Startup Interview With Mitja Goroshevsky - Co-Founder and CTO of TON Labs

#HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I’m Mitja Goroshevsky, the Co-Founder and CTO of TON Labs, where I focus on developing core technical infrastructure for Free TON, a community-driven blockchain underpinning an open and free internet. 

Before Co-Founding TON Labs in 2018, I spent over two decades in the IT industry, establishing various successful businesses such as DeltaThree Communications, the first international voice over IP provider; Internet Telecom, a telecoms and enterprise-grade IP solution provider; and BrainsMatch, a Machine Learning company. Following a productive stint in the telecoms and IT space, I ventured into the world of blockchain and served as the Chief Architect for US-based ShelterZoom.

Aside from my expertise in entrepreneurship, IT and blockchain, I also participate in various research projects and have co-authored several patents in distributed computing.

#What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

TON Labs is building Web Free: a meritocratic decentralized web, focused on scalable blockchain infrastructure for global adoption. 

We’re a company composed of experts in decentralization, including leading developers and creative technologists. As the core developer of Free TON, a blockchain that enables anyone to create and manage decentralized organizations, TON Labs is committed to optimizing the development of applications easily accessible to global communities and enterprises.

#What is the origin story?

Oh, it’s an interesting story - the founders of TON Labs all knew each other beforehand - but we met when creating Industry 4.0 - a venture fund where blockchain was high on the mandate. There was serious research done on the industry. When the TON project became public and the white paper available it became clear what transformational potential this technology had. The team decided to create TON Labs with a mission to develop a comprehensive operating system on top of TON.  Later on the team earned trust of the community and became core developer of TON, merging it with TON OS into a powerful vertical technology stack - Free TON.

#What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

I can honestly say I feel we have the greatest team ever. Everyone is super motivated, dedicated and extremely talented. We would not be able to achieve what we do without such a team. We are all remote and distributed globally, but all gather together twice a year for offsites in exciting destinations and get along like family.

#If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

Building another startup, creating or learning.

#At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

By doing what others cannot do. It’s not about the numbers for me. Transaction speeds and token price do not equate success, rather creating a sustainable network, underpinned by endurance and reliability - one that is on-demand scalable and ready to meet any needs is what matters. Our community contributes to the network for rewards and the technology we have implemented allows for this trustless economy, for limitless DAOs (or subgovernances as well call it) to realise visions and contribute to an open, free internet. The fact that we have never had an ICO nor will ever have one combined with our core ethics of decentralization speaks volumes. Free TON will never go corporate. We will never ‘sell out’ and become centralized and that is what I call success.

#What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

The last lap in the Rust Cup contest resulted in some very exciting news. We officially broke world record in TPS on a stable network. Following this contest, the Rust testnet will be launched, afterwards the migration to mainnet will take place. This is when we will go full force on demonopolizing and decentralizing the internet.

#What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

Honestly, I am most excited about our own. Just have a look at our Whitepaper 

#What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

Hackernoon is a great resource for information and interesting opinions and alternative views. It would be great to partner and work on decentralizing HackerNoon! /Smirk.

#What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Get prepared for answering questions like this from reporters! (I am not one for the spotlight--my desires lie in supporting my team and building tech.)

#What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Everyone needs at least one pair of funky shoes.