A month ago I decided to leave a full time role in Cloud at AWS and go into DeFi, Web3, and crypto but haven't really talked about some of the reasons why I chose this space.

I did consider other opportunities, but I was on such a great team at AWS that making a lateral move

into a similar role or industry just did not make any sense at all. If I was going to move, I wanted to try something radically different.

I've also continued to become fascinated in self-governance, smart contracts, and decentralization. There's a lot of reasons why, stemming

from some deep ideological shifts I've experienced after current events, diving into various books, & thought pieces by people in the industry (including @balajis) as well as the economic crisis in places like Lebanon (and other countries) that hit really close to home for

people (both friends and family) that could have partly been prevented had the right systems been in place.

I'm also someone who has a lot of experience with GraphQL, so working with @graphprotocol was a perfect fit, since it is essentially a GraphQL API layer on top of

blockchain for now, and in the future much more.

When this opportunity came up it was really great because it combined my existing skillset with the things I've been becoming much more interested in. I watched a few talks from some of the founders and

became even more interested in the space but also really excited to have the opportunity to work with them particularly. I was drawn to the work they had already done as well as their vision for what is to come.

The company @edgeandnode is very new, so getting to come in at

somewhat the ground floor of something was compelling for me. Leaving big co to go into a startup also seemed really fun & so far I can say that it's already been one of the best decisions of my career.

In my new role I'm going to be doing & learning a lot of new things,

but doing a lot of similar things as I was before – writing, speaking, workshops, documentation improvements, community, etc.

We'll also be doing actual investing in companies and people in the ecosystem, which seems fun and exciting, in a space that is extremely early days with

almost infinite future possibilities.

I'm prepared for this space to be volatile. I know that there are ups and downs, but fundamentally I am in this for the long haul as I see it being rooted in the future of many things in our society going forward.

This space is also *very*

young. People will rightfully point out areas that are not sustainable or realistic at the moment, and I 100% agree with them. But I think that's the fun and challenging part, participating in and being part of finding the solution to those problems that I believe will ultimately

have a positive impact on the future and that is really fulfilling to me.

I have a lot to share about what I'm doing and working on in the future, so look out for that.

Also, I'll be doing an AMA at some point to try and answer other questions.

If you want a good overview of

what we are working on at both @edgeandnode as well as @graphprotocol, check out this great podcast interview with the founder @theklineventure on @grt_iq podcast: https://www.grtiq.com/grtiq-podcast-03-tegan-kline/

Also, this tweet https://twitter.com/ashleighschap/status/1368968462761132036