Coffee With Calyptus #83: Thriving Web3 Communities Are Simpler (and Harder) than You Think., Ft. Robin Roy, DevRel, Avail

Author :
Nishant Singh
January 5, 2025

In this edition of Coffee with Calyptus, we sit down with Robin Roy, a seasoned Developer Relations with experience at Polygon and Avail.

Dive into his journey, tips for staying ahead of tech trends, and thoughts on building tightly-knit, thriving communities in this rapidly evolving space.

What First Drew You to the Web3 Space, and How Has Your Journey from Polygon to Avail Project Shaped Your Perspective on the Industry?

My first steps into Web3 was not actually crypto trading, like most people I know out there. My first exposure to this space came from hearing about some “revolutionary tech” that could have multiple use cases across supply chains, digital ID, governance, etc. that could give power back to the people. During my initial few deep dives into blockchain tech, I didn’t completely understand what Web3 was all about, until the day I took a step back from “just tech” and focused on a different lens - the philosophy of the space itself, how trustless human coordination, governance, and game theory was at the core of it.

Once the economics and ideologies of it all started making sense to me, the tech started falling into place. I had a greater understanding and appreciation of what the Web3 space was trying to achieve. This led me to actually start experimenting and tinkering around with the space.

My journey from Polygon to Avail has been pretty great to be honest. What started off as me working as in Operations at an IEEE Standards Working Group for Blockchain Governance, led me to understand this space on a more nuanced level, eventually leading me to work with Polygon and subsequently, Avail. My time at Polygon and Avail - 2 completely different projects working at different areas of the web3 stack at the time - has made me realise just how intricate this space is and how important building infra to scale for billions of users is critical.

After having worked with both teams, with devs both from the app dev (smart contract) side and the infra side, I have a greater understanding about the pain points of devs in both aspects. I’ve come to realise that monolithic approaches to blockchains has had very limited success and the key lies in modularising the stack. I would even go on to say that I feel a purpose-built or app chains will be what we will see in the near future. A world where rollups and chains are optimised for a specific application or task and everything else is outsourced to other part of the ecosystem or stack.

But this does not mean we fragment liquidity and UX, in addition to modularising the stack, we also need chain abstraction mechanisms such that the user feels like they’re using just 1 chain or application, but the underlying infra is seamlessly coordinating with other networks to provide that experience. Both Polygon and Avail, are working to enable this, although in their own versions of implementations. For example, Avail allows anyone to deploy chains easily and quickly that leverage their DA component, while also having mechanisms like Nexus that will unify these chains so that user experience remains seamless.

Working with these all-star teams have helped me envision the future of this space, and see it a bit more clearer. To me web3’s North Star will be horizontal scaling of execution, followed by seamless cross-chain interop, with trust-optimized guarantees, verifiable by anyone.

As a Developer Relations Professional, What Does a Typical Day Look Like for You, and How Do You Balance Technical Problem-Solving with Fostering Community Engagement?

The daily life of a DevRel can vary like night and day honestly. Devrel being a job with multiple hats, it results in me one day helping to solve customer issues (solutions engineering), to diving deep into the latest meta (like AI agents, EIPs, AA, Intents, etc.), to creating content, maintaining documentation, planning developer community growth initiatives or events, while also following up with the community and engaging with them on a regular basis such as getting feedback or delivering product updates.

My day usually starts with fighting off all the unread messages on my Slack and Telegram address any issues or outstanding requests dependent on me, followed by content planning/creation for the week, and attend any team meetings I need to be part of. I then shitpost on X (yes.), and try to learn something new everyday. But this obviously changes based on the needs of the day and initiatives we have going on.

Balance is something you cannot just do from day 1 but something you just pick up by planning your weeks better. Setting deadlines for certain work and sticking to it no matter what. The idea is to be consistent and show up everyday. I think the balance comes in when you always try to keep the end-user in mind whenever learning about or doing any technical problem-solving. If we’re able to keep them in mind, we can then be much more clear about what needs improvement and provide feedback accordingly or make content to make things easier for them. It’s just a cycle of constant testing and feedback and seeing what sticks.

You’ve Been Involved in Initiatives Like EthMumbai and KERNEL—How Have These Experiences Influenced Your Approach to Community-Building, and What Unique Insights Have You Gained From Them?

Being part of different communities and being surrounded by the best in the industry has just taught me one thing. Never stop.

In terms of community building, I’ve learned that the best communities are built from the ground up- with lots of communication and rapport building. There are many superficial communities or “group chats” where people are active on day and then goes dead the next. You need to talk with each and every contributor in that community and stay in touch for the core to be strong and evangelism to be stronger. The greatest value comes from when we can all become one-tightly knit group.

With Web3's Rapid Evolution, How Do You Stay Current With New Technologies and Frameworks? Are There Specific Resources or Strategies You Rely On?

CT is my only resource for up to date news and trends. And to be honest that’s all you need in the space. Just be chronically online on X, follow the right people and accounts and most of your questions will be answered.

What Has Been the Most Fulfilling Part of Working in Web3 for You, and What Advice Would You Give to Developers Just Starting Out in This Space?

Just being able to be part of this early mover community who really want to make a change. My advice for devs starting out is that, don’t only learn how to code a smart contract and call it a day. Dive deeper, learn about the WHYs of the industry, only then can we understand the WHATs of this industry.

If you don’t understand the philosophy and foundations of the web3 space, then you will not understand why Ethereum, or Solana, or L2s, or anything else is being built the way they are. You need to know the core pillars of certain sects within the space to know why some people are opinionated the way they are. There are tradeoffs to everything, and to understand those we really need to have a keen eye to read between the lines, and not just believe marketing fluff.

So my second advice is to always question everything and why something is the way it is. Why did Ethereum decide to launch blobs, Why are some L2s starting to launch with beefy centralised sequencers, why does shared sequencer systems matter? Why choose modularism vs monolithic chains like Solana, does TPS matter, can sub 100 ms block times even exist realistically or is it just marketing etc. Create your own opinion and don’t be too rigid to learn.

Solidity Challenge 🕵️‍♂️

💰 Can you hack this contract to get all the reward tokens without sending a dime to someone else?

calyptuscareers_Solidity_Challenge_6aff494b

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Solidity Challenge Answer ✅

Answer: One can send eth to oneself and earn reward.