Month: November 2019

Adventures in Crypto is a weekly series focusing on my journey as a Zcash Foundation operations apprentice. Zcash Foundation is a 501(c) 3 non-profit whose mission is to build a truly private financial payment infrastructure for public use, and they support Zcash and the surrounding cryptocurrency community with research grants.

Nov 4, 2019 – Nov 8, 2019

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
I was given a new responsibility to file away expenses in our QuickBooks account and making sure each expense is correctly categorized.

I also learned exciting news last week; Zcash Foundation won the rights to the Zcash trademark, of which was in a legal dispute with the Electric Coin Company, the creators of Zcash. You can read more about the agreement here.

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
Domestic rabbits are social animals and need to bond with other rabbits or their owners. However, bonding two rabbits is a bit tricky; rabbits who’re strangers to each other can’t simply be shoved together and expect to immediately and successfully bond. Just like humans, they need to “date” to find the right match.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I processed payroll and learned how to file away expenses in QuickBooks

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
We’re planning activities for our company retreat.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
I’m continually learning more Spanish and practicing phrases with my Spanish-speaking friend.

Adventures in Crypto is a weekly series focusing on my journey as a Zcash Foundation operations apprentice. Zcash Foundation is a 501(c) 3 non-profit whose mission is to build a truly private financial payment infrastructure for public use, and they support Zcash and the surrounding cryptocurrency community with research grants.

Oct 28, 2019 – Nov 1, 2019

What I’m Learning:

One cool thing I learned at work last week:
I have a greater feel for how my boss organizes and categorizes things via the edits she made to my to-do list. Being able to see her thought process laid out helped me tremendously since I now have a more professional way of organizing my tasks, projects, etc, and a better understanding of how she thinks.

One cool thing I learned outside of work last week:
A nonce is a computer that correctly guessed a number to add to a hash. Hashes are one-way functions and cannot be decrypted meaning you can’t go back and change the function.

What I’m Creating:

One example of how I created value at work last week:
I added new processes to the Internal Controls Operations Associate document, which details all my current responsibilities and steps on how to do them. Basically, this document is a training manual for my role like a dummies guide tailored to the Zcash Foundation operations team.

Additionally, I also added new tools and services that we use, and the description of its purpose, to Zcash Foundation’s Master Operations spreadsheet. The Master Operations spreadsheet is the go-to sheet for finding important links or documents relating to operations (or business side of things). My boss and I created this spreadsheet as a backup for the operations team in case a disaster falls on one of us or both.

What project I’m currently working on at my BP:
I’m currently working on planning the Nola retreat for the Foundation. I searched for activities to do, hotels, meeting rooms, and flight details for everyone, then entered the information into the spreadsheet that I created.

What I’m doing to become a better version of myself overall:
I’m brushing up on my networking skills. I had the opportunity to network in-person about a week ago at this art festival I attended with my dad and struck up a friendly conversation with the artists who were selling their work.