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From YouTube: Han, Founder of Otonomos // An Ethereum Interview Series
Description
An interview with Han, Founder and CEO of Otonomos, to discuss what Ethereum is, how it will affect corporate governance, and the role Otonomos will play in bringing the blockchain to corporate governance. This series focuses on trying to explain Ethereum to a non-technical audience.
A
Started
my
career
in
an
investment
bank,
first
sort
of
part
of
my
career
came
out
2001
just
before
the
dot-com
sort
of
happened,
so
I'm
a
bit
older
than
you
guys,
I,
guess,
and
so
did
my
first
venture
in
UK
sold
at
2004
second
exit
2008
when
I
was
able
to
sell,
found
the
shares
of
my
company
Lehman
Brothers
just
before
they
collapse.
That
was
just
pure
luck
and
then
I
was
kind
of
okay.
Whilst
I
witnessed
this
whole
financial
crisis
unfolding
all
right,
which
was
rather
traumatic.
A
If
you
come
from
Wall
Street,
it
really
makes
you
think
something
is
seriously
wrong
here,
right
with
this
heavily
intermediated
centralized
sort
of
financial
system.
So
it
took
me
while
I
took
my
time,
nothing
was
happening.
Everyone
was
sitting
on
their
hands
sort
of
post,
2008,
right
and
I
did
all
the
things
one
does
when
one
has
an
exit
so
sail
around
the
world.
You
know
that
sort
of
thing
and
only
what
a
couple
of
years
ago
did
I
get
involved
with
the
crypto
community,
no
Bitcoin
meetups,
then
the
early
he
theory
meetups.
A
You
know
like
in
San
Francisco
when
Metallica
came
to
speak,
it
was
like
20
people
that
was
it
that
was
2014
still
oh
right
and
so
I
got
involved
and
that's
how
the
idea
came.
But,
okay,
if
you,
if
you
look
at
add
value
in
the
world,
where
is
value
in
the
world
residing,
you
would
think
it's
residing
in
coins
and
notes
which
you
know
it
is
partially
but
most
of
the
stuff
is
actually
wrapped
in
a
legal
container
called
the
private
limited
company.
A
It's
not
the
sum
total
of
listed
companies,
you
would
think
is
the
sum
total
of
the
market
capital,
the
New
York
Stock
Exchange,
a
Shanghai,
Stock,
Exchange
and
so
on.
Actually,
that's
only
a
fraction
of
the
overall
value
in
the
world,
for
instance,
this
building
I
bet
is
wrapped
in
a
private
limited
company
that
building
over
there
is
wrapped
in
a
private
limited
company.
The
airplane
you
flew
in
when
you
came
in
from
Berlin
is
wrapped
in
a
limited
company,
so
we
kind
of
did
a
back
of
envelope.
A
Calculation
85%
of
the
world's
value
is
wrapped
in
a
limited
company,
but
guess
what
we're
still
using?
Very
medieval
processes
to
work
with
these
limited
companies.
We
use
paper
it's
paper
and
paper
and
more
papers,
big
paper
mills,
so
we're
basically
using
stuff
like
seals.
Even
still
I
bet
in
Germany
they're
still
documents
that
have
like
a
sort
of
a
seal,
wax
type
thing
that
goes
back
to
the
Pope's
right
with
a
pope
with
his
ring
was
sort
of
printing
his
seal
on
a
wax.
A
You
know
piece
on
a
paper,
so
I
think
the
the
insight
that
I
gained
from
hanging
around
the
etherium
communities
as
a
business
guy,
not
as
a
coder
right
was
hey.
Surely
we
can
use
this
now
for
the
first
time
to
rip
out
all
of
this
analog
friction
and
this
legal
entropy,
that's
just
crazy
and
and
just
replace
all
these
wet
signatures
with
with
the
private
key
right
and
when
you
do
that,
what
you
actually
can
do
is
you
can
represent.
Private
company
shares
all
right.
A
All
this
blockchain,
you
get
a
wallet,
you
get
a
wallet,
you
every
shareholder
gets
a
wallet
or
anybody
involved
with
a
company
gets
about
it,
and
then
you
link
that
to
the
identity
of
the
shareholder
or
the
director
you
let
them
do
everything
they
need
to
do
in
that
company
with
that
private
key,
and
it's
a
bit
like
again
when
you
explain
it
to
laymen
you
kind
of
go
to
analogies
like
the
mp3.
