Blockchain, a distributed ledger shared across a network’s participants, is one of the most significant technologies to come along in recent years. Put simply, it allows for triple-entry accounting, and it also creates the possibility of having non-replicable digital assets (digital scarcity).
Because blockchain can remove the need for trusted intermediaries across industry value chains, it could quite literally reshape whole markets and even the face of the Internet itself. Google, Facebook, and others will all face new blockchain-based competitors that are eager to decentralize and disrupt everything from e-commerce, travel, music, and cloud-based storage to even the way we communicate.
This new blockchain-based economy, fueled by the emerging discipline of Cryptoeconomics, will find its home on a decentralized Internet, something the experts are calling Web 3.0.
How will the business landscape change for various sectors, particularly in the financial sector? What will this new version of the Internet look like? What are the benefits and pitfalls for businesses and consumers?
This event is the Scotiabank Speakers Series in Digital Transformation in Banking.
REGISTRATION CLOSED
Event Details
Scotiabank Speakers Series in Digital Transformation in Banking
May 31, 2018
5:30-6 p.m. – Registration and reception
6-7 p.m. – Presentation from Ryan Zurrer, HBA ’06, Principal and Venture Partner at Polychain Capital
7-7:30 p.m. – Q&A
Location: Scotiabank Centre, 40 King Street West, 2nd Floor, Toronto
Tickets: $45 (plus HST)
Topics You Will Explore
- How do representations of digital scarcity (e.g. tokens) create incentives in blockchain-based organizations?
- What role do open-source, peer-to-peer networks play in the architecture of the Web 3.0, and with what implications?
- How will decentralized alternatives to current systems impact banks and corporations?
About the Speaker
Ryan Zurrer, HBA ’06
Ryan Zurrer is Principal and Venture Partner at Polychain Capital, leading private investments and helping projects structure their organizations and cryptoeconomic models. He has been an active angel investor in the blockchain space since 2012, backing both startups and token-enabled networks. Zurrer was an early investor in Ethereum, MakerDAO, and other emerging projects, and ran a bitcoin mining operation throughout 2013 and a bitcoin exchange and remittance service in Brazil during that time. Prior to joining Polychain Capital, Zurrer was CEO of a large Brazilian renewables firm that was backed by investment from the Brazilian national utility and Brazil’s largest conglomerate. Zurrer has extensive experience building large-scale projects and evaluating emerging technologies. In the last decade, he has worked in China, Singapore, Denmark, Spain, Canada, and Brazil. Prior to his time in renewables, Zurrer worked in investment banking focused on financial technology. He has an Honors Business Administration (HBA) degree from Ivey, where he played varsity men’s rugby.
About the Moderator
Jean-Philippe (J.P.) Vergne
Jean-Philippe Vergne (J.P.) is an associate professor of strategy and the Co-director of the Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab at Ivey Business School. Before joining Ivey in 2011, Vergne received a PhD in Strategy at HEC Paris, and an MPhil in economics at La Sorbonne University. His award-winning research examines how socially contested organizations affect the birth, death, and renewal of industries operating at the vanguard of capitalist economies. Vergne has published his scholarly research in leading management journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, and Strategic Management Journal, and a book at Harvard Publishing entitled The Pirate Organization: Lessons from the Fringes of Capitalism. Vergne has spoken at international conferences, such as Google Zeitgeist, TEDx, and South by Southwest Interactive, and regularly gives keynote talks at major industry events. In 2014, he founded the Crypto Capitalism Center to conduct rigorous research on cryptocurrencies and the broader FinTech ecosystem.
About the Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab
The Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab at Ivey Business School is funded by a generous $3-million donation from Scotiabank. The goal of the Digital Banking Lab is to provide research, education, and outreach on digital disruption and FinTech innovation. The co-directors of the Digital Banking Lab are Professors Michael King and Jean-Philippe (J.P.) Vergne.