Recently, we attended BlockWorld in San Jose, billed as the world’s largest Blockchain Developer & Technology event, with thousands of developers attending from around the world. Our CPO Marc Blinder gave a talk on the main stage about how to get to blockchain mass adoption, we demo’d our platform in Startup Alley, our dApp developer, Tyler Kuhn and CTO, Tray Lewin gave a workshop of our newest dService: ORE ID: One-click Login for dApps, and we were thrilled to have been chosen as finalist for the pitch competition.
Because we all love a good listicle, we’ve distilled our notes into the top five things we learned at BlockWorld.
[1.] Everyone is learning
With every blockchain related event that we’ve been to: we’re seeing first and foremost that developers are in the very early phases of learning, testing & tinkering with Blockchain solutions. It’s been consistently surprising to see that even for events geared towards blockchain developers, the majority of attendees aren’t dApp developers, but just starting to learn what the technology can provide for their ideas, products and services. That said, it’s exciting to see how many people are interested in the technology and this space, beyond the “When Moon” crowd.
At BlockWorld, of the people who came by our booth, about half were developers, and of those, about two-thirds are just beginning to learn about blockchain development. Of those who were already up to speed, most had been working on Ethereum, but many were looking at other blockchains and ecosystems to develop on in the future.
To sum it up — we’re seeing a greater need for blockchain-related education — developers need to be able to learn quickly, product owners and founders need ways to get up to speed on how to integrate blockchain in their products, and the whole process needs to be easier for everyone. (On a slight tangent, this was a great piece by Haseeb Qureshi a few weeks back — the Hard Thing about Learning Hard Things.)
Over the next few months, we’re going to be working to put together some blockchain education, roll out and lead some workshops focused on dApp development, and curate and share some of the great work that’s already out there.
We’re also going to continue our quest to talk to as many individuals as we can. If you haven’t yet completed our developer survey, we’ve been reading through the responses individually — we’d love to learn about what you are building, and how we can help. (You can take the survey on API.market by creating an account with your Github auth; it’ll pop right up on your welcome dashboard.)
[ 2.] Every industry is going to be disintermediated by blockchain.
Our Chief Product Officer, Marc Blinder, gave a main stage presentation at BlockWorld — that we heard from many was one of the best of the event (thank you!) — a dive into how blockchain is going to change every industry.
He talked about some of the most amazing use cases for potential for blockchain to change everything from financial systems to virtual biology, energy to gaming, social impact to deep space exploration like our partners HADRON are doing with with Hubble space astronomers.
But he also shared that right now we’re facing challenges that need to be solved — there are still many barriers to reach mass adoption for these great projects:
- Smart contracts are error prone — and permanent
- Blockchain building blocks are too limited
- Standard IDs don’t work with public private keys
- Payment systems don’t work together
In order for the amazing projects we are seeing in the burgeoning decentralized ecosystem are going to reach their promise, these challenges must be addressed — and that’s where AIKON comes in.
Our ORE Protocol elegantly handles these challenges, and API.market is our super simple front-end UI that gives developers an easy way to use the protocol and our suite of tools to create, operate & monetize their own decentralized services on blockchain. (If you are Developer and want to connect with us, join us on Telegram where our tech team is always around to engage and answer questions.)
[ 3.] We must work together as a community
Blockchain is already making an impact all over the world, but the industry is in a challenging moment. We need mass adoption, real world impact, and better public perception if we want to continue growing this industry. This means a focus on working together, working to build to higher standards, and helping each other where we can.
For us, this also means working together with other blockchain companies, building together, putting together education events, workshops, and sharing speaking opportunities and press.
The path to mass adoption of blockchain will take a significant amount of collaboration. And we’re seeing this go both ways — some of the most successful operators in blockchain right now are the ones building community solutions that are truly applicable to people across the world.
We’re looking to build not just our projects in a microcosm, but a global community of engaged people working to solve some of the world’s biggest problems with blockchain. If we build together we win together.
[ 4. ] We are on the right track — we got a lot of validation that what we are building is necessary.
Hands down one of the best parts of any conference has been the opportunity to talk to developers about what we’re building, and learn more about what they need.
In talking with developers at our booth, Identity was definitely top of mind, so giving users an easier path to on-boarding with our “OAuth for blockchain” tool, ORE ID, really resonated. More good feedback? How easy API.market makes it to use smart contracts with simple clicks of the button.
In a fun turn of events, we were chosen as a finalist in the pitch competition. Our CMO, Gretchen Fox, and CTO, Tray Lewin got up to give a great pitch, and we were awarded Honorable Mention. We’ll take it!
We were in good competition with some really great companies up there pitching. (Virtual high five to the team from TrueCerts — building Blockchain powered digital certificates — for their win!)
[ 5. ] People REALLY LOVE CHOCOLATE OREOS.
Our delicious chocolate-dipped, branded “ORE-eos” were a huge hit. But we probably shouldn’t have been surprised! Our employee taste tests showed very promising early results.
Missed your opportunity to try one? We *might* have some more in the company kitchen refrigerator we‘ll ship to the first 50 people to join our Telegram and say: Send me some ORE-eos please!
Want to connect with us at our next event — we’ll be at Blockchain Week SF and BlockCon! Ping us on Telegram and let us know you’ll be there.