I was living the dream I landed a job at
a major Wall Street financial banking
firm right after graduation I moved to
New York City every Thursday night my
firm would throw penthouse parties where
I got to enjoy a view like this I’d have
to work really hard but I knew my career
was set when I came on to Wall Street I
came on as a software engineer I had to
go through intense financial markets
bootcamp training the same people who
trained me are people who trained the
presidents of the United States all this
training I learned about different
financial models different players
ratings agencies all that stuff but I’ve
dropped all the end of that training I
came away with this takeaway that the
only reason financial instruments like
stocks are worth what they’re worth is
because that’s what people say what
they’re worth that threw me for a loop
that some people’s perception creates
everyone’s reality but hey you know
these well-groomed Ivy League graduates
where our traders are quants leaders in
our industry our CEO surely they knew
what was going on and wasn’t I so lucky
because I was selected to be on this
ride and maybe one day I too would have
a penthouse in Manhattan that was just
after graduation summer 2007 so
all right so by December by December
2007 the financial markets crashed our
CEO was ousted our firm’s stock dropped
80%
I remember one weekend hearing that our
investment bank was forced into a merger
with another by the government I wasn’t
sure when I came in on Monday if I could
push open the door to get into our
building within the next two years
almost all of my cohort was laid off I
had landed at the mouth of the Great
Recession and my big lesson was nobody
enter Bitcoin bitcoin was born around
this time and its central premise is
similar to my takeaway that maybe we
shouldn’t be trusting all these
traditional institutions with our
affairs maybe there’s a way to operate
without them
bitcoin is a digital currency sure
you’ve heard about it in the news but
there’s so much more to it the engine
behind the Bitcoin its blockchain
network is really the bigger deal here
that is surely going to touch all your
careers and change the trajectory of
your future so let’s learn about it well
before we do that let’s talk about
what’s been traditionally done in our
record-keeping
we have always relied on institutions
for our record-keeping in to handle our
affairs and that’s really a vestige of a
time when we weren’t so well connected
so we had to seek institutions that were
say better better located or had more
physical security the capacity to keep
records the education to do so because
for much of history most of us were
illiterate
so this record-keeping was kept siloed
and away from the public well the
Bitcoin network takes advantage of the
fact that we are connected like never
before
this is the Bitcoin network its
geopolitically spread as you see and
anyone can be on this network all they
need is a connection to the internet and
also to be able to download Bitcoin core
software which is an open source
software so there are no special
permissions needed to be on this network
I said distributed network
let’s talk about that a little bit more
to understand its significance to do
that let’s compare it to traditional
networks like centralized networks in a
centralized network there’s one major
component or player that has superior
readwrite access to a record the network
is highly dependent on that player so
for example the Federal Reserve telling
us how much money and currency how much
money is in circulation we kind of have
to rely on that central player but that
network is very vulnerable
a hacker knows exactly where to attack
and if that central player fails in some
way the whole network fails even in a
decentralized network that maybe has a
consortium of major players like our
major financial banks there are still
points where a hacker can attack and
take down a significant amount of the
network in a distributed network however
a network like bitcoins every player has
the ability to have equal read/write
access over the record and has their own
copy of them of the record so even if a
hacker takes down a node or a player the
network is not compromised let’s take a
look at an actual Bitcoin transaction so
notice here we’re able to see the entire
history of a Bitcoin an amount of
Bitcoin from its origin to every point
in which it is transacted so we have
transparency here but the interesting
thing about bitcoins network is that
there’s also this de-identification so
although we can tell that this Bitcoin
amount has moved between accounts we
can’t tell what those accounts are who
they belong to
so there’s transparency but there’s also
privacy I want a peek under the hood a
little bit more so you can understand
why the record is called a blockchain
and why that’s so revolutionary so in
bitcoins network all players are called
nodes and some players elect to take
part in the validation scheme of the
record these are called miners what
happens on this network is every ten
minutes all transactions are broadcast
to all the miners in the network and
then the miners begin a race to trace
those transactions to Val
date them and then apply complicated
mathematical and cryptographic processes
to batch those transactions and offer
them for review to the other miners when
the other miners come to a consensus
that yes this batch this block is valid
then the original proposer
is awarded Bitcoin and this happens
every 10 minutes so here we have this
