Web 3.0, Polkadot, and the 2020s: The Decade of Internet Privacy Beyond Big Tech
Channel: EFF-Austin
Date: 2020-07-17

Our speaker this month is Dan Reecer. Dan is the Community & Growth Manager for Polkadot, a next-generation blockchain network founded by the former co-founder and CTO of Ethereum, Gavin Wood. Polkadot will begin its phased launch process in Q2 2020, aiming to solve many of the current issues hindering blockchains from adoption at a global scale, including connection between blockchains, scalability, and rapid upgradability. Dan graduated with a bachelor and master degree from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business in Information Systems and International Business. He has had a marketing and operations-focused career, with four years at Eli Lilly & Company working in pharmaceutical brand marketing in Oncology, Immunology, and Alzheimer's. He transitioned his career to blockchain out of curiosity for the technology's potential, which led him to Austin for his first job with another blockchain project called Wanchain. He led Marketing and Business Development globally for this organization, before opting to join Polkadot's historic launch under the Web3 Foundation based in Zug, Switzerland. Dan lives in Austin, is an avid traveler, and is a competitive tennis player.

Dan will discussing Web 3.0 with us. The "tech boom" became the "advertising boom" in the 2010s and our online privacy has been sacrificed in the process. Web 3.0 is the movement and next phase of the internet where control, privacy, and power will be restored back to the individual and away from Big Tech.

A critical building block in the new web is Polkadot Network, which will begin its launch process in early 2020. Polkadot was founded in Zug, Switzerland in 2016 by Gavin Wood, the co-founder and CTO of Ethereum and creator of the Solidity programming language. Following the significant launches of Bitcoin and Ethereum, Polkadot now aims to solve many of the issues that have so far held back implementation of blockchain technology on a massive scale, most notably connection between blockchains, scalability, plug-and-play network security for new blockchains, and developer experience.

Dan Reecer will be discussing what Web 3.0 is, why it's important, how you can participate and contribute, and the role the upcoming launch of Polkadot will play. He will also briefly discuss Polkadot's live experimental network, Kusama, and Substrate, a software development kit for building bespoke blockchains that can be standalone or easily plug into Polkadot's network. This Meetup will be mostly non-technical, and Polkadot will be hosting a follow-up online Meetup for those interested in diving deeper into technical questions.

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Pre-Meetup resources:

Polkadot Website - https://polkadot.network
Polkadot 2019 year in review by Gavin Wood - https://polkadot.network/polkadot-2019-year-in-review/
Follow Polkadot on Crowdcast for ongoing webinars - https://www.crowdcast.io/polkadot
Follow Polkadot on Twitter - https://twitter.com/polkadotnetwork
Polkadot Lightpaper - https://polkadot.network/Polkadot-lightpaper.pdf