Whenever there are challenges, there are opportunities.
COVID-19 is forcing companies to rethink their daily operations and fast-track digital transformation. This puts pressure on businesses but accelerates the adoption of new technologies like blockchain. With increasing interest, VeChain has introduced VeChain BootCamp; an initiative to educate, grow and engage with potential clients, developers and the community via live stream webinars. The idea is to offer online courses on how to build business applications with VechainThor and ToolChain as well as to share key learning lessons from their partnerships. One thing to keep in mind during these webinars: They aren’t designed for the cryptocurrency community to learn about new partnerships and announcements. They are designed to help people not familiar with VeChain’s core service offering learn more about what digitalization can bring to a business, and why they should select VeChain as the platform to build on. The first one, with CEO Sunny Lu, was designed as an overall intro to the series, with the later ones focusing more on the actual implementation, use cases, and value to businesses.
Episode One: “The Missing Part of Mass adoption”
The BootCamp kicked off with an overview of the blockchain industry that included the value role played by businesses at each stage, and a rundown of VeChain; which included a quick mention of the ToolChain functionalities to be released in the coming months. The session probably didn’t cover new topics to most veterans but would have been particularly relevant for newcomers as it gave a comprehensive introduction to VeChain’s value proposition, its core values, sample partnerships and milestones achieved. Something I hadn’t previously considered is the concept of data weighting. AI treats all data equally however, by adjusting the data based on their source and trustworthiness, more reliable decisions can potentially be made in the future.
While Sunny confirmed that some projects have been postponed due to the coronavirus, it was good to hear that deals continue to be signed and that new products are expected from DNV GL. It would have been interesting to know what industries have shown a change in demand and by how much does VeChain expect its adoption forecast to be impacted (positively or negatively) in the coming years.
A video showcasing COS using MyStory to display the product’s sustainability certification was also shared. The landing page is a great opportunity to deliver the item’s unique selling point, suggest complementary goods and maintenance advice or gamify the purchase/shopping experience.
At one point Sunny made an analogy between the early internet days and the current blockchain industry. As he continued to explain ToolChain, I couldn’t avoid drawing similarities between ToolChain and WordPress, the popular CMS that helped take website development to the masses. Like WordPress, ToolChain provides a standardised and user friendly building service where no prior coding knowledge is required. Both simplify an otherwise complicated process and offer:
- Core features such as ready-to-use templates tailored to your industry
- Modularised functionality (e.g. plugins)
- Technical customisation for more complex features (e.g SDKs & APIs for ToolChain)
- Integration with 3rd party services
- Minimal development cost and lead time
- Value to business of all sizes
A quick roadmap showing the dynamic improvements coming to ToolChain
At the same time, while useful in many scenarios, neither is necessarily the best solution for every use case. WordPress however, benefits from a larger community that helps create user guides, tutorials, troubleshooting materials and a support forum; which helped it become the success that it is today. Hence, it was exciting to hear Sunny recognising that VeChain’s technical delivery has outpaced its knowledge base and that more resources will be released down the line. I’m curious to see how VeChain will approach this as companies like Google invest significantly on their educational programs (e.g. Grow with Google), professional certifications (e.g. Google Ads Certification or Google Cloud Certification) and help center catalogs in order to drive demand and onboard new customers.
Up next:
May 12th – Jérôme Grillères (VeChain) and Gabriele Manno (DNV GL)
A New Era of Sustainable Fashion: My Story Enabled Sustainability Practice
Not to heap the pressure on, but this is an event I’m looking forward to for one main reason: Gabriele Manno. As one of the core architects of MyStory, this speaker has a tremendous understanding of what businesses actually need from a technical solution. And unlike the VeChain speakers who have a natural bias to speak highly of their own blockchain, Manno is a third party who isn’t tied down to the platform. For people who have never heard him speak before, he is one of the most technical and business-savvy minds in the blockchain space.
Jérôme Grillères, VeChain’s GM of Europe, is another figure who doesn’t get the exposure some of the other GMs do. He is relatively reserved on social media so there should be a lot of interest in what his projects have been working on. As someone who has been working on ToolChain from the beginning, we are sure his presentation will take a deeper dive than what we saw in the first episode.
May 13th – Sarah Nabaa and David Inderias
Blockchain In Food Provenance: A New Ecosystem Play in Post-Covid World
Like Manno, Inderias is a third-party with a lot of wisdom to bring. His straightforward and blunt approach is great for an industry plagued by overhype and fixations on unrealized potential. Inderias has always been about practical business applications first, exactly the kind of person VeChain needs as a channel partner. His recently announced position as the head of the APAC Provenance Council is another step towards convincing the average goods producer that technology and innovation isn’t just a plaything for Fortune 500 companies to experiment with. On May 13th, David should explain how he plans to use ToolChain, and how it saves his company development effort.
Finally, Sarah Nabaa completes the first group of speakers by bringing the experience she has gained as the leader of VeChain’s Southeast Asia and Australia team. We asked Sarah what to expect, and she explained how excited she was to be working with the APAC Provenance council and suggested viewers tune in to learn more. She’s confident that a number of solid companies will be onboarded thanks to the work her and Inderias are doing in Australia and New Zealand.
Future Episodes
Further sessions are yet to be confirmed but Sunny hinted about a PoA 2.0-SURFACE presentation. The new consensus algorithm was announced earlier this February so it will be interesting to hear directly from Dr Peter Zhou, VeChain’s Chief Scientist. Stay tuned.
Note: VeChain released their own recap, available here.
Latest Posts
Humans of Blockchain: Jason Rockwood
Recap: PwC and VeChain speak at British Chamber of Commerce Event in Shanghai
