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This week we interview Lucas Cullen, often referred to as ‘Brisbane’s Bitcoin Grandpa’.  We could write a whole blog just on his achievements alone but it is safe to say that this would not tie in well with his humble and grounded approach to life. But to summarise, Lucas is a dad, a blockchain developer, a contributor to the Standards Australia blockchain standardisation project and a founding Board Member of Blockchain Australia.  One journey however, (and one that the Brisbane crypto community are glad Lucas embarked on) was the founding of the Brisbane Bitcoin and Blockchain meetup which is now home to over 1700 members including the Crypto Clothesline Podcast.

It did take us three attempts to tie this man down but it was a pleasure to finally chat with him about his life, observations, thoughts and predictions on the future of crypto and blockchain.  Anyone with skin in the crypto game can tell you that the infancy of the space fosters collaboration and innovation but we have also seen the emergence of contention and separation. Lucas shares his experiences in the first five minutes of his interview stating that “Everyone comes from a different angle, but it's finding a common thread and I hope that people can come to the meetups and these groups and be respectful of each other's opinions.” And on reflection of the darker side of the crypto space he went on to say that “We’ve finally found a technology that can bring so much. But then we've got this ugly side, whether it's a power struggle or whatever, or it might just be technical opinions, but just feels like the community often gets split in fighting and it’s disheartening.”

Often we see burnout as a consequence of years devoted to a cause or project so we were genuinely curious as to how Lucas was able to manage his ever increasing responsibilities over so many years (and we were slightly worried this highly sought after developer doesn’t do anything other than work).  To our surprise there was a method and its simplicity was comforting “I guess the key is just try and be a little bit more efficient so I practice the agile methodology and the philosophy of last responsible moment of making a decision.”  To explain the agile method, let’s head to the coding horror blog which is always a humorous place to find answers.  They say that “Decisions made too early in a project are hugely risky. Early decisions often result in work that has to be thrown away. Even worse, those early decisions can have crippling and unavoidable consequences for the entire future of the project.” A little confusing to the organisational demons rummaging away in the human psyche convincing us to ‘be prepared’ for everything. Perhaps the boy scouts and their mantra of being prepared are outdated and the future is living in the now. 

You can always catch Lucas at the Brisbane Bitcoin and Blockchain meetups where you will find him engaging with and welcoming everyone.  If you are wondering though, why on earth he keeps going, particularly in his dedication to the free meetups?  Lucas loves what he does and is passionate, he has found his tribe and it is as simple as that. “I guess the best thing is about finding your tribe. The meetups.” There is a worldwide community of cryptocurrency enthusiasts and a meetup is usually close by. If there is not a meetup close by, an opportunity exists for you to create one for your community and find your tribe.

You can find more on Lucas and his roles at Bitcoin Brisbane and Blockchain Australia.  

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