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Description
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance Virtual Meetup - October 2021
Nick Kritikos - Baseline Protocol Progress, Adoption, and the Bridge to DeFi
Nick Kritikos leads Global Business Development for ConsenSys having recently joined the private venture production studio from Microsoft where he led the US Microsoft Technology Centers as National Director since 2014. During his tenure the MTCs tripled their revenue and customer impact while expanding engagement responsibilities and improving execution quality. Prior to joining Microsoft, Nick spent 18 years at Oracle, where he rose from business development and field sales roles to Vice President of Worldwide Alliances and Channels.
B
And
prior
to
that,
I
was
at
oracle
for
18
years,
and
I
I'd
like
to
joke
and
say
that
I
used
to
try
to
centralize
everything
and
now
I'm
trying
to
fix
that.
So
I
do
not
have
any
prepared
slides.
However,
I
do
have
quite
a
bit
of
material
to
cover
in
terms
of
the
baseline
protocol,
its
adoption,
what
we're
seeing
in
terms
of
trends
things
of
that
nature.
B
I
want
to
talk
a
little
bit
about
base
ledger
and
and
how
that's
kind
of
starting
to
evolve
and
how
we're
seeing
it
being
used
and
then
kind
of
wrap
up
a
little
bit
with
what
we're
starting
to
see
from
a
patterns
perspective
with
respect
to
the
baseline
protocol
and
some
of
these
recurring
use
cases
and
kind
of
adjacent
spaces
starting
to
leverage
the
value
of
the
baseline
protocol.
So
let
me
go
back
and
kind
of
level
set.
B
B
That's
the
landing
page
gets
you
access
to
the
docs
and
the
github
repo
and
all
that
kind
of
stuff,
but
the
baseline
protocol
itself
is
an
open
source
and
public
domain
standard
for
enabling
companies
to
to
synchronize
systems
of
record
using
blockchain
technology.
B
The
reality
is
the
design
pattern
uses
up
many
other
technologies
as
well
point-to-point
messaging,
zero-knowledge
proofs
and
also
happens
to
use
some
blockchain.
B
The
specification
does
not
dictate
which
blockchain
to
use,
but,
as
you
start
to
get
in
and-
and
you
know,
follow
the
dogma,
if
you
will
of
synchronizing
these
systems,
the
whole
goal
is
to
to
mitigate
silos
of
information
and,
ultimately
to
create
the
last
silo,
if
you
will,
on
a
public
network,
ethereum
being
the
best
option
at
this
point
in
time.
B
For
many
many
many
reasons
you
can
implement
the
baseline
protocol
today,
with
with
any
like,
I
mentioned
any
blockchain
technology,
multiple
messaging
technologies,
et
cetera,
you
can
deploy
it
in
either
a
private
or
a
public
network.
You
know
the
one
of
the
benefits
of
doing
it
in
a
private
network
without
starting
in
the
public
is
that
the
baseline
protocol
itself
does
not
put
any
data
on
the
blockchain.
B
It
just
puts
essentially
proofs
that
the
data
is
in
sync.
So
if
you
start
on
a
private
permission
network
exploring
the
baseline
protocol-
and
you
want
to
move
and
get
all
the
security
and
benefits
of
the
public
network,
it's
actually
a
relatively
easy
move
without
having
to
worry
about
kind
of
exposing
additional
data.
B
So
that's
one
of
the
huge
benefits
now
the
baseline
protocol
has
been
out
and
around
for
almost
three
years
since
its
public
launch
consensus
in
conjunction
with
microsoft
and
eui,
it's
been
lots
of
adoption
and
lots
of
work
have
gone
into
it.
The
version
one
of
the
specification
was
published
back
toward
the
end
of
september
and
is
now
being
ratified.
B
We
recently
brought
on
a
new
operations
manager,
sonal,
patel
and
she's,
been
doing
a
fantastic
job
at
kind
of
organizing
the
core,
devs
and
there's
new
energy
in
the
core.
Devs
last
count
I
saw
a
couple
weeks
ago
is
over
30
active
core
devs
working
on
various
aspects
of
the
specification
and
improving
the
libraries
and
things
of
that
nature.
B
Today,
they're
actually
announcing
the
new
technical
steering
committee,
the
vote's
been
open
for
a
couple
weeks,
so
we'll
see
what
that
brings
us
they're,
actually
announcing
it
concurrently
with
this
so
we'll
find
out.
Who
is
on
that?
B
If
you've
been
following
the
the
public
news
and
if
you
want
to
put
questions
in
chat
as
I
go
along,
feel
free
I'll,
try
to
watch
those
if
you've
been
following
the
public
news,
kona
coke
one,
north
america,
servicenow
and
other
large
companies
are
starting
to
to
implement
the
baseline
protocol.