record that’s distributed that uses
state-of-the-art cryptographic processes
that has this incentivisation scheme to
going on between these people who do not
even know each other so because we rely
on everyone we rely on no one and that’s
what makes this record tamper proof and
it could be the engine for so much more
than just Bitcoin all right so we talked
about currency but what if we program
other types of tokens to encapsulate
other types of assets we have so for
example your weak force degree right now
anyone can go on LinkedIn and say that
they graduated from Wake Forest
imposters who do that devalue your
degree what if instead Wake Forest
issued a token that was their degree so
if it was ever in question whether or
not you truly graduated from Wake Forest
someone could track that token to see
that it originated at Wake Forest on the
blockchain another example is our
creative assets imagine we have tokens
that could encapsulate our digital art
our photography our video ography our
literature in an artist could actually
track where her token is going in the
stream of Commerce and monetize off it
automatically whichever account it goes
to no longer is she reliant on pennies
per click on ad space she doesn’t have
to rely on a publisher this is a whole
new way of monetizing on our
intellectual property medical health
records this is really big we we have
just terrible interoperability between
our hospitals right now every time you
go on vacation you’re taking a risk
if you go to your destination and you
get injured your physician there will
not be able to access your records back
home this compromises your care what if
instead we had a token that could
encapsulate our medical health records
and could be in D encrypted and
downloaded by people with appropriate
permissions that would improve your
quality of care components of our
identity that can be segregated and
tokenized too right now when you go to
the bar and you get carted you have to
show the bartender your name your
address and your actual date of birth
because you’re handing over your
driver’s license well what if instead
the DMV issued tokens one of which was
was one that had your face or your image
and also automatically calculated
whether or not you are over 21 that way
you only have to show the the bartender
that token and he or she could
automatically trace whether or not that
truly came from the DMV this mitigates
the risk of identity theft supply chain
management this is huge all major
players in supply chain management are
looking at the blockchain as a way to be
able to trace supplies from their origin
to the end consumer this has so many
life life-changing and life-saving
possibilities for example each year half
a million people die from foodborne
illnesses so companies like dole are
looking at the blockchain to be able to
see where foods come from and when
things go wrong they can quickly pull
foods that are from a bad source from
the market all right home titles this is
also really big in developing nations
people who own assets are at risk every
time their unstable government changes
because all of a sudden the government
and their cronies say oh you don’t
really open that property you know one
of our friends do this leads to bribery
and corruption what if instead people
were able to track title to their homes
on the blockchain and this
geopolitically spread network so that it
could survive whatever regime change
there is and this isn’t just big in the
developing world
Cook County Illinois is also looking to
put land title records on the blockchain
so that people don’t have to go to an
attorney or title searcher to validate
whether a seller for example has title
to be able to give that house what else
can this technology do well if this
technology is emerging so you get to the
side think about it
what data needs to be private
authenticated secured yet readily
accessible where do we have needs for
better interoperability in this coming
age of artificial intelligence and the
Internet of Things we’re going to have
to have validated data to set up these
systems and that’s data from blockchain
as transformational though as this
technology is be very careful
lots of venture capitalists money is
pouring in which means fraudsters are
attracted to it so when you hear about
someone having some sort of blockchain
project be critical ask what blockchain
is a bitcoins blockchain what’s it’s
validation scheme how distributed is
that network how people incentivize are
there permissions for who can validate
that network know what you’re getting
into before you invest your time money
or your data into these projects well
you know back when I was in college my
senior year I was relaxing because I had
that firm firm offer in hand but this
guy I knew he was working really hard on
this company that was bringing cloud
computing to the hospitality industry
that company was called Airbnb cloud
computing was big blockchain
technologies is even bigger it’s the
next step in the evolution of the
Internet and it’ll change everything so
look into it
think about how you can harness it in
your careers if I could go back to that
time when I was at a rooftop in
Manhattan enjoying the view I would say
to myself enjoy that view you worked
hard for it but don’t ignore that
nagging feeling that maybe things don’t
have to be done the way they’ve always
been done because by the time everyone
else starts to figure that out you could
be well on your way to creating the new
reality
thank you [Applause]
