Sam Padilla
The fantastic future that awaits
Last updated on Aug 5, 2024
Currently
AI is the most impactful technology of our time, and getting it right the biggest challenge of our generation. To me this means, chiefly: ownership, governance, and fair value accrual.
Everyone, regardless of background or affiliation, should have a chance to own, shape, and benefit from this technology. This requires tools and mechanisms to allow anyone to get involved in building models and partake in the value created.
A technology created by humans for humans.That is the future I am working for at Eidon AI.
About
- Born in Colombia, raised in Brazil. Moved to the US for college
- Computer Science graduate from Morningside University in Iowa
- Currently living in Austin, Texas
- Played tennis for 17 years, almost went pro, burnt out, and now I climb
- I speak English, Spanish, and Portuguese
- Always reading, writing, and thinking at the intersection of philosophy, economics, technology, and society
- Moderately obsessed with the statue of the thinker
Previously
Google Cloud Web3
PM & Engineering
I was part of the founding team of the Web3 team at Google, joining as the second engineer. We had the peculiar mission of figuring out what it meant to "do crypto" at a company like Google.
Throughout the 2.5 years in the team, I spread my time across solutions engineering, validator operations, and product management. I spun up a mantained the first official Google validator, reaching around 14 validators by the end of my time at Google. I also led the development of a new Ethereum validator product as the product manager and contributed to several open source projects in the process.
ATX DAO
Governance and Policy Contributor
I joined ATX DAO in the winter of 2021. ATX DAO is an organization dedicated to advancing the city of austin via crypto. The DAO promotes events to connect the crypto communities of Austin, enables businesses and artist to leverage crypto, and educates the local government on web3.
Some of my biggest contributions to the DAO were re-designing the governance system and being heavily involved in our policy attempts to pass a DAO law in texas. I was inolved in the drafting of the proposed law, educating policmakers, and testified in front of the Texas congress a couple of times.
Retention Insights & Steven Mentor
Co-Founder and CEO
Steven Mentor was my first company started during my sophomore year of college. It was an education company helping immigrants adapt to the U.S. and break into the American job market. I ran Steven Mentor for two years, participating in several fellowship and accelerators, and raising short of $50k in grant prizes. We reached over 100 students across our programs in the two years I led the company.
Retention Insights was a job and student satisfaction data collection software I built my senior year of college and ended up commercializing. We closed semester-long contracts with 2 universities and 3 local manufacturing companies, reaching over 1,000 users total. We had built a gamefied survey system that was achieving 50% higher completion rates than the national average. We had offers to extend our contracts by the time my graduation date came, but I decided to shut down the company and join Google upon graduation.
Awards & Stuff
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2023: Forbes 30 Under 30 Austin
Part of the first class of local Forbes 30u30 for the city of Austin. Recognized for my contributions to blockchain and crypto policy
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2022: Austin Inno 25u25
Featured in the Austin Inno inaugural 25u25 list for my contributions to blockchain and policy.
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2020: Future Founders Fellow
The Fellowship is a prestigious year-long cohort that accelerates the development of the top 18 to 30-year-old entrepreneurs in the nation. Fellows benefit from mentoring, skill development, entrepreneurship retreats, a peer community, and volunteer opportunities through Future Founders programs. Recognized based on my work with Steven Mentor.
Writing
- 2024 Feb 14 The Future of Sovereignty
- 2024 Feb 17 The New Digital Town Square
- 2023 Apr 18 On Unconscious Living
- 2023 Mar 28 Why Crypto Changes Everything
- 2021 Dec 07 When Intermittent Fasting Goes Wrong
- 2021 May 04 The Morality Scale
- 2021 Aug 23 When Words are Not Enough
- 2021 Aug 28 The Justification of Desire
Highlighted Tweets
For several months, I've been working with @sunnydece and others at @MessariCrypto to advance the discussion of blockchain decentralization beyond @balajis's original Nakamoto Coefficient paper.
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) June 1, 2023
I am so excited to finally share this!
A quick 🧵
(1/12)https://t.co/ldpGB7xUCL
People don't understand the magnitude of this. @ATXDAO today became the first DAO to ever help draft, push, and PASS a bill through an official government chamber.
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) May 12, 2023
We still have to go through the senate but regardless of what happens there, history was made today. pic.twitter.com/7v0gs1KTKC
Never underestimate the role of luck in your journey and career. And maybe use that as a motivator to build a world where even more people get lucky.
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) August 9, 2023
Excited and honored for this recognition.
Lots of people to thank for this one.
Even more work to do.https://t.co/cpTTLJBDZF pic.twitter.com/7CR9oqcH3t
Holy fucking shit.
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) May 15, 2024
I just walked from Soma to Hayes Valley through Market St and easily sketchiest walk of my life.
And dude I grew up in Brazil and Colombia. I've walked real sketchy shit before. Doesn't even compare.
Felt like a scene straight out of the walking dead.
Sad.
This Friday, after 2.5 amazing years, my time doing Crypto at @googlecloud will be coming to an end.
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) May 21, 2024
I will join @peter_van_toth to build the future of Decentralized AI at @eidon_ai.
A couple things I want to share.
🧵 1/5 pic.twitter.com/vMrfjytbpm
Hey @VitalikButerin @drakefjustin & other @ethereum folks, go google "the merge" for a fun little surprise & appreciation.
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) September 9, 2022
Everyone is so excited for what is coming and appreciative of the work that has been going into this for years. pic.twitter.com/3bgifV6Ywn
Okay, we need to talk about Hetzner banning @solana nodes.
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) November 2, 2022
I monitored the infrastructure decentralization of Solana throughout all of August via a tool that I built.
~40% of Solana validators live on hetzner, adding up to ~20% of total network stake.
A thread 🧵
(1/10) pic.twitter.com/obsVUlQE50
If you poke enough, you'll realize that many crypto startups are trying to remove the intermediaries so ~they~ can become the intermediary.
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) January 21, 2023
The whole Google Cloud Web3 team is so so so so excited to break this:https://t.co/lgROMdm5TP
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) April 25, 2023
We are starting a startup program full of Web3-specific benefits for Web3 startups.
DM me if you wanna come to our startup-specific events this week in Austin! 🤠🚀
Excited to share that the @googlecloud Eigen Layer mainnet operator is up and running!
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) April 9, 2024
Congrats to the @eigenlayer team on a successful mainnet launch.
Excited for what is coming!https://t.co/4wcotltiBu
I have been initiated.@badkidsart @StargazeZone 🫡 pic.twitter.com/o2tNPiUUIy
— Sam Padilla (@theSamPadilla) June 3, 2024