A look at a blockchain developer’s typical workday

My name is Edison, and I’m an application lead at Zilliqa, a Singapore-based blockchain project.

I joined Zilliqa in July 2018 as the team’s first application developer. Prior to that, I worked as a software engineer, developing data pipelines to support cutting-edge machine learning research at Carnegie Mellon University.

My journey with blockchain started in 2016, when I was drawn to a smart contract platform called Ethereum. I learned to write a simple decentralized application, but I didn’t really think much of the technology again until 2017. While pitching for a thesis topic, I came across the subject of blockchain security, which gave me the chance to learn more about blockchain development.

My current role involves leading all the teams at Zilliqa that are building in-house applications on our blockchain platform. One of the exciting things I’m currently working on is Project Proton – a blockchain pilot with Mindshare, a leading digital media agency – to explore how the technology can address some of the present challenges in programmatic advertising.

Here’s what my typical workday looks like.

8:00 am

I start my day rather late compared to most of my peers. I’ve been trying to become more of an early riser, but some things are simply not meant to be.

My alarm goes off at 8:00 am every day, but I’m admittedly rather lazy, snoozing for another half an hour or so before I have my breakfast and prepare to head out.

9:00 am

This is the start of my workday. Some people like to play games or watch shows during their commute to work, but I prefer to keep abreast of news on Twitter instead, and then jump right into my workload by writing emails and replying to Slack messages. Slack is a big part of how we communicate at Zilliqa: it’s where we share lots of code snippets and, of course, memes.

I also try to respond to some messages from our global community on Telegram. I believe that constant engagement with community members is vital. Whether it’s sharing key project updates, gaining new insights, hearing feedback, or addressing any concerns, we can learn a lot from them.

10:00 am

As soon as I arrive at the office, I start our morning standup meeting, which keeps everyone focused on the day’s tasks. We share what we worked on the previous day and the agenda for the day ahead. We also highlight any roadblocks we foresee and take the time to discuss them as a team.

Taking a call to check in with remote team members

11:00 am

I spend this time recalibrating my internal project management spreadsheet to see if there are any risks or potential project delays. In the event of an unclear product specification, I send emails to respective product owners to gain some clarity on those issues.

As an application lead, I’m responsible for facilitating collaboration between our developers. I find that one of the most effective ways to do that is by having clear technical specification documents that accurately describe how system interactions should look.

Sometimes, I also spend some time editing the systems documentation to ensure that the whole team is aligned. By then, there isn’t a lot of time left before lunch, so I tend to clear out tasks that can be done in less than five minutes: a little bit of code review, resource usage monitoring, and task planning on Trello.

12:30 pm

2:00 pm

4:00 pm

5:00 pm

7:00 pm

8:30 pm