Humans of the Open Web Sandbox: Claudio Cossio: The Rise of a PioNEAR Guild Leader
This edition of Humans of the Open Web Sandbox, spotlights a success story of one of the most fascinating characters that make up the NEARverse today — Claudio Cossio (or Claudio AC, in the NEAR/OWS Discord). Claudio is the Lead of the NEAR Hispano Guild, composed of Spanish speaking tech professionals working in promoting, supporting, and educating the next generation of crypto builders and creators from Latin America and Spain.
While having started his career as a crypto amateur, it did not take Claudio long to find his way into the crypto space that was stacked with countless opportunities:
Next to being a savvy crypto enthusiast, Claudio is a multifaceted person; he is in love with the ocean, surfing, snorkeling, and kayaking. He defines traveling as one of the greatest joys in his work, but also enjoys writing posts for SoftwareGuru, Hackernoon, WWWhatsnew and recording the SaaS Product podcast. These activities are fueled by his belief in the power of networking and finding common ground with others.
These talks create space for new ideas opening up a window of opportunity where everyone can jump in. When multiple people from different backgrounds come together, magic happens. This is what Claudio liked about the OWS — you come here and start chatting. Within a couple of hours you are working on a cool project with a like-minded person from the other part of the globe. Networking opportunities within the Sandbox are just unbelievable.
Entrepreneurship Guru
Claudio did his masters in Entrepreneurship in the Judge Business School of Cambridge University, which he states helped him understand the global venture capital landscape. Being an early-stage advisor, Claudio is closely involved in the entrepreneurship sector, working with start-ups such as Mapillary — a computer vision company that was sold last year to Facebook. Creativity and profound leadership skills empowered Claudio to cooperate with tech companies building products and solutions on top of Atlassian. His long-term vision and passion for innovation led him to be an investor in a crypto fund that went south. Luckily for him, it got him into ETH/BTC which led him to discover NEAR at its coin launch through Coinlist.
The OWS: A Gateway to the Guilded Age of NEAR Protocol
When participating in the Coinlist sale of NEAR tokens, Claudio realized the huge potential of the Proof of Stake mechanism NEAR has adopted. He started closely following Stakewars and then joined the Shard Alliance discord community where he met NEAR enthusiasts for the first time.
Claudio’s favorite thing about working in the Sandbox, and in the NEAR environment in general, is its community and individuals. They get together to support each other forming an inclusive incubator space. The Open Web Sandbox is the best place for individuals looking to start their own Guild or to contribute to the NEAR ecosystem. That is exactly what Claudio has done in less than two months.
“For me it was one of the best interactions with a blockchain community and made me realize that any effort invested in the NEAR Community would benefit not only me but other people in the Spanish speaking region. A big plus was having a clear definition of what the ecosystem found valuable, through a simple reward system that made it clear that the community values individual contributors as well as group efforts.”
Claudio came to the Sandbox with the idea to build the launchpad for Spanish speaking projects and initiatives, bringing the NEARverse closer to the Latin America and Spanish region. He started engaging actively with the Sandbox, translating existing documentation to Spanish, organizing webinars for students and professors and bringing in more fresh developers.
Claudio’s first interaction with the NEAR Ecosystem was through the Sandbox, where he got to meet other Sandboxers. He believes that the Sandbox helps filter out the noise and guides its members to understand who are the makers and builders around the NEAR Ecosystem, serving as a point of reference. This navigable ecosystem was the final push forward for him to make the proposal to create his own NEAR Hispano Guild.
Life after Graduating from the OWS?
After his dedicated interest and consistent effort in the Sandbox, Claudio successfully “graduated” from the Sandbox, to join the Guilds Program and launch his own NEAR Hispano Guild. Nowadays, Claudio is engaged in several initiatives, like the educational area with Sherif Abushadi, organizing NEAR Certified Developer Bootcamps. In collaboration with the NEAR core member Ross Gates, Claudio also builds and launches experiments in the growth area that aim at increased engagement:
As for Sandbox, he envisions it growing further into a global platform that brings all kinds of builders and creators together.
Become a member of the OWS and let yourself be enamoured by its community, filled with people like Claudio, who aspire to build decentralized, interoperable and eco-friendly Web3 space. See you there, our prospective Sandboxer!
• Credits for the picture: Hugo Tobio
For more information on Claudio Cossio follow @ccossio on twitter, @claudioac on discord, @ClaudioAC on telegram. If you want to know more about the Hispano Guild and what they do, you can check out their webpage: https://www.nearhispano.org/
If you would like to know more about Sandbox: https://nearguilds.com/sandbox/
To get started on the Sandbox, Jump into Discord: https://discord.gg/SjyJbpnUfh
