Autor Cointelegraph By Editorial Staff

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!This week, our 6 Questions go to Dominik Schiener, a co-founder of the Iota Foundation, a nonprofit organization, and the creator of the Tangle, a permissionless, multi-dimensional distributed ledger designed as a foundation of a global protocol for all things connected.  Dominik Schiener is a co-founder and the chairman of the Iota Foundation, one of the largest and greenest cryptocurrency ecosystems in the world. The Iota Foundation’s mission is to support the research and development of new distributed ledger technologies, including the Iota Tangle. Raised in Italy, Dominik oversees partnerships and the overall realization of the project’s vision toward the machine economy. He is a strong advocate for research-based, community-vetted, transparent developments in the cryptocurrency sector.1 — If you were investing in startup companies right now, what kind of blockchain-based business opportunity would catch your eye?I’d go all-in on startups focused on the intersection of Web2 and Web3. We’re in a transitional period that’s going to last for a long time, and embracing this ongoing transition is smart from both a financial and technical point of view. Companies helping the centralized world move into the decentralized one — and vice versa — are the present and the future. This includes crypto banking, fiat gateways, NFT marketplaces, and so on. The biggest barriers to adoption are user experience, not scaling. Focusing on and investing in UX is the road to mass adoption and to the new world of Web3.2 — Which people do you find most inspiring, most interesting, and most fun in this space?I’m drawn to people who have endured and risen above hardship in their personal and professional lives and have become more capable leaders as a result. Naturally, I’m inspired by people like Vitalik Buterin within the crypto space, but I also admire Ray Dalio, whose innovations — and thinking — transformed traditional finance long before crypto even existed.3 — What is the single most innovative use case for blockchain you’ve ever seen? It may not be the one likeliest to succeed!I’m increasingly enthusiastic about algorithmic stablecoins. I’m fascinated by their mechanics and their possibilities. They are, of course, highly experimental, and some may just fail, causing investors to lose millions. Even so, these stablecoins have enormous potential to onboard retail investors and offer a new way to transact. I believe they are crucial to mainstream adoption, so I certainly hope they’re likely to succeed.4 — What’s the most interesting place you’ve ever visited, and why?I’m a mountain guy. I grew up in the Alps, so I’m probably a little biased. My favorite places are remote areas in the mountains, where you’re far from civilization and can really take a moment to step back, reflect, and appreciate the beauty of our world. That kind of tranquility is the best way to take a break from the crypto madness. I love being in a place where the only reminder of the modern world is the occasional airplane overhead. I love Südtirol [in northern Italy] in particular.5 — Which movie alternate universe would you most like to live in, and why?I’m going to go with Avatar. It’s such a stunningly gorgeous and fully realized world. I love the look of that movie and the deep importance it places on the interconnectedness of nature. If I’m a nature guy on Earth, I figure I’m a nature guy on other planets, too. Living in an alternate reality and becoming part of the Na’vi tribe sounds like an amazing exploration adventure.6 — What should we be teaching our kids?Financial literacy still isn’t the priority — it should be within education, and the sooner that changes, the better. I also think there needs to be a bigger emphasis on philosophy and, more specifically, ethics. Science and technology are developing more rapidly than ever before in human history, and we simply can’t have a generation that is unable to think critically about the human element of these developments. We know about the dangers of technical advancement without ethical boundaries — there are countless dystopian movies about exactly this! — and its importance cannot be understated.A wish for the young, ambitious blockchain community:That we never forget why we’re here. It’s not about getting rich quick. It’s about removing centralization and abuses of power to lead billions of people to prosperity and abundance through decentralized technologies.

