On Tuesday March 26th of 2019 about 120 people from around the world gathered in Amsterdam to learn all about Grin, its philosophy and the latest updates on the project.

The event was held at Lil’ Amsterdam, a brand new bar in the Amsterdam Central Station.

Besides the attendees there was a livestream available, that generated 188 unique viewers watching from around the world.

The event kicked off with a speech of Ignotus Peverell, the founder of Grin, who mentioned how important the Dutch community is for the development of Grin.

After the intro by Ignotus, Daniel Lehnberg took the stage. Daniel gave the audience a warm welcome before he presented an introduction about Grin.

Next up was Micheal Cordner a.k.a. Yeastplume, one of the core developers, who talked about the next steps and the future of Grin.

Wilke Trei, researcher from the University of Oldenburg and John Tromp, a renowned computer scientist and member of the Grin Council, talked about their latest invention in the field of mining. For the first time people could see their invention on stage with a demonstration on how miners with less memory can largely eliminate their efficiency backlogs for the primary Grin mining algorithm.

After a short break, it was time for the Q&A session, hosted by Jonathan Knegtel from Blockdata. People from audience and around the world could ask questions. For this Q&A Quentil Le Sceller and Jasper van de Maarel, two other Grin Council members joind the stage alongside Daniel, John and Michael. They closed the evening by answering the question by explaining the thought process by asnwering a question about the constant emission rate to which John replied: “It was the most easy and fair solution”

The evening was financially supported by Bitonic, Lemniscap and 0301 Mining Farm. Bitonic mentioned that they were glad to contribute to the event, and they were pleased with the number of attendees and the quality of the presentation and speakers.

One of the organizers of the event, Floris Bartels, said: “It was a great evening, we all learned a lot and everbody loved the underground feeling of the location. We want to thank the Grin core developers, the people attending and of course the sponsors who made this event possible. We keep supporting Grin wherever we can!”

Website: https://www.grinamsterdam.com/

YouTube Grin Amsterdam: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5cwWksnbHVaqwFcPTqq6VQ

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrinAmsterdam

Aftermovie of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm1usRL6N5w

[partners event recap] Grin enjoyed Amsterdam on March 26th was originally published in Blockchain Talks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Milan Ilchev

For the people moving up and down the busy streets of Amsterdam it was just an ordinary Thursday. However, for the growing number of tech enthusiasts seeking information about blockchain initiatives, DLT (distributed ledger technology), and cryptocurrencies it was time for another Meetup.

That is right, on the 11th of October at Meet Berlage (Amsterdam), Blockchain Talks (“BCT”) was again sold out for its 12th edition. It was a busy evening with 3 main parts, a networking round, and an unexpected surprise. Let us not waste any more time and dive into the highlights of our last BCT Meetup.

The stage was first given to Bas Wisselink, co-founder and trainer at Blockchain Workspace. He took this opportunity to share his views and ideas on how people should approach blockchain projects. Bas noted the importance of setting up clear goals and the need for functional systems targeting specific problems. Indeed, as Bas stated, it is time to make blockchain useful.

In reality, it seems this is easier said than done. During the last year, we all witnessed how the bullish market of cryptos paved the way for a number of scam projects and badly planned initiatives. This pushed the general public to raise its understanding of the technology. In order to stay competitive new blockchain projects began to expand their effective scope. Thus, today the digital ecosystem is oversaturated with a number of tech solution promising great things. In simple words, the threshold for developers now is a bit higher than what it used to be.

The sustainable driven lecture of Bas stressed the need for redefining what projects should avoid and aim for, in order to move forward. The “feature creep problem”, wrong incentive schemes (allowing speculation with tokens) and badly instituted governance mechanisms (halting decentralization) are some of the main issues that should be addressed.

This view resonated with the audience and triggered a healthy discussion. Following which Bas shared his three main recommendations: 1) “Blockchains which jettison core design principles are useless at best, fraudulent at worst.”; 2) “Clear insight of the underlying issue, not naive assumptions about the problem which seems interesting.”; 3) “Blockchain projects cannot assume that because Bitcoin works, this automatically means they will work.” This closing statement was met with a wave of applause, it was clear that Bas got his message across.

The second person to take over the stage was Chris Dawe, CEO at Effect.AI. For those who do not know, Effect Force is a Dutch-based A.I. project decentralizing the employer-employee relationship and fine-tuning AI algorithms using human input. Chris and his team found a way of making a platform facilitating a global workforce with no direct intermediaries. Those who find the idea interesting should definitely check their website, it is just one click away.

