While many of us are still trying to wrap our heads around the new terms that have multiplied in the last few years like blockchain, data, IOT, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, our lexicon is about to expand much more significantly. With words that are rapidly gaining significance like Web 3, Metaverse, NFT and crypto, it is not just our lexicon that is changing but a huge transformation is looming on the horizon that can well impact every aspect of our lives. We can safely assume that in the coming couple of years, we could be laying some new foundations transforming how we buy, sell, trade and conduct every aspect of our business.
At TiEcon 2022, an entire track dedicated to Web 3, Crypto, and NFTs is guaranteed to give us fascinating insights into the industry in which Venture Capital has invested over $50B in 2021. Conference starts tomorrow and registration is now open.
The track at TiEcon will begin with fireside chat with Randi Zuckerberg, former director of market development and spokesperson for Facebook and as of 2014, founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media. She is also editor-in-chief of Dot Complicated, a digital lifestyle website, and creator of Dot, an animated television show about a young girl who uses technology to enhance her education experiences as well as her recreational activities. At its simplest, Dot is an entertaining guide to understanding how technology and social media influences and informs our lives online and off. At its more complex level, we need to understand metaverse and NFTs. Broadly speaking, Metaverse is a graphically rich virtual space where people can work, play, shop and socialize and can interact through NFTs or non fungible tokens. Non-fungible meaning unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For instance, while bitcoin is fungible and one can be replaced with another, NFT is non fungible – kind of like a unique trading card. That is as much sense as I can make. Besides, I am not about to give my readers a headache. We will leave it to zuckerberg to demystify it further.
In another fireside chat, Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon will talk about “building a Web 3 decacorn”. Web 3 is an idea for a new iteration of World Wide Web based on blockchain technology. Arguments have been made in favor of Web 3 that it will provide increased data security, scalability and privacy. And on the other side, concerns have been raised about possible increase in proliferation of harmful content, in an environment of low moderation. Polygon tagline says, it’s for everyone who wants to contribute to a decentralized future! Let us hope he helps us further in coming up to speed on what may be a fast approaching future.
After attending Harvard and Stanford, serving in finance roles at the Federal Reserve and Goldman, managing P&Ls at two consumer startups, and founding two startups of her own, Mercedes Bent joined Lightspeed Venture firm in 2019 and now scouts funds and invests in early stage companies that are “unlocking wealth creation for underserved individuals and regions through crypto, fintech, career mobility, or the creator economy”. She will share her insights as a track keynote.
Exciting panel with Lorien Gabel, co-founder and CEO of Figment, Shiva Rajaraman, VP of product at Open Sea, Raghu Yarlagadda, co-founder & CEO of FalconX and moderator Rashmi Gopinath, General Partner at B Capital Group will talk about the next era of Web 3. It sounds like the future of the future that we will get to learn about.
“Gaming and the next billion Web 3 users” is the topic of another fireside chat where Justin Kan, co-founder of Fractal (formerly co-founded and sold Twitch) will share his insights on how Web 3 is poised to transform the gaming ecosystem.
Lastly, a panel will discuss funding and founding Web3 Startups. Moderated by Asha Jadeja, founder of Motwani Jadeja Foundation, the panelists Avichal Garg, Co-founder of Electric Capital, and Elena Nadolinski, founder/ CEO of Iron Fish will share insights, and discuss opportunities and challenges and tools one may need to navigate this fast-evolving decentralized world.
Register ASAP for #TiEcon2022 at www.tiecon.org and avail of the opportunity to listen to the entire conference virtually on zoom.