Web3 Innovators

Conor Svensson

In Web3 Innovators, Conor Svensson, founder of Web3 Labs speaks to those folk changing the face of finance and other industries with web3 and blockchain technologies. Each week he speaks to a new guest who shares insights from their own journey with web3, giving you the chance to learn about challenges they’ve faced along the way, and how it's impacting their industry right now and will in the future.

All episodes

Best episodes

Seasons

Top 10 Web3 Innovators Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Web3 Innovators episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Web3 Innovators for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Web3 Innovators episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

#55 - Are NFTs extensions of who we are?

Web3 Innovators

12/07/22 • 29 min

In the sixth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Daniel Heyman the Co-Founder and CEO of Palm NFT Studio.

Palm NFT studio is a collective of Software Developers, Generative Artists, Storyworld Creators, and Strategists and spans all aspects of Web3 technology and creative production.

Before starting his current company, Daniel was the Co-Founder of PegaSys, which is now the Protocol Engineering division of ConsenSys.

Episode highlights:

How studying the adoption of mobile technology in Kenya got Daniel interested in the space
His learning outcomes from founding a company that wasn’t successful and the path after this
Where the inspiration for Palm NFT Studio came from and its founding story
The challenges the company has faced in its 1st year and how they have worked to overcome them
Their aim for people to have direct ownership over the digital assets they care about and how they are trying to make this a reality
Daniel’s belief that eventually all assets will be represented by NFTs

Key Takeaways:

It seemed evident to me that if we could connect the biggest brands in the world into this technology innovation, we could not only produce some really meaningful projects, but we could use those as the tip of the spear to broader adoption of our entire ecosystem. So Palm Studio set out to create the best platform for large scale web artists, creators, and brands to adopt Web3 technologies. - Daniel
A huge problem that NFT’s have is the misconception in the market of what they are. A lot of people see them as speculative assets that are there to make a quick buck, and people understandably react negatively to that idea. - Daniel
We need to do a lot of work educating the fan base that this isn't a way to make a quick buck. It is to give the audience a deeper connection to the brand and people's relationship to the brand. It’s to give them a piece of the universe, or a piece of the art, or something they can truly own themselves. - Daniel
Everything is focused around delivering value to the end user and if there's revenue associated with that, wonderful. But, just like any product, you start from the point of what value you are providing, not how much money you can make. - Daniel
My belief is that in five years, 99% of NFTs will either be free or below $10. These need to be things that everyone can adopt and consume and interact with, and they can't just be high

Connect with Us
Join the Web3 Innovators community and engage with like-minded individuals passionate about the potential of blockchain technology.Contact Chainlens: Twitter | Discord | Telegram

#56 - How J.P. Morgan is generating revenue and saving money with blockchain.

Web3 Innovators

12/14/22 • 31 min

In the seventh episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Tyrone Lobban, Head of Blockchain Launch and Onyx Digital Assets at J.P. Morgan where he’s responsible for identifying and creating innovative blockchain- based products and solutions.

Prior to this he was Senior Blockchain Product Manager in J.P. Morgan's Blockchain Center of Excellence and was also the Product Lead for Quorum.

Connect with Tyrone on Twitter

Episode highlights:

How Tyrone’s career evolved from Product Management in Credit Markets to becoming a Software Developer, before reading the Ethereum White Paper which changed his trajectory into Blockchain
The early days of the Blockchain program at J.P. Morgan and how this subsequently became Onyx
Why J.P. Morgan launched Quorum and how this has developed
The challenges and opportunities J.P. Morgan have faced due to the high level of interest in Blockchain projects
The complexities when setting up and implementing a use case, even if the end state is clear
Tyrone’s advice for anyone looking to use technology to solve a problem within their industry
The work that is happening moving money on to Blockchain and how Tyrone sees this progressing

Key Takeaways:

It was an obvious thing for me to want to get into this technology. I could see, especially with my experience through the financial crisis, how much a technology like this can bring everyone on the same page - having a shared ledger of information, streamlining processes and information flow. How that could really make a difference. - Tyrone
It's always been about the technology. Web3 wasn't really a word back then. I'm just extremely passionate about how we can use the tech to make improvements, not just within finance, but across industries generally. - Tyrone
It’s evolved over the years, but I would say internally we've been quite consistent around how we want to use the technology. What we have learned is exactly where it makes sense and where it doesn't necessarily make sense. And that has helped us to be more precise around the types of use cases that we focus on. - Tyrone
For us it's really about how we create value not only for ourselves, but for our clients and how we really make it a step change improvement. - Tyrone
We're looking to disrupt an industry or disrupt a business or create something entirely new. So it's very rare that you don't have this challenge of okay, what is the interim step going to be? - Tyrone
We launched a tokenization platform called Onyx Di

#58 - Can financial speculation create useful Web3 ecosystems?

