William Mougayar

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Tag: token summit

Curating the Token Summit IV to Look Forward, Not Behind

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On April 25, 2019

In Think Tank

For the 4th time in the past two years, Nick and I have the incredibly hard job to curate the Token Summit line-up of speakers and content topics. Every time, we turn down about 90-100 requests, in order to end-up with about 45 speakers we settle on.

Since the beginning, our philosophical focus has been on siding with the projects and people who are truly original and pushing the ball forward, with credibility and depth. And we have resisted the pay-for-play trap that comes from sponsors pressuring us to select their speakers, as it has been the hardest balance to strike.

With that in mind, we are pleased to release the Agenda for Token Summit IV (some parts are still subject to change). We believe it represents a good mix of experienced, new and original voices, pointing to where the industry is going, not where it has been.

Thursday May 16th

7:30 AM

Doors open, Registration and Networking over Coffee/Tea and Continental Breakfast

8:30 AM Conference Sessions Start

  • Opening Welcome and Setting the Stage. William Mougayar and Nick Tomaino
  • How Decentralized Are We? William Mougayar
    Measuring decentralization has multiple dimensions. Where are we in quantifying the technological and non-technical characteristics of decentralization?
  • Cryptocurrency Realism. Nick Tomaino
    Maximalists serve their purpose, but new projects align incentives and push the whole ecosystem forward. More collaboration is beneficial.
  • Token Taxonomy Act. Rep. Darren Soto
    A special video message recorded for the Token Summit, where Congressman Darren Soto updates us on the Token Taxonomy Act, and how the industry can help push it forward.
  • Fireside Chat with Timothy Massad,  with William Mougayar
    Discussing the Brookings report he recently authored on strengthening crypto-assets regulation, and proposed Congressional action with the former CFTC Chairman.
  • Blockchain Interoperability. Panel discussion with Jae Kwon (Cosmos), Robert Habermeier (Polkadot), and Lane Rettig (Ethereum), moderated by Nick Tomaino
    Will one chain rule all or are we at the dawn of a new era of cross-chain communication?
  • Behind the Scenes of the Blockstack Reg A+ SEC filing. Fireside Chat with Muneeb Ali, Blockstack CEO and William Mougayar.
    In an exclusive first, Muneeb takes us behind the scenes of their recent filings, how they did it, what’s next for Blockstack, and what are the implications for other players in the industry.
  • Stablecoins and the Future of MakerDAO. Fireside Chat with Steven Becker, MakerDAO president and Nick Tomaino
    MakerDAO has been the breakout success on Ethereum. What does the future look like for the first major experiment in decentralized collateralized stablecoins?
  • Decentralized Products Taking on Centralized Incumbents. Panel discussion with Justin Hunter (Graphite), Brian Hoffman (OB1), Ted Livingston (Kin), and Ryan John King (FOAM), moderated by William Mougayar.
    Every centralized online business will face competition from a variety of decentralized models that each have different value propositions and ways to lure new users to their platforms. What’s driving these decentralized projects, and how can they win against the incumbents?
  • Challenges in Decentralized Projects Governance. Panel discussion with Evan Van Ness (Week in Ethereum News), Lane Rettig (Ethereum Foundation), with William Mougayar.
  • Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Panel discussion with Hayden Adams (Uniswap), Nadav Hollander (Dharma), Robert Leshner (Compound), Renat Khasanshyn (Etherisc) moderated by Nick Tomaino   Ethereum is currently working well for open, global financial applications. Why is it working and what are areas for improvement?
  • Quantifying the Value of Blockchain Data. Panel discussion with Ryan Selkis (Messari), Arjun Balaji, Jose Maria Macedo (AmaZix) and Devin Walsh (Coinfund), moderated by William Mougayar
    Where is the value in tracking and measuring blockchain related data? What are the latest practices in extracting blockchain data for insight? What have we learned and why is this important now? What’s on the horizon?
  • Experiments in cryptoeconomics. Panel discussion with Kevin Wang (Nervos), Zaki Manian (Iqlusion, Tendermint), Doug Petkanics (Livepeer) Sunny Aggarwal (Tendermint) moderated by Nick Tomaino.
    A discussion on new token designs that seek to properly align incentives and capture long-term economic value.
  • The State of Practice in Security Tokens. Panel discussion with Josh Stein (Harbor), Heinrich Zetlmayer (Blockchain Valley Ventures), Sebastian Burgel (Validity Labs), moderated by William Mougayar
    It is now time to show security tokens in actions. What are the best cases that have leading implementations? How is it being done? And what else can we expect? Is this a revolution or step-wise evolution?
  • The State of Prediction Markets. Panel discussion with Joey Krug (Augur, Pantera), Tom Kysar (Forecast Foundation), Paul Fletcher-Hill (Veil), with Nick Tomaino.
    Augur launched in 2018 and v2 is on the way this summer. What have been the main learnings so far and where are prediction markets going?
  • The Future of dApps. Panel discussion with Kim Cope (Dapper Labs), Nick Grossman (Union Square Ventures), and Arianna Simpson (Autonomous Partners) moderated by William Mougayar
    How do we get dApps into the consumer mainstream? What are the latest practices and approaches that are working? What’s not working?
  • The State (or Stalemate) of Regulation? Panel discussion with Mike Didiuk (Perkins Coie), Nancy Wojtas (Cooley), Andreas Glarner (MME), and Robert Rosenblum (Wilson Sonsini), by William Mougayar.
    Is the US losing its position as the standard bearer? Is there a perfect jurisdiction? Who is ahead in the evolution of regulations and why?
  • Talking Tokens. Fireside chat between Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) and Olaf Carlson-Wee (Polychain) Two pioneers and early believers discuss what they see, and how they think about the space.
  • Show and Tell Lightening Talks (being finalized)


