Conversations about the brave new world of blockchains, cryptoassets, and the token economy
One to keep and ear on
I’ve been following Stagars for a while now. He gets to know and interviews those all around the world who are at the forefront of future tech. His focus is largely on blockchain and also the advent of tech-promoted groundbreaking shifts in perception, culture, markets, and well, sometimes it seems everything. This is a podcast to pay attention to if you’re interested in tech and/or the future.
– Mr Mackerel, Apple Podcasts
What’s this podcast about?
This podcast is the follow-up project of my documentary film The Blockchain and Us (2017). The podcast includes 62 interviews with pioneers in the blockchain space that took place between early 2018 and summer 2019.
Blockchain technology promises to transform almost every industry in the coming years. Starting with financial services, the technology already has applications in supply chains, the medical sector, the Internet of Things, the energy sector, governments and many more. Blockchain technology is fascinating, but who are the people behind it? What excites them about this technology? How do they want to change the world?
This podcast highlights personal stories and experiences in conversations with global pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs in the crypto and blockchain universe. It makes this ground-breaking technology better accessible and inspires critical thinking with stimulating views from around the world.
The right stuff
This is a deep plunge into the blockchain. Highly recommended.
– Mars or Bust, Apple Podcasts
Episodes
How Cosmos Enables the Internet of Blockchains – Brian Fabian Crain, Co-Founder & CEO Chorus One, Co-Host at Epicenter
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“Blockchain Is Successful When People Don’t Know They’re Using It” – Johannes Schweifer, Co-Founder & CEO, CoreLedger
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How a Blockchain Venture Studio Works – Mervyn G. Maistry, CEO & Founder, Konfidio and Kintaro Capital
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Why New Technologies Need Sharper Critical Thinking – Andrea Bauer, Founder & Senior Advisor, BEAM Innovation Studio
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Why You Need Digital Identity Before Anything Else – Daniel Gasteiger, Founder & CEO, Procivis
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Why the Blockchain Space Needs Better Access – Alexis Gauba, Co-Founder she(256), Mechanism Labs
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Why Good Content is King in Blockchain PR – David Wachsman, Founder and CEO, Wachsman
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How Skin in the Game Combats Fake News and Leads to Truth – Preethi Kasireddy, Founder and CEO, TruStory
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“Crypto Means Cryptography” – Jan Camenisch, Head of Research at Dfinity
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“This Is What the Blockchain Is and How It Can Change Your Life” – Niloo Ravaei, Head of Education at Blockgeeks
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How to Build on Bitcoin – Lucas Betschart, Founder, 21 Lectures, President, Bitcoin Association Switzerland
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Can Blockchain Technology Keep Humanity Human? – Anne Connelly, Singularity University
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Just Keep Your Head Down and Build – Jason Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Open Simple Token (OST)
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How Blockchains Could Create Community Consciousness – Toni Lane Casserly, Founder of Cultu.re
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Why Some Blockchain Ideas Can’t Wait – Aparna Krishnan, Co-Founder Mechanism Labs
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Why Blockchains Empower a New Social Contract for the Digital Age – Don Tapscott, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Blockchain Research Institute
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Blockchain Identity and the Importance of Ethics – Monique Morrow, President and Co-Founder of The Humanized Internet
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The Human Story Behind Blockchain Technology – Matthew Allen, Zurich Bureau Chief/Business Reporter at Swissinfo
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Why Crypto Funds Have to Become Tech Companies – Ryan Yi, Investment Analyst at CoinFund
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Why China Will Be the World’s Largest Token Economy – Tony Tao, Founder of X-Order, Founding Partner at Neo Global Capital
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Why Blockchain Technology is Transformative and Irritating – Monty Munford, Mob76
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What Blockchains and Linux Have in Common – Phil Zamani, Chairman of AERGO, Co-CEO of Blocko
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How Digital Scarcity Helps Artists and Creators – Eric Elliott, Author, Developer, Mentor
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Why Executives Need Blockchain Literacy – Alison McCauley, Author of Unblocked
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The Antifragility of Cryptoassets – Alexander Bulkin, Co-Founder of CoinFund
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“Hey Zuck, Let’s Tokenize Facebook!” How Blockchains Could Stop People Farming – Trent McConaghy, Founder, Ocean Protocol
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How Blockchains Could Solve the Tragedy of the Commons – Ryan Jesperson, President of the Tezos Foundation
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Why Education Is the Killer App for Blockchain Technology – Cedric Waldburger, Co-Founder of Dfinity
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Why Healthcare, Finance, Energy, Education, and Government Are Ripe for Disruption – Joey Krug, CIO of Pantera Capital
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Why Blockchain Technology Might Become Less of a Binary Idea in the Future of Finance – Jesse McWaters, World Economic Forum
