The Voice of Blockchain Conference Recap!
Before we get started, a special shout-out to Joe and the Voice of Blockchain for hosting this phenomenal event. Be sure to follow their twitters for future conference announcements!
Greetings from Vaughn Bullock
Hello, ODIN Community and Society!
For those of you that were aware — or unaware — I recently attended the Voice of Blockchain 2019 hosted in Chicago. Why is this important? First off, I was invited as a speaker to discuss privacy in decentralized systems. Secondly, this was the first real opportunity I had to represent ODIN Society and our project, ODIN Blockchain, in an official capacity.
While one part of the day was spent discussing privacy with an audience eager to hear challenges in this space and discuss solutions currently used and will be expanded on with ODIN Blockchain; the rest of the day was filled with short but exciting conversations with numerous attendees.
Read on for some highlight conversations and takeaways from Voice of Blockchain 2019
Vaughn Bullock
Standing ODIN Society Chairperson and Chief Technical Advisor
Privacy Panel
I was one of the speakers for “Designing Privacy Into Distributed Systems.” In this panel, I had the opportunity to discuss challenges ODIN has faced thus-far in building out our flagship secure messenger ODIN.Chat in additional anticipated future challenges that may arise. There were some great topics discussed, such as how data can be shared not only in a secure fashion but also in a controlled environment.
During this panel, I was able to breakdown one of our roadmap items: ODIN Identity and how using this identity model, we can begin to standardize the processes that involve sharing the most personal information about an individual or entity. A core concept that will be developed is our containerized system of information, as diagrammed below. Utilizing this organizational scope, users have the most control over the validation and access of their Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”).
Technical Space
While there weren’t a lot of developers attending the conference, a few attendees stood out to me as their skillset aligned with where I foresee ODIN growing and requiring future supports.
Tor — Head of Growth/Marketing for Enigma
I met Tor initially as I knew a high-level scope of Engima and how their team is working to create a secure/private layer atop Ethereum. From what I gather, Enigma and ODIN share very similar beliefs on the role privacy has in everyone’s life and how this is a topic that is not dying down but instead increasing over the years.
Trevor — Technical co-founder of Public Data Block
Trevor has some great experience with Litecoin-based forks as well as building out smart contracts on Ethereum. We hit it off really well, talking technical aspects of ODIN Blockchain and our plan to build a model for not only secure conversations but the secure identities that come along with it. He has an interest specifically in our iOS release and identity model.
Business Space
I talked to many businesses and organizations that all seem to share a similar problem and could utilize the solutions ODIN Blockchain will soon be offering with the release of our initial Software Development Kit (“SDK”).
@JasonDeFiner — CEO of DeFiner a decentralized lending platform
One big problem in decentralized lending is, of course, trust. How can DeFiner ensure borrowers are who they say they are and are credible in their loans? At the same rate, what data can be provided to lenders to ensure trust in the servicing of loans. These are significant issues not just for DeFiner, but any other emerging startup in this space.
Siddharth — Member of the Tech/Innovation team at Allstate Insurance
Siddharth was a very open-minded individual who is part of a team that likes to keep their eyes on new technology that could be utilized to enhance the security of Allstate’s systems and products. We discussed how ODIN Identities could solve a few problems that currently exist in the insurance world.
Education Space
There were a surprising amount of attendees that were visiting as part of their Fintech or Blockchain club from their local university/college. There are a lot of interested peers that see Distributed Ledger Technologies (“DLT”) as the next technical enhancement and are curious about projects currently active.
Karan — VP of Professional Development for Miami University Blockchain Club
Karan and I talked in-depth about privacy in the blockchain space, and some neat proof-of-concept products developed out of Miami University. We’re planning on connecting more as eager students are looking for more projects to contribute to in this space.
Jeffrey — MBA Student/Organizer of Kellogg University Fintech Club
Jeffrey helps organize large meetups and events that include other businesses, organizations, and students to focus on core issues and exciting tech in the fin-tech space. He’s expressed an interest in inviting ODIN to speak at a future event and expose us to other like-minded organizations.
Alec — Organizer of the Blockchain Lab and Blockchain Podcast at Marquette University
Alec enjoyed the Privacy panel I spoke on and had some great questions for myself about how ODIN Blockchain could solve identity problems brought up from his peers and listeners. Alec is skilled at dissecting information and translating it for the less technically savvy people. He’s interested in having ODIN be part of his podcast series soon.
Where do I find out more about ODIN?
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Read more about how to get Ø(ODIN) here.
