Developer Showcase Series: George Theofilis, Synaphea

We return to our Developer Showcase blog series, which serves to highlight the work and motivations of developers, users and researchers collaborating on Hyperledger’s incubated projects. Next up is George Theofilis, CTO of Synaphea. Let’s see what he has to say!

What advice would you offer other technologists or developers interested in getting started working on blockchain?

Get your theoretical background fortified, and start reading, now! Knowing it works is only half the skill, if you can’t explain how and why it works. This might force you to at least dab in economics or legal studies a bit, but it sure is worth your while.

Theoretical background is of major importance and so is market knowledge in order for a development team to quickly grasp the value of the solution they build.

A relatively novice programmer wishing to build a blockchain application with Hyperledger should definitely possess an adequate basic understanding of Docker as well as some fluency in the Go programming language.

George Theofilis, CTO of Synaphea

Give a bit of background on what you’re working on, and let us know what was it that made you want to get into blockchain?

For me it started with academic curiosity during my years in the university. From there it grew into something more very quickly, supported by the hype of the bitcoin community. What my startup and I are working on right now is a wide array of tools for smart-contract management – which began as ways to make our daily lives easier – and an aggregation system for easy deployment for smart-contracts over many blockchain implementations and networks, both public and privately owned.

What’s the one issue or problem you hope blockchain can solve?

I think blockchain technology would help us to further the digitization of the public sector. Thus making public management more transparent and efficient. One such application of blockchain would be digital IDs or an application that would issue needed credentials in an automated way.

What is the best piece of developer advice you’ve ever received?

Every day try to learn a new thing and to push yourself to your limits, is the only way to mastering computer programming.

What technology could you not live without?

On a matter of lifestyle I think it’s the internet. It became synonymous with the western way of life. But on a more pragmatic approach it would definitely be electricity. Humanity depends much on electric current for its survival.

Reblog from Hyperledger