Sharif Bouktila & his son Zain at a recent concert in Dublin
He’s a family man, and well known in the global EOS community. For Sharif, EOS is a tool to make the world a better place, and his outlook as a block producer reflects that. Big Little Family (BLF), one of Sharif’s dApps, resonates with everyone we share the idea with. BLF will provide a secure, family ”center” to store digital memories and pass them from one generation to the next. Since earning his Bachelor’s of Commerce from University College Dublin, Sharif has acquired nearly two decades of professional IT experience in a variety of roles and industries. He has a solid understanding of enterprise solutions, and he’s delivered complex programmes in regulated industries. He has created some big tech projects, and launched a number of start-up cloud projects. Some living, some dead.
How did you get interested in EOS?
I’ve been interested in blockchain for several years and have been exploring business use cases for it. EOS is the first project which I believe can enable mass adoption. The simple fact that there will be a built-in mechanism for arbitration and contract resolution gives us the foundation to build and scale solutions to real problems. I’m really excited to see what becomes possible after we launch.
What is special about EOS Dublin as a block producer?
Having an independent Irish block producer strengthens the entire chain. Ireland is a progressive and technology-forward country. Ireland sits at the heard of Europe and is respected the around the globe. When I noticed there was no EOS community in Ireland, I started one.
How is your approach unique?
We are really leveraging Ireland as a key location for technology businesses. It is no coincidence that all the major tech companies have their EU headquarters in Ireland. We are partnering with the leading independent Irish data center for our infrastructure. We are also exploring options to open up an investor pool for small investors interested in having a stake in our business. As well as launching our own dApps, we are looking to help and invest in promising startups looking to build on or move to EOSIO.
Meet Sam Noble, the Chief Technical Officer of EOS Dublin. Sam is a technical wizard with a background in systems architecture. His experience and expertise make him perfectly suited to the global architectural project of building the EOS blockchain.
Sam never fails to astonish: whether he’s running an EOS node from his iPad while out camping, or teaching the rest of the team about capybaras, there’s always something surprising in store.
Since picking up his father’s Oric-1 at age 8 and ‘programming’ games from the instruction manual, Sam was destined for a life with computers. He is a deeply technical IT executive who loves building large-scale solutions. Sam cut his teeth as a developer in a software-led startup, which was a spin-out from McLaren, applying Formula 1 track side planning to helping Fortune 500 firms define complex strategic decisions that evolved rapidly over time. In the 12 years since then, he’s worked around the globe building world-class solutions with a range of companies across FinTech, e-Health, e-Commerce and logistics. He has co-authored a book WPF Recipes: A Problem/Solution Approach and a scientific paper, delivered award-winning presentations.
The combination of technical knowledge and CTO/IT executive experience affords Sam the ability to quickly see solutions to the challenges of systems architecture and determine the right tools for the job, ensuring that any solution will be simple, elegant, and direct.
How did you get involved with EOS?
It was Sharif who put me on to EOS last year, in relation to a different project we were discussing. I've been interested in the blockchain scene since 2010. At the time, I was working in Norway, and my colleagues suddenly switched from Folding@Home to mining this virtual currency called Bitcoin. When Sharif told me about his vision for EOS Dublin, I jumped at the chance to work with him on it.
What are some of the technical challenges every block producer faces?
Where to begin? Among the myriad challenges we're facing right now, perhaps the biggest is the result of two things: the rate at which things are moving combined with the newness of it all. It's almost a daily occurrence to see someone on of the many Telegram groups to say ‘Sorry, I'm struggling to keep up.’ It's a firehose. This makes it difficult to determine what usage will actually look like. How much bandwidth we'll use? How much RAM our servers will need?
Building a robust, highly available platform is tricky, especially when you're dealing with large volumes in a distributed architecture.
How have you addressed these problems?
Answer One:
Trying to keep up with the various conversations going on in the community requires patience and perseverance. Don't try to absorb every minute detail, if it's important enough you'll hear about it sooner or later. Try things quickly and fail fast if they don't work. Just trying that one thing will give you 5 more ideas to try. Keep iterating and eventually you'll hit gold. When it comes to figuring out what the infrastructure will look like, all you can do is look at similar platforms and draw from personal experience. We can learn a lot from the mistakes that other blockchain platforms have made to ensure that EOS is rock solid.
Answer Two:
The block.one team have done a fantastic job of creating a fast, lightweight and scalable platform for EOS which makes our job as a block producer a little more manageable. To keep things stable and functioning, we have to plan and test and plan and test and then test a little more. Having built a number of highly available cloud platforms during my career, I have lots of experience to draw from when it comes to ensuring our servers are always on and always available. The most important aspect is testing your business continuity processes before you need them!
What is unique about EOS Dublin?
Leveraging our unique experience from a blend of the corporate and start-up worlds, we bring together a wide range of skills and experiences with a hardworking, no-nonsense attitude to getting things done. Couple that with Ireland's unique position, both geographically and politically, and you have a very interesting entity.
What do you think EOS will be like in 5 years?
Based on what I've seen coming out of the community, EOS is set to become the distributed application platform of the future, functioning in ways we could have never imagined. With people becoming more aware and concerned about data protection and online privacy, we'll see more of a shift to people wanting to own their data and being in control of their digital personas. EOS will take us there.
Isaac is an artist and designer. He has spent his career bringing his artistic skills and sensibility to college students, business professionals and magazine publishing. Based in Bend, Oregon, Isaac first learned about blockchain as part of his interest in technology. He is inspired by the vision of EOS and wants to help create a world where every individual can feel secure in their digital rights. He is currently at work on a science fiction novel and he periodically publishes articles about life in the Pacific Northwest.
Jessica is a historian, writer, and editor. When she’s not teaching world history to college students, she is writing articles about history. She is a specialist in instructional design, which means she works to create the online designs that facilitate the best learning. She has decades of experience editing and has worked for large publishers, magazines, and authors. As a history teacher with many online classes, she’s intensely interested in new digital educational experiences. The current state of online education is mostly proprietary, and she imagines a decentralized digital classroom powered by EOS.
EOS Dublin On Telegram: https://t.me/eosdb
EOS Dublin Online: https://www.eosdublin.com/
EOS Dublin On Twitter: https://twitter.com/eosdublin
EOS Dublin On Steemit: https://steemit.com/@eosdublin
EOS Dublin On Medium: https://medium.com/@eosdublin/
EOS Dublin On Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/EOS-Dublin/
EOS Dublin On Everipedia: https://everipedia.org/wiki/eos-dublin/
