Hi!

The last time I worked on smart contracts is almost 2 years ago so I'm definitely not qualified to give you advice now, but I hope this would be useful in some way.

I think Solidity has the most mature ecosystem of libraries/development tools, but other new languages like Vyper have that additional security/modern features which were adapted by learning from (the mistakes of) other older languages. (I might be wrong)

Solidity shouldn't be a hard language to learn, so just giving it a try and see how you feel about it could be a good option!

Hi Samuel! Nice to meet you too!

Yes, it would be nice if we can connect. 

I do have a similar experience in turning down a job. I got a job offer in the DeFi space, but I turned it down since it wasn't much aligned with what I want to do long term.

You can DM me anytime!

Hi!

I'm Daniel. I'm living in Japan and currently working on a SaaS as a CTO of a startup. I have a blockchain background as well. Specifically, I used to develop smart contracts on Ethereum. Which kind of let me to this community. I found this community through the podcast show Rationally Speaking, which I  found when Vitalik Buterin (co-founder of Ethereum) was on it.

I’m a self-taught programmer so I don’t have experience in academia but I would like to be involved in this community and academia in general.  

I'm interested in a lot of topics that are talked about in this community, but I would especially like to learn more about how academia works, and what the dynamics are like in the context of the relation to startups, scientific/technological evolution, and evolution of society in general.
I was born in Canada and moved to Japan when I was one year old, so I'm looking forward to being involved with the LW community in Japan as well!