Last week was the first Lisk Center Utrecht meetup. It marks the start of the Center and we’re beyond excited to enter this phase, armed with a strong team, supportive community and beautiful location.

The Meetup brought 80 attendees to the Lisk Center Utrecht, located at the Jaarbeursplein in Utrecht. We understand that not everyone could join us in person; and regardless of whether or not you live in Holland, we want to recap the evening with a comprehensive summary of vital points, as the evening was filled with many interesting speeches and discussions.

Opening

Meyade Curfs (part of LCU) opened the evening by welcoming everyone and then going through the agenda with the audience.

First up on the agenda was an introduction of the Lisk Center Utrecht. Joost explained in his presentation why he started the Lisk Center Utrecht, how he gathered the money for it and what the goal is for the Lisk Center Utrecht.

Joost gave the evening’s first presentation

He concluded the introduction with the following:

The Lisk Center Utrecht is on a mission to create awareness for blockchain initiatives and help through sharing knowledge, networking and collaborations. By facilitating a physical location to work together and organizing meetups, we help blockchain initiatives to grow their projects from a central hub in the Netherlands.

The audience during the meetup

Lisk Introduction & Benefits of our partnership

Following Joost’s talk, Meyade took the stage to give an introduction of the Lisk blockchain. He discussed the three pillars of Lisk; SDK, UX and Education and how Lisk uses each of the three pillars to make the Blockchain accessible.

He then went on with the following topic; how does the Lisk Center Utrecht fit in this picture and why did we choose for Lisk. He said the following:

To make the blockchain accessible, you’ll need a place where people can come together to work (together) on blockchain projects, to learn about the blockchain and to network with like minded people. We want to make this place the Lisk Center Utrecht.

He then summed up the benefits of the partnership with Lisk:

Donated a part of the funding for 2019

We create a good image and trust by having a company with high values and standards behind us; Lightcurve. It is important that we radiate this in the initial phase in which we are now.

We are part of their ecosystem. In addition, the Lisk Center Utrecht has been set up by the community, for the community. The Lisk community was also present during the meetup.

And last but not least, we have a direct line with Lisk which provides many benefits. One of them is that we often talk about next ideas and projects. Thomas, head of marketing at Lightcurve, was also present during the meetup.

Meyade presenting the benefits of the partnership with Lisk

Break

We will always divide the meetups into two parts. The first part will be for the basics about the blockchain and the Lisk project. The second part will be for the more advanced topics. The guest speakers will give their presentation during the second part. We use the Lisk Academy documents and videos to explain the basic topics during the first part.

There was a moment to network during the break with a slice of pizza and a drink. We ordered 40 pizzas to make sure that everyone would have enough (and all the pizzas were gone within 20 minutes).

Hogeschool van Utrecht

Following the break, Peter of the Hogeschool Utrecht took the stage to present what he is working on within the Hogeschool, blockchain related. They are focusing on research, education and applications. The Lisk Center Utrecht facilitates temporary accommodation for students working on blockchain related projects within the Hogeschool van Utrecht. In this way they can work within a blockchain community and they can also give their final presentations in the Lisk center.

Peter Nobels presenting various blockchain projects within the Hogeschool van Utrecht

Blockchain030

Next up, Susanne Pieterse and Marc Buma of Blockchain030, our partner, took the stage. They presented a use case that was ‘out of this world’. They took the audience into outer space.

What if there is a colony on the Moon or Mars, how would that work moneywise? Using physical coins or banknotes in space is way to expensive, and would you leave your money on another planet? Cryptocurrency would be suitable as an alternative way to trade value. There are complicating factors involved with using cryptocurrencies on other celestial bodies though.

Susanne and Marc discussed three different scenarios that illustrate how cryptocurrencies and blockchain can be used by future Mars and Moon colonists. The audience really liked it.

Susanna Pieterse together with Marc Buma (Blockchain030) about crypto in space

Odyssey

And last but not least, Abe of the Odyssey Hackathon took the stage. They are the world’s biggest blockchain & AI Hackathon and will be having another hackathon in April. We as the Lisk Center Utrecht will also be present to network afterwords.

Abe Scholte about the Odyssey Hackaton

Final words

Following the presentation of Abe, Meyade took the stage to put out some final words. He thanked all the audience for joining us on this amazing evening.

Our guest, comprised of community members, blockchain enthusiasts, friends and family, had the chance to meet each other and network over drinks and food.

The Lisk Center Core team and guests network after the meetup

Make sure to check out our Meetup page if you want to join our next meetups. https://www.meetup.com/LiskCenterUtrecht/

And finally, a special thank you to everyone that helped us out during the meetup. We would also like to thank everyone that came to our first meetup and supported us.

This is the beginning of something big!