I attended this conference.
There were three speakers in the first session:
Julio Alejandro 9.40 – 10.10 – The European and global scene
Philip Saunders 10.15 – 10.45 The Zone Protocol: Mapping the world on Ethereum
Fiona Delaney 10.45- 11.05 Origin Chain: a case study and specific start up
Julio was a very charismatic speaker and has been described as "The Leonardo da Vinci of Fintech":. He did not have slides. It was real Freeman/Libertarian stuff. He has a a right to buy anything from anybody anywhere in the World and no one has a right to stop him. He has a right to put anything he wants into his body and no government has the right to tell him not to. He has not signed any social contract - he wanted to see a copy of it. The Nation State = Violence. We should return to where we were 200 years ago before the industrial revolution - a period of great personal freedom. He will only accept being a member of an "intentional community" not the "state which is causing violence"
I thought initially that I had misunderstood him. But it got more and more outrageous, so he was actually saying these things. I was first to speak after the session finished and let fly. I told Julio that I did not want to be rude to a visitor but he was talking "nonsense". Utter "nonsense". I told the Chairman that, while not a member of the Hibernian Forum, I was a supporter and I considered that "nonsense" like this would damage the reputation of the Hibernia Forum. I didn't actually use the word "nonsense" - I was more forthright to such an extent that the Chairman intervened and told me to stop swearing.
Julio was asked to respond and just said he is a director of a company worth $86m and had lectured to the United Nations, EU, University of Cambridge and Google. "next question please".
If you want to annoy yourselves, you can watch a paper he gave
here in December.
"Bitcoin is a political ideology... a movement of people...a tool used against state violence."
Satoshi shows us that "this is not white people inventions. This is a different This post will be deleted if not edited immediately Christ that was not born in the Middle East"
"The foundation of Bitcoin, apart from its White Paper, it is "Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities" written by Tim May in 1994"
"Bitcoin eliminates martyrdom"
"The left steals from you in terms of taxes - by putting a gun to your head"
"Governments should not poke into our affairs - we are talking about basic rights. Not human rights but natural rights which would be secured through technology "
To be fair to him, he does not mean the anarchy of throwing stones, he means "anarcho-capitalism, anarcho-communism, Anarcho-transhumanism, anarcho-primitivism and anarcho-feminism"
The next speaker from the floor who I think might have been a blockchain investor said that his blood was boiling during the talk and he was glad that someone else agreed. He had been worried that he was the only one present who disagreed with Julio. He had looked around the room and assumed from the faces that everyone agreed with Julio.
The third speaker from the floor who was a blockchain developer and early adopter of Bitcoin agreed with me as well.
Unfortunately
Philip Saunders spoke without slides as well. He is doing something with Ehereum and the Blockchain for the land registry in a South American country. It went over my head but sounded impressive.
Fiona Delaney did have slides and I have asked her for a copy. She has a start-up
https://www.originchain.eu/ which is using the blockchain to bolster anti-counterfeit measures for branded goods. It ties in merchandise, members and sponsors in membership based groups. Her case study was Bohemians Football Club. One example would be that members and supporters would be able to use the blockchain to sponsor a player of their choice. The players with a strong social media presence were enthusiastic, but the rest were not. There was also a potential conflict with the sponsors, a betting company.
Another very good use of the blockchain was that the coaches and other adults working with children in their Junior Academy could register their Garda Clearance Certificate on the blockchain. I suggested that this was a misuse of something which should be free of all government intervention. Surely any adult should be free to work with children without Big Brother checking if they were suitable or not?
Brendan
