The IBM Blockchain Pulse has had the privilege of hosting several returning guests this season but few have worked in industries as heavily impacted by COVID-19 as our guests today; Matt Zarracina and Ken Lesnik, the founders of True Tickets. While the live events business has been upended during the pandemic, True Tickets mission has remained totally unchanged. Their work to push clients and customers further into the realm of digital ticketing has never been more relevant.

In today’s episode, Matt is joined by a multidisciplinary artist, Erin Zhao, who leads the conversation to an area of Blockchain that IBM Blockchain Pulse has yet to delve into. Joining the conversation, as well, is return guest, Nigel Gopie, Director of Artificial Intelligence Applications and Blockchain Marketing at IBM. In this episode, he helps to tell the story of IBM’s collaboration with Erin and how they’ve managed to rethink the art consumption experience in our COVID-19 era.

Is now the time to adopt blockchain technology for supply chain? In this episode, Matt Hooper welcomes back Rachel Wolfson of Cointelegraph to get her journalistic perspective on why supply chains can benefit from adopting blockchain. Rachel has been writing about the tech industry for nearly 10 years and has been focusing specifically on blockchain and cryptocurrency for the past two. She is the host of the blockchain podcast, The Crypto Chick, a public speaker, and a journalist.

During the pandemic, we're all yearning for that sense of normalcy. We miss our friends, co-workers, happy hours, and events. We miss that "game day" feeling. There's really nothing like stepping foot on your favorite sport's team home court and hearing the roaring crowd. Harold Hughes, founder and CEO of Bandwagon, an analytics and identity management company that uses blockchain to help event venues and entertainers create a more personalized fan experience while eliminating ticket fraud.

This episode of IBM Blockchain Pulse marks another first for Matt Hooper! He is welcoming back his first return guest, Maribel Lopez, the founder and Principal Analyst of Lopez Research! Last time Maribel was on the show, she and Matt dove into blockchain and transformation and discussed whether or not blockchain hype had peaked. Today, they’re shifting gears and taking a look at how companies can get started with blockchain.

This is a first for the podcast, as Matt Hooper has yet to have a leader in the field of education on the show! Rick has dedicated his life to solving problems in the space of education and his current work with the National Student Clearinghouse is no exception. The National Student Clearinghouse’s goal is to “help education go further” and the work they do goes from improving students’ career readiness to understanding student outcomes to much more.

Our latest guest is Chelsey Delaney, Global Design Lead for Blockchain Services at IBM, who brings a unique and personal view to the blockchain discussion. Namely, a design-centric view — it’s in her job title after all! Coming away from this interview, our host Matt Hooper felt inspired anew about the practical implementations of blockchain technology and particularly about the key distinctions Chelsey has made in her own work.

Maribel Lopez, the founder and principal analyst at Lopez Research, whose job is to help the most ambitious of business leaders. This sort of work requires a collaborative spirit as well as a deep knowledge of the most significant innovations happening every corner of the globe — from AI to IoT to blockchain. Maribel gets to spend her days guiding leaders through these changes and Matt couldn’t be more excited to be interviewing her this episode!

Have you ever met someone who truly loved their job so much that you found yourself grinning ear-to-ear as you listened to them explain how they spend their days? Well, Matt Hooper sure has! His guest today, Bill Stark, is the President of IBM Business Partner Cognition Foundry. The passion with which Bill describes his job in today’s episode will leave you inspired and thinking about the many opportunities emerging technologies are bringing about for startups and society.

While your host, Matt Hooper, has only been passionate about all things decentralization for 5 years, his guest today, Dr. Sean Stein Smith, was an early champion of our blockchain future. Dr. Smith is a Professor at Lehman College, a member of Wall Street Blockchain Alliance’s Advisory Board, a member of Gilded Finance’s Advisory Board, an author at IBM Blockchain, and an award winner of the NJCPA ‘19 Ovation Award. He is a widely quoted expert at the intersection of blockchain,...

In the 50 years since the moon landing, human beings have yet to go beyond the moon. And, if you would’ve asked our host Matt Hooper a few weeks ago, he would’ve said with a heavy heart that we look poised to stay that way too.  But, luckily enough for him, he’s gotten the chance to speak with Naeem Altaf, IBM Distinguished Engineer and CTO for Space Tech! The incredible work Naeem is doing shows not only the possibility of commercial space travel — but the arrival of it.

