POW with Beau Zabdiel Valoria

Beau Zabdiel Valoria, or more commonly known as Zab, is a full-stack Web3 developer, community builder, and advisor. Besides that, he is also the co-founder of Web3 Philippines and a developer advocate for Polygon Labs and The Graph Protocol.

  What were you doing before Web3?

Prior to Web3, I worked as a community specialist and coordinator for prominent Southeast Asian gaming publishing companies such as Netease for Rules of Survival and Garena for Garena Call of Duty Mobile, where I organized and led several community events, initiatives, and operations here in the Philippines.

How did you get into Web3?

My father was actually the one who encouraged me to look into cryptocurrencies and NFTs, and so I did. I spent my early years in the space trading and investing in different altcoins and projects until I was hired by a gaming guild in Web3.

I was hire to manage and build their communities as Axie Infinity and NFT games were going mainstream. That was also the time when I got more interested in the development and innovation side of Web3.

I joined my first Web3 hackathon on ETH Global last year, where I met and worked with builders and developers all around the globe. I’ve been able to be affiliated with Polygon Labs and Graph Protocol as a community and developer advocate. Then I met Warren Gonzaga, Kristian Quiparas, and Alleo Indong and decided to build Web3 Philippines, and the rest is history.

What was your first crypto or NFT project?

I could clearly remember the very first time I bought my first cryptocurrency. It happened on my school bus in 2017. That is when I decided to invest my remaining balance on Coins.ph and put it on Bitcoin and XRP.

How would you explain what you do to someone outside of Web3?

I would be your friend. A friend that is one call away for any technical or non-technical questions related to Web3, Blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrency. I help builders, beginners, and startups understand and learn more about Web3 and related technologies.

Which creator or thought leader do you enjoy learning from?

I really enjoy listening and learning from builders and developers here in the space. And being able to learn and understand new concepts and ideas in this very vast space of Web3.

Currently I really love learning from the blogs and writing of Vitalik Buterin (co-founder of Ethereum) and also to my fellow local builders Kristian Quiparas and Waren Gonzaga.

What is the biggest highlight of your career so far?

I believe that the biggest highlight of my career is currently happening at this time. I am currently working on creating a standard for community builders and managers in advocating the concept of Community Engineering and also being able to ship and bring tools, solutions, and products to life through my startup, BlockChime.

What tech or crypto trend are you watching this year?

I am currently looking forward to the first ever real and functioning zk EVM (Zero Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine) of Polygon Labs coming to the mainnet, as this would open new doors and possibilities for builders and developers in the space.

What advice would you give someone starting out in Web3?

We know that Web3 is a very vast space, and it might be overwhelming for some to know where to get started. So if you don’t know what to do, where to start, or how to start, the best thing that you could do is simply show up!

Once you start showing up, even if you don’t do anything yet, it will be a great help for you to understand what your next step is and be much closer to opportunities when they come. You could start by showing up at Web 3 communities, events, workshops, and related initiatives.

If you could do a TEDtalk on any topic, what would it be?

It would be about the importance of showing up even if you don’t know anything and being there even if you don’t feel like it and being able to talk about how it changed the lives of many people, including mine.

What is the one thing you would bring if you were stuck on a deserted Island?

I think that would definitely be my camera, so I could record some content and do some great challenges on the island.

POW stands for “Proof of Work.” It is a new feature article series in The Mega Maxi to highlight the savviest builders in the Web3 space.