Howdy Ho Fellow Hackers!
I’m Alyze Sam, and I’m a Founder at; Tech & Authors, The Onion Club, and MassCrypto.io
First, I’d like to express my utmost gratitude to the staff, and all other beautiful humans of HackerNoon, for nominating me for a 2022 Noonies award! OMG- thank you so much!
I’ve been nominated for the following EIGHT categories (oh my gosh, thank you), and if you think my writing offers value, please take some time to check out these award pages and vote for me:
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Contributor of the Year- FINTECH: Click here.
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Contributor of the Year- INFORMATION TECH: Click here.
3. Contributor of the Year. WOMEN IN TECH Click here.
4. Contributor of the Year. TRADING Click here.
5. Contributor of the Year- MEDIA: Click here.
6. Contributor of the Year- PODCAST: Click here.
- Contributor of the Year- DATA PRIVACY: Click here.
- Contributor of the Year- MONEY: Click here.
As a writer in the tech industry, I believe that a correctly operating DAO is the most exciting technology currently related to their helpfulness and naturally decentralized nature. Learn more about my views on loving life being grateful and working as I unfold my incredible journey in the tech industry via the interview following.
1. What do you currently do and what’s your favorite part about it?
I do whatever I want, whenever I want and that’s my favorite thing about life, thank you for asking! :)
What I do: I’m a serial co-founder of solutions in FinTech, SoFi, Business, and P2P.
Co-founding and launching is insane; there is more sanity and less ego in a mental asylum. However, I was a hospice and mental health nurse for over a decade; therefore, I feel like there isn’t anything I haven’t seen or can’t deal with. Moreover, my team and I have been in this industry a long time, we’ve just learned to hum along to our own frequency to meet impossible goals while laughing, being silly (to make things less stressful), and smiling as we make a possible impact.
My fav part about how my career? With my two main partners, Steve Wood and J.P. Beaudet, I’m the newb and weakest link with only a near nine years in FinTech- It’s quite the honor to be the dumbest person in the Zoom (or AirBnb when we travel, live and work together - mommy loves you both! lol), as I know I’m in the right place; learning, evolving and growing as I try to add value to their lives. For all of these things, I’m grateful as I work primarily side-by-side with my best friends and the only family I have.
Together, I think my team and I agree we enjoy the discovery phases. We like fixing broken things, solving complex issues, meeting insane goals, and turning negativity into a magical fairy tale.
Artists love to Art, Swimmers love to Swim, and Dorks LOVE to Discover (blockchain solutions). lol
2. How did you get started with your Tech Career?
Funny story… maybe not funny- haha…
I got into FinTech by accident, as I was stopped at a red light and was
PLOWED BY A COMMERCIAL SEMI TRUCK!
(it’s true, my back still hurts-lol)
After seven spinal fusions, a metal clavicle, and shattered bones throughout my body- “playing with” (note to unfun people, that means- ”empathetically caring for”) my amazing mental health patients and recovering meth addicts while helping amazing grannies to Heaven became physically impossible. :(
I had to say goodbye to my nursing career and all my precious patients- (well professionally speaking- good luck trying to get me to unfriend those beautiful people that trusted me with their lives and recovery!) after I helped my CNA move a patient and nearly injured my patient. :( I couldn't bare the guilt of hurting an innocent dying soul, just because I needed my income.
Related to health and the level of my classical education, I was limited on what I could do from home, I slowly started losing my assets, car, home, and family, what seemed like overnight as I tried to recover from spinal surgeries and a clavicle replacement.
Sadly, many beautiful things in my life all seemed to quickly vacate my life following my accident. Though, I was not void of hope or wonderful people like Dymitri Buterin and Team McAfee, who picked me up and taught me blockchain privacy, introduced me to my highly influential network, and allotted me the life I have today, which is full of success and joy. Thank you, my sweet boys, my heroes.
3. If Utopia were a color what color do you think it’d be and why?
Utopia is a warm and light sunny shade of yellow.
I’m sure of it, because, in comparison to helianthophobia (an irrational fear or phobia of sunflowers), sunflowers are “happy and cheery flowers” and they are a warm and light sunny shade of yellow. Looking at a sunflower provides an instant jolt of love and energy that makes us all feel better, for this reason, utopia is a warm and light sunny shade of yellow. See?
4. If everything about HackerNoon changed drastically, what is one detail you’d like to keep exactly the same? OR What’s your favorite thing to do with HackerNoon and why?
HackerNoon is filled with real tech nerds writing about real tech advances. It’s real. and the Founders are FANTASTIC! I love Dave and Jay. So, don’t change it or everyone will be sad.
I share on HackerNoon to educate and support my friends; moreover, I have a passion to educate in an unconventional manner and tone because tech can be too serious, stressful, and sad or boring at times.