So
there
was
a
time
when
you
wanted
to
listen
to
music.
A
You
had
to
bring
in
the
whole
orchestra
right
in
Mozart's
time.
Yeah
just
get
the
whole
thing
in
seven
set
up
and
play
the
cello
in
the
piano
whatever,
then
you
know
the
the
black
vinyl
was
invented,
and
while
we
could
reproduce
music
just
like
putting
the
disc
there,
then
the
CD
came
now.
I
bet
you
not
longer
using
CDs
using
all
your
music
sits
as
an
mp3
file.
So
what
you
do
is
by
digitizing
company
shares.
You
also
make
them
a
lot
more
easy
to
transfer
you
make
them
cross-border.
A
So
you
start
opening
up
what
used
to
be
I'm
a
Dutch
company
in
Amsterdam,
with
Dutch
investors
documented
by
Dutch
law
into
I'm,
I'm
I'm,
a
project
I
want
to
raise
funds
from
people
all
around
the
world,
I
give
each
of
them
who
invests
or
participate
a
share
wallet
on
aetherium.
So
you
see
how
this
digitization
will
help
I
think
you
know
do
great
things
really
get
projects
that
we
all
believe
in
get
it
funded
without
that
sort
of
geographical
restriction
that
we.
A
To
you
know
your
parents,
my
parents
and
friends
who
are
not
in
the
crypto
space,
so
I
think
one
has
to
call
it
a
database,
but
one
has
to
call
it
a
special
type
of
database
where
basically
there's
no
central
admin
rights,
but
that
the
database
essentially
is
I,
call
it
horizontal
when
I
explain
it
to
laypeople
right
instead
of
a
sort
of
a
centralized
silo
with
admin
rights
that
give
you
access
to
it.
Where
you
can
then
also
change
data.
A
If
you
wanted
to
be
malicious
about
it,
it's
it's
it's
horizontally
on
everybody's
computer
and
it's
sequential
in
the
sense
that
what
it's
all
about
is
that
the
transactions
on
the
database
move
in
an
irreversible
sequence
and
because
there
is
no
central
access
right.
It's
also
tamper
proof,
so
those
are
kind
of
the
characters
that
I
typically
highlight
so
the
way
I
see
it
is
that
that
there
used
to
be
a
way
of
having
trust
amongst
participants
in
a
certain
system
as
a
result
of
physical
proximity.
A
So
the
example
that
comes
to
mind
is
that
there's
the
level
of
direct
democracy
in
some
Swiss
villages,
which
is
still
kind
of
praised
as
a
model
for
direct
democracy.
Now
the
reason
why
you
can
achieve
that
is
because
you
have
a
sort
of
a
close
communion,
a
close
physical
space
that
can
vote
on
for
instance,
resolution
they
all
go
to
the
market
to
the
town
square
and
they
vote.
What
what
blockchain
allows
you
to
do?
Is
that
scale
that
horizontally?
A
And
so
you
can
replicate
that
same
sort
of
trust
that
you
find
in
in
closed
communities,
but
you
can
replicate
it
by
having
participants
who
are
distributed
all
over
the
globe,
for
instance
in
the
company
setting,
which
is
what
we're
doing
at
a
Thomas.
You
can
effectively
have
shareholders
who
have
wallets
all
over
the
globe
invested
in
your
company
vote
on
a
resolution
in
your
company,
knowing
that
the
private
key
that
they're
gonna
be
using
is
effectively
linked
to
their
identity
and
their
holding
of
shares
in
your
company.
A
A
As
a
result,
there
is
really
no
need
to
make
that
blockchain
that
powers,
the
rails
that
allow
that
peer-to-peer
transfer
to
make
that
smart
in
any
way.
You
just
want
the
physical,
the
the
digital
cash
to
move.
You
know
from
A
to
B.
However,
you
wanna
achieve
more
than
just
that
right,
then
you
have
to
work
with
the
smart
contract
functionality
on
the
ethereal.
A
I
know
they're,
trying
to
engineer
with
blockchain
as
well
with
side
change
and
a
number
of
things,
but
I
do
believe
that
he
theorem
lends
itself
a
lot
better
to
do
that
sort
of
smart
transactional
work
and
functionality
that
you
wanna
achieve.
