# Polkadot-Guild Meeting Notes: 8/12/21

### Polkadot backgrounds (from the attendees)

**Jimmy:**
- did some research in college on GRANDPA
- interested in building on polkadot/kusama
- interested in investing and using DOT/KSM + interacting with the various applications (Karura, etc.)
- interested in learning more about Liquidity Providing (LP)
- interested in the forkless upgrades

**Andrew:**
- read the “Infinite Machine” book, learned about Gavin Wood through the book
- liked the idea of “What Ethereum Would’ve Been..“; began learning about polkadot as such
- interested in learning more about Liquidity Providing (LP)
- actively attends the Karura (Acala) community calls

**Dustin:**
- follows Gavin Wood; thought it was interesting to see Gavin starting own project and was drawn in this way
- likes the idea of specialized (app-specific) chains; ethereum seemed too general
- “There should be no real need to have specific language for smart contract development”
- thinks the polkadot rollout is sloooow, and seems like people are slow to getting behind polkadot because there is little-to-no functionality currently (without parachains); these parachains should come online in Q3/Q4 2021
- highly interested in defi
- obviously WORKS in the polkadot world with Gossamer and will bring a lot of technical expertise to the guild!

**Nicolas:**
- is trying to bring Cardano into the Polkadot guild and convert us (just kidding..)
- he is looking to gain deeper knowledge about the polkadot network, maybe try some rust and substrate
- he has attended the last polkadot conference (Encode)
- so far easier to understand ethereum and cardano than polkadot

**Jon:**
- interested in polkadot as both an investor and user (small amount of development interaction via chainbridge); would like more opportunity to build on polkadot
- follows Gavin Wood so naturally learned about polkadot this way
- likes interacting with polkadot/kusama at the application level and exploring all functionality of the network (though currently this is limited)
- frequently attends conferences and webinars to learn more about polkadot/kusama
- has a good friend who is an Acala Ambassador (so can bring learnings from experience with Karura)

As for everyone who could not attend, we look forward to hearing more about you and your background at the next Polkadot Guild!

And definitely feel free to add in your own background for the rest of the guild if you’d like!

###### tags: `polkadot-guild`