A quick pointer to the people I have pointed at Steemit for the first time and this link, check out the series written by 
A meet up I attended on the 10th Jan 2018 - Below are my notes and commentary on what was presented and not necessarily my personal opinions.
This is a sponsored event so some bias expected, however I did take away some knowledge I did not have beforehand
I am now going to split this into several posts In this one I cover the intro and the first speaker.
https://www.meetup.com/When-Bitcoin-Rules-The-World/events/245954560/
Seems this meetup has changed its name from "When Bitcoin ruled the world"
My guess was that given the explosion in other blockchains they rebranded,I asked the question and was right ; )
Have to say this was an amazing meetup, I have been to quite a few others in the last 4-6 months , what stood out :
The amount of people there, while others have sold out the venue was packed - standing room only, no blog could do a live meetup justice especially one as rich as this and I apologise to the presenters if any of the below has lost context.
The quality of the speakers was amazing, really good public speakers but to boot they had an excellent knowledge of the topic.
Shane V Kehoe
From the Meetup Site
Co-Founder/CEO of SVK Crypto. Shane's is an experienced investment professional with over 17 years global investment history, including the rise of the dotcom era, where Shane has partaken in over 1,000 IPO’s and now has his focus on the Crypto currency space.
As one of the co founders of SVK Crypto Shane role includes all ICO investment advice to corporate clients and managing the SVK Crypto fund. Shane is actively using blockchain technology to bridge the gap between traditional crowdfunding and institutional investment. Shane's last major role was a managing partner at one of Europe’s largest hedge funds.
Set scene that SVK Crypto are blockchain obsessed, SVK are an ICO advisory I had not actually heard of them before tonight
They have a blog & a Podcast 15 minutes of Crypto Fame which includes interviews with ICO's and commentary everyday 5 days a week
They put on monthly events in London and are looking at setting up a basics session for newbies.
I would say here Blockchain for Beginners :
https://www.meetup.com/London-Cryptocurrency-and-Blockchain-Beginners/
has already done this however there are that many people at these events now that they probably won't have an issue with sign ups
Sean went on to say he has worked in Finance - including Hedge funds Portfolio Management
He Talked to the Market Cap rise in Crypto and then onto on to talk the breakdown of their about portfolio
H talked to the fact they have reduced Bitcoin holding from 50% down to 15% per the graph recently.
He then ran through the guest speakers
First up Nick Ayton
This is taken from the Meetup site
Nick Ayton - London Correspondent For CoinTelegraph, Nick Ayton is a globally recognised name in the world of decentralised business management, blockchain technology and crypto currencies and a veteran of eight start-ups. He has spent 30 years working in the technology sector, holding a number of senior executive and management positions for Siemens, CapGemini and CSC. An accomplished writer, speaker and blockchain business architect, Nick has spent the last few years helping organisations with their blockchain strategies, designing blockchain solutions and propositions and advising on ICOs while also writing for the market leading online cryptocurrency magazine Coin Telegraph as their London correspondent, where he is known as The Sage of Shoreditch.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickayton/
As stated in the above Nick is a very accomplished speaker and knows his subject , he made it clear from the off his political beliefs, regardless of your stance he is engaging and he lit the topic up great to listen to.
Been involved in Bitcoin since 2013, is a Libertarian & Cypherpunk - Not surprisingly not a supporter of Banks or Governments , a founder of Chainstarter
His next Slide, Was a little tongue in cheek but highlighting that Korea very cheap electricity - so mining farms a big investment opportunity for them
Then onto some terminology education
Why is 75 relevant?
75% of ICO fails to reach their soft cap in 2017 its going to go up in 2018
Not a fan of Ripple which is no surprise given Nick's background
He then went through a recap
Talked to pensions being a failed product , loss of trust in Banks and now is the chance to redesign redesign Capital Markets
Nick Said ICO's have been one of the first steps
This is what 4 years of ICO activity looks like
2015 quiet
2016 The DAO
2017 starts to grow by the end of the Year
"Boom"
In the USA the SEC have created a framework and direction on what they expect as have other duristicions
Existing Banking rules do apply he cited Charlie Shrem and his 12 months being locked up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Shrem
Then went through the Token sale Geography and Token Sale Fundraising charts
He said it will be interesting to overlay the slide on 2018 next year
Nick works for Crypto publications so provided these predictions:
He said Institutional money is getting involved in Crypto - we need to create environment so they can get involved however this has negative consequences
Speaking at a Blockchain Expo Santa Clara - the Bootstrap entrepreneur is being squeezed out because it now costs a lot to launch an ICO the marketing costs are now really expensive
They are being replaced by bigger companies with x5xfold marketing campaigns
He said we could see a 10x tenfold in Capital - impact of this is a "pump" to Crypto's
I have heard this next point discussed a lot recently a podcast covered it on Lets Talk Bitcoin and the fact that many of these tokens are securities , Nick said 98% of them are as a result exchanges will be shut because they hold securities without knowing it
If running an ICO you now have to do KYC AML and others otherwise you will run foul, if you think you have a Utility token and you cant use and spend day one then its not
Then looked at Market Cap past trillion this year - $4trillion this year ?
We will see a $500 million raise from ICO
Regulatory environment emerging - a founder raises funds provides a token they could have an AML (Anti Money Laundering) breach - as the currency is washed
Lawyers now getting involved and there is a lot of difference in their experience of dealing crypto so they need to be hosen carefully
He then took Questions which ae not easy to listen to and scribe , ones I caught
When is 21 million due out ?
Wants to get the Story out there before before Holywood tells its version
Status - casting - film in february- moscow berlin pilot out April May
What is the most pressing issue to be addressed ?
Ability to scale is the biggest challenge he cited a Guy from Miami with POS (Point of Sale) at loads of vendors and wanted to take on Visa this would required 20k transactions a second which we are no way near capable of hitting right now
The problem will be solved but it will be slow comming
Summary picked up a few more facts about the history learnt more about the space well worth it for this talk alone
NEXT UP
Simon Dickson I will write this one up tomorrow (Just as good)
