The BSV Blockchain Association held a successful meetup on 16 October to inaugurate the launch of its new Citadel office in India. The event allowed enthusiasts, builders and businesses to meet, learn, discuss, and build together on the BSV blockchain.
The new Citadel office is free to use by those in the BSV ecosystem and will play host to regular meetings, open days and events. In addition to hosting meetups and events, the office will act as a co-working space for developers looking to build on BSV and defend the original Bitcoin as implemented by the BSV blockchain.
Welcoming address by Mallikarjun Karra
The event began with a welcoming address by Mallikarjun Karra, Director and CTO of Zorilla and Ambassador for the BSV Blockchain Association.
Karra gave a brief overview of the history of the BSV blockchain and the original promise set out in the white paper. He also touched on important topics such as proof-of-work, micropayments and scalability.
‘The BSV blockchain is not about speculative investments as people have come to look at so-called cryptocurrencies. Instead, it is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system as envisaged by Satoshi Nakamoto and is a single global public ledger.’
Karra also spoke on the importance of the new Citadel and the role it plays in furthering the BSV Blockchain Association’s work.
‘It is first and foremost a free co-working space. Anybody interested in developing on the BSV blockchain is free to come here and work with us. It is also a support system for BSV developers in India and is home to passionate big blockers and research-minded people.’
‘We are a band of solution builders. People can come to us with problems, and if those problems can be solved by immutable timestamping – here we are.’
Karra noted that the Citadel will be headed up by a central advisory committee which will be responsible for overseeing the general trajectory of the project. Below them is a group of project leaders who will be responsible for mentoring people interested in learning more about the BSV blockchain.
India is the perfect fit for a new BSV Blockchain Citadel
Managing Director of the BSV Blockchain Association Patrick Prinz noted that India is a perfect fit for a new Citadel development as the country has evolved rapidly in recent years to adopt new technology.
Prinz added that India not only has the necessary technical talent but also thought leadership, with the country poised to move away from offering support solutions to Western companies. ‘It’s not a surprise that people in Silicon Valley know that a lot of success has been built by Indian talent and coding skills.’
Prinz said the BSV blockchain is also set to benefit from further outreach in India.
‘At the end of the day, we are looking at a new technology here. Technology is always about efficiency, making it cheaper to transact, and offering more throughput, robustness and security structure. That is the mandate of the Association.’
‘We have a technology that needs to be explored to find its full potential.’
In a subsequent panel discussion with Rajat Sethi (serial entrepreneur and author), Prinz noted that the BSV Blockchain Association also has a role to play from a regulatory point of view. He added that BSV is pro-regulation and that there has been an incorrect narrative being perpetuated that it is a decentralised system or anti-government.
BSV Citadel projects
Prinz was followed by Rohan Sharan, Founder of TimeChain Labs, who detailed the various projects that the Citadel will help oversee. These include:
- Developer tools;
- IPV6, IoT and blockchain research;
- Nurturing BSV developers;
- BSV education for start-ups;
- Industry and academic collaborations;
- Hackathons and public outreach;
- Meet-ups and public talks;
- Internships and projects.
This forms part of a broader objective of connecting Indian BSV enthusiasts and entrepreneurs with the larger Indian blockchain community and growing its core base, Sharan said.