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: Co-Founder and CEO of Foursquare
Interests: Snowboarding, Karaoke, Unemployment
Hometown: from Boston, lives in East Village, NYC, USA

Dennis Crowley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Foursquare, a service that mixes social, locative and gaming elements to encourage people explore the cities. Forusquare had over 4,5 million users worldwide as of 11/2010. Previously, Dennis founded dodgeball.com, one of the first mobile social services in the US, which was acquired by Google in 2005. He has been named “Top 35 Innovators Under 35” by MIT’s Technology Review magazine (2005) and has won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV, Slashdot and NBC. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). The online magazine AskMen.com rated Dennis Crowley No. 19 of the “Top 49 Most Influential Men 2010”.

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website and software for mobile devices. Users check-in at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes “badges.” The service was created in 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. As of 11/2010, the company reported 4.5 million registered users. The World Economic Forum announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.

More:
www.denniscrowley.com
Twitter: @dens
www.foursquare.com

Other articles/links/videos:
www.teendrama.com
Article: Forbes Nov 2010: Foursqure´s Dennis Crowley talks Facebook
Article: The Telegraph Jul 2010: Dennis Crowling, the new darling of Silicon Valley
Video: YouTube Dennis Crowley about Foursquare

Short intro to Foursquare:

Career: Journalist and Editor TechCrunch Europe / TechHub London
Interests: Technology, Family
Hometown: London, UK

TechHub is the physical hub for the technology start-up community. It’s launching first in London in the Shoreditch/Old St area and will consist of desk spaces, co-working space, meeting rooms and an event space. It will will be swiftly followed by others around the world. While it will be a place for tech entrepreneurs to touch down, work, plug their laptops in and use the fast wifi, what really differentiates it is the mostly product-oriented tech community. TechHub will be helping to facilitate networking, collaboration, knowledge-sharing via events, introductions and the website – plus that delightful ‘just bumped into someone’ factor.

Mike Butcher pitching TechCrunch:

TechCrunch was founded in 2005, as a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to covering new companies, TechCrunch profiles existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space. TechCrunch has now grown into a network of technology focused sites offering a wide range of content and new media. TechCrunch Europe is part of the TechCrunch Network, which includes country-specific blogs for France and Japan.

Mike Butcher is currently Editor of TechCrunch Europe. In addition he is involved in a project to bring European technology entrepreneurs and investors together in a club environment called TechHub (@TechHub), in London initially. A long time journalist, Mike has written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. He is a former editor of New Media Age magazine, the leading new media weekly in the UK, and the European edition of The Industry Standard magazine.
Since 1996 he has launched or re-launched numerous media web sites and in 2000 he was nominated as NetMedia’s European Internet Journalist of the Year. In 2004 he was voted ‘One of the 100 Innovators of the UK Internet Decade’ by GfK NOP, the fourth-largest custom research business in the world. In July 2008 he was put at No. 47 out of the Top 100 people in London’s creative industry by The Independent newspaper and The Hospital Club.
In August 2008 TechCrunch Europe was awarded the best “Web 2.0 and business blog” in the UK, by the readers of Computer Weekly magazine. In 2009 it was named as one of the Top 10 blogs out of the UK. Also in 2009 he was named one of the Top 10 bloggers on Twitter in the UK. In October 2009 he was named one of the Top 50 most influential Britons in technology by The Daily Telegraph. In April 2010 he was named as one of Britain’s Top 100 “digital power-brokers” by Wired UK magazine. Mike is a regular commentator on the technology business, appearing on BBC News, Sky News, Channel 4 and Bloomberg. Mike’s personal blog is mbites, while he Twitters as @mikebutcher.

More:

Mike on
Mike’s Blog: http://mbites.com
Mike on Twitter: mikebutcher
Mike on LinkedIn

www.eu.techcrunch.com

www.techcrunch.com
www.facebook.com/techcrunch
Techcrunch on Wikipedia

www.techhub.com