From Staying Behind the Scenes to Sharing an Open-Source Journey

There is something I've never shared publicly.

A few years ago, while I was building what would eventually become MyZubster, I received an unexpected invitation.

Some people involved in the Monero community had noticed my work and asked whether I would be interested in teaching a classroom session about Monero mining and the technologies around it.

At the time, I declined.

Not because I wasn't interested.

Not because I didn't believe in the technology.

I simply wasn't ready to put my face in front of people.

Part of that came from my personal history. In the past, I had been involved in situations that taught me to be extremely cautious about public exposure. That experience made me prefer working quietly, letting my code speak instead of my voice.

So I kept building.

I spent countless hours experimenting, redesigning, breaking things and rebuilding them.

There were moments when I questioned whether anyone would ever care about what I was creating.

Today, looking back, I realize that the project has become much more valuable than I originally imagined.

Not only because of the software itself, but because of everything I learned while building it: privacy, distributed systems, open-source collaboration, digital ownership, AI integration, and how communities grow around ideas rather than products.

For a long time, MyZubster was simply my personal laboratory.

Now I see it differently.

It's a story worth telling.

The technology landscape is changing rapidly. Open source, privacy-preserving payments, decentralized assets, AI assistants, and mobile-first experiences are beginning to converge in ways that seemed impossible only a few years ago.

Being part of that evolution is exciting.

Today I'm no longer interested in hiding behind commits and repositories.

I'm interested in sharing what worked, what failed, the mistakes I made, and the lessons I learned.

If my experience can help another developer start an open-source project, avoid a mistake, or simply believe that a long-term idea is worth pursuing, then telling this story has value.

Looking back, declining that invitation wasn't necessarily the wrong decision.

It simply wasn't the right time.

Today feels different.

Today, I'm happy to finally tell the story.