{"id":1968,"date":"2019-05-22T09:19:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T13:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/?p=1968"},"modified":"2019-05-22T13:25:35","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T17:25:35","slug":"learnings-from-consensus-2019-will-blockchain-herald-the-web-3-0-future-that-technologists-dream-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/2019\/05\/22\/learnings-from-consensus-2019-will-blockchain-herald-the-web-3-0-future-that-technologists-dream-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Learnings from Consensus 2019: Will Blockchain Herald the Web 3.0 Future that Technologists Dream Of?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was written by Matt Iacobucci ’19<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author’s Note: In our Sustainable Innovation MBA program, we talk a lot about sustainability! But for the purposes of this post, I\u2019m going to focus the discussion on the \u201cinnovation\u201d side of things. After all, in frontier market contexts where the opportunity to \u201cleapfrog\u201d technology exists, sustainability and innovation really do go hand in hand<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The author at Consensus 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of representing The University of Vermont’s Sustainable Innovation MBA program at CoinDesk\u2019s Consensus 2019 Blockchain Conference in NYC. In attendance were founders of blockchain startup companies, software developers, institutional investors, regulatory agencies, blockchain journalists, and academics from around the world. The topics covered by keynote speakers, panelists, and facilitators of hands-on workshops were vast, and I could not help from allowing the imaginative techno-futurist within me dream of the type of social good that could come from a decentralized \u201cWeb 3.0.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I lose my audience with\nheady predictions of a decentralized web future, I suppose I should first share\nwhy I attended this 3-day conference in NYC to begin with \u2013 that is, to expand\nmy network within the blockchain development community and learn from industry\nleaders about how this new technology, blockchain (or \u201cdistributed ledger\ntechnology\u201d), can be used in business to address the social and environmental\nchallenges that exist today, particularly in frontier market contexts. And for\nwhat it\u2019s worth, I\u2019ll share with you what I see in my crystal ball later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait Wait, Slow Down…What is Blockchain?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put simply, blockchain, or \u201cdistributed ledger technology\u201d, is a type of distributed database stored on a continuous ledger. Participants in a blockchain network can securely store their data on the continuous ledger such that no central authority or administrator can tamper with that data, adding the qualities of both transparency and immutability. This is where blockchain differs from a traditional database. At the end of the day, the real value that blockchain technology offers is trust<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applied Learnings from Consensus to Practicum<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer, I will be working with\nclassmates Esteban Echeverria and Henry Vogt on a practicum project with local\nconsulting firm Resonance Global. With a global presence in over 60+ countries,\nResonance assists clients in deploying market-based solutions to unlock\nopportunity in frontier markets. My practicum team\u2019s task for the summer is to develop\na proprietary analytical framework for assisting Resonance\u2019s clients to make\nbetter decisions about when and how to use blockchain technology in areas\nrelevant to their work, and then expanding that framework to identify greater\nclient opportunities for Resonance. As such, my attention during Consensus was primarily\nfocused on seeking practical business use cases for blockchain technology as\nthey might apply to solving problems in developing economies around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The vibe of Consensus 2019 differed from last year in that there were \u201cmore suits and fewer costumes\u201d among attendees (more on that here<\/a>). Blockchain consultants from Deloitte, IBM, Tata, and Microsoft all had exhibit booths and lounges showcasing the practical applications of blockchain technology for industry. This year\u2019s Consensus Magazine was titled \u201cFrom \u2018Crypto Winter\u2019 to #DeFi: A Year of Loss, BUIDLing, and Opportunity\u201d. While the ICO boom of 2017-2018 brought a lot of enthusiasm and startup capital into the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, it was clear that 2019 was to be the year of fundamental development, where applications for real business use cases will be piloted and scaled. As things turn out, this was great for me, one of the \u201csuits\u201d in attendance with an academic badge seeking to cut through the hype and learn! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I picked up a signed copy of \u201cBlockchain for Business: Discover How Blockchain Networks Are Transforming Companies, Driving Growth, and Creating New Business Models\u201d from Jerry Cuomo, IBM Fellow and VP Blockchain Technologies, where he penned \u201cMatt \u2013 It\u2019s a Team Sport!