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

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 Kintaro Capital. He graduated medical school and worked in paediatrics in South Africa, and he also held key positions at prestigious organizations, such as COO at Deutsche Bank, Global Managing Partner at Accenture, and Managing Partner Digital Strategy & Transformation Lead at EY. Mervyn also advises various projects in the blockchain and business world including Slock.it, D33p.org and Cyberian Mine. Mervyn Maistry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-mervyn-g-maistry-65b435  Konfidio: https://www.konfidio.com  Kintaro Capital: https://kintarocapital.com  Also mentioned in this episode: Yuval Harari: https://www.ynharari.com  Many thanks to our advertisers who support this podcast! CoreLedger is a blockchain-based peer-to-peer transaction infrastructure provider. It enables businesses to document, tokenize and trade any type of assets in a reliable and flexible environment. CoreLedger makes anything transactable, literally anything. To learn more about CoreLedger’s technology and how you can transform your business onto blockchain, visit https://www.coreledger.net. The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, sign up for the newsletter on https://www.theblockchainandus.com.

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 Procivis, which provides citizens government-trusted digital identity solutions built around the safeguarding and self-sovereignty of personal data. He is also the Co-Founder of Trust Square, and the Co-Founder of Verum Capital. Before turning blockchain entrepreneur, Daniel has worked in major Swiss banks for more than 20 years, starting as an FX trader at Credit Suisse, and in his last role at UBS, he served as the Managing Director to the office of the Chairman of the Board. Daniel Gasteiger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gasteiger  Procivis: https://procivis.ch, https://twitter.com/ProcivisAG  Trust Square: https://www.trustsquare.ch, https://twitter.com/Trust_Square Vetri: https://vetri.global, https://twitter.com/vetri_global Verum Capital: https://verum.capital Also mentioned in the episode: Lucas Betschart @ Bitcoin Association Switzerland: https://www.bitcoinassociation.ch/board-1, https://twitter.com/lucas_lclc Kaspar Korjus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasparkorjus, https://twitter.com/kasparkorjus Many thanks to our advertisers who support this podcast! 21 Lectures’ mission is to bring more developers to the Bitcoin ecosystem with in-person courses. Lectured by world-renowned Bitcoin and Lightning developers, courses teach participants the fundamentals to work with blockchain technologies. To learn more visit http://www.21lectures.com. CoreLedger is a blockchain-based peer-to-peer transaction infrastructure provider. It enables businesses to document, tokenize and trade any type of assets in a reliable and flexible environment. CoreLedger makes anything transactable, literally anything. To learn more about CoreLedger’s technology and how you can transform your business onto blockchain, visit http://www.coreledger.net. The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, sign up for the newsletter on https://www.theblockchainandus.com.

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, Jan was a Principal Research Staff Member at IBM Research Zurich, where he lead the Privacy & Cryptography research team and was a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. Jan is a leading scientist in the area of privacy and cryptography, he has published over 120 widely cited papers, was granted about 140 patents worldwide, and has received a number of awards for his work. Jan Camenisch: https://jan.camenisch.org, https://twitter.com/JanCamenisch, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan_Camenisch Dfinity: https://dfinity.org, https://twitter.com/dfinity Many thanks to our advertisers who support this podcast! 21 Lectures' mission is to bring more developers to the Bitcoin ecosystem with in-person courses. Lectured by world-renowned Bitcoin and Lightning developers, courses teach participants the fundamentals to work with blockchain technologies. To learn more visit http://www.21lectures.com. The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, sign up for the newsletter on http://www.theblockchainandus.com.

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 skill, why empathy and human interaction are at the core of infrastructure technology that keeps humanity human and keeps people connected, and much more. Anne is passionate about harnessing blockchain technology to transform the lives of people in developing countries, and she is Faculty at Singularity University at NASA Ames in Silicon Valley & SingularityU Canada, where she teaches global leaders how exponential technologies can solve problems that impact over a billion people. She has been an active part of the global blockchain community since 2012, working with and advising notable companies including Jaxx, Ledger Labs, and Bunz, and she is currently the Vice Chair of the board of Blockchain Canada. She previously worked with Doctors Without Borders Canada in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and currently serves on their board of directors. Anne has a Bachelor of Life Sciences from Queen’s University, an MBA from McMaster University, and a Fintech Certificate from MIT. She was honoured as one of CBC’s 12 Young Leaders Changing Canada and one of the Fifty Most Inspirational Women in Technology in Canada. Anne Connelly: https://www.anneconnelly.ca, https://twitter.com/Anne_Connelly, https://medium.com/@anneconnelly, https://ca.linkedin.com/in/anneconnelly Anne at Singularity University: https://su.org/about/faculty/anne-connelly  Also mentioned in the episode: Article by Laurie Penny "Four Days Trapped at Sea With Crypto’s Nouveau Riche": https://breakermag.com/trapped-at-sea-with-cryptos-nouveau-riche Cryptochicks: https://www.cryptochicks.ca Blockgeeks: https://www.blockgeeks.com  Many thanks to our advertisers who support this podcast! This episode has support from 8GR8 story-driven media. 8GR8 is a media production company with a focus on telling engaging stories about new technologies and the future with films, interviews, podcasts, and other media that make an impact. To contact 8GR8 and learn more about using story-driven media for your project, visit https://www.8gr8.com.    The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, sign up for the newsletter on https://www.theblockchainandus.com.

