Today’s my last working day at as an active contributor to the Lido DAO, as I head towards a (imo well deserved) break. I intend it to be at least 3 months long but colleagues are already betting against me sitting still and doing nothing. So, what did I learn working for Lido? 1. Lido secops and due diligence is second to none. These guys are very very careful about security, and are very very involved folks when it comes to Ethereum protocol level discussions. This sets them apart from any other liquid staking middleware or a service provider; sure you’ll do your opaque deals with some random centralised entity, but then these entities have no idea how to run a node, or how Ethereum works, or even share the values Lido has on topics like decentralisation. 2. Culture. The technical heart of Lido is borne out of a lived experience under an autocracy and ideals like decentralisation are woven into every conversation, every discussion, and are a common underlying theme. This is something absolutely nobody else can boast, save maybe rocketpool. 3. Lido’s going to be growing up, maturing beyond just staking. My job at Lido, I felt, was to show them possibilities. Over many months I bombarded them with ideas, some good some bad, and some may even become big beautiful protocols… and may our paths one day cross yet again. 4. I learnt a lot at Lido. I think as a technically savvy person with a deeply technical background, it was a great opportunity to hone my skills of topics _around_ technology. These are life lessons I’ll carry with me proudly. Now, my decision to take a break comes from the fact that I do actually need a break. I moved countries, finished a very technical masters, an emotionally challenging phd, worked a regular job in a totally different field, went into crypto, built protocols, survived hacks, covid, new defi base layer lego protocol, etc. Man. I need a break to catch my breath. I’ll be spending the time studying wtf Strategy means, working on my own product, and finally getting back to the growing backlog of books that have been staring at me for years. Secondly, I felt that at my current capacity, I gave it my all. It is now up to other contributors to take carry my torch and instil fresher ideas. Now with all that said, I’m incredibly proud to have had the opportunity to see, what I consider to be “the most important defi protocol in existence”, how it works internally. From my vantage point, i learnt an immense amount of details and that’s a gift that keeps on giving.