When did you first learn about Nano and what made you decide to get involved?

Hello, my name is Tobias Palmer. I’m from Germany and am the developer of My Nano Ninja, a site for representatives and statistics about the Nano network. I first heard about Nano in late 2017 and saw it as an alternative for fast crypto payments. The idea of a scalable, feeless cryptocurrency always fascinated me, and Nano has a great chance to become a leader in the field.

Can you explain the purpose of My Nano Ninja for those who may not be familiar with the site?

The Nano network becomes more decentralized as voting weight is spread across multiple representatives. We’ve seen that people want to delegate their votes to decentralize the network, but it can be challenging to find a representative. There are numerous factors to consider when selecting a representative and the goal of My Nano Ninja is to make the process as user-friendly as possible. I wanted to build a site which functions as a central point for every representative. Users can learn about who is running a node, track uptime and view current voting weight. Profiles for representatives can give users a better look at who they are relying on to secure the network, and the verification process is in place to limit potential Sybil attacks. When I first launched the project, there were only a few community representatives, and to this day most of the active rebroadcasting representatives have created a profile!

What’s your vision for the project moving forward? Are there any features you are looking to add?

Recently, I have open sourced the project to give a fully transparent view behind the scenes with regards to which rules apply when. Using an API, My Nano Ninja has already implemented with multiple block explorers and wallets to provide accurate data, and I look forward to integrating with more services. Currently, there are around 180 representatives signed up, which equates to about 1/5th of all online representatives. The goal is to have every user who wants to function as a representative for the community sign up and have their node information available. Some of the things I’m working towards are improving the main verified representatives' list with statistical functions and improving the site for regular Nano users by implementing features such as interactive tutorials and profiles for non-representatives.

What’s the best way for people to get involved in the project?

I invite anyone who is running a representative to visit the site and sign up. Additionally, any pull requests on GitHub are much appreciated! If you want to get involved or have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Discord. My username is DESRT#0337.

Thanks to Tobias for taking the time to chat and for all the work he has done to improve the Nano eco-system. Please visit his site, https://mynano.ninja/, for more information and if you are a representative get signed up!