The Blockchain Rush
Silicon Valley’s interest in the blockchain technology was in no rush until recently. HashMark has travelled the seas to dig in the scene and collect invaluable information on recent developments. Let’s take a closer look.
History Repeating.
Rumours of the discovery of gold were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan. Brannan hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies and walked through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold shouting “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!¹
Today San Francisco, or better the Silicon Valley, still sits on an inexhaustible riches made of Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Uber, Twitter and many more. But as companies such as Coinbase and Ripple, community-driven startups (0x) and spaces (Starfish), along with the interest of old and new school VC’s, start to shine, you can hear “Blockchain! Blockchain!” more than twice around the city.
Rush. But No Rush.
At the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of “staking claims” was developed. Although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, increasing the proportion of gold companies to individual miners.¹
So what’s up-and-coming for the crypto-economy in 10 years?
According to the ‘Prediction Wall’ at Coinbase HQs, we can expect ‘Decentralized everything’, ‘Hyper ETHization’ and ‘Crypto puppies’. But the real blockchain rush has only started.
As things are buidling up, the developments in San Francisco’s blockchain scene bet on community, accessibility, openness and co-working. At the same time, big brands such as Coinbase are showing great attention to details — communities, projects and individuals that can contribute to the big picture.
A Valuable Find.
It’s a big thing. What stood out at a regular Coinbase HQ event is the fact that company has great culture. They’ve hosted a Decred meet-up and before a Coinbase employee spoke, he reminded everybody they mean business with something really simple: “At Coinbase we have an inside rule that everybody introduces him or herself before speaking”. That kind of culture is a good sign for a developing industry.
Another good sign is the internal communication addressing Coinbase employees at every step. Simple things like these are commonly forgotten when you’re buidling a financial institution in unregulated crypto space. There’s literally everything you can think of — charity contribution in ETH, the ‘Hell Yes’ encouragement attitude and the power of women in blockchain.
Methodology Is Key.
And now for probably the most interesting fact from the Decred meetup — if you’ve ever worked in advertising or PR, you’ve probably experienced the unfairness of the pitching process. It usually looks like this: The agency is briefed, develops a concept, prepares a presentation, presents and awaits results. On the other hand the client gets i.e. 5 different applications and then makes a (un)biased decision based on random parameters and subjective management opinion.
So what Decred did is a great example of how decentralized organizations work in practice. They’ve organized a pitch and called on 2 major PR firms.
And the Pitch 2.0 looks somewhat like this:
- Agency applies and develops a concept based on the brief
- (Decred) community evaluates the proposition (concept, pricing, fit)
- The winning proposal needs a minimum of 60 % of community votes to be selected
- Contract is signed, work starts, everybody’s happy.
It’s simple, fair, transparent and a clear sign for the future. At HashMark we are working on a MarCom Module for DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), that could change how the industry thinks and functions.
A Room For Improvement.
The brightest star on the San Francisco community scene must be Starfish — a co-working space and community hub for emerging technology pioneers to connect, collaborate and build. HashMark has visited one of their events at the time — Kevin Sekniqi, AVA Labs, Cornell University addressed a curious crowd all the way from New York.
False Alarm.
Another (interesting) event took place at ETC Labs space on the subject of ‘Debunking Crypto Security’. They were very hospitable and the conversation was interesting enough until the ‘after-party’ around left-over pizza slices (the most common blockchain event delicacy) — at ETC Labs everything is done and decided within its stakeholders and community — which is great as a concept but slow and not efficient in practice— nice offices though. Which reminds me of a common San Francisco scene from the streets (see bellow: Picture on the right).
Back to the Source.
This garage below is where Apple started. Decades later everyone is using iPhones, iPads, MacBooks. I’m sure the blockchain industry has a long way to go, but from what we’ve seen, mass adoption may be closer that it seems. Investor interest is picking up, community is developing, and even the biggest sceptics are starting to dig the technology.
The Path of the Blockchain Gold.
Once extracted, the gold itself took many paths. First, much of the gold was used locally to purchase food, supplies and lodging for the miners. It also went towards entertainment, which consisted of anything from a traveling theater to alcohol, gambling, and prostitutes. These transactions often took place using the recently recovered gold, carefully weighed out. These merchants and vendors in turn used the gold to purchase supplies from ship captains or packers bringing goods to California.¹
The gold then left California aboard ships or mules to go to the makers of the goods from around the world. A majority went back to New York City brokerage houses, which brings us back to The Capital of Blockchain.
Looks like a familiar block-chain of events.
