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You want to jump on the hot new tech wave. Maybe you are starting your career or are thinking about changing industries to join the blockchain revolution. How do you prove your acumen in this fast moving space?A conversation with Arno Pernthaler, co-founder of the DEC Institute, an association launched and backed by leading academic institutions with strong focuses on Blockchain Technologies. They aim to shape the certification landscape for professionals working with Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) and Digital Assets. This episode aims to educate listeners on chartered certifications, as well as the movement to support quality education and professionalism in this young and growing industry. "Continuous learning is a commitment for professional excellence"

CELEBRATING EARTH DAY 2022 * Sustainability is an increasingly important topic of conversation and we'll dive into how the rise of new technologies like blockchain can help.What about blockchain technology makes it so appealing for addressing challenges related to climate action? Hear all about this from Computer Scientist Iván Salvador Razo Zapata, lecturer and researcher at The Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). His main interests are in smart grids and blockchain and he works with a group of both undergraduate and grad students like Emiliano Gutiérrez at ITAM. They are busy working on the design and development of a proof-of-concept to manage renewable energy certificates for clean distributed energy resources. The proof-of-concept will be deployed using tools from different organizations such as the Energy Web Foundation, Ripple’s partner on decarbonized blockchains.

Digital Asset regulation is a controversial subject, but most experts argue that a framework is necessary to protect investors and outline clear guidelines for innovation.Rutger's Law Professor, Yulia Guseva, guides us through US crypto-regulation, and sheds light on global environments to navigate various legislative positions toward cryptocurrency.  Leading her through this juicy, in-depth conversation, whether you have a predilection for the law or not, is Ripple's Head of Public Policy and Vice Chair of Blockchain for Europe, Susan Friedman. This session gives us an understanding of what the current challenges are with the United States catching up to other countries' crypto policy.AND Thank you Feedspot for the Top Blockchain Podcast nod.

We've been hearing of all the benefits to using blockchain across various sectors. How can companies who know nothing about blockchain implement this technology into their business? Blockforce Founder/CEO André Salem has a solution for sellers to easily use blockchain without any previous knowledge.  Learn how merchants can accept digital assets like XRP, and also issue and offer NFTs. André and his start-up advisor, Professor Eduardo Diniz from Fundação Getulio Vargas, are XRPL grant winners. They discuss the rise of their Brazilian consulting group offering B2B Saas models for wider infrastructure  adoption..

Ready for the new web3 content experience? Look to the minting of derivative NFTs. You can exclusively view The Walking Dead's final season and  join the drop of limited edition NFTs of Dolly Parton's new album!Learn how the Entertainment Industry is turning to Blockchain for Content Ownership with Eluvio CEO Michelle Munson. She discusses how Eluvio is being used to provide owner-controlled storage, distribution, and monetization of digital content at scale, powering the NFT marketplace.*This episode is being launched on International Women's Day in celebration of one leading woman pushing this technology main stream. We hope this story inspires more women to join the blockchain revolution.

How do we lower the barriers to people of color having access to strong education on blockchain? How do we train people to better qualify for this space flooding with job opportunities? Holding annual competitions like "Battle for Crypto” that actively teach students how to buy, sell, and trade digital assets in an engaged learning lab is one step forward. A discussion between Ripple software engineer Nathaniel Rose and Dr. Ali Emdad, Executive Director of The National FinTech Center, developing expertise in blockchain. You'll hear how committed both are to education equity and making a difference in the diverse workforce of the future.

A conversation between Navin Gupta, Ripple’s MD, South Asia & MENA, and Finweg’s CTO, Wladimiro Navarro.  Finweg went through NYU Abu Dhabi’s startAD FinTech accelerator program and came out a winner.  Audience will learn about blockchain through this emerging start-up in Spain and Latin America and dive deeper into tokenizing assets.

How does Fintech and blockchain drive the economy toward more sustainable development? A conversation with Dr. Thomas Puschmann, Director of Swiss FinTech Innovation Lab, University of Zurich. He has studied hundreds of global start-ups focused on  sustainability and financial technology,  providing solutions for environmental, social and governance topics. We  identify major trends in the financial sector future and discuss how the FinTech revolution plays a major factor in driving our sustainable development goals.  

Can we trust blockchain? How can we be more confident interacting with the developing digital economy? Anchain.ai is a start-up passionate about facilitating legitimacy and security in the crypto industry. Co-founder and CEO, Victor Fang, works with a wide variety of public and private chains so that industry stakeholders can be secure AND we share the dedication of educating future innovators! Hear a lively conversation on how Victor participates in the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, and raises money through VC's and the XRPL Grants for developers to create innovative solutions to secure blockchain. - crucial and timely to this industry reaching maturity!

When it comes to financial regulation systems, how can we make recording the flow of information more clear? How can we keep up with the expense of self-regulating, especially when there are monthly changes?Newly emerged electronic trading practices call for new auditing protocols - why not build them with tech advances that help enhance market transparency?UCL's Guy Vishnia is doing his PhD thesis around AuditChain, and built a proof of concept to connect all the data and automate trade execution practices.

