Video summary
The closing segment of the Blockchain for Science conference focused on announcing two distinct prizes designed to recognize different types of innovation within the blockchain ecosystem. One award, known as the Serendipity Prize, was dedicated to "blue sky" projects that are adventurous and visionary, while the other, the Serious Business Prize, honored initiatives with a commercially viable approach and a pragmatic business strategy. The selection process for these awards was described as extremely difficult by the organizers, who evaluated numerous high-quality candidates from various backgrounds. To ensure fairness and diversity, the committee made a concerted effort to achieve both gender balance and geographic representation among the winners, although they acknowledged that perfectly balancing all criteria proved challenging in practice.
A significant portion of the discussion involved the necessary steps to decentralize the organization following the event, as the current structure placed too much burden on a single individual. The speaker explained that the prize administration had already been delegated to Artem and James, who played key roles in the rigorous selection process alongside the main organizer. The committee also highlighted specific challenges during the judging phase, such as excluding candidates who were related to the organizers to prevent conflicts of interest or self-nominations. Despite these hurdles, the team expressed great delight at seeing commercially viable projects that demonstrated serious business approaches, even if their success was not immediate, and they praised the overall quality of the submissions received.
The conclusion of the event included heartfelt acknowledgments from the speaker to the various individuals and groups who made the conference possible. Special thanks were given to the two keynote speakers for raising the quality level of the talks, as well as to Martin for his logistical support despite being unable to attend due to illness. The speaker also recognized the sponsors displayed on the slides, the catering team for their excellent service, and the AV team for ensuring high-quality video production. Furthermore, personal gratitude was extended to family members and friends who provided crucial emotional and practical support during the stressful period of organizing the event, emphasizing that the community's collective effort was vital to its success.
Looking toward the future, the speaker emphasized an obligation to communicate blockchain advancements to a broader audience and expressed a strong desire to evolve the conference model. It was made clear that the event cannot continue in exactly the same way as previous years due to changing circumstances and the need for decentralization. The organizer invited the audience to offer help, suggestions, or connections to assist in moving the initiative forward, signaling a shift toward a more distributed leadership structure. This commitment to change ensures that the conference remains sustainable and inclusive, preventing it from relying solely on one person's capacity while continuing to foster innovation in the field of blockchain science.
Read the full video transcript
okay so the last point before closings
home phones which are very people and
what we are coming to that end as all we
have two prizes to give away last year
they goes poster prizes
it's a proctoring for science prizes
well they are technically they are
tweets or and also in all the webpage at
the moment maybe makes you obey after
they have a physical implementation in
the instantiation or maybe they are on
train somewhere and so one place this is
their DPD prize that is for crazy
project that is has big visions and
there's really innovative and then
there's a serious business and anybody
knows the meme serious business in the
internet yeah
so it's a serious business price I
forgot about the memes and stuff I
promise if this continuous there will be
more great kit ease and stuff and okay
in the design itself okay and since I
don't want to do it anymore and we have
to decentralize actually I've delegated
the price through Artem James and yen's
and the ends will ánot I don't know the
surprise so it can be project posters
talks ideas okay yeah thanks a lot
cenk and all the committee members so
that James I think he had already to
believe but he was heavily involved in
the selection process Artyom and myself
so we sat down and evaluated a lot and
it was yeah it was extremely tough
because you're doing different things
you know actually there was no talk that
was immediately disqualified right they
were all good and so take it a little
bit with a grain of salt but still
acknowledge the ones we picked I think
that's probably the right strategy so we
also wanted to a half a little bit not
only gender balance but also each
balance and so on so we try to bring
that all together it didn't fully work
out but essentially you want to announce
the so called serendipity price so for
very blue sky kind of
adventurous projects serendipity price
goes to male okay very serious business
price right and that was also very tough
because we were delighted to see some
really like commercially my viable
things maybe not immediately but was
with a very serious business approach
again was very tough there were
extremely good stuff some of the
candidates were not eligible because
they were somehow related in one or the
other way to the committee so we didn't
want to self nominate otherwise we would
have won everything you know no that's
not true and so the one of the main
impact things here that that that really
impressed us all not saying the others
weren't impressive was artifacts with
Dave nominees yeah but you picked the
speakers right so it was a pre selection
good you judge the Devin you want to be
a little bit gender balance here on them
[Music]
okay thank you very much thank you very
much and so okay now it's on me to thank
you yeah and so I first of course I want
to thank two speakers who would like
made this conference possible and I'm
like totally happy and about the quality
is a level where they are conducted they
were contacted two slides like really
and understanding and now latter of the
speakers and and this was really cool
really super okay I'm very happy with
this and I want to thank Martin it's
good who helped with the conference and
with boxing of Zions a lot
besides others but he was sick and he
couldn't make it and I want to thank
other people as a friends some of them
are here but very very supporters like
for example numbered a legs for the
support and like all all the others here
the Dahlia I want to thank the sponsors
that you see on these slides here and
then I want to thank of course my
brother who's like I've told him somehow
oh you want to come up and he's like
really support because if you're like in
the stress of organizing the components
and you're the only one and everything
rests on your back and then he just
called so I know it from last year I
come okay I was like true it took so
much of my back okay and I want to thank
the beta host team in a very happy with
the catering and everything and how
everything worked out a lot yeah
and I want to thank Michael and Michael
from the AV and I think I have a feeling
this is the videos that come out great
on YouTube and I'm still looking for
sponsors who want to have support like
placed on them that we could talk about
this we will combine the events and what
else do I have to do that's pretty much
it is like oh yeah of course I felt how
how do we continue with this yeah and I
will take on the responsibiiity and I
think the blockchain feat is no longer a
crazy field in science we have our
obligation to communicate this to other
people I like talked about in the
introduction and I've talked with a lot
of people and considers every ways how
to like bring this forward it's sure
that it's not going to happen this it's
the same way again and some people
already offered help and connection I
would see it if you want to help or like
have suggestions how to move forward you
are I'm very happy to take your advice
and support and it will not happen the
same way it happened this time or last
year yeah it has to change because of
heat also changes yeah we have to
decentralize basically okay with this I
want to close and thank you very much
and I'm happy now that I'm
[Applause]
you