Pieland’s lead engineer Bonfire chats about Pieland, pickleball, and PC games
Bonfire has been a software engineer for more than 20 years in the web and mobile spaces before diving into NFTs. He is the creator of LiveToken, a tool used to evaluate deals for NBA Top Shot. Bonfire talks with us about turning code into poetry, scary smart contracts and Octopies, and preventing his kid from becoming a Bitcoin boss.
You’re well-known in the Web3 space for launching LiveToken. What is LiveToken?
I built LiveToken to notify people, particularly myself, whenever someone was selling an NBA Top Shot moment that was a good deal. (Moment NFTs are licensed NBA collectibles sold through NBA Top Shot, an NFT marketplace.) So for instance if someone is selling a LeBron Top Shot debut for $3,000, but LiveToken values it at $5,000, it’ll send an alert to buy the NFT. I’m a huge basketball fan. So when I first started buying NBA Top Shot moments, I wanted a tool to help cut some of the inefficiencies around the valuation and buying process. LiveToken took off from there.
There’s a lot of LiveToken fans here wondering who you are. Why did you choose to stay anonymous?
LiveToken is like the Kelley Blue Book for NBA Top Shot, and as such it’s a really useful service. On the flip side, some people challenge that LiveToken may under or over value a Top Shot NFT. Even if it’s just a small group of haters, it’s better to stay anonymous. Now that I’ve been anonymous as Bonfire for so long, it’s sort of weird to identify myself.
I’ve been asked if I’ll remain anonymous once in-person Web3 conferences start coming back. Right now, I’m not sure. We’ll just have to wait and see.
What do you like about working on Pieland?
I feel like we have good people leading the project, and the art is really good. It’s cool to hear people on our Discord saying they love the art and their kids love the art, and that it’s become a thing that the dad and the kid enjoy together. As a dad, that’s very cool to hear.
Why did you become an engineer?
I like building and creating things. When I code, it feels like I’m building something out of thin air, kind of like a designer building in their woodworking shop. It’s also fun to challenge myself to make my code look good visually. When I’m in a real flow, it feels good to make my code read like poetry. Sometimes I’ll go back and look at my work months later to add features or fix bugs, and it’s nice to look back and see that it’s well written.
A lot of times I’m writing code for myself that goes unnoticed. But when people see my code on a website or app, and especially if it’s something people enjoy using, that’s just a bonus for me.
You’ve worked as a software engineer and built apps in the past 20 years. How’d you get into blockchain technology?
Back in 2013, I went down to the basement one morning where I have a bunch of gaming computers setup and the room was really hot because my son was using my computers to mine bitcoin. I shut that down after he mined less than 0.2 BTC, but a few months later I read Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper and found it really intriguing from the social and financial perspective. I got interested in cryptocurrency from there.
You still have your gaming PCs?
Yeah. But I’m too busy to play any games right now. A while back ago I got really into a game called PUBG, a player vs player shooter game, and played every night for a couple months. More recently, I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about Elden Ring, an action RPG, so I may try it out if I ever get the time.
How is Web 2.0 different from Web 3.0 for a software engineer?
You know, it’s a lot harder to write code for the blockchain. Once you put your code on the blockchain, it becomes immutable and that’s super scary. Inevitably when you write code, you have to change it because there’s bugs or you need to add features. I don’t know any Web 2.0 software engineer that doesn’t modify code after release. That’s unheard of.
There’s been a lot of NFT projects that have failed because there were bugs in the smart contract.
How have these projects failed?
Most NFT projects are supposed to mint NFTs randomly. But sometimes the smart contract gets hacked, so suddenly it shows what’s coming next and people will only mint the “good ones.” Other projects have had vulnerabilities in the smart contract which have allowed people to mint hundreds when the code was set to only allow a handful of NFTS to mint. The project just tanks from there.
The Ethereum blockchain has a test network, but it’s difficult to test what hackers might do in the real world. As an engineer it’s customary to get in there and fix bugs in real-time, but when you can’t modify a smart contract once a project has launched, then it’s super scary.
I made the Pieland smart contract an “upgradeable” contract to allow for correction or bugs post-mint. I was a bit nervous once Pieland started minting. From a technical standpoint, Pieland’s mint went smoothly, but it was nice to know I had the ability to make changes if that was needed. We are seeing more and more upgradeable smart contracts coming out, and smart contract technology getting better. This whole space is super interesting to watch as it grows.
What do you do when you’re not doing Pieland or LiveToken stuff?
I’m really into pickleball. I played a tiny bit three years ago, but got more serious last summer when the sport started really getting more popular. Pickle is the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. I’m a pretty active tennis player and I played a lot of table tennis growing up, and pickleball is a good hybrid between table tennis and tennis. Pickle is pretty social and you can play a lot longer because it’s less taxing than playing three sets of tennis with one opponent. I like to play doubles because it’s more fun because there are different strategies.
What is your favorite kind of pie?
Definitely pecan. I’m from the South. It’s a southern thing.
Which is your favorite Slice of Octopie?
I like the Piesons. Even though they’re the most plentiful of the Octopies, they have the cutest traits. The Zompies are cool, but they scare me a little with their half-eaten brains. Same as the Vampiers, with their blood-stained mouths. I prefer the traits of Piesons with all their accessories. I care more about which ones look cool more than the rarity of the Octopie.
Which is your favorite Octopie that you own?
I minted a bunch personally, and I didn’t get anything super rare or any 1 of 1s. I have friends who also minted much fewer than I did, and got luckier than me. But I have this one Pieson with a gold basketball, and it just looks really cool.