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!This week, our 6 Questions go to Ming Duan, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Umee, a cross-chain DeFi hub that allows decentralized interactions between different blockchains. Ming Duan’s knowledge of the crypto and blockchain world goes back to 2014 when she initially learned about the emerging industry through the first-ever blockchain course taught at a business school. Since then, she has developed extensive crypto investment knowledge through hands-on practice. Duan brings unique insight to Umee, having experience as both a crypto investor and builder in the ecosystem. Her goal for Umee is to build a platform where individuals can interact with different tokens and chains all in one place. While propelling Umee forward, Duan leads crypto investments at Argonautic Ventures and Fenbushi Capital. She graduated from Duke University and received her Master of Business Administration degree in 2016.1 — What is the main hurdle to mass adoption of blockchain technology?Simply put, blockchain technology is too hard to use.When it comes to mass adoption, it’s really about comparing what blockchain technology can bring to users through existing solutions. The challenge is that, most of the time, our existing solutions work. When wearing my investor’s hat on a new project, I always like to ask about whether blockchain is really necessary to achieve the goal for the product. From a user’s perspective, if the target audience is not already in Web3, blockchain is oftentimes not needed because a centralized solution is already faster, cheaper and easier to use.So, why are we here? Well, it’s because of the potential that blockchain-based applications can be as fast, cheap and easy to use as existing solutions while creating new solutions: new ways of looking at economic coordination, new ways of looking at finance, from both an open-source as well as open-access perspective. There is also that little extra element of being decentralized. We’re getting there.2 — From smart contracts to DApps to NFTs to DeFi, we have seen so many of the next “killer apps” for crypto, but none have really taken off just yet. What will stick?The idea of a decentralized digital world will stick. It’s too early to say what will, or what has already, taken off when it comes to crypto experiments. Crypto follows market cycles, and it takes time for people to understand this new industry. We will be seeing new ideas and new experiments, and a lot of them will fail, but some of them will leave an impression on people that will push it to evolve into something new. This process is completely expected and healthy. Crypto is both a technological and social paradigm shift. We can’t get it right in one attempt and we have the luxury of a promising future to make trial and error. The promise of such an uncoordinated and distributed mechanism to run a digital world will stick in individuals’ heads. It will spur questions designed to challenge the status quo, and attract more talent to join the space and build out this decentralized digital future.3 — What are the top five Crypto Twitter feeds you can’t do without, and why?Umee_CrossChain needs no explanation — it’s our bread and butter! I find such joy and excitement when seeing Umee’s latest updates via our Twitter feed. Plus, just seeing Adora the octopus’s smiley face every now and then makes everyone feel happy, right? Zhu Su is your cheatsheet to being a crypto insider. He helps you zoom out and understand how crypto fits into the broader social and economic picture while paying attention to the macro trends. Oftentimes in the crypto space, we get too deep into the weeds and forget about the bigger picture, but grasping the bigger picture is what sets the foundation for solid long-term success.Samczsun is the reason why everyone should hold a healthy sense of paranoia when it comes to software security in crypto. His habit of generously sharing security vulnerability and hack reviews is extremely beneficial even to non-technical readers. If you are looking for an alpha or trying to land on the right side of the bell curve of the crypto crowd, I would recommend following ASvanevik. He is a founder as well as a talented data scientist who has shed much-needed light on the dark forest of blockchain data. Alex has Ieft me with a lasting impression since the very first time we spoke.Bond_dog_51 is my partner in crypto, so his Twitter feed is an important follow for me. As the chief executive office of Umee, we work side by side to make this platform all it can be. I enjoy following his unique insight on the industry through his feed, and I love reading his retweets.And a sixth one, just for fun! Weird_AnimaIs is one of the few Twitter accounts I follow that have nothing to do with crypto. It makes me smile and take a moment to appreciate the power of mother nature and how things are all interconnected. I’m a big fan of how nature follows the same patterns in an interesting and transcendent way.4 — Which two superpowers would you most want to have, and how would you combine them for good… or evil?I would love to have the power to freeze time, like Hermione in Harry Potter! We crypto people always joke about how it already feels like one month is equivalent to years in crypto time with exciting, new things happening every day and so much information to ingest. I’m a very slow reader and like to spend time understanding the ins and outs of a topic before moving on to the next. Having 200 tabs open on my browser is inevitable because I don’t have enough time to process everything! How about a little one-hour time freeze everyday? I’ll be able to save my Chrome from burning down too quickly.Alternatively, I would also love to have the superpower to clone myself — not once, but twice! One of me would attend all the crypto conferences and meetups, while the other keeps track of the latest news and trends in the space. The third Ming would focus solely on shipping and building! 5 — ​​What’s the thing on your bucket list that is most unlikely to happen?I’m afraid it’ll be the one where I complete a part-time program at a culinary school. I’m a big foodie. I started attempting to cook on the stove when I was six years old and I almost applied to  a culinary school for college, but I gave in to my mom and studied finance instead. Reading and practicing different recipes has been one of the most relaxing activities when taking a break from living in the limitless crypto world. Remember Monica from Friends? I imagine myself to be quite like her if I actually accomplished my dream of becoming a chef. Although crypto never disappoints — in 2020, I happily indulged in all the food coins out there. Food was actually a large inspiration for Umee, as the word in Japanese means “Delicious!” Team Umee can’t get enough of the food coin degen culture.6 — Where do you stand on alien intelligence and the existence of life elsewhere in the universe?Aliens absolutely exist! What we currently know about the universe is very limited, almost similar to how early we are in crypto adoption. The idea that life, or whatever form of intelligence, exists somewhere out there is really exciting. Though I’m a fan of The Three-Body Problem, I’d like to think that we should be cautious when reaching out and looking for aliens. A wish for the young, ambitious blockchain community:I wish and hope to see more women in the crypto world use their voices. There is a diversity problem, but it is important to highlight that women are already in the space and are using their intelligence to propel the crypto industry forward. Let’s see them shine!

