The MIT Digital Currency Initiative bids farewell to Tadge Dryja

Five years ago, I was in the Boston area for a week and I hung out at the DCI.

It wasn't much of a space back then—really more like a closet. But there were ethernet ports in the walls, assorted cables and computer accessories, and a couch with occasional undergrads hanging out, coding, or discussing the finer points of cryptocurrencies. It was welcoming, and a lot of fun. I brought a computer and started working, and talking to people about Bitcoin, and helping some students with their projects.  

Towards the end of the week, Neha Narula, the director of the DCI, asked me "Do you want to work here?"

I was caught off guard for a moment. "Huh! Uh, actually, yeah, that would be cool!"

And it has been. Working at the DCI has been great. If you had told me in 2013, as I first started working on Bitcoin, that in just a few years, I would get paid to work on Bitcoin at MIT with lots of smart people, I wouldn't have believed you. But that's just a small part of what I got to do at the DCI.  

I got to work with Sunoo and Quan-quan on a really interesting paper about memory hard functions. I got to work with great undergrads like N'chinda, Johnathan HB, James, Claire, Dan, Shwetark, and many more.  I got to work with Madars on elliptic curve mathematics that I couldn't really understand, and when that wasn't enough, I went and sat in on math classes at MIT about elliptic curves (where I was mostly lost, and everyone else in the class appeared to be 18 and didn't bother taking notes because this was all "review" for them).

I had a chance to work with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on digital currencies, which is definitely not something I would have expected when I first signed up, let alone years before. I learned a lot and worked with great people as we explored the similarities and differences between Bitcoin and a CBDC.

I even got to teach a class with Neha on all the engineering behind the revolution in digital currencies.

So it's with some sadness that I'm leaving the DCI to join Lightspark and further build out Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.  But not too much sadness, as I know that the DCI is still as open and welcoming as it ever was, and if I'm around Cambridge, I'll swing by the (now expanded and fully equipped) DCI lab, bring a laptop, and catch up with everyone about what everyone is figuring out about Digital Currencies.