The Blockchain and Us: Conversations about the brave new world of blockchains, cryptoassets, and the token economy

Brian Fabian Crain speaks about building Chorus One and the podcast Epicenter, one of the first podcasts in the crypto and blockchain space, the hallmarks of a good podcast about technology, his beginnings in the blockchain space at Monax, Tendermint, and Cosmos, how Cosmos enables the Internet of blockchains, the key role of validators on Cosmos, the reality of governance, how blockchains enable new forms of collaboration on a global scale, and much more. Brian is a Berlin-based economist...

Johannes Schweifer speaks about his company CoreLedger, the mechanics of tokenizing physical assets and overcoming the gap between physical assets and the digital world, current use cases of tokenized assets, legal and regulatory aspects, why you can't compare the blockchain era to the Internet era, best jurisdictions for running blockchain projects, and much more. Johannes is the Co-Founder and CEO of CoreLedger, which is building blockchain-based enterprise solutions that allow existing...

Mervyn Maistry speaks about founding and running Konfidio, a venture studio in Berlin, blockchain uses cases that are ready today, why blockchain technology is a seminal technology, the meaning and merit of decentralization, misconceptions about blockchains, why big corporations can't run blockchain innovation hubs, gender and race bias in VC investing, the philosophy of the future, and much more. Mervyn is CEO and Founder of Konfidio, a blockchain venture studio in Berlin, and Chairman of...

Andrea Bauer speaks about spotting waves of change as an innovation consultant, research through discussion, applying critical thinking to new technologies, how technologies introduce conflicts, possible side effects of blockchains, the evolution of trust and why "trustless" is BS, why we need a purpose-centered discussion, how reading philosophy helps develop critical thinking, and much more. Andrea is an innovation consultant, strategic advisor, krypto economist, and author on digital...

Daniel Gasteiger speaks about his company Procivis, providing government services on blockchains, why it's too early to put personal information on blockchains, his blockchain co-working space Trust Square in the financial center in Zurich, his transition from working at Credit Suisse and UBS to being an entrepreneur in the blockchain space, his ICO with a new approach to full KYC and AML, what every blockchain startup could do to raise their game, and much more. Daniel the Founder & CEO of...

Alexis Gauba speaks about co-founding she(256), mentoring and teaching blockchain literacy, starting points for people with an interest in blockchain technology, how students can make the best of the available programs in blockchain education, teaching coding to underrepresented minorities, her current research questions at Mechanism Labs, the importance of usability in blockchains, how to design interdisciplinary research projects, and much more. Alexis is a Co-Founder of she256, a...

David Wachsman speaks about founding and running Wachsman, the role of public relations and the media in the blockchain space, misconceptions clients have about PR and communications, ways to tell stories about blockchain projects to get attention, the power of good content, why it's so important to hire the right people when growing a company, intersections of blockchains with other disruptive technologies, security tokens, and much more. David is the founder and CEO of Wachsman, a leading...

Preethi Kasireddy speaks about the information problem on the Internet and how her company TruStory combats it, how messed up incentives lead to false information that hijacks our minds, why active participation in the information we consume leads to better thinking in life, why changing one's mind is good, the most important skills for entrepreneurs, and much more. Preethi is the Founder and CEO of TruStory, a platform for users to discover and validate claims that people make online,...

Jan Camenisch speaks about being the Head of Research at Dfinity, how industrial research at a blockchain company differs from academic research, what it takes to build Dfinity into "The Internet Computer", important research questions in the blockchain space, the most important skills for success in research, and much more. Jan is Head of Research at Dfinity and Director of the Dfinity Zurich Research Lab, and he also serves on Sovrin's Technical Governance Board. Before joining Dfinity,...

Niloo Ravaei speaks about learning and teaching skills of developing blockchain applications, stories that draw people into the blockchain space, why blockchain technology empowers people, examples where token economics creates incentives, combating technostrategic discourse, who should take blockchain programming classes, living in a blockchain bubble, how to advocate and think critically at the same time, parallels between the Internet age and the blockchain age, skills for the future,...

