Why I joined ColliderX
It’s hard to believe that ColliderX is just about 3 months old. In the first week, we raised $2 million dollars in pledges, last month we gathered $50 million in commitments from industry and academia to create a National Blockchain Supercluster in Canada, and we’re only getting started! The best part is having the chance to work with the awesome team at ColliderX. Let me tell why I joined the core team early on, and let’s start with these remarkable individuals surrounding ColliderX.
The Team
It’s rarely possible to control everything in one’s life but, when given a chance, the first thing I’m looking for is to surround myself with the right people. The right team amplifies everyone’s energy, so we’re reaching our goals faster and with grace. That implies a common set of goals and a shared vision.
My journey started with a long conversation with Iliana, while she was thinking about leaving Deloitte to start what will become ColliderX. As we quickly found out, we share the same views on blockchain and the state of industry adoption: blockchain will disrupt all industries, R&D is poorly funded, this digital infrastructure is nascent (the “paint” is still fresh), and talent is scarce (not likely to get better anytime soon as economic pressure on tech talent increases). Something needed to be done.
We believe we can help managing some very peculiar characteristics of blockchain technologies. The Free Software (Open Source) nature of these technologies makes it impossible to fund through traditional means. Sustaining Free Software has been an on-going challenge for at least 3 decades. For example, last year Nadia Eghbal exposed a number of major but poorly funded Free Software projects running critical services. Then, her subsequent report, cleverly named “Roads and Bridges” illustrates the case of OpenSSL, the globally deployed infrastructure securing Web connections (enabling online banking among many other critical services), which was supported by less people than we have fingers in one hand.
As we both worked for service companies (Deloitte and Savoir-faire Linux respectively), we know firsthand that for most actors there is no business case to build digital commons like the Internet or blockchains, at least not single-handedly. Clients want to pay for what they use, nothing more. Therefore, common digital infrastructures, much like roads and bridges, need to be supported by every potential user. In the absence of a central authority, ColliderX can fill the gap between tinkerers (developers) and backers (providing funding), with coordination services and channelling money to those critical infrastructure projects the community needs.
Many companies have built their business on Free Software (Google, Facebook, Twitter come to mind), but few have made it a flagship product. It takes a gigantic amount of resources to single-handedly build and manage a Free Software infrastructure or platform project, like Android for example. Although these heights might seem out of reach for small players, ColliderX can help fund these projects in a transparent and fair way, consistent with the ethos of Free Software and Open Source. ColliderX is a novel way to finance the development of Free Software projects.
Finally, the ColliderX team believes in the ideal of a digital infrastructure that reflects our human rights, where equal rights and freedoms are guaranteed. We are setting the highest standards for ourselves. In matters of transparency for example, the blockchain will allow to literally follow the money. Furthermore, we are following the most prudent path, striking a balance between innovation and regulations. Whenever possible we’ll remain on charted territory. That’s why we’ve been favouring the tried and true crowdfunding approach over the up and coming ICOs.
Start ups operating in the blockchain arena have an edge, and not only because early crypto-enthusiasts have made themselves multi-millionaires. Who does not wish to have invested in Bitcoin before 2010? But the latest and most popular way of raising funds for blockchain ventures these days is through selling special coins (aka tokens) through an “Initial Coin Offering”. However, after the DAO episode, and the high frequency of clever hackers tacking advantage of vulnerabilities in smart contracts, the huge sums of money raised through ICOs look like increasingly riskier propositions. That’s not even taking into account the warnings issued by the regulators.
Our ambition as a not-for-profit association is to serve the community, and that includes being a good custodian of its assets. We want to be transparent and fair in all aspects, from the management of funds to our research and development outputs.
ColliderX’s mission is to stimulate unbiased, ground-breaking R&D on blockchain and related technologies, bridging the gap between industry problems and pure academic or corporate research.