B
Kona
is
actually
going
into
production
with
their
first
12
bottlers
12
of
68
bottlers
in
north
america
servicenow,
and
that's
for
essentially
synchronizing
the
bottling
process
and
the
purchase
of
raw
materials
that
go
into
producing
the
coca-cola
product
line
and
distributing
that
out
to
suppliers.
B
Servicenow
is
actually
implementing
the
baseline
protocol
to
allow
their
customers
to
synchronize
service
contracts
across
different
instances
of
service
now.
So
it's
kind
of
an
interesting
use
case
in
that
they're,
using
the
baseline
protocol
to
synchronize
systems,
effectively
internal
to
their
own
environment,
but
doing
it
in
a
way
that
still
maintains
kind
of
the
separation
of
information
in
the
clear
delineation
of
different
entities
so
that
there
is
less
concern
about
mixing
data
or,
or
you
know,
data
leakage
and
privacy
and
things
of
that
nature.
B
So
we're
also
seeing
the
adoption
in
in
with
respect
to
the
the
specification
committee,
I
should
have
should
tip
my
hat
to
anisso
frank
who's.
Part
of
the
london
eea,
community
and
andreas
freund
who's
been
a
big
fan
of
the
space
for
a
long
time.
They
really
led
the
effort,
and
I
think,
if
you
read
that
specification
you'll
see
it
sets
a
very
high
bar
for
how
we
should
be
documenting
and
and
delivering
on
decentralized
system
standards.
So
but
it
wasn't
just
them.
B
It
was
a
team
of
people
that
participated
in
that,
including
representatives
from
sap,
splunk,
microsoft,
dui
and
others,
and
that's
kind
of
a
leading
indicator
of
what
other
companies
are
doing
and
leaning
into
the
baseline
protocol.
B
There
is
now
a
deal
flow
process
in
the
baseline
community,
so
if
you're
part
of
the
baseline
community
and
a
sponsor
as
net
new
opportunities
come
in
or
companies
raise
their
hand
to
learn
more.
The
technical
steering
committee,
led
by
john
walpert,
is
doing
a
great
job
at
dispositioning,
those
to
the
appropriate
partners
in
the
community
and
making
sure
that
the
connections
are
made
and
that
there
is
no
kind
of
impedance
mismatch
or
anything
like
that.
B
It's
been
really
fun
to
watch
quite
frankly
and
and
to
see
this
community
grow
and
the
number
of
members
and
the
activity,
and
it's
beautiful
one
of
the
things
that
we're
seeing
with
respect
to
you
know
you
define
a
workflow
in
work
groups
and
then,
through
these
workflow
and
work
groups,
information
and
data
is
exchanged
and
synchronized,
and
what
we're
finding
through
our
work
with
kona
and
servicenow
and
others
is
that
you
know
oftentimes
there's
many
many
many
many
steps
in
a
workflow,
and
that
requires
many
many
many
touches
of
the
blockchain
for
posting
your
hashes.
B
Depending
on
how
many
steps
there
are
and
kind
of
what
data
you're
sinking
and,
of
course,
with
the
current
state
of
ethereum,
you
know
that
a
little
bit
of
traffic
congestion,
if
you
will,
which
is
great
good,
the
people
are
using
it
the
cost
of
gas
fees.
B
Enterprises
are
challenged
by
that,
of
course,
because
you
know
they,
they
need
some
stability,
the
ability
to
forecast
their
cost,
and,
quite
frankly,
many
of
them
are
still
a
little
bit
leery
of
touching
crypto
directly.
B
So
the
community
has
started
to
identify
this
need
and
is
starting
to
roll
out
and
test
a
new
layer
to
option
called
base
ledger,
and
this
is
effectively,
as
I
mentioned,
a
layer
two
that
allows
you
to
put
these
intermediate
steps
of
a
workflow
into
a
blockchain
that
uses
fiat
for
transaction
fees.
B
Yet
node
operators
can
still
be
paid
in
ubt,
the
universal
business
token
for
crypto,
you
know,
speeds
are
higher,
obviously,
transaction
costs
are
lower,
but
the
exit
states
of
those
workflow
steps
or
those
workflow
actions
are
ultimately
anchored
back
to
the
ethereum
blockchain
using
zero
knowledge,
and
all
of
that,
so
you
get
the
security.
You
get
the
look-up
capabilities,
and
all
of
that
you
don't
necessarily
have
to
go
all
the
way
back
to
the
root
state.
B
What
else
is
coming
on
there?
I
mentioned
the
fact
that
the
base
ledger
has
fixed
transaction
costs
paid
for
in
fiat.
It's
still
in
development.
