From the Meetup site:
The London Blockchain Breakfast Meetup is a new initiative from 2030.io and is for those in blockchain technology; in a blockchain startup company; or who are interested in connecting and networking with people / their peers in Blockchain.
Our first event looks at The Future of Blockchain with Edan Yago of Epiphyte and talks to Emile Delan of Europe's first non-profit Blockchain Hub, The Blockchain Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
About Edan Yago
He is an experienced entrepreneur and seasoned veteran of the digital currency world. Yago is CEO & Founder of Epiphyte, the leading company helping banks integrate with distributed ledgers.
Yago has a wealth of experience in the digital asset space. He has led digital currency initiatives at Zynga and is a founding member of DATA, the leading digital asset industry regulatory body.
Yago is an angel investor and advisor to several Bitcoin companies and is a sought-after speaker and thought leader in this space.
Agenda
7:30am prompt start
Edan Yago with Q&A
Emile Delam with Q&A
Tea & Coffee / Networking
9am ends
So, If you are a core ‘Blockchainer’ or just getting into Blockchain, then you are not going to want to miss this event !!! Places are FREE but limited!!!
We look forward to you joining us on the morning of Thursday 8th March at Rise London, to learn more and connect!
• What to bring
Pen and paper to take notes and business cards to share.
This was a really good event , the highlight was Edan Yago who I was fortunate enough to speak to for a couple of minutes at the end, he presented really well and the his story weaved into Bitcoin was amazing, my notes below will now way do it justice.
The QnA was good as the Pillar team steered the conversation onto the various blockchain protocols and how they differ, again will attempt to cover this in the notes below.
Emile then gave an overview / Sell of the Hub that has been set up in Lithuania
If you now stop reading - highly recommend this meet up if you can make it.
Edan Yago
Edan started with a reference to Batman Film and the Dark Knight Rises and how they used the site as the backdrop due to its grimmy feel being under shadow of the steel works and he told a little fo the background of why the Carnigies established the univercity
He said that the building epitmsed gotham city and the story to take back freedom
The building is 3 stories high above ground and 4 stories underground , Edan painted a picture of a bio lab where many a labarotory would house an array of experimentation and just add to overall erie feel of the place
7 years s ago in that building Edan was working in one of the laboratories working on a diagnosis tools for bowel disease
It was first thing in the morning and he was reading an article just before he kicked off his day and it hit him like a thunderbolt
Edan went on to say when he speaks to most people about Bitcoin they say they initially dismissed it, I resonate with this In 2013 I set up a PC with some mining software did not get anywhere overnight with it and gave up
However I did not have the trigger that Edan had to make that article connect with what Bitcoin could be , I had not gone on the tough journey he had and then have the ability to connect the dots
Back as a 9 year living in South Africa under the threat of Apartheid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid
He had already seen some of his family disappear one evening (escaping the country) when his mother one day helped him put his coat on he noticed how heavy it was.
He was put on a plane to go and see family outside the country. the reason his coat was so heavy was because it was lined with gold coins, back then they did not put children through the scanners.
This went on for multiple more trips until the families money was out the Country and they could leave.
This is why the Bitcoin article made him stop in his tracks , drop his coffee and ruin a laptop.
What an amazing story
He then went on to speak about how humans scale , this struck a chord with me as I have just started to read Sapiens the history of humankind and I picked up some references, I asked Edan if he had read the book and he has.
I have just got back from the Crypto Investor Show where Galia Bernartzi from Bancor recommended the book as well in context to her speech on The Future Of Money
He spoke to how we have 2 ways to scale ourselves and this is covered in the books first 13 pages
We coordinate in small bands - grooming ,fighting & tickling
Gosip and stories is how we scle beyond 150 + numbers , what we know about each other how we recognize each other
primates & chimps beyond that number break down a n split as a community
The point being made was that bitcoin allowed that scale without the need for the governments and the usual controls
The conversation then moved onto Consensus Mechanisms
Are we going to see one primary blockchain as primary method ? This originally was what most though would be the outcome however this has changed
There is now a proliferation of thousands of protocols will some wither and die some will become the Amazon / Facebook of tomorrow.
He use the internet as an example of one technology but many being the winners as peel back the covers there is a stack involved .
Using Mining as a method to heat your apartment was mentioned not heard of this before but googled it and there are some articles out there, makes senses as the mining consumes a lot of energy and heat so makes sense to try and utilise it and offset the significant cost.
He explained some of the different protocols
POW POS which will be familiar ones couple others mentioned Proof of time and :
Bounded Proof Of Work. there are a couple of projects looking to use the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chips thare now present in a lot of devices.
Emile Delam was up next to talk about a HUB in Lithuania a small country and seems they are opening the doors to the innovation that is Blockchain
The Pillar project will be setting up an office there