During his talk, Chris shared about the problems his team faced and how their vision came to reality. This aside, it was not a coincidence that Chris joined the 12th edition of BCT. On the 11th of October, Effect Force launched its first product. In addition, some “easter eggs” were dropped, however, if you dear reader were not able to join us last Thursday you will need to wait till the 29th of November. On that day, the full platform of Effect force shall be launched.

Another announcement was made by Eleonore Blanc from btc.com — it was about upcoming #BCHDEVCON — Bitcoin Cash Hackathon. Find more info here, it’s only a week left.

These announcements energized the audience and ignited the curiosity of several people, who did not waste time to raise their questions. It was great to see what happens when blockchain projects are done right.

Earlier a short reference was made about an unexpected surprise. It is time to share with you what it was all about. Just before the networking round, our hosts announced that they are adding a new item to the agenda of future BCT editions. The code name for that new item is KYA or “Know Your Audience”. During that time slot, everyone shall have the opportunity to get on stage and share their project. It seems now everyone can be part of the show. It goes without saying that people did make use of this opportunity.

After the last person, who wanted to take the stage was done, the event continued with a networking round, called #beer2beer session. Despite the fact that there were quite some new faces, people were interacting with ease as always. The abundance of different professional backgrounds led to insightful discussions. The most recurring topic was related to the final event of the night — the battle of permissioned vs permissionless blockchain(s).

The debate between permissioned blockchains (“PBC”) vs permissionless blockchains (“PSBC”) is not a new topic for those who have been engaged in the crypto field prior to 2018. In its essence PBC act as closed (private) ecosystems, where users are not freely able to join the network, see the recorded history, or issue transactions of their own. Permissioned blockchains operate on the basis of delegated rights and segmentation. Mostly they are preferred by centralized organizations (e.g. corporations). As an already functioning example of a PBC one can point to the collaboration between the Linux Foundation and IBM which resulted in Hyperledger.

In contrast, PSBC or public blockchains allow every user to interact with the network without prior authorization or restrictions. Additionally, all parties have the opportunity of running a node or employ mining protocols to help verify transactions. One of the most widespread public PSBS is the Etheriumecosystem.

Prefer watching the battle? Check out the recordings from the livestream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN28K_JtVjc&t=130s

On the 11th of October, BCT hosted two well-known Dutch-based blockchain professionals which were ready to flex their knowledge in order to prove to the crowd which type of system is more advantageous. Defending PBC and sharing his views on the corporate integration of blockchain systems was Frans Kempen, Blockchain Lead for Logistics & Supply Chain Industry at IBM. On the opposing side, elaborating on the benefits of PSBC and the risks of utilizing permissioned ecosystems (e.g. “Oracle problem”), was Justin Bons — cofounder and investment strategist at Cyber Capital.

The debate started with Frans making an introductory statement stressing on the need for tech solutions to meet the requirements of businesses. He supported his claim with the use case and benefits of Hyperledger in the automotive, food and mining industries. This platform allows cheap transactions, provided that the nodes are privately owned and do not require public mining to keep the operation going. Immediate finality, privacy, and enforceability of smart contract are additional benefits which are offered by PBC systems.

This statement was met, with an immediate response made by Justin. He agreed that PBC does allow for low-cost transactions, however, they are more expensive to set-up. In addition, they are more vulnerable provided that the system points which can be targeted for an attack are not dispersed as in the case of PSBC. In addition, transparency (on PBC) cannot be guaranteed in the same manner as it is currently available in PSBC projects.

It is true that both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. This being said, both Frans and Justin agreed that the main question which should be asked is not which type of blockchain is better. Rather developers should look at the objective and needs it needs to meet.

This battle of minds was probably the best way for the main program of the 12th edition of BCT to be closed. After all, “for good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate”.

The main part of the BCT was over, but following a long tradition of Beer2Beer follow-ups, the participants of this Meetup decided to continue their passionate discussions. In retrospect, the more informal environment, the attention for detail on behalf of our hosts and the presence of people with diverse experience shaped this BCT Meetup as an outstanding experience. Do not waste time, secure your ticket and become part of the Blockchain Talks society. It is just a click away

Become part of the Blockchain Talks community: https://t.me/blockchaintalkz

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Blockchain Talks #12 - EVENT RECAP was originally published in Blockchain Talks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

written by Petar Panayotov

“No-one is around in August.” — they’ve said.

