Team Insights: María, Back End Engineer

María has experience working in the space industry and is now joining our back end development team!

Hi María! We’re glad to have you as a new member of the team. How about you start by telling us about who you are?

I think I’m a person pathologically attracted to all kinds of challenges. If something seems difficult or impossible to achieve, I want to be a part of the implementation of its solution.

I studied a telecommunications engineering degree and I love learning about many different things. This has led me to work in multiple fields both during my college time and then afterwards. I have implemented algorithms to process cardiac signals, fabricated OLEDs in a white room, developed drivers and protocols for embedded systems, worked in the validation and integration of ground segment space projects… and now I’m into crypto!

That’s a very exciting career path! As a developer, what makes the crypto space exciting?

The possibility to contribute to a technology where not everything is written yet. A lot has been talked about blockchain’s potential applications (smart contracts, decentralization of money, oracles…). In my opinion, it is likely that more unforeseen use cases arise, as it usually happens in technology where something that was designed for one purpose ends up being used for many others.

Besides, all those applications share their requirement for a critical degree of reliability. And personally, that is quite appealing and probably the greatest challenge that a developer can face.

We know you like to write code that works flawlessly. Which are your favorite tools when you’re coding?

I use a Linux environment and my text editor is Vim. But probably the best “tool” I like to use is the team I work with. I give a lot of importance to code reviews in order to get the best results and I also like some practices such as pair programming in order to reduce the learning curve of some technologies and to share the knowledge within a team.

There are some great projects working on inspiring missions. What attracted you to Witnet?

The possibility to work in a technology with real impact and with potential to change the world for better. Also, regarding the more technical aspects, I felt rather curious about the Rust language and I wanted to learn more about it.

Last but not least, I was attracted by the team. I love being surrounded by skilled and talented people, learn a lot from them and then finally use that knowledge to help others. And I think that the team here is quite extraordinary and has such passion! I’m already learning a lot from them.

What are your thoughts about smart contracts? What would you say is the potential impact they can have?

I think that the possibility of removing intermediaries is quite interesting. In the end, when in a system you put a lot of trust/power/responsibility in an individual, you are (perhaps unnoticeably) creating a weak link in the system, both a target for attackers and a potential source of error. I think that smart contracts will end up being used in many fields of everyday life: bank transactions, healthcare, administrative and commercial procedures…

On a personal note, what are some things that you like to do in your free time?

Wow, I have a lot of hobbies. I love reading, watching movies and TV series, spending time with my friends and family, playing board games, taking care of my urban garden, beer-crafting… The list is endless and each year something is added to it. In the short term, I want to sign up for German classes and I also want to exercise a bit more. I regularly dance ballet and salsa but I would like to learn swing and perhaps ballroom dances too.

Thank you so much for thoughts, María!

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