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Kartik Mandaville is the founder and CEO of Springrole which is one of India’s best known companies that’s utilizing blockchain technology in a useful way. While Springrole say they are building a decentralized ‘verified professional identity’ platform for professionals, a simpler way to put it is that they are building LinkedIn but on a blockchain – and there’s a good reason why that’s the better way to do it. 0:30 Introduction to SpringRole | 1:10 Motivation to get into the tech world | 4:00 When he got interested in blockchain | 4:40 The idea behind SpringRole | 7:07 Why blockchain was the right solution | 8:80 Evolution of Springrole | 10:28 SpringRole as a non-fintech product on Ethereum | 12:50 The SpringRole token and user base | 17:40 How stakeholders fit in? | 19:21 Can SpringRole co-exist with LinkedIn | 20:49 Indiastack and the Government’s role in digitization | 24:13 Misinterpretation by banks and government by association with crypto | 25:04 Future of SpringRole | 28:10 Product-market fit | 30:00 The SpringRole culture | 40:40 The Superhumans’ Lunch culture | 42:27 His philosophy on leadership and team building | 44:25 Conclusion   

In this podcast, we talked to Mark Anstead, Harsh Rajat and Saurav Kumar from the Hydrogen Team. Mark, Harsh and Saurav are the decentralization ambassadors for the platform. The Hydrogen platform allows enterprises and developers globally to prototype, build, test, and deploy financial technology applications and products. Hydro and Atom are the key products that are launched by the platform. Atom allows users to develop digital financial applications, while Hydro allows the use of public blockchains in private financial systems. Hydrogen won the FinTech Rising Star Trophy in the India FinTech Awards 2018. The platform also has a community development programme called Hydro Community Development Program (HCDP). This allows the community to take on development tasks like SDK and code library development, bugs and software improvement etc. and they are rewarded with Hydro (HYDRO) tokens. 1.20: A brief introduction to the Hydrogen Platform | 3.00: Why is it important to have a decentralized financial infrastructure? | 7.47: What is the difference between the Hydrogen platform and ‘Hydro’ product? | 9.42: How was blockchain the solution to the problem that Hydrogen was trying to tackle? | 14.41: How does Hydrogen acts as an interface between private companies and public blockchains? | 16.46: What is the roadmap of Hydrogen and its development of Dapps? | 26.01: How is Hydrogen different from its competitors in terms of compliance? | 30.19: How can a non-tech savvy person understand and use hydrogen? | 33.29: What is Hydro token ecosystem? | 38.25: How does the Hydro ecosystem tackle the issues related to governance? | 42.34: What is Hydro community development program(HCDP)? | 47.54: What is the scope of the financial ecosystem in the near future?

01:04 Content and blogging in 2019 | 03:23 Morgan’s journey to being a writer and a partner at Collaborative Fund | 09:02 The power of writing | 10:48 Using content to build brand equity | 12:40 How Morgan’s thoughts on writing have changed | 16:30 Being authentic and telling a good story | 18:20 How media is changing | 25:11 Going down the crypto rabbit hole | 29:12 Crypto through the lens of history and investment psychology | 36:54 Crypto as a social experiment | 42:20 “The Psychology of Money” | 45:46 Applying the “Psychology of Money” to investing | 48:38 The influence of Skill and luck in performance and investing | 52:43 Where crypto is headed | 55:51 Takeaways for a young audience

Lou Kerner is the co-founder and partner at Crypto Oracle. Lou has been a crypto enthusiast and investor since 2013 and is recognized as one of the most influential crypto voices and writers out there. Lou was previously a Partner at the decentralized VC, Flight, where he managed The Israel Founders Syndicate that invested in tech companies founded by Israelis. He was also the Managing Partner of the Social Internet Fund and has also spent some time at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, taking an interest in emerging technologies as an analyst and investor. 01:19 Background on Crypto Oracle | 03:54 Lou’s crypto journey - ideas, meetups and more | 07:25 Going down the crypto rabbit hole | 09:57 What makes crypto different from other emerging tech? | 12:03 Launching a decentralized VC fund | 14:08 Crypto vs ‘Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft & Google’ [FAMGA] | 17:57 FAMGA blockchain developments | 20:53 Decentralization - in principle vs practice | 22:39 BTC’s endgame | 26:22 Keeping the crypto community enthused | 28:39 Security tokens and opportunities they represent | 31:00 Institutional developments | 33:14 Incentives providing momentum for the crypto tech & community in 2019 | 34:49 Helping people appreciate cryptos as the biggest development in human history | 36:48 Conclusion  