“It’s a waste of effort to organize Meetups in the peak-summer time.” — they’ve said.

“People wouldn’t show up for anything that does not have trigger words like — beach, terrace or rooftop.” — they’ve said.

Many things have been said and probably there is a basis for those claims, but let me tell you this — there are many people in August and they do show up for Meetups where the trigger topics are blockchain, DLT, cryptocurrencies, and ICO Shark Tank.

You’ve guessed it right, dear reader — on Thursday, August 16th @ Meet Berlage, Amsterdam — Blockchain Talks (“BCT”) was sold out for its 10thedition — and what a treat that was for all!

The evening had 3 main segments — two speakers followed up by a networking interlude and finishing with ICO Shark Tank. The scene was set and the full room was gasping with curiosity.

First on stage came Elian Huesca from Criptonerds who wanted to educate the crowd about the topic of “Blockchain in Latin America” — and indeed he did.

He’s a general data-driven overview of the dispersal of nodes, Bitcoin ATMs, miners and general usage of the technology globally was quite insightful, emphasizing on the role that the Latin region had in the field. After the warm-up, he took us for a ride in the economic and socio-political reasons why the technology has a lot of use potential there and what the struggles faced were. Logically, he stressed on the most impactful use case today of blockchain in payments for the region — remittances. Did you know that the biggest foreign capital inflow, after oil trade, to the region was remittances? He made it clear what is the importance of removing the rent-seekers like the Western Union, Money Gram, Ria and the likes from this equation.

Furthermore, he did not shy out of looking at other use cases of FinTech in the field of crowdfunding, lending and crypto payments and the great benefit they could bring to the region. Unfortunately, socio-political and regulatory troubles were in the way of a more mass-adoption of FinTech solutions — people and companies were not looking at cross-border use cases, but we’re focusing more inwards — Elian shared. In his opinion, steps in the right direction towards a more progressive regulatory framework were happening — namely in Mexico, but the effort was going slow and there is lack of international cooperation between the states and businesses at this point and time.

The Venezuelan Petro Cryptocurrency was obviously an interesting topic for Elian, where he was excited of the social geo-political experiment and precedent that it portrait as a capital enabler against sanctions. Nonetheless, he and most of the vocal crowd on this topic was sharing the opinion that this Petro effort is nothing more than a scheme to aid the Maduro’s government that has taken bad financial steps leading to the national monetary crisis. One could easily observe the passion that Elian shared for the topic and his region.

Second to rock the stage came Kyle Asman from BX3 Capital with his topic of Crypto Compliance. He started his talk with some interactive questions surrounding the price of making an ICO and how unprepared many of the “successful” ones out there are. Having no good idea on how to structure their operations after the global-capital-gathering in order to be compliant with regulations, or circumvent wasteful spending, they often do not meet the trust vested in them by the investors. He shared his observations from the field and how a lack of knowledge of the regulatory framework is a big impediment for the sphere in the US and beyond.

Kyle’s bit was quite interactive and was more of a Q&A session which the crowd loved and was excited to see his expertise and ease of giving answers to the issues thrown at him. The range was vast and was including the best jurisdictional place to set-up mining operations at related to government funding and tax-easing. Furthermore, he gave answers on how to save up on tax when you’re constructing your token model depending on the type of financial instrument that they represent — utility, security etc.. He was prepared also to tackle the questions regarding the possible SEC ETF topic and give his peace of mind based on his talks with different stakeholders from NY state and beyond.

He did not shy away from sharing his comprehensive overview of the evolution of the field and the different financial services that are on their way and what that would bring for wider adoption of the digital asset class that crypto is. Kyle’s readiness and ease to elaborate on these complex issues left no one in doubt of his expertise.

The event went on with a well-deserved networking interlude for the presenters and the crowd alike. Every time it is a pleasure to see the ease with which the people at BCT Meetup interact with each other. The magic really comes to life when you see the participants from all walks of life and fields start excitingly interact with a drink in hand. Without a doubt, the effect is being multiplied by the magnificent venue that the @Meet Berlage is offering and the kind and fun hosts who are attending all of our needs! Cheers to that!

Finally, after some expected troubles of getting people to leave their sweet talks and back to the presenting hall, the event went to its official last segment — the ICO Sharktank!

The ones that found themselves this time in the cage were the nice people from #BINKABI namely Quan Le and Manrui Tang.

