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Juicebox in the Words of 0xSTVG

· 8 min read

“Juicebox in the words of” is a series that highlights JB community members in interview form. Learn about members’ roles at JB and what makes them tick.

0xSTVG is a JB die-hard, having been around since the early days. As the DAOs onboarder and bona fide swag and sticker monger, you can see him around the discord always helpful and ready to answer questions. Recently we had a moment to chat and I was able to hear his wonderful JB origin story, and his priorities in the JB space. Check it out below!

How’d you get started with JB and how has JB changed since you’ve been here?

I was in there early! I learned about DAOs through Rare Pizzas and this guy named snax— who I gotta give a shoutout to ‘cause he’s the one who introduced me to DAOs— was buying free pizzas on pizza day. It was me and him and 2 other peeps on Clubhouse, and I was like this is stupid, no way this is gonna happen. As I got more comfortable in the DAO space, I eventually found my way to SharkDAO. I had started seeing these SharkDAO logos and I figured hey, I have a printing shop, I should make some hoodies with logos on them to give away, and I did (and they were expensive!). Jango and nicholas were people who helped guide me through sending out those hoodies, and so I got to know them and got to know JB. I decided to start making some JB clothing with graphics as well, and eventually I got put together with Zeugh and the talk was about community. I started helping wherever help was needed, like with governance, moving proposals along as they were coming in, etc. Eventually filipv jumped in and we started tag-teaming it and doing the podcast, which ran for a while.

Filipv is great. Is it fair to call you two the gruesome twosome?

We worked very closely together and he ended up taking on some huge responsibilities, but we still lean on each other a lot when it comes to opinions and direction. I would definitely say I’ve learned a ton from him and I think he would say the same. Every once in a while we’ll pick up the phone and call each other and just say “Hey, how you doin’?”.

I see you as this onboarding wizard, where did that start?

It’s definitely a roll I’ve grown comfortable doing. I remember doing onboarding with MoonDAO and Slice, and eventually then for JB. It’s also interesting that that sort of merged into this weird testing and feedback roll too. I found myself in the front-end chat more and more (I don’t know if I’m providing value there– I hope I am!) to try to test various things, launch projects on test net, find obscure bugs that are here and there and provide suggestions/feedback based on what the onboarding calls are giving me, so it’s kind of become a merged roll. Being in that close proximity to the user gives a lot of great insight and perspective.

I also think there needs to be a shield between the regular user and developers. I’m very adamant that there needs to be some distance there. I’ve always appreciated jango saying we’re all builders at JB, but let’s be honest, they’re (the devs) are the builders– the developers on the JB protocol side and the Peel Team, they’re really building and everyone else is providing support. Since I joined JB I’ve always felt the need to kind of protect the jangos of JB because they’re so hyper focused that distractions can lead to mistakes, and that can be a big problem. I think a lot of organizations should take on that approach, to be honest, to make sure those core builders are shielded from the basic questions that other contributors can answer. I feel like that’s where I slid right in, I can answer those questions.

I’m reminded of high level athletes and how they’re trained. The trainer almost has to take a caretaker role, ensuring that distractions/obstacles are cleared so that the athlete can do what they do: perform.

Exactly. It’s all about minimizing distraction. It’s interesting that you bring up athletics; I was a former athlete and after that have been involved in high level training— olympics, NCAA athletes— and the one thing I’ve carried on in my life moving into JB and other things is to eliminate distractions and be in the moment. If you are distracted about the outcome of something, you’re taking away energy from the task that you’re actually doing, and in athletics that could be the difference between a win and a loss, a championship and coming in second. It sounds super corny but launching new extensions has become that for me– that’s the championship, we gotta get there, how do we get there, how do we stay focused are the questions I have bouncing around in my head. I’ve always been an idea person— someone who can really thrive in environments where we’re talking about ideas— and I’ve always been good at that I felt, and JB is this crazy environment where people take ideas and build off of it into something else. It’s like a dream come true.

There almost seems to be a hippy spirit at JB– people are just so open. I’m thinking of the compensation discussion from a few weeks ago. Just an open discussion, no one at each other’s throats.

Yeah, especially with a topic that’s been so sensitive our whole lives– we don’t talk about salary IRL, and to have this open dialogue is special. More so to have the validation that what you’re providing is worth the payout that you’re receiving– there’s no better feeling than that. Having the support of the community has been an amazing feeling for me. People don’t realize how important that is to me– to my personal being. It’s quite an experience and one that I don’t take for granted.

Regarding compensation, if you don’t pay the people who are irreplaceable, they’re gonna go somewhere else. I think that’s an important point. There’s also people within the DAO that are just completely connected to the DAO itself, like if jango leaves, or Drgorilla leaves, what is JB, or Peel, or what even happens to JB?

Fair question.

I’ll tell ya right now– if jango decides to do another project, I would ask him if I can go with him. You just can’t replace certain people. So if you don’t pay them, they’re gonna be gone. All that said, I do think we need to be aware that we don’t have unlimited resourced. At the same time I think there’s enough people in the DAO that aren’t necessarily leaning on JB for all their bills/everything they do. So if there’s an emergency situation where people have to back off/reduce payout, I think we’ll see that happen.

Why the lack of assholes and mentally checked-out people at Juicebox?

I think because everyone at JB right now has proven their value, and people who haven’t don’t stay around for very long; they weed themselves out. I think there’s also a level of respect from each person that everybody kind of has each other’s back. If you come in and try to take advantage of the DAO, I think the community can read that like a book because we all had to pay our dues. Everyone who’s being paid recurring payouts has been told no at least once– that’s a common denominator we all have. I think when everyone’s gone through that there’s a level of respect and community, which you see in how we treat each other in our day-to-day.

For sure! Okay switching gears: who is your favorite contributor, and why is it Zeugh?

Haha, I think Zeugh is great– he’s awesome!

You know, I don’t know who my favorite contributor is. I’ve worked closest with jango and filipv probably, but I’ve gotten to know the peel team a bit more and I’ve really enjoyed them asking me for feedback/allowing me to provide feedback. Right now I couldn’t answer who, I just love working with jango and filip– they definitely help me out and give me a strong feeling of purpose.

What’s something somebody would be surprised to learn about you?

I think the biggest surprise would be… I have four kids! That is something that actually helps me with what I’m doing at JB– I’m good with time management/organization, and can make time for everything. My oldest son is really active with sports, so I’m juggling a lot, but even on the sidelines I’m always on the discord.