Darshan Bathija is the founder and CEO of Bank of Hodlers, which is one of the most exciting crypto projects being developed in India. They are building a Customer-First Bank leveraging blockchain technology which includes the provision of services like insurance against crypto thefts from exchanges, crypto credit cards and also crypto backed loans. They have just had their official launch in the last week of April and are hoping to be a key cog in the decentralised finance (DeFi) sphere in the months to come. 01:10 Darshan’s background and entry point into crypto | 06:12 How traditional banking is failing customers and the reasons for the existence of Bank of Hodlers |10:33 Why does a crypto solution fit the modern demands of banking | 12:50 Which part of the BoH business model needs to be decentralized | 15:58 Why was Maker the preferred partner for what they are doing | 19:05 Potential of BoH and DeFi to make a real-world impact | 22:03 BoH roadmap including asset-backed loans & crypto cards and insurance against thefts on crypto exchanges | 25:07 How BoH is the ‘missing piece of Satoshi’s vision’ | 28:36 Darshan’s experience of building a blockchain project in a crypto-hostile environment such as India | 30:44 What we can expect from them?

Naimish Sanghvi is the founder of Coin Crunch India, which is ‘India’s trusted crypto news source’. Aside from Coincrunch.in he also runs FinallyJobless.com and has been a journalist at Network18, a technology consultant at Deloitte and a Business Analysts at Infosys before quitting corporate jobs and venturing out to explore the world. Naimish has been a strong advocate for crypto in India and has not been shy about keeping people, exchanges and regulators honest as the industry has developed in the country over the past few years. He also recently launched a crypto and blockchain news series that aims to cover the latest big announcements in this space – in both English and Hindi. Overview 0:30 Introduction | 1:52 When did Naimish start paying attention to crypto? | 6:33 Coin Crunch India adhering to standards of journalism | 9:26 Crypto Kanoon as an example for accessible crypto journalism in India | 12:57 Using crypto assets in day to day life | 13:35 Sustainability of crypto exchanges in India | 14:07 Perspective about the exchange ecosystem in India | 16:02 The fate of cryptocurrencies in India | 18:23 Govt’s take on cryptocurrencies being a Ponzi scheme | 22:09 View on the OKex event in Mumbai | 31:43 Does India need cryptos and use cases of cryptos in India | 36:31 Take on censorship resistance for day to day activities | 38:55 Naimish’s areas of interest in cryptos | 41:34 Future of crypto in India | 45:15 Hopes for crypto in 2019

Shikha Mehra is the co-founder of MainChain, a firm that specializes in research, training and consulting with public and private enterprises on blockchain technology. She sits on the advisory panel to the Internet Mobile Association of India’s subcommittee on cryptocurrencies and blockchain tech. She is also actively involved in the international crypto ecosystem as a writer and speaker, regularly engaging with businesses, users and regulators on the evolution of crypto assets and DLT. Shikha is a member of a global multi-stakeholder committee – a joint collaboration between Vienna University, Austria and NET (new economy taxation) which explores how businesses and tax administrations around the world are reacting to and managing the disruptive effect of new and emerging business models and Blockchain technology in Asia. 1:20 Shikha’s introduction to the cryptoverse | 3:44 The long term potential of blockchain technology. | 6:09 Balance between disintermediation and regulation | 8:32 Do enterprise blockchains have any real potential? | 13:22 Viable use cases for blockchain | 23:06 Using blockchain to improve the Aadhar system | 29:41 General reaction of businesses and tax administrators to blockchain tech | 37:47 Central Bank Digital Currencies | 43:15 Co-existence of fiat currencies and CBDCs | 47:36 The use of cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions    

