LAB Radio

Diego is a veteran Technologist and Entrepreneur with a focus in Latin America and Argentina, having grown up there and along with various successful startups he built.

Diego's track record includes being part of the founding teams of Clarín Digital (a top Argentina newspaper website), Patagon.com (a financial community eventually sold to Banco Santander), Internet Argentina (the first Argentinean ISP to provide ADSL), and Edunexo (a SaaS platform for educational institutions).

He also founded countless startups including: Xinergia (web development company), Cero a Cien (tutoring platform for entrepreneurs), Arraiga (IT training platform) and Restocoins (a payment system for bitcoin)

In 2011, Diego first encountered Bitcoin and feel in love with the technology and how it could benefit not only the world but Argentinean and Latin grassroots communities. This led to him co-founding Rootstock, the first open-source peer-to-peer smart-contract platform and payment network.

Diego is also a relentless community builder as one of the founders of the Argentinean Bitcoin Community with over 20,000 members in its online community. In addition, he organized the first bitcoin conference in Latin America (www.labitconf.com) which is rapidly becoming not only a top even in Latin America but worldwide.

His reach includes helping other grassroots communities in places such as: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, México, Nicaragua, Perú, Paraguay and Uruguay.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Diego and his team took Rootstock from an idea into a working testnet
• How you can participate in what Rootstock is doing
• How your reputation is your collateral with this system
• How Diego's solutions are being replicated across Latin America
• Why community building is a often overlooked yet critically important activity for companies in the Blockchain space
• The challenges the Blockchain ecosystem faces to see full adoption and build-outs needed to change society
• How one of the most important takeaways is to follow your passions and let that be your guiding force

For show notes and more please visit: https://coinstructive.com/category/lab-radio/

Armin is a veteran of the Technology scene having experience with such giants as Yahoo as the Senior Vice President of Engineering for their advertising and web portal and helped build strategic partnerships with telecom giants like AT&T and Verizon.

Armin also worked with Advertising.com which was a division of AOL networks. Armin has a Ph.D. in Organizational Management from Capella University and B.S. and M.S. degree in Computer Science from Chico State University.

Now, Armin is taking his expertise into blockchain and is tackling digital identity with his startup ShoCard which has a specific focus on the financial services sector offering value to companies that have costly processes in place.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Armin got started in this field as well as his background
• How ShoCard helps streamline current expensive and high friction methods for KYC, AML and other digital identity management
• How current methods for KYC, AML and identity management are outdated
• The types of use cases and industries ShoCard works with such as credit reporting
• How ShoCard helps financial institutions and banks prevent duplication of efforts
• How ShoCard provides a deep dive service suite for financial institutions
• What Armin would change about the ecosystem

For show notes and more please visit: www.coinstructive.com/lab-radio/

Caterina is a polyglot (multi-lingual), Blockchain educator, consultant and even TEDx speaker among other engagements worldwide. Caterina's areas of expertise include bitcoin and blockchains education, training, mentoring, project implementation, community engagement, and technology integration.

Caterina Rindi comes from a background in education and non-profits; through her efforts developing more scalable opportunities and tapping existing resources via peer-to-peer technologies, she became involved in the bitcoin and blockchain ecosystem in 2013.

Caterina is a very social good, philosophy and sustainability-focused individual and implores us all to take these concepts more seriously in our personal and professional lives.

Today, Caterina lends her expertise to Fintech startups as well as other clients in industries ranging from P2P collaborative economies, consumer products, governance, and healthcare, and is helping organizations think about tapping the advantages of decentralized, transparent, secure databases and self-executing contracts.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• Who Caterina is and what is her background
• What is Caterina's take on the ecosystem
• What excites and scares Caterina about the Blockchain ecosystem
• What she would change about the ecosystem

For show notes and more please visit: www.coinstructive.com/lab-radio

Meet Hans Lombardo, serial entrepreneur and Technology journalist with a focus on China and Hong Kong. Hans has seen the birth of various industries including the Internet, Cloud computing, Big Data and now the Blockchain. Hans co-founded Chain of Things, a Hong Kong-based startup integrating blockchain and IoT devices.

He also built a data collection and analytics research firm focused on mainland Chinese high-technology industries which he eventually sold. As a technology journalist in the late 1990's, he interviewed Jack Ma, Jerry Yang, Vinton Cerf and Richard Li Tzar Kai.

Blockpass is Han's latest project and it incorporates the "internet of everything" and a blockchain based identity protocol. The magic of Cloud Computing allowed us to access data anywhere, so why can't we do that with things like IDs or passports? Blockpass aims to use technology to evolve this situation by creating a "Passport for a connected world".

