 Live from San Juan, Puerto Rico, it's theCUBE. Covering Blockchain Unbound. Brought to you by Blockchain Industries. Hello everyone, welcome back to our exclusive coverage in Puerto Rico for Blockchain Unbound. Global conference where everyone from around the world is coming here and the Blockchain, cryptocurrency, the decentralized application market, changing the game, the future of work, future of government, future of the world happening. Biggest wave in the tech generation we've seen in centuries and I'm here in Puerto Rico at the Vanderbilt Hotel, our next guest, Anthony Delgado, the CEO of Disrupt, working on some real innovative projects around bringing his work and his mission to Puerto Rico. Anthony, thanks for spending the time. Thank you for having me. So tell me about your project. Tell me about your project. You're doing some, learn how to code. What's going on with that? You're doing it in New Jersey with Newark and Newark schools there. Just take a minute to explain what you're working on. Absolutely. So back in January, I met a gentleman. His name was David and he's from Puerto Rico and he's lived in Puerto Rico for the last eight years and he runs a tourism company. And when the hurricane happened, his for-profit company transformed into a nonprofit and the same trucks that he used to do tours, he started doing humanitarian work. And I met him at an app release party for a client of mine and he looks me in my face and he says, Anthony, I'm doing the best work of my life. And I was like, ooh, oh my God, I'm not doing the best work of my life. And so we go to a diner and I had the worst tuna fish sandwich that I've ever had in my life, but the best conversation. And we start brainstorming about how can we transform and help the people of Puerto Rico? So the first problem is energy. Close to 50% of the island still does not have energy. In the capital and beautiful place like we are now, power has been restored, but there are many cities that are still forgotten. So me as the tech guy, I'm like, hey, we can do solar panels. Like there's tons of sunshine in Puerto Rico, right? So solar energy. And then the next thing that he brought to my attention was that the entire economy is actually based on tourism. So now with the hurricane and all of those things that are in the media, not only did people lose their jobs, not only did they lose their homes, but now they lose their job as well. So we start brainstorming, we're like, okay, well let's create a coding school to teach the digital skills that are needed to the people in Puerto Rico. And so we're going back and forth and he said, okay, that's a great idea, but how are these kids gonna pay for this school? So the concept that we've come up with is to combine education with vacation and basically encourage people who were paying to go to school in New York City and encourage them to come to Puerto Rico, experience this beautiful island, learn how to code in the AM and have an amazing vacation in the PM. And that's what we're building. So we're building the Caribbean Institute of Technology where we combined education with the vacation. So Institute of Technology, as we were talking before we came on camera, that New York Institute of Technology School, my two brothers went to, great engineering school, renowned for its program. You're doing work there as well. So it's kind of, you're taking your mission that you were doing in New Jersey and bringing it to Puerto Rico. Sounds like you were really impacted by that conversation. As you're here in Puerto Rico, what's your assessment? Good call, are you happy? And what's on your to-do list as you're down here? So it's beautiful. I mean, I was here two weeks ago and now I'm back for this critical currency conference. I really feel like there's an unlimited amount of opportunity here in the island. It's the strongest internet. There's huge tax incentives if you start a new business here. And it's really a blank canvas. The hurricane was a horrible atrocity that happened. But now we have this blank canvas to create a vision for Puerto Rico. So we created a foundation. It's called Vision for PR. And the question that we're asking ourselves is what would we do if we were creating a new city in America today? What would it look like? It would have solar energy. The power lines would be below ground instead of above ground, right? The economy would be based on the digital economy and not tourism, right? So we look at countries like Bali. We look at countries like India. We look at countries where they have this huge influx of currency that's getting generated from overseas. So we really want to be part of the driving force that has Puerto Rico be the Hong Kong of the Caribbean. And it really is a clean sheet of paper because certainly the hurricane puts a real awakening to the needs here. And now that you look at the infrastructure and how it needs to be revamped, this is an opportunity to lay down some fat pipes, high speed internet, blue blockchain, the blockchain EDU chain project that they got going on, educhain.io was interesting. The young people, they