So
a
simple
example
could
be
again
sort
of
in
the
company
setting
you're
a
found
in
a
company.
You
have
taken
money
from
investors,
investors
will
typically
say
Karl.
We
want
you
to
hang
around
for
two
years.
You're
a
key
man
in
the
company
right,
very
simple.
A
So
when
that
expires,
you
basically
have
a
clock
ticking
in
the
smart
contract
that
when
it
expires,
you
can
start
transferring
out
your
shares
very
simple,
smart
contract,
but
you
can't
do
it
on
Bitcoin.
Let
me
make
one
thing
very
clear:
we
would
all
perhaps
love
to
live
in
a
world
where
you
could
just
incorporate
companies
by
issuing
tokens
at
the
digital
layer
right.
A
However,
we
still
live
in
a
world
where,
if
you
want
to
gain
adoption
right
for
your
technology,
you're
gonna
have
to
build
that
bridge
between
the
analog
world
ie,
the
paper-based
world
and
the
digital
world.
So
what
is
important
to
us
is
that
when
you
do
have
your
your
shares
sit
in
that
chair
wallet,
they
actually
linked
to
real
world
jurisdictions.
Right
Singapore
is
where
we
started:
Hong
Kong
UK
we
go
into
Cayman
Islands,
maybe
go
to
Estonia.
We
may
go
to
the
United,
States
Delaware
and
so
on.
A
You
actually
with
us
order
a
company
like
a
pizza,
I
like
to
say
fully
online
easy
and
then
once
you've
done
that
you
get
into
this
dashboard
and
you
find
your
shares
in
that
wallet
now.
Why
is
it
important?
Because
when
you
have
that
anchor
with
the
real
world
jurisdiction,
some
wrecks
will
kick
in
all
right.
Inevitably,
some
Rex
will
kick
in
now.
The
good
news
is
that
there
is
still
one
space
where
regulators
pretty
much
leave
us
to
do
whatever
we
feel
like
doing.
It's
called
a
private
company.
A
So
you
and
me
today
we
can
incorporate
a
private
company
as
long
as
we
don't
incorporate
it
for
the
purpose
of
drug
dealing
or
child
pornography.
Whatever
may
be
so
an
illicit
purpose,
we
can
agree
anything
we
feel
like
agreeing
and
the
court
infrastructure
will
very
much
respect,
at
least
in
anglo-saxon
countries.
What
you
and
I
have
agreed.
This
is
like
holy
right.
This
is
a
freely
entered
agreement
with
two
two
willing
people
right,
and
so
we
can
pretty
much
agree.
A
What
it'll
feel
like
agreeing,
not
just
the
name
of
our
company,
which
has
a
number
of
checks,
but,
for
instance,
how
we
gonna
transfer
shares.
We
can
agree
that
we
can
only
transfer
shares
by
entering
our
digital
key,
a
private
key
on
the
theorem
blockchain
Frances.
There
is
no
regulator
saying
you
can't
do
that,
so
it's
actually
rather
beautiful
that
we
still
have
at
least
one
space
or
we
can
pretty
much
do
order.
We
feel
like
doing
it.
It's
a
private
company,
so
we
don't
have
that
many
wrecks
you
know
kicking
in
for
us.
A
Here's
kind
of
where
we
feel
there
is
massive
friction
right.
If
you
look
at
the
lifecycle
of
a
company,
there
is
a
bit
of
friction
on
incorporating
getting
established,
but
then,
as
you
sort
of
graduate
in
in
life
and
your
company
at
some
point
will
need
outside
funding
right.
This
is
just
again
a
case
of
legal
entropy
with
lawyers
charging.
You
know
outrageous
fees
for
basically
replicating
templates
of
what
they've
done
in
the
past
prtscn
slot
in
your
company
name
charge
you
ten
thousand
twenty
thousand
thirty
thousand
dollars
for
it.
A
We
don't
think
that
that
is
necessary.
