Team AKASHA: Ânderson Quadros

I first heard about AKASHA not long after the founding team unveiled the project on World Press Freedom Day 2016 - May 3rd, a date that today we celebrate as "AKASHA Day."

Learning that one of Ethereum's co-founders, Mihai Alisie, mastermind behind AKASHA, was eager to step into the sensitive and controversial arena of social media platforms and connect the Ethereum blockchain with the IPFS network (both such promising and exciting names) in order to build a censorship-resistant publishing platform, was immediately exciting.

Fast-forward one and a half years to Thailand. I had just finished a consulting contract and had to start thinking about my next gig. I had been teaching, advising, and working as a consultant for almost 20 years, orbiting around product, project, and process management in companies from different countries, domains, and sizes, from early-stage startups to big, global corps.

Remote office, Phuket Town, 2018.

At that moment, I had something different in mind though. Perhaps motivated by Thailand's stunning landscapes, rather than looking for something that would only be just another gig, I decided I would work with an organization effectively engaged in changing the world.

I had been collaborating with multiple social, cultural, and open-source projects and organizations already for many years, but never as a full-time collaborator - and that idea seemed like the perfect next step at that moment. So I made a small list with the name of a few particular organizations - AKASHA among them - and started getting in touch with them.

Jump forward a few weeks to the countryside of Brazil. From a barn with poor Internet connection, I found myself attending to a call with two exhilarating Romanian guys: Mihai and AKASHA's technical lead, Marius Darila. I was honoured to meet one of Ethereum's founders and the three of us had a nice and promising chat.

Just a few emails and calls later, they surprised me by inviting me to spend a few days in Bucharest with the entire AKASHA team, participating in an internal event they called "An Odyssey of Discovery," alongside other invitees - scientists, researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

I cannot properly describe how awesome those days were and how excited I was to meet all those super smart and cool people, to learn a little bit more in depth about what the AKASHA team was up to, their vision and crazy ideas, and in particular about their clear mission to make an impact in the world.

Things went so well that I ended up staying for a couple of months in Romania rather than only a few days, and - fucking yeah! - I landed that super cool job I dreamed about a few months before in Thailand.

An Odyssey of Discovery, Bucharest, 2018.

Moving to the present day. About one year after that first call with those two exhilarating Romanian guys, I have wandered through a few different countries meeting people from our community, witnessed and contributed to the genesis of the first AKASHA hubs in Barcelona and Dublin, and have been participating in the metamorphosis of the AKASHA Foundation, proudly helping to build the decentralized Internet and a better home of mind.

At AKASHA, I look after processes and the day-to-day operation as part of the People & Ops, Community, and Brand & Identity teams - and I contribute to the development of the AKASHA Hubs and to the design of AKASHA.world.

I'm from Brazil and I deeply believe in global citizenship, open access to information, and free-culture. I love comics, fiction books, TV shows, and movies (the usual stuff); and in my free time, you'll find me either contributing to cultural projects, coaching skydiving, or teaching coral gardening.

If you’re interested in joining us, you can find our job listings here. You can also join the conversation on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Discord, and subscribe to our newsletter to make sure that you’re always kept up-to-date with what we are up to! 🤗