a major Wall Street financial banking
firm right after graduation I moved to
New York City every Thursday night my
firm would throw penthouse parties where
I got to enjoy a view like this I’d have
to work really hard but I knew my career
was set when I came on to Wall Street I
came on as a software engineer I had to
go through intense financial markets
bootcamp training the same people who
trained me are people who trained the
presidents of the United States all this
training I learned about different
financial models different players
ratings agencies all that stuff but I’ve
dropped all the end of that training I
came away with this takeaway that the
only reason financial instruments like
stocks are worth what they’re worth is
because that’s what people say what
they’re worth that threw me for a loop
that some people’s perception creates
everyone’s reality but hey you know
these well-groomed Ivy League graduates
where our traders are quants leaders in
our industry our CEO surely they knew
what was going on and wasn’t I so lucky
because I was selected to be on this
ride and maybe one day I too would have
a penthouse in Manhattan that was just
after graduation summer 2007 so
all right so by December by December
2007 the financial markets crashed our
CEO was ousted our firm’s stock dropped
80%
I remember one weekend hearing that our
investment bank was forced into a merger
with another by the government I wasn’t
sure when I came in on Monday if I could
push open the door to get into our
building within the next two years
almost all of my cohort was laid off I
had landed at the mouth of the Great
Recession and my big lesson was nobody
enter Bitcoin bitcoin was born around
this time and its central premise is
similar to my takeaway that maybe we
shouldn’t be trusting all these
traditional institutions with our
affairs maybe there’s a way to operate
without them
bitcoin is a digital currency sure
you’ve heard about it in the news but
there’s so much more to it the engine
behind the Bitcoin its blockchain
network is really the bigger deal here
that is surely going to touch all your
careers and change the trajectory of
your future so let’s learn about it well
before we do that let’s talk about
what’s been traditionally done in our
record-keeping
we have always relied on institutions
for our record-keeping in to handle our
affairs and that’s really a vestige of a
time when we weren’t so well connected
so we had to seek institutions that were
say better better located or had more
physical security the capacity to keep
records the education to do so because
for much of history most of us were
illiterate
so this record-keeping was kept siloed
and away from the public well the
Bitcoin network takes advantage of the
fact that we are connected like never
before
this is the Bitcoin network its
geopolitically spread as you see and
anyone can be on this network all they
need is a connection to the internet and
also to be able to download Bitcoin core
software which is an open source
software so there are no special
permissions needed to be on this network
I said distributed network
let’s talk about that a little bit more
to understand its significance to do
that let’s compare it to traditional
networks like centralized networks in a
centralized network there’s one major
component or player that has superior
readwrite access to a record the network
is highly dependent on that player so
for example the Federal Reserve telling
us how much money and currency how much
money is in circulation we kind of have
to rely on that central player but that
network is very vulnerable
a hacker knows exactly where to attack
and if that central player fails in some
way the whole network fails even in a
decentralized network that maybe has a
consortium of major players like our
major financial banks there are still
points where a hacker can attack and
take down a significant amount of the
network in a distributed network however
a network like bitcoins every player has
the ability to have equal read/write
access over the record and has their own
copy of them of the record so even if a
hacker takes down a node or a player the
network is not compromised let’s take a
look at an actual Bitcoin transaction so
notice here we’re able to see the entire
history of a Bitcoin an amount of
Bitcoin from its origin to every point
in which it is transacted so we have
transparency here but the interesting
thing about bitcoins network is that
there’s also this de-identification so
although we can tell that this Bitcoin
amount has moved between accounts we
can’t tell what those accounts are who
they belong to
so there’s transparency but there’s also
privacy I want a peek under the hood a
little bit more so you can understand
why the record is called a blockchain
and why that’s so revolutionary so in
bitcoins network all players are called
nodes and some players elect to take
part in the validation scheme of the
record these are called miners what
happens on this network is every ten
minutes all transactions are broadcast
to all the miners in the network and
then the miners begin a race to trace
those transactions to Val
date them and then apply complicated
mathematical and cryptographic processes
to batch those transactions and offer
them for review to the other miners when
the other miners come to a consensus
that yes this batch this block is valid
then the original proposer
is awarded Bitcoin and this happens
every 10 minutes so here we have this
record that’s distributed that uses
