Web3 Watch

Dfns is a cybersecurity company providing wallet infrastructure for Web3. Dfns is powered by an MPC-based decentralized key management network that eliminates all single points of failure and trust through the wallet lifecycle and provides built-in recovery mechanisms as well as bank-grade error-and-attack-resilience leveraging Tier 3+/4 data center partners.

Join Dfns’ Founder, Clarisse Hagège, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on July 5, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Dfns’ products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Dfns and its products
  
• Biggest threats to Web3 wallet security 
  
• Role of single point of failure and single point of trust in wallet security 
  
• Upcoming announcements or launches.
  
• Dfns’ vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Nillion is a public network based on the invention of a novel cryptographic primitive, Nil Message Compute (NMC), which represents a generational leap in decentralized technology and Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC). Its unique node operation has significant implications for data, security, privacy, and interoperability.

Join Nillion’s Chief Scientific Officer, Miguel de Vega, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on June 7, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Nillion’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Nillion Network and the vision behind it
  
• How does Nillion’s decentralized multi-party computation work?
  
• How Nillion’s decentralized computing is different from existing cloud computing solutions? 
  
• Nillion’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

As the internet grew, it incorporated Web 2.0 models that tracked and sold user data, and access to information became restricted in certain areas. The development of Web 3.0 and decentralized networks like Ethereum are now enabling users to freely explore the internet while safeguarding their privacy. Orchid, a privacy network, offers its users enhanced digital privacy. An EVM layer 2 payment solution, Orchid’s bandwidth marketplace provides the necessary tools for a more open and unrestricted Internet.

Join Orchid’s Head of Product, Travis Cannell, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on May 17, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Orchid’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Orchid and its products
  
• How Orchid’s decentralized VPN and payment solution work?
  
• How Orchid is different from existing Web2 VPN services?
  
• Orchid’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

A Fox Entertainment Web3 media company, Blockchain Creative Labs (BCL) enables creators, IP owners to build tokenized digital economies around their own content and brand ecosystems. 

Join BCL’s CRO, Tommaso Sandretto, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on May 3, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss BCL’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About BCL and its products
  
• How BCL enables creators to distribute and monetize their work?
  
• Benefits of tokenization for creators
  
• BCL’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Pastel Network is a fully decentralized, developer-friendly layer-1 blockchain serving as the preeminent protocol standard for NFTs and Web3 technology. Pastel infrastructure enables existing layer-1 blockchains, decentralized applications, or third-party enterprises to protect creators and collectors. From digital collectibles & media to documents & applications, users and developers are able to certify asset rareness and truly store data forever. 

Join Pastel Network’s Co-founder, Anthony Georgiades, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on April 19, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Pastel’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Pastel Network and the vision behind it
  
• How does Pastel Network’s purpose-built blockchain for NFTs work?
  
• How Pastel Network’s blockchain is different from existing blockchains? 
  
• Pastel Network’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

dm3-protocol is an end-to-end encrypted decentralized messaging protocol with focus on encryption, decentralization, and interoperability. Dm3 is currently building a web3 messaging solution in consensus with different communities (like ENS) and protocols (like Common Ground) to connect existing and new messaging solutions.
Join dm3’s CEO, Steffen Kux, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on April 5, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss dm3-protocol’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About dm3-protocol and its products
  
• How does dm3’s messaging protocol work?
  
• Why build using dm3-protocol?
  
• dm3’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Evmos is bringing the world of Ethereum-based applications and assets to the interoperable networks of the Cosmos ecosystem, all while aligning developer and user incentives. Let’s adventure together into the world of innovation where EVM meets interchain composability.

Join Evmos’ Co-founder, Nic Z, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on March 1, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Evmos products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Evmos and its products
• How does Evmos’ cross-chain development work?
• Why build for the Evmos ecosystem?
• Evmos’ vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Creators, brands and agencies transact over $300B a year in IP licensing, but it’s slow, costly and inefficient. Spaceport is accelerating the growth of the next digital economy by building tools for creators, brands and agencies to monetize their intellectual property. With a mission to break down the real-world limitations of IP, Spaceport offers a universal licensing catalog that enables greater deal velocity and provides exposure to the metaverse vertical.

