Inter-community talk! Today with Jose Trejo from the Digibyte community

In this first edition, we will be with Jose Trejo, a member of the DigiByte Awareness Team (DGBAT) and Digibyte community! Great to have you for our first inter-community talk!

Jose: Thank you João, These comments are based on my understanding of DigiByte technology, the purpose is to provide feedback and help spread awareness, education, and grow the network.

Let’s start from the beginning, Can you tell us a little about your background? e.g. Professional Skills, Hobbies, and interests.

Jose: My background is in military service. I served 20 years in the United States Marine Corps as an Infantryman until I retired in 2017. Currently, I’m an undergrad student majoring in Homeland Security and Emergency Management. As for my next career move, I’m undecided.
Hobbies and interests - I’m a blockchain enthusiast and a firm believer that this technology will have the greatest impact on society for the greater good.

How were you first introduced to the crypto market? And how/when did you become interested in Digibyte?

Jose: In 2019, my Brother Josue introduced me to the Robinhood trading app, he asked me if I was paying attention to Bitcoin. I knew nothing about Bitcoin besides that it cost too much to buy one whole coin at the time. I did what I thought was the next best thing and bought Dogecoin because it cost a fraction of a cent and I could hold it until one day it was worth the current value of Bitcoin. I didn’t know about limited or unlimited supply, market cap, or use cases, to me they were both the same. My initial exposure to cryptocurrencies was as a retail investor.
It wasn’t until July 2021 that I was introduced to DigiByte while on Twitter. When I began my research I started with YouTube and found older BitBoy Crypto, Coin Bureau DigiByte videos, then found different crypto influencers talking about it. I then did a deep dive into the website DigiByte.org, and the wiki page dgbwiki.com and was immediately fascinated by the fundamentals and technology. If you get a chance to read the community info paper it’s like reading about a high-performance race car and how all the different parts come together and function.
During my research, I found interviews with Jared Tate, the founder of the DigiByte blockchain, and I wanted to become involved with DigiByte. Check out the YouTube interviews between Lark Davis and Jared Tate and Mike Tha Investor and Jared Tate.

Please talk about your thoughts on Digibyte, and what are the project principles that are more relatable for you.

Jose: While I was on active duty and especially as an Infantryman, security was the number 1 priority. From physical security, operational security, and information security to the encryption used in the radios we communicated with.
That being said, the DigiByte Genesis block headline "USA Today: 10/Jan/2014, Target: Data stolen from up to 110M customers". One of the messages from the founder Jared Tate, which resonates with me is that blockchain technology can fix 95% of cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
When I think of principles I think of the fundamentals on which DigiByte prides itself, decentralization, open-source, grassroots community driven and my favorite is permissionless. Due to its open-source nature, anyone can use it, contribute to it, and build applications on top of it and there is no permission needed. I truly believe that the DigiByte blockchain is a public utility and common property of all. Of the people, by the people, for the people.

What projects have you been working on for Digibyte lately?

Jose: Last year I was asked by Laura, one of the veteran community members if I was interested in updating the DGB wiki page and I said I would love to. We opened it up for anyone in the community who was interested and available. We met a few times on Discord, it was a couple of us and everyone contributed. There was an initial review annotating corrections and identifying broken redirects, then section by section made updates. It’s still a work in progress, as new information and developments are happening, updates are being made.

What work have you done for Digibyte that you are most proud of?

Jose:  Going back to one of the fundamental principles of DigiByte is “decentralization”. Think back to why Bitcoin was created, it was meant to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash system and cut out 3rd party intermediaries, “Be Your Own Bank”.

Last year for May, some of the members put together a community initiative to spread awareness about self-custody. Johnny Law, Dee Gebi, and Renzo organized and created a “Be Your Own Bank” digital asset, a Not Your Keys Not Your DigiByte profile picture ring and we’re made available on digifaucet.org; there was also a link to an article about cold storage wallets. The community spread the information throughout May and some of us still wear the profile ring.
Let’s think about the exchanges who filed for bankruptcy and the people who lost their assets because they were sitting on the exchange. Let’s think about the exchanges that are currently in the spotlight of regulatory uncertainty. Unfortunately, more people will lose their assets if they don’t take them off the exchanges and self-custody. I’m proud to be a part of this community initiative.

