SXSW 2019 PanelPicker Highlights of the Debut Crypto Track
Last Updated on February 23, 2024 9:55 am by Martine Paris
SXSW 2019 may seem far off, but programming is already under way and today is the last day for the public to vote for sessions they’d like to see at the venerable tech and arts show. A special addition to 2019 is a dedicated crypto track and below are highlights of some of the more interesting discussions being proposed. To vote, you’ll need to register for a SXSW account, then just click on the panelpicker link. Enjoy!
CryptoTravel Guide: Escape To Blockchain Island
- Martine Paris, Tech Reporter, The FinTechTimes, Blockchain Gamer, Geekazine
- Jordan French, Tech Reporter, TheStreet
- Drew Rossow, Tech Reporter, Forbes, Blockchain Magazine
- Katia Lang, Co-founder and CEO, The FinTech Times
Join these four tech reporters who have traveled the globe in search of the best places for sun, sand and ICOs. Attendees will learn about the blockchain ecosystems being built in Malta, Gibraltar, Switzerland, Luxembourg, London, Berlin, Estonia, Russia, Israel, and South Korea, regulations around selling tokens, tax havens, and unique offerings like virtual citizenship and legal status for DAOs.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/86373
Blockchain Now: Where Is The Disruption
- TC Waugh, Co-Founder and Director of Marketing, Decentra Group
- Thomas Lee, Managing Partner and Head of Research, Fundstrat
- Perianne Boring, Founder and President, Digital Chamber of Commerce
- Rachel Wolfson, Contributor, Forbes
Blockchain promised to change everything from voting to medical records, supply chain to banking, even being able to track the provenance of your coffee down to the bean. But which blockchain projects are actually making a difference RIGHT NOW?Is cryptocurrency the only application that people use widely, or are there blockchains that people are using without even knowing? Will something like CryptoKitties be the killer app when it comes to blockchain adoption? Are private blockchains functioning now to deliver the promise of this technology, but only for the businesses that build them? Which governments using blockchain now? Which projects are really making a difference?https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/91518
Implementation of Disruptive Technologies AI
- Jeany Stein, CEO, Panotip
The workshop provides an overview of the Blockchain technology including its history, evolution and the future. Attendees learn about Bitcoin, which is powered by Blockchain technology, Bitcoin mining, other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Block, Hash, cryptography, how to develop a simple Blockchain application. In addition, Most of us have heard about chatbots and AI but where should you focus your efforts and how can startups get started, deliver quickly and make an impact? This session will discuss the areas where this technology is shaping the industry and use a real case study to inspire you to do just that. We’ll then go interactive to develop your ideas into a number of prototyping opportunities.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/91170
Real World Impact Through Blockchain Applications
- Crystal Stranger, Founder and CEO, PeaCounts
- Jeff McDonald, Co-Founder and Vice-President, NEM Foundation
- Patrik Wijkstrom, COO, Dispatch Labs
- Cleve Mesidor, Founder, LOGOS
Blockchain has been this year’s buzzword, but most individuals don’t understand what it is and how it can improve their lives. The majority of blockchain innovations have been technology and payment focused, but blockchain can be used in consumer applications including: creating artwork collectively, tracking music copyrights, and verifying the authenticity of luxury goods. In this panel we will cover everything from rewards-type tokens to blockchain storage of digital assets. Blockchain can be life-changing and we will discuss social impact projects as well as responsibility of technology and how decentralization can benefit by removing need for trusted third parties. Additionally we will cover clever ways you may want to implement blockchain into your company or project.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/91220
The Hottest ICOs: Where Are They Now?