Web3 Innovators

12/28/22 • 26 min

In the ninth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Lex Sokolin, Chief Cryptoeconomics Officer at ConsenSys where he has built and now leads the Cryptoeconomics team.

Lex is a New York and London entrepreneur who previously held the role of CMO & Global Fintech Co-Head at ConsenSys. He also writes a Fintech newsletter, Fintech Blueprint.

Episode highlights:

How being at a Conference and seeing how many other people owned Bitcoin, inspired Lex to start
The challenges surrounding Blockchain adoption
Lex’s view on the current capital market situation and how this impacts people’s view on crypto
How speculation surrounding regulation can generate economic use cases
How Lex believes computational infrastructure will develop as we want to create digital third spaces for ourselves, away from the home and office
The pain points that people experience in crypto
Lex’s opinion on where companies should and shouldn’t be using Blockchain
How he believes Web3 technology will impact the financial landscape over the next 10 years

Key Takeaways:

It’s figuring out and taking action on how to help crypto businesses operate and how to remove barriers that prevent those businesses from having functional operations. So, it’s more about having these seamless rails in place, so that people can engage with the technology. - Lex
I think that you can draw a line and you can say, is blockchain a cost saver for your company or is it a revenue generator? - Lex
You can look at Apollo or KKR, the large private equity firms or some of the large hedge funds that are essentially price insensitive and are willing to continue investing into an ecosystem that they own because they own the underlying capital for the whole ecosystem. - Lex
I think there's some cases where they just put all of their own float on top of their own system or a system that essentially holds through equity ownership. But I think for most midsize to small, to even medium or large banks, the cost savings story is tough. - Lex
What's going to feel very natural in 10 or 15 years is that you'll have digital ownership over all your stuff. And if it's not on chain, and you don't have it in your wallet, then you will feel like it's not real. Like in the same way that I wouldn't want that paper document today, because it does me no good. - Lex

Connect with Lex on Twitter

Resources:

ConsenSys

#59 - Do we need quantum resistance in Web3?

Web3 Innovators

01/04/23 • 33 min

In the last episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Marcos Allende López, CTO at LACChain and Specialist in Blockchain, Digital Assets, Quantum Technologies, and SSI at Inter-American Development Bank

Episode highlights:

How Marcos started to learn more about blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies after applying for his current position at Inter-American Development Bank
How quantum technologies and blockchain are linked by cryptography
The work that Marcos is doing on blockchain and how this is developing
How Marcos believes we need better assurance frameworks in addition to the regulatory policies
The biggest challenges Marcos sees with quantum and blockchain technology both in the immediate and future
How Marcos believes we should be focusing on quantum resistance now so we have solutions in place should quantum computers be ready before the blockchain networks are ready for them
How they created one of the first orchestration vehicles for blockchain
The advice Marcos would give to anyone hesitant to use blockchain

Key Takeaways:

Quantum computing and quantum cryptography which are being actively developed are essential for the blockchain Web3 and all the assets that are now being created and generated in blockchain networks. So the quantum and blockchain worlds are actually very connected and it is very important to start having a conversation around what might happen in the next few years around this. - Marcos
My work has been focused on building and maintaining something that is between the enterprise and the crypto blockchain worlds, which is a permission public blockchain. So basically we created this infrastructure that is intended for Latin America and the Caribbean but available globally, with suitable features for public and public sectors. - Marcos
We need to start having the conversation about quantum computers hacking blockchain now because the solution might not be that easy. Replacing or adapting the cryptography of current blockchain networks is not going to be an easy problem to solve because blockchains are so inherent to the type of cryptographic algorithms that they're using. - Marcos
It is important to start developing great interfaces. I think it is time to understand that not every organisation needs to run a blockchain node and run their blockchain, their smart contracts and their APIs, and do their integrations. We know how difficult it becomes because some organisations don't have the expertise or don't need to run their own notes and smart contracts and be responsible and a

#60 - Web3 Innovators Season 5 Highlights

Web3 Innovators

01/18/23 • 10 min

In this special episode of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson has picked out a selection of best bits from Season 5. It was a great season and a range of topics were covered, from NFTs to DeFi and crypto. These hand picked sections are key highlights from the season and contain valuable insights that you won't want to miss!
Follow these links if specific clips catch your interest and you'd like to listen to the full episode.

#66 - Will Artificial General Intelligence help to close the Web3 skills gap?

Web3 Innovators

03/08/23 • 18 min

In the sixth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson has the tables turned on him and is interviewed by Joshua Lory, Head of Blockchain GTM at VMware, a multi-cloud service for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control.

These were follow up questions that Joshua wanted to ask Conor after he was interviewed on the podcast earlier this season, which you can listen to here.

Connect with Joshua on Twitter.

