Michael, founder of Pocket Network, traces his path from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to becoming a Bitcoin and Ethereum builder. Raised in the US from age two, he first engaged with finance through Occupy Wall Street and later worked at a credit union processing loans, seeing firsthand the friction of remittances and traditional banking. He discovered Bitcoin in 2013 after reading about Silk Road, buying in around 600 dollars and falling deeply into the Bitcoin subreddit and Andreas Antonopoulos's teachings. After years trying to break into tech, he became an iOS developer and, inspired by Ethereum's smart contracts, finally felt empowered to build. With three Dominican co-founders and one Colombian, he experimented with a telecom data idea before pivoting toward decentralized infrastructure, eventually building Pocket Network to address Ethereum's heavy reliance on centralized providers like Infura. Along the way he discusses Bitcoin versus Ethereum's programmability, the merits of projects like RSK and Blockstack, and how lowering barriers to blockchain development unleashed both innovation and risk.
Pocket Network's founder shares how remittance pain and Occupy Wall Street led him from Bitcoin obsession to building decentralized infrastructure.
Where does your story begin?
I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, but moved to the US when I was about two, so I'm the gringo in my family. My first exposure to finance was Occupy Wall Street in 2008, then I worked at a credit union selling credit card and car loans, reviewing over a thousand credit reports. That set me up for discovering Bitcoin in 2013 after reading a Wired article about Silk Road.
How did Occupy Wall Street and remittances tie into your discovery of Bitcoin?
I'd sent money to family via Western Union and felt that pain directly, while working at the credit union I saw the difficulties of the current financial system up close. Having played games like Neopets, RuneScape and World of Warcraft also made me comfortable with the idea of digital money, so Bitcoin clicked for me on multiple levels at once.
How did you go from buying Bitcoin and reading forums to actually working in crypto full time?
I read the whitepaper but didn't understand it technically, so I leaned on Andreas Antonopoulos's podcasts and gave presentations about Bitcoin in the Dominican Republic. I tried and failed at several businesses, eventually taught myself iOS development, and it wasn't until late 2016, after writing smart contracts on Ethereum, that I felt truly empowered to build something myself in the space.
What made Bitcoin feel out of reach for building, compared to Ethereum?
Learning Ethereum felt like when Apple released Swift, suddenly things clicked because you could see small pieces of code work rather than needing deep technical mastery. Ethereum lowered the barrier so people with general programming experience could deploy smart contracts, whereas contributing to Bitcoin Core felt completely out of reach for someone like me at the time.
Do you think there's still room for Bitcoin-based smart contract platforms like RSK or Blockstack?
I don't think that boat has sailed at all, I'm a fan of both RSK and Blockstack. There are a million experiments happening and the market will decide what succeeds. Bitcoin intentionally made building harder to preserve decentralization, but as the technology improves I think there's plenty of room for projects working within those constraints.
How did your path shift toward what you're doing today with Pocket Network?
In late 2016 I was at a startup with three Dominican co-founders and a Colombian, and after the DAO hack we started experimenting with smart contracts. Our first idea was a telecom data project called Telcoin, but through that process we realized decentralized infrastructure was a much bigger and more needed problem, which led us to Pocket.
Can you explain what Infura is and why relying on it matters?
When you refresh a wallet balance, that request goes to a server, often owned by one entity, running the actual blockchain nodes. Infura became that centralized infrastructure provider for Ethereum, and at one point upward of 80 percent of Ethereum traffic ran through it, which is a major centralization risk for a supposedly decentralized network.
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