Meet Tobias, the Creator of DALL·E's Game

Howdy Hackers!

I’m Tobias W. Kaiser and I’m the creator of DALL·E's Game. I am glad to announce that I have been nominated for the 2022 Noonies Award.

A huge thanks to the HackerNoon community and staff for considering me worthy of this opportunity. I’ve been nominated in the following categories and if you like my writing, please do check out these award pages and vote for me:

1. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Art: https://www.noonies.tech/2022/internet-heroes/2022-hackernoon-contributor-of-the-year-art

As a tech writer, I believe that the most exciting technology of the present is Web3 because of its power to shape the future of just about everything. Learn more about my thoughts and opinions on Web3 and my journey in the tech industry via the interview below.

1. What do you currently do and what’s your favorite part about it?

At the moment, I’m a full-time DAO contributor and I’m absolutely stoked about seeing the future of work.

Most recently, I started DALL·E's Game. In a nutshell, DALL·E is a GAN-type AI that can create fitting images from any set of words you feed it with. I wanted to know what happens when you enter the seed phrase of your crypto wallet and the results were absolutely amazing, so I decided to turn them into an NFT puzzle. If you can guess all of the 12 words, you can steal the wallet, including all of the sale proceeds and unsold NFTs.

2. How did you get started with your Tech Career?

I’ve always been a computer nerd, so it was a no-brainer to study computer science. I soon found out that I suck at software development though, but I got interested in cognitive systems and cognitive psychology during my Bachelor’s, so I went on to get my Master’s degree in Cognitive Science instead.

I was then given a PhD position in Techno-Economics somehow, where I quickly grew tired of that field. That was in 2017 and the crypto bull run was the talk of the office, so after my PhD contract ran out, I became a full-time Web3 specialist.

3. If Utopia were a color what color do you think it’d be and why?

Well that’s gotta be red, right comrades? Nah, jk. Communism sucks. Just needed saying.

PS: It’s not gonna be orange either.

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?

I guess my favorite thing about HackerNoon is the ability to write something that is instantly read by hundreds of people. After all, the reason why we write articles is because we want them to be read and HackerNoon is just an amazing tool for this purpose.

5. Tell us more about the things you write/make/manage/build!

To make it short, I’m a Web3 visionary. As a tokenomics expert, I come up with new use cases for Web3 technology, especially in the DeFi sector.

The problem is that, while it is easy for me to come up with new ideas, implementing them is hard and tbh, I think I’ve already had way more ideas to improve the Web3 economy that I will ever be able to implement. If you want to build some cool stuff in Web3 and you don’t exactly know what yet, feel free to get in touch with me and I might have some clues.

6. What’s your favorite thing about the internet?

I am impressed by the Internet’s power to kick off worldwide changes in about every aspect of life, be it business, politics, communication, or leisure. Just compare today to the 90s when Web1 was in its infancy with today’s world.

With the paradigm change to Web2, we switched from merely passively consuming web content, to actively producing it. And now, we are witnessing yet another paradigm change where we assign value to the virtual assets we create and protect their ownership through cryptographic technology. I’m really curious to see what Web4 is going to look like.

7. It’s an apocalypse of ‘walking dead’ proportions and you can only own a singular piece of technology, what would it be?

If the Internet is still working: A smartphone. The emergence of smartphones drastically changed our world, in parts for the worse (e.g. data privacy concerns), but overall for the way better. Thanks to smartphones, you can carry around all of the gathered knowledge of humankind in your pocket.

Not to mention all of the other capabilities you gain compared to your ancestors who did not have this technology. I sometimes compare mobile technology to some sort of sixth sense that you actually feel missing if you happen to break or lose your phone, especially in a foreign city where you’re used to relying on your smartphone to find your way around.

But what makes mobile tech really amazing is that it’s so dirt cheap that even the poorest among the poor can afford to get one. A used smartphone that is a few years old still works perfectly and literally costs nothing. This makes mobile tech one of the greatest equalizers we currently have by giving those in impoverished countries access to things like education and financial services.

If the Internet is not working: A gun.

8. What is your least favorite thing about the internet?

Accounts on Telegram and Discord that contact you with ‘Hello’ and nothing else. Don’t even bother talking to them. They either want to sell you something, or they try to scam you.

9. If you were given $10 million to invest in something today what would you invest in and why?

I think power-to-gas solutions will be an essential part of the future’s energy infrastructure and most people don’t have that on their screen right now, so that would be my safest bet.

In the crypto market, I think Ethereum will get a nice pump out of the upcoming Merge. There’s also some projects that deserve more attention like Cult.DAO, or novel DeFi use cases, such as insurance. Not financial advice & DYOR!

10. What’s something you’re currently learning or excited to learn?

For me, the most exciting thing about Web3 is that after four years of working there, I finally start to feel like somewhat of an industry expert. And yet, I still learn new things on a daily basis. Since it’s a developing field, I guess this is to be expected to some degree.

I actually covered the journey of becoming an industry expert in my latest HackerNoon story titled Mapping the Web3 Abyss.

11. Would you rather travel 10 years into the past or 10 years into the future? Give reasons for your answer.

I’d travel 10 years into the future, most importantly because I’ve already been 10 years into the past. I’m generally optimistic about the future and I can’t wait to find out what our world will look like in 10 years from now.