The ChainSafe Ambassador Program: ChainSages
Authored by Colin Adams
_tl;dr: ChainSafe continues to recruit community members familiar with our tools to engage and share their knowledge with the next wave of web3 developers_🧙
What's a Sage?
ChainSages are people we've identified as helpful and knowledgeable within our community. Sages are much more than your average crypto ambassador. They're a hand-selected group of experimenters and experts who understand the code in both theory and practice.
What do Sages do?
Sages work at the grassroots level. They're educators and community stewards who provide support in a particular domain. For example, a Sage could teach other devs:
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How to integrate their game with the blockchain via the web3.unity SDK;
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or how to configure our ChainBridge software to add cross-chain functionality to their project.
Day-to-day, Sages participate in internal conversations, help moderate our Discord channels, and act as advocates for our mission: "onboarding the next million developers into web3."
What are the benefits?
The benefits of being a Sage are many-fold and will increase as the program evolves. To start, these include:
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A unique Discord role
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Private Discord channels for internal discussion with other Sages
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Compensation (paid in USDC)
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An NFT signifying project-specific knowledge
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Recognition for their contributions
Success stories
Our first Sage Sneakz started by joining the web3.unity Discord channel for assistance with his game, CryptoSurferz.
He then started answering other people's questions as he got comfortable working with the SDK. The team quickly noticed his contributions to the community and decided to bring him on as a Sage. He did so well in that capacity that ChainSafe hired him FT.
In the span of a few months, Sneakz went from community member to core dev at ChainSafe💥
Following Sneakz, NFT Pixels was the next Sage. And he was selected in a similar way, i.e., simply showing up, doing the work, and helping people in the community.
Fast forward a few months, and Pixels was also brought on as a full team member, underscoring how possible it is for the ChainSage program to open doors🚪
Our third Sage, Simon K., fell into the role by following his background in computer science and natural curiosity to experiment in DeFi.
To introduce a friend to DeFi, he deployed a simple swap with him. Later, he deployed more advanced swaps and integrated ChainSafe's ChainBridge to help users with swapping and bridging - hence, IceCreamSwap.com was born.
Today, you can find Simon hanging on in the Chainbridge Discord, helping others learn💡
ChainSage hall of fame
Name: Sneakz
Strengths: Coding, Engineering, Streaming, Muay Thai,
Weaknesses: Cats
Fun fact: Has passed meat boy on hard mode
Name: NFT Pixels
Strengths: Coding, Guitar, Fitness, CSGO
Weaknesses: Red wine & puppies
Fun fact: Has 2,210 hours in SteamVR
Name: Simon K.
Strengths: DeFi and algorithms
Weaknesses: not being organized
Fun Fact: Started his project as a tutorial for another developer
Who's eligible?
Anyone is eligible, but Sages must demonstrate a strong understanding of the software. In other words, to be a gaming-focused Sage, you must know the ins and outs of our gaming SDK.
More generally, we're looking for people who are:
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Knowledgeable in a particular codebase
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Friendly and willing to help
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Interested in learning
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Capable of high-quality responses
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Good communicators
How does one best learn about a ChainSafe project?
The docs, of course!
Code is the source of truth, especially with ChainSafe's products, since they are open-source by design. But if pouring over lines of code is not the easiest way for someone to learn a codebase, documentation can be viewed as a secondary source of truth as long as it remains up-to-date!
In the future, we will provide additional ways of learning about our products and a more streamlined path for getting up to speed.
How do I become a Sage?
If you're interested in becoming a Sage, here's what you can do:
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Identify a ChainSafe project that interests you - join our Discord server to find a list of our communities that you may wish to start contributing to.
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Begin studying the code and experimenting with the software.
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Fill out this form to share with us which ChainSafe project you're interested in.
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Follow us on Twitter for news and updates.
The main takeaway is this: Committing yourself to learning and becoming an active contributor to conversations on Discord is the most important step any prospective Sage can take.
More updates to come. Stay tuned!
About ChainSafe
ChainSafe is a leading blockchain research and development firm specializing in infrastructure solutions for the decentralized web. Alongside client implementations for Ethereum, Polkadot, Filecoin, and Mina, we're building a portfolio of web3 products - Files, Storage, web3.unity, and more. As part of our mission to build innovative products for users and better tooling for developers, ChainSafe embodies an open source and community-oriented ethos. To learn more, click here.