Sameer Sibal is a partner at Jerome Merchant and Partners, a Mumbai based law firm whose expertise extends across the range of corporate law, banking and finance, real estate and emerging technology. They are the primary legal counsel for BankChain which is a community of banks for exploring, building and implementing blockchain solutions, and one of the largest blockchain projects in India. Overview 0:35 Sameer’s background and introduction | 4:17 Jerome Merchant + Partners interest in blockchain | 7:00 Managing regulation for emerging technologies | 12:15 The regulatory scenario for blockchain technology in | 17:23 The tricky part about utility tokens | 21:06 Cryptocurrency regulations in India | 21:31 Bankchain and its scope in India | 29:35 THe growth of AI in the legal profession | 31:55 Smart contracts and legal contracts | 34:28 Data security issues in emerging tech | 36:11 Interesting legislative developments in India

Arianna Simpson is the founder and managing director of Autonomous Partners, a digital-asset investment fund backed by Cohen Private Ventures and Union Square Ventures. Their portfolio spans a range of protocols, tokens and projects focused on crypto assets and blockchain tech. She has spent her career in and around the tech world, including stints at Facebook and BitGo, the latter as one of its first employees. She is one of the most influential and forward-thinking voices in the digital assets industry and remains an essential ‘follow’ on Crypto Twitter. 1:13 Arianna’s introduction to Bitcoin | 2:03 Hyperinflation suffering economies like Zimbabwe adopting Bitcoin | 3:24 Crypto utility in developed and developing economies | 4:30 Arianna’s takeaways from crypto market volatility over the years | 6:10 Reasons for optimism despite numerous scams and PR disasters like QuadrigaCX | 8:04 Is DeFi just a clunkier Wall Street v2.0? | 9:55 What is Arianna’s investment thesis on crypto? | 13:13 How DeFi will cope with SEC regulation | 15:31 Central Bank Digital Currencies | 17:02 Can Bitcoin become a global monetary asset in years to come? | 17:52 Portfolio companies that Arianna is most excited about | 19:28 Fat protocol thesis  | 21:29 The Lightning Network and takeaways from the Lightning Torch experiment | 25:31 JP Morgan Coin | 27:11 Morgan Creek Capital wooing pension funds to invest in crypto | 29:41 The impact of Twitter on the crypto space | 31:05 Advice to investors newly stepping into crypto | 32:24 Predictions for 2019 | 34:13 Perspective on catastrophic failures in the space | 35:00 Top three book recommendations

Joel John is a research analyst at Outlier Ventures, which is a London, Toronto and Chicago based venture fund.  Their investment thesis is built around the idea that the future architecture of the internet will be built on the convergence of blockchains, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. They partner with remarkable teams to seed and grow tokenised open source communities that will become the digital economies of tomorrow. Joel has been involved with blockchain related projects since 2012 and previously worked at Tracxn as a blockchain analyst. 1:30 How Joel got his start with blockchain technology | 5:30 Outlier Ventures’ approach to blockchain and crypto tech | 7:35 Convergence | 11:09 Joel’s opinion on token taxonomy | 14:42 Where value will accrue with crypto assets | 17:07 Token Ecosystem Creation | 20:28 Ocean Protocol | 27:42 Fetch and Initial Exchange Offerings | 30:56 Token Curated Registries and Staking | 34:24 Minimal Viable Governance for open source protocols | 38:28 Ethereum as a platform for decentralized finance | 41:22 Token based projects and acquiring mass users | 42:41 Crypto and blockchain in 2019, what’s in store?

“I’ve always been a sucker for maps, particularly maps that visualize the world in a novel way, that show our place in the world with a perspective or in a dimension that we hadn’t previously considered. I call these maps of self-sovereign discovery, maps that reveal a path of self-directed exploration of our world and ourselves.” - Ben Hunt in ‘You Are Here’ Dr. Ben Hunt is the creator of Epsilon Theory, a newsletter that examines markets through the lenses of game theory and history. The main premise of ET is to break down the constructed experience and pre-packaged narratives that we are fed daily by the mainstream media. Over 100,000 professional investors and allocators across 180 countries read Epsilon Theory for its unique perspective and fresh insights into market dynamics. He is also the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Second Foundation Partners, where he is responsible for determining the Company’s investment views and positioning of model portfolios. He has also written two academic books ‘Getting to War’ and ‘Policy and Party Competition’, which he co-authored with Michael Laver. 1:40 Epsilon Theory and maps of self-sovereign discovery | 5:27 Playing the cards and the players in public markets - the stuff that matters | 10:40 When did Ben start paying attention to crypto? | 14:24 ‘More than a fad but less than a fashion’ - Ben on Bitcoin in 2015 | 20:14 What is crypto’s metagame? | 23:55 Distributed Ledger Technology and redefining the Social Contract | 27:15 The importance of narratives and memes in the rise of crypto assets | 30:20 Bitcoin - at the very least a placeholder for a better financial system | 37:20 Bitcoin as free speech | 38:10 Ben’s advice for the crypto community.