B
So
if
you
want
to
get
involved,
jump
over
to
the
base
baseline
community
and
get
going,
but
also
what
we're
seeing
over
and
over
again
as
we
look
through
like
trade,
finance
or
service
contracts
or
some
of
the
other
real
world
assets,
is
that
the
baseline
protocol
is
becoming
more
and
more
important
for
creating
high
quality
digital
assets,
whether
these
assets
are
nfts
invoices,
land
titles,
what
have
you
purchase?
Orders
the
whole
nine
yards.
B
B
As
a
matter
of
fact,
kona
expects
to
save
40
million
dollars
a
year
on
their
bottling
process
just
on
the
processing
in
the
the
reduction
of
errors
in
their
invoices,
and
they
do
about
900
million
dollars
a
year
in
invoicing
amongst
their
68
bottlers
and
they're,
going
to
cut
like
I
mentioned,
40
million
out
just
by
using
the
baseline
protocol.
B
B
That
uses
zero
knowledge
to
lock
the
original
kind
of
in
a
secure
vault,
and
then
the
children
nfts,
if
you
will,
can
track
their
provenance
all
the
way
back
to
that
original
prove
that
it
is
a
copy
of
the
original
without
being
the
original
and
even
flow
royalties
back
all
the
way
through
that
that
chain
of
provenance
all
the
way
back
to
the
original
token
holder.
So
there's
a
lot
of
interest
in
that,
as
you
can
imagine,
with
the
nft
space
being
so
hot.
B
So
another
thing
to
check
out
other
places,
we're
seeing
real
world
assets,
kind
of
being
impacted
by
baseline-
and
I
mentioned
this
before,
of
course-
are
invoices
in
real
estate
you're,
starting
to
see
companies
seeking
to
baseline
their
assets,
so
they
can
get
them
into
asset
pools
like
the
ave
pool
or
maker,
dow
or
centrifuge,
and
do
it
with
a
high
quality
of
documentation,
but
without
necessarily
shipping
a
lot
of
documentation
around
being
able
to
do
it
in
a
more
programmatic
fashion
and
ultimately,
a
much
more
efficient
and
lower
cost
way.
B
So
you'll
hear
more
about
this
in
the
coming
months.
I
have
reason
to
believe
that
there
will
be
a
new
company
launch
before
the
end
of
the
year.
That
will
will
help,
drive
and
focus
on
this.
I
happen
to
be
a
part
of
that
company,
so
we'll
talk
more
about
it,
hopefully
in
the
future.
With
that
said,
I've
been
kind
of
prambling
on
here
for
a
while.
Chris
do
you
have
any
questions,
or
what
do
you
think?
I.
A
Think
it's
very
good.
I
always
enjoy
hearing
about
baseline,
pretty
cool
and
and
related
because
it
brings
the
real
world
to
the
blockchain
as
far
as
I'm
concerned-
and
I
don't
see
any
questions
in
the
chat,
but
I
I
could
ask
a
few
if
you
don't
mind:
yeah
fire
away,
yeah
cool,
so
starting
with
bass,
ledger
and-
and
you
described
me
as
a
layer.
Two
would
you?
How
would
you
compare
that
to
other
layer
twos
that
we
see,
after
like
optimism,
arbitrage
and
so
on.
B
The
first
is
this
is
almost
specifically
for
baseline
protocol
proofs
right,
so
it's
optimized
for
that.
The
zero
knowledge
happens
off
chain
and
then
the
proofs
land
on
chain.
The
other
is
that
the
transactions
are
paid
for
in
fiat.
They
have
very
low
transaction
fees
and
you
pay
for
them
with.
You
know
old
money,
not
the
new
magic
internet
money
that
many
enterprises
have
a
very
hard
time
dealing
with.
B
So
we
believe
that
this
will
help
adoption
of
the
baseline
protocol
within
the
enterprise
they'll
be
able
to
leverage
the
base
ledger.
You
know,
node
operators
that
that
want
to
participate
can
do
so
again
in
return
for,
like
validation
and
staking
rewards,
so
it
kind
of
leverages
both
sides.
If
you
will
right
if
you're,
you're,
blockchain
and
crypto
savvy,
you
could
certainly
go
that
way.
The
ubt
coin
is
an
erc20.
B
B
A
We
have
a
question
in
chat
from
foxcryptoboss
he's
asking
or
she
is
asking
which
companies
are
using
baseline
in
production,
workflows,
kona.
B
Has
started
to
go
into
production,
I
mentioned
the
the
kona
product.
Our
project
is
seeking
to
baseline
their
68
bottlers
in
north
america
first
and
then
more
as
time
rolls
on
as
they
expand
the
globe.
If
you
will,
I
don't
know
if
you're
familiar
with
kona
coke
one
north
america
is
the
I.t
services
arm
of
the
bottlers
in
north
america,
coke
and
their
bottlers
got
together
many
years
ago
and
decided
it
would
be
much
more
efficient
if
they
had
a
central
iit
group.