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!This week, our 6 Questions go to Dawn Newton, co-founder and chief operating officer of Netki — a remote digital identity verification technology provider intended to facilitate compliance with KYC/AML regulations. Dawn Newton is the chief operating officer and co-founder of Netki, the Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering technology provider purpose-built for blockchain. Dawn’s work is driven by her desire to increase global access to crypto assets in a sustainable, secure and equitable manner. At Netki, Dawn has contributed to the development of OnboardID, which facilitates identity verification and onboarding for custodial wallets, and TransactID, which is the only fully compliant solution to Financial Action Task Force Travel Rule regulations.With 30 years of experience managing technical teams and growing innovative companies, Dawn has proven to be a premier operations executive at the forefront of emerging technology industries. From the early days of the internet to the booming blockchain industry, Dawn’s work has had a formative effect on today’s leading tech companies.1 — If you were investing in startup companies right now, what kind of blockchain-based business opportunity would catch your eye?For me, I would be looking at applications that impact as broad of a base of people as possible, preferably from an inclusion aspect. Projects that allow new communities to connect, create and earn are ultimately the ones that will have the most impact and, thus, create the most value in the world. 2 — What is the single most innovative use case for blockchain you’ve ever seen? It may not be the one likeliest to succeed!The most innovative use case to me continues to be the first one people talked about in the early Bitcoin days. Everyone on the planet (who has internet access) has the ability to participate in a global financial system that is owned by no government. It is an extremely hard endeavor to tackle, and I am proud that Netki was a part of it by onboarding the first nation to the Bitcoin blockchain. Giving 4 million people the ability to transact and receive funds without exorbitant money transmitter fees makes my heart sing! 3 — When you tell people you’re in the blockchain industry, how do they react?For non-technical people, their initial reaction used to be: “OMG isn’t that all scammers?” Thank goodness that is happening less and less. I have been working in tech innovation for more than 30 years, and as a result, as interest in crypto has grown, many of my friends and family have come to me for advice or to better understand the ecosystem.That curiosity dominates most of the conversations that I have today, although I do still run into the occasional person who gets all of their information about crypto from Elizabeth Warren. The conversations with those people definitely take a little more effort to untangle all of the misleading statements they’ve been fed. Overall, more and more people are starting to get curious about it, and that is how we change things! 4 — Tell us about a hidden talent — and give us a link to prove it!My cooking skills are out of this world (pun intended re: the last question). I graduated from Le Cordon Bleu and trained in Italy, Japan and the United States under several Michelin Star chefs. Wanna take your chocolate chip cookie game to the next level?  5 — Close your eyes and think of a happy place. What do you see?Easy, a beach with black volcanic sand in El Salvador, great waves, great food — purchased using Bitcoin, of course — and great people. 6 — Where do you stand on alien intelligence and the existence of life elsewhere in the universe?I have no opinion, as I am not an expert in the field, but how amazing would it be to have another life out there and for us to be able to explore that one day in the future!? I grew up watching the original Star Trek series and absolutely loved it. Imagine my surprise years later when I meet the real-life Seven of Nine [from Star Trek: Voyager], Jeri Ryan, while cooking together at a restaurant in LA, and she becomes my best friend. While I wouldn’t look forward to an encounter with her as a Borg in real life, I think it would be amazing to be a part of a team whose mission was to “seek out new life and new civilizations!” A wish for the young, ambitious blockchain community:My one wish is WAGMI, and where we wind up will be spectacular!