you've probably used @MetaMask hundreds of times but do you know who actually built it? two guys, Dan Finlay(@danfinlay) and Aaron Davis (Kumavis). the interesting part is neither came from a traditional computer science background. Dan studied English Literature, worked as a portrait artist, chess coach, even a balloon twister. he learned programming because he wanted to build a fart synthesizer lol. Aaron studied Japanese and wanted to become an interpreter. he was also into video games and taught himself coding by reading and modifying other people's code. they met in 2013, worked on an open-source Minecraft clone, and eventually started experimenting with Ethereum. back then even connecting a website to Ethereum wasn't straightforward. Aaron initially built a complicated account manager, basically a browser inside a browser. then they simplified the whole idea into a browser extension. that's how MetaMask launched in July 2016. and the fox? Aaron chose it because he associated it with independence, cleverness and self-custody. 10 years later, MetaMask has crossed 100 million downloads. funny how two guys from completely different backgrounds ended up building one of the most recognizable tools in crypto. and it all started with trying to make @ethereum usable from a browser.