\u201d I watched a luncheon video<\/a> by Accenture showcasing its Tech4Good program, featuring its work with Grameen Foundation in economically empowering women at the BoP, among many other technology-driven projects for social good. I learned how ChainLink\u2019s blockchain middleware application solves the smart contract connectivity problem by securely entering real world events onto the blockchain for seamless payments processing. I listened to Deloitte\u2019s approach to advising clients on deploying blockchain projects from ideation to fundraising, structuring, building, and operating. I built my own simulated blockchain network on Amazon Web Services hosting platform in a 2-hour workshop session. Most importantly, I connected with several knowledgeable blockchain industry players with whom I can contact over the summer as my practicum team seeks the expertise needed to develop our blockchain framework for Resonance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crystal Ball Time: Blockchain and \u201cWeb 3.0\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a brief walk through internet history. Remember when Al Gore invented the internet? Me too\u2026(just kidding). Today, we can now look back on the internet era of the search engine, originally used for the sharing and distribution of academic papers, as \u201cWeb 1.0\u201d: the Googles, Microsofts, and Apples of the world. Then came Mark Zuckerburg with \u201cthe Facebook\u201d \u2013 insert \u201cWeb 2.0\u201d, an internet driven by user-generated content, data collection, and digital marketing targeted towards an ever-more differentiated consumer who relinquishes data privacy in exchange for the service of algorithms directing her to exactly the right product or service in an increasingly mass-customization-driven market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a captivating panel discussion, futurist, economist, and writer George Gilder identified two key crises that represent an existential threat to continued prosperity: the collapse of internet security, and \u201cthe scandal of money\u201d (I would personally argue for the climate change crisis to take precedent, but for the sake of carrying this conversation forward, we\u2019ll keep the focus on \u201cinnovation\u201d here). He epitomizes these two crises with the examples of the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal that undermined the power of democratic institutions in 2016, and the 2008 financial crisis where central banks intervened with monetary policy measures that arguably prevented a world economic collapse and maintained the status quo of power politics, respectively. All of a sudden, we realize the need for a new, decentralized digital architecture for the secure transfer and ownership of assets. Enter the \u201cdecentralized web\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitcoin has captured the world\u2019s\nimagination over the last 10 years in that it has made many of us rethink the\nvery idea of money. While Bitcoin itself does not adequately meet any of the\nthree requirements for money \u2013 a store of value, medium of exchange, and unit\nof account \u2013 it offers a new platform for value transfer in an increasingly\ndigitized world. As Ethereum co-founder and founder of ConsenSys Joseph Lubin\npoints out, the currency of the future is likely to be reduced to two things:\ndata, and human attention. Lubin believes through this understanding that \u201cwe\nare going to change the nature of value\u201d. The innovation that could bring this\nnew conceptualization of currency into reality? Tokenization. Lubin points out\nthat unlike Web 2.0, Web 3.0 will likely consist of several interacting,\ndecentralized protocols on top of which more agile application layers will\nthrive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what does the future hold? Is\nthis whole cryptocurrency and tokenization thing just a fad? Can we digitize\nreal world assets to fundamentally change how we perceive peer-to-peer value\ntransfer? Will Bitcoin ever return to its 2017 high of $19,665? The heck if I\nknow the answers to any of these questions, but after attending Consensus 2019,\nI am well convinced that blockchain technology will likely play a pivotal role\nin the evolution of technology towards a more secure and decentralized future,\nand the implications for social good to come of that future would be boundless.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by Matt Iacobucci ’19 Author’s Note: In our Sustainable Innovation MBA program, we talk a lot about sustainability! But for the purposes of this post, I\u2019m going to focus the discussion on the \u201cinnovation\u201d side of things. After all, in frontier market contexts where the opportunity to \u201cleapfrog\u201d technology exists, sustainability … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Learnings from Consensus 2019: Will Blockchain Herald the Web 3.0 Future that Technologists Dream Of?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26210,26,425091,272245],"tags":[41478,6901],"class_list":["post-1968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class","category-learning","category-practicums","category-strategy","tag-innovation","tag-networking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8b9n0-vK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1978,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/1978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/si-mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}