Meet MELD — Christiaan Steenkamp

Human Resources Manager 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

5 min readNov 11, 2022

*Christiaan Steenkamp —* *LinkedIn Profile*

Welcome to Meet MELD

This is a series to provide some insight and understanding of the faces behind the MELD team. We have a vast range of engineers, designers, economists, advisors, and researchers from all parts of the world including the United States, Norway, Sweden, Vietnam, Japan, and Canada, and with more partnerships, new team members, and advisors joining the MELD team, this list just keeps on expanding and getting better!

Continue reading to find out about Christiaan’s role with MELD…

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❓ Questions and answers…

Christiaan Steenkamp— LinkedIn Profile

Christiaan is a dynamic individual focusing his efforts on Human Resources. He is experienced in the finance industry and has a keen interest in people, disruptive technologies, and is always looking for new and innovative ways to improve the workplace.

What’s your job position at MELD + what do you do for MELD?

I am the HR Executive for MELD. I ensure that all operational functions run smoothly. My main goal is to make work as much fun and easy as I can for everyone. I strive to provide our employees with the best experience.

I am also responsible for the recruitment and hiring of new employees. I work closely with the management team to identify staffing needs and develop a recruiting plan that meets those needs. I also interview candidates and make hiring recommendations to the management team.

What did you do before working with MELD?

I used to do HR admin work for a small company here in South Africa. I was primarily focused on Labor law and dealing with union disputes.

But, I really loved numbers and finances, so I tried to shift my career in a direction that would tickle that part of my brain. To do this, I took on a second job as a Financial advisor for one of the largest financial institutions in South Africa called Discovery. There I was in charge of sourcing clients and helping them with their financial planning.

They launched a digital banking platform while I worked there and it was quite revolutionary. In short- they incentivized good spending/saving habits by issuing tokens that can be redeemed for discounts, etc. They called it behavioral banking. I really didn’t like the sales part of that job, but I learned a lot about traditional finance, and right then and there I knew we had to change the banking industry. This lead me down the banking rabbit hole, and that is how I eventually discovered MELD!

When did you first get involved in crypto?

My father introduced me to crypto in 2015. He told me that I can sell, Hodl, or trade it. I opted to trade the crypto. I then started to look into newer projects built on various chains. I really liked the philosophy of Cardano and I tried to become a stake pool operator for the network. I quickly found out that it can become expensive and time-consuming if you want to do it correctly.

What do you like the most about crypto?

I love how crypto is decentralized and how it gives people the opportunity to take control of their own finances. I also think that crypto has the potential to change the way we interact with the internet and I am really excited to see how it develops in the future.

I also love the excitement of buying crypto with the hope of it going up in value. I’m a bit of a degenerate in that sense. I also love exploring the dark allies of the crypto space. Finding new and exciting projects feels like finding a hidden treasure!

Do you have any predictions on where crypto will be 5 years from now?

I don’t think crypto is going to be as mature as we would like it to be (a bit pessimistic, I know). I think that a lot of projects will not be around and only projects with real value and vision will be there in the future. That is why I am here at MELD, I want to be a part of the projects that will be around in 5 years.

What do you like doing outside of crypto and MELD?

I am a musician in my free time. I can play Guitar, Piano, Banjo, and Ukulele. I also enjoy projects around the house. I like turning normal home devices into smart devices with a RaspberryPi. I also have two cats that I consider to be my kids. I love playing with them and watching them do stupid things! 😺

MELD — Be Your Own Bank

We think it’s essential for everyone to gain control of their financial lives and have equal access to financial instruments used by professionals, not just centralized institutions, governments, or the 1%. We want to provide financial freedom and control to the masses, including the unbanked.

We have a long-term goal to enable the $15 trillion that is currently locked out of the global economy, including 2 billion individuals worldwide that are either underbanked or have no access to banking services whatsoever, access to these tools. These are the people that are paying the highest fees, and getting the worst customer service, and they are the ones that are having the most problems.

Our vision is to create an ecosystem that empowers individuals to regain financial control by providing them with the tools and services they need to manage their money on their terms. Whether that be creating a collateralized debt position (CDP) with cryptocurrency, earning an interest return for lending fiat to borrowers, or even participating in reward incentive programs, we strive to provide our users with the functions they need to manage their own financial lives.