Divraj is the founder of Build in Bombay, which is a real-time startup chat community. The company is responsible for organising meetups for Zcash in India. He previously started Tokentally, which is a platform for curated crypto-asset resources. Along with his website, he is one of India’s foremost minds in the fields of crypto and blockchain technology and his Twitter page is an incredible resource for the latest technological and market developments coming out of this space. 1:33 Divraj’s background and introduction.| 3:18 Takeaways from EthBerlin | 7:36 Token Curated Registries (TCR’s) | 9:33 How Ethereum has developed in the last two years | 11:55  ZCash and other privacy coins | 15:20 Bitcoin forks and ideologies | 18:46 The current utility of crypto assets | 21:09 Assessing Dapp usage | 24:10 Interesting projects in the crypto space | 27:20 Central Banks, Governments and cryptocurrencies. | 34:14 Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in India.

Shailesh Sharda leads the World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) in India, working on policy frameworks and governance protocols for emerging technologies.   In early 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the WEF’s C4IR in Mumbai in partnership with the Government of India, citing India’s ability to play a pivotal role in the development of this new suite of emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, drones, AR, VR, IoT and others to solve the most pressing problems faced by mankind today. It is only the fourth such Centre set up by the WEF globally in addition to ones in San Francisco, Tokyo and Beijing.   “With one of the youngest labour forces in the world, a sizeable technical aptitude, the second largest number of internet users on mobile devices and the second largest English speaking population, India is well positioned to enhance its global leadership in a post fourth industrial revolution era” - Borge Brende, President - World Economic Forum (WEF) Shailesh talks about why drones, blockchain and AI are the first priority of the C4IR in India and how his work is going to bring together the right minds from both the public and private sector to help India leverage this all-encompassing revolution for the benefit of our economy and society. Overview 0:56  Shailesh’s road to the World Economic Forum and his current role | 2:12 The Fourth Industrial Revolution | 7:22 Role of C4IR in India | 14:38 Focus of C4IR on drones, blockchain and AI | 16:57 Blockchain at Davos | 21:22 Blockchain in banking | 27:30 Most immediate use cases of blockchain technology | 31:00 Role of India in the Fourth Industrial Revolution | 36:42 Impact of emerging tech on work and jobs | 42:10 How can people get involved with the WEF in India?

Alex Gladstein is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation(HRF) and a guest lecturer at Singularity University. Before working at HRF, he also served as Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum. The main aim of HRF is to empower citizens in the countries that are prone to human rights violations and enable them to rise above the existing autocratic regimes. Through his work, Alex has collaborated with key stakeholders across the globe to promote the creation of societies that are both free and open. The HRF seeks to drive home the message that the development of technology, freedom and individual rights are intertwined which is why the proliferation of bitcoin and other decentralised technologies assumes such an important role as we chart the way forward for human civilisations in the years to come. 1:24 - Introduction to the Human Rights Foundation | 5:42 - Alex’s roles and responsibilities | 7:07 - Using emerging technologies to tackle authoritarianism | 13:47 - Alex’s first introduction to Bitcoin | 15:37 - Difficulties in retail adoption of cryptocurrencies | 22:57 - Scope of Bitcoin in countries with unstable fiat currencies | 30:04 - ‘Bitcoin is insurance against an Orwellian future’ | 35:00 - Censorship in India | 39:10 - Combating data centralisation in ubiquitous technologies | 42:48 - The current wave of populism sweeping the globe | 47:11 - How to get involved with the HRF?

