#AviaChat with the Developer Relations Engineer

 Hello, Welcome to this new AviaChat. 

 Greetings 👋🏿 Honored to be a part of this! 

 What is your name or username, and what is your current role within the Lava Network team? Could you also share the specific contributions you make to the project's development? 

 My name is KagemniKarimu - it's actually one word though you'll see it listed everywhere as two! 😉 I am presently the Lava Developer Relations Engineer. Developer Relations is really comprehensive so I play a lot of roles in developer acquisition, developer satisfaction, and developer retention in relation to the project. In laymen's terms, I host workshops, develop tutorial content, and assist developers in onboarding and using Lava's Gateway and SDK. 

 What aspect of your job at Lava do you find most fulfilling or enjoyable? 

 Lava is very fast paced and very collaborative. I love being able to solve problems with people - technical and otherwise. There's a beautiful aspect of discovery in web3 broadly and within Cosmos specifically that gives a lot of learning and mutual growth opportunities. I get exposed to new stuff all the time and that really excites me. I also really enjoy producing educational content. As always, I would love your or any one else's feedback on the various articles and tutorials I have produced on Medium! 

 Can you provide a brief overview of your educational background, relevant experience, and any specializations you have? 

 I was previously Developer Relations / Researcher at Skynet Labs before the unfortunate collapse! I had a really great time overseeing a Summer Developer Program with 20+ developers located all over the world. They built some really successful projects and it was all completely web3-native and decentralized on some really cutting edge tech. 

 How did you initially become involved in the crypto ecosystem? Do you remember the first coin you purchased and the reasons behind your decision? 

 I initially became involved in crypto when I saw the utility beyond novelty! Seeing early technologies like SiaCoin - and the potentiality for distributed storage and distributed compute really amped me up. It was among my first major purchases and I went on to mine it and become a big part of the community. I was also a part of a research group that did in depth studies on crypto as a whole. And for a while I contracted with Messari as an Analyst. 

 When did you join Lava Network, and what factors influenced your decision to join the team? 

 As of a few days ago, I am only ~6 months deep in my Lava Journey. However, Lava itself is very young! A big influence on joining Lava was the innovation and interaction style. It's a very Engineering first company - some of the early employees have extensive backgrounds in IT and CyberSecurity - which is something you don't always see in Web3. The amount of computational knowledge is immense and we have some really bright minds working here. Everyone shares knowledge constantly and you really get to learn from knowledgable folks. 

 In your opinion, what is the most captivating aspect of the Lava Network ecosystem? 

 I alluded to it in my other response, but there's a really strong commitment to quality work in Lava. Even though it is very clearly a startup and things can get wild at times, you always get the sense that people are doing excellent quality work on everything & it shows. I feel like because we're in Testnet , our projects are still not as polished or pubilcized and so I'm reluctant to shine a light on any one thing specifically. But, if you see the quality of code pushed and the level of discipline of the engineering team, it's a serious site to behold. 

 How many individuals are currently working at Lava Network? 

 It's a small, but rapidly growing team. I don't know the exact number off the top of my head! 

 Could you provide an overview of the concept of Lava Network and briefly explain the services it aims to offer in the future?