Amber: From your bio, I see that throughout your career you have worked for larger corporations, such as Disney Interactive Studios, and then moved to founding your own company, Storypanada. What inspired you to take the entrepreneurial path and start your first company?

Pavel: I think I had always had an entrepreneurial mindset, but I just didn’t dive fully into it. It was actually the role I took after Disney Interactive, at Threewave Software, that inspired me to do so.

Threewave Software was a smaller company, which was cool, and my role was similar to that of a GM. Unlike with larger companies, I had full insight into the inner workings of the company and more control within the role. It was while working there that I had the thought “I could run one of these companies”; it just seemed like a natural fit.

Amber: What led you to blockchain technology?

Pavel: I actually just stumbled onto Bitcoin and started reading about it. That got me deeper into researching blockchain. I found it very interesting as it had all the stuff that I had gone to school for and that I was passionate about, such as international politics, game theory, distributed computing and economics… it all kind of connected into this one technology. And that is how I was inspired to start working on blockchain projects.

Amber: So when did you meet your co-founder, Neeraj?

Pavel: It was from that curiosity about blockchain and Bitcoin that I met my co-founder, Neeraj. I was reading a ton, talking to everyone I came across about blockchain, and expressing how much I wanted to do something in the space. It was while meeting with a peer of mine that he let me know about a guy he described as my counterpart. He said he knows about the tech side, I knew about the business side, and we both had a passion for blockchain. So he connected us and just by chance, we hit it off. We complement each very other well. He wanted to do something on his own, I was in the same boat, so we decided to do it together.

The strangest thing was that we realized we lived down the street from each other! When I first paid him, he asked to meet at this mom and pop coffee shop in Vancouver. It was the type of place you would only know about if you lived in the neighbourhood. When we got there, we realized he lived down the street one way and I lived down the street the other way!

Amber: Sounds like it was meant to be! So, what sparked the idea of combining blockchain technology with databases?

Pavel: We had started doing blockchain projects for banks and financial institutions. It was while doing one of the projects that we realized if you are building a blockchain application for a bank you would be storing the data in a centralized way. We also found issues with slow processing time and data storage. We thought, if we are having these problems then everybody else is. It was from that realization that we decided this was a product that we needed to build.

Amber: That is neat that it came about pretty organically. You recognized the problem and started to work on it together. So, once you started building Bluzelle, did you come across any larger issues with the current data ecosystem?

Pavel: There are two issues with the data ecosystem. One that is happening now and the bigger one that is coming.

The big one we identified early was that there is a huge amount of data being consumed and exchanged that the current structure of the internet cannot handle. It does not have the infrastructure to do so. That is why, when data is exchanged, there are leaks, thefts, data hacks and congestion. Bluzelle, a decentralized database, could solve the issues of scaling and security.

The second problem we see is on personal data and how companies use it. Individuals blindly trust companies, such as social media websites, with their personal data. Most do not recognize the value of their data, or that it used as a currency to join an app or platform. With more education, the exchange of services for data is fine, as everything should have a cost associated with it… it is when those same companies are manipulating and mishandling personal data that a problem arises. An example of this is Facebook and Cambridge Analytics.

As data is currency, we need systems that allow us as users, or businesses, to have more control over our data. We need to make sure that it’s stored properly, managed right, and that if monetized there is a way for an individual to have more control.

Amber: Have you, or anyone on your team, been subjected to someone using your data in a negative way?

Pavel: I think all of us are having it happen every day. For example, when we receive a targeted ad through Google, most people think it is great that Google knows who they are and what they want. But the consumer needs to ask the question, ‘do they’? Or does the platform think it knows based off of the information it has collected to fit them into a group based on age, gender, location, etc. This can not only affect consumer buying behaviour but can also create discriminatory group thinking.

For example, on Facebook, certain types of content are pushed to users based off the group that the algorithm deems they fit into. This is due to others within their group (age, race, gender, etc) liking, or interacting with, the content. If the content is prejudiced, it is sent unintentionally to more people who would not have searched for it otherwise, thus spreading a negative message.

Amber: What do you think is the best course of action for the average consumer to protect their data?

Pavel: The tools are not really there at that consumer level. The best action is to gain awareness on data usage and then turn off, or cut the use of, certain products that are accumulating your data.

Amber: Is Bluzelle looking to build any tools to assist with this?

Pavel: We are wanting to give developers the tools to build applications around data management. For example, we are building a structure for a data wallet. The idea is similar to that of a cyrpto-wallet in that it connects to the blockchain to protect and keep track of the assets you have. The data-wallet would give access to your profile, make sure its secured safely on the Bluzelle database, and make sure no one can hack or access the contents.

How this could look in practice is, when a user signs up for a social media platform such as Facebook, the user would give access to their data wallet which would dictate what is shared and for how long. When the user is done using Facebook they would be able to stop the access to their data wallet, preventing the platform from storing it. There would be a cryptographic record to prove that the data transfer was stopped.

That is just one example, but there is a ton of potential solutions. We want to give entrepreneurs and developers the tools so they can build on top of our database to fit their needs. It is just like how Ethereum created a good framework for smart contracts and allowed projects to build on top. We are working to do the same.

Amber: That is our goal with the Right Mesh platform as well. We are looking to partner with hackathons, universities and developer communities in emerging markets to give developers the tool set to build their own mesh applications that best serve their communities’ needs. This will help with user adoption and strengthen the mesh as the more nodes within it, the stronger it becomes.

You mentioned other use cases. What would be another one that a developer could build on top of the Bluzelle database?

Pavel: Another use case would be for data syndication. Let’s say you are a small store owner and have collected data on your customers’ buying habits. If someone had built a data market place on the Bluzelle platform you would be able package and list your data online to offer to the highest bidder. The buyer would be able to sift through listings, verify the data, and securely transfer it in exchange for payment.

Amber: That is very cool. It seems like there is a ton of opportunities for developers to build on top of Bluzelle.

On the more current side, you have some pretty big news that came out this week. Could you tell me about Lovelace?

Pavel: It is awesome! It is the first release of our decentralized database on the Testnet. It is ready for developers to build on top of, whether they are using Etherium, NEO C#, Javascript or Python. They do not need to be using blockchain to use it — as long as they know a language they can use our four main controls to create, read, update and delete. The next few weeks are about finding more developers to try it, making sure they are using it in the right way.

Our next phase is all about building the data ecosystem. We are wanting to spread our vision and build awareness. To do so, we are going to be putting out a lot of information, speaking at events and going to China for a three day city show.

Now that Lovelace is out there, we are very excited for the next phase of Bluzelle. This had always been our plan and it is great to have it start.