The Saga of the Government Blockchain Association
By on Saturday, July 25th, 2020
Features in QESP Newsletter
Volume , Issue - ISSN 1325-2070
In June I was asked to step up as organizer of the Government Blockchain Association – Sydney Chapter as the previous organizer has stepped down. Government Blockchain Association – Sydney Chapter is a large Group, many of whose members are also members of other Blockchain Groups.
I wrote to the organisers of some of those other Groups, asking if they had any contacts in the Government Blockchain Association – Sydney Chapter. I got a response from David Auton, david.auton@morpheusanalytics.com, saying
“That’s an interesting development. We aren’t actually familiar with the Government Blockchain Association but would be more than happy to provide introductions to people in the Australian blockchain community if it would be of assistance.
We would definitely be interested in knowing more about what the Government Blockchain Association covers.”
I replied, saying “I think there is an opportunity here for the Government Blockchain Association (GBA) to provide job opportunities, not just locally but globally.
I then quoted from the GBA website:
“The Government Blockchain Association (GBA) is an international nonprofit professional association with its headquarters located in Fairfax, Virginia. GBA focuses on its members as individuals and organizations that are interested in promoting blockchain technology solutions to government, but does not advocate for any specific policy position.”
“GBA cultivates professional work flows between technologists, public policy makers, application specialists, and those who want to learn about the new and emerging digital currencies. Furthermore, GBA acts as a catalyst in creating a public dialogue around the creative, profitable, and positive leveraging of blockchain technology.”
I also said ”The above quotes are from the GBA Global website and I am cc’ing this email to GBA’s Executive Director Gerard Daché, who has asked for “questions or thoughts about the advantages and increasing opportunities by joining GBA.”
This has resulted in ongoing correspondence between Morpheus and GBA Global. I had also been looking at whether there were any GBA Meetup Groups. I asked Gerard, who replied “Not all GBA Chapters have meetup groups. Here is a list of GBA Chapters.
And, here are our working groups
www.gbaglobal.org/working-groups/”
Following up on the local GBA Meetup Groups has provided a number of contacts:
Microsoft to distribute $20M in grants to nonprofits, offers free skills training via LinkedIn
Australian Space Industry Start-up Company (ASISC)
https://smartsatcrc.com/about/participate/
“SmartSat is in the process of establishing a separate company, to represent the start-up community and allowing them to come together and participate as a collective Core Partner, within in the SmartSat CRC.
This entity, currently referred to as the Australian Space Industry Start-up Company (ASISC), will be an incorporated entity, have its own Board of Directors, and will provide benefits to its “members” from a number of initiatives to support their growth and development by providing;
- Mentoring by more experienced industry executives, and support for start-up managers to gain valuable board experience by participating on the board of an incorporated entity;
- Opportunities to sit on the SmartSat CRC Industry Advisory Board;
- Various education, training and networking events; and
- Opportunities to participate in, and inform, SmartSat CRC projects and activities.
SmartSat is in the early stages of establishing ASISC, and will take the opportunity to develop a clear value proposition over the next 12 months. SmartSat are offering interested parties the opportunity to ‘join’ ASISC on an obligation free basis (i.e. $0) for this period. After this time they will have the opportunity to consider fully the opportunities ASISC provides, including any formal membership structure and associated benefits. Joining ASISC will enable all start-up organisations to participate in the SmartSat ecosystem.
For further information please contact:
Dr Tim Parsons
Chair – Start Up Cluster Steering Committee
CEO – DeltaV
Australian NewSpace Alliance
M +61 417 463 972
tim@deltavspacehub.com
www.deltavspacehub.com”
New satellites to boost Australia’s national security capability
By APDR 07/07/2020
“Australian-based company LatConnect 60 announced Tuesday (7 July) a global space partnership to build and deploy a smart satellite constellation over Australian skies to help the Australian government and commercial clients monitor and protect their interests in the region.“
“LatConnect 60 Founder and CEO, Venkat Pillay said: “The reality is until now Australia has had to rely on overseas providers for access to critical earth observation data. COVID-19, coupled with rising global tensions, has made governments and companies take a closer look at the technologies they need and who they can rely on to provide those technologies in a crisis. Australia is too reliant on overseas companies for observation data and that data is not exclusive or secure.” LatConnect 60 also announced a new security partnership with ProximaX, who will use a combination of two-layer encryption, de-centralised storage and blockchain technology to encrypt and secure all data captured by LatConnect 60 satellites to ensure it is resilient to attack. “
“LatConnect 60 has chosen to set up its headquarters in Perth, while it is also plugged into the growing South Australian space ecosystem and is a start-up member of the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre based in Adelaide. “We have based our headquarters in Perth to take advantage of the space innovation hub which is coming to life thanks to the WA government’s recent investment and leadership in developing these technologies which will provide the jobs of the future,” Pillay said.”
“LatConnect 60 is collaborating with satellite partner York Space Systems and Perth’s Curtin University, which will develop local capability in WA. Professors Ba-Ngu Vo and Ba Tuong Vo, from the Intelligent Sensing and Perception (ISP) Group at Curtin University, have been selected as the main research partners with LatConnect 60: “The ISP Group is developing new algorithms to exploit rapid advances in AI, IoT and embedded systems, which are expected to underpin the signal processing and data analytics onboard the new satellites,” said Ba-Ngu Vo.
LatConnect 60 has ambitious plans to cement Australia’s position as a major player in the growing space economy, initially supplying its services to Australian clients before expanding across the region and the globe as it scales up its satellite constellation and product applications. Founded by Venkat Pillay and Rueben Rajasingam, the leadership team at LatConnect 60 brings with it an impressive track record, having worked with the likes of NASA, the Canadian and European space programs, CSIRO and BHP Billiton.”
(QESP Editor’s Note: The following link gives a July 2020 overview from Communications of the ACM)
Some Simple Economics of the Blockchain
By Christian Catalini, Joshua S. Gans
Communications of the ACM, July 2020, Vol. 63 No. 7, Pages 80-90
10.1145/3359552
“Key Insights
https://dl.acm.org/cms/attachment/211039ab-7826-4c33-b907-6669319f324c/ins01.gif ”
https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2020/7/245703-some-simple-economics-of-the-blockchain/fulltext