28, November 2016: Blockgeeks is the creation of three successful entrepreneurs, Vlad Martynov, Dmitry Buterin and Ameer Rosic, whose mission is to enable mainstream businesses and investors to access practical blockchain expertise. In turn, this will help the business world to benefit from the blockchain’s remarkable ability to make commerce more secure and efficient.
The Blockchain is a fast-growing, billion-dollar technology that removes any need for the slow, expensive, not-always-trustworthy middlemen who are normally relied upon in traditional economies. This ability makes the blockchain more widely applicable than its famous mathematical cousin, Bitcoin, but it also makes it more radical and intimidating -- which is why an approachable community hub like Blockgeeks is so essential.
How will Blockgeeks help?
Some high-tech companies and large financial institutions are already aware of the blockchain’s potential, but they’re struggling to recruit engineers with the necessary skills -- not least because there are only around 4,000 blockchain developers in the world, versus 10 million web developers. Blockgeeks’ talent marketplace will be a natural go-to for these companies, connecting them with developers who are actively involved in the blockchain scene.
The workflows of smaller businesses, charities and government agencies also stand to be transformed by the blockchain. Rather than a lack of skills, these organisations suffer from a lack of clarity about how the technology can be put to work. Blockgeeks will deliver this clarity by means of weekly AMAs and messaging opportunities with on-demand blockchain experts, as well as educational courses and blog posts.
“The blockchain is being held back from fast adoption because there are too few people with an incentive to explore its value to business,” says Blockgeeks co-founder Vlad Martynov.
“Blockgeeks will bring fresh incentives for talented coders to sign up for projects, answer the community’s questions and ultimately help business leaders to find competitive advantage.”
Who’s behind Blockgeeks?
Blockgeeks’ co-founders bring a range of expertise spanning tech startups, enterprise software and blockchain evangelism:
Dmitry Buterin is a founder of three multi-million dollars businesses, including the top-ranked membership management software company, Wild Apricot, which provides tools and guidance to over 16,000 non-profit organisations.
Ameer Rosic is a marketing expert, investor and respected blogger in the blockchain field who has appeared as a commentator on sites like VentureBeat and the Huffington Post.
Vlad Martynov has twenty years of diverse experience in software and digital technology as a co-founder, angel investor and CEO of several highly successful startups, including the creator of the world's first dual screen smartphone YotaPhone. Martynov has also held senior positions at companies like Microsoft and SAP.
Why should businesses care about the blockchain?
Whereas cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin replace traditional cash, the related technology of the blockchain goes deeper: replacing a company’s costly dependence on legal services, banking services, governments and indeed any other sort of “trusted” intermediary that is normally relied upon to oversee or enforce transactions and contracts.
Blockchain uses a cryptographically-protected, decentralised database to record details of these transactions -- perhaps the terms of an agreement, or the transfer of an asset -- with greater privacy, security and efficiency than any centralised middleman.
By way of an illustration, blockchain services are already being built which can:
Track the movement of a diamond through a supply chain and authenticate its provenance, without relying on the word of an expert or salesman (source: http://www.everledger.io);
Construct a tamper-proof escrow that pays out automatically when certain conditions are met, without the supervision of a third party (source: https://ethereum.org/greeter);
Provide a digital wallet to impoverished or displaced people who lack traditional identity papers or bank accounts, allowing them to build savings, take on loans and pay for things entirely independently of the fiat currency or bureaucracy in the country where they happen to live (source: http://www.banquapp.com).
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