A short introduction of the project would be that they are trying to tackle the inefficiencies of Exchange Traded Commodities (ETC’s) with the emphasis on the agro-trade for emerging markets. They’ve presented the current state which is filled with frictions and inefficient rent-seeking middlemen that can be excluded for the benefit of a fairer system for end users and farmers alike. They’re a group of specialists with a clear vision of optimizing the field by addressing the problems. Seeking a $20mil funding ICO, they strive to create a digital decentralized platform — BinkabiDEX — that would create a fairer exchange accessible for more stakeholders and creating more liquidity for the market of the, currently illiquid assets such as grain, rice, coffee and more. Furthermore, their approach towards cutting fees with the native utility token Barter Block that can circumvent the use of USD, that in many cases brings to unnecessary costs of FX transactions. On top of that, it was pleasing to see that their plan was not only left on a piece of paper somewhere on a desk, but they were actively pursuing partnerships and were building a network for the physical infrastructure that would enable the storage of the agriculture assets that can make instruments like financial forwards and futures possible.

The presenters were showered by questions from the judges and crowd trying to make more sense of the project and its problem-solution based methodology. Some were satisfied, some not so much, but let’s be honest — a project of such scale filled with terminologies cannot be discussed in its entirety with such a short pitch.

In my personal opinion, I was pleased by it and the prepared answers provided by Quan Le and Manrui Tang showing a deep knowledge of the mechanisms and the whole supply and value chain that the field has. Even more, I was pleased by the interchanging roles that they were taking in providing clarity of the issues. We wish them only success with making this project a reality and bringing value to the world. For more information, please refer to their whitepaper — it is worth the time!

After the last segment was done, people were tired but left with valuable questions to take home and contemplate over. After all, this is the greatest gift that such a community can give — the appetite to know more in order to help and grow.

Unfortunately, I am not authorized to share the amazing topics that were discussed on the last bonus Beer2Beer segment that followed the Meetup, but can only tell you it is worth joining and experiencing the social magic that the lovely people from BlockchainTalks have managed to create again.

With this I would like to thank all participants and Gusts for joining the event — it was a true pleasure to rub shoulders with you all and hope to see you on the next monthly editions that are to follow with the BCT community.

P.S. Don’t waste any time — secure your ticket for the next edition while there’s time. If the August edition was sold out quickly, just imagine what would be after people are back from holidays. The best is yet to be.

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Blockchain Talks #10 - EVENT RECAP was originally published in Blockchain Talks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For the people moving up and down the busy streets of Amsterdam it was just an ordinary Thursday. However, for the growing number of tech enthusiasts seeking information about blockchain initiatives, DLT (distributed ledger technology), and cryptocurrencies it was time for another Meetup.

That is right, on the 11th of October at Meet Berlage (Amsterdam), Blockchain Talks (“BCT”) was again sold out for its 12th edition. It was a busy evening with 3 main parts, a networking round, and an unexpected surprise. Let us not waste any more time and dive into the highlights of our last BCT Meetup.

The stage was first given to Bas Wisselink, co-founder and trainer at Blockchain Workspace. He took this opportunity to share his views and ideas on how people should approach blockchain projects. Bas noted the importance of setting up clear goals and the need for functional systems targeting specific problems. Indeed, as Bas stated, it is time to make blockchain useful.

In reality, it seems this is easier said than done. During the last one year, we all witnessed how the bullish market of cryptos paved the way for a number of scam projects and badly planned initiatives. This pushed the general public to raise its understanding of the technology. In order to stay competitive new blockchain projects began to expand their effective scope. Thus, today the digital ecosystem is oversaturated with a number of tech solution promising great things. In simple words, the threshold for developers now is a bit higher than what it used to be.

The sustainable driven lecture of Bas stressed the need for redefining what projects should avoid and aim for, in order to move forward. The “feature creep problem”, wrong incentive schemes (allowing speculation with tokens) and badly instituted governance mechanisms (halting decentralization) are some of the main issues that should be addressed.

This view resonated with the audience and triggered a healthy discussion. Following which Bas shared his three main recommendations: 1) “Blockchains which jettison core design principles are useless at best, fraudulent at worst.”; 2) “Clear insight of the underlying issue, not naive assumptions about the problem which seems interesting.”; 3) “Blockchain projects cannot assume that because Bitcoin works, this automatically means they will work.” This closing statement was met with a wave of applause, it was clear that Bas got his message across.