want more. I mean, that's my vibe here, I sense. Yet the old guard is scared. They want to preserve their culture. Yet there's this huge incentive to be on tourism. This is an opportunity for Puerto Rico to be sovereign nation at a level that could go significantly higher level than they are now. So that's all great. What do you do? It seems like obviously Brock Pierce is laying down his vision. Come here, bring your cash, bring your community, do good. How is the playbook evolving? Because that's another question people want to know is, how do I come to Puerto Rico, do it right, not offend the culture, enable them, come together, what's your experience with the playbook? Absolutely, so technology and access to the internet, it democratizes the world. Now you're on a level playing field. If you have 4G connectivity and you're on the island, now you can compete globally and be a part of the global economy. So really the opportunity here on the island is huge. Are you going to start a company here? Yeah, so we are starting the Caribbean Institute here in Puerto Rico. And yeah, so we had this problem. Is it a separate corporation? Separate corporation. So we have a nonprofit that runs in New Jersey called Newer Kids Code where we teach kids to code. And we really want to take that model and teach people to code here in Puerto Rico as well. So we started a corporation. It's the Caribbean Institute of Technology. And what we do- Is it going to a virtual school? Is it going to put up a facility? No, it's in person, it's in person. So we have the architect right now working on the renderings. I'd love to share those with you as well. Yeah, well, certainly we'll publish them on our blog, but so you're going to put an actual location here. So this is your notion of having people take a vacation and work here. Yeah, so that's all well and good. But like you mentioned, how does that help the people from Puerto Rico? So what we've created is a scholarship program. So for every single person from the United States or overseas that comes here to take our coding school, we sponsor someone from the island. I mean, it's like a vacation here. It's like a fellowship. Yes, yes. All right, so what else are you working on? I'll see you disrupt. Tell us a little bit about you and what you do and what's going on with Disrupt. Absolutely, so Disrupt is a media agency based in New York City. And we focus on creating innovative products that change the world. So we work with clients who have innovative products that are making a big impact. So one of the products that we're working on is called True Connect. It's AI for salespeople. And basically it syncs with your Google Calendar and it gives you recommendations on ways to connect with your clients. So it gives you a news feed of news stories, but it's not stories that you're personally interested in, it's stories that your clients will be interested in. So you have topics of conversation. It's like a reverse LinkedIn. Yes, a reverse LinkedIn, absolutely. You also do some really important projects that matter to people's lives. Talk about the project you're working on for the autism kids. It's really interesting. Take a minute to explain that. Absolutely, so another one of our clients is Debbie Stone. She has a nonprofit called PopEarth. And it's basically a free school for kids with autism. So based on that, she's starting a IoT company called The Populace. So it's an IoT device that's about the size of a quarter and it has GPS, 4G connectivity and it hooks into a student shoe laces. There's a huge problem with autism if they wander off of school. They can get hit by a car and they don't have the communication skills to get found again. So this device puts a geofence around their school. All timers is a zillion use cases. So geofencing a location like Snapchat ads, so they do, but this is for a good reason. Safety and impact to people's lives. Absolutely. Caregivers too, they've come to matter. Yeah, caregivers, people who go mountain climbing, hiking, all of these other use cases, primarily focusing on children in the beginning. But yes, all timers and hikers, there's tons of use cases for this. Great stuff. Congratulations, Anthony, great to have this conversation with you, really inspired. Good luck with the Puerto Rico opportunity, the Caribbean Institute of Technologies. It will be on the Caribbean, talking about Bahamas. We were just there for Polycon, other islands, start at Puerto Rico. Absolutely, so we're actually open sourcing the floor plan for the building that we're building. So the building we're building at Solar Energy is a green building and we're open sourcing that floor plan so that anyone in the Caribbean, South America, anywhere in the world can adopt this model. It's the we work for paying it forward. Absolutely. Well done, Anthony. Anthony Delgado, CEO of Disrupt, doing amazing work here, paying it forward, contributing here with the Caribbean Institute of Technology. I'm John Furrier in Puerto Rico for our on the ground coverage of Blockchain Unbound. Be back with more. Thanks for watching. Thanks for having me.