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How Journalists and the Financial Press Stay Objective About Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology – Peter Hody, Editor-in-Chief, Finews
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Why Hacking Smart Contracts is Easier than Hacking Web Servers – Hubert Ritzdorf, Co-Founder, Chainsecurity
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Why Cryptoassets Will Soon Be Part of Every Bank’s Business – Niklas Nikolajsen, Founder, Bitcoin Suisse
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How a Futurist Looks at Blockchain Technology – Lars Thomsen, Future Matters
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Why Bitcoin is the Hardest Money We Ever Had – Saifedean Ammous, Author of “The Bitcoin Standard”
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Why Blockchain Standards Create New Business Models for Companies and Developers – Ron Resnick, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
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How Blockchain Technology Redefines Entrepreneurship – Daniel Doll-Steinberg, Atari Token
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A Recap of Zug’s Bitcoin Experiment and How it Energized Switzerland – Dolfi Mueller, Mayor of Zug
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Bitcoin’s Early Days and its Eternal September, Bitcoin Association Switzerland, and Why Regulation Kills Innovation – Luzius Meisser, Meisser Economics
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Marketing Basics for ICOs and Blockchain Projects – John Hargrave, CEO at Mediashower
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How Digital Jurisdictions Help Us Escape 1984 and Take Back Control – Luis Cuende, Co-Founder of Aragon
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From Dot-Com Entrepreneur to Blockchain Investor and Enabler – Mathias Ruch, Lakeside Partners/CV VC
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Analyzing the Price of Bitcoin – Tone Vays
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How to Tell the Story of Blockchain Technology – Tom Lyons, ConsenSys Research and Advisory
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How the Blockchain Disrupts Venture Capital – Michael Sidler, Partner at Redapline
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The Future is Decentralized, and Why Decision-Making is a “Big, Fuzzy, Hairy, and Messy Thing” – Joe Lubin, Founder, Ethereum
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A New Blockchain Law in Crypto Country Liechtenstein – Thomas Naegele, Naegele Law
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Science, Academia, and the Blockchain – Roger Wattenhofer, Professor at ETH Zurich
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Putting Insurance on the Blockchain – Paul Meeusen, CEO at B3i
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China and the Blockchain – Zhang Ruidong, Academy of Internet Finance at Zhejiang University
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The Rise of Cryptoassets – Jack Tatar, Author of “Cryptoassets”
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Is The Real Value of Bitcoin Zero? – Adriano B. Lucatelli, Founder, Descartes Finance
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From Cryptography to Token Economics – Anish Mohammed, Ontici
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The Bitcoin Queen and Her Mission to “Tokenize Everything” – Olga Feldmeier, Co-Founder, Smart Valor
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The UN, the Pirate Party, and Bitcoin – Alexis Roussel, Co-Founder, Bity
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The World’s First Bitcoin PhD – Christian Decker, Core Developer at Blockstream
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Why The Blockchain Won’t Fix Digital Identity – Steve Wilson, Digital Identity Innovator at Constellation Research
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Making Bitcoin More User-Friendly – Jonas Schnelli, Bitcoin Core Developer
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Cryptoasset Management in Switzerland – Lidia Bolla, Co-Founder and CEO, Vision&
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The Promise of Blockchain Technology – Rik Willard, Founder, Agentic
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Blockchain Revolution, Two Years Later – Alex Tapscott, Co-Author “Blockchain Revolution”
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Making Cryptocurrencies Bankable – Mauro Casellini, Head of Blockchain at Bank Frick, Liechtenstein
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Many thanks to our advertisers and sponsors
Press About the Podcast
A Project by Manuel Stagars
Award-winning Film Director / Author / Podcaster / Entrepreneur / Economist—Telling stories about emerging technologies.
Entrepreneurship and economics are to a large degree storytelling, and podcasts are stories that busy people listen to. In 2005, I began directing films to learn more about the big questions in science, technology, and society. I have written several books and have found that interviews are great to engage and inspire people to think about the future. This podcast highlights people with fascinating experiences, success stories, and thought-provoking ideas in the crypto and blockchain universe. Some of these ideas I share, others I don’t. I hope all of them raise critical questions and start conversations.
After founding companies in Switzerland, America and Asia, I led an Open Data project as a senior researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). I have been interviewing people since the early 2000’s when I began with documentary filmmaking and writing books. I have directed award-winning documentary films about blockchain technology, AI, and Fintech and have written books on entrepreneurship, financial innovation, Open Data, and impact investment. As an advisor, I am fortunate to work with great organizations on strategy, impact, adoption, and growth in deep tech and juggernaut fields.
