Silicon Valley - Blockchain Expo, AI, IOT

The Blockchain Expo/AI/IOT (North America) came to Silicon Valley in November, 2017. I had the opportunity to attend and participate at the Blockchain for Enterprises speaker sessions, it was amazing! This was my first time attending and I was astounded by the number of attendees (the line was out the door for hours), the content presented was abundant and the exhibition hall was filled with an array of companies with ambition to solve real-world problems with technologies such as blockchain, AI and IOT.

During the Blockchain for Enterprises sessions, they discussed how blockchain would affect archaic industries such as healthcare, automotive, banking, retail and the esports and gaming industry.

First up - healthcare, the biggest solve was protecting individual's privacy, ensuring the accuracy of medical data and lowering the high costs associated with healthcare. By doing so, it can also help society by making people well and happy as illnesses can potentially be treated in an accurate and speedy manner.

Second - automotive, this was most obvious as there have been lots of talk about autonomous driving and in the last few years many cars have self-parking assist features and early alert warnings when approaching an object too closely. A case study from Toyota was presented, the topic was "Using Blockchain in Autonomous Vehicles."

Third - the banking industry, this has already began. Take a look at how Bitcoin has catapulted and has arrived at mainstream businesses such as overstock.com and expedia for purchases. The middlemen aka third parties in the banking industry are under siege because blockchain could potentially reduce or eliminate these areas as the blockchain technology promotes transparency via it's ledger services. This will remove many third-party "UN-neccessities". There are even investors who are moving their money out of the traditional stock markets and into the crypto markets for investment purposes.

Fourth - retail, imagine replacing cash with digital coins and wallets, plus more. One of the companies on the Blockchain for Enterprise session was Shping. They shared a case study and were giving out free coins for any one who downloaded their app and scanned the QR code on the back of the speakers' t-shirt. So of course I downloaded it (for free coins)! I found this app to be very mature (in comparison to others out there) as there was plenty of information including marketing videos, functionality, and you are able to upload products and provide reviews in real-time. Additionally, for any input that you provide you get rewarded with coins. Essentially, as you help them build out their business, in return they give you a piece of their pie.

Finally, to the most interesting session to me, the eSports and gaming blockchain disruption. According to DreamTeam, there is this huge market for online gaming where persons and teams compete online via computer and video games.

These competitors can win money from these competitions and they can also have sponsors. To ensure each party honors the terms of the agreement, they could use smart contracts on the blockchain technology. The smart contract would verify the terms of the agreement, and when the terms are met, parties get paid, all done on the blockchain.

With the little time I had to spare, I had a chance to attend the ICOs, Tokens and Cryptofinance track. Many people were interested in these sessions as ICO is the "word of 2017" (IMHO). I equate ICO to the IPO, many companies are using crowdfunding to finance their projects and they are doing so by offering an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to the public or semi-public as in some cases it's a closed offering first then opens to the general public. Instead of getting shares of stock, you are getting tokens or coins for your financial contribution.

The key take away for me from these sessions was that no one has a crystal ball but they all see the potential of how the blockchain can alter many industries and change how things are currently being handled today. There were several companies who pitched their ideas, lots of energy and potential.

During the expo I met a ton of companies who were using blockchain, AI or IOT to solve many problems in today's world. There were early warning emergency alert systems, companies promoting charities for social causes while you shop, business related companies that would help you attract more customers, investment tools where you can earn a return by lending your crypto, issuance of debit cards for crypto currencies, an identity management platform, online marketplaces even a matchmaking mobile game where you can make money by successfully matching people. If you can think of it, they were probably on the expo floor.