That’s something you’d better have only for defense, I think, as an insurance policy. “

Willett admits that the idea that Bitcoin is damaging the global financial infrastructure “sounded pretty crazy in 2010-2011 when very few people heard of Bitcoin, but I’ve always believed that the money-issuing government is much more fragile. He added that a bank run could happen if people lose confidence in Fiat and now there is a valid alternative to it.

For Willett, money is a “shared illusion” that works well when everyone is playing, but there is …