Collision Conference Trip Report

As many of you will know MaidSafe took a booth at collisionconf.com in Las Vegas this past week. The conference was one of the first we have done without a heavy crypto currency slant and an important step in starting to raise awareness beyond the niche, yet relevant Bitcoin space. While Collision is not one of the really big conferences, such as TNW or TechCrunch Disrupt, it was on a much larger scale than almost any event I had attended previously. In short, we thought it would be a great event to cut our teeth at.

Despite some careful planning we got off to a pretty inauspicious start. Having just landed in Las Vegas, the stream of emails that came through as I got into a WiFi area contained a message from @ioptio explaining that she was seriously sick and hadn’t been able to take her flight that morning. This was a particular shame for Paige as she has been the one to suggest the event and had put a considerable amount of work into getting us ready for the show. But for the amazing support of @dallyshalla and @Zack, the new mini brochures, stickers and t-shirts (yes there are new ones) would have been stranded in San Francisco. I will forever be indebted to Daniel and Zack for their efforts and was pretty relieved when they arrived mid morning on day 1 (each start up exhibited for just one of the two days), helping to turn our barren booth into something a little less sparse.

One of the first things to strike me about the event was the huge volume of companies all around us, mostly all with slick brands and professionally designed marketing material, there sure is a lot of noise to cut through in the software space. It is also a sobering thought that probably between 80 and 90% of the companies exhibiting would ultimately fail. What I also found with many of these companies is that they are walking a well worn path with sometimes indistinguishable products or platforms, running on predictable business models (advertising). There is of course nothing wrong with this, it just made me proud to be part of something a wee bit different.

When speaking to people who hadn’t heard of MaidSafe, they seemed to grasp the concept of the SAFE Network pretty well and were very excited about the possibilities. Many of the developers we spoke to were also very interested and @dallyshalla and @dcmshub were ever present and great company on the stand. My thanks also goes out to a journalist from Forbes who came out of his way to tell us that he didn’t think there was a strong enough case for an anonymous and secure data network, other than use from terrorists and drug dealers. I was surprised that a tech journalist from a well respected source wasn’t taking a more pragmatic view, but I enjoyed arguing all the same.

The conference was busy, the organisers were anticipating around 8500 attendees, and while I would have liked the start up section (where we were located) to be busier, we received a decent level of interest, including senior staff from some big and well known businesses. For the purpose of professional courtesy I won’t reveal who they are here, but if you come to Troon and ply me with beer you might find me more forthcoming :).

As I always find immediately after events, it is hard to know if they are worthwhile. It sometimes takes a few months and longer to establish how serious and useful new contacts will be, however, I came away happy with the potential of the people we did meet.

Looking to future events, we will select them based on how quickly we progress through the remainder of the roadmap so this is a slightly floating target right now. However, the company that organised this event also puts on the Web Summit in Dublin in November, so given our proximity this is probably one we will look to attend.

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Interestingly the journalist mentioned us in his report, not by name though. I’m going to enjoy proving Jason wrong!

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Jason is a total D-Bag. He must be the long lost relative of Grumpy-Cat… Keep up the great work @nicklambert

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Or how about an alternate Internet, more secure than the original. The problem? Nobody is on it. So let’s pay web publishers artificial money to prime the pump – even though there’s nobody there to see any of the sites.

:sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile:

Yeah, let’s build some P2P-token called Bitcoin. The problem? Nobody is on it. So let’s pay miners artificial money to prime the pump. This guy clearly doesn’t have a clue. And that’s fine. It would scare me if all press and media and all folks around the globe would be as excited as we are. Technology will prove itself.

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I’m perfectly happy that such as Forbes doesn’t get it, or at least (more probably) feels the very concept of SAFE a threat so disses it. They are well placed following the receding waterline, making snarky comments about all the relics and oddities that have been below the waterline but are now new curiosities. They haven’t the sense to get to higher ground and really take a look at what’s happening.

When the tide comes in, the tsunami, their voices will just be passing squeaks.

