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• Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology took center stage at South By Southwest this year
• Conference organizers publically announced at the end of last year that a “new addition” for the 2018 SXSW lineup would include a series of sessions on blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin
• Venues with names like “Initial Taco Offering” and “The Blokhaus” lined the streets of downtown Austin, hosting events daily with well-known individuals in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space

Rachel Wolfson , Contributor

I write about crypto, women in crypto and blockchain technology.

Not surprisingly, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology took center stage at South By Southwest (SXSW) this year. The conference organizers publically announced at the end of last year that a “new addition” for the 2018 SXSW lineup would include a series of sessions on blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Venues with names like “Initial Taco Offering” and “The Blokhaus” lined the streets of downtown Austin, hosting events daily with well-known individuals in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.

Kicking Off SXSW With Ethereum Co-Founder, Joseph Lubin

On Friday of last week, the SXSW festival kicked off with a panel entitled, “Why Ethereum is Going to Change The World,” featuring Ethereum co-founder, Joseph Lubin. During the session, Lubin explained how he became interested in blockchain technology and his involvement in the Ethereum Project. He also revealed his plans for his blockchain software technology company, ConsenSys.

AUSTIN, TX – MARCH 09: Laura Shin and Joseph Lubin speak onstage at Why Etherium is Going to Change the World during SXSW at Austin Convention Center on March 9, 2018 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Mike Jordan/Getty Images for SXSW)

Lubin explained that when Bitcoin was first invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, two other creations followed. First and foremost, Bitcoin led to the creation of blockchain technology, described by Lubin as, “a trustworthy database system, which is a shared infrastructure consisting of trusted actors.” And Blockchain technology, eventually led to what Lubin refers to as, “crypto economics,” which has made it possible to create more things based on blockchain technology.

Crypto economics is a way of doing incentivized mechanism design to enable many actors to contribute their resources to validating transactions and securing that network,” Lubin said. “This is the first time in history where we’ve seen a money system built in a fully decentralized way that is essentially of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Following the creation of Bitcoin and the rise of blockchain technology, Lubin explained that Ethereum was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 as a vision for a system that is scalable in terms of human action and as a general platform for decentralized applications. Lubin got involved with Ethereum due to its many use cases, which he mentioned can be applied to various industries including the health sector, supply chain management and even content creation.

The many ways in which Ethereum can be used has led Lubin to create a content platform on the Ethereum network, called Ujo Music. In a nutshell, the Ujo platform allows artists to register themselves as individuals and upload their content to the network with usage policies attached to that content – without having to go through any third party.

“The beauty of this in contrast to the existing music industry is that it shrinks the role of the intermediary. Intermediaries in the music industry, for example, usually extract 70-80% of value flow in the industry and delay payments for artists. Our platform allows consumers to support artists instantly and ensures that artists get paid immediately for their work,” Lubin said during the panel.”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelwolfson/2018/03/18/the-future-of-cryptocurrencies-and-blockchain-take-center-stage-at-south-by-southwest-2018/#717901f135e3