Interview with Sergey Zakharchenko, System Architect at The Abyss

Sergey Zakharchenko: “The Abyss comes up with a really groundbreaking functionality that will drive the market.”

The Abyss continues publishing interviews to introduce core team to you, giving you an idea of what they do and who they are. In the interview below we introduce Sergey Zakharchenko, the System Architect.

Q: Sergey, what activities you’ve been involved in, prior to joining The Abyss?

Sergey Zakharchenko (S.Z.): As a full-stack developer, I was engaged in several B2B and B2C projects, designing and developing scalable web-applications and managing remote teams of developers. At that time I considered it as a key source of income, while my passion was computer science — I was working on my thesis in my spare time. Applied numerical methods in physics and deep learning has a plenty of tricky puzzles to offer, which I enjoy a lot. Then while working on one of the projects, I found out that Konstantin Boyko-Romanovsky, the Founder of the Abyss, was recruiting the team of developers. I considered the project as a real challenge I was longing for a while. After several meetings with the team I made up my mind. And here I am.

Q: What is your current role in the company?

S.Z.: I’m a system architect. I’m responsible for elaborating technical solutions required at different stages of business development. The solution then is divided into multiple tasks that are distributed among the back-end and front-end developers. Then I am to resolve technical problems related to architecture that may arise during the implementation. Besides, I take an active part in the platform development process. As a full-stack developer I can assist either front-end or back-end team. But my key responsibility still is designing a scalable system architecture that can meet the requirements of a fast-growing business.

Q: You are a gamer, as far as we know. How long have you been playing video games?

S.Z.: Since an early childhood. I played my first video games on a home-made computer (ZX-Spectrum), that my dad had assembled using various radio components. It was very glitchy and unstable, but anyway it was an exciting experience. When I finally got a PC, the first game I played was Doom 2. Later, I got addicted to RPGs, like Fallout, Arcanum, loved old X-COM, and many other games. And during the school period I recall playing FPSs a lot (Counter Strike, Half Life and others).

Q: What games would you like to see at The Abyss platform?

S.Z.: The iconic games that can attract an army of loyal users (players), that will build a large community around these games and the platform itself. Secondly, I’d love to see The Abyss become a home for indie developers, while supporting them and bringing their products to a mass audience.

Q: What does the market need The Abyss for?

S.Z.: The Abyss is a new blood to the video game market. Other digital distribution platforms are sort of stuck in the past. They try to experiment and to introduce new features, but still there is no quality improvement in terms of functionality. There is no fundamental breakthrough at the moment, while The Abyss comes up with a really groundbreaking functionality that will drive the market.

Q: Where do you see The Abyss in 3–5 years?

S.Z.: I have no doubts that it will become a notable player with a significant market share. We have games, a passionate team with a glimpse in their eyes, we have a crypto experience. Nothing can stop us.

Q: Which moment was the most rewarding for you in The Abyss?

S.Z.: There were lots of them already. The development process is like assembling something complex and new. Our platform consists of various elements and components, with different people (back-end, front-end developers, devops, etc.) working separately on each of them. In the end, after you assemble and adjust all the elements, this large mechanism starts working. And you think to yourself “It’s alive!”. This moment is always rewarding. I remember having this feeling the day we introduced payments with ABYSS tokens in Music Wars. And I had the same feeling when the prototype had been launched.

Q: And the toughest moment in The Abyss was…?

S.Z.: On April 16, when everything was ready for the start of token sale and in the last moment we faced certain issues and had to stop it for additional tests. It was the right decision and brought us to the better outcome.

Q: Do you have a hobby?

S.Z.: I have lots of them, actually. Weightlifting, surfing… also, I used to create the video games of my own.

Q: Will you place them on The Abyss?

S.Z.: I would love to. However to meet the quality standards of The Abyss they require a further development and time investments. I am fully focused on The Abyss now.

Q: What inspires you in your everyday life?

S.Z.: The strong personalities, serve an unlimited source of inspiration for me. Stephen Hawking is one of such personalities. He is the man of a strong will who has been struggling an awful disease, and against of all odds had become a great scientist of world renown. His example is both encouraging and inspiring.

Another example is Herb Brooks Jr., an American coach, whose most notable achievement came in 1980 as head coach of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic hockey team at Lake Placid, comprising amateur players, that defeated the heavily favored USSR team in a match that came to be known as the ‘Miracle on Ice’.

Q: What game character you can compare yourself to, and why?

S.Z.: Garrus Vakarian from Mass Effect video game series. He’s a real professional and a very devoted team member. He’s one of my favourites.

Q: Let’s imagine that you are not a part of The Abyss Team. What would you do then?

S.Z.: Two options. I would either continue my scientific research, or work for one of the global IT companies. I think I would rather choose science. Anyway, I’m delighted to be here, at The Abyss. I made the right choice.