Men With Blockchain | “I know.., I Don’t Know”

Men with Blockchain… is like saying Men with an Idea or Men with a Solution. We have many ideas and come up with many solutions, but yet not all our solutions work. We sometimes carry on with the solution even though we know it is not working and some $$$$ later and a lot of man hours lost we decide to call it quits.

It’s like my boys and their favorite saying “I know”, “I know”, “I know”.

They know everything, but not everything yet. A good friend of mine uses this saying: “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing”

What am I getting at, well for me when I started researching Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies 3 years ago, I knew absolutely nothing about it. Everyone thought I was going to lose all my money, get scammed, lose everything!

The big difference was I was planning on making it my job to know everything I could about this new Technology because I saw the potential in the difference it could make to society. I also saw the opportunity I found myself in, in that, I was one of a hand full around the world that was interested in this beyond the hype, (Okay, I did fall for some of the hype :), but still, I saw potential business strategy behind that.

This meant I would be able to create, creative avenues towards a business model within this new industry and therefore not just speculate on which Coin or Token was going to the moon, but rather have something more substantial. I saw myself earning revenue in my favorite Digital Currency, decentralized and with a goal of spreading the possible wealth I would create with my collaborators, (#workingonthat ;).

This was a revelation because it gave me the freedom to be creative again.

I now very easily say “I don’t know” and in fact, my path to writing came from studying, writing down how I saw the process, milling it around, talking to myself and finally putting it on ‘paper’. My collaboration with piers came from the knowledge that drove self-confidence to speak up, my gratitude from the fact that I still know nothing and will learn something new every day forward. #morneolivier

Men with Blockchain is a series intended to join men in the industry with knowledge on the subject and that are willing to share it. For me, most important to share, to our children who will enter this Technological advancement midstream and will look for guidance once they realize they “don’t know”.

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My first guest then, from the U.K. — Samuel Burrell, Principal at NKB Ventures

Samuel Burrell

Samuel Burrell on LinkedIn

Q&A

#1 Give us a summary of your background and how you got into Blockchain & Digital Currency/Cryptocurrency?

Mine is a bit of a different background — I am a former Royal Marine and since leaving I pursued my interest in new technologies to where I am today. I’ve been involved in tech startups for the last few years, both on the operating and investing side. I became interested in blockchain after an internship with Octopus Ventures and subsequently applied for a role at NKB Group where I currently work on their venture investing team.

#2 Tell us about your current position, responsibilities and some day to day activities that you look forward to?

I’m part of NKB Ventures, the venture investing arm of the business. We invest in the equity of companies in the blockchain and crypto space. The part of my day I look forward to the most is getting to speak to entrepreneurs, be they the founders of our portfolio companies or founders of new companies who pitch us for investment. I enjoy hearing about the buzz of operations from our portfolio companies. Also, getting my head around new technologies and business models is really interesting.

#3 If you had to be critical about yourself, which part of your career would you like to improve on?

I always feel like I should be out meeting more people and doing more networking. The best venture investors have great networks, spend a lot of time building their personal brand, which improves their deal-flow. Finding a balance between hobbies, family, and networking is always tricky!

#4 What advice do you have for children/youth (10–18 years) today especially young women about the Blockchain world? How do we nurture interest in this new Technology?

I would recommend them to study computer science. When I was at school it wasn’t really a subject you could do, but now I think it’s just as fundamental as reading, writing, and arithmetic. It doesn’t mean you have to be a developer when you grow up, but a basic understanding of the fundamentals is a game-changer.

#5 What kind of skill set would you be looking at in job applicants?

A cryptocurrency is a type of currency, so an understanding of macroeconomics is often helpful to understand how these systems work. That doesn’t mean you have to have a degree in economics, but some knowledge of the basics is useful. I just did a module of macroeconomics during my MBA but it has been indispensable since I started working in the space. I also like to see applicants who have thought about the space and already have an investment thesis they can explain. It doesn’t have to fit with mine, in fact, it’s usually more interesting if it doesn’t!

#6 Blockchain to me is a forward-thinking force of snowballing technology, but where I’m from a lot of people still see Bitcoin as a scam. How do we bridge the gap between the technology and people that are skeptical about it?

I think this is a key question. We are all sitting here talking about how amazing blockchain is, largely in our own echo chambers of crypto enthusiasts and people already in the space. But if it doesn’t find mass adoption then those conversations are meaningless. It would be great if we could promote real use cases of crypto, where the technology is actually useful for something other than speculation. I think it needs that kind of grounding in real-world scenarios for people to understand that it’s more than just a payment technology for criminals and drug dealers.

#7 Can you please provide the details of an educational facility that is in your area or country if anyone reading this article decides to find out more about Blockchain.

In terms of a structured course, I’ve heard great things about the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme, albeit somewhat expensive. Most people learn about crypto by reading online, or watching YouTube videos — that’s where I started!

#8 What is your current opinion on the Digital Assets, (Cryptocurrency) market and share with us your opinion on where you think this Technology will take us?

I think we are still in the very early stages of the technology. My own investment thesis is that in the short term it is a technology that will be transformative largely in the financial sector. We are seeing this already with many banks creating their own internal tokens and fractional ownership through security tokens.

People write about Web 3.0 but I think we are still a long way from creating and using the blockchain applications that people used to write about in ICO whitepapers. We should focus on what is realistic in the short/medium term, and improve the UX everywhere in order to bridge the gap to people who haven’t used crypto yet.

#9 What new exciting projects are you currently working on or planning?

We are really interested in decentralized finance at the moment and companies that are able to make that work at scale. We’d love to add a DeFi company to the NKB Ventures portfolio!

#10 What is your favorite Blockchain project and why?