The pandemic disrupted supply chains. Constraints will affect delivery of goods around the globe this upcoming holiday.  How do we fix this? Nikhil Vadgama, Deputy Director of UCL's Centre for Blockchain Technology, reviews ten sectors and hundreds of projects over the last decade that incorporate blockchain to provide better supply chain systems. Learn how challenges with traditional supply chains are solved using blockchain and what we can expect to see in the next ten years.

How do you engage students to brainstorm ideas about how they might use a cryptocurrency on campus? Ariel Zetlin-Jones, Associate Professor of Economics at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, has been teaching courses on blockchain like “Developing Blockchain Use Cases”.  He engages all background of students to discover why a Distributed Ledger Technology might be an improved solution over what currently exists today. In this episode you can learn about leading examples of developing applications for the CMU Coin.

Blockchain has far-reaching disruptive potential often focused on charitable works.   Explore the humanitarian efforts of SFSU students leveraging  this emerging technology for multiple blockchain projects, all related to blockchain for social good; applying blockchain technology to promote volunteer participation, and food safety monitoring for healthier food donations to hunger-relief charities.  In a conversation with Leigh Jin, Professor of Information Systems and Director of Technology in Business Education Initiative at San Francisco State University, we discover their design thinking methodology that went into building these application prototypes.

What if we could increase voter participation and election credibility via secure, verifiable online voting for elections?  Researchers are building systems to utilize the immutability, transparency and distributed consensus properties of blockchain.  We are finding that a blockchain based voting system could solve many of the current day election challenges.Arnab Ghosh is a recent Electrical & Computer Engineering  graduate of University of Waterloo and budding entrepreneur.  Find out why he made the design choices he did on his prototype and how it improves upon existing tech-start up systems currently available. To learn more, you can read his master's thesis  and stay tuned for his code going public on GitHub.

Are you captivated by the endless possibilities of how we can interact with money? Students are creating real world solutions using fintech tools to provide additional capacity in under-resourced communities. There are industry programs that help turn their visions into reality by providing resources that advance their prototypes, apps and ideas. Ishaan Hiranandani is a rising Junior at University of Michigan, leader in the Blockchain@Michigan (BAM) student club, entrepreneur and DeFi addict. He and his teammates dream of saving small businesses and won awards and support for their particular product MeldX which creates founder friendly method of raising capital. Listen to hear the roadblocks they encountered along the way and what the future holds.

Decentralization puts power in the hands of the consumer*Let's bring in the Enterprise Blockchain Award winner who has brought more  transparency to the Real Estate sector and beyond Named Canada's top tech titan, Dr. Atefeh Mashatan, is the Director of the Cybersecurity Research Lab and an Associate Professor at Ryerson University.  This renowned cryptographer found a way to reduce fraud in the real estate sector as well as the insurance marketplace and in supply chain management with eSURe.   This application that was built to solve one challenge ended up having applicability in several other business use cases. She also discusses her work on Mosaïque - a purpose-built digital wallet that interacts with blockchain applications, and enables secure transaction workflows as well as identity management services.  

How do we amplify the positive effects of blockchain innovation? Influencing policy makers on technological capabilities and wider implications on society is a good place to start.Camille Crittenden, Executive Director of UC Berkeley's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), envisions many possible use cases where blockchain will make a difference in the next 5-10 years.  She had the opportunity to Chair The California Blockchain Working Group that created a roadmap to recommend potential public applications for government legislation.This conversation leads you through considerations for appropriate applications and defining blockchain characteristics that make it fit for certain areas in Vital and Health Records, Supply Chain, Property, Utilities and Finance, Commercial Business  and Education

How do we increase availability of capitol to small and traditionally disadvantaged borrowers? How can we invest in businesses we care about while purchasing products/services we want, especially during pandemic closures? Carnegie Mellon Professor Goldstein has been investigating the interaction of technology, work and money with his computer science students to overcome several long-standing problems of established lending markets.By utilizing a public blockchain-style ledger they have created an equal access funding mechanism, BoLT: Building On Local Trust, that can reduce poverty and inequality. Learn about the interesting deep technical problems they faced to bring solutions to people today.  

We are seeing more and more applications being built on blockchain. And there are thousands of blockchains for developers to choose from.  What do you look for in a blockchain to support your application development? Chief Scientist Dr. Radu State and his team from University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust are busy building Dapps on the XRP Ledger. We learn about the key features and advantages that make this blockchain favorable for growing developers.

How can blockchain help the construction industry? Think blockchain as your back office, matching purchase orders with actions, a system that generates a payment automatically without accounting approval. Or a single source of truth, created by all the participants on a given project, that’s plain for everyone to see. Blockchain keeps everyone honest.What if the dozens of companies that depend on each other on a construction site could easily align? How nice would it be if construction projects were more efficient; stayed on budget and schedule? Civil and Environmental Engineering Expert, Professor SangHyun Lee, leads the Dynamic Project Management Laboratory at the University of Michigan.  He engages us in how blockchain technology will change the way construction is done. We learn exactly how blockchain adds value to one of the oldest and largest sectors in the world economy with increased productivity and transparency.