This means your ID shouldn't be locked down to the whim of a piece of paper, with this new digital identity management system, anyone with a smartphone can download an app and have their identity managed via the Blockchain in the Cloud. In fact, identities can even be assigned to other devices or objects, creating a truly connected world.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Hans got started and why he focused on Asia
• What Has has been up to since we last spoke
• How Hans it evolving Digital Identity Management
• What Blockpass is and how it works
• What Hans would change about the ecosystem today

For show notes and more please visit: www.coinstructive.com/lab-radio/

Rob Viglione is the founder of ZenCash and blends his interests as an academic and entrepreneur in finance and Blockchain development. As a PhD Candidate in Finance, Rob's research interests span across crypto-finance, venture capital, asset pricing and blockchain development. Rob teaches a course "Bitcoin & Blockchain Applications in Finance" one of only 3 in the world at the University of South Carolina.

ZenCash is built on zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs), a new cryptographic breakthrough in privacy and the core math behind the blockchain. It was originally developed as Zerocash and eventually Zcash. ZenCash then forked this original codebase into a new project and has since added many additional security and privacy features beyond Zcash.

As stated on Rob's LinkedIn: "ZenCash is building a globally distributed secure node network resilient to censorship by implementing network-level encryption on top of zk-SNARK blockchain obfuscation, embedding secure messaging, document publishing on IPFS, and a system of decentralized governance."

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Rob got into Cryptocurrency and Crypto Finance
• How Rob came into ZenCash idea
• What exactly zero-knowledge proofs are and how they work
• Why zero knowledge proofs is such a breakthrough in cryptography and privacy
• How transparency is built in as a default with Bitcoin and how zero-knowledge adds to that
• Why we need privacy as people and organizations
• How Zencash differs and compliments pre-existing Zcash and other forks
• How Zencash innovates on economics and technology

For show notes and more please visit: www.coinstructive.com/lab-radio

Chelsea Palmer is a mega curious academic, activist and passionate decentralist. What is a decentralist you might ask? Well, it's someone who espouses the values of decentralization and Chelsea is it. (She also does rap around Technology and other open sourced philosophies)

With humble beginnings in the northeast USA, Chelsea eventually moved to Vancouver where she is helping run DCTRL, a decentralized hackerspace, located in British Colombia, Canada.

As stated on the DCTRL Meetup: "We are a Collaborative Community inspired by the ideas behind Bitcoin, Decentralization, and the Open Source movement."

Ready to become a decentralist? Great!

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• What is Decentralization?
• What is DCTRL and how do they preserve the principles of Decentralization?
• How Decentralization is kind of like Burning Man
• What is the Blockchain and how does that fit in with Decentralization?
• Why Decentralization scares people yet offers unprecedented freedom?
• What excites and concerns Chelsea about the future of the ecosystem

For show notes and more please visit: https://coinstructive.com/lab-radio/

Hey everyone, we're back! It's been a whirlwind to say the least but we are resurrecting LAB Radio.

To kick things off we caught up with some amazing people building amazing things at the World Crypto Economic Forum (WCEF). People like Shawn Owen of Salt, Rob Viglione of Zen Cash and even Chelsea Palmer of DCTRL.

Meet Shawn and SALT, a blockchain based lending platform which allows you to secure cash loans sent directly into your bank account with no credit checks and backed by cryptocurrency collateral through a smart contract.

After listening to this episode you will learn:

• How Shawn stoked the early flames of innovation in the Denver crypto community
• How the idea of SALT was envisioned and began
• How Shawn realized the power of lending around Bitcoin
• How SALT bridges the concept of collateral and loans into cryptocurrency
• Additional Innovations SALT has added around lending and liquidity of assets
• How access to capital is a bottleneck to the massive unexpected demand
• How SALT works and which cryptocurrencies are available for lending and borrowing against
• A macroeconomic view of the market and visibility that SALT offers
• Shawns views on the current debt system

For show notes and more please visit: https://coinstructive.com/lab-radio/

It was a great experience with people from across the globe, brought together under excitement and interest in a new and exciting technology, namely Bitcoin.

In the organizers own words: "Financial technologies are developing faster today than ever before. The North American Bitcoin Conference is the conference that not only brings you up to speed on the latest innovations, but plugs you directly into the brightest industry minds, preparing you for tomorrow.

