For the 4th time in the past two years, Nick and I have the incredibly hard job to curate the Token Summit line-up of speakers and content topics. Every time, we turn down about 90-100 requests, in order to end-up with about 45 speakers we settle on.
Since the beginning, our philosophical focus has been on siding with the projects and people who are truly original and pushing the ball forward, with credibility and depth. And we have resisted the pay-for-play trap that comes from sponsors pressuring us to select their speakers, as it has been the hardest balance to strike.
With that in mind, we are pleased to release the Agenda for Token Summit IV (some parts are still subject to change). We believe it represents a good mix of experienced, new and original voices, pointing to where the industry is going, not where it has been.
Thursday May 16th
7:30 AM
Doors open, Registration and Networking over Coffee/Tea and Continental Breakfast
8:30 AM Conference Sessions Start
- Opening Welcome and Setting the Stage. William Mougayar and Nick Tomaino
- How Decentralized Are We? William Mougayar
Measuring decentralization has multiple dimensions. Where are we in quantifying the technological and non-technical characteristics of decentralization? - Cryptocurrency Realism. Nick Tomaino
Maximalists serve their purpose, but new projects align incentives and push the whole ecosystem forward. More collaboration is beneficial. - Token Taxonomy Act. Rep. Darren Soto
A special video message recorded for the Token Summit, where Congressman Darren Soto updates us on the Token Taxonomy Act, and how the industry can help push it forward. - Fireside Chat with Timothy Massad, with William Mougayar
Discussing the Brookings report he recently authored on strengthening crypto-assets regulation, and proposed Congressional action with the former CFTC Chairman. - Blockchain Interoperability. Panel discussion with Jae Kwon (Cosmos), Robert Habermeier (Polkadot), and Lane Rettig (Ethereum), moderated by Nick Tomaino
Will one chain rule all or are we at the dawn of a new era of cross-chain communication? - Behind the Scenes of the Blockstack Reg A+ SEC filing. Fireside Chat with Muneeb Ali, Blockstack CEO and William Mougayar.
In an exclusive first, Muneeb takes us behind the scenes of their recent filings, how they did it, what’s next for Blockstack, and what are the implications for other players in the industry. - Stablecoins and the Future of MakerDAO. Fireside Chat with Steven Becker, MakerDAO president and Nick Tomaino
MakerDAO has been the breakout success on Ethereum. What does the future look like for the first major experiment in decentralized collateralized stablecoins? - Decentralized Products Taking on Centralized Incumbents. Panel discussion with Justin Hunter (Graphite), Brian Hoffman (OB1), Ted Livingston (Kin), and Ryan John King (FOAM), moderated by William Mougayar.
Every centralized online business will face competition from a variety of decentralized models that each have different value propositions and ways to lure new users to their platforms. What’s driving these decentralized projects, and how can they win against the incumbents? - Challenges in Decentralized Projects Governance. Panel discussion with Evan Van Ness (Week in Ethereum News), Lane Rettig (Ethereum Foundation), with William Mougayar.
- Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Panel discussion with Hayden Adams (Uniswap), Nadav Hollander (Dharma), Robert Leshner (Compound), Renat Khasanshyn (Etherisc) moderated by Nick Tomaino Ethereum is currently working well for open, global financial applications. Why is it working and what are areas for improvement?
- Quantifying the Value of Blockchain Data. Panel discussion with Ryan Selkis (Messari), Arjun Balaji, Jose Maria Macedo (AmaZix) and Devin Walsh (Coinfund), moderated by William Mougayar
Where is the value in tracking and measuring blockchain related data? What are the latest practices in extracting blockchain data for insight? What have we learned and why is this important now? What’s on the horizon? - Experiments in cryptoeconomics. Panel discussion with Kevin Wang (Nervos), Zaki Manian (Iqlusion, Tendermint), Doug Petkanics (Livepeer) Sunny Aggarwal (Tendermint) moderated by Nick Tomaino.
A discussion on new token designs that seek to properly align incentives and capture long-term economic value.
- The State of Practice in Security Tokens. Panel discussion with Josh Stein (Harbor), Heinrich Zetlmayer (Blockchain Valley Ventures), Sebastian Burgel (Validity Labs), moderated by William Mougayar
It is now time to show security tokens in actions. What are the best cases that have leading implementations? How is it being done? And what else can we expect? Is this a revolution or step-wise evolution? - The State of Prediction Markets. Panel discussion with Joey Krug (Augur, Pantera), Tom Kysar (Forecast Foundation), Paul Fletcher-Hill (Veil), with Nick Tomaino.
Augur launched in 2018 and v2 is on the way this summer. What have been the main learnings so far and where are prediction markets going? - The Future of dApps. Panel discussion with Kim Cope (Dapper Labs), Nick Grossman (Union Square Ventures), and Arianna Simpson (Autonomous Partners) moderated by William Mougayar
How do we get dApps into the consumer mainstream? What are the latest practices and approaches that are working? What’s not working? - The State (or Stalemate) of Regulation? Panel discussion with Mike Didiuk (Perkins Coie), Nancy Wojtas (Cooley), Andreas Glarner (MME), and Robert Rosenblum (Wilson Sonsini), by William Mougayar.
Is the US losing its position as the standard bearer? Is there a perfect jurisdiction? Who is ahead in the evolution of regulations and why? - Talking Tokens. Fireside chat between Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) and Olaf Carlson-Wee (Polychain) Two pioneers and early believers discuss what they see, and how they think about the space.
- Show and Tell Lightening Talks (being finalized)
CMORQ (Dana Panzer)
Vesper (Jeff Garzik)
MolochDAO (Ameen Soleimani)
Audius (Roneil Rumburg)
Commonwealth (Dillon Chen)
Ava Labs (Emin Gün Sirer)
Titan (Ryan Condron)
bloxRoute (Uri Klarman)
5:40 PM
- Closing remarks. William Mougayar and Nick Tomaino