Lucadg

The gas is not for transactions. It pays the Ethereum network to execute the smart contracts.

The idea is to have a decision making app where no one controls the app itself.

I've been experimenting with Colony and other similar software in the past months in the hope to let the community decide on some aspects of our project.

In my opinion we are still a few years away from something usable but the concept of DAOs is really exciting.

The main issue is the high cost of ETH gas, which means just to vote on a single issue may cost a few dollars in smart contract gas fees.

So we're now looking for aspects of the decision making process which are worth the cost. We haven't found any so far.

Either way, it's great to be able to be part of something so potentially disrupting so early in the journey.

I remember being a guest in a polish family on Christmas 1989.

We brought oranges from Italy for the trip. We didn't think it was going to be a great gift for them. They hadn't managed to get oranges that year.

It was literally another world for us 18 years old naive kids from a western country.

A love story with Poland started that day, which brought me to endless travels around the country and learning the language.

I never needed to stay in a Hotel. Always at friends.

Most welcoming people on earth.

Bigger may be better.

After all these devices are hard to use in part because if the tiny screens.

Since most of the time you don't carry them in your pocket it does not appear to be a problem if they are bigger.

They are different products. Here's another way to put it: as the vacation rentals industry solve these problems it becomes even more attractive.

That's one of the best solutions when possible. Low tech, low cost, high usability.

Unfortunately in many cities, particularly in Europe, you are not allowed to stick a lock on the wall of the building.

In that case you are the first trying to solve a problem, thus creating a new market.

What I meant is that I notice a herd mentality in VCs.

Particularly in Vacation Rentals there's many problems waiting to be solved and yet it seems everyone is trying to solve the same ones.

In Bangkok you should be able to leave your luggage long term in Kaho San Road at some hotels.

At least that's what I used to do.

well, there's also the danger in getting in the conference trail and going to too many of them. So I'd stick to one or two and prepare them well.

I absolutely love VRWS which this year is in France in October. It's the best for networking with the leaders in the VR space.

You may want to check out Host London 2020 (from Terrapin) as they seem to give speaking slots to startups.

Many of the luggage startups mentioned here were present last year.

Drop me an email and I'll introduce you to the organizers.

You may even get a free startup booth from them.

Also, check-out Trips Community where you may become a partner if you commit to integrate when it's ready, getting some visibility.

Yes but that works for secrets too. I can understand not everyone knows about this but calling it a secret seems a stretch.

So you need to leave the suitcase for extended periods like weeks or months?

That's very interesting, I'm sure more and more people will need this in the future.

How much would you expect to pay?

I've never heard of you in the VR space but you seem to have a nice product.

Do you go to conferences? Let me know if you need some tips, I'll be happy to share.

This. It's an issue both before and after the stay.

Keynest: get the key from a shop.

Keycafe:get the key from a self service box in a shop.

Keesy: get the key from a machine.

Vikey: keyless. Enter with a code.

And many many more.

At Host London exhibition there were at least ten new ones.

This is a pretty vibrant space with many startups trying to solve the problem.

It's been sparked by the raise of Airbnbs which rarely offer luggage storage.

A similar trend is in self checkin solutions.

It's interesting to note the herd effect on this kind of startups: it becomes easier and easier to raise capital to solve problems many others are trying to solve already.

How is that a secret? Honest question as I assumed it's common knowledge

I'm going abroad all the time and I'm sure this wouldn't work anyway. Last time I was in their office I realized how backwards they are.

What if you are abroad? My debit card was recently blocked and I had to wait until I went back, walked in the bank and show my face and ID.

I probably have a too much romantic memory of them :)

Anyway, it was easy to come back to a specific topic, so it was easier to find good ones. You could bookmark them, see the number of views/replies or even find them in search engines.

Good content surfaced and survived better, so optimization is probably the wrong word.

Exactly. Forums optimize for quality content and this makes it hard to monetize them because when you found the good stuff you are not going to click on ads.

Also, mobile which is not ideal for long conversations helped their demise.

Still, I hope they come back big time. I miss them.

Reddit is probably the closest thing to a forum. I guess having a separate domain in a website owned by people rather than one run by a big company allows for a more intimate environment.

Yes, we didn't leave our brains behind. The environment in modern social media rewards the wrong type of interaction.

> What would be a network which allowed for more thoughtful discourse

We used to have this and it was called forum (phpbb and such). They have been oblitared and we moved to Facebook apparently leaving our brains behind.

In reality we are victims of armies of psychologists optimizing for engagement.

I have the feeling forums will come back though.

> 1. Trinet for full-time remote/distributed workers

Dao software such as Aragon and Daostack may be the ones which make this real. A lot of the complexity in running distributed teams is connected to the sorry state of international payments. A vast majority of the potential employees is simply not able to participate to the global economy today.

The convenience to be able to say: "we didn't take the decision, the algorithm did" is the holy grail of non accountability.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone, especially in business, is actively opposing transparent AI.

You're missing out. I think it has to do with depth. A real world parallel: I recently travelled by car with no internet access with a friend for 3 days. The level and depth of the conversation was surprisingly high because we could build on each precedent layer. No interruptions meant a higher architecture, so to speak. Books can take you in places nothing else can.

Origin Protocol Dapp is a good use case. Non speculative, uses DAI for payments.

Not a lot of traction yet, but definitely vibrant.

Amazing. I'm not sure "contrarian thinking" is the right expression but you both definitely proved that value is often where no one is looking.

Your intuition was certainly good but her move was probably even smarter: she found an efficient way to attract the smart ones.

I agree. In my case it's not ethics as I enjoy working hard, but as it gets less interesting and goes in growth phase I'm already chasing the next idea.

It was Hicon, 5th of December, we organized the Blockchain in Travel part.

I was also a couple of times in Como, presenting our project, every heard of VRWS? It was two years in the row in Como.

I'm interested to know more about your villa in Bellagio!