That should give you a good sense of our key values and goals, and what they mean personally to me. We’re not that many in the core team, but everyone is amazing me one way or another. It’s a treat to be part of this team and I need to give them all a shutout. Emma is the most active marketing person I’ve ever seen, running events, PR, and marketing. We’re getting noticed, and even receiving unexpected kudos from US peers. If you’re going to a significant blockchain event anywhere in Canada, chances are that Emma is running it. You won’t see Olivia much, as she’s busy developing ColliderX in the old continent. Other key people you don’t see in the picture yet are nonetheless instrumental in designing our visual identity, and developing our fundraising app (thanks Ed, Mawadda, Daniel, and Lean). I also want to welcome Alexis to the team! Finally, we’re lucky to have a long list of supporters and community members including ACM, UofT, UWaterloo, and many remarkable scholars and entrepreneurs leaders in blockchain and AI. A big thanks for their support and leadership.
The journey at ColliderX is like driving a Ferrari, with all the fun, speed, and excitement you can imagine. And we’re running a high speed chase up the hills.
Blockchain: the top Innovation Challenge ahead of us
The fun really comes from tackling a major challenge as a team! Blockchain represents nothing less than the next digital infrastructure that will enable the shiny innovation use-cases we’ve been talking about for years. For example, the Internet of Everything I vulgarized at Cisco would not be possible without a massively scaling distributed and secure architecture. When we’re talking about managing identity in complex multi-authority scenarios, tracking assets, auditing data across silos, and running distributed applications there needs to be services secured by blockchain-based services.
We’ve been talking about the 4th Industrial Revolution over the last couple years. This is it! Blockchain and AI are two fundamental factors that will accelerate industry transformation across all sectors. We’ve been talking about ICO passing VC funding in volume earlier. Smart contracts can also automate a lot of the manual work done by clearing houses. Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, IoT are laying the foundations for more automated (and efficient) business operations. And what about providing financial and digital services to the 2 billion people who are currently unbanked in the world?
We’re at the beginning of a major technology shift. Don Tapscott compares the state of blockchain with the Internet of the early 90’s. It was rough, barely scalable, and unable to run the fancy web2.0 and mobile applications that we consider for granted today, but its enormous potential meant enormous opportunities for the individuals and companies who were the early adopters and innovation leaders. We’re expecting the same type of economic tsunami with blockchain, may be even bigger. It is the mission of the Blockchain Research Institute to pursue this research, into the strategic opportunities of blockchain for industry transformation, competitiveness, management, and public value.
Luckily, we have some of the greatest talents and companies here in Canada. Vitalik Buterin, spiritual father of Ethereum, makes the Fortune top 10 at 23-year old. He was a 19-year old University of Waterloo dropout, starting his project here in Canada. More recently, Tendermint was forked by Oracle to create a permissioned blockchain (and patenting this of course -more on this later). Two big stories, one commonality: the centre of action is leaving Canada. Ethereum is now rooted in Switzerland (a territory friendly to blockchain), and Oracle is a big US corporation filing patents in its home country.
Are at risk of losing our Canadian talents again? Now is the time to be bold. Let’s make it happen in Canada!
The latest ICTC report on the labour market shows the pressure on talent is increasing. Canada will need to fill an additional 216,000 skilled jobs in ICT. How are we going to keep the existing talent in Canada, while developing and attracting more talent to strengthen our competitive edge? What about foreign direct investments? An increase in ICT investments can raise our national GDP by 1%.
ColliderX is tackling this challenge. With our friends at ICTC, the Blockchain Research Institute, the Blockchain Association of Canada, Blockchain Canada, The Institute on Governance, and the Crypto Currency Certification Consortium, we mobilized industry and academia across Canada, and we put together a bid for the national Innovation Supercluster Initiative. We’re inviting everyone to join us in this transformational initiative.
In just a couple of weeks, we gathered $50 million dollars in commitment (cash and in-kind) and 5o letters of support. Most importantly, the level of excitement in the field frankly surprised us. I personally received many thanks from presidents of colleges and universities across the country. The blockchain ecosystem leaders are already in movement. This train has left the station, and it’s taking more passengers at every stop, at every corner of this great country.
This is just the beginning. We’re keeping our doors open for new partners. And stay tuned for upcoming announcements about our first steps as a supercluster.
Join us
If you share the same values and vision, I’d like you to consider joining us. There are many activities worth your time, but none is so fundamentally pivotal to building the next digital infrastructure bound to sustain all aspects of our work and social lives. We need all hands on deck!
