Dear Zcash Community,
My name is Thor Torrens and I’d love to be a member of the Zcash Community Grants Committee. Standing on ZCG would allow me to pursue my passion of improving the Zcash ecosystem. I am a long-time supporter of Zcash and I have been following the discussions on the forums, twitter and in real life since 2018.
Little bit about myself, I was born in Harlem, NY in 1984 and raised in the suburbs of NYC.
A former College baseball player, after University I went straight into the entertainment business working as an assistant art director on commercials and music videos.
That led me to becoming a Teleprompter Operator in New York City which allowed me to work and make connections with some of the biggest names in television and entertainment.
Being in this niche led me down MANY different interesting paths.
To name a few:
- I won an Emmy Award at MLB Network.
- Spent the day with Jay-Z and Beyonce at their personal residence.
- Worked as an advisor with Mr. Ronald Lauder, the president of the Jewish World Congress.
- Worked as advisor to Israel at the United Nations.
- Worked at the White House as a Special Assistant to POTUS, and was made a Commissioned Officer with Top secret security clearance.
During my time as an employee, I spent a lot of time around very wealthy and important people. I received an education money cannot buy. Naturally, not only did this lead me to becoming friends with a lot of power players, it also led me to leaving the nine to five life, and diving head first into the world of entrepreneurship, investing and trading. Which eventually granted me the opportunity of buying my first $ZEC in DEC of 2018 at $62 a coin!
Three reasons why I should be on ZCG:
First, I believe that we can do better at getting more people involved with our community. Second, I think we could use someone more outspoken on the committee. Third, I believe we have to think more long term and end game.
First, we have to do better at getting more people aware of the power of Zcash. We have to have more eyes on the prize. And I’m not just talking about in the U.S.A, I’m talking WORLD WIDE, and eventually… even into OUTER SPACE! At least once a day I speak to people (normies) about cyber coins and educate them on the downside of a public ledger. Majority of them usually respond that they had no idea bitcoin is a transparent blockchain that can expose their financial data and transaction history! They are usually shocked. When offered a solution they immediately agree that $ZEC makes total sense for the future of humanity. What is important about these conversations is that I am usually having them with retail people who just have casually invested in crypto currency because it is the cool thing to do. They merely want to follow the crowd and would like to make more money. These people usually don’t do deep dives into what they are investing in. What they need is more cultural editors and authorities to influence them into thinking Zcash and privacy is cool! (Which it is)
Second, we have to have someone that is outspoken and not afraid to stir the pot. Steel sharpens steel. Although I don’t like getting on peoples bad sides (I am a people person) - I do not shy away from truly expressing myself. There is an art form to truly expressing yourself without spilling over into toxic emotional outbursts. Making things personal and attacking others never helps anybody on the path to greatness. I also have no problem admitting when I am wrong or saying the words “I don’t know”. Because of this, I pride myself on being connected to highly intelligent people with proven track records. When celebrating an investment win many times people say, “how did you know?” I remind them of the quote, “the best way to predict the future is to create it.” And then tell them, I spend my time paying very close attention to the people creating it.
Which leads me to the third and final reason, we have to think more long term and end game.
We have to be prepared for multiple situations and always use “preventive medicine”. Some people in the community express how they are upset about the lack of marketing. While marketing is key, to me, unlike the food, music or movie industry it is important to have the best product and UX first and then allocate resources for the marketing second. In my opinion, bear markets are the time to BUILD not the time to market. I believe that many projects built on a public ledger with faulty tech are in a rush to nowhere - and that the winner(s) of this crypto race - will be the marathon runners that have long term sustainable growth in mind. Think of the famous story of “Tortoise and the Hare”. This is why it is imperative we have a very strong focus on technical evaluation and the “end game” when it comes to new grants. There are also many ways to organically market and make things spread far and wide without spending all of the money on it.
In conclusion, I would love to be a standing member on the Zcash Grants Committee and look forward to talking to the community more and answering questions. Whether I am voted in or not, I will continue to use my reach and influence to continue spreading the word of $ZEC and encourage everyone else to do the same. Thank you for your time and thank you to all the previous members for your hard work and participation.
Respectfully yours,
@thortorrens
