Kambria sends a huge thank you to our newest advisor, Michelle Tsing, for participating in our Telegram group AMA discussion. Below is a summary of the great questions we received along with corresponding answers. For clarity, the original text has been lightly edited for grammar and spelling.
If you could not catch the AMA live, please post your question in our main Telegram channel. The team will get back to you quickly.
You recently spoke at the dAppAtlanta Summit about legal best practices for ICOs and STOs. Could you tell us some of the key points we should keep in mind when considering doing an ICO or STO?
Sure! Some of the key points include:
1. Seek counsel
2. Decide whether your token is utility or security
3. Design your token and tokenomics
4. Build your community organically
5. Utilize best practices to build product, draft whitepaper, etc.
You have a lot of experience working with investors in both the traditional startup world and blockchain world. What do you see as the most differences between traditional VCs and crypto VCs?
Regarding traditional investors, they could provide advice and assistance with their experiences and contacts. They could also ask for control in your company.
For distributed investing, a lot of people would believe in the mission of your company. Thus, they purchase your tokens to use your dApps and/or protocols. It’s more community based than traditional investing.
Why did you choose to join Kambria Advisory Board? What did you see in Kambria that made you interested?
As someone who has a lot of ideas, my friends say I am a natural fit for this project. For example, we were making a Dusty sculpture for Burning Man using AI and sensors. We wanted to 3D print it ourselves as well. It was synchronistic that Kambria ended up printing the head of our robot sculpture for us. Kambria represented to me personally a manifestation of ideas, almost a supply chain of innovation.
Also, I love the team. They execute well. I think it’s important for the founders and the team to be committed to a project. I could see that they are very passionate in helping folks create, innovate and execute from start to completion.
[To learn about Michelle Tsing’s role as an advisor to Kambria, check out this article.]
What unique opportunities do you see for women in blockchain?
There are a number of opportunities for women in blockchain. I tend to be more gender blind, as I see the value of women in technology. For the first time in history, women could play a big role in the token revolution, by building companies and utilizing their talents to change and make a dent in the world — along with men and AI.
[Michelle Tsing wrote this very well-received article of the list of 200+ women thought leaders in crypto and blockchain. Thank you, Michelle Tsing, for your amazing effort to put this list together and for being a strong voice for women in blockchain!]
What’s your view and approach on building a community in the blockchain space?
I believe in building genuine community organically. That means being real and authentic and doing the hard work of learning about you and me from the beginning. It’s time-consuming. However, I believe it would create a genuine community and the community can build each other up in the long run. Kambria is a place where folks could collaborate and make their dream project a reality. In order to collaborate, our community must be innovators. They must want and thirst for that change. They must be rebels and shakers of society. We want to nurture and foster that kind of community.
Nice to hear about your viewpoint on community in blockchain.
I prefer organic community over airdrops. I think there is quality community. The key is balancing quality community with growth.
Can you tell us a bit about the legislation you’ve been working on passing in California?
Governor Jerry Brown just signed two blockchain bills into law. AB 2658 includes digital signatures via the blockchain and adds that to the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA).
I have been going to Sacramento with the Blockchain Advocacy Coalition since spring of this year, even before the coalition was formed. I thought laws would legitimize the technology and cryptocurrency as they could achieve decree.
Looking at the industry’s progress as the whole, between the technical challenges and regulation challenges, which do you worry more about?
I do not worry about neither. I believe the SEC has a public interest in protecting the public. By declaring tokens as security, I believe it provides the tokens in general with acknowledgment and value, even though it costs more to be compliant. I helped a public company with Sarbanes Oxley compliance prior. The intention of that is to improve financial disclosures and prevent accounting fraud. There were too many frauds in the token space.
I believe the SEC is still deciding, and perhaps taking time to make decisions that would affect innovation is positive.
Regarding technical challenges, I believe the blockchain technology is dynamic enough that we can work around some of the challenges. Even with GDPR compliance, companies could use a mix of private and public chains to help comply for example, with the right to be forgotten and the right to be deleted.
We also have questions from our community member [omitted] who is not able to attend our AMA today but posted the questions in advance.
1) How did your time at Paypal shape your views for blockchain and cryptocurrencies?
2) Were you there when Elon Musk was there?
3) What got you into Robotics?
4) What did you do for Cisco, eBay, Samsung, and Apple? (wow by the way)
5) Can you tell us more about eWallets?
6) What are some of the other ICOs you’ve worked on?
7) In what ways are you assisting Kambria?
8) What is your vision for the growth of robotic innovation, especially pertaining to Kambria’s approach by moving it to the blockchain?
1. My PayPal experience allows me to see the need for global infrastructural change in the payments space. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are vital tools for this change.
2. No, Elon Musk had already sold PayPal to eBay.
3. I was studying Artificial Intelligence before it became popular in the entrepreneurial community. Plus, my private coding tutor taught folks how to make robots. I saw how artificial intelligence could be used to do evil; and I thought we could talk about its use for good yesterday.
