Today’s guest is Frederik Gregaard, the CEO of the Cardano Foundation. The Cardano Foundation acts as a custodian for the Cardano protocol; the Cardano Foundation is a Swiss nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering innovators and changemakers within the blockchain industry. The Cardano Foundation strives towards enabling a blockchain future based on inclusiveness and transparency. An independent entity, the Foundation’s ambition is to empower the architects of the decentralized era, set the direction for governance as a service, and enable economic empowerment. He brings his vast experience in professional services and financial industries to the Foundation, where he will build partnerships with institutions and enterprises. Frederik is a certified currency trader and digital asset management expert. He advises Regulators, Banks, and Asset Managers on how digital business models will impact their sector and how technology such as Blockchain, DLT, Big Data, and AI will affect their businesses in the short and medium term. We discuss Cardano, the Cardano Foundation, power dynamics, crypto adoption, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Frederik’s financial background. We have a fascinating discussion centered around the opaqueness of capital markets leading up to the financial crisis of 2008 and the fallout from the collapse. We pivot our conversation to focus on how the fallout from the financial crisis eventually led him to the crypto industry. Frederik shares his journey in the crypto industry and how he became the CEO of the Cardano Foundation. Frederik discusses a fascinating insight that the biggest roadblock to crypto adoption was the cultural barrier between crypto and traditional finance. Our conversation transitions to focus on why traditional institutions are pivoting their blockchain efforts from focusing on private permissioned blockchains to public permissionless blockchains. Frederik shares examples of this growing adoption of public blockchains. Frederik explains how Georgian Wine exploded in popularity when they began using the Cardano blockchain as an authentication layer. Frederik discusses how this technology shifts the power dynamics between large and small players creating an equal playing field between the two parties. Frederik emphasizes that one of the main goals of the Cardano Foundation is to lower the barrier of entry to the Cardano Ecosystem. We discuss the various real-world projects Cardano is involved in to implement blockchain technology across multiple countries. Frederik explains Cardano’s consensus algorithm and the game theory behind it. We discuss how Cardano’s academic approach is one of the main guiding principles of the project. Frederik explains the difference between blockchains and open-source projects. Please enjoy my conversation with Frederik Gregaard.

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