Boasting big name speakers, intimate size and opulent surrounds, this conference provides unparalleled access to the people and technologies that are redefining the world of payments. Bitcoin is the next chapter in FinTech"

For a great wrap-up of the event visit our friends at Bitsabio: http://bitsabio.com/blogs/news/84977985-the-north-american-bitcoin-conference-in-miami-florida-2016

We had the pleasure of interviewing the following people:

• Paul Snow founder of Factom - A veteran in computing and software, also a really funny personable guy
• Mate Tokay founder of Bitcoinist - This ex-windsurfer has now helped create a Bitcoin media outlet as well as a newly launched podcast
• Eric Larcheveque CEO of Ledger - Grew up in Paris, France now runs a company which offers various secure hardware based wallets for storing Bitcoin
• Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar of Rootstock - Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, extremely active in the Latin and North American Bitcoin communities
• Pieter Gorsira of Lawnmower.io - Hacker and start-up dude that is building some very interesting use cases of Bitcoin

Each of these individuals are doing fantastic work in the space in various capacities. We were thrilled to spend some time talking Bitcoin, Blockchain and their individual stories and take on things.

We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording it!

For further reading and show notes please visit: https://www.coinstructive.com/blog

The Inside Bitcoins Conference which took place in San Diego on December 15-16, 2015 was a great opportunity for southern California locals, San Diego Bitcoin Meetup members and out of town travelers to network among various influential folks in the global bitcoin community.

In the event organizers own words: "This conference and expo provide up-to-date information on the latest in FinTech business trends, funding models, investment strategies, next-generation payment solutions, multi-signature protocols, blockchain-based startups, and more through conference sessions."

If you want a full recap on the event feel free to pop over to our friends at BitSabio who were also in attendance: http://bitsabio.com/blogs/news/83255873-inside-bitcoins-conference-in-san-diego-california-2015

This event was a lot of fun featuring such figures as:

• Steve Beauregard, CEO & Founder of GoCoin.com was the morning Keynote speaker tackling the topic of "Train customers to pay with bitcoin
• Eric Lombrozo, Co-CEO & CTO of Ciphrex Corporation was the midday Keynote speaker discussion the tough to handle topic of "The Future of Crypto".
• Patrick M. Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com was the evening Keynote speaker delivering a fantastic presentation on Wall Street under the topic "You Don't Need to Trust Wall Street - You Only Need to Trust Math".
• Devon Read of Alexandria who founded a platform that allows content creators to publish and monetize their content such as movies, music, art and other types of content.
• Jonathan Chester COO of Bitwage, a company which enables reduced payroll costs, increased transfer speeds, and increased visibility into the payment process (taken from their site).

We had a great time doing the show as well and got to talk with such people as:

• Sheree Ip - Discussed her background in Compliance and the Legal System and how Bitcoin/Blockchain relates.
• Pamela Morgan - Dazzled us with not only an extremely articulate explanation but very useful thoughts behind Data Security, Disaster Recovery and how this relates to Bitcoin and Blockchain technologies.
• Joe Ciccolo - Compliance and Banking guru with many years of experience in the trenches of Bank auditing among many other critical functions.
• Joe Colangelo - Schooled us on the world of policy making a research as well as his work with the CRG.
• Spencer Bogart - Talked all about Equity, Finance and the state of affairs in the hedgefund industry.
• Hans Lombardo - Is a media man, hosting allcoinnews.com while travelling all over the world and frequenting Bitcoin conferences globally.
• Caterina Rindi - A Bitcoin industry veteran and maven who offers her own consulting services as well as other community development functions.

How the show is broken down:

We pulled clips from each guest (listed above) and provided our own commentary and reflections between each clip.

The subject matter ranges from opinions, Bitcoin stories, definitions and lots of discussion of each guest's unique niche which made for a well-rounded and illuminating discussion.

We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed making it!

For additional resources and show notes please visit: http://www.coinstructive.com/blog

Hello Friends,

We are proud to announce the inaugural episode of LAB Radio, Learn About Bitcoin and Learn About Blockchain. This show emerged organically from within the CoinStructive team as a way to document the various subject matter around Bitcoin and The Blockchain in an approachable way.

Who is CoinStructive?

We are passionate change agents, enthusiastic about the promise of Technologies such as Bitcoin and Blockchain and the myriad of other influencing parts to this burgeoning ecosystem. We provide business solutions to all industries from Startups to Enterprises.

We (the CoinStructive team) come from diverse backgrounds and seek to bring our unique knowledge, networks and resources to the world. We respect the interconnected richness this fine planet has to offer and welcome the opportunity to promote a more open, virtuous and free world.

What does CoinStructive do?

CoinStructive helps speed up adoption, knowledge and implementations of these technologies through mutually beneficial and engaging dialogues, initiatives and partnerships with thought leaders in the space.

After listening to this Episode you will learn:

• How CoinStructive began
• The meeting of Chris and Aaron + their Bitcoin story
• Why we're involved in CoinStructive
• What CoinStructive is all about
• Why Organizations should trust CS

For further resources and show notes please visit: https://www.coinstructive.com/blog