Learn about how Ethereum will help create a more perfect internet, robots who think on the cloud, and build blockchains on blockchains for billions of users…

As an extension of ConsenSys, the Ethereal Summit series shares a vision of the blockchain movement with a focus on the social implications of decentralized technology. Fittingly, Ethereal is unique as an industry conference in that the discourse extends from technology, finance, and enterprise to human and philosophical elements of all things blockchain.

Last week’s Ethereal SF hosted a packed calendar of talks and discussions, and there was so much going on that no one individual could possibly take in all of the essential info and exciting developments on show. Many of the presentations from Ethereal SF are available on ConsenSys’ YouTube channel, and all of them are worth watching, but we picked 5 in particular that you should probably watch right now…

“The Internet is a Modern Day Panopticon” — Steve Waterhouse

“Totalitarianism is something I’m very concerned about,” began Orchid Protocol’s Steve Waterhouse, before tracing a fascinating history of surveillance and the current state of the free internet (hint: it’s not great!). Fittingly, the Orchid project aims to bring internet anonymization to apps and projects in the blockchain space and beyond, and Waterhouse explains how the protocol uses Ethereum to secure a user’s privacy through a system of relaying nodes.

How To Launch a Token, according to Gnosis, Golem, and Bancor

In an enlightening debate on the philosophies and functions of token sales, lead members of the Gnosis, Golem, and Bancor teams brainstormed on best practices for aspiring startups who may be considering building a project on the blockchain and launching a subsequent token sale. Invariably, the discussion turned to addressing the question of whether tokenization is a viable option for a project in the first place, to which the panelists had drastically differing answers.

Joseph Poon on Plasma: “Blockchains on Blockchains”

“I have about ten minutes, so I’m going to explain all of Plasma,’ joked Joseph Poon at the outset of his talk on public-private chain interactivity. The scaling of the Ethereum Network is and will remain a central topic of conversation, and Plasma — which Poon conceived in tandem with Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin — creates nested, private blockchains atop the public Etheteum chain, thus

Ben Goertzel on Artificial General Intelligence and the Cloud-Based Singularity

From self-driving cars to humanoid robots, artificial intelligence technology is coming into its own. Dr. Ben Goertzel, with AI-being Sophia Hanson beside him, laid out his astounding vision for SingularityNET. Building on the Ethereum blockchain, SingularityNET intends to create a decentralized, open cloud of artificial intelligence knowledge bases that can interact and communicate. This will serve to de-silo all the various artificial intelligences around the world, paving the way for artificial general intelligence that can think for itself.

ConsenSys Founder Joseph Lubin’s Keynote Address