Helmut Siedl, a pioneering figure in the blockchain industry, has dedicated over a decade to decentralization and privacy-centric technologies. His journey began in 2013 when a quest for a video card for gaming unexpectedly led him to the world of cryptocurrency. Successfully investing in Litecoin, Siedl soon enriched his portfolio with DMD Diamond, where he became a key investor and advocate for its community-driven approach.
Siedl's commitment to genuine decentralization has been pivotal in the evolution of DMD Diamond, positioning it as a foundational layer in the future blockchain economy. Beyond DMD, he is the founder of blockserv, a company that supports blockchain projects, and co-founder of lab10, which focuses on decentralization and privacy.
In this exclusive interview, Siedl reflects on his personal and professional evolution, from his early investments to his current role as Chief Visionary Officer at DMD Diamond. He shares insights into his motivations, lessons learned, and his unwavering belief in the potential of decentralized finance, offering a compelling narrative of resilience and innovation in an ever-evolving industry.
What initially drew you to the world of cryptocurrency in 2013, and how did that moment shape your career trajectory?
In late 2013, I couldn't buy a video card for my PC because they were sold out due to crypto miners. I learned about this new technology and was surprised how a nerd like myself was able to miss it. So, I joined as an investor, someone who read and understood the Bitcoin whitepaper, and believed in the impact this technology can have on mankind.
Could you recount the journey of your first investment in Litecoin and how that led you to discover DMD Diamond? What factors influenced your decision to invest in DMD despite its status as an abandoned coin?
I did feel pressured to quickly decide which cryptocurrency could replicate the success of Bitcoin. Despite being a blockchain “noob”, I was clever enough to understand that Bitcoin was nearing its peak value, so investing in it at that time would not be a good idea. I chose Litecoin as the second-best option at the time. Then, a few weeks later, with a lot more research, I did move all invested value from litecoin towards dmd diamond as, for me, it was the true hidden gem with big potential (that it was abandoned a second time wasn’t clear to me that point as it was somehow revived by a greek dude where we did believe he just did what was right - spearhead a community takeover)
As one of the earliest investors in DMD Diamond, what insights convinced you of the project's potential during its formative stages?
When the community found out that the Greek guy wasn't involved with good intentions, but only for a buy-dead-coin-revive-and-earn stunt, we were shocked. However, because we were so involved in the community's development and believed in the idea of a decentralized coin with innovative features that encompassed all known improvements of Bitcoin, we decided to step in and take over from the Greek guy. He handed over the GitHub access and was happy to no longer be responsible for driving the community forward. That was when we started to have an impact on DMD Diamond's evolution, and we began designing the v2 upgrade.
Reflecting on your 11-year involvement with DMD Diamond, what key milestones have defined your journey, and how has your role evolved over time?
I started with v2 in 2014, then moved to v3 in 2017, and finally transitioned to development start of v4 in 2018. Throughout these versions, the coin's economic design, technology, and feature selection have remained largely unchanged, with a few essential parts kept constant.
The maximum number of DMD coins is fixed at 4.38 million and has never increased. The coin rollout for each iteration has been adjusted to be longer and more sustainable. With v4, we have finally found ways to achieve the seemingly impossible - a total maximum coin limit combined with an endless coin rollout and reward system for validators who secure the blockchain.
DMD Diamond is recognized as one of the oldest community-driven blockchain projects. What challenges have you encountered in sustaining a decentralized and community-centric model?
It has always been clear to us from the start that a truly decentralized blockchain can never be owned by a company; it is always owned by the network participants. However, this has created issues for us; we had a hard time speaking for DMD Diamond, making negotiations with exchanges, and so on. So, for the first few years, we referred to our core community group, which dedicated time and private funds to advance DMD Diamond, as the "DMD Diamond Foundation," even though it was never a legal entity. We used c-name titles for our team members to indicate their responsibilities within the group. This approach backfired, and it took us many years. With the launch of DMD Diamond v4, we can finally move away from this incorrect structure. DMD Diamond is now truly being propelled forward, and governance is in the hands of a DAO. Every coin holder with 100+ DMD coins can now impact decisions through delegated staking support, the voting power of a validator, or by running a validator node and participating in DAO governance decisions.
We developed our own DAO framework to be less complex but more closely linked to the core ecosystem logics.
That's why our ecosystem is most likely the only one in which the DAO owns all of the layer 1 core contract logic, and no one can upgrade a single line of code without DAO approval.
There is no company, no pre-mine, and no ICO involved in this project like in Bitcoin. It is one of the few truly decentralized projects. In comparison to Bitcoin and the DAO, we are already one step ahead in terms of how governance decisions can be made. I personally think that giving governance power to a single, overrepresented group (miners) through the flagging of mined blocks for decisions on Bitcoin is not ideal. We believe that coin owners should have the most impact, and that's how our DAO works.
