Martin Saps

The Convergence Alliance Launch

June 28, 2019

Contents

Outlier Ventures invited partners to join the Alliance, which has as its core mission to accelerate and diffuse a more equitable, scalable and usable Web3.0, centered around a new data economy. Driving innovation by defining, building, and integrating The Convergence Stack, actioned through working groups, research, hackathons, and an annual dev con.

[ovgallery id=”Rwgy56rk”]

If you were not able to attend, here is a summary of The Convergence Stack, The Convergence Alliance and the panels of those leading Web3.0. 

  • What is The Convergence Alliance and how can you be a part of it?

[ovvideo id=”b470SyaP”]

  • Introduction to The Convergence Alliance launch in May 2019:

[ovvideo id=”dBZYvaa1″]

Building Web 3.0

[ovgallery id=”4aWzRU1W”]

The first panel included a range of partners from The Convergence Stack such as Fetch.AI, Hyperledger – The Linux Foundation, Brave, Sovrin and the developer community London Bitcoin Women. Marta Piekarska, the Director of Ecosystem at Hyperledger Linux Foundation, opened the debate of ‘What is Web3.0?’, with Aron van Ammers, the Outlier Ventures CTO, affirming that at OV we are constantly refining our investment thesis and roadmap around the evolving definition of Web3.0.  Toby Simpson, CTO of Fetch.AI, defined Web3.0 as the Web of autonomy and complexity management. Ben Livshits, Chief Scientist at Brave Software, defined it as Web of value and value capture. 

Watch the full Building Web3.0 panel here:

[ovvideo id=”XtCSWexd”]

Enterprise Driving Innovation

[ovgallery id=”7lu0mdTg”]

To realise Web3.0 overall, and within The Convergence Alliance specifically, enterprise partners will play a central role, driving the diffusion of innovation through adopting decentralised technology and developing proof of concepts into live use cases. Deutsche Telekom Innovation Laboratories T-Labs, Samsung SDS, Digital Catapult and Kryha Blockchain Solutions spoke of challenges to overcome such as gaining support from C-Suite and communicating the value of these technologies, the average time for enterprise to adopt a new software of seven years, as well as understanding the costs and savings of emerging tech. The panel delved into the debate of enterprise chains and public chains, looking at hybrid models to meet enterprise needs. Overall our panelists saw the most relevant use cases around registration of assets, market places to monetise data and open data platforms. 

Watch the full Enterprise Driving Innovation panel here:

[ovvideo id=”rhuiO9iB”]

The 4th Industrial Revolution in Smart Cities

[ovgallery id=”POxHM7FS”]

The Smart Cities fireside chat assessed what are the most pressing needs for citizens related to Environment, Transport, Healthcare, Housing, and Equality. Looking at how decentralised technology can help solve these challenges, Andrew Tobin from Evernym, spoke on self-sovereign identity. According to the World Bank, over 1 billion people don’t have any form of identity, locking them out of services such as healthcare, education, and banking. Evernym works toward solving this by building identity solutions on Sovrin, a decentralised, global public utility protocol for self-sovereign identity. Julie Alexander,  Director of Technology and Innovation at Places for People, one of the largest property management, development and regeneration companies in the UK, spoke on the challenge of access and ownership of data. In order to provide high living standards for residents and plan for future building, Places for People requires access to data on buildings as well as across the construction supply chain. However, the industry is still slow to digitise, adding further complexity to the housing crisis. DLT in convergence with IoT, could provide transparency and security to access this data. 

Watch the full The 4th Industrial Revolution in Smart Cities panel here

[ovvideo id=”2p6NzpPG”]

Crossing the Chasm: The Diffusion of Tokenised Networks

[ovgallery id=”g3VX9CLe”]

Why are tokenised networks relevant? Building Web3.0, the role of tokens is highly debated, as stablecoins, securities, access to networks, incentives, collaboration and consensus mechanisms, new business models, a way to transfer and store value, and as fund-raising tools. At Outlier Ventures, our Crypto Economics team designs these economies of the future, Toby Simpson spoke of Fetch.AI as an example where the token acts as an incentive mechanism designed for collaboration and encouraging decentralisation. 

The panel got into a heated debate with Richard Burton speaking on ‘working for the protocol’ and token incentives with over 100,000 people working for Bitcoin. Dr. Philipp Sandner of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center covered the role of enterprise for a path to mass adoption and stablecoins, Jamie Burke CEO of Outlier spoke on the very important topic of what is the role of the state and regulation as a barrier or catalyst of token adoption. Ioana Surpateanu from Citi spoke on tokens as the segway of financial institutions coming into the market. This is a highly recommended panel to watch that presents perspectives from all sides of the blockchain community. 

Watch the full Crossing the Chasm panel here: 

[ovvideo id=”8U5cLIdT”]

How to join The Alliance

At Outlier Ventures we want to partner with, support and invest in projects working to realise The Convergence Stack whether early-stage startups, later stage projects, corporates, governments, and academia. Being part of the Alliance allows parties to develop a commercial advantage in partnership with the next Internet. With benefits such as knowledge, access, influence, and presence. 

Please contact partnership@outlierventures.io to join the Alliance.

For more information on the Convergence Alliance and how to join, please watch here: 

[ovvideo id=”rARBT2bo”]

This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. This article does not amount to an invitation or inducement to buy or sell an investment nor does it solicit any such offer or invitation in any jurisdiction.

In all cases, readers should conduct their own investigation and analysis of the data in the article. All statements of opinion and/or belief contained in this article and all views expressed and all projections, forecasts or statements relating to expectations regarding future events represent Outlier Ventures Operation Limited own assessment and interpretation of information available as at the date of this article.

 No responsibility or liability is accepted by Outlier Ventures Operations Limited or Sapia Partners LLP for reliance on the contents of this article.

Outlier Ventures is an Appointed Representative of Sapia Partners LLP, a firm authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Stay in the loop

Subscribe to our weekly overview of the crypto market.