Hello guys. We hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. The team are all back from holidays and are working on some exciting projects for Q1 2018. Here are our updates this week:
- Website: New website and comment on delay
- New Team Member: Meet our new front-engineer, Jim Wilde
- New Team Member: Meet our new front-end engineer, Angelos Pikoulas
- Binance Vote: Brief comment & exchange listings
- Github Repository Change
- No more weekly updates
Website Update
Over the past few weeks our team have been working on the new website, which is now live! aventus.io. We really wanted to move away from a traditional token sale website and focus on our B2B strategy.
Our first front-end engineer joined us the week the site was meant to be going live. However, as is the way with software, he found that the software was buggy on some mobile devices and we decided to take a bit more time and get our skilled team to look through it before sending it out. We always prioritise quality over speed and the estimated time required is very difficult for developers given the nature of the task. When it comes to communication we continue to be as transparent as possible and in this case fully acknowledge that the announcement of the new website was premature and would like to apologise to our community whose support is of utmost importance to us.
New Team Member: Meet our new front-engineer, Jim Wilde
Can you first introduce yourself please, tell us a bit about you? Maybe a fun fact we wouldn’t expect?
My name is Jim, I’m old enough to know better, and young enough to do it again. In a previous incarnation, I ran the UK Beatbox Championships for almost a decade and co-founded the American Beatbox Champs.
What is it that you do at Aventus? How did you hear about the company and what made you apply for your role?
I’m a front-end web developer. I’ll be working on the Aventus website, as well as our b2b applications such as the IMS. I heard about the company via the CTO, Andy. We’ve worked together before, and I was already thinking about moving in to the crypto-sphere, so I was excited to be part of the team.
Tell us a bit about your prior work experience — what did you work on, do you think any of the previous projects you worked on would be particularly applicable to what you will be doing at Aventus?
I’ve been working with start-ups as an in-house front-end dev for the last 4–5 years, all in the ticketing business. I started out with the now defunct clubtickets.com rebuilding their customer website, and since have worked on various projects including building the initial version of the IMS which I’m now working on again!
When did you first hear about blockchain? What is the most interesting thing about it to you?
I first heard about bitcoin back in about 2011. I’ve always been interested in it, but it wasn’t until this year that I really started to take notice (like many people). For the record, yes, I am excited by the financial implications of the blockchain revolution, however, I’m more interested in the fact that we’re right at the beginning of discovering what blockchain technology will mean for the World going forward. With regards to Aventus in particular, I really believe in the core mission of the company, to give event owner’s more control of the lifecycle of their tickets, and to release fans from the tyranny of scalpers and extortionate second market prices.
What do you hope to achieve at Aventus? What are you particularly excited to work on?
I believe one of the biggest hurdles to mass adoption of crypto assets is the lack of user-friendly interfaces. I’m looking forward to helping create applications that make that transition possible.
How can the community get more involved with what you are doing at Aventus?
The main thing I’ve noticed in my research of the crypto assets space is just how strong the community element is for any given project. It’s important for Aventus to pay attention to their community, but it’s equally important for the community to use the channels available to be constructive and actively help us to address issues. I think it’s also important for the community to educate their friends and family about the crypto-space in general. It’s not all about price!
Why do you think Aventus is relevant for society, and specifically for ticketing?
I think Aventus is relevant because the ticketing world is plagued by touts and over-priced resales, especially in the area of music. This is a reaction to how the internet changed the music scene; musicians have moved back to generating most of their money from live events as release revenues dropped. Aventus is using the next generation of technology to solve a real-world problem, and the team understand the ticketing industry. The company is uniquely placed to present an opportunity that works for businesses and event attendees alike.
What are your hobbies?
I love to produce breakbeat music, releasing under the name Jim Reaper. I’m also a sucker for Battlefield on XBOX.
New Team Member: Meet our new front-end engineer, Angelos Pikoulas
Can you first introduce yourself please, tell us a bit about you? Maybe a fun fact we wouldn’t expect?