- Brian Konradi, Co-Founder and Director of Legal Services, Decentra Group
- Bradley Tusk, Founder and CEO, Tusk Ventures
- Jeremy Gardner, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Ausum Ventures
- Daniel Schwartzkopff, Founder and CEO, Invictus Capital
It’s been 2 years since the ICO/Crypto boom of 2017. Over $5 Billion was raised through ICOs in 2017, and almost twice as much in just the first 6 months of 2018. Many of these were built on whitepapers with promises to disrupt entire industries. Well, where’s the disruption? How are those blockchain projects working out? Find out if the all the money that was fed to this industry has produced real results or just boosted Lamborghini sales to ICO fraudsters. Our panelists have real-world experience in this often criticized industry and can answer these questions for anyone curious to know if the boom has produced any real disruption. Distinguished panel of crypto-investment experts discuss the best (and WORST) ICOs of the last 2 years.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/90906
Programming The Future (Blockchain) With Values
- Chelsea Rustrum, Founder, Blockchain for Good
In World Cafe style this workshop will explore technology ethics in favor of humanity and the planet, programming the reflects our highest potential for collaboration and openness, value distributed networks and sharing, shared ownership models, digital governance that promotes interdependence, social efforts and financial investment aligned with planet, efforts that get people feeling empathy, belonging, and connection to one another, and companies that align with stakeholders in a way that operate more like communities.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/90876
Blockchain Transforming Big Pharma
- Kate Gofman, patient safety physician, associate director , AstraZeneca
- Frank Pok, US Tech Incubation Lead, AstraZeneca
The complexity of data sharing, lack of visibility, coordination and trust between patients and pharmaceutical companies make drug development process expensive and ineffective. We will examine the current state of blockchain and specific use cases in pharmaceutical industry, attempting to democratize drug development. Optimized patient consent, clinical trial recruitment and retention, clinical data immutability and drug supply chain will lead to improvement in research and lowering of drug costs.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/83389
Why Blockchain Isn’t Right For Your Business
- Ted Livingston, Founder and CEO, Kik and Kin
- Robert Hackett, Senior writer, Fortune Magazine
Like all consumer tech apps, Kik has millions of active users and raised $120M from top VCs. However, it struggled with growth , and it struggled with monetization. As a result, Kik created its own cryptocurrency, Kin, in 2017 and raised $100M in doing so. The company now has a new vision (make Kin the most used cryptocurrency in the world) and a clear path to success (make Kin the currency for consumer apps), all because of blockchain technology. While pursuing a blockchain business strategy made sense for Kik, it isn’t the right for every company. In this fireside, Robert Hackett of Fortune and Ted Livingston, founder and CEO of Kik and Kin, will explore when it’s right for companies to use blockchain technology.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/88050
Blockchain Beyond the Hype: The Ripple Effect
- David Schwartz, Chief Technology Officer, Ripple
- Sara Silverstein, Executive Editor, Business Insider
The impact of blockchain is undeniable. From payments to avocado farms, the world is seeking to put everything on the blockchain as this decentralized technology matures and reaches the masses. A respected voice in the crypto community, Ripple’s David Schwartz, aka “JoelKatz,” is an original architect of the XRP network––and invented one of the earliest distributed computer systems in 1991, nearly two decades before the bitcoin white paper was published by Satoshi Nakamoto. In this candid interview, David will address cryptography, distributed ledger technology, and how blockchain is changing the foundation of our global economic system. Let the second era of the internet – the Internet of Value – begin!
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/90108
Revenge Of The Original: Art on the Blockchain
- Vladimir Vukicevic, CEO and Co-Founder, Meural
- Jess Houlgrave, COO/Co-Founder, Codex Protocol
- Anne Spalter, Artist, Anne Spalter Studios
- Bryce Bladon, Founding Team Member, Director of Communications, CryptoKitties
In 2018, a CryptoKitty sold for $140,000 at a cryptocurrency art auction. This panel dives into how we got here, and what comes next in the world of buying, selling, trading, and creating art on the blockchain. With perspectives from a digital art scholar, a CryptoKitties founder, and the co-founder of a decentralized title network for art and collectibles, the conversation will explore and explain the trend of collecting “rare” art on the blockchain, and its implications for artists and patrons. For instance: what was once free and infinitely copy-able—a digital art file—is being transformed by blockchain companies into something that can be sold as a one-of-a-kind “original.” Does this signify that owning an original is beginning to matter again, like owning a music album once did?
