Identity on Blockchain

Speaker: Muneeb Ali.

Muneeb is the Co-founder of Blockstack, a Union Square Ventures, Lux Capital, and Y Combinator backed startup, building a new decentralized web. Muneeb received his Masters in Computer Science from Princeton University and did PhD-level research in distributed systems at Princeton.

Blockstack is a new internet for decentralized, server-less applications. Building on Blockstack starts with single-page applications built in Javascript that are downloaded onto user devices. Developers plug into blockstack.js, which provides API’s for authenticating the user, grabbing application data from the user, and storing new application data with the user (encrypted and backed up to cloud storage). The blockchain is utilized to maintain a cross-application identity system, securely mapping user IDs to usernames, public keys, and data storage URIs. Developers don’t have to worry about running servers, maintaining databases, or building out user management systems, and decentralized, server-less applications can be built more simply than their traditional counterparts.

Agenda:

6.15 - 6.30: Pizza/Drinks and Networking

6.30 - 7.30: Identity on Blockchain

7.30 - 8.00: Q&A