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 Labs, an open source blockchain research lab. She studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, works on cryptography research and was the Head of Education and Executive VP at Blockchain at Berkeley where she founded the Education Department. She has taught the world's largest university accredited blockchain course, and she is a mentor at She(256), a movement to increase diversity and break down barriers to entry in the blockchain space. Aparna Krishnan: https://github.com/aparnakr, https://twitter.com/aparnalocked, https://medium.com/@aparnalocked, https://www.linkedin.com/in/aparna-krishnan Mechanism Labs: https://mechanismlabs.io, https://github.com/Mechanism-Labs, https://medium.com/mechanism-labs  She(256):https://www.she256.io, https://twitter.com/SHE_256  Thiel Fellowship: https://thielfellowship.org  Blockchain at Berkeley: https://blockchain.berkeley.edu, https://twitter.com/CalBlockchain Blockchain at Berkeley YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5sgoRfoSp3jeX4DEqKLwKg/videos  Also mentioned in the episode: Manush Movahedi: www.cs.yale.edu/homes/movahedi, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3iOahLIAAAAJ&hl=en  Elaine Shi: http://elaineshi.com, https://twitter.com/ElaineRShi  The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, sign up for the newsletter on http://www.theblockchainandus.com.

Phil Zamani speaks about his blockchain projects Aergo and Blocko, the blockchain ecosystem in South Korea, differences between open source in Linux and blockchain technology, why blockchain consortiums might fail, why there are still few production systems live on blockchains, how non-software companies can go about getting started with pilot projects, what he learned from working with large corporations on blockchain projects in South Korea, why data needs to be shared to be most valuable, IOT pilots on blockchains, and much more. Phil is the chairman of the AERGO Foundation and co-CEO at Blocko, Korea’s largest blockchain infrastructure provider. He has over twenty years of experience in managing open-source businesses and has worked as senior VP at Deutsche Telekom’s cloud business unit, VP of sales and business development at RedHat, and as Global Head of Big Data & cloud models at Banca Santander. Phil Zamani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philzamani, https://twitter.com/ZamaniPhil Aergo: https://www.aergo.io, https://twitter.com/aergo_io Blocko: https://www.blocko.io, https://twitter.com/BlockoInc Phil's article on parallels between Linux and blockchains: https://medium.com/aergo/drawing-a-parallel-between-linux-and-blockchain-160f79ca74e6  The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, sign up for the newsletter.

Tone Vays speak about his approach to technical analysis of the bitcoin price, why other cryptoassets can't reach Bitcoin, relevant time frames for analyzing the bitcoin price, which companies in the blockchain space make sense, ICOs (mostly why they don't make sense), Bitcoin as a working example of decentralization, proof of work, real assets on the blockchain, starting his own business, what would happen if Bitcoin went away, getting information about cryptoassets from podcasts and YouTube, comparisons between Wall Street and the crypto Wild West, worst case scenarios for Bitcoin, misunderstandings of Bitcoin, why he loves being an educator, role models, knowing when to quit a job, ethics in the crypto space, and much more. Tone is an independent content creator focusing on economics & finance at LibertyLifeTrail with his own YouTube channel and podcast. Before that, he has worked on Wall Street for almost ten years starting as a Risk Analyst at Bear Stearns where he had a front row seat watching its collapse in the 2008 crash and he later became a vice president at JP Morgan Chase. Tone is famous for his technical analysis of Bitcoin and his price predictions, and he was recently featured in the Bitcoin Documentary Magic Money. Tone Vays: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tone-vays-a5243899/, https://twitter.com/ToneVays Liberty Life Trail: http://www.libertylifetrail.com Byzantine Generals Problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Generals%27_Problem Andreas Anatonopoulos: https://antonopoulos.com, https://twitter.com/aantonop Saifedean Ammous' book The Bitcoin Standard: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36448501-the-bitcoin-standard Jimmy Song: http://programmingblockchain.com, https://twitter.com/jimmysong Lei Freeman-Shor's book The Art of Execution: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26512908-the-art-of-execution The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, just go to www.theblockchainandus.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Michael Sidler speaks about how blockchain technology and ICOs impact venture capital, how he analyzes investment opportunities in the crypto and blockchain space, characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, why he prefers "movies to snapshots", the importance of a good network, which themes in the blockchain space he finds most interesting, tokenizing portfolio companies and VC funds, how VCs compete with ICOs, new business models that blockchains enable, what's missing in most white papers, what entrepreneurs misunderstand about rolling out their ideas, how the dot.com bubble compares with the ICO frenzy, and much more. Michael Sidler has co-founded Redalpine Venture Partners in Zurich/Switzerland in 2007 and acts as General Partner for Redalpine Capital I, Redalpine Capital II and Redalpine Capital III. Before Redalpine, Michael was responsible for corporate investments and M&A at Prionics, a Biotech company in Switzerland. From 1998 to 2003, Michael was with The Boston Consulting Group as a Consultant and Project Leader in eBanking, Insurance, Automotive, and other domains. Michael Sidler has a PhD in Life Sciences from University of Zurich. He is a member of several organizations, juries and boards for the support of innovation and startups (Venturekick, Technopark Zurich, Swiss Startup Finance), a coach for the Swiss governmental program Innosuisse, and he leads the VC chapter of the Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association (SECA). Michael Sidler: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sidler, http://www.twitter.com/michael_sidler Redalpine Venture Partners: http://www.redalpine.com, http://www.twitter.com/redalpine Many thanks to our advertisers who support this podcast! This episode is brought to you by Descartes Finance. Descartes is the leading Swiss digital wealth manager, providing its products and services to individuals, family offices, charitable organizations, banks, and asset managers. Its investment strategies lead the way. They harness the latest know-how as only a digital investment advisor can. To learn more, please visit www.descartes-finance.com.