Can you detail your contributions to the various iterations of DMD Diamond, particularly from v2 to the anticipated v4 release? What innovations are you most eager to unveil?
V2 focused on extending the coin rollout from 8 years to over 45 years, transitioning from a flat line to a model similar to Bitcoin's constantly decreasing rewards over time.
V3 ( our biggest error) focused on masternode technology as the foundation for future services running on a blockchain. However, we learned that major chains using masternodes did not want to add additional features on top of this technology. As a result, after polling the community, we decided to have a full-scale technology relaunch for V4.
V4 is based on Ethereum-like EVM smartcontract able core logic which finally gives us the ability to act as a base layer1 for any kind of blockchain project that can be smart contract coded. BUT we were aware we needed to add something new to the table to earn our right to be one of the many layer1 pillars that build the foundation of the future heterogene interoperable blockchain landscape. So we choose to be the world's first layer1 that integrates honeybadger hbbft cooperative consensus logic into an EVM-able blockchain. This combination provides us with several industry-first features and, for some use cases, offers an advantage that can benefit projects using this edge over those using another EVM chain.
How has your experience with DMD Diamond shaped your investment philosophy regarding other blockchain projects? Do you prioritize community-driven initiatives in your strategy?
My first three years as an investor and also as one of the core people behind DMD Diamond were a series of lessons learned and a test of a never-give-up mindset.
My success as an investor same as with DMD Diamond came by working hard analysing projects and focusing on infrastructure layer1 needs as the core element in my portfolio. Iron rules I gave to myself like never sell at a loss average down as long as I still see the potential in the project still there was the base of my success. Yes, I hold now many worthless coins because I never sell at a loss. Still, yes, I accumulated more and more coins from successful projects and chose not to sell them out of fear of a crypto winter. I kept averaging down and increasing the amount of coins so much that the successes far outweighed the bad investments in the following crypto summer. To judge projects I invest in ones that provide utility (preferred layer1 or multichain abilities) and I got in touch with the team and got a feeling of how serious and how skilled they are was my main secret. Always try to get in touch with a team that helps to avoid scams and empty projects where nothing is behind. Open source allows us to easy be able judge if there is really development going on at projects. That simple tactic as an investor did guide me well through 2 metacycles and I am on the best way to a good 3rd cycle in 2025.
What unique features and innovations does DMD Diamond plan to introduce to the layer-1 blockchain landscape, and why do you believe they are significant?
Dynamic blocktimes, instant final transactions, improved random numbers creation logic, front running prevention logics, and because of cooperative consensus logic, the nonexistence of microforks/orphans/uncles. This combined with our radical decentralized and Dao-focused approach, is our niche where we think for some projects, we are the number 1 choice to build on top. This feature combination together with full EVM abilities, is unique on the layer1 landscape and will make us the proper choice for true decentralized and innovative projects to build on top.
As DMD Diamond approaches its mainnet launch, what are your expectations for the project's impact on the blockchain ecosystem? What future developments do you envision?
After the mainnet launch, our primary goal is to be supported by multiple upcoming decentralized multi-chain protocols. This will allow projects on our chain to interact across chains, utilize stablecoins, and transfer their tokens to and from our chain and other chains, enabling them to use the most suitable blockchain as a base for their ecosystem logic. We do not position ourselves as Bitcoin or Ethereum "killer". Instead, we see Bitcoin, Ethereum and ourselves as parts of a heterogeneous, interoperable, multi-blockchain future, existing side by side.
What guidance would you offer to aspiring blockchain entrepreneurs seeking to establish truly decentralized and community-driven projects? What lessons have you gleaned from your own experiences?
The ultimate decentralized and scaleable future is more layer1s more multichain protocols can be added. As more demand will be upcoming there will never be a point where we can't scale as a whole to fulfill the needs. If one layer 1 can't do that, 10 can, if 10 can't 100 can, if 100 can’t 1000 can, and so on. In a decentralized way, the whole fate of blockchain space cannot be hard-linked as layer 2 towards one central middle chain (that's a Neanderthal evolution branch I'm afraid, and suggest not to base your projects on layer2s).
Community-driven projects should not gather funding before working but rather gather people and visions and work on it together. Funding will come once people see the work is done and our visions match each other. Some can contribute time, some skill, and some donate funds, but be careful you don't gather it in the wrong order.
Work always comes before success! And luck will never outweigh dedication in the long term. Luck can be seen as a statistically proven factor; the longer the timeframe, the less impact it has.