For you what are Digibyte's best features?

Jose: Think of DigiByte as an Oreo cookie with three layers. You have the core protocol layer as the foundation, the public ledger layer where all transactions are securely stored, and then at the top you have the application layer where decentralized applications can be built/deployed on the DigiByte blockchain. In my opinion, the application layer is the most exciting to me even though all three layers are important.

DigiAssetX which is a private company is an NFT creator platform, market/auction place, and offers other services. This is just one example of what can be built on top of DigiByte. Within DigiAssetX there are 1 of 1 NFTs, mini-video games, digital comic books, music singles, and utility DigiAssets such as DigiByte Domains. You can now send DGB or an NFT from a v3 digiassets web wallet to another v3 digiassets web wallet using a domain name such as nicki.dgb. I look forward to seeing DigiByte being built out to become a robust network with many different applications and use cases.

What other projects are you interested in, and how do they differ from Digibyte?

Jose: I’m a fan of open source, Proof of Work, and UTXOs. I also like the innovation happening on Virtual Machines. I’m from the United States and there’s a lot of regulatory uncertainty around what is and isn’t a security. As far as other projects that I like, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and others.
How do they differ? Well, they’re different networks, they have different communities, and are accepted by different merchants for services and goods. DigiByte is still being developed and upgraded, I’m excited for v8.22.0 release.

Now talking a little about Decred, when did you first meet the project, and what are your thoughts on it?

Jose: I first heard of Decred from another community member. I did a more in-depth read on an article at the end of 2021 by Guarda Wallet on Decred. I was impressed by the hybrid multi-algo consensus. I recently saw that Decred offers some privacy features as well. I have a favorable impression of Decred.

Decred has its decentralized exchange (DCRDEX) what are your thoughts on this application? Would you like to see Digibyte on it?

Jose: The community members that I commonly engage with are excited about being on as many different Decentralized Exchanges as possible as a move away from Centralized Exchanges for reasons previously mentioned. We also want to be able to participate in a peer-to-peer free marketplace and we see DEX’s as a step in that direction. Yes, the general consensus is we want to have DigiByte on DCRDEX.

I really like how the Decred and Digibyte communities are involved, for you what is the importance of an active community in the crypto market?

Jose: As a member of the community and DGBAT, I collaborate daily with other community and team members on sharing information with the public. Sometimes it’s relaying information from one platform to another, such as from Telegram to Twitter to Reddit, or sharing events on Discord. One of the concepts I learned while on active duty was “A well-informed Marine is a good Marine”, which is very much applicable in a decentralized community.

If people aren’t seeing new developments or activity they start to lose interest. You have to remember, DigiByte is a volunteer-driven community starting with the developers down to the end user. With no end user, what's the point of development?

Talking about the future, how do you see the crypto market in 5 years? Any path that you see as the best way to be followed?

Jose: Five years is a short period of time, however, there is so much innovation happening right now such as alliances being made between blockchains, cross-chain swaps between Proof of Stake and Proof of Work, and partnerships between alliances and autonomous organizations. About two years ago I watched a 2016 Ted Talk on how Blockchain is revolutionizing money and business by Don TapScott, which opened my eyes and I follow a lot of the information put out by the Blockchain Research Institute. I believe in a multichain, cross-chain, Interoperable-scalable-programmable future.

Ending our talk, please leave a message to the Decred community!

Jose: My final message to the Decred community is, we all have different life situations, different financial goals, and reasons for being in Crypto. Whether you’re an investor, blockchain enthusiast, or both, this might sound cliche, but always do your own research and make the best decisions for you.

Thanks a lot Jose! This was a very nice talk, you have a great view on the crypto market and a very interesting background. I wish only the best for you and for the DGB community.

Are you from a crypto community and wants to be interviewed about your project by Decred Magazine? It would be great to hear how it compares and contrasts to the Decred project. Please feel free to reach out and contact us on our twitter page. See ya!