We’re building something ambitious: a Network that solves the scalability challenge facing blockchain. It’s an amazing opportunity, but also presents one of our biggest hurdles — figuring out how to help people understand what we do and the value it brings to them.
That’s where I come in! My name is Connie Kwan and I’ve recently joined as VP of Product at OmiseGO. I have over 15 years of experience in product management, mostly in Enterprise SaaS companies. In my role, I want to be the voice of the marketplace and tell a story through our products.
While I’ve always worked in technology, blockchain is a different beast altogether, which is why on my third week here I went to the San Francisco Blockchain Week (SFBW). What better way to immerse into OmiseGO than to dive deeper into the technology it’s built on, right?
Here’s what I got up to at the event!
Getting up to Speed
The first session I attended was called “The Real Crypto Oracles!” It was fantastic and I had the chance to watch Dan Morehead of Pantera, Mike Novogratz of Galaxy Digital, and Joseph Lubin from Consensys discuss the nuances of blockchain live on stage.
Blockchain…for Gaming?
I also sat in on a talk about Blockchain for gaming, where I learned that true-ownership of in-game assets is a problem to be solved.
With blockchain, players no longer have to adhere to the game creator’s economics but can derive how much each item is worth independently. This means a gamer can simply trade their Gold Shield to get that stat-padded Armor they’ve always wanted instead of grinding for it!
Given that these trades are already happening on the black market, game-developers stand to gain by providing a white-market for these transactions. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Blockchain for Enterprise!
Aah enterprise at SFBW, now that’s more like it!
In this talk, panelists from GE Aviation, World Economic Forum, and Microsoft agreed on a few points about working with enterprises that are adopting blockchain. They wanted to:
- Engage regulators and lawyers at the enterprise early in the process
- Move away from the lingo of Blockchain, and instead, talk about customer value such as:
- increased trust and security
- de-risking the value chain
- communicating across the value chain
- being the source of truth
- portable identity
- efficiency
Final Thoughts on the SFBW
The SFBW reminded me that while Blockchain is a transformative technology, to encourage more adoption, we need to translate its value to real-user terms.
Because when done right, the results are astronomical. For example, when XBox’s Loyalty management program moved to the Blockchain it saved Microsoft $2M in the first quarter of implementation and required half the previous staff. However, the actual Blockchain portion was only 10% of the final solution.
As an industry, we still have a ways to go in the adoption curve, but the good news? We are well-positioned to make a huge difference.