A few weeks ago when I was looking for a payment method for clients who used Woocomerce I run into this project. Payiota permits integrate Iota with E-commerce.
I wrote to Lazslo in Reddit to ask him if he would be willing to make this interview and he said: “I’m just going to let my thought stream flow freely and I’ll put it down on paper”,
So I recommend you, take five minutes to read this interview and discover his thoughts.
Clato Martin
Writer & Editor, IOTA Hispano
If you like what we are doing help us to continue working! Donate: http://www.iotahispano.com/donate/
Tell us about your background, what did you do before cryptos?
Well, I started getting into computer science at the age of four. In the beginning, I just fooled around with Windows (deleting system32, reinstalling it, random software, etc – Now I prefer Linux-based of course), and as the years passed I acquired more and more knowledge relating to IT, from which I eventually developed a passion for it. I always wanted to learn a programming language (before that I was only apt at customizing software, not at creating it), and decided the best way to do that would be to create my (first) project, LaciCloud. It is a privacy-focused flexible FTP(s)-based cloud storage (https://lacicloud.net), and the second-place winner of the 2016 ESSS science competition (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaqlRoFU5VM). As you can see on the website I had help from Tristan Thompson and Fabio Barbero, mostly for design-related aspects of the site. Currently, it has 100+ users (yearly income of 40€), and it was a great learning experience, not only in programming but also in server administration. It was only after developing LaciCloud that I had thought of creating PayIOTA – and thanks to the experience gained, it only took me around two months to develop the latter, whereas it took me two years to make the former.
Tell us a bit about you and your approach to the cryptographic world
I am from Hungary (but living in Belgium) and 17 years old. In addition to computer science (in which my favorite areas are: cyberforensics, cryptos, machine learning, interdisciplinary CS subjects), my other areas of interest include languages, mostly humanities as subjects and activism (political activism at school mainly; if you look ___hard enough you might even find a few articles I wrote). More specifically by humanities, I mean that I am interested in sociology, psychology, and cognitive sciences. I often take part in organizing activities at school (I am in the Pupil’s Committee) and like to be outspoken despite the widespread lethargy and apathy of most (one of the many problems of modern-day society is that the general population turns towards apathy and senseless movements to avoid thinking), I can say that I strive to have a carpe diem worldview.
I believe that cryptocurrencies will constitute an important part of the future. They will be the defining technological advance of the 21st century (similar to the Industrial Revolution in the 18-19th century). Already cryptocurrencies are finding practical applications. However, they are also difficult to use (this is impeding mass adoption currently) and the majority of cryptocurrencies are useless, or their economic status (market cap) isn’t justifiable. I usually research cryptocurrencies and only invest in ones I will hold for long-term (projects that have practical applications like IOTA, Selfkey, Decision Token, Enigma, and Ripple are great) and not make a quick buck.
When or where you hear about IOTA for the first time?
I was looking for investment opportunities on CMC and stumbled upon IOTA. I immediately liked the concept of no fees, and truth be told I invested based on that (and some additional research).
Tell us about Payiota and future milestones
Well, I saw a hole in the IOTA ecosystem and decided to fill it. It all started when I wanted to add IOTA as a payment option for LaciCloud, only to find out that CoinPayments.net does not support the crypto, so I decided to code my own payment gateway. I got great feedback from the community and soon PayIOTA became a community project with many people from all around the world helping out (for example, the WooCommerce plugin was developed entirely by the community; there is a list of people on https://payiota.me/humans.txt ). It currently has 400+ users.
As far as milestones go, we still need to implement Google Authenticator for 2FA and we have more plugins to develop, for example, a plugin for Prestashop.
Are you working on other projects related to cryptos?
Apart from LaciCloud and PayIOTA I currently do not. There were some projects, like an** Xtrabytes payment gateway and the Ravelous marketplace, but development had stagnated, so I no longer work on them.
Did you know some of the guys of IOTA Foundation?
I do not know them personally, but I have “spoken” with Dom once in the public slack channel, who had there expressed unofficial support for the PayIOTA project.
Are you interested in other IOTA projects?
Certainly. I always browse the subreddit looking for news about projects ? .
Did you read about QUBIC? Tell us about your thoughts
I think it is absolutely fantastic. I always eyed projects like Golem/Iexec/Sonm – but as far as I can see IOTA will quickly overshadow them. Combined with IOTA’s standard use cases, IOTA is set for the future!
If you like what we are doing help us to continue working! Donate: http://www.iotahispano.com/donate/