Episode highlights:

Who Conor believes are the three players that will capture 80% of the market in the next 10 years and why
How this differs from Joshua’s views
Other up and coming players in this space who it is worth keeping an eye on
Why the decentralised infrastructure projects have got a big part to play in the future
How we narrow the skills gap needed for these new ecosystems
The issue with smart contract development on public blockchain networks
The potential with AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) to help close the skills gap

Key Takeaways:

In every single technology space the top three players capture 80% of the market time and time again. And then you have a long tail of the 20%, where you have thousands of different options that capture one or 2%. - Joshua
Ethereum, I've always felt that it's like the Linux of this generation. - Conor
From a personal perspective, I think Polka Dot is building a strong ecosystem. They have some very strong technology in terms of what they've done. So they're model of having this layer zero blockchain and then these power chains, which are kind of permission chains spun up on top, seems to be viable. - Conor
We’ve got 10 million Java developers that could be writing to this new ecosystem, but are not. - Joshua
The real challenge with smart contract development is that it, especially on public blockchain networks, is that people can't afford to make mistakes with it. - Conor

Resources:

#67 - How is blockchain evolving in TradFi?

Web3 Innovators

03/15/23 • 31 min

In the seventh episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by David Creer, Global DLT and Crypto Lead at GFT Group who develop sustainable solutions across new technologies.

He is also a Course Instructor at the European Tech School.

Episode highlights:

What initially drew David’s interest into the space
How GFT has evolved into an innovation driven organisation
How product delivery and production differs within financial services
Why there used to be hesitation when putting products into production
How regulation has evolved within the financial sector
How David sees Crypto developing with banks
David’s advice for anyone uncertain about the application of blockchain
The UDPN network project that David has been involved in (The UDPN is a decentralised payments messaging backbone connecting the digital currency systems of the future to enable seamless, efficient payments of regulated stablecoins and CBDCs)
How David things blockchain will influence the way financial markets operate in the future

Key Takeaways:

The tier one banks and the tier two banks are really only working on things that they want to take into production at this point in time. So that's a completely different mindset from how things were when we started, where it was, we want to just see whether this is possible. - David
When cloud first came out banks didn't want to go down that route at all. The policy was non-public cloud. Now a lot of banks are going down that path, which makes sense because it saves them a lot of money and it's more efficient. - David
If you're thinking about using blockchain or distributed ledger technology for your project, you need to understand your use case really well. - David
It's quite exciting to be involved in that because potentially that could be a really important piece of infrastructure for the financial system of the future. - David
If smart cities develop the way that they are developing in countries such as China, I think that we will have a financial services system which is much more focused on micropayment. And therefore I think that blockchain technology or cryptographically based stablecoins or CBDCs will be used much more widely. - David

Connect with David on Twitter

Resources:

#68 - How is Web3 changing in person events?

Web3 Innovators

03/22/23 • 34 min

In the eighth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Bo Brustkern, Co-Founder and CEO of Fintech Nexus, a niche media company covering innovation in financial services.

Episode highlights:

How one of Bo’s Co-Founders insisting he bought at least one Bitcoin initially got him interested in the space
The research he undertook to fully understand the role DeFi and DAOs were going to play in the evolution of financial services
How Fintech Nexus developing into a Web3 business benefits the community
Why Bo believes regulation is the biggest challenge the industry faces
The impact of the way different world governments interpret Web3 technologies will have on regulation
“Economic dissatisfaction breeds war”, Cordell Hull, US Secretary of State (1933- 1944)
The impact of accredited investor laws in the US
The technology advances Bo sees when attending Web3 conferences
How Bo sees blockchain and Web3 technology impacting events in the future
Fintech Nexus USA event in May 2023

Key Takeaways:

As a media company, we're so focused on developing. Doing our work for the benefit of the community. It's the perfect place to be to both consume and report on, to engage in, to discuss Web3 technologies and if we do our job really well then both sides benefit. - Bo
I don't think we're headed in the right direction. I think there really are sceptics are beyond sceptical. They are becoming really quite effective in trying to beat back the Web3 economy and blockchain technology and the various crypto tokens that are part of that. In the end, will those sceptics win? - Bo
We not only have to embrace the technologies, but we have to embrace the values behind those technologies. - Bo
The majority of the world's people have the freedom where they can choose to work with these technological innovations. Now, of course, the regulatory climate in the US does create some hurdles for people, but people can still hold cryptocurrencies and get involved in these projects. - Bo

Connect with Bo on Twitter
Resources:

#77 - How Web3 is Evolving in Enterprise

Web3 Innovators

08/23/23 • 34 min

In this episode of the Web3 Innovators podcast, host Conor Svensson interviews Kary Bhemaiah, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Capgemini Invent. Kary's journey from being a marine engineer to becoming a prominent leader in the Web3 space is truly inspiring. He shares his genuine passion for Bitcoin and explains how it has shaped his career in remarkable ways. The conversation moves on to discuss the challenges of adopting Web3 in large organisations, the influence of CBDCs and stablecoins, and the importance of building a stable ecosystem that doesn't rely solely on speculative token prices.