state-of-the-art cryptographic processes
that has this incentivisation scheme to
going on between these people who do not
even know each other so because we rely
on everyone we rely on no one and that’s
what makes this record tamper proof and
it could be the engine for so much more
than just Bitcoin all right so we talked
about currency but what if we program
other types of tokens to encapsulate
other types of assets we have so for
example your weak force degree right now
anyone can go on LinkedIn and say that
they graduated from Wake Forest
imposters who do that devalue your
degree what if instead Wake Forest
issued a token that was their degree so
if it was ever in question whether or
not you truly graduated from Wake Forest
someone could track that token to see
that it originated at Wake Forest on the
blockchain another example is our
creative assets imagine we have tokens
that could encapsulate our digital art
our photography our video ography our
literature in an artist could actually
track where her token is going in the
stream of Commerce and monetize off it
automatically whichever account it goes
to no longer is she reliant on pennies
per click on ad space she doesn’t have
to rely on a publisher this is a whole
new way of monetizing on our
intellectual property medical health
records this is really big we we have
just terrible interoperability between
our hospitals right now every time you
go on vacation you’re taking a risk
if you go to your destination and you
get injured your physician there will
not be able to access your records back
home this compromises your care what if
instead we had a token that could
encapsulate our medical health records
and could be in D encrypted and
downloaded by people with appropriate
permissions that would improve your
quality of care components of our
identity that can be segregated and
tokenized too right now when you go to
the bar and you get carted you have to
show the bartender your name your
address and your actual date of birth
because you’re handing over your
driver’s license well what if instead
the DMV issued tokens one of which was
was one that had your face or your image
and also automatically calculated
whether or not you are over 21 that way
you only have to show the the bartender
that token and he or she could
automatically trace whether or not that
truly came from the DMV this mitigates
the risk of identity theft supply chain
management this is huge all major
players in supply chain management are
looking at the blockchain as a way to be
able to trace supplies from their origin
to the end consumer this has so many
life life-changing and life-saving
possibilities for example each year half
a million people die from foodborne
illnesses so companies like dole are
looking at the blockchain to be able to
see where foods come from and when
things go wrong they can quickly pull
foods that are from a bad source from
the market all right home titles this is
also really big in developing nations
people who own assets are at risk every
time their unstable government changes
because all of a sudden the government
and their cronies say oh you don’t
really open that property you know one
of our friends do this leads to bribery
and corruption what if instead people
were able to track title to their homes
on the blockchain and this
geopolitically spread network so that it
could survive whatever regime change
there is and this isn’t just big in the
developing world
Cook County Illinois is also looking to
put land title records on the blockchain
so that people don’t have to go to an
attorney or title searcher to validate
whether a seller for example has title
to be able to give that house what else
can this technology do well if this
technology is emerging so you get to the
side think about it
what data needs to be private
authenticated secured yet readily
accessible where do we have needs for
better interoperability in this coming
age of artificial intelligence and the
Internet of Things we’re going to have
to have validated data to set up these
systems and that’s data from blockchain
as transformational though as this
technology is be very careful
lots of venture capitalists money is
pouring in which means fraudsters are
attracted to it so when you hear about
someone having some sort of blockchain
project be critical ask what blockchain
is a bitcoins blockchain what’s it’s
validation scheme how distributed is
that network how people incentivize are
there permissions for who can validate
that network know what you’re getting
into before you invest your time money
or your data into these projects well
you know back when I was in college my
senior year I was relaxing because I had
that firm firm offer in hand but this
guy I knew he was working really hard on
this company that was bringing cloud
computing to the hospitality industry
that company was called Airbnb cloud
computing was big blockchain
technologies is even bigger it’s the
next step in the evolution of the
Internet and it’ll change everything so
look into it
think about how you can harness it in
your careers if I could go back to that
time when I was at a rooftop in
Manhattan enjoying the view I would say
to myself enjoy that view you worked
hard for it but don’t ignore that
nagging feeling that maybe things don’t
have to be done the way they’ve always
been done because by the time everyone
else starts to figure that out you could
be well on your way to creating the new
reality
thank you [Applause]
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