Being a Keynote Speaker at the Dash Conference

My twenty minutes of fame came earlier this month when I took the stage at Dash Conference 2017.
What was it like being a keynote speaker? How did I get to represent Wirex? What was I doing presenting at the Dash conference?

I’m delighted to elaborate…

First, a bit about how it started…

Before I joined Wirex, I had already known of Wirex when it was formally E-Coin. Half a dozen or so of my friends were also familiar with Wirex.

By the grace of the gods, you can imagine my excitement when I joined Wirex in early September. To say I was brimming with enthusiasm may be an understatement. I was thrilled to be joining Pavel and Dmitry; both whom I already considered to be inspirational. It didn’t take long for the team in London to feel like my second family.
The service that Wirex offers with a Bitcoin wallet is second to none. BUT there are some limitations with regards to using Bitcoin:

Firstly; Block creation times are slow(~10minutes), meaning it takes at least 30–60 minutes (3–6 confirmations) to trade Bitcoin safely.

Secondly it’s pseudonymous - People may think that Bitcoin is completely anonymous, it’s not. The transactions you make are able to be tracked to your address.

And lastly but most importantly; there is a lack of Community Consensus; Bitcoin’s development is left to volunteers and interest groups. This has resulted in a lack of incentive to improve Bitcoin protocols. Meanwhile the developers that are working on Bitcoin struggle to reach a consensus on changes or BIP’s (Bitcoin Improvement Protocols).
Dash has solutions to all of these issues. The solutions are based on the Dash teams innovative Master node solution; which allows members of the Dash community holding over 1000 Dash to contribute to the Network as a Masternode. In short these are:

Dash block creation times are ~2.5 minutes.

Dash master nodes also allow implementation of InstantSend, allowing for near instant transactions confirmed by the masternodes.

Using Dash’s PrivateSend, transactions are anonymised. This utility is also supplied by the Masternode layer. And allows users the ability to control who can see how much Dash they have in their wallet.

Dash’s blockchain is also self-funded. A portion of each block block reward (10%) is allocated to development, DIP’s (Dash Improvement Protocols) and promotion of Dash. There is structured governance; meaning that consensus or lack of, is not an issue.

The announcement

… One day Dmitry announced to the whole team about a planned partnership with Dash, a cryptocurrency I had been pretty vocally fond of.

The excitement intensified when he pointed my way and said, ‘we would like you to give a presentation on behalf of Wirex’ at the Dash conference… in two weeks.

Without hesitation (or even contemplation), I agreed — completely forgetting (or rather ignoring) the fact that I had only started a few weeks prior. Nonetheless, this was freaking excited news and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk about this amazing new partnership that was brewing.

Five full minutes later….
It hit me.

The magnitude of what was asked suddenly dawned on me…

I had watched live streams of previous Dash conferences, views were in the thousands…

This one was going to be hosted in London…the representative hub of fintech and the growing cryptocurrency industry in Europe.
This meant it was going to be one of the biggest.

Not to mention, people who I had been following, looking up to, learning from, were actually going to be physically present…
Boy, was I nervous.

Luckily, I had two things to fall back on; my enthusiasm and some public speaking experience that I had gained from attending Political/Charity functions.

However, I had never spoken to more than a handful of people about cryptocurrencies before.
Sure, I felt passionate about Wirex, Cryptocurrencies and Dash; and sure, I definitely have the knowledge to discuss their merits… BUT doing it in front of 600 people (and potentially a few thousand streaming at home), different story.

My anxiety had jumped tenfold.
There was no backing out now; I had to eat that anxiety for breakfast, and digest it into a script and a presentation.

The theme? Why Wirex ❤s Dash.

After the first draft. I called on the help of Dmitry, Gavriel (our Head of Marketing), and Danila our designer to ‘make it beautiful’. It still needed a lot of work to do, and I continued to work through a bunch of revisions until the day.
Looking back now, the final edit wasn’t 100% ready until the morning of the conference.

The day of the conference

D-day came. What was for breakfast? Anxiety was. Anxiety, anxiety and more anxiety. On the flipside I was SUPER excited.
I arrived an hour early to make sure I had enough time to prepare.
Notes, check.
Presentation display, check.
Sweaty palms, check.

I turned my attention to turn my nerves into extra enthusiasm.
I rubbed shoulders with others and discussed the merits of Wirex; in both anticipation and rehearsal for what was about to go down. After meeting with a few of my colleagues, I was able to get my mind to relax, and I started to enjoy the other presentations that preceded mine.

The presentation…

Before I knew it, it was my turn. I jumped backstage, a microphone got strapped to my head and the next thing I knew, I was on stage. It was time to shine.

I remember entering the stage with a slightly awkward & nervous smile. I saw the sea of people sitting in front of me and a surge of adrenalin rush through me; my enthusiasm took over.

All my notes, rehearsals and knowledge of the space just poured out for a good 20 minutes. I don’t even remember blinking.

After the presentation, I remember leaving the stage in relief. I didn’t need to be anxious anymore.
I was immediately greeted with a storm of strangers congratulating me on the presentation. I quickly found Dmitry, who joined me in the midst of the excitement. There was literally a queue of people waiting to speak with both me and Dmitry; it was unreal.

Bringing it home

With the nerves kicked to the sidewalk, I was glad to be finally enjoying the rest of the Dash conference and World Blockchain Forum.

The other speakers were amazing and the rest of the conference provided me with lots of great insight. I had gained plenty of inside scoop on upcoming projects, which I am eager to share with the Wirex community.

This experience gave me a great deal of confidence for both myself, Wirex and the crypto community. Since joining Wirex, I have met many vibrant characters, industry experts and crypto enthusiasts to make my work very enjoyable. You can see my live videos, interviews and webinars on facebook page. You can also sign up to receive updates on the latest videos.

Reflecting

I have always been fond of new technology.
I saw a laptop for the first time when I was 8 years old. I remember I was on holidays with my parents, I saw a man dressed in business attire typing away on this tiny little machine. He was adding numbers on this complex spreadsheet and I vividly remember peeking at what he was doing. I had no idea, but I was a curious cat.
Since then, every new technology has further sparked my curiosity. From PDA’s (the grandfather of the smart phone) to WiFI, to 2/4 core processors.

I’m the first in my family and group of friends to find out about new gadgets. If I felt it could legitimately make lives easier, cheaper, more entertaining and efficient — I’d fall in love with it. I’d champion it and you never hear me shut up about it.

I haven’t loved everything new and shiny though. I disliked the fax machine, I thought the video phone was a tad boring and then there was WAP (first mobile internet). These ‘fads’ were trying way too hard to impress. And impress it did not.

You won’t catch me talking about something I didn’t believe in. If I’m into something, you’d all know it.
This is one of the reasons I joined Wirex; I genuinely believe in what they do. I believe W-Pay is the answer to mass adoption; in the same way that mobile phones took off because they allowed you to call landline phones; i.e. they took advantage of existing infrastructure. W-Pay efficiently links cryptocurrencies to traditional banking.
Having joined the crypto space in 2010, I have witnessed the immense growth that it has experienced. It is only just the beginning and I feel that Wirex & W-Pay is the next logical step in Crypto evolution. This Dash Partnership is just an extension of that.

I am glad I had the opportunity to be a part of this. My experience as a keynote speaker only exemplifies my excitement for all that is coming in the crypto space.