Great idea @polymerbit - it’s nice to see an insight on how the process works
I’ve always wondered a few things …
How did you get into note making ?
Did you get into note making first and then crypto or vice versa ?
Don’t feel that you have to answer these questions if they are too personal by the way- I don’t want you to dox yourself
Anyway keep up the good work
Well thing is I've always been fascinated with money. Used to collect coins & banknotes as a child. This meant spending hours staring at patterns.
During university my passion turned into not just passively collecting, but actually contributing. There is a certain obsession in understanding how currency is made, and the details of the design process.
At the time I was trying various start up ideas, some failed catastrophically (got into trouble for mailing Gallium in the mail). At the time Adam and I already knew each other. We were experimenting with crypto mining back in late 2013. Regrettably, we gave up on that.
Around 2015 I started working with photoshop and started to really get into banknote design.
Polymerbit started as a simple uni project. I was working on a paper on how local currencies work. I was playing with all sorts of ideas, fiat, silver / gold backed (see above) and then came the idea of Bitcoin.
So I researched the topic and found out about Casascius and cold storage. The thing is, I saw that the paper wallets were so crude.
I was convinced I could design something better. So I wrote the paper, and out of boredom posted a pic on Reddit. Thats where Minerjones found me, and introduced me to Bitcointalk.
Do not worry about that, I'm very public due the fact that I handle keys. I accepted that to be a maker means no anonymity.
TL;DR:
How did you get into note making ? A: Personal Fascination
Did you get into note making first and then crypto or vice versa ? A: Technically note making first