Ben Askren is an undefeated MMA fighter and a former US Olympic Wrestler gearing up for his debut in the UFC on 2 March. After spending the last few years as the Welterweight champion in both ONE Fighting Championship and Bellator MMA, he announced his signing with the UFC in late 2018 and is set to make his debut in the Octagon against former champion Robbie Lawler at UFC 235. He talks about his involvement with the Litecoin foundation and the growing influence and collaboration between the MMA world and cryptocurrencies.   1:28: Ben’s preparation for his debut fight against Robbie Lawler | 4:41: Will Ben ever fight Tyron Woodley? | 5:16: UFC 235 | 6:34: The mutual admiration between the combat sports and crypto worlds | 8:38: Ben’s intro to crypto | 10:16: MMA fighters working with cryptocurrencies | 11:10: Association with the Litecoin foundation | 13:10: The potential of censorship-resistant money in combat sports | 15:30: Ben’s plans for India.

Chris Bates is the Chief Security Officer at Bitland Global, a Ghana-based firm that is focused on unlocking the potential of land capital through the democratization of real estate ownership using leading-edge technology. Time magazine voted the company in its list of 50 'Most Genius Companies’ of 2018. After establishing a presence in Ghana, Bitland has also started to develop land registry projects in different states of India and with other African nations. 1.0: Intro to Bitland | 3.24: Why is Land title registry such a problematic issue in emerging economies? | 6.00: Bitland’s key beneficiaries | 11.23: Does bitcoin provide banking to the unbanked? | 13:38: Bitcoin as censorship resistant money | 20.01: Why is blockchain the right solution to tackle the issues regarding land registry? | 29.08: Bitland’s collaboration with the Government of Ghana | 35.56: Bitland’s goal of giving individuals access to financial services | 41.40: How Bitland tackles security | 49.19: Cadastral coin | 52.09: Community building activities conducted by Bitland | 54.37: Major challenges | 59.40: What vision does Bitland have for India?

Rahul Raj is the CEO and co-founder of Mumbai-based cryptocurrency exchange Koinex. After short stints at Inshorts and Bizongo, he along with his co-founders Aditya Naik (CBO) and Rakesh Yadav (CTO) laid the foundations to build India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in May 2017. Having secured venture capital from industry giants like BEENEXT and Pantera Capital, they were the first multi-token open-orderbook exchange to launch in the country. With daily trading volumes peaking at INR 1722 crores in December 2017, Koinex is the first and only Indian exchange to feature in the list of the top 10 global crypto-fiat exchanges. 1.03: Intro to Rahul Raj | 6.08: Koinex’s origin story | 9.57: What was Koinex’s launch strategy and how did they strategise market acquisition? | 14.10: How are crypto projects listed on Koinex and what is the process behind it? | 15.05: What are the initial challenges that were faced by Koinex? | 17.25: How did Koinex attract liquidity and volume so quickly? | 22.54: War stories from December 2017? | 30.20: Key milestones from Year 1? | 34.48: How did Koinex respond to the RBI’s directive in April 2018? | 39.40: How did Koinex establish its footprint in the P2P space in India? | 43.27: What are Koinex’s goals in the months and years to come?  

Aaryaman Vir has been involved in the blockchain space in for a number of years, both as an investor and an entrepreneur. He is one of the co-founders of Elemential Labs which is a recently funded Mumbai-based startup who are building tools to foster smoother enterprise adoption of blockchain technology. He is also an investor in cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin and is the co-founder of Prophetic Ventures which is venture fund focused on a suite of five emerging technologies (India Stack, Blockchain, VR/AR, Drones and AI). 0.01 - Intro to podcast host | 3.15 - Intro to The First Block | 4.27 - Aaryaman’s background and introduction. | 6.36 - What is Elemential Labs? | 7.38 - What other ventures has Aaryaman invested in or founded? | 10.29 - The challenges Elemential faced in India? | 13.35 - Elemential’s original sales pitch | 16.49 - Aaryaman’s views on the current state of blockchain adoption | 20.52 -  Key takeaways from crypto in 2017 | 32.37 - What are NFTs? |35.00 - How we should view Blockchain and crypto FUD? | 42.15 - Predictions for crypto in India