Around the Block: Ratan Kaliani & Darya Kaviani - Presidents of Blockchain @ Berkeley

H@H: AtB Ep 2 – Co-presidents of Blockchain @ Berkeley Darya Kaviani and Ratan Kaliani, some of the most connected blockchain students who can be found across campus, chat with hosts Paulina Lee and Paul Bryzek and share their extensive knowledge in the Blockchain space. Like a fire hose, these guests provide a fast stream of knowledge on tap! This episode is packed with blockchain fundamentals, evolution, startups, and how this innovative technology continues to define the rapidly changing web3 space.

When to and not to use blockchain?

• Do you want your system to be interoperable long term? Is decentralization a core component of your system? Do you want your data to be immutable?
• There isn’t a point in having a blockchain system without giving ownership to your community at some level.
• One of our former heads of consulting created this incredible flowchart and published it which essentially walks you through the process of narrowing it down to do I even need a database to if I should be using blockchain as that database.

On innovative startups that have come out of Blockchain Accelerator

“In all Accelerator companies of which there have been 85 total over the past three years since they started, I started back in January 2018, have raised over $420 million in follow on funding since joining the accelerator, the vast majority of the companies had raised no money before joining.” – Ratan Kaliani

On the educational opportunities through B@B

“We have an edX that has had over 200,000 students internationally, and we teach two classes here on. Our fundamentals course, as well as our developers’ course. And our objective with the education department is really to make blockchain technology as accessible to as many communities as possible around the world.” – Darya Kaviani

On Launching B@B Grants

“We just launched B@B Grants at blockchain.berkeley.edu/grants which we’re really excited about. We partnered with BitDAO, which is help funding the initiative. Our first wave is over $250k of dilutive and non-dilutive grants”. - Darya Kaviani