Blockchain Insights With Entrepreneur Erica Stanford, Crypto Curry Club founder

Blockchain Insights With Entrepreneur Erica Stanford, Crypto Curry Club founder

What is your background?

I have an MA in Economics from University of Edinburgh and I worked in sales and marketing strategy for 8 years – this actually proved to be very useful to know how not to sell, and has helped make the events go viral.

I got into crypto in 2017 – started investing and was very interested in the potential of crypto and blockchain. I’d spent a lot of time travelling in Asia and South America, and so was familiar with some of the problems of sending and receiving money in areas where there was no traditional banking. I’d spent a month in Guatemala around 10 years ago, where I’d been mugged 3 or 4 times and had my last card stolen. I’d had to walk several miles to the nearest Western Union, call my dad in the UK, wait several days for the money to arrive, and that cost 14%.

Remittance companies around world extort the poorest people around the world, charging up to 30% and an average of 6.9% to the 2.5 billion people around the world that don’t have access to banking. When I could see that with crypto and using blockchain one can send even micro amounts for free, I could see the potential for how powerful this technology would become, and spent a lot of time researching all about it.

What are you doing now?

I am running the Crypto Curry Club – now rated as the best and most popular networking events in blockchain and emerging tech, they are networking and educational events as well as custom made and private workshops on blockchain, crypto, and emerging tech, in London, Bristol, Oxford and now starting in Cambridge, Birmingham and Bath. I am also working on a book on use cases of blockchain featuring many of the biggest companies using crypto and blockchain

Why did you get involved with Curry Club?

I started the Crypto Curry Club in Oct 2018 with the intention of creating one good event to bring together the London blockchain community, after going to all of the networking events, talks, meetups on blockchain in London and realised there weren’t any good ones, most were either organised by used car salesmen in suits charging speakers to speak, and their ‘free informational events’ were actually just sitting in rows listening to boring sales pitches and a very difficult format to actually meet anyone new, or were very technical, and not focused on relationship building.

I realised that not many people actually knew each other, there wasn’t much of a community. I didn’t realise at the time how popular the Crypto curry events would become.

The first one, people stayed until late in the evening from a 1pm start and many said it was the best networking event they’d ever been to. Within a few months, I had heads of tech from many of the largest enterprises and tech companies and many senior figures, founders of a lot of the most exciting startups and companies coming.

Why do you think it is such a powerful idea?

The Crypto Curries seem to work well due to industry-leading speakers, great people at every event, everyone is a senior figure in their field, no selling, talks focused on content rather than any agenda, highly curated groups so lots of interesting people to meet, lots of introductions made, and friendly, informal atmospheres.

Why blockchain is so central to increasing accountability and ensuring sustainability in tech companies?

Blockchain adds a new layer of trust, means that any data added can be added to, but not undone or changed, anyone in the network can see that data, so can know at all times who is responsible for the last action. This brings in a new level of accountability for all actions and all stages in supply chain.

What are some of the most exciting tech and blockchain initiatives out there for sustainability?

Plastic Bank- dealing with waste plastic, rewarding people to collect it, and selling recycled plastic, that is recorded on blockchain, to clothing and sports brands

Crypto Cycle- digital rewards for recycling plastic bottles

Oracle World Bees Project- uses blockchain and IOT sound tracking to track honey, protect bees and ensure the authenticity of honey, as a large amount of the honey that is sold isn’t actually pure honey, or is adultered

What type of people come to the events / what do they find useful about them?

Founders of tech and blockchain startups and scaleups, CTOs, heads of tech and innovation in enterprises, partners of law firms, service providers, developers, published authors, media, PhDs researching trends in tech, investors and VCs, senior management and C-suite from banks and payment processors, some crypto companies- a good mix

Find useful personalised introductions, the chance to meet a room full of relevant senior people, interesting content, debates and discussions, relationships built from the people they get to know there in relaxed environments

Launching new content-driven educational events in evenings in various cities around the UK- starting in Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, Cambridge, Oxford

Also doing customised talks, seminars, roundtables and workshops for companies – for their senior management, staff and clients.

How can people find out more about you & your work?

ccc.events- site currently a work in progress
best to email [email protected]

Thanks for everyone who came to the Crypto Curry Club today during London's busiest Tech Week! Such a fun day, thanks to @LewisSilkin for supporting. Such a good day of #blockchain #networking. #cryptocurry #londonblockchain #blockchainnetworking. Next Curry 9th July pic.twitter.com/U1j8KdzNzz

— Erica Stanford (@CryptoCurryClub) June 11, 2019

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