Andrew Key‘s career has been at the intersection of capital markets and technology. He co-founded ConsenSys Capital, a financial services constellation of companies, including Fund Foundry, ConsenSys Ventures, and Token Foundry.

Previously, Andrew ran ConsenSys’ global business development from inception of the company, co-founded ConsenSys Enterprise, co-created the first Ethereum Blockchain-as-a-Service offering with Microsoft , and began the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance,

Andrew joined ConsenSys with capital markets, healthcare, technology and entrepreneurial experience. Previously, he worked for UBS investment bank in equities analysis. Later, he was involved within multiple hedge funds and broker dealers in alternative asset investing. After, he co-founded a healthcare revenue cycle management company where he learned about Bitcoin and eventually Ethereum.

He graduated from Loyola University in Maryland and University of Auckland with degrees in economics and international finance. Andrew’s best computer science was in college, and it’s been downhill technically, since then.

Andrew’s LinkedIn
Andrew on Twitter

Blockchain

A blockchain, originally block chain, is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp and transaction data.

By design, a blockchain is inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way”. For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for inter-node communication and validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority. This makes blockchains potentially suitable for the recording of events, medical records,and other records management activities, such as identity management, transaction processing, documenting provenance, food traceability or voting.

Blockchain was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 for use in the cryptocurrency bitcoin, as its public transaction ledger. The invention of the blockchain for bitcoin made it the first digital currency to solve the double-spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server. The bitcoin design has been the inspiration for other applications.

Ethereum

Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality.It supports a modified version of Nakamoto consensus via transaction based state transitions. Ether is a cryptocurrency whose blockchain is generated by the Ethereum platform. Ether can be transferred between accounts and used to compensate participant mining nodes for computations performed.

Writing (Andrew Keys)

Blockchain Predictions for 2018
Blockchain Predictions for 2017
Blockchain Predictions of 2016
Memo from Davos
Building the Hyperconnected Future on Blockchains (responsible for writing healthcare section)
Non-Technical Introduction to Ethereum
Tokenization of Assets

Andrew/ ConsenSys in Mainstream Media 

New York Times: Ethereum, a Virtual Currency, Enables Transactions That Rival Bitcoin’s (03/2016)
Bloomberg: Post-Bitcoin Technology Has Geeks, Giants, and Hackers Excited (03/2017)
Wall St Journal: Ethereum Network Copes With Surge of Activity as Virtual Kitten Game Goes Viral (12/2017)
The Economist: Financial Technology is proving less of a battleground than feared (052017)
International Business Times: How Ethereum Blockchain Technology Will Revolutionize Digital Asset Value (01/2018)

More Videos with Andrew

The Blockchain will disrupt everything – Keynote, Berlin November 2017
Speaking at Davos, World Economic Forum (1/2018)
Keynote – Cloud Expo, Jacob Javitz Center (03/2018)

Career:  Bestselling author, strategic advisor, innovation activist dubbed “Mr. Creativity” by The Economist; Chairmen & CEO EdgeMakers; Chairman ILSI
Interests: Jazz, Film & Theater (actively!). Unpeeling the onion, reinvention of education, innovation at societal scale.
Hometown: San Francisco, USA

John Kao was born in 1950 to Chinese immigrant parents. An accomplished jazz pianist, he spent the summer of 1969 playing keyboards for Frank Zappa. Kao studied philosophy at Yale College, received an MD from Yale Medical School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He taught at Harvard Business School from 1982-96, where he specialized in innovation and entrepreneurship and created executive and MBA programs on innovation. He has also held faculty appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, Yale College, and the Naval Postgraduate School.

John is a leader in creating and delivering high end innovation leadership executive programs for both public and private sectors. He is chairman of the Institute for Large Scale Innovation, whose i20 group is an association of 30 national ‘Chief Innovation Officers.’  John coined the term “large scale innovation” to refer to innovation as a societal agenda.  He has advised numerous nations and regions on innovation strategy and execution, including Finland, Singapore, the City of San Francisco, Abu Dhabi and elements of the US government as well as the European Union innovation policy team.

His advisory work for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was described in The New York Times as “out of the box”

More:
www.johnkao.com
John Kao on Wikipedia
John on Twitter
www.edgemakers.com

Key publications:
Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity (1996; still reprinted and available in 16 languages)
Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back (2007) 

Career: Advisor to UN Secretary General for Innovative Financing, Chair UNITAID and Millennium Foundation, UN Deputy
Previously French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Health etc. Prior to that Cardiologist and Professor of Public Health
Interests: Global Health, Medicine, Mico-Financing
Hometown: Paris, France

Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy is one of the world’s foremost experts on innovative financing to reach the Millennium Development Goals. In 2006, he founded the Leading Group on Solidarity Levies to Fund Development at Paris Conference on Innovative Development Financing Mechanisms and was elected President of UNITAID in the same year.
Prior, he held several ministerial positions in France, including Minister of Health (1993-1995), Minister of Culture & Communication (1995-1997), Minister for Solidarity, Health & Family (2004-2005) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005-2007). Before embracing policy initiatives, Dr. Douste-Blazy was practicing cardiologist & Professor of Public Health at Toulouse University in France.
On 19th Feb. 2008, he became Special Advisor on Innovative Financing for Development, with the rank of UN Under-Secretary-General by the UN, following his experience as chairman of the International Drug Purchase Facility hosted by the WHO et al.

UNITAID’s mission is to contribute to scaling up access to treatment for HIV/ AIDS, malaria & tuberculosis, primarily for people in low-income countries, by leveraging price reductions for quality diagnostics & medicines, and accelerating the pace at which these are made available.
Since UNITAID’s overall objective is to serve the needs of the poorest countries & most vulnerable populations, it dedicates at least 85% of its funds to providing health commodities to low-income countries. UNITAID uses less than 10% of its funds to purchase products for lower middle-income countries & less than 5% for upper middle-income countries. These criteria are a key consideration in the decision to fund partner projects.

The Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health was established in Nov. 2008 as an independent non-profit Swiss foundation, located in Geneva. Their mission is aligned with helping achieve the three health-related Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the UN by implementing new innovative financing mechanisms to expand sources of funding available to help eradicate life-threatening contagious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria & tuberculosis among the world´s most vulnerable populations. These mechanisms have the form of projects, such as “MassiveGood” which was launched in March 2010 and aims at giving travelers the possibility to add a $2, £2 or €2 micro-contribution to the purchase of a travel reservation, with all proceeds going to fight against diseases as mentioned above.

More:
www.pdousteblazy.com
Blog: Philippe Dousty-Blazy

Philippe Douste-Blazy on LinkedIN
Philippe Douste-Blazy on Facebook
Philippe Douse-Blazy on Twitter

www.unitaid.eu
UNITAID on Facebook

www.millennium-foundation.org
www.massivegood.org

Other articles/links/videos:
Video: Philippe Douste-Blazy  –  Advocate for the Millennium Development Goals