Lucas Betschart speaks about bringing more developers into the Bitcoin ecosystem, being the president of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland, the anatomy of Bitcoin open source projects, managing the tension between ideology and commercial software development, why too many things in the crypto and blockchain space make no sense, why it is hard to build a business model around Bitcoin, why he doesn't like Ethereum and other blockchains, how market downturns affect the development of Bitcoin...

Anne Connelly speaks about using blockchain technology to make a social impact and why very few projects actually use the technology in practice, teaching blockchain technology to executives at Singularity University, stories and tools to convince people of the merits of blockchains, how she advises companies, bro culture in tech and why diversity and respect are important in the blockchain space, hopes and fears of the future of blockchain technology, why coding should be an essential...

Jason Goldberg speaks about building OST, how apps with millions of users can tokenize, how market conditions affect blockchain adoption, unrealistic assumptions and anti-narratives in the crypto space, advantages for software companies to build token models into their products, why the hotmail moment for blockchain technology might happen in 2019/20, why some tech firms fail to see the threat of blockchain technology, keeping a balance between technology and real life, the importance to...

Toni Lane Casserly speaks about her project Cultu.re and her goal to create a new notion of community, how identity could be the foundation for a new form of governance, the role of the media and why much of crypto and blockchain coverage is advertising in disguise, the concept of holocracy and universal basic education, political liberation through cryptography, why she doesn't read the news, anarchy vs. voluntaryism, self-mastery, and much more. Toni Lane is a core founder at several...

Aparna Krishnan talks about her research company Mechanism Labs, mentoring women in blockchain at She(256), dealing with the bro culture in the blockchain space, her experience growing up under Internet censorship and how it shaped her interest in cryptography, building up the education department at Blockchain at Berkeley, what she observed teaching introductions to the technology, takeaways from her Thiel Fellowship, and much more. Aparna is a Thiel Fellow and the co-founder of Mechanism...

Don Tapscott speaks about his vision of a new social contract for the digital age, the coming transformation of physical assets into digital, why leaders of old paradigms are cynical about change, why privacy is not dead but the most important foundation of freedom, portable forms of digital identity, downsides of the digital age, universal basic income, why there's nothing wrong with government but with bureaucracy, the crisis of democracy, education and media literacy, why the tech...

Monique Morrow speaks about The Humanized Internet, self-sovereign electronic identity and credentials on the blockchain, her plans for a personal digital lockbox, ethics in technology, how she avoided the innovator's dilemma as Services CTO of Cisco, why decentralization and trustless consensus might be a myth, where blockchain technology fits in with other deep tech, how small countries like Switzerland can keep up with the global tech arms race, China's plans to become the AI leader in...

Matthew Allen speaks about his work as a business reporter in the Swiss crypto and blockchain space, fascinating angles of crypto projects in the press, how human stories trump tech stories, how he makes sure he's avoiding writing about scams, filters to deal with the deluge of information, how entrepreneurs can get coverage for their projects, how building in stealth mode helps projects get media attention, why the story of "being the first" no longer works in the blockchain space, merits...

Ryan Yi speaks about conducting investment research and due diligence at CoinFund, metrics he looks at in new investments, financial models for valuing tokens and projects no tokens, the concept and facets of generalized mining, how it aligns stakeholders but also has a dark side, how generalized mining changes the function of crypto investment funds, how many decentralized projects need central planners at the beginning, if blockchain products are public goods or not, and much more. Ryan is...

Tony Tao speaks about his blockchain research and investment company X-Order, the beginnings of Bitcoin in China, how complexity theory explains tokenomics, how data influences venture capital, how blockchains create value by creating niche demand, the value proposition for decentralized exchanges, what he looks at in due diligence when investing, China as a location for blockchain projects and why it will be the most innovative space for token economics in five to ten years, his definition...