There are many beginnings to this.
One was Gabe setting a challenge to beat him at chess on farcaster for 10k $degen
Of course the real prize was a peek into the mind of one of the top developers in Scout Game.
I made my REAL move.
Actual 4d chess.
But there was a beginning before that beginning.
When i first learned about Scout Game.
All I knew was it was spearheaded by this dope dude called Chris Carella who is active in the nouns ecosystem: he established Purple, the nounish dao designed to proliferate farcaster ideals and values amongst many other contributions.
When you call someone earnest, you're making a statement about their motives. It means both that they're doing something for the right reasons, and that they're trying as hard as they can. PG
Chris' efforts up until scout game were earnest in the purest sense, so when i heard of his fantasy sports league, but for open source devs, where you "scout" builders by collecting their NFTs, and when they push code, contribute to repos, or ship meaningful work across the crypto ecosystem, both you and the builder earn points.....................I was in.
Ok lets get to more beginnings in a second.
I'm sure you are itching to hear from the man himself: Gabe.
@gabedev.eth (Gabriel Temtsen), a top builder in Scout Game's Preseason, with over 130+ GitHub repos, and a track record that mixes raw talent with ambition and an incredible amount of consistency.
From Rejection to Rewards
For Gabe, open source wasn't a philosophical entry — it was practical.
“What got me into OSS was the rewards. I had applied for so many internships and got nothing. I figured: if I’m not getting picked, I’ll make myself undeniable.”
Since then, he’s racked up 2,077+ contributions since 2019, won hackathons, and become a known name across ecosystems like StarkNet, Avalanche, and Celo.
“My first repo? A Jupyter Notebook from my first year at uni [2019]. I was just learning Python. From there it’s been hackathons, dev challenges, and StackUp really shaped me.”
We gave up on chess.com hosting the interview here lol. On beginnings, here's another.
From Loss to Legacy
One of Gabe’s personal projects is Memora-AI, an emotionally-driven build.
“It’s an AI that learns from a person’s conversations and creates a virtual version of them — so that after they pass, their loved ones or students can still talk to them.”
Inspired by the loss of his dad, Memora aims to also handle onchain inheritance, making sure wallets and assets get passed to the next of kin. It’s an ambitious, legally and technically complex idea — one Gabe paused due to the mental load.
“There were so many deadlocks and crazy ideas, I had to breathe. But I’ll return to it.”
Don’t Spam, Just Solve
When it comes to rising in open source (and Scout Game), Gabe’s approach is refreshingly surgical:
“Before touching an issue, I visualize the solution. I check if there’s not too much convo on it already. Then I solve it — sometimes before I’ve even interacted.”
He sends a screenshot to the issue author. If they like it, he PRs. Simple, respectful, effective.
“I don’t spam. I don’t touch issues I can’t solve. I got one Scout Game warning once — minor — but didn’t even bother to clear it because I was focused on the next.”
Fortunate for me Gabe has been bringing home the bacon for us since the first week! No doubt a strong contender for the first full season of scout game if past performance is anything to go by.
Tooling & Motivation
When asked what keeps him going:
“Source of income. Fun. And honestly — Farcaster. Being seen keeps me shipping.”
But if he could wave a magic wand and fix one problem in open source?
“Repo maintainers should be sooooo active. It kills momentum when I’m fired up to contribute and I get a reply a week later.”
Gabe is building @jazmeen on Celo — a new project in the works for launching memecoins — and is open to internships or referrals, not just points.
“I’d even prefer a job referral at this point 😹 I’m tired of rejection emails. That’s why I’m deep in OSS.”
Call me crazy but its not outside the realms of possibility that this won't be an issue for much longer.
Advice for Other Builders
He’s worked across chains — from the zk/StarkNet to mobile-first Celo. So what should new devs know?
“Be determined. Just do it. Community matters — ask questions. Docs are your friend. And AI makes things a lot easier now.”
Scout Game & Beyond
Gabe’s efforts are exactly what Scout Game is set up to incentivise and to reward: consistent impact and deep intention. As the campaign pushes toward its April 21st preseason close, builders/developers of all skill levels are reminded of the golden opportunity before us to shape the world as we would like it.
A few things you can do RIGHT NOW
Scout A Developer - depending on your budget you can asses the range of developers available and scout a few to start earning points ASAP. Low budget? Scout a low ranked developer and nudge them into doing lots of open source contributions! Once you earn scout points you can spend them on more developers.
Become a developer: there's plenty of opportunity to contribute across different ecosystems like CELO, OPTIMISM and TAIKO and earn rewards as well as build your reputation. Start by doing some open source work first, then go to your profile and submit your github profile.
Thanks for reading, consider subscribing to recieve more like it, catch you on the next.
Connect
Farcaster @papa — https://warpcast.com/@papa
Lens @papajams — https://lenster.xyz/u/papajams
Twitter @papajimjams — https://twitter.com/papajimjams
Read
PAPA: https://paragraph.xyz/@papajams.eth/farcasters-zk-anons
PAPA: https://paragraph.com/@papajams.eth/sozu-haus-hackathon
