This week Bitcoin.com spoke with Matt McKibbin organizer of the D10e conference – an event that specializes in promoting decentralization and innovative technologies. D10e has held conferences all over the world, and will host another event on August 11-12 at City College in San Francisco with its “Startup Societies Summit.” McKibbin gives our readers an inside glimpse at what attendees should expect during the summit and what it’s like to organize a conference that promotes cryptocurrencies, blockchain tech, decentralized applications, and a vast array of other groundbreaking movements.
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D10e an Event Dedicated to Exploring Decentralized Technologies and Philosophies and Social Organizations
Bitcoin.com (BC): Can you tell our readers a summary of what D10e is?
Matt McKibbin (MM): Decentralize (D10e) is a conference dedicated to exploring decentralized technologies and philosophies and social organizations. We aim to provide engaging content from four main pillars of fintech/blockchain, the sharing economy, the future of work, and disruptive tech and cultures.
Content has ranged from blockchain projects, apps that use the sharing economy to hack hunger, and the future of the sharing economy, to how psychedelics are being used in conjunction with traditional psychotherapy to disrupt the mental health industry.
BC: How have past D10e events been so far?
MM: D10e events started when Coin Congress was rebranded to include a wider audience than just cryptocurrency. To date, we have held events in Amsterdam, San Francisco, Bucharest and Tel Aviv. The events have been well received by the community who are passionate about decentralization and the potential for creating positive political, social and financial change in the world. We have been fortunate to host some incredible speakers, including; Brock Pierce, Craig Sellars, David Orban, Jason King, Bernard Lietaer, and John McAfee.
BC: Can you tell our readers a little about the upcoming conference in San Francisco?
MM: This edition of D10e in San Francisco is focused entirely on Startup Societies. Political decentralization comes when the people can easily exit their current governance systems and create their own private systems on top of the transparent and modern tools blockchains provide. The goal of this conference is to bring together all the parties involved in startup societies, be they investors in Special Economic Zones (SEZs), economists, infrastructure providers, and governance specialists. By bringing all the thought leaders and relevant stakeholders together under one roof, we will speed the process of innovation in startup societies.
BC: What are startup societies?
MM: A startup society is an experimental government located in a small geographic area. We call them “startup societies” because they are experimental, lean, and geared towards the needs of those they serve.
Any governance philosophy or practice can be experimented in these zones. Examples include city states, special economic zones, eco-villages, private cities, intentional communities, communes, microstates, and seasteading. Modern day exemplars are Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shenzehn. Historical startup societies included venice, early united states, and greek city states.
BC: San Francisco is often referred to as a technological hub. Do you think this will be highlighted in the D10e Startup Societies Summit?
MM: During this joint summit with the Startup Societies Foundation, we will bring together the worlds of political decentralization with the technologies that help to build the foundation for future cities and societies. San Francisco has some of the brightest minds in technology concentrated or “centralized” if you will in one place. This provides many companies and speakers who share our vision and provide some of the most cutting edge technologies in the world.
BC: Is it a lot of work organizing conferences like these and what have you learned from organizing past events?
MM: It is definitely a lot of work to organize a conference. It feels like you can never actually finish your work or empty your email inbox. However, the feeling you get when people come up to you and tell you they learned something or became passionate about blockchains/decentralization at the conference is always worth the sleepless nights. Through this conference, I personally have learned how to actually create useful results from a shared vision, and that one is only as powerful as the network who surrounds you. Throwing conferences has shown me there are always people as passionate about subject as you are, and bringing them together can lead to transforming the world for the better. Also, the D10e affiliates parties are always a great time.
BC: How do you currently feel about the growth of cryptocurrencies, and blockchain solutions?
I think the growth of cryptocurrencies and blockchain solutions was inevitable and is healthy. The internet of money is a world changing tool which in my opinion will have a greater effect on society than the invention of the internet has. Applications not only in currency and financial transactions but governance and digital property recording applications are starting to become more mature and have real world impact. In the future all things of value which humans want to keep track of will be recorded and stored on the world wide ledger for transparency and accountability. These blockchain solutions and decentralized applications provide a way for all humans to trade value without having to trust third party intermediaries. This paves the way for an entire societal reformation. That said, like with any emerging technology there will be growing pains, and fortunes both won and lost. Despite these challenges, I remain bullish on cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technologies more generally, and believe they will lead to radically positive change long term.
BC: Can you explain what D10e’s overall mission is?
The overall mission of D10e is to teach people about the decentralization movement and the various subjects that fall under the decentralization umbrella. We bring together the brightest and most engaging speakers who educate and create memorable experiences within the community. We hope to grow exponentially the number of people who are passionate about decentralizing the world and making it a better place, and have been humbled by our ability to play a role in the movement thus far.
Will you be attending the D10e event in San Francisco? Let us know in the comments below.
Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com is a media partner and sponsor of the D10e conference.
Images via D10e, Linkedin, Matt McKibbin, and Pixabay.
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