Key Moments:

Kary's journey from marine engineer to Web3 leader and how Bitcoin sparked his interest in blockchain.
Challenges organisations face in adopting Web3 technologies and bridging the knowledge gap between technical experts and business owners.
The impact of CBDCs and stablecoins on the industry and their role in influencing adoption and innovation.
The potential of Web3 protocols to meet the growing demand for data storage, computation, and infrastructure services.
The importance of focusing on real-world use cases and avoiding reliance on speculative token prices to build a stable ecosystem.

Standout Quote:
“The fact that you’ve got a lot of the large financial institutions, whether it’s BlackRock or it’s JP Morgan or other big banks who’ve been able to make significant savings by using blockchain in order to do their co-business functions. I think that’s given a lot more impetus for firms across the globe to look at it from a much more mature, adult in the room kind of standpoint.”

Resources:

Follow Kary on LinkedIn to stay updated on his latest projects and insights in the Web3 space.

Contact Kary Bheemaiah: LinkedIn
Kary is the Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at Capgemini Invent. In this role he has led/co-led the creation of their Quantum Lab, Metaverse Lab, pushed forward the WEB3 initiatives and their forthcoming work in Synthetic Biology.
Kary is also part of Capgemini Group's Technology, Innovation and Ventures (TIV) council, which sets the agenda for the Group’s technology and innovation strategy.
Outside of Capgemini Invent, Kary has spoken at 2 TEDx events and 2 TheNextWeb events to date. He has written for many leading publications like Written for MIT Tech Review, WIRED, Harvard Business Review, World Economic Forum, to name a few. He also wrote a book "The Blockchain Alternative” which was published in 2017.

#70 - What's next for layer 2?

Web3 Innovators

04/04/23 • 24 min

In the tenth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Elena Sinelnikova is the Co-Founder and Decentralization Coordinator at Metis. She is also CEO at Crypto Chicks.

Episode highlights:

How and why Elena founded Crypto Chicks
The diversity of people working within Web3
The advice that Elena would give to recruiters trying to encourage applicants from a more diverse background
How Metis was formed to create the infrastructure for a layer 2 solution
Other work that Metis is focusing on
The biggest challenges with layer 2 networks
Elena explains what ZK rollups and optimistic rollups are and the work Metis is doing to combat the challenges they face
Elena’s advice for anyone wanting to become involved in Web3
Where Elena believes Web3 technology will be in 10 years time

Key Takeaways:

When we opened Crypto Chicks back in 2016 at Conferences there were hardly any women, probably one or two women per thousand people. And now we see about half and half. So the picture changed dramatically. - Elena
We wanted to create layer two. And not only layer two, we also wanted to create a Web3 economy where people can go create a business, find a job, create a nonprofit organisation, create their own project, and fundraise. - Elena
Optimistic roll ups - and here is a little educational piece, is the transactions process in batches. So instead of adding transactions, one by one and saving them into layer one, layer two actually captures these transactions, bundles them up in one batch, and saves the whole batch into layer one. - Elena
All layer twos are innovating. We already have successes where layer twos are lowering the cost quite significantly and also speeding up transactions quite significantly. - Elena
So right now, for us, the most important part is we have this ability to build. We have the capability, we have great minds that are building and we know that we are bringing good to the world. - Elena
We need more people, like entrepreneurs who create those ideas, create those businesses, who go and try and build and make mistakes. And we see in the space right now there are a lot of projects, but we can always have more because each one brings a very unique value proposition. - Elena

Follow Elena on Twitter

Shout outs:

Natalia Ameline

Show more best episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Web3 Innovators have?

Web3 Innovators currently has 119 episodes available.

What topics does Web3 Innovators cover?

The podcast is about Blockchain, Defi, Enterprise, Crypto, Podcasts, Technology, Business and Innovation.

What is the most popular episode on Web3 Innovators?

The episode title '#25 - Web3 Innovators - Conor Svensson and Min Kim' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Web3 Innovators?

The average episode length on Web3 Innovators is 32 minutes.

How often are episodes of Web3 Innovators released?

Episodes of Web3 Innovators are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Web3 Innovators?

The first episode of Web3 Innovators was released on Jul 14, 2021.

Show more FAQ

Web3 Innovators

Conor Svensson

Top 10 Web3 Innovators Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Web3 Innovators have?

What topics does Web3 Innovators cover?

What is the most popular episode on Web3 Innovators?

What is the average episode length on Web3 Innovators?

How often are episodes of Web3 Innovators released?

When was the first episode of Web3 Innovators?

Comments