Ethereal Summit 2017: Complete Analysis

digicrypt (60)in #cryptocurrency • 7 years ago (edited)

Ethereal Summit: What is it? Why is it important? Why should you care?

Ethereal Summit

In case you missed it the 2017 Ethereal Summit took place May 19 in Brooklyn, New York. The summit was a gathering of Ethereum enthusiasts and developers who spent the day discussing the future of Ethereum and decentralized applications.

Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference.

If you want to learn more about Ethereum, check out this awesome post from @rok-sivante.

"Ethereal Summit is a culture-focused blockchain event that brings innovators in the fields of governance, impact, sustainability, community building, arts and media together with experts in exponential technologies. We aim to highlight the technologies and innovators that are ushering in the next generation of the internet, and catalyzing our transition into a decentralized world."

“The day will include art installations, virtual reality experiences, keynote speakers, and panels featuring some of the most prominent names in blockchain and beyond." Source

Let’s look at some of the details of the summit and what they can tell us about the future.

I published the sponsors, speakers and program in it's entirety before providing my analysis. While it may seem long-winded, I want to drive home how seriously businesses are taking blockchain and the wave of new interest in the sector.

Ethereal Summit Sponsors

The event was sponsored by the following organizations...

Consensys - is a venture production studio building decentralized applications and various developer and end-user tools for blockchain ecosystems, primarily focused on Ethereum.

SingularDTV - is a blockchain entertainment studio laying the foundation for a decentralized entertainment industry. Building the future of rights management, project funding, and peer-to-peer distribution, SingularDTV’s platform empowers artists and creators with powerful tools to manage projects from development to distribution.

Microsoft - American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Wikipedia

CrunchFund - CrunchFund is an early stage venture capital firm founded by Patrick Gallagher and Michael Arrington. The fund invests in and works with information technology companies at any stage but is primarily focused on seed and early stage investments.

Rockwood Management - is a solutions based strategic investment firm providing high quality investment grade securities and products for institutional investors. Rockwood also provides capital to innovative entrepreneurs, developers, and businesses with specialized funding solutions.

Venture One

Ethereal Summit Speakers

The event featured over 50 speakers from a diverse set of backgrounds. The impressive list contains former politicians, investors, artists and FinTech professionals. Below is the complete list of speakers. Take note of the wide reaching coalition behind Ethereum.

VINAY GUPTA

Founder of Hexayurt Guy Capital Partners; Blockchain Thought Leader

GIORGI VASHADZE

Founder and CEO of Innovation and Development Foundation; former deputy minister of justice and member of the parliament of Georgia

KIM JACKSON

Co-founder and President of Entertainment, SingularDTV

GEENA ROCERO

Filipino-American Supermodel, TED Speaker, Transgender and Identity Activist

ELIZABETH ROSSIELLO

Co-Founder & CEO, BitPesa

DAVID ORBAN

Singularity University, Founder & Managing Partner at Network Society Ventures

LAURENT LAMOTHE

Former Prime Minister of Haiti, Founding Partner at LSL World Initiative

RACHEL HAOT

Managing Director, 1776; Former Chief Digital Officer and Deputy Secretary for Technology of New York State, and Chief Digital Officer of New York City

JOE LUBIN

ConsenSys Founder, Ethereum Co-Founder

BROCK PIERCE

Managing Partner at Blockchain Capital & Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation

LAURA SHIN

Forbes contributor covering cryptocurrencies and blockchain, co-lead reporter of the Forbes Fintech 50 list and host of the blockchain and cryptocurrency podcast Unchained.

JASON GREEN

CEO & Co-Founder at Edenworks

RAHILLA ZAFAR

Author, "Internet of Women"; Director of Strategic Research at ConsenSys

CAB MORRIS

Deputy Director of Strategy and Operational Performance, Illinois

ZACH LEBEAU

Co-founder and CEO, SingularDTV

PETER ASARO

Assistant Professor at The New School, Affiliate Scholar in the Center for Internet & Society at Stanford Law

LEIGH CHRISTIE

Manager Isobar NowLab Americas

NIRAN BABALOLA

Founder of Benefactory, Product Engineer at ConsenSys

MAXIMILIAN BECH

Sculptor, maker, and designer; Creator of the first 3D model of the blockchain

LAURENZO MEFSUT

Founder of Artchain

FEDERICO AST

Founder & CEO at Crowdjury

JESSE GRUSHACK

Co-Founder of Ujo Music

SIMON DE LA ROUVIERE

Engineer of Societies at ConsenSys

ALEXANDER KLOKUS

CEO of Futurism

ANDREW PARKER

General Partner at Spark Capital, serving on the Boards of eShares, Panjo, Panorama Education, Socratic, Timehop, Quantopian, Upworthy, and Splash, and Board Observer on Kik

MACIEJ OLPINSKI

Co-founder at Userfeeds.io

RYAN KING

Co-founder at FOAM

MORGEN PECK

Cryptocurrency reporter for American Banker, Scientific American, Backchannel, and BBC Future

