The Owl Explains Hootenanny

"Stop the hype, focus on the solution". In this episode we explore the ultimate myth-busting use case developed by Deloitte to accelerate disaster relief. The project is called "Close as you go". It is built on an Avalanche subnet, yet its token, its use of smart contracts and its decentralised blockchain architecture is entirely invisible to the user. Deloitte has harnessed blockchain not for its own sake but to drive efficiency in the complex paper trail needed to prove eligibility for disaster relief.

How smart are smart contracts? We will illustrate this with a fascinating use case as we explore how Lemonade Insurance is using smart contracts to revolutionize crop insurance. We will talk to Justin Gunnell, counsel at Sher Tremonte LLP who focuses on commercial litigation, as well as Roy Confino, Head of Strategy and Operations at Lemonade Foundation. Some of the questions we go over are: What is Lemonade? What is the Lemonade Foundation? What is the Crypto Climate Coalition? What are some of the ways that the blockchain solves the traditional cost and access problems? What are oracles? How smart are smart contracts then? They're smart in the colloquial sense of smart and sharp… Maybe they need to be called live contracts.

AI is taking the world by storm, but the opaque nature of its algorithms has also raised concerns about the reliability and the fairness of the output it generates, as well as the potential for the technology itself to be used for malicious purposes. There is a trust issue for artificial intelligence which needs to be resolved – not only for ethical reasons, but also because regulators need to look into AI’s "black boxes" to understand how they work. Thanks to its transparent, open-source nature and its strong focus on auditability, blockchain has the potential to act as a decentralized, encryption-based guardrail for AI systems. Listen to Shawn Helms, co-head of McDermott Will & Emery’s technology and outsourcing practice, discuss the intersection of AI and blockchain with: Anne Gressel, Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton and member of its fintech and technology practice; Erwin Voloder, Head of Policy at the European Blockchain Association, and Kai Zenner, Head of Office and Digital Policy Adviser for Member of the European Parliament Axel Voss.

Blockchain still faces a number of different technology bottlenecks that are related to the complexity of its underlying infrastructure, its scalability, and the speed of its consensus mechanisms. Subnets are part of Ava Labs’ innovative approach to solve these issues. By taking a blockchain and splitting it into multiple parallel blockchains that operate at the same time and within the same ecosystem, subnets make it possible for anyone to create their own blockchain, tweak it to whatever project, and have it comply with possible any regulatory framework. Our wise owl Sylvia Sanchez, Product Manager at Owl Explains, talks with Connor Daly, Software Engineer at Ava Labs – also known as the man with the most cats in crypto – about the advantages of subnets, how easy and quick it can be to start one, and how they ultimately contribute to increasing further adoption and spurring further innovation. Plus, Connor gives us a glimpse into his pet feeding routines and his plans for enlarging the extended family to more foster animals.