The second person to take over the stage was Chris Dawe, CEO at Effect.AI. For those who do not know, Effect Force is a Dutch-based A.I. project decentralizing the employer-employee relationship and fine-tuning AI algorithms using human input. Chris and his team found a way of making a platform facilitating a global workforce with no direct intermediaries. Those who find the idea interesting should definitely check their website, it is just one click away.

During his talk, Chris shared about the problems his team faced and how their vision came to reality. This aside, it was not a coincidence that Chris joined the 12th edition of BCT. On the 11th of October, Effect Force launched their first product. In addition, some “easter eggs” were dropped, however, if you dear reader were not able to join us last Thursday you will need to wait till the 29th of November. On that day, the full platform of Effect force shall be launched.

Another announcement was made by Eleonore Blanc from btc.com — it was about upcoming #BCHDEVCON — Bitcoin Cash Hackathon. Find more info here, it’s only a week left.

These announcements energized the audience and ignited the curiosity of several people, who did not waste time to raise their questions. It was great to see what happens when blockchain projects are done right.

Earlier a short reference was made about an unexpected surprise. It is time to share with you what it was all about. Just before the networking round, our hosts announced that they are adding a new item to the agenda of future BCT editions. The code name for that new item is KYA or “Know Your Audience”. During that time slot, everyone shall have the opportunity to get on stage and share about their project. It seems now everyone can be part of the show. It goes without saying that people did make use of this opportunity.

After the last person, who wanted to take the stage was done, the event continued with a networking round, called #beer2beer session. Despite the fact that there were quite some new faces, people were interacting with ease as always. The abundance of different professional backgrounds led to insightful discussions. The most recurring topic was related to the final event of the night — the battle of permissioned vs permissionless blockchain(s).

The debate between permissioned blockchains (“PBC”) vs permissionless blockchains (“PSBC”) is not a new topic for those who have been engaged in the crypto field prior to 2018. In its essence PBC act as closed (private) ecosystems, where users are not freely able to join the network, see the recorded history, or issue transactions of their own. Permissioned blockchains operate on the basis of delegated rights and segmentation. Mostly they are preferred by centralized organizations (e.g. corporations). As an already functioning example of a PBC one can point to the collaboration between the Linux Foundation and IBM which resulted in Hyperledger.

In contrast, PSBC or public blockchains allow every user to interact with the network without prior authorization or restrictions. Additionally, all parties have the opportunity of running a node or employ mining protocols to help verify transactions. One of the most widespread public PSBS is the Etherium ecosystem.

Prefer watching the battle? Check out the recordings from the livestream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN28K_JtVjc&t=130s

On the 11th of October, BCT hosted two well-known Dutch-based blockchain professionals which were ready to flex their knowledge in order to prove to the crowd which type of system is more advantageous. Defending PBC and sharing his views on the corporate integration of blockchain systems was Frans Kempen, Blockchain Lead for Logistics & Supply Chain Industry at IBM. On the opposing side, elaborating on the benefits of PSBC and the risks of utilizing permissioned ecosystems (e.g. “Oracle problem”), was Justin Bons — cofounder and investment strategist at Cyber Capital.

The debate started with Frans making an introductory statement stressing on the need for tech solutions to meet the requirements of businesses. He supported his claim with the use case and benefits of Hyperledger in the automotive, food and mining industries. This platform allows cheap transactions, provided that the nodes are privately owned and do not require public mining to keep the operation going. Immediate finality, privacy, and enforceability of smart contract are additional benefits which are offered by PBC systems.

This statement was met, with an immediate response made by Justin. He agreed that PBC does allow for low-cost transactions, however, they are more expensive to set-up. In addition, they are more vulnerable provided that the system points which can be targeted for an attack are not dispersed as in the case of PSBC. In addition, transparency (on PBC) cannot be guaranteed in the same manner as it is currently available in PSBC projects.

It is true that both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. This being said, both Frans and Justin agreed that the main question which should be asked is not which type of blockchain is better. Rather developers should look at the objective and needs it needs to meet.

This battle of minds was probably the best way for the main program of the 12th edition of BCT to be closed. After all, “for good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate”.

The main part of the BCT was over, but following a long tradition of Beer2Beer follow-ups, the participants of this Meetup decided to continue their passionate discussions. In retrospect, the more informal environment, the attention for detail on behalf of our hosts and the presence of people with diverse experience shaped this BCT Meetup as an outstanding experience. Do not waste time, secure your ticket and become part of the Blockchain Talks society. It is just a click away

Become part of the Blockchain Talks community: https://t.me/blockchaintalkz