Ethereal Summit: Day 2 Recap

Blockchain Beach continued our coverage of the Ethereal Summit at the Knockdown Center in Brooklyn, New York. You can see coverage from Day 1 here, follow our entire set of live tweets, or read below for the Day 2 highlights, which included a keynote from Ethereum Co-founder and Consensys Founder Joe Lubin and an exciting live (digital) art auction:

Day 2 began with a keynote from Sheila Warren of the World Economic Fund’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  One of her main learnings from her time working on humanitarian projects is that you cannot build incentives for what you think people want. You need to work with them to make sure that your system makes sense in the real world:

“Build with, not for” for human-centric design. One example is a merry go round in Africa that pumped water. It was a well funded project, but failed because it would have had to run 27 hours a day to pump enough water for the villagers.” – @sheila_warren #EtherealNY pic.twitter.com/ajwQLxSZsD

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

So what was the better solution?

“The better solution to the water in Africa challenge was not merry go rounds/play (pictured), but rather putting running water in schools. This incentivized families to bring their children to school, multiplying the benefit of collecting water. “ – @sheila_warren #EtherealNY pic.twitter.com/VeJdG2Ls78

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

Because we want to avoid:

“We need to avoid garbage in, garbage forever when building distributed ledgers.” – @sheila_warren #EtherealNY #EtherealSummit

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

Next was Sam Cassatt, Chief Strategy Officer of Consensys, who spoke out about how the world is changing:

“@VitalikButerin is able to change the inflation rate of Ethereum. That power was previously only available to governments and central banks.” – @samcassatt @ConsenSys #EtherealNY #EtherealSummit

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

Kavita Gupta followed with a major announcement for Consensys Ventures:

Breaking News: @ConsenSys Ventures and @KavitaGupta19 announce Tacyon, the first Ethereum accelerator #EtherealNY #EtherealSummit pic.twitter.com/mJxqPSRmZd

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

After the announcement, Kavita was joined by Consensys Founder Joe Lubin and The Daily Show‘s Ronny Chieng (who had previously interviewed Lubin for the show):

“You look like a Bond villain” –@TheDailyShow’s @ronnychieng commenting on @ethereumJoseph’s appearance pic.twitter.com/6K3wWh3idP

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

Ronny had some strong feelings about Ripple:

“I’m going to go ahead and say it…Fuck @Ripple” –@ronnychieng @TheDailyShow #etherealNY pic.twitter.com/g3f5QVIhF2

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

But then pointed out an ongoing issue (and one that Blockchain Beach is working on):

“Can you use a word that wasn’t invented in the last 2 years?” –@ronnychieng’s giving feedback to @ethereumJoseph #ethereal #etherealNY pic.twitter.com/9Dm8BmfMnD

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

They ended with a great message and goal to strive for:

“We’re moving people away from living in fear toward a (new) model of abundance” –@ethereumJoseph #ethereal #etherealNY pic.twitter.com/B1e54XGHVa

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

Next Ryan Selkis, also known online as twobitidiot, lead a talk on transparency, the day after his Twitter was hacked:

“Who Stands to Benefit from Transparency” –@twobitidiot takes the stage a day after reclaiming his @Twitter account. @MessariCrypto #Ethereal #etherealNY pic.twitter.com/JRbTaeYuzd

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

We got to speak to California Congressional Candidate, Brain Forde, after his keynote:

“There are a lot of opportunities to unlock power…We need to have technologists in government. That is why I went to go work for @BarackObama…I briefed him on Bitcoin –@BrianForde #Ethereal #etherealNY pic.twitter.com/0YKpl693di

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

Keep an eye out for Laura Shin‘s new podcast “Unchained,” which she taped live from Ethereal:

.@laurashin taping her “Unchained” podcast live with Vlad Zamfir and Nick Dodson @ConsenSys to discuss how Ethereum should be governed #ethereal #EtherealNY @EtherealSummit pic.twitter.com/ptOMahnnMx

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

The talks ended with a closing keynote from Joe Lubin:

“@Facebook is a three-sided market: Intermediary, advertiser, YOU are the product.” –@ethereumJoseph during the @EtherealSummit keynote #Ethereal #EtherealNY @ConsenSys pic.twitter.com/cXKbGjOCja

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 12, 2018

But the day was not done! Codex hosted a live auction for some digital art:

Anyone want to buy an original (digital) piece of art? (This one went for $8,000) #liveauction #nonfungible #HODL #EtherealNY #EtherealSummit @EtherealSummit @ConsenSys pic.twitter.com/89WjWD0n3R

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 13, 2018

How much would you pay for this CryptoKitty?

This CryotoKitty print went for $140,000 (203ETH/16BTC) #EtherealNY #EtherealSummit @EtherealSummit @ConsenSys @CryptoKitties pic.twitter.com/SmfsFpOseC

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 13, 2018

And one bonus tweet highlighting some of the event’s fashion:

Bonus tweet: #cryptofashion from #EtherealNY @EtherealSummit pic.twitter.com/cQqb3VYZSv

— Blockchain Beach (@blocchainbeach) May 13, 2018

Consensys and Ethereal were great hosts and we look forward to their next event! If you missed day one of our coverage, you can see it here.