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Our Fall 2018 Summit brought together some of the brightest minds and biggest thinkers in crypto at New York City’s Dream Hotel. We were very fortunate to have some of our speakers travel from halfway around the world to be with us for this meeting of the minds.
This year we touched on some of the most critical issues and exciting topics in crypto—everything from the readiness of the Web3 stack to stablecoins to Zero Knowledge Proofs and how they’ll change the world. Fear not if you were not able to attend; below is a curated list of panels representing the best talks at the event. You can listen to them via our podcast or watch them in full on Youtube.
Without further ado, let’s jump in…
ON PORTFOLIO CONSTRUCTION WITH FRED WILSON & TUSHAR JAIN
In this fireside chat Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital explore the ins and outs of modern portfolio construction for allocators and fund managers alike. Throughout the talk they traverse key issues such as how to think about long-term vs. short-term conviction, thematic discovery, strategic exposure, how to pick winners, and (VCs) investing in cryptofunds. This conversation concludes with passionate remarks on the trade offs between smart contract platforms and how decentralized governance is (or is not) working today. This is one that you don’t want to miss!
Watch time: 46 minutes
(Editor’s Note: Regrettably, the camera was bumped several times by attendees during this talk. The video is at times slightly out of focus. Please listen to the podcast if you find the video distracting. All other videos are sharp. Thank you for bearing with!)
THE STATE OF THE WEB3 STACK
This panel seeks to answer the central question: When will the Web3 stack cross the critical threshold of usability, and what are the challenges that must be overcome to get there?
It features Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital; Jack O’Holleran, the CEO of Skale Labs, a company solving blockchain scalability by enabling Ethereum dApps to run high-speed, low-cost smart contracts in Layer 2; Tony Sheng, the Product Lead at the Decentraland Foundation, a group building a virtual world that will grow beyond any centralized control; and Katherine Wu, who heads up Business Development for Messari, a NYC-based crypto startup aimed at promoting transparency and smarter decision-making in the token ecosystem.
Watch time: 44 minutes
THE GREAT STABLECOIN DEBATE
Lauded as the most anticipated panel at the summit, this panel features speakers from Maker and Reserve, two of the most well known decentralized stablecoin teams, and Circle, one of the most prominent fiat-crypto stablecoins in the market.
Presenters include Nevin Freeman, the CEO and Co-Founder of Reserve, a full-stack open currency; Steve Becker, the President & COO of MakerDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization on the Ethereum blockchain that seeks to minimize the price volatility of its own token, the Dai, against the IMF’s international currency basket SDR; Vishal Gupta, the Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Circle; and Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital.
Watch time: 1 hour, 3 minutes
ON AGGREGATION THEORY AND THIN PROTOCOLS
Fat Protocols sparked a revolution when it was first published in 2016. It’s absolutely essential reading for everyone in the industry. This panel brings together three leading GPs in crypto to reexamine the thesis and challenge its long-term viability two years after it was first proposed.
This panel features Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital; Joey Krug, the Co-CIO of Pantera Capital (and the co-founder of Augur, a decentralized prediction market platform); and Jesse Walden, a Partner at a16zcrypto.
Watch time: 36 minutes
ZERO KNOWLEDGE PROOFS: MIND BENDING TECH THAT’S GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Stick with us for this panel (it was Kyle’s favorite). Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) will fundamentally change human, business, and government relationships in ways that we cannot possibly understand yet. This panel features the three most important companies building ZKPs: Zcash, Coda, and Starkware.
Panel participants include Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital; Uri Kolodny, a Co-Founder and CEO at StarkWare Industries, a company working to improve scalability and privacy in blockchains using STARK technology; Evan Shapiro, the CEO at Coda, the first cryptocurrency with a constant-sized blockchain; and Josh Swihart (the winner of the best impromptu demonstration award), a Vice President at the Zcash Company, which supports the development of the Zcash cryptocurrency — a privacy-protecting, digital currency built on strong science.
In closing, we’d like to extend a very special thanks to our sponsors— Coinbase Custody, FBG One, Circle, and Genesis Capital—who all helped make this event possible. We’re fortunate to have such great partners in more than one way.
Thank you for listening!
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