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/82085
No Token Gesture: Crypto Leaders Doing Good
- Devin Thorpe, Founder , Your Mark on the World Center
- Andrew Jewett , Co-Founder, Aperture
- Jill Carlson, Consultant, Juno LLC
- Pete McCormack, Founder, What Bitcoin Did
It makes headlines daily. It lures an eclectic cross-section of humanity with promises of quick, exponential growth. It may just be the future of… everything. But does the blockchain have a soul? A heart? And the ability to be force for good? The answer is a resounding yes. While the culture, lexicon and storylines of cryptocurrencies might be mired in greed, a rising tide of well-intentioned industry disruptors are finding novel ways to promote social good with purpose-driven initiatives. In “No Token Gesture…” you’ll discover that crypto has a counter-culture looking to leverage the blockchain for altruistic work that both impacts the people in their backyard and communities across the globe. Hear how it’s possible to approach crypto with a heart — and still make a little coin. Or a lot.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/89755
Inside the Oasis: Blockchain’s Ultimate Use Case
- Gordon Meyer, VP Marketing, Lampix
- Cindy Mallory, Marketing + Emergent Tech Strategist, JAKT
- Ari Meilich, Project Lead, decentraland
- Vanessa Kincaid, Chief Brand Officer, Littlstar
In an immersive future like “The Oasis,” trust in identity, payments and freedom of expression will be cornerstones of any successful immersive experience. Blockchain technology will build that trust; a revolution enabling crowdsourced creation and sale in the new virtual economy. Is crowdsourcing the future of AR/VR? Will immersive applications be the ultimate blockchain application?https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/91105
A Crypto Anarchist or Crypto Authoritarian Future
- Lance Hayden, Assistant Professor, University of Texas School of Information
Blockchain emerged from libertarian roots, promising to reshape world by decentralizing power & returning it to individuals. Historically such technologies can fare poorly, hijacked by the very institutions they meant to disempower. Blockchains & cryptocurrency platforms born from cypherpunk & crypto anarchist idealism could also be corrupted to support more dystopian agendas. I’ll explore how crypto anarchy inspired blockchain & the promise it holds for a decentralized future. I’ll contrast that future with the possibility these technologies could be subverted into new infrastructures of state & corporate dominance. I’ll draw on illustrative case studies of other liberating technologies gone awry, discuss the threats blockchain technologies face, & explore strategies for avoiding failure.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/85187
Made in China: Crypto, Exchanges, Trust and More
- Edith Yeung, Partner, 500 Startups
- Jason Lau, Chief Operating Officer, OKCoin
Although the Chinese government has a love-hate relationship with crypto – from shutting down exchanges and ICO projects, halting financial institution funding, to blocking all overseas websites related to trading and ICOs – it hasn’t stopped the success some of the world’s top exchanges. The crypto world is global, as 70% of the exchanges with the highest trading volume come from China. In this candid discussion, Edith Yeung of 500 Startups and Jason Lau of OKCoin will discuss how exchanges in China are keeping up their trade volume, continuing to grow its global users and overcoming government regulatory challenges. How are these exchanges secure and building trust with customers? What is next for the world of crypto?https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/91348
Crypto and Consumers: Impacts Seen and Unseen
- Leigh Cuen , Reporter, Coindesk
- Campbell Harvey, Professor , Duke University
- Jesse Lund, Blockchain and Distributed Ledger market development, IBM
Are cryptocurrencies and blockchain having the consumer impact they envisioned? What are the social implications of blockchain technology? Is this fintech revolution actually helping people save money, invest money, and live richer lives?
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/88396
Blockchain and Crypto: A Blessing or a Curse
- Olayinka Odeniran, Cybersecurity Specialist and Co Founder, PlusTou
- Lindsay Nuon, Chief Risk Officer, Stranger Labs
- Chelsea Rustrum, Co-founder, Blox 7
Discussing the current actions taking place to ensure equity within the blockchain space. Overview of blockchain technology and a hands-on workshop supporting participants in building their own blockchain projects and how to incorporate equity into existing projects.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/90873
Decentralized Advertising
- Lin Dai, CEO, Hooch
CEO Lin Dai demystifies decentralized structures, Blockchain deployment and applications in advertising.
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/85416