Can you tell us about yourself? 

Hello there, I’m Loïc, software engineer at Atlendis Labs! I enjoy learning about Ethereum or the web in general and spending time with my wife. I joined ConsenSys back in 2018, I met the colleagues there with whom I won a hackathon for the project that has now evolved into Atlendis. I officially joined the team in April 2022 and feel lucky to have the opportunity to build the protocol. Besides Atlendis, I try to contribute as much as I can to open source projects in order to help the Ethereum ecosystem mature.

Can you tell us about your role at Atlendis Labs? What opportunities and challenges are you working on?

I have a quite transverse role at Atlendis Labs, my main responsibilities are to manage the backend service used in order to connect the dots between the smart contracts and the heavy data needs of the frontend. I also support the frontend for decisions and participate in the design and implementations of the smart contracts. I am quite lucky to be involved in every part of the product, and it allows me to be the annoying guy having an opinion on everything.

Working on a DeFi protocol such as Atlendis is a great challenge. There is an obligation towards safety and security, as users' funds are moving through the protocol and a mistake can instantly result in a loss of funds for people directly. At the same time, we want to move as fast as possible and be able to lead innovation in the ecosystem. Controlling these two conflicting flows is an arduous and interesting task.

How and when did blockchain and Ethereum appear on your radar?

Back in 2017, I was finishing my Masters’ degree in particle physics and a friend told me to take a look at this Ethereum thing. I instantly fell in love with the idea of blockchain and the possibilities it would unlock, so I spent most of my free time reading and learning the basics around smart contract development.

Later that year, I decided to give myself a real chance of working in the field, so I quit my engineering consulting job in order to focus solely on learning web development. After quite a few months practicing development in my small and cozy living room, I landed in a great team of passionate people at ConsenSys in the summer of 2018. It was the beginning of the real journey.

What are you excited about in the blockchain / fintech / DeFi field? 

I think that blockchain, and Ethereum in particular, has come a long way. The myriad of great experiments of the beginning has allowed people to better understand the role of the blockchain in our world and the ecosystem continues to mature. This is particularly true for DeFi, we are exactly at the point in time where we are finally connecting Ethereum’s efficiency and transparency to the existing world of traditional finance.

What tips and advice do you have for people in the Developer / Engineering field who are interested in getting into blockchain?

There is no need to rush things, it is important to understand the basics, what a blockchain is good for and particularly not good for. It is true that the ecosystem is very active and moving quite fast, but do not panic and fall victim to the FOMO, and just keep learning.

Explore and find what you like to learn or to do, from the frontend application to the optimization of a niche cryptography process, there are enough opportunities in the ecosystem for everyone.

Keep in mind that the ecosystem is young, the tools are working well but we are still far from maturity and quality. Improving existing technologies is less shiny than pure innovation, but it may be what is needed the most at this point.

What do you wish more people knew about Ethereum and the ecosystem?

We are still in the early stages of Ethereum, therefore, speculation is quite strong and naturally gets a lot of attention from people and the media. However, if we want Ethereum to be useful to people, I think our priority should be on promoting education and projects’ use cases. The goal is not to focus on technical understanding of Ethereum, but instead to help people understand what innovation a blockchain or the various projects can bring compared to existing solutions.

It is good to have users believing in the “tech” but it would be amazing if they can understand why they can trust it and how it may be beneficial for them.

Who are your heroes and inspirations? 

In software, and in particular in Ethereum, a major part of the ecosystem is carried silently and generally for free by open source contributors. I think it is important to recognize them and thank them when we have the chance to do so.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?

A good software hygiene will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

What resources can you share for others looking to learn more about blockchain software development? 

Ethereum is a very open ecosystem, there are a lot of good resources and initiatives out there!

The type of resources you need heavily depends on what you are trying to learn. As a good universal basis, I would recommend ethereum.org where you will be able to find a lot of non technical documentation, but also plenty of tutorials and developer resources.

It is important to have good basic knowledge on smart contract development, for that, the Solidity documentation is a must and Crypto Zombies is an excellent tutorial in order to practice and experiment with your fresh knowledge.

If you want to follow the latest technical news in the ecosystem, I recommend Week In Ethereum News.

The next step is defining what you want to learn and start your research. A lot of information can be obtained by asking people on Twitter or Discord directly! Here are some resources I would recommend on various topics:

• Decentralized application development: Scaffold Eth and Speedrun Ethereum,
• Smart contracts: Solidity by Example documentation, OpenZeppelin contracts,
• Cryptography: Vitalik’s blog, Zero Knowledge cryptography lectures.

For those who are lucky enough to have tickets to the event, I will be representing Atlendis Labs and speaking at EthCC this July. Here are the details of my presentation “Reinventing the wheel: going away from TheGraph,” hope to see you there! 

Date: July 20th
Time: 11:50am
Location: Saint Victor room