I have studied economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), have several financial certifications (CFA, CAIA, ERP, CMFAS M3) and lecture at the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich (HWZ) on use cases of blockchain technology.
My films: manuelstagars.com/films
Books I’ve written: manuelstagars.com/books
Press about me: manuelstagars.com/#press
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/manuelstagars
Facebook: facebook.com/manuelstagars
YouTube: youtube.com/c/manuelstagars
Medium: medium.com/@stagars
IMDB: imdb.com/name/nm1046867/
Instagram: instagram.com/manuelstagars
Twitter: @manuelstagars
ResearchGate: researchgate.net/profile/Manuel_Stagars
SpeakerHub: speakerhub.com/speaker/manuel-stagars
Patreon: patreon.com/stagars
MakerSupport: makersupport.com/stagars
D.Tube: d.tube/#!/c/stagars
SteemIt: steemit.com/@stagars
Special Thanks
Next to interviewees and sponsors, many people and organizations are contributing resources, time, access to their networks, advice, ideas, and feedback to make this podcast happen. Special thanks to all of you (list in alphabetical order of last names).
- Ioannis Akkizidis, www.linkedin.com/in/ioannis-akkizidis
- Greg Alsbury, Alsbury Films, www.linkedin.com/in/greg-alsbury-390104
- Iris Belle, Tongji University, www.iris-belle.com
- Noe Blancpain, Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, www.wbf.admin.ch
- Jorgos Brouzos, Tagesanzeiger, www.tamedia.ch
- Nicolas Buerer, Digital Switzerland, www.digitalswitzerland.ch
- Toni Caradonna, Scenic Swisscoast, www.swisscoast.ch
- Karen Carne, Mycelia, www.myceliaformusic.org
- Anne Cesard, Swiss Federal Department of Finance, www.sif.admin.ch
- Elaine Chen, Constellation Research, www.constellationr.com
- Eva Christen, Bitcoin Suisse, www.bitcoinsuisse.ch
- Roger Darin, www.linkedin.com/in/rogerdarin
- Dario Duran, Shift Cryptosecurity, www.shiftcrypto.ch
- Greg Dwyer, BitMEX, www.bitmex.com
- Carl Fenger, Shift Cryptosecurity, www.shiftcrypto.ch
- Matthias Frey, www.komakino.ch
- Mirta Galesic, Santa Fe Institute, www.santafe.edu
- Dafne Ginn, Agentic Group, www.agenticgroup.com
- Jakob Gueluenay, Forkwealth, www.forkwealth.com
- Matthias Halbeis, Furrerhugi, www.furrerhugi.ch
- Yuko Harayama, OECD, www.linkedin.com/in/yuko-harayama-24617a29
- Jessie Hennion, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, www.entethalliance.org
- Roya Hussaini, Blockchain Research Institute, www.blockchainresearchinstitute.com
- Bryon Jacob, Data.world, www.data.world
- Tatu Kaerki, Aragon, www.aragon.one
- Christina “CK” Kerley, www.allthingsck.com
- Thomas Kern, SICTIC, www.sictic.ch
- Roman Klingler, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), www.ethz.ch
- Christian Koenig, Fintechnews Network, www.fintechnews.ch
- Beverley Kursten, Smart Valor, www.smartvalor.com
- Julian Liniger, Bravis, www.bravis.ch
- Shibin Li, Castbox, www.castbox.fm
- Angel Lorente, Fintech Connector, www.fintechconnector.com
- Christian Maeder, Bitcoin News, www.bitcoinnews.ch
- Ruedi Maeder, Money Today, www.moneytoday.ch
- Jenna Marshall, Santa Fe Institute, www.santafe.edu
- Hall T. Martin, Texas Entrepreneur Network, www.tenfundingportal.com
- Nino Maspoli, Tech Tuesday, www.maspo.li
- Patricia Meyer, Gigaom, www.gigaom.com
- Felix Moesner, swissnex Shanghai, www.swissnexchina.org
- Mike Monceaux, www.facebook.com/michael.monceaux
- Viviane Mueller, Narwal PR, www.narwal-pr.ch
- Oskar Neira, Money Today, www.moneytoday.ch
- Mary Olson, Fintech Connector, www.fintechconnector.com
- Flora Paterson, Founders Forum, www.ff.co
- Bojan Pecek, Tenderloin, www.tenderloin.ch
- Ignas Peciura, OST, www.ost.com
- Elena Perbrunner, Naegele Law, www.naegele.law
- Rene Pfitzner, Tech Tuesday, www.renepfitzner.net
- Ramon Quesada, Avalbit, www.avalbit.org
- Jessica Rampen, Linux Foundation, www.linuxfoundation.org
- Byron Reese, Gigaom, www.gigaom.com
- Christina Reuther, Fintech News Network, www.fintechnews.ch
- Michele Ruekgauer, Innovation Film Festival, www.innovationfilmfestival.ch
- Hector Sanchez, Cointelegraph, www.linkedin.com/in/hector-s-43464b159
- Dianne Schepers, MME, www.linkedin.com/in/dianneschepers