Join Spaceport’s CEO, Le Zhang, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on February 15, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Spaceport’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Spaceport and its products
• How Spaceport’s IP licensing for creator works?
• How Spaceport’s IP licensing is different from current IP regime?
• Spaceport’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Unlock is a protocol developers, creators, brands, and platforms can use to create time-based memberships. Unlock’s goal is to ease implementation and increase conversion from users to members, creating a much healthier monetization environment for the web. Unlock is open-source, collectively owned, and community-governed.

Join Unlock’s CEO, Julien Genestoux, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on February 1, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Unlock’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Unlock Protocol and its products
• How does Unlock membership as NFTs protocol work?
• Why choose Unlock over conventional subscription management solutions?
• Unlock’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Polygon provides the tools and infrastructure needed to build and scale your decentralized project. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building multiple types of applications. Using Polygon, one can create Optimistic Rollup chains, ZK Rollup chains, standalone chains, or any other kind of infra required by the developer.

Polygon effectively transforms Ethereum into a full-fledged multi-chain system (aka Internet of Blockchains). This multi-chain system is akin to other ones such as Polkadot, Cosmos, Avalanche, etc with the advantages of Ethereum’s security, vibrant ecosystem, and openness.

Join Polygon’s CISO, Mudit Gupta, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on January 18, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Polygon’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Polygon and its products
• Why choose Polygon over others
• Different initiatives from Polygon for developers
• Polygon’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

A Web3 CRM, Kazm uses AI to power web3 communities. Kazm organizes on-and off-chain data to make it universally accessible and useful, and help projects acquire, engage, and reward members.

Join Kazm’s Founder, Ben Turtel, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on January 4, 2023 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Kazm’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Kazm and the vision behind it
• How does Kazm’s CRM work?
• How Kazm is different from existing web2 CRMs?
• Kazm’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Kalder is a unified web3 tooling platform for brands and creators to drive meaningful engagement, onboard new users, and reward communities of super fans. Kalder is reimagining the future of brand engagement with web3 –– mobilizing communities powered by dynamic NFT memberships, Contribute-to-Earn Experiences, and Interoperable $Brand-Loyalty Rewards.

Join Kalder’s Founder, Gökçe Güven, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on December 21, 2022 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Kalder’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Kalder and the vision behind it
• How does Kalder’s brand loyalty solution work?
• How Kalder is different from existing web2 brand loyalty solutions?
• Kalder’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Koii is building a decentralized publishing protocol and Web3 library. The protocol and tools Koii is implementing will allow for a robust ecosystem. The Koii ecosystem will provide grants for developers to take advantage of Koii tools that allow verified data and content, and new models for content monetization. Built on Arweave.org's permaweb, Koii is censorship resistant and highly scalable with no gas fees.

Join Koii Networks’ CEO, Al Morris, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on December 7, 2022 at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Koii’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Koii Network and the vision behind it
• How do Koii’s publishing protocol and Web3 library work?
• How Koii is different from existing decentralized publishing platforms such as Mirror
• Koii’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Quadrata is a passport network focused on building an identification and compliance layer for DeFi apps. Its goal is to become the standard infrastructure providing the compliance and identity layer for DeFi applications. Smart contract apps will be able to access the KYC/AML status, country of residence, credit reputation, and accredited investor status of Quadrata passport holders.

Join Quadrata’s CEO, Fabrice Cheng, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on Nov. 16, 2022, at 9:00 am ET. In this session, they will discuss Quadrata’s products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Quadrata and the vision behind it
• What’s Quadrata Passport and how it works?
• How Quadrata passport is different from existing KYC solutions
• Quadrata’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Many people cannot access debt markets simply because they do not meet the criteria set by banks. Various new forms of debt platforms, such as peer-to-peer lending, have emerged, but they have so far not been successful in providing an option to those already excluded from the traditional financial system.

Umee is a permissionless, autonomous rate algorithm built as a blockchain that is pioneering the next generation of globally accessible financial markets. As a base layer blockchain, applications and money lego primitives can be built on top of Umee to access cross-chain leverage, liquidity, and debt instruments. The Umee Blockchain facilitates interoperability between the Cosmos ecosystem, Ethereum, side chain architectures, layer-2 scaling solutions, rollups, and alternative base layer protocols.

Join Umee’s Founder and CEO Brent Xu in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on Nov 2, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss Umee’s product portfolio and the company’s vision for the decentralized financial ecosystem.

LTD.INC partners with iconic artists, creators, and brands to launch ultra-rare physical and digital NFT collections and experiences. LTD.INC’s limited-edition drops are designed to exist in real life, on the blockchain, and in the metaverse—bridging the gap between the physical and virtual economies across the worlds of art, design, fashion, lifestyle, luxury, music, and sports.

Join LTD.INC’s Founder and CEO, Daryl Kelly, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on Oct. 19, 2022, at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss LTD.INC’s NFT products and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About LTD.INC and the vision behind it
• LTD.INC’s on-chain and off-chain NFT-related offerings
• Challenges in building a unique on-chain and physical business model
• LTD.INC’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Philanthropy has become a hot topic in the crypto community, especially given recent events. This year, crypto philanthropists rallied to support causes like Ukraine’s sovereignty and the protection of reproductive rights. Endaoment, a nonprofit, facilitated crypto support for these causes by enabling donations to pre-vetted organizations in more than 1,000 different cryptocurrencies.

As the first fully on-chain 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Endaoment manages and encourages the charitable giving of digital assets. It is also about to become the world’s first DAO-governed 501(c)(3). Thereby, the organization is laying the groundwork for future nonprofits to implement DAO governance while remaining compliant with US nonprofit regulations.

Join Endaoment’s President and CEO Robbie Heeger in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on October 5, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss Endaoment’s recent work to support crypto philanthropy and its impending DAO launch.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Philanthropy in the crypto community
• Supporting Ukrainian sovereignty and the protection of reproductive rights through community funds
• Implementing DAO governance for nonprofits
• Challenges of complying with US nonprofit regulations
• Endaoment’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

DeFi is changing how we do banking. Though mainstream adoption of the technology has been slower than expected, DeFi has the potential to deliver seismic shifts in the global financial system through continued innovation and its user-centric banking system. Based in Sydney (Australia), Synthetix is building a new financial primitive that enables the creation of synthetic assets, offering unique derivatives and exposure to real-world assets on the blockchain.

Synthetix is an open-source, DeFi protocol based on the Ethereum blockchain and powered by its SNX token. The project allows users to create their own “synthetic” assets. These assets act like derivatives; investors can gain exposure to assets like gold, Bitcoin, and Euros without having to actually own them.

Join Synthetix Founder, Kain Warwick, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on September 21, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss Synthetix’s DeFi protocol and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Synthetix and its vision
• What are ‘synthetic assets’ and why do they matter?
• Why build a decentralized derivatives liquidity protocol against current banking models?
• Challenges in building a decentralized DeFi protocol
• Synthetix’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Usability and composability are two key components of the Web3 ecosystem—that’s what NEAR Protocol is building. NEAR is a sharded, proof-of-stake, layer-one blockchain that is simple to use, secure and scalable.

Join NEAR Protocol’s Co-Founder, Illia Polosukhin, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on September 14, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss the NEAR Protocol ecosystem and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• NEAR Protocol and its ecosystem for blockchain devs
• Different initiatives that the NEAR Protocol team is working on
• Challenges that Web3 faces today
• NEAR Protocol’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Athletes, entertainers, and creators have discovered unprecedented ways to reach their fan bases and monetize their work using blockchain. A Web3 project is working to further bridge the gap between creators and consumers through its purpose-built marketplace designed for creators.

Calaxy is an open social marketplace built for creators, by creators. ‍On Calaxy, creators can offer more direct and intimate experiences to their fans through a suite of familiar and new features. By using cutting-edge blockchain technology, Calaxy's in-app experience is secure and seamless, putting the modern fan at the center of the action.

Join Calaxy’s Chief Strategy Officer, Rusty Matveev, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on Sept 7, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss how Calaxy is revolutionizing the creator economy.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Calaxy and the vision behind the project
• Current challenges in building a sustainable and decentralized creator economy
• Why blockchain is crucial for building a decentralized creator economy
• How creators are leveraging Calaxy’s marketplace
• Calaxy’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Push notifications are common in Web2 businesses but it’s not as simple when it comes to dApps. Creating opportunities to interact with users across chains is a challenging task given the lack of interoperability among chains. EPNS.io allows dApps to send notifications to users (wallet addresses) in a platform-agnostic way (mobile, tablet, web, fav. wallets, etc) that helps solve the issue of interoperability.

Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) provides dApps with a blockchain-based push notification service based on its communication protocol. Its services are chain-agnostic, platform-independent, and incentivized.

Join EPNS’ founder, Harsh Rajat, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on Aug 31, 2022, at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss the importance of cross-chain communication and EPNS’ vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Vision and overview of EPNS
• Why build a push notification communication protocol?
• Challenges in building a push notification system on blockchain
• EPNS’ vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Nodes are an inherent part of blockchain application development. However, running a node can be complicated and an additional burden for early-stage projects. GetBlock, with a team of less than 10 full-time members, is working to take that pressure of running a node off the shoulders of Web3 builders.

GetBlock provides a fast and easy API connection to full nodes from 40+ leading blockchain platforms. It allows you to request on-chain information from a node without the need to set up one manually with JSON-RPC, REST, and WebSocket.

Join GetBlock’s Chief Business Development Officer Aziz Amer Tash in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on August 24, 2022, at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss the different node types GetBlock provides and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• GetBlock and the vision behind it
• Why choose GetBlock over running your own node?
• Different types of nodes offered by GetBlock
• GetBlock’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

User privacy is one of the biggest concerns related to centralized messaging platforms. Despite repeated assurances of end-to-end encryption from companies like Meta—WhatsApp’s parent company—users remain skeptical of the security promises made by centralized authorities. Satellite.im, a Web3 project, is working to change that.

Satellite.im is a P2P chat and voice & video calling app hosted on IPFS. The project claims end-to-end encryption based on an IPFS file sharing protocol. The app also supports cross-platform operation, 4K video streaming, and easy file sharing, and it also plans to introduce payment options soon.

Join Satellite.im’s Founder, Matthew Wisniewski, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on Aug 17, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss Satellite.im’s decentralized messaging app and its vision for the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Satellite.im and its vision
• What is multi-platform decentralized messaging and why does it matter?
• Why build a decentralized messaging system against current apps such as WhatsApp?
• Challenges in building a decentralized messaging app
• Satellite.im’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Blockchain is touted as a technology capable of completely revolutionizing the global economy with its sustainable, transparent, and decentralized foundation. However, its complete potential has yet to be realized.

Washington-based think tank The Digital Economist is working to bring to the fore investable opportunities for a new human-centered digital economy based on sustainability, transparency, decentralization, individual privacy, and radical collaboration.

Join The Digital Economist Founder and CEO, Navroop Sahdev, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on August 3, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss The Digital Economist’s initiatives for the Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About The Digital Economist
• Vision behind The Digital Economist
• Current challenges in building a sustainable and decentralized economy
• Why leverage blockchain to unlock the next phase of growth in the global economy
• The Digital Economist’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

The current blockchain ecosystem has redefined application development but is still considered monolithic when it comes to flexibility. For example, a blockchain cannot be deployed without the overhead of bootstrapping a new consensus network.

Celestia is the first modular blockchain network. It is a pluggable consensus and data availability layer that allows anyone to deploy a decentralized blockchain quickly, enabling a deployment process with minimal overhead.

Join Celestia Labs’ Developer Relations Engineer and Developer DAO’s Co-founder, Nader Dabit in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on July 27, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss Celestia Labs and Developer DAO’s initiatives for the Web3 ecosystem.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• About Celestia Labs
• What is a modular consensus data network, and why does it matter?
• Challenges in building the first modular consensus network
• The vision behind Developer DAO
• Celestia and Developer DAO’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem

Cloud computing is dominated by big tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM and is considered to be an investment-intensive sector. However, a Web3 project is disrupting the industry with the next generation of scalable decentralized cloud infrastructure.

Flux offers a scalable decentralized cloud infrastructure that allows you to develop, manage, and spawn your applications on multiple servers at once. Flux provides the critical, high-availability infrastructure for Web3 projects. Its ecosystem consists of Fluxnodes' decentralized infrastructure, the FluxOS cloud operating system, a Zelcore self-custody multi-asset wallet, a blockchain app suite, and the Flux blockchain for on-chain governance, economics, and parallel assets to provide interoperability with other blockchains and DeFi access.

Join Flux’s Co-founder & CSO Daniel Keller in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on July 13, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this interactive session, they will discuss how Flux is disrupting a market dominated by big tech.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• What is decentralized cloud computing and why does it matter?
• The vision behind Flux
• Other tools of the Flux ecosystem such as Fluxnode, FluxOS, the wallet, and the blockchain suite
• Challenges in building a decentralized cloud computing network
• Flux’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem
• What’s next for Flux

Opponents of traditional blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum complain that the former is slow while the latter’s gas fees are overbearing. In recent years, many alternative blockchains have emerged that claim to be faster, cheaper, and more secure for dApp development. One such blockchain firm is Fantom Foundation.

Fantom is a smart contract-supporting blockchain platform powered by its native FTM token. Fantom launched on mainnet in December 2019. The foundation says it is committed to providing technology that combines scalability, decentralization, and security.

Join Fantom Foundation’s CEO Michael Kong in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on July 6, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this interactive session, they will discuss how Fantom Foundation supports dApp builders in creating next-generation decentralized applications.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• What is Fantom?
• Why choose Fantom?
• What is a leaderless consensus mechanism?
• Fantom’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem
• What’s next for Fantom Foundation

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are one of the most revolutionary concepts to be successfully implemented using blockchain technology. Smart contracts are used to operate DAOs. Their financial transactions and rules are stored on a blockchain, eliminating the need for a centralized governing authority—hence the terms "decentralized" and "autonomous." In other words, they are member-owned communities without centralized leadership.

MANTRA DAO is one of the most successful DAOs. It is at the forefront of providing DeFi services such as staking and lending, among others. MANTRA DAO is a fully integrated ecosystem of decentralized financial services that is built on interoperable technologies and controlled by its users collectively. Its governance mechanism is predicated upon a digital token called OM that allows its holders to participate in decisions that affect the parameters of the system.

Join MANTRA DAO and SOMA.finance’s Co-Founder, Will Corkin, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on June 30, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss DeFi, DAOs, and how MANTRA DAO & SOMA.finance are working to bring new innovations to the global financial ecosystem.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• The story behind MANTRA DAO and SOMA.finance
• DeFi services offered by MANTRA DAO and SOMA.finance
• Challenges in building decentralized organizations
• MANTRA DAO and SOMA.finance’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem
• What’s next for MANTRA DAO and SOMA.finance

Bitcoin has come a long way since its debut in 2009. Bitcoin was created with the goal of democratizing the global monetary system and delivering a more efficient means to send electronic cash across the Internet. However, Bitcoin proponents have long engaged in debates about whether the Bitcoin blockchain should remain capped with a small block size (BTC) or whether instead, the Bitcoin network should scale much bigger to process more transactions on-chain (as competing chains are doing).

These debates led to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) emerging from a fork or split of the BTC chain, which occurred in 2017. Bitcoin Cash aimed to increase the block size to boost Bitcoin's transaction speed and overall transaction throughput in order to promote mainstream use of Bitcoin for daily “electronic cash” payments as the Bitcoin white paper describes.

In 2018, the Bitcoin SV network and its underlying asset BSV emerged from another split of the BCH chain, after there were further disagreements about how much bigger Bitcoin should scale – with BSV proponents seeking to scale much more massively with a much larger block size than BCH proponents maintained.

The stated goal of Bitcoin SV is to restore the original Bitcoin protocol (which had been modified and restricted in BTC) and enable massive scaling of the chain. BSV seeks to unlock Bitcoin’s power to support huge volumes of electronic cash payments (down to the micro and nano-payment level) for a world of connected devices and to also power advanced distributed data applications (such as smart contracts, tokens, IoT device management, and on-chain computation). With this in mind, Bitcoin SV stands for "Bitcoin Satoshi Vision," as the blockchain project and its digital currency are focused on carrying out the vision of Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's pseudonymous originator.

Join Bitcoin Association for BSV’s Founding President Jimmy Nguyen in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on June 23, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this interactive session, they will discuss how BSV is working to achieve Satoshi’s vision.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• What’s the difference between the Bitcoin BTC and Bitcoin SV blockchains?
• The vision behind BSV
• Why choose the BSV blockchain?
• BSV’s vision for the Web3 ecosystem
• What’s next for BitcoinSV

NFTs are considered one of the biggest innovations in the world of art. They gained mainstream recognition when Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" digital artwork was auctioned for $69 million in collaboration with Christie’s. The NFT market surpassed $40 billion in 2021 according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

Yet, according to experts, we've only scratched the surface of the possibilities offered by NFTs and smart contracts, which is why investors and collectors are flocking to this new market.

Join Rug Radio host and NFT archeologist Adam McBride in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on June 16 at 9:00 am EDT. In this interactive session, they will discuss the history of NFTs and how NFTs can play a vital role in empowering the creator economy.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• History of NFTs
• Impact of NFTs on digital art and the creator economy
• How NFTs can help eliminate piracy in digital art
• What’s next for NFTs

Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum use a proof-of-work mechanism, which requires massive amounts of energy and results in slow transactions as well as unstable and, at times, insanely high gas fees. Hedera claims to facilitate transactions that are faster, cheaper, and better secured than regular blockchain transactions through its proof-of-stake network.

A public distributed ledger powered by the hashgraph consensus algorithm, Hedera goes beyond blockchain to create the next era of fast, fair, and secure applications for startups as well as big enterprises, creators, and consumers. Owned and governed by the world’s leading organizations, Hedera is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy.

Join Hedera Hashgraph’s CMO, Christian Hasker, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on June 9, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss how hashgraph consensus ensures fast, cheap, and secure decentralized transactions.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• What is the hashgraph consensus?
• Problems with proof-of-work blockchains
• Benefits of proof-of-stake networks
• How Hedera facilitates fast, cheap, and secure transactions
• What’s next for Hedera Hashgraph

Freely available, open-source software makes projects more stable and secure, as it leverages the power of the global developer community. Yet, the Internet is still dominated by centralized platforms. They take advantage of open-source code when building their products—only to lock the users into their proprietary ecosystems.

Fluence is a peer-to-peer compute protocol that frees computation from centralized APIs or hosts. It is open-source, permissionless, and functions as a decentralized application platform that allows developers to host applications and work together, reusing both components and data. Enhanced composability makes applications faster to build, easier to integrate, and more secure, while facilitating improved user experiences.

Join Fluence Labs’ Co-Founder Tom Trowbridge in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on June 2, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this interactive session, they will discuss how the Fluence Project enables developers to build, host, run, and collaborate on live applications.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Drawbacks of centralized applications
• Benefits of building P2P applications and protocols
• Challenges in building P2P applications
• Why choose Fluence Labs for P2P application development?
• What’s next for Fluence

Due to the pseudonymous nature of cryptocurrencies, crypto is one of the preferred payment methods used by criminals. That’s why regulators all around the world are implementing measures to ensure that cryptocurrencies cannot be exploited by criminals—from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule to local legislations. One such measure is requiring virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to have KYC processes in place.

With a white-labeled end-to-end KYC solution to streamline the customer onboarding process, KYC-Chain assists crypto exchanges, initial coin offerings (ICOs), digital banks, P2P lenders, money service businesses (MSBs), and FinTech companies in their efforts to comply with KYC requirements.

Join KYC-Chain’s CEO and SelfKey Foundation’s Advisor, Edmund Lowell, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on May 26th at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss how KYC-Chain empowers organizations to better manage their end-to-end KYC processes for both individuals and corporations.


Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Current state of regulations and KYC compliance in crypto
• KYC requirements for VASPs including DeFi
• Importance of protecting and respecting personal information of individual crypto investors and traders
• Role of KYC-Chain in regulatory compliance
• SelfKey Foundation’s role in digital identity ownership
• What’s next for KYC-Chain and SelfKey Foundation

The Decentralized Insurance Protocol (DIP) is a digital technology to decompose the traditional insurance value chain. Without relying on a central intermediary or a traditional insurance firm’s balance sheet, insurance risks can be priced, transferred, and managed by a group of independent service providers using a DIP. Decentralized insurance focuses heavily on automation in sales and underwriting, making policies affordable—even when relatively small sums are covered.

Etherisc is developing a protocol for decentralized insurance applications. The company leverages blockchain technology to make the purchase and sale of insurance more efficient, enable lower operational costs, and provide greater transparency in the industry.

Join Etherisc’s CEO, Christoph Mussenbrock, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on May 19th, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss how Etherisc uses blockchain to make insurance fair and accessible.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Why should insurance be decentralized?
• The current state of the decentralized insurance sector
• Challenges in decentralizing insurance
• How Etherisc encourages insurance adoption even in low-income countries
• What’s next for Etherisc

Interest in crypto is growing rapidly around the world. As more and more consumers start using cryptocurrencies and tokens, they expect fast, seamless, and safe blockchain transactions. But safety is a big problem in the crypto space—fraud and crime seem omnipresent, as funds get stolen, platforms get hacked, and headlines regularly report the latest crypto scams.

TRM works to build a safer financial system by helping crypto businesses, financial institutions, and governments fight crypto fraud and crime. Focusing on digital asset compliance and risk management, they provide a platform to screen cryptocurrency wallets, transactions, and entities.

Join TRM Labs’ ​​Head of Legal and Government Affairs, Ari Redbord, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on May 12, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this interactive session, they will discuss how TRM uses blockchain solutions to detect, monitor, and investigate crypto fraud and crime.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Fraud and financial crime in the crypto space
• Regulations to prevent crypto crime and money laundering
• Current challenges in crypto crime prevention
• How TRM helps detect, monitor, and investigate financial crime
• What’s next for TRM

Blockchains are public and immutable. This means that any transaction or wallet on a blockchain can be tracked and their activities can be analyzed. From companies like Nansen to law enforcement and crime prevention firms like Chainalysis, many draw on this transparent nature of blockchains to collect on-chain data for different purposes.

Nansen combines on-chain data with its internal database containing millions of wallet labels. They provide institutional investors with in-depth analysis, so they can discover opportunities, perform due diligence, and defend their portfolios with these real-time dashboards and alerts. The company also leverages its expertise in data analytics to provide industry-leading analysis and insights into the crypto industry.

Join Nansen’s ​​Head of Product, John Calabrese, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on May 5, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this session, they will discuss how Nansen leverages blockchain analytics to empower its customers to better manage their investments.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• How do blockchain analytics work?
• Different methods used to collect and label on-chain data
• Role of blockchain analytics in investments and due diligence
• Nansen’s vision for the wider Web3 ecosystem
• What’s next for Nansen

The dual-token economy, aka the dual-token model or system, is a term used to describe crypto projects that offer two different types of tokens to their communities. By using this model, projects can utilize stronger incentive structures, produce new features and upgrades, and provide new functionalities to users.

Centric, a dual-token digital currency and blockchain project, rewards adoption through hourly yields and stablizes over time by self-regulating its token supply to reflect changes in demand.

Join Centric’s CEO, Joel Clelland, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on April 28th, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this interactive session, they will discuss how Centric uses the dual-token model as a breakthrough digital currency across the globe.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• The various types of digital tokens
• Regulatory complications in the digital currency economy
• The benefits of the dual-token model
• Centric’s vision for the dual-token economy
• What’s next for Centric

The Ethereum ecosystem has been growing at a rapid scale since its foundation in 2015. Created by one of Ethereum’s co-founders, Joseph Lubin, Consensys has been at the forefront of developing the tools required to build and scale on the Ethereum blockchain.

Consensys enables developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build next-generation applications, launch modern financial infrastructures, and access the decentralized web. The company’s product suite includes Infura, Quorum, Truffle, Codefi, MetaMask, and Diligence. It serves millions of users, supports billions of blockchain-based queries for its clients, and handles billions of dollars in digital assets.

Join Consensys’ ​​Director of Communications and Content, James Beck, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on April 21st, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In this interactive session, they will discuss how Consensys is empowering Web3 founders to build on the Ethereum blockchain and what’s next on their journey.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Growth in Web3 development throughout recent years
• The current state of development on the Ethereum blockchain
• Role of Consensys in the overall Web3 ecosystem
• How Consensys is empowering founders to build on Web3
• What’s next for Consensys

Over the last couple of years, the web3 ecosystem has witnessed tremendous growth. And, companies like Uphold have been at the forefront of this revolution. Uphold's unique ‘Anything-to-Anything’ trading experience enables retail investors and businesses to trade directly between cryptocurrencies, equities, and metals.

Join Uphold’s Head of Blockchain and Crypto Research, Dr. Martin Hiesboeck, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse, on April 14, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In an interactive session, they will discuss the technological shift to Web3 in recent years and the role of data science in its growth.

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• Growth of the web3 ecosystem over the past couple of years
• What institutional and state interest in crypto means for web3
• Role of data science in building dApps and DAOs and overall growth of the space
• Technological shift to web3 and future of the internet
• What’s next for Uphold in 2022 and beyond?

Data is the new oil. And in Web2, the control of personal data is in the hands of service providers. Despite various attempts by legislators to enforce strict regulations—through GDPR or California’s CCPA—the management of personal data is still an issue to be solved.

Skynet Labs is building the infrastructure that allows users to own their personal data, to have a persistent identity across apps, and to resist censorship.

Join Skynet Labs’ CEO David Vorick in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director Chris Tse on April 7, 2022 at 9:00 am EDT. In an interactive session, they will discuss the role Skynet Labs plays in building the infrastructure needed to decentralize the Internet and put the control of data back into the hands of users.

Agenda

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• The current state of data management by Web2 companies and its impact on users’ privacy
• Why is it important to allow users to manage their own data?
• The impact of personal data centralization on the wider ecosystem
• Skynet Labs’ plans to decentralize data ownership

Web2 is the Internet era defined by products and services from large centralized companies aka FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google). Those platforms invest significantly in sales and marketing teams as part of their GTM (go-to-market) strategy to generate leads and acquire & retain customers. One of the big problems with Web2 is that the vast majority of accrued value goes to the platform itself, not to the creators who are doing the work and thus should be earning that money.

Web3 gives the power back to the creators. It leverages decentralized technologies to bring the users into the center of decision-making processes. That is why a new approach to marketing is needed in the decentralized world. While some conventional customer acquisition techniques may still be relevant for Web3 projects, the introduction of tokens and new organizational structures like DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) requires us to rethink go-to-market strategies as well as initiatives for building communities and generating revenue.

Join Hubspot’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kipp Bodnar, in a fireside chat hosted by Cardstack’s Founding Director, Chris Tse. 

Agenda:

The fireside chat will focus on these central points:

• How is Web3 marketing different from Web2 marketing?
• GTM for Web3 projects: centralized apps, dApps, DAOs, and DeFi
• The role of community in Web3 marketing
• Growth metrics that must be tracked by Web3 projects

Since the Internet’s beginning in the 1980s, it has witnessed tremendous development. From the early days of Web1’s static text and images to the rise of the centralized platforms dominating our current Web2 space, the Internet has remained impressively innovative. In the last few years, our world has begun embracing Web3, a new mode of the Internet that emphasizes decentralized transactions, distributed ownership, and open governance.

Agenda:

This podcast focuses on these central points:

• The state of the Web3 ecosystem today
• How dApps can replace traditional businesses' software
• Why choose Web3 tools over Web2 services?
• The role Cardstack is playing to facilitate the Web2-to-Web3 migration
• Q&A on Web3 topics, e.g. NFTs, DAOs, DeFi, wallets, and crypto economics