4. At college, I was working at a data management company. At Cisco, I was writing technical manuals on a lot of the protocols such as VOIP, IOS, etc.; creating, designing and encrypting websites; and helping the enterprise teams with e-commerce transactions and negotiation. At eBay, Samsung and Apple, I worked on a number of different transactions.
5. I cannot disclose much about eWallets at this time. It’s a payment blockchain startup that I cofounded in 2015.
6. I advise a number of token companies including Doctor Chain (decentralized DNA), Tok TV Token (decentralized sports and digital goods), BlackBox Token (the future of work), Porte Token (decentralized trade), etc.
7. I am a strategic advisor for Kambria and help with events and a number of other aspects of the company.
8. I want to see more robotic innovation in the social impact space.
With the Kambria project, entrepreneurs can bid for talent, collaborate and share among the distributed team in terms of IP, licensing and revenue.
I think this vision fits into the convergence of a gig economy as well, where workers are empowered to work anywhere.
Kambria has a governance mechanism as well, which would keep the system clear of bad actors.
Moving the ownership of IP from a few monopolies to decentralized individuals is vital for a better society.
You advise ICO projects. What are three key attributes you look for in an ICO project before making a decision to join their advisory board?
There are three elements I look for:
1. The team
2. The humility of the team and founders
3. The product and whether I would be interested in the product.
Can you tell us about your radio show? What types of guests do you bring on? How can we tune in?
I host and produce a radio show at Stanford University called Laptop Radio — this is before blockchain becomes popular. Topics including nuclear fusion, moonshot projects, AI, blockchain, gaming, and gamification.
Are you or are you not in fact a robot?
Haha! I create chatbots and robots.
I help with the Loving AI Project where we built a loving module for Sophia. We are in the middle of Stage 2 of the X Prize. The intention is to build a robot who helps humans become self-aware and loving.
Do you see any differences between the blockchain market in the West Coast and East Coast in the US?
I am in Atlanta right now for the Atlanta Blockchain Week. I believe the excitement and ethos of decentralization are the same. We all want to create change. We all have an idea. The Atlanta folks are asking me why Kambria is not located in Atlanta! Ha!
They love the idea of # Dream It Make It!!!!
Can you tell our community about the hackathon Facebook group for Kambria that you are helping us build?
[Here is our hackathon Facebook group, everyone. https://www.facebook.com/groups/kambria/]
Kambria’s hackathon Facebook community consists of a lot of innovators, CEOs, etc. in the blockchain and AI space. I have friends who are working to stop aging. There are other people in the community who are building neural networks to stop certain diseases. There are also other people who are studying materials to build nanotubes that could go into our bodies and dissolve. There are also drone experts. There are of course creators of blockchain projects such as the CEO of WorkCoin and ZenLedger.
Please join us!
What’s your advice for someone who doesn’t have a technical background to start learning about the blockchain space?
I would read about blockchain and what it could do. Essentially, it is a log. Then, I would go to community events and meetups. With blockchain, I find folks to be friendlier as many people do believe in the revolution.
What do you hope to see more of in order to increase the mass market adoption of the blockchain technology? Or what do you see as the biggest challenge to the mass market adoption of the blockchain technology?
Challenges of mass market adoption include integration of cryptocurrency and tokens on merchant sites; scalability in terms of transactions per second; and time to settlement.
Another challenge is regulation. If tokens are sold under Reg D, only accredited investors would be allowed to purchase X tokens, obtain X airdrops and exchange X tokens. — Disclaimer that I am not giving legal advice.
In order to achieve mass adoption, I would like to see better integration, security and education to merchants.
[The end]
ABOUT Michelle Tsing
Michelle Tsing co-founded a blockchain payments startup in 2015 and is a strategic ICO advisor. She is also a mentor for SVI Academy and Hack Temple and advises a number of startups in 3D printing, AI, biotech and social sharing. Michelle Tsing founded Robotics for Good: Chatbots, Messaging and AI community; and donates her time to both The Loving AI XPRIZE Project and Robots Without Borders. She is also producer and host of Laptop Radio at Stanford University.
Michelle Tsing was an attorney at PayPal, where she helped the Large Merchant Services team achieved ubiquity. Prior to PayPal, she was at Cisco, eBay, Samsung and Apple.
ABOUT Kambria
Kambria is an open innovation blockchain project that enables and incentivizes collaboration in R&D, manufacturing, and commercialization of advanced technology. We are developing our own public chain with protocols uniquely designed to address the current waste and inefficiencies in today’s innovation model. Kambria will allow for many verticals, including Biotech, Space, and Autonomous Vehicles to be developed and thrive in the ecosystem. We are focusing first on the AI and Robotics vertical with the backing of our well-established robotics company, OhmniLabs. Through existing partnerships with top universities and large international corporations, as well as access to talented developers, we aim to build an ecosystem that can bring the next wave of frontier technology to provide value to billions of people around the world.
Thank you for your time!
The Kambria Team
Website: https://kambria.io/
Whitepaper: https://kambria.io/Kambria_White_Paper_v2.pdf
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