Joey Santoro '20 - Ethereal Summit (Summer 2018)

Joey Santoro '20 - Ethereal Summit (Summer 2018)

Joey Santoro '20 - Ethereal Summit 2018

I had a wonderful summer. To kick it off, I got to go to Ethereal 2018, which is a blockchain conference in Brooklyn, NY hosted by ConsenSys. I started my journey in blockchain about a year ago, but this conference took my engagement from extracurricular interest to a serious career opportunity. I got to meet the CEOs of various blockchain projects and made other really awesome connections in cryptoland. I was even offered a few internships! It was amazing to see a group of people so passionate about the impact blockchain will have on the world. The topics ranged from decentralized autonomous economies to equitable and sustainable future to art and charitable giving. A lot of the people I met at the conference ended up remaining a valuable connection for the remainder of my summer and current activities at Duke.

My involvement with blockchain started in the Duke Blockchain Lab. After having gone to events during the whole 17-18 academic year the leadership team started inviting me to meetings. I was officially on the team by the summer and I spent a lot of my time organizing for next year, fielding emails, and forging connections. It was really awesome to get to talk to members of the blockchain community and strategize ways to collaborate with students at Duke. Many of these calls were follow ups with people from the conference who were interested in coming to speak or meet some students. I was also doing research and developing course materials for Professor Campbell Harvey for his Fuqua course “Innovation and Cryptoventures.”

One of the people from the conference was in charge of ConsenSys Academy Developer Program, a certification in Ethereum blockchain decentralized application development. I negotiated a potential group scholarship for some lab members and she agreed to let us apply. A few of the lab members and I were selected to take this course and this was how I spent much of the back half of my summer. I am still awaiting my final grade but all of my materials have been submitted. Hopefully this developer program relationship with the Lab will continue going forward!

Lastly, I spent some time in San Francisco living with a friend and, you guessed it, following up with some more connections from the conference. I got lunch with one of the ConsenSys team members and got to check out their office. I also got lunch with a member of Dharma and an intern at Ripple.

Clearly, I had a blockchain filled summer. I learned so much and grew a lot as well. I hope to keep building on the momentum of this summer to get involved in the blockchain space and work on meaningful projects.