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To my surprise, Furio wasn’t just on the peninsula. He was standing on the runway next to a sleek black car whose model I didn’t recognize, wearing a slate-gray suit with a silver tie and matching cufflinks. He greeted me like I was the best part of his day, with a warm hug and kisses on the cheeks that almost sent me into a fit of giggles.
“Would you like to relax before visiting the office?” he asked as we were driven away from the airport. “I am sure the trip was taxing.”
“I’m more refreshed and relaxed than I’ve ever been in my life,” I replied honestly. “No point in wasting time. I’m eager to get to work.”
“I am eager to see what you can do as well,” he said, dark eyes gleaming.
As we drove into Rome, Furio pointed out buildings and statues along the way. He seemed to know a little bit of information about everything. There was the street corner where Emperor Otho announced his coup against Emperor Gaiba. There was the square where the anti-fascists attempted to assassinate Mussolini in 1938. There was an alley which contained the facade from a Roman bath.
While listening to him regale me with information about the ancient city, I couldn’t help but admire the way Furio exuded confidence. It wasn’t the same kind of confidence that Owen possessed. This was more seamless, like it was something Furio had possessed since he was a child. It was the confidence I imagined a Prince to have. His birthright.
He is the grandson of a Duke, after all.
The car finally pulled up in front of a large neoclassical building made of tan stone and with tall, ornate windows. The sign above the entrance saideTodo, the name of the company. I stepped out of the car and saw that the street was paved in cobblestones, and there was a steady stream of pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk. It was mid-morning, and Rome was awake and conquering the day.
I followed Furio into the building, which had a more modern interior than the outside might have suggested. It was smaller than ACS, and the floorplan was more traditional rather than being open. But I knew the small size of the office was deceiving. I had done my research on the flight, and this company was rapidly expanding. They would need a new location soon, especially if they integrated with ACS’s exchange.
Furio led me down a hallway and into a large conference room occupied by one large conference table. All ten employees ofeTodowere present, and all but one of them were men. Moreover, I noticed that the average age was higher than at most Silicon Valley companies. Everyone looked to be in their forties.
Furio addressed the room in Italian, sweeping his arm out toward me in a grand introduction. The employees smiled and dipped their heads politely, and a few mumbled words of greeting.
Up until now, I had taken this part of the trip for granted. Seeing Furio occupied a majority of my excitement. It was easy to forget that I was here to give consulting advice to another crypto company. And as a nerdy coder girl, I wasn’t good in front of groups.
Why did they have to gather everyone in here at once? I thought I would be speaking to one or two coders!
“Hello, everyone,” I said awkwardly. “How are you?”
A few of them frowned and looked around. Nobody responded to me. That’s when I realized something obvious:none of them spoke English. And why should they? This was Italy, after all. Suddenly I wished I had spent more time on the plane learning a few basic Italian phrases and less time soaking in the bath.
Furio sensed my alarm, because he snapped a finger at a man next to him who I hadn’t recognized. The man had gray hair tied back in a small ponytail, and he cleared his throat and spoke a few words in Italian. When he was done, he looked to me, waiting.
Oh. An interpreter.
“My name is Amber Moltisanti, and I’m the senior engineer at Advanced Crypto Solutions, a company based in San Francisco. I’m here to take a look at your scaling problems.”
The interpreter relayed my words to the room. More heads nodded agreeably. Then they went around the room and made their own introductions individually. I couldn’t possibly remember every name and title, but one man who stuck out was Edoardo. He was the Chief Technical Officer, and was at least twenty years my senior. He spoke gruffly, and had his arms crossed over his chest like he wasn’t happy at my presence.
When the introductions were complete, Furio asked Edoardo to give me a brief explanation of their current roadmap. The dour-looking man didn’t bother standing up, and spat out his words like it was beneath him. The interpreter translated it for me one sentence at a time. It was all redundant to what I already knew, though. Before coming on the trip, I had reviewedeTodo’sroadmap and infrastructure plan, as well as the details of their scaling problems.
When he was done explaining, everyone looked at me. Waiting to hear what I thought about this.
“It is a good plan,” I said diplomatically, “but only for a smaller amount of daily traffic. It must be changed in order to handle more customers.”
“And how are we supposed to change this?” Edoardo asked through the interpreter.
“Well…” I swallowed hard. I hated giving bad news. “The roadmap must be thrown out. You have to start over from scratch.”
As soon as the interpreter relayed my statement, Edoardo barked a laugh. “We are not starting over. Not after all the work we have done.” He looked around the room for agreement. Most of the othereTodoemployees nodded.
“The problem is that by using the core blockchain infrastructure,” I explained, “you’re limited to the max transaction size of each block. The only way to accommodate the rise in traffic is to implement side-chain solutions on your own dedicated servers. That way you can internally manage every transaction during the spikes, and slowly feed them back into the primary blockchain later. And with your own side-chain infrastructure, you can scale it up easily.”
The people around the table frowned in thought. Absorbing the words the interpreter had given them. One by one, I saw them realize that I was right. That a side-chain solution was the only way to continue growing at such a rapid pace.
Edoardo had that same moment of realization. He looked like he had received shocking news, and stared off at nothing, eyes flicking back and forth as his mind processed the information.
Then the look was gone, and he stubbornly dug in. “A side-chain requires rebuilding our entire platform,” he said.
“That is correct,” I replied apologetically.