Sometimes, I feel like tech is too complicated and people further complicate it for no damn reason, HackerNoon is different, this is a haven for talented authors, writers, and content creators to express themselves freely using a fun, animated, comical or even silly tone while sharing valuable no-shill material on an array of technologies-
5. Tell us more about the things you write/make/manage/build!
I’ve been spending a lot of my days at Tech & Authors, where we just finished our newest book, The NFT Encyclopedia. (coming out next month!) I’m actually very excited for this, as days before my due date, Eric Pulier reached out to me; he and Craig Sellars spent a full weekend and some change with me to send me a ton of documents and co-author the story on how the smart contracted NFT was invented and evolved.
I love the fact that I’m a simple retired nurse and blockchain gifts us a connection with some of the world's most prestigious thought leaders in existence- I’m excited to leak this information here on HackerNoon, and let you all know how the kings of smart contracts and those that invented the NFT as we know it today, are real sweethearts and such down to earth people- if you’re not a fan of Vantom or BLOCKv, you should be-and y’all know I don’t shill, I only state the facts.
Moreover, now that I’ve submitted that, my boys are getting back to our day-to-day- where we fix- or build and launch your broken projects at
I’m pretty excited about it, and we are having a blast in discovery mode- we enjoy the creativity, bonding, testing, and planning of our future tech during these times. I think we are all dreamy people that love to solve problems in unique fashions.
6. What’s your favorite thing about the internet?
My favorite thing about the internet is can be very useful- but frankly, it’s a total freaking disaster zone, it’s kind of like the Vegas strip, it’s a drunken hot mess and you don’t want to go looking around too much or you’re going to get robbed and see something REALLY DIRTY, thankfully, we can work together to fix it. :D
7. It’s an apocalypse of ‘walking dead’ proportions, and you can only own a singular piece of technology, what would it be?
That is really an annoying question.
I don’t know if I should pick my nano pet, my laptop or computer, my MacBook, my Boss headset, or what. You guys are rude to make us think about this horrible situation. :’(
I refuse to answer this, you jerks! You can’t take my Macbook and my Nano Pet!!!! lol :P
8. What is your least favorite thing about the internet?
The internet is trash in its current state and people ‘act a fool’ on here. Shame on all of you that are being nasty keyboard warriors. Your mothers would be ashamed if they knew how naughty you were acting. Behave and play nice, all of you! And don’t do illegal things!
You can’t seriously think you’ll get away with being a horrible person, do you? If you think you can get away from karma, you’re just silly and if you think you can stay out of jail forever, you really don’t know much about the world wide web, now do you? Very little is private, digitally speaking, even with some VPN use and extra security, which is why I’m passionate about building a solution.
9. If you were given $10 million to invest in something today what would you invest in and why?
It may be selfish but I’m investing in my solutions, because I strongly believe in them, atm. Therefore, it’s going straight to a layer in my Onion (club!), if you want to toss in a mere 10 mil USDT more, you’ll close my seed round and I’ll be your best friend. lol
10. What’s something you’re currently learning or excited to learn?
I’m learning Web 3 architecture and exploring real-world use cases/ solutions as I build- I’ve been playing a little in AI and getting back to my roots in privacy, which has been exciting.
Also, as previously mentioned, I just submitted my next book, and I’m still sifting through all the education, trying to soak it all in! There will be over 80 chapters, 80k words- 100’s of examples and historical timelines, and info. I’ve been watching NFTs since inception and involved more actively since 2016; for this reason, I led to share the truth, as I’ve sat by the geniuses that have created all this technology just to observe, learn, and try to add value. Since everyone has been so trusting and generous to me, I couldn’t help but take the last year of my life and put everything I could into a complete collection to honor the heroes that are fixing today’s internet by designing and building tomorrow’s.
This is the first time I have had a professional publisher and took my writing seriously- as I merely write to share unbiased education and obtain a deeper knowledge for myself. I’ve always had a disability in tech because I’m not classically trained; therefore, I must write the textbooks to keep up with my peers. lol-
11. Would you rather travel 10 years into the past or 10 years into the future? Give reasons for your answer.
I’d go back ten years back when my grandparents were alive, and I had a family. It’s a very dark and lonely place without a family at times. I’m thankful I have wonderful friends, professional peers, and people that follow my work, which will never leave me lonely for too long. <3
About HackerNoon’s 2022 Noonie Awards
The annual Noonies Awards celebrate the best and brightest of the tech industry, bringing together all who make the Internet and the world of tech what it is today. Please check out our award categories, nominate, and vote for the people and companies you think are making the most significant impact on the tech industry today.
The 2022 Noonies are sponsored by: