Blockchain Innovation: Interviewing The Brightest Minds In Blockchain

Lane Retting works at the Ethereum Foundation. He is a hacker and polyglot with an affinity for East Asian languages.

In this episode, Lane and I discuss:

• The journey to a brand new Ethereum – Ethereum 2.0 (code named "Serenity"). We discuss what Serenity's roadmap looks like, and when it's expected to ship
• We discuss Lane's work on ewasm
• And of course, we discuss governance, proof-of-stake, sharding, "Plasma," and much more!

I sent a survey to about 1,500 people and asked them what their biggest challenges were, when it comes to learning about blockchain and cryptocurrency.

We created Blockchain Innovation Academy to address those challenges.

This is a short tour of the Academy.

Watch the video – https://blockchain.global/academy/

Join the Academy – https://memorypool.ca/home/

I sent a survey to about 1,500 people and asked them what their biggest challenges were, when it comes to learning about blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Here are the final 3 challenges my subscribers submitted. (From the top 10. See previous episodes for the other 7).

Watch the video - https://blockchain.global/academy/

I sent a survey to about 1,500 people and asked them what their biggest challenges were, when it comes to learning about blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Here are 4 of the top 10 challenges my subscribers submitted.

Watch the video - https://blockchain.global/academy/

I sent a survey to about 1,500 people and asked them what their biggest challenges were, when it comes to learning about blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Here are 3 of the top 10 challenges my subscribers submitted.

Watch the video - https://blockchain.global/academy/

Konstantin Richter is the Co-Founder & CEO of Blockdaemon. He is a serial software entrepreneur and has also held senior-level positions at prominent firms such as Nokia and Deutsche Telekom.

In this episode, Konstantin and I discuss:

• The difference between Blockdaemon and other infrastructure startups
• Key reasons why individuals and enterprises should outsource their blockchain infrastructure
• Blockdaemon's business strategy – what Konstantin calls, "Decentralization-as-a-Service"

Brendan Lee is the CEO & Co-Founder of Nodesmith. He holds a master's degree in Computer Science, and has spent much of his career building developer platforms. In this episode, Brendan and I discuss:

• The complexities around running a full node and how Nodesmith solves that problem
• We go over some of the concerns developers and engineers may have. For example, if you outsource your full node, who controls the keys? Or, what are Nodesmith's API standards?
• And, from an economic perspective, we look at the Nodesmith business model – "Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)"

Sascha Mojtahedi is the CEO of Bunz. The Bunz App uses its BTZ token to facilitate peer-to-peer bartering and purchases, while also compensating users for interacting with partner brands. In this episode, Sascha and I discuss:

• The $325 billion-dollar "data and attention economy" Bunz is tapping into
• The difference between the Brave Browser BAT (Basic Attention Token) model and the Bunz BTZ (Bunz Trading Zone) model
• The simple yet clever business model that Bunz uses to drive revenue while generously compensating its users – what Sascha calls, "the 60% promise"

Philipp Pieper is the CEO & Co-Founder of Swarm. He has held various private equity and management positions at Deutsche Bank and Allianz Group.

Philipp is a serial tech entrepreneur and discovered Blockchain after an encounter with the founder of BitTorrent.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The history of ICOs
• Whether it makes sense to tokenize traditional securities
• The 3 components of the Swarm system – tokenization, compliance, and decentralization
• How Swarm, as an open-source non-profit entity, differentiates itself from other players in the STO market

Michael Foland is the President and Co-Founder of TaxToken. His mission is to make TaxToken, "the ultimate cryptocurrency tax solution." TaxToken leverages blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to modernize cryptocurrency accounting.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why you should file your crypto taxes and why 2019 is a good year to do that
• Exactly what problem TaxToken aims to solve and what makes them the best solution
• Challenges associated with filing your crypto taxes (like how does the tax-man treat quirky crypto events like hard-forks and airdrops).