B
The
first
and
they're
they're
rolling
this
out
in
batches
kind
of
12
bottlers
at
a
time
in
the
first
12
bottlers,
including
their
largest,
are
starting
to
roll
this
out
into
production
now,
specifically
for
the
optimization
of
their
their
bottling
process
and
their
invoice
flow
right.
So
I'm
coke.
I
licensed
my
recipe
to
coca-cola
united
who's,
their
biggest
bottler
in
north
america,
coca-cola
united
has
suppliers
for
glass
and
cans,
and
you
know
fizzy
water
and
sugar
and
colors,
and
all
of
that
right
and
keep
in
mind
it's
not
just
a
single
coke.
B
It's
their
entire
product
line,
so
there's
a
lot
of
transactions
that
go
back
and
forth
between
you
know
the
downstream
suppliers,
the
the
bottler
themselves,
as
well
as
the
distributors
as
the
product
is
going
out
today
that
process
it
takes
quite
a
bit
of
time,
even
though
it's
all
done
fairly
digitally,
there's
a
lot
of
chasing
and
following
up
and
confirmation
of
data
and
values,
and
all
of
that
so
by
simply
using
the
baseline
protocol
they're
able
to
squeeze
that
cost
out
of
the
process
and
that's
how
they're
going
to
save
40
million
dollars
a
year.
B
In
addition
to
that,
now
that
they've
got
these
high
quality
invoices
and
they're
verified
by
all
the
counterparties.
It
opens
up
kind
of
new
opportunities
for
them
to
finance
them.
Whether
you
do
fireside
supply
financing
or
you
know
any
of
the
different
kind
of
financing
capabilities
that
are
out
there.
B
The
higher
quality
assets
are
generally
producing
smaller
discounts
right.
Your
loans
have
lower
interest
rates
if
you
will
and
because
you're
you're,
if
you're,
effectively
financing
an
invoice
from
one
of
these
downstream
suppliers
and
through
the
baseline
protocol,
you
can
demonstrate
it's
actually
coke's
business
right.
That
downstream
supplier
kind
of
gains
benefit
of
coke's
reputation,
and
you
know
the
value
that
they're
bringing
right.
So
it's
awesome
quite
frankly
and
we're
starting
to
we
hope
to
start
processing
the
first
invoices
with
kona
by
the
end
of
the
year
very
good.
A
B
Yeah,
so
what
we're
seeing
is
the
the
typical
consulting
answer.
It
depends
for
some
use
cases,
it's
very
complementary
for
other
use
cases,
it's
it's
very
competitive
if
you're
doing
traditional
kind
of
business
process
management,
a
lot
of
those
integrations
happen
within
a
company
and
you
don't
necessarily
need
a
blockchain
to
help
you
with
that.
B
However,
in
the
modern
times
you
know,
you're
doing
more
and
more
process
integration
across
company
and
even
across
country
right,
so
us
to
europe-
or
you
know,
to
asia,
pacific
and
each
of
these
geographies
have
very
strict
data
sovereignty,
rules
and
things
of
that
nature
right.
So
it
becomes
very
tricky
to
coordinate
between
company
countries
or
entities
they're
in
different
geographies.
B
However,
the
baseline
protocol
really
allows
them
to
do
that
because
you're,
not
shipping
data
you're,
not
posting
data,
you're
you're,
confirming
that
it's
in
sync
and
you're
posting
the
confirmation
of
that.
So
it's
somewhat
kind
of
arm's
length
from
the
actual
data
itself.
So
in
those
scenarios
you
know
it's
very
complementary
right.
You
could
use
something
like
an
mq
series
internally
or
even
just
an
oracle
database
internally
to
manage
your
cues
and
and
do
your
flows,
but,
as
you
start
to
to
you,
know,
integrate
with
other
business
partners
in
other
geographies.
B
The
baseline
protocol
is
very
complementary
to
that
yeah.
The
last
thing
I
would
say,
while
we're
waiting
for
questions,
is
that
the
baseline
protocol
community
is
an
open
community.
Anyone
is
welcome
to
join.
You
know
they,
depending
on
who
you
work,
for
they
will
always
hit
you
up
for
sponsorship.
It's
it's
run
through
the
oasis
organization,
which
is
a
venerable
standards
body.
However,
you
can
ignore
that
and
still
participate
in
the
community.
All
you
like.
B
In
order
to
vote,
you
need
to
contribute,
so
you
know
get
involved
through
github,
even
if
it's
just
correcting
typos
and
grammatical
errors.
Things
like
that
that
earns
you
your
voting
badge,
so
to
speak
at
some
point,
they're
likely
to
make
that
an
nft.
So,
hang
on
to
your
hat
with
that
regard,
and
like
I
mentioned
they
just
elected
the
new
slate
of
tsc
members
today,
so
I'm
missing
that
announcement
to
be
here
with
you
all.