CMORQ (Dana Panzer)

Vesper (Jeff Garzik)

MolochDAO (Ameen Soleimani)

Audius (Roneil Rumburg)

Commonwealth (Dillon Chen)

Ava Labs (Emin Gün Sirer)

Titan (Ryan Condron)

bloxRoute (Uri Klarman)

5:40 PM

  • Closing remarks. William Mougayar and Nick Tomaino

5:45 PM – 7:30 PM  ~ Farewell Reception

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Announcing Token Summit IV in New York May 16 2019

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On February 28, 2019

In Think Tank

It is with great pleasure that Nick and I are announcing the fourth edition of the Token Summit, to be held in New York City on May 16th, 2019.

While public sentiment and prices are down significantly from last year, the underlying fundamentals are stronger than ever. We’re excited to bring together the leading entrepreneurs, developers, experts, and investors from around the world to discuss the most important tech, economic, and governance challenges and opportunities the cryptocurrency industry is currently facing.

This year, we are capping the number of attendees at 550, about the same number we had at the inaugural Token Summit in May 2017. The attendees’ positive feedback from that day continues to resonate with us and we’re bringing it back to our roots for Token Summit IV with an intimate venue and very tightly curated content.

The first 200 early bird tickets are openly available for purchase immediately at the early price of $699. After 200, anyone can sign up but we’ll be “invite only” and selecting signups based on quality, experience and diversity of thought they bring. In an industry that tends to be quite tribal, we strive to bring together a collection of different perspectives from around the industry into one room.

In terms of the content, this edition of Token Summit will focus on the following issues:

  • Cryptonetworks and open source blockchain protocols versus startups: what are the differences and similarities?
  • Open finance: what are the challenges to getting open, global financial products in the hands of millions of users?
  • dApp development: can next-generation dApp platforms be a catalyst for greater adoption?
  • Latest practices in extracting blockchain data for insight: what can we learn and why is this important now?
  • Are we decentralized yet? Is there an optimal criteria for decentralization, and how do we get there?
  • How do we quantify the value of blockchain protocols, and applications?
  • What are the success factors in deploying decentralized protocols?
  • Decentralized governance – what is working now versus what is experimental?
  • Tokens evolution- what are the best cases with real innovation, real users and real benefits?
  • The regulatory front: Is the US losing its position as the standard bearer? Is there a perfect jurisdiction?


We have been working behind the scenes to confirm the initial roster of speakers, and we will announce that first batch in the coming weeks. Many of them may not be well known yet, but their work is notable in pushing the industry forward.

If you’d like to be in the first batch of 200 attendees, here’s the link to register.

We are looking forward to hosting you at Token Summit IV on May 16th!

William and Nick

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Announcing The Next 2 Token Summits: San Francisco and New York

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On October 13, 2017

In Featured, Think Tank

San Francisco, CA, USAYesterday, I tweeted that Nick Tomaino and I are bringing the next Token Summit to San Francisco on December 5th 2017. The location we chose is the stylish Mission Bay Conference Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). We will be using Robertson Hall which can hold 600 seated people. For these next 2 conferences, we are evolving from the ICO topic, and focusing more on the Successful Business Models behind Designing Token-Based Economies. This has always been about the token, and less about the ICO itself. Screen Shot 2017-10-13 at 2.03.26 PM For San Francisco, we have announced only 4 key speakers: Kathryn Haun, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan and Fred Ehrsam. Many more on the way, as we sift through the choices and options, and we will announce them over the next days, along with initial sponsors. As well, there will be some surprise announcements, new company pitches, panels and a couple of solo presentations. Here is the registration link for the San Francisco Token Summit II event. And here is the one for the New York Token Summit III 2018 event. We will soon unravel an update website as well. We also just released the sizzle video tape from the last Token Summit 2017 in New York. It is 2 minute-long, with clips of highlights from that inaugural event. If you attended, you can check out if you appear in it! We hope to see many of you in San Francisco and / or New York City.]]>

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