If
you
can
insert
blockchain
into
that,
knowing
that
in
the
processes,
the
legal
mechanics
can
be
perfectly
replicated
in
a
secure
way,
tamper
proof
way,
and
so
what
we've
done
is
we
basically
took
our
own
documentation,
for
which
we
still
had
to
pay
the
old-fashioned
lawyer
fees
as
a
result
of
our
investors,
and
we
said,
look
we're
going
to
amortize
these
now
in
this
digital
platform,
you
do
your
whole
funding
round
online
and
almost
as
a
confirmation
ticket
like
a
trade
ticket.
A
We
populate
these
big
legal
agreements
that
people
still
somehow
want
as
a
backup
to
get
legal
validity.
So
you
pay
in
our
debt.
Will
you
pay
eighty
dollars
a
month
to
subscribe
to
get
access,
but
you
get
like
thirty
thousand
dollars
worth
equal
documents,
so
we
actually
now
see
people
doing
these
funding
rounds
with
a
pretty
standard
templates,
because
these
templates
are
pretty
these.
These
these
funding
rounds
are
pretty
standardized
enter
documentation.
The
term
sheet
is
pretty
standardized.
The
shareholder
agreement
is
very
standardized
share,
subscription
agreement.
A
Without
wanting
it
to
go
to
much
detail,
it
is
pretty
much
a
standardized
process
and
when
you
want
to
tweak
it
a
little
bit,
you
can
tweak
it.
So
what
we're
not
looking
to
automate
is
the
human
aspect
of
negotiation,
so
you
go
to
an
investment
say
I
feel
my
company
is
worth
five
minute.
An
investor
says
no
I,
think
it's
four
million
and
you
figure
that
out,
but
once
you've
agreed
on
the
headline
terms,
we
make
the
whole
legal
mechanics
frictionless
and
we
insert
technology
into
that.
A
There's
extra
functionality
that
we
still
want
to
add.
For
instance,
now
this
one
we're
adding
a
smart
contract
on
the
share
option
schemes,
which
is
helpful
for
enterpreneurs
there's
two
ways
we
want
to
scale
one
is
that
yes,
geographically
we're
going
to
add
more
jurisdictions
right.
We
feel
that
there's
a
number
of
jurisdictions
with
which
are
in
demand
for
which
we
don't
cater
I,
think
the
ultimate
price
may
be
the
United
States
I
know
a
lot
of
it
in
the
crypto
community.
A
Wanna
stay
clear
of
the
United
States
we
feel
like
Delaware
is
still
a
very
important
place
for
incorporation
and
very
liquid
and
deep
domestic
market,
but
also
a
lot
of
foreign
attention
right.
So
we
may
go
to
the
United
States
after
a
round
which
is
so
the
next
next
summer,
and
we
also
want
to
make
sure
that
we
don't
build
a
product
that
only
works
for
startups
as
a
business.
Guy
I,
don't
think,
is
a
good
idea
that
you
built
a
business
that
purely
relies
on
start-up
clients
why
they
tend
to
disappear.
A
Unfortunately,
there
is
that
attrition
rate,
and
they
tend
to
be
poor
right.
They
don't
want
to
necessarily
pay
institutional
type
fees.
We
believe
that
our
technology
could
help
decease,
for
instance,
sort
of
press.
The
button
have
a
fun
set
up
and
get
your
fund
somehow
invested
by
the
limited
partners
that
typically
come
into
a
fund
and
then
deploy
the
capital
of
the
fund
toward
startups.
A
So
there
is
that
institutional
demand
that
we
want
to
fulfill,
and
so
we
want
to
be,
for
instance,
in
Cayman,
where
a
lot
of
these
VC
funds
are
set
up,
and
we
want
to
make
sure
that
we
can
get
sort
of
an
institutional
tier
to
make
everything
within
that
fund
work
on
blockchain.
So
we
have,
for
instance,
one
of
the
largest
mutual
fund
houses
in
the
United
States,
who
took
a
stake
in
our
syndrome
and
I
was
very
surprised.
A
This
is
a
very
traditional
state
as
a
manager
who
managed
I,
think
trillions
of
dollars,
so
we're
not
supposed
to
name
their
name.
That
was
part
of
the
deal,
but
it's
the
very
recognizable
name
in
the
United
States,
but
they
said
Han.
What
you're
doing
with
autonomous
this
technology
could
help
us
with
redemption
subscription
of
shares
and
our
mutual
funds,
and
this
whole
thing
and
I
think
that's
absolutely
the
right
analysis.