Matt couldn’t be happier to be joined by his guest, James Patchett — the President and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation! NYCEDC is a not-for-profit organization that has been around for over 20 years, not as an agency, but affiliated with city government. The work James is doing with the EDC is inspiring and exciting. He is playing a major role in helping shape the future of the New York City.

How often does Matt Hooper get the chance to interview another podcast host?! Well — not ever — until now! Rachel Wolfson, host of The Crypto Chick is joining the podcast! And not only is Rachel a blockchain podcast host, but she’s also a public speaker and journalist who contributes to a multitude of publications. She has been writing about the tech industry for nearly 10 years and has been focusing specifically on blockchain and cryptocurrency for the past two.

The deeper our host Matt Hooper dives into blockchain on this show, the more he is surprised by remembrances of the internet’s past. When the idea of connecting billions of people felt new and exciting, when we were all eager to be participants in a constellation of data, and when we all felt we had more control over our digital lives.

Today on the podcast, your host, Matt Hooper, is joined by one of his favorite people in the New York City start-up ecosystem, Mr. Wilson Lin! Wilson Lin is the Vice President at NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) and is the Head of the initiative, Cyber NYC. In his role at EDC, Wilson is leading NYC initiatives to strengthen the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by partnering with leading VCs, entrepreneurs, major corporations, and academic institutions.

In today’s episode, your host, Matt Hooper, is speaking with Alison McCauley! Alison is the founder and CEO of Unblocked Future as well as an author, speaker, and consultant. Her bestselling book, Unblocked: How Blockchains Will Change Your Business (and What to Do About It), answers the question: ‘Why do I need to get on board with this whole blockchain thing?’ and is helping non-technical executives all around the world to better understand how this technology will trigger change!

Karl Muth is a teacher, strategist, speaker and investor. He has spent his career advising, investing in, and starting new companies and wears many hats on both the professional and academic side. Professionally, Karl is the CEO of a blockchain startup called FRST.  FRST is an enterprise-grade blockchain and data analytics solution. Academically, Karl is a Professor across several disciplines at Northwestern University; Economics, Organizational Behavior, Public Fallacy, and Statistics.

Blockchain, like so much technology, is generally agnostic. Its ultimate function is to make our lives easier, fuller, and richer. Food is also designed to make our lives easier, fuller, and richer — and trusting the food we eat is serious! People’s health is so often linked to the food they have access to, and when it’s not taken seriously, the results can be tragic. The global food supply chain needs to be made transparent and blockchain is the technology that can make this possible. 

Today, Matt while be speaking with Matt Zarracina, the co-founder and CEO of True Tickets; and Ken Lesnik, the Head of Business Development. They discuss how they first got True Tickets off the ground, where they got their first round of feedback, who their customers are and what their ultimate goal is, what it has been like to partner with IBM blockchain, and of course, how they are helping to replace the PDF, print-at-home ticket with an incredible blockchain-enabled solution for the...

This week your host, Matt Hooper, is exploring some of the most innovative and exciting trends in supply chain that he’s come across! Joining him is an expert in the space — Daniel Wilson. Daniel is the Director of Strategy and Operations at Maersk for the TradeLens project — an open and neutral platform underpinned by blockchain technology and supported by major industry players!

This week on the IBM Blockchain Pulse, your host, Matt Hooper, explores a totally unique use case of blockchain. He’s joined by his guest, Shaun Frankson, co-founder and CTO of The Plastic Bank. Together with his co-founding partner and the CEO of The Plastic Bank, David Katz, they’re working on converting ocean plastic into forms of currency. They’re creating a reward system for people to earn and spend plastic bank digital tokens — and using blockchain to realize this vision.

Kathryn Harrison is the Director of Global Product Management for IBM Blockchain Platform. She’s responsible for understanding what’s happening in blockchain all around the world, figuring out how IBM can build technology and products that help to solve different companies’ problems with blockchain, and then actually pulling together all the different parts of IBM to actually build that product and take it out to market. It’s a very exciting job!

In this week’s episode, your host, Matt Hooper, is joined by two leaders — Jesse Lund and Jed McCaleb — to discuss cross-border payments. Their conversation today is all about financial transactions — making them frictionless, seamless, and available for everyone.

Blockchain is one of the pioneering innovations of our time — it may be the pioneering innovation of our time and too few people know about it. If you are one of those people — that’s okay! This podcast will be centralized around illustrating practical blockchain use cases guided by leaders across multiple industries. From financial services to trade, to tracing the safety of your next meal, to purchasing a ticket to your next concert — blockchain is transforming lives — and not soon. Now.