In search of truth and the right answers
Conversations with the mind behind Genesis DevCon
This marks the beginning of a Special Series from the Hard Fork talk show stable. We did our first off-site shoot produced this time by IBC Media at their flagship event Genesis DevCon at Bengaluru in November 2019. Hard Fork @ Genesis DevCon explores the blockchain world from a different perspective and setup and talks to some amazing professionals in the industry.
Also Read: The Largest Blockchain Developer Conference in India
We did not limit our thoughts or debates just into crypto vs non-crypto or public vs private blockchains. We delved right into subjects like societal changes using blockchain, cryptography, creating new talent in India, blockchain-based micro-services, impact it can create in the world.
Also Read: A Blockchained Weekend
Introducing — Our Guest— Raghu Mohan
Raghu Mohan is the CEO of IBC Media and the mind behind Genesis DevCon. He’s a journalist at heart and an avid learner.
“Being a journalist is the best way to learn anything in an industry!”
His journey into the Blockchain ecosystem started with Mr. Hitesh Malviya, Founder of ItsBlockchain when Raghu reached out to help grow the brand. Raghu already had experience in helping publications grow and with that, he dove straight into blockchain and that’s what got the ball rolling.
“If being a journalist is searching for truth and asking the right questions then yeah, I feel like I’m a journalist at heart.” — Raghu Mohan
Watch this episode on IBC Media
This episode is being broadcast on the YouTube channel of IBC Media. Here is the YouTube link to the video:
The 1st episode of Hard Fork @ Genesis DevCon brings a fresh new perspective on Raghu Mohan — the entrepreneur, person, technologist, leader, and the community enabler! Do watch and leave a comment when you get time.
Salient points of our conversation
The journey of IBC Media
Soon after Raghu entered the blockchain ecosystem he was invited into Nucleus Vision and what started with writing a whitepaper for them slowly progressed into designing, PR, and marketing support. This effort eventually helped Nucleus raise 40 Million Dollars in their ICO.
Abhishek Pitti — Founder and CEO, Nucleus Vision — invested in IBC Media and powered its vision of becoming ecosystem enablers in the industry. IBC Media came into existence after the International Blockchain Congress, which was a conference organized in Hyderabad in 2018 which was attended by well-achieved guests and speakers from all across the globe.
It is here Raghu learned that there was a deficit of adoption and awareness of blockchain technology amongst the developer community and through this discovery was born the Genesis program. This led to a year-long effort to build a large developer and startup community conference called Genesis DevCon.
Some other pointers
Our conversation with Raghu was mostly centered around Genesis DevCon where this series was recorded live. Being in the driving seat of the organization that made Genesis DevCon possible, he had some keen insights to share with us :
- The whole idea of the conference is to get someone who has competent computer skills to go home and want to read about blockchain more deeply and doing that enough times over would move the needle in favour of the ecosystem.
- India has an immense talent to adopt and an even more commendable talent to build ( and hopefully soon, to #BUIDL).
- With India having 6 million working developers and yet only 15–20 thousand blockchain developers, the need of the hour is to be able to articulate the needs of the industry and the developer community and bring them onto a common stage
“Till now Blockchain has been like a hammer looking for a nail”
- The vision behind this program was to bring the industry’s needs to the spotlight and have the industry experts tell us where the blockchain use-case fits.
- With all the innovative possibilities that come with this technology, it becomes paramount that industries participate in this conversation.
What does Genesis DevCon bring to the table?
The conference brought together a diverse array of communities in the blockchain ecosystem to a common platform to discuss and better understand each other. The editorial was curated such that, meaningful conversations happen across the board with panelists ranging from enterprises like KPMG, Microsoft, ELEVEN01, Tech Mahindra and PwC to some of India’s hottest startups in the blockchain space like Marlin, Matic, Newfang and InstaCrypto and also some deep tech talks about blockchain technology from star-studded academicians and researchers.
Genesis DevCon also featured Yanislav Malahov, the Godfather of Ethereum, and Founder of Aeternity, a celebrity in the industry.
At Genesis DevCon there was something for everybody and it became a ground for young and promising talent to meet and interact with some of the strongest proponents and thought leaders of this industry.
Tezos’s Vision from Genesis DevCon
Bernd and Om from Tezos were doing some positive work on building an ecosystem when they partnered with IBC Media for Genesis DevCon.
Although it may not have been the largest conference out there, their vision was to maintain a high standard of quality with the conversations that would take place and the experience that the attendees have and from the response, it seemed like Genesis DevCon achieved that.
Caleb Kow the President of Tezos Southeast Asia also gave a tech talk on what a decentralized ecosystem would mean for India.
The future of Blockchain in India
All in all, the future seems bright for Blockchain in India with immense untapped potential, real use-cases, and significant government interest in the technology. The Government of Tamilnadu is reportedly exploring blockchain use-cases on the KYC front, along with the Govt of Maharashtra and Telangana who’ve been known to be on the frontline of innovation using blockchain.
“ The Governments are actually looking into this with real seriousness”.
Here’s what Raghu had to say to the audience about Genesis DevCon — Genesis DevCon has been the culmination of the Genesis program and also years worth of heart, soul, and effort. IBC Media’s goal is for that effort to reflect in the experience that the attendees, speakers, and sponsors have.
“If this sparks inspiration in smart capable people on picking up another new technology, then I would think that we have done something significant.”
About IBC Media
IBC Media is a marketing solutions company that works with emerging technology companies. Co-founded by Raghu Mohan, CEO and Kaavya Prasad, COO, IBC Media in 2018, the company offerings include Accelerator activation, Public Relations, Marketing Growth, and Corporate Events.
About this special show — Hard Fork Specials
Hard Fork Specials has been devised as a shorter version of our talk show which we will undertake to highlight either a burning or important topic, a new technology, a special set of people or if we come across something special to showcase from the global crypto and blockchain scene.
About Hard Fork
Hard Fork is India’s first TV Talk show dedicated to Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain. With this show, we want to raise awareness, inspire learning, showcase achievements, discover innovations, provide advocacy, find solutions, and answer questions about Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. Season 1 — Getting India Started up on Crypto and Blockchain — and a special series on Women in Blockchain has been being aired on the founderINDIA platform on Amazon Fire TV and also simultaneously cast on its YouTube and Facebook channels.
- Watch the Season 1 here: https://bit.ly/2JPTWJ3
- Watch the ‘Women in Blockchain’ Special series: https://bit.ly/2JPTWJ3
- Email: editor@founderindia.com | Hardforktalkshow@gmail.com
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