EDIT: on reading that sounds much too pompous. But aside from that it’s accurate, so I’ll let it stand. :smile:

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MaidSAFE is somewhat different than Hyperboria or the like in that it runs on top of the existing internet…

That could be good or bad, I would suppose - as those meshnets are being built for good reason – Hopefully MaidSAFE Will be there too…

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Beer? Beer?? I had no idea there was beer in Scotand . :slight_smile:

Great post @nicklambert and I hope some of the bitcoin elite made it to see you. All the piker bitcoiners from 4 years ago are now “men of influence” in the crypto space. They owe a great deal of support to all the new industry disruptor/ up-and-comers like MAIDSAFE.

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Jason Bloomberg, a “contributor” to Forbes wrote" … as plaintive founders accosted me for a moment of my time, thrusting books, flyers, or cheap tchotchkes into my hand, hoping I’d mention them in this article…"

Not to be confused with a journalist.

Journalists never write about the influence they have, unless of course they’re not journalists, then they write about it.

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I wrote to Forbes about a correction :wink:

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This conference looks like a better fit (to me), especially the World vision stuff… :smile:
Announcing Consensus 2015: A Summit on Bitcoin and Blockchain Technologies

Forbes has become utter trash. They actually have “promoted articles.” They know what SAFE is but their they recognize its a threat to their Madison Ave master so they try to spin it.

This is public nuissence trashy ad popper spyware is their idea of a good product “TVDuffle’s Shazam-like ability to recognize commercials or television shows when your phone hears them, only to pop up related promotions. This company should be a darling of the retail, sports, and hospitality industries in no time.”

If SAFE succeeds Forbes is that much more likely ti go under.

Just to say thanks for the letter from America you sent. To keep you updated, the Scottish Lion has recently roared across Scotland and in case of home-sickness…here’s the Boys…the original boy band, Scotlands answer to Bros, ,that got many a lassie weak at the knees…

Brilliant… :smiley:

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@nicklambert " My thanks also goes out to a journalist from Forbes who came out of his way to tell us that he didn’t think there was a strong enough case for an anonymous and secure data network, other than use from terrorists and drug dealers. I was surprised that a tech journalist from a well respected source wasn’t taking a more pragmatic view, but I enjoyed arguing all the same."

I read the article and I don’t think you could get a stronger endorsement from mainstream US media. I think the point of the article and maybe even him showing up to the conference was to bash SAFE

I hope you see the mainstream US media has rendered its verdict on SAFE. And that verdict is: pure threat. SAFE would undermine the acceleration of the rape and total disempowerment of the global public for profit. And that is their prime directive. So expect to be labeled crackpot and confused and dangerious and a threat to bs national security. There could be no higher projected complement.

Death to sponsorship-censorship- bribery and lets permanently turn the volume all the way down on big money and return society to its rightful.owners. Let just distribution and apportionment begin.

Or he’s just a guy who doesn’t get it and didn’t really want to be there.

Or how about an alternate Internet, more secure than the original. The problem? Nobody is on it.

Perhaps he thought SAFE is already live and despite that he’s never heard of it before so he concluded that nobody is using it?

And then there was interesting buzz around disruptive innovations like
quantum computing and the blockchain technology beneath Bitcoin. I
foresee writing separate articles for Forbes on these technologies in the coming months.

He probably also didn’t realize SAFE is actually also a consensus network like Bitcoin with a very wide range of uses. He finds the blockchain interesting, so there’s that.

But they think they can game bitcoin.

Who, Forbes? Got any link?

got a link up there :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: (check comments)

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A lot of people don’t get it, including me. I just know I need to be in the privacy sphere for freedom and Maidsafe is so interesting. There is a learning curve for me and its not just infrastructure but money. A very real concern is the talk of banks going to digital money and cashless. Concern because who wants the banks! Oh right, those of us who need them. (trillions of dollars of debt, com’on) Coindesk is interesting too and so I suppose their conference will be. How to get to the blockchain and away from banksters seems doggone elusive. Thanks for your genius, I’m a big fan 'cause my hopes are with you. No pressure.

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