We recently invested in the Seed round of a company called BCB Group. They are a prime brokerage platform for institutional investors led by a really impressive founder called Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie. I’m very excited about this project simply because of the caliber of the team, and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next for them in their journey.

“Morne

Quote:

“ I also like to see applicants who have thought about the space and already have an investment thesis they can explain. It doesn’t have to fit with mine, in fact, it’s usually more interesting if it doesn’t!”

Thank you, Samuel, to me this is crucial, here we can’t copy, it will take the technology nowhere, unless we improve on an existing problem, be it a Blockchain solution or in the “real world”, we have to puzzle out the pieces to get to the bigger picture. Start small, make mistakes, but learn from them, and Grow!

We forget when our brains take the better of us and bulldoze us x1000 times forward. In whatever scale you start the same principle applies,

“start with the basics”

I always refer to my wheel theory, #mysaying

“the wheel cant be made more round to turn faster, it depends on the rim, surface, and depth, for its speed and endurance.”

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Next up from S.A. Scott Botha, Blockchain Architect at Digital Rand

Scott Botha

Scott Botha on LinkedIn

Q&A

#1 Give us a summary of your background and how you got into Blockchain & Digital Currency / Cryptocurrency?

Price action is what caught my eye initially, and I decided to apply my formal education in investment and financial economics to trade bitcoin. Suddenly, I was introduced to the world of altcoins. Once I had invested in some I realized, outside of some technical analysis, I had no idea what exactly I was investing in. Thus, the journey of self-education started to broaden my limited knowledge of the blockchain, different projects, and smart-contract technology.

#2 Tell us about your current position, responsibilities and some day to day activities that you look forward to?

My day to day activities vary, but no matter where I am, I start the day with a cup of coffee and my pc/laptop, having a look at the crypto markets. I feel almost seasoned as I am well past the days of looking at the markets many times a day on my mobile. I rebalance a portfolio or two, always in a decentralized manner, making use of my favorite DEX aggregator 1inch.exchange. Once my spreadsheets are updated and my trading is done for the day, I then focus on one or more of my projects — including reading as much material as I can on this ever-developing landscape.

 I am currently involved in various projects, including:

Token Creation and Integration

Tokenomics

Education on Liquidity Pooling

Different versions of tokens

through my deflation token journey in

The Burn Token, building a truly decentralized and world-first tokenized tracking index fund; and project lead in Digital Rand.

As a South African, my main focus is on digital asset adoption, especially in my country and continent where so many are unbanked, thus the creation of a stablecoin pegged to the South African Rand.

#3 If you had to be critical about yourself, which part of your career would you like to improve on?

Unfortunately, my knowledge is limited on many back-end coding techniques. There is nothing worse than understanding how to move forward but lacking the technical knowledge to be able to apply it. All that means though, is that there is room for growth and continued learning.

#4 What advice do you have for children/youth (10–18 years ) today especially young women about the Blockchain world? How do we nurture interest in this new Technology?

This world is full of distractions, and somehow blockchain should be implemented into their social media accounts or in dApp games to garner some interest. Youth are accustomed to apps, so the most important aspect would be to keep them entertained. A large part of this technology is coding, which sees no gender.

#5 What kind of skill set would you be looking at in job applicants?

I need an applicant to have the initiative to be able to see the bigger picture and end goal, even if there is confusion on how to get there from start to finish. A keenness for continued learning in this space is a must!

#6 Blockchain to me is a forward-thinking force of snowballing Technology, but where I’m from a lot of people still see Bitcoin as a scam.

 How do we bridge the gap between Technology and people that are skeptical about it?

We need to move away from price speculation and focus on education in terms of the current monetary policy and how this technology plans on disrupting the system.

#7 Can you please provide the details of an educational facility that is in your area or country if anyone reading this article decides to find out more about Blockchain.

I am not overly familiar with facilities in South Africa, as with globalization, all the information on this space is readily available online, although a quick Google search showed Blockchain Academy in Cape Town.

#8 What is your current opinion on the Digital Assets, (Cryptocurrency) market and share with us your opinion on where you think this Technology will take us?

From a technical analysis point of view, the short-term trend is bearish, but if past indicators are correct then we should trend bullish as we are close to the ‘Bitcoin halving’. On the fundamental side, I am without a doubt long-term bullish, and on the firm opinion that everything can and should be tokenized.

#9 What new exciting projects are you currently working on or planning?

As I mentioned earlier, I am working as the project lead on Digital Rand, allowing South Africans an easier means to the decentralized world, that can be used throughout the continent where the fiat currency is unstable and access to banking facilities is limited.

#10 What is your favorite Blockchain project and why?

I am a massive fan of Uniswap, which is an Ethereum-based protocol that is designed to facilitate automatic digital asset exchange between ETH and ERC20 tokens. I have used and applied this protocol on many projects and have a full write up on it via theburntoken.com.

“Morne

Quote

“Unfortunately, my knowledge is limited on many back-end coding techniques. There is nothing worse than understanding how to move forward but lacking the technical knowledge to be able to apply it. All that means though, is that there is room for growth and continued learning.”

‘Continued learning — a fact we all need to realize and take charge of

“A large part of this technology is coding, which sees no gender.”

‘My latest “Women in Blockchain” article says it all

Thank you, Scott, for this just reiterates my “I know…, I don’t know” theory and I hope for the youngsters and students reading this a realization as to how they can take charge in this new industry called Blockchain.

By Morne Olivier on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

References:

NKB GROUP - Blockchain Investment and Advisory

Vacuumlabs, a global centre of excellence in design & engineering will further boost their blockchain software…www.nkbgroup.io

https://digitalrand.co.za/

Morne Olivier #morneolivier LinkedIn

Freelance Writer | Content Creation and Digital Media Marketing for Blockchain Technology | Let me help you Create Content

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