ALICIA CARMONA

Consultant Anthropologist

ANNE CONNELLEY

Head of Business Development at Ledger Labs

WILLIAM E BODELL III

Web3 Architect, Entrepreneur, recent graduate of Columbia University GSAPP

JARED HARWAYNE-GIDANSKY

Deputy Global Head of Emerging Business & Technology for BNY Mellon

BRIAN ISELIN

Founder and President, SlaveFreeTrade

ELISA ACHTERBERG

Program Manager Circle Financial Innovation, Researcher & PhD Candidate Sustainable Finance Lab

JUAN LLANOS

FinTech & RegTech Lead, ConsenSys

MAX REBO

CEO, Machine Colony

MELISSA MEYER

Founder, HealthMJ

MELTEM DEMIRORS

Director of Development at Digital Currency Group (DCG)

PATRICK DEEGAN

ROSANNA CHAN

Digital Economist & Founder of World Bank Blockchain Working Group

ROBERT HACKETT

TAMARA ST. CLAIRE

Health IT Advisor

MEHER ROY

Co-Founder, Validity Labs

SANTIAGO SIRI

Founder Democracy Earth

RON GARRETT

SRI and Business Development Wizard, ConsenSys

DAVID GZESH

Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, Blockchain Gaming Counsel

JAKE PORWAY

Founder and CEO, DataKind

BENTON BAINBRIDGE

Media Artist

BRAD BURNHAM

Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures

WILLIAM MOUGAYAR

Author at The Business Blockchain

TYLER SMITH

Director of Energy and Consulting and ConsenSys

RYAN HOOKS

Founder of Huxley

ALYSE KILLEEN

Managing Partner, StillMark

MATTHEW LEISING

Bloomberg News

THOMAS JANKOVICH

Digital Innovation Leader, Deloitte Consulting

AYAKO MIYAGUCHI

Managing Director Japan, Kraken

Ethereal Summit Program

“The program for Ethereal Summit has been carefully designed to tell the story of decentralization over the course of a day. It features architects of the Web 3.0, futurists, media influencers, government officials, artists, musicians, and pioneers in humanitarian aid and sustainability, coming together for a day of technology storytelling in every imaginable medium.” Source

The summit featured 32 panels and presentations from over 50 speakers. The event was sold out and the schedule was jam packed with informative panels and speeches.

Analysis: Why is it important?

With Ethereal Summit 2017 behind us, what can we take away from the high profile blockchain event?

Institutional Investors are coming!

This event was sold out with tickets going for $600 a piece. Obviously, the event was popular and extremely successful. With cryptocurrency prices soaring and blockchain startups booming, it is no surprise the summit received so much attention.

According to an article by Coindesk

Many of the attendees were sent by employers to learn about “this blockchain stuff”.

Tech companies and Financial Services are taking notice of the technology and blockchain is becoming a buzzword within the many industries.

With sponsors like asset management firm Rockwood Management and venture capital firm CrunchFund, it is clear investors are eyeing blockchain as a new area of growth. Not to mention the event was also sponsored by tech giant Microsoft, who has already developed its own blockchain service Azure. The big boys are coming to play in this hot new sector and they will be bringing a lot of money with them.

Blockchain goes way beyond cryptocurrency

Blockchain is a decentralized distributed public ledger and is the technology Bitcoin is built on. While most people know about blockchain because of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, we are beginning to see that blockchain goes way beyond cryptocurrency. Industries which could be revolutionized by blockchain include finance, health, government, logistics, real estate and many more.

One of the most interesting and talked about applications at the Summit is supply chain. Blockchain could streamline supply chains and make them more accountable.

On a panel about the supply chain, Brian Iselin, president of Slavefreetrade.org said..

"I'm tired of people suffering and dying for the things that we buy,"

Blockchain may prove to be one of the most important innovations in modern history, providing humanity with the opportunity to build better systems and a better society.

Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency are attracting an increasingly diverse audience

Cryptocurrency in the past had the reputation of being “nerd money” however blockchain technology is beginning to build a large and diverse cadre of followers.

As I previously mentioned Ethereal Summit attracted artists, investors, politicians and journalists. This technology is quickly moving into the mainstream and many people don’t even realize it.

Companies like Microsoft, Walmart and bank JP Morgan are all researching blockchain and getting in on the action.

The more that blockchain and cryptocurrency enter into a diverse group of industries the quicker we will experience innovation, advancement and mass adoption.

Ethereum value is exploding higher!

The Ethereum network runs a fuel, called Ether. It is a form of payment made by the clients of the platform to the machines executing the requested operations.

In the days following the Ethereal 2017 Summit, the price of one Ether has gone from roughly $95 to over $180.

There are other cryptocurrencies that are Ethereum based which have also seen massive growth.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) which came into existence because of the DAO hardfork in the Ethereum blockchain is now trading over $10 a coin, the price was less than $2 a few months ago.

Expect the price of Ethereum based tokens to rise with the growing interest and widespread usage of the Ethereum blockchain.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency are here to stay

I will leave this section short and sweet.

If you think blockchain and cryptocurrency are a fad, you are wrong.

Brock Pierce, co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Capital said

“Every asset is eventually going to end up here. The thing to think about as investors is market timing. A lot of ideas might be right, the question is, where are they in the cycle?”

I want to keep my readers ahead in the game and on the right side of history