Meet Matthieu Couronne, the Lead Blockchain Engineer at the forefront of innovation. A full-stack engineer with a flair for DevOps and blockchain, Matthieu ensures our platform's reliability while masterminding the smart contracts essential to our token ecosystem.

His tech journey began at 14, building and managing various MMORPG private servers and hacking video games, showcasing his lifelong knack for complex problem-solving.

Now, with a rich background in Asia's tech sector and a keen interest in finance, Matthieu thrives in fast-paced settings, prioritizing automation and remote work flexibility. Discover how his unique skill set drives the future of our blockchain services.

Can you describe your approach to blockchain engineering and the key considerations you consider when developing smart contracts for the Auki token?

My strategy began with ensuring all key team members had a clear, mutual understanding of our objectives and the scope of our initial version of the AUKI Token MVP. Given the novelty of blockchain technology and the abundance of misinformation fueled by financial hype, it was crucial to establish a realistic and achievable plan for the MVP before our Token Generation Event (TGE).

Once the team had an actionable implementation for the token MVP, a crucial step for its successful launch was establishing and agreeing on realistic key performance indicators (KPIs) for the company to monitor at launch.

Having established our KPIs and a clear vision for our initial build, the next steps involved meticulously documenting and organizing blockchain workflows. This included implementing best practices in key areas like gas optimization, upgradability, modular design, financial considerations, and security.

What are some of the most complex technical challenges you’ve faced while working on the posemesh project, and how have you addressed them?

The posemesh project presents significant challenges, particularly in scalability and maintaining a decentralized architecture:

• Our primary challenge was selecting the most suitable blockchain to leverage the posemesh network.
• While Ethereum Layer 1 holds a special place for us, its gas fees are prohibitively high for the Auki token MVP, especially given the scale we aim for.
• Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystems, still in an early phase or alpha stage, were considered. This included exploring prominent layer 2 solutions, like the newly introduced Base by Coinbase.
• Our search also extended to various sidechains, including well-known platforms like Polygon, Solana, and Avalanche.

We decided to go for Avalanche for three reasons:

1. It’s recognized as a leading sidechain in the industry.
2. It offers significant scalability potential within its subnet, which is beneficial for expanding the posemesh network.
3. The Avalanche team is known for their responsiveness and has provided excellent support to us.

Security is paramount in blockchain development; how do you ensure the integrity and security of your smart contracts?

• Mastering Solidity development best practices, focusing on security guidelines as outlined by Consensys Security Best Practices.
• Achieving extensive test coverage for all smart contracts.
• Opting to leverage existing resources rather than starting from scratch by studying and utilizing smart contract public libraries such as OpenZeppelin and Thirdweb to adapt or select specific business logic as needed.
• Conducting thorough, smart contract security audits, including an audit by OpenZeppelin.

What innovative solutions have you introduced to the posemesh project, particularly in blockchain development or DevOps practices?

I have been a part of Auki Labs' development from its early stages, contributing to various aspects. This includes establishing the infrastructure, participating in early prototyping, and contributing to initial services and clients. More recently, I have taken on responsibilities related to the project's blockchain aspect. An innovative approach we adopted was the setup of infrastructure-as-code (IaC), utilizing the latest in DevOps tooling.

How do you manage the uptime of services for Auki Labs, and what protocols are in place to handle unexpected downtimes?

• Continuously updating my knowledge of the latest DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) technologies.
• Utilizing tools for infrastructure-as-code to automate all infrastructure provisioning fully. This approach keeps the live state of our infrastructure documented in code and managed by a code management tool, allowing us to reboot the whole infrastructure easily in case of a disastrous event.
• Implementing robust monitoring and alert systems at various levels, including node, service, and cluster monitoring.
• Rigorously load-testing our infrastructure before major releases to proactively identify and resolve potential system weaknesses.

How has remote work influenced your development process and productivity when building complex blockchain solutions?

From the outset, Auki Labs has embraced a remote work culture, and I am confident that we are fully equipped to collaborate effectively from various locations worldwide. Remote work, in my view, encourages us to be more thorough and proactive in our daily tasks. It necessitates well-defined workflows, guaranteeing that everyone has a shared understanding of the problem and the expected results from our solutions.

From an engineering perspective, what is your long-term vision for the AUKI token and its underlying technologies?

I envision the posemesh network slowly moving toward implementing a trustless protocol. Due to the nature and complexity of what we are building, it's vital for us to initially maintain authority over the first iterations to ensure a positive outcome for all stakeholders.

We are exploring the possibility of building our own subnet on Avalanche, which could potentially unlock the scalability we need while making our protocol trustless.

What steps are you taking within your role to build and maintain user trust in the technology behind the AUKI token?

Being deeply involved in the crypto community since early 2017 has given me a broad understanding of the varied perspectives within different crypto communities. My focus is on maintaining a user-centric approach to developing our technology. Most projects prioritize investor performance in today's market, often overlooking the end user. Additionally, I make it a point to stay current about major developments in the blockchain sector, encompassing both the financial side and the developer world.

About Auki

Auki is making the physical world accessible to AI by building the real world web: away for robots and digital devices like smart glasses and phones to browse, navigate, and search physical locations.

70% of the world economy is still tied to physical locations and labor, so making the physical world accessible to AI represents a 3X increase in the TAM of AI in general. Auki's goal is to become the decentralized nervous system of AI in the physical world, providing collaborative spatial reasoning for the next 100bn devices on Earth and beyond.

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