I loved computers (and especially games) when I was a kid, so I naturally studied Computer Science (BSc & MSc). I enjoy programming, used to be in favour of Java & OO like most people, nowadays I prefer Reactive and Functional, for now in JavaScript.
Maybe cause I come from Athens, Greece I have a great appetite for philosophy (philos=friend, sophia=wisdom), being the pursuit of truth, and science which is the direct descendant of it. Aristotle, a student of Plato, is mostly known as a Philosopher but was actually the father of the Scientific method that we still use today.
I also care deeply about political philosophy, although I despise politics (and most politicians). To a similar extent, I tend to believe in the existence of God, but I am appalled by organised religions 🙂
What is it that you do at Aventus? How did you hear about the company and what made you apply for your role?
I am a developer of the Apps team, using Javascript and the latest tech to craft amazing UIs. I heard about the opportunity from a recruiter and I joined the company for many reasons: I wanted to jump into the blockchain tech, I believed in the company’s cause and I liked the existing team.
Tell us a bit about your prior work experience — what did you work on, do you think any of the previous projects you worked on would be particularly applicable to what you will be doing at Aventus?
I am always keen in working with cutting-edge tech. My first expertise was with Speech User Interfaces in early 2000’s, where I developed Speech Apps for a few years, then I built an engine and a startup to power them. Unfortunately, the tech and the market 10–12 years ago wasn’t mature enough and the space consolidated considerably, so I had to drop it. Developing User Interfaces is very challenging and rewarding, cause you have to envision the interface humans would like to be using.
When did you first hear about blockchain? What is the most interesting thing about it to you?
I heard about the technology back when it came out, but I started learning more about it in the past year or so. What fascinates me is that it allows the establishment of trust between cooperating parties, without intermediaries. This has the potential of revolutionising the way we do everything: money and banking, contracts, social agreements, even politics.
What do you hope to achieve at Aventus? What are you particularly excited to work on?
I am thrilled to to take part in creating a concrete solution for this problem, the fair sale and distribution of tickets. I am also excited I will be working on the latest tech.
How can the community get more involved with what you are doing at Aventus?
We are keen on Open Source at Aventus, so I think one way is to help us with our coding endeavours, finding bugs and suggesting improvements.
Why do you think Aventus is relevant for society, and specifically for ticketing?
Aventus have identified an existing problem, that touches many aspects of the real world: how the scarcity of resources leads to economic incentives of aggressive or even fraudulent behaviours and ultimately market failures. I think its a great example of how the blockchain can be used to solve such problems effectively.
What are your hobbies?
I enjoy music, documentaries, movies, reading philosophy/science/business, cooking, dancing, sailing, camping and above all a good company.
Binance Vote
This month we were selected as the community coin of the month. We had no part to play in being listed for voting and, based on previous performance, we do not expect to win coin of the month. However, we still wanted to make our community aware of the nomination and share the news across our channels.
We are moving forwards with exchanges as before and are still waiting on them. We have found this process to be frustrating and strenuous and are fully aware that our community have been incredibly patient and are grateful for their continued support of Aventus’s journey. We will update you though our various channels as more information becomes available.
Github Repository Change
We have moved the official Github repository for Aventus to https://github.com/AventusProtocolFoundation
The IP for the protocol is being moved to the Aventus Protocol Foundation and our blockchain team asked for more privacy in their work so they can freely express themselves in comments etc. for minor pushes without having every detail publicly observable. There will still be regular updates to the new repository though so please do keep an eye on it!
No More Weekly Updates
Finally, for the new year we are going to move to a structure where we put out updates monthly. We have found getting enough information together for a weekly update to be tricky at times and will be moving to a monthly announcement to ensure we have enough engaging content for the community. This will allow us to spend more time making other blog post covering various topics in more depth for those of you who are interested.
To stay up to date with Aventus, please join our mailing list, the discussion on Telegram & Discord, or follow us on Twitter.