- Kate Sheffield, Preciate, www.preciate.org
- Ben Shenglin, Zhejiang University, www.cma.zju.edu.cn
- Amanda Strader, ConsenSys, www.consensys.net
- Chadwick Strange, Skale Labs, www.skalelabs.com
- Luke Szkudlarek, What Digital, www.what.digital
- Tim Taylor, Santa Fe Institute, www.santafe.edu
- Phily Truong, Pantera Capital, www.panteracapital.com
- Stijn Vander Straaten, Cryptostorage, www.cryptostorage.ch
- Rachel Walden, Wachsman PR, www.wachsman.com
- Renee Wang, Castbox, www.castbox.fm
- Roman Wyden, Roster, www.roster.la
- Patricia Zinnecker, i-Unlimited, www.i-unlimited.de
The Blockchain and Us: The first documentary film about the blockchain
This podcast started with a documentary film. In 2017, I directed and produced the film The Blockchain and Us, the first documentary in the world with a focus directly on blockchain technology not Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. If you haven’t see it yet, watch it on YouTube or in the player below. The Blockchain and Us podcast is for me a way to continue and deepen the conversation.
What others are saying about the film
Excellent documentary. I was hesitant to watch it because I thought it might be more explanation than application. I can find enough videos for the explanation part. Instead this gave an excellent view from the companies and people working with it. I was very pleased to hear how many of them see this as a true opportunity for the whole population not just a way to make a quick buck.
– Jonathan Cooper, YouTube
Amazing work putting this documentary together! Very Informative and insightful. As a long time believer in blockchain-based technologies, this documentary was very refreshing and inspiring.
– Fightmax Gaming, YouTube
Without bitcoin, there would be no blockchain. Every industry is now looking at using the blockchain.
– Dodjie Santos, YouTube
Nicely done! But holy s***, Swiss people and their accent…
– Mr Knuk, YouTube
Wish there was a documentary or at least footage of what people said about the Internet before it got going, or anyone speculating about technology we all use every day now.
– Nora Germain, YouTube
Great work. I am a believer in blockchain technology, your documentary laid it all out very succinctly. There is really no excuse to be ignorant about the phenomenon. I have shared this on my Facebook page. Thanks!
– Teck Low, YouTube
Absolutely excellent. Thank you so much for your passion and immense work to put this together for the masses to learn and be inspired by the blockchain. I’ll be sharing and hope that everyone I know will watch this and catch the message.
– Dani Walker, YouTube
Now that there is an instrument to decentralize finance, it’s a matter of applying it. That will be the hard part, banks will fight, but that’s also where the opportunities are.
– Marc P, YouTube
Really insightful quote by Elizabeth Stark: “Necessity is not just the mother of invention, but the mother of ADOPTION”.
– Matthew McKean, YouTube
Ignore the blockchain at your own peril. I wonder if we have learned how fast these types of things are happening in our world today? It will be amazing to see how this unfolds.
– Scott Ales, YouTube
Very interesting and well done documentary on blockchain technology. Clearly the revolution of our world for global transactions of all kinds.
– Michael Vingerhoet, YouTube
Thank you very much! I believe the time horizons for dramatic societal change are conservative. When a lack of trust dissolves, creativity flourishes. I believe the change will accelerate before it tapers off.
– Ryan Day, YouTube
Beautiful, elegant, insightful, interesting. Thanks for creating.
– Bruce Thomson, YouTube
Great content, Manuel. I added it to my article on “The Best Bitcoin Documentaries”. Thanks for your contribution to the bitcoin space.
– 101 Bitcoin Reasons, YouTube
Goosebump video!
– Marius Klingl, YouTube
Reminds me of a Werner Herzog film.
– Egor, YouTube
Me gustó mucho este documental; como entusiasta de blockchain te digo gracias por postearlo.
– J.Gabriel Parra Cortes, YouTube
Great documentary Manuel and crew! Very cool corporation perspectives and long term vision potential of blockchains. The question is ‘will we’? Best line.
– John, YouTube