Today we have the third article of our segment section “Ark Community Digest” where each Sunday we will be talking to an Ark community member and getting to know a little bit about them and what made them join the Ark community! Today we will be talking to Alessio, whom you may know as Delegate Fun or just by Alessio in the Ark Slack. We’ve asked a series of questions to which he has given some answers!

What Made You Join The Ark Community?

I first heard about Bitcoin in 2011 but, like a lot of people, dismissed it at the time (someone please build a time machine!). Then by mid-2017 I saw an article showing the price of 1 BTC was above £1000. By that point it felt like I was too late for the BTC party (heh…) and looked for alternative cryptocurrencies instead. This led me to 4chan’s /biz/ board where Ark was being heavily promoted at the time as the next Ethereum in waiting. I took a deeper look, liked what I saw, never looked back and here I am!

What Got You Into Cryptocurrencies In The First Place?

In the words of Vitalik Buterin, modified for my actual scenario: I happily used PayPal for many years, but one day they closed my account because I was underage when I had opened it over a decade earlier. I cried myself to sleep, and on that day I realised what horrors centralised services can bring.

What’s Your Background & What Are Your Hobbies?

My family and I moved to the UK when I was really young. Although they moved back a few years later, I’m still out here on my own. I am not ashamed to admit that being alone so young messed up my head a bit, which is why I chose my path to work in the field of mental health. But, of course, technology and computing are my main hobbies, and always have been, and I began programming in BASIC when I was knee-high. That progressed to various other programming languages and technologies which are now used in delegate fun’s games.

What’s your Ambition For The Future?

My primary ambition is to get better because it’s likely that I will need an organ transplant in the not too distant future. Assuming it all goes well, I have a lot of ambitious plans for the ‘fun’ delegate going forward. Adding more games is just the start — there is a (much) bigger picture long-term. I can’t go into more details at the moment but striving to continually improve and evolve the delegate and its services will be my goal for the future.

If You Could Think Of One Thing You’d Like To See For Ark, What Would It Be?

Stronger and more focussed marketing, so people actually know what the purpose of Ark is. There’s still a lot of confusion out there and I know the team is looking to address this. I hope they continue to work on it and ultimately succeed in doing so.

Who Is The Person You Look Up To The Most?

I could never pick anyone other than my parents, who gave me life and did everything they could, and made many sacrifices, to give me what they hoped would be the best start and opportunities in life.

Who Is Your Favourite Ark Community Member & Why?

This is so hard! I don’t want to name a single favourite person because everyone (well okay, almost everyone) brings something to the table to enrich the community. Names that stick out are:

• Goldenpepe and Moon, as I was a voter of their biz_classic delegate for a long time in the early days

• Colby and the rest of the Golden Horde team for warmly welcoming me when I became an active delegate

Jarunik for all the hard work he puts into the community

• Dr10 for his upcoming cinematic blockbuster (Ark: The Movie). Considering how long it’s taking, it must be great!

Also to everyone else who offered words of encouragement, support and congratulations during my delegate campaign! Thanks guys!

Where Do You See The Price Of Ark This Time Next Year?

I really don’t have any idea, and quite honestly, it isn’t important to me. Most of my investment came when Ark was less than $0.50 and, in my mind, I’ve never processed the increase in value since then. That’s why I was comfortable holding all the way to $10 and back down to $0.50 while keeping my sanity and not selling a single Ark in the process. I’m totally emotionally detached from the price. At the risk of being cliché, I’m here for the technology and looking forward to what v2 brings.

You Can Have Your Dream Company Implement Ark’s Tech, Who Would It Be?

Sarcastically, I could answer “Lisk” although they are in no way my dream company. After all, they already ‘take inspiration’ from Ark’s innovations anyway.

A more serious answer, and one that will not surprise anyone that knows me, would be Apple. I acknowledge that I am definitely in the realms of fantasy here, but I’m already fully immersed in their own ecosystem and an Ark-based integration with Apple Pay would be sweet.

What Movie Quote Do You Think Could Be Used To Describe Crypto?

“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” — whenever people ask me how I feel about the price!

Thanks to Alessio for joining us for this episode of our Ark Community Digest and if you like the article please make sure to share it. Make sure to like our twitter to get the word out about the Golden Horde and stay tuned for next Sunday’s guest!