Official Report of The Lagos Beam Meet-up: Privacy and the Mas-Chain - Powered by BEAM and MET

So, it has been a couple of days since one of the most successful Mas-chain meet-up held since the bear market ensued. The meet-up saw major players both local and international come together to share ideas, network and chart a course ahead of the next anticipated bull run. It was no doubt a fun and exciting atmosphere, as the participants took part in what one can tag, the-most-interactive meet-up ever! on the Nigerian soil.

The free-flowing event started off with the host, Sushie Red, who recently changed her signature look but still downed her blonde hair, took the stage to introduce the participants and get the meet-up started. Everyone had a thing or two to say about themselves, and everyone was glad to learn something special about everyone in the audience. What a way to break the ice!

Introducing Beam!

Next off, was yours truly - me! Being the Beam Ambassador of Lagos, Nigeria, Beam, who are the major sponsor for the event. I made a presentation of the Beam Privacy token, which is powered by the MimbleWimble protocol. We discussed the need for privacy tokens, and the role it plays in making cryptocurrency fungible as the existing blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are not capable of offering fungibility. As all transactions that go through these blockchains can be tracked using superb analytics tools, and key pieces of information about the transactions like, who are the parties involved in the transactions, as well as the number of funds transferred between both parties, they all can be revealed.

Whereas in the Beam Privacy platform, such details cannot be revealed, and this is because of the MimbleWimble protocol on which the platform is built on. The MimbleWimble also makes for a fast transaction speed which in turn makes Beam Privacy tokens, scalable and ready for mass adoption. Unlike other privacy tokens such as Monera, Zcash that offer one feature, and suck on the other key features.

Immediately after my presentation, we had the Chief Evangelist of the Beam Network, Mr Dylan Dewdney, on Skype as he charmed the audience with his free-flowing Yoruba, well garnished with his Canadian accent. He easily aroused the audience with his charm and good looks, as he interacted with the audience on some other layers of the Beam project.

He did a little overview of the project, on a holistic level, before delving into more complex areas on his discuss. He spoke about Beam, in comparison to the existing privacy tokens, and how Beam is outperforming these tokens in terms of transaction speed, decentralization, Privacy, and accountability.

There are several takeaways from his presentation, and some of which is that Beam is trying to do what fiat currency is doing, the only difference is Beam is decentralized. On another sensitive subject, that if criminals who try to use Beam tokens to sponsor one criminal activity or the other, if Beam has measures to check and control these activities, his answer was a resounding No! They can use Beam tokens the same they can use the USD. A couple of questions were asked by the host (Sushie) Marshall and a few members of the audience, this lead to further conversations around privacy tokens.

Dylan closed his presentation on a high, and he even offered to do a little dance, which the audience was quick to decline.

Steem the Past, the Present and the Future - @pangoli

^{@pangoli during his Presentation about Steemit}

Next up, we had Mr Wisdom Augustine, preferably known as @Pangoli, who did a presentation on Steemit, the past, present and future. This highly educative presentation took the audience through a tour of the happenings behind the scenes of the content rewarding blogging platform. Quite an exciting presentation, as it took participants on a time travel trip of when the Steemit blockchain wasn’t valuable and what happened once they got the media attention. Also, he looked at other blockchain projects built on the Steem blockchain, and how robust the steem blockchain really is. He spoke on the future of Steemit, and his opinion is one filled with optimism and hope for the platform, and one of the major reason for this sentiment is because of the low supply of the total number of Steem tokens in circulation, which naturally primes scarcity, and with scarcity comes to value.

His presentation wraps up with a firechat with @SLAU, who is a crypto-trader and investor in the Mas-chain networks. Their conversations stirred in and out of cryptocurrency, as SLAU offers Escrow services for members on the Mas-chain to trade their tokens for either fiat currency, or for other currencies. SLAU also gave insights into what makes the crypto market so thick and how you can make a living off trading cryptocurrencies. Being a crypto trader himself, he was quick to add that his services are available, which involves an investment plan where portfolio growth is returned on investment.

Immediately the firechat rounds up, a panel session was set up between @Samest and @Dante31, Dante stood in for @stevenmosoes who couldn’t make it to the meet-up due to an emergency. And this session was moderated by @Jotmax, who runs a witness program for Whaleshares, Smoke and Scorum. @Dante31 and @Samest both have strong knowledge of how Steemit works, and they both have a commanding understanding of how the blockchain also works. Together this made for an interesting discussion panel, and as @Jotmax of Candid article, who also is part of the organizers for the event, gracefully moderated the session.

@Samest gave insights about @WLS-Africa, the projects they are working on, and how it will benefit the Mas-Chain communities, while Dante (Lanre Sonde) spoke about his role at Curie and also his exploits in Dsound, and now Whaleshares. Both Panelists complimented each other, as the conversation crisscrossed across all Mas-chain networks, which made for an interesting and engaging conversation.

The MET Founders

Next up were the Founders of Morte et Tributa - MET, we had Kyle Fondriest (@Fonsolo) and Matt Winstead (@HoodWinkleBerry) on Skype as they took the Mas-chain conversation to the next level. The founders spoke about the vision of MET and how creating a community of business-minded individuals across the Mas-chain network will be beneficial to the blockchain at large. Also, the founders spoke about Whaleshares generally, the importance of having several communities within Whaleshares where content creators will get incentives for creating valuable content. It was a breath of fresh air as both founders delve deeper into their plans for the Morte et Tributa, and how the MET tokens will integral in the success of these plans.

It was an engaging conversation as Fonsolo had his perfect dentition on display for a majority of his presentation, while Matt at periodic intervals was sipping away contents from his red jug, I believe a faction of the audience were wondering the content in that jug because he seems to be filled with energy after each sip.

Summary

Without a doubt, the meet-up was amazing, as it had the right atmosphere and the conversations were in-line with the theme for the event. The speakers delivered on their presentations, the panellist did an amazing job, as well as the team behind the meet-up (agbona, jotmax and Pangoli). The plan is to make the event a periodic meet-up where

About Blockchain Saturday

Blockchain Saturday is a periodic meet-up where renowned experts, industry leaders and practitioners, as well as enthusiasts, within the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem come together to synergize, share ideas, and network. This gathering is to facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas to drive towards a more sustainable blockchain ecosystem in Nigeria. At Blockchain Saturday, it is our belief that the idea of the next disruptive project similar to Bitcoin, can be conceived at this meetup, and for that reason, every idea is worth considering as we work together towards the nurturing and development of projects that will later become products that will solve real-world problems.

We all can create an enabling environment that is geared towards learning, and against the imposition of ideas on participants.

Honorary Mention

We deeply appreciate everyone that made out time to be present for the previous meet-up, we are working on the distribution of the tokens as promised. Also, the official images of the meet-up are now available. You can browse through the collection and find your picture, you can use them for whatever purpose as it suits you.

Special thanks to this amazing people!
@met @fonsolo @hoodwinkleberry @jotmax @pangoli @dante31 @samest @marshalllife @stevenmosoes @henrychidiebere @afolwalex @bookoons @udezee @rebeccafl @emekasegun @sammiegold @tezmax and @adedoyinwealth

Download The Official Pictures from DropBox