 Okay, you were live Okay Hi, thanks for Thanks for attending this Meetup for Africa we I think we are we are trying to to do a community building session But in the process I thought it's a bit. It's it was a good idea to To share the underlying technology behind hyper ledger It's an introductory Session where we are going to try and demystify Hyper ledger technologies as well engage community members To to enhance community building for African meetup groups So for those For those of you we haven't met. I'm Ezra O'Kenda I'm a computer scientist I'm a software engineer by profession and I'm a blockchain a professional blockchain developer Engaging in different project around the ecosystem around the blockchain community currently working on a project with a group called Covalent carbon violent, which which is doing a carbon credit project Yeah, back to today. So The topics we are going to discuss some of you might be might have interacted with these topics, but for the sake of The newcomers into the ecosystem. I'm going to tackle the basic blockchain topics With a bit of detail Of technical aspect for those who have been the ecosystem for a while Feel free to stop me in case you have a question So We start now Yes Yes The topic of today is demystifying hyper ledger technologies and discussing the community in Africa, so The most basic question anyone will ask what's blockchain? As you are aware Blockchain and campuses both distributed radars and smart contracts distributed radars. It's a technology where The ledger that shares the common information is shared with nodes within the network and smart contracts the business project that That explains That automatically executes within the nodes to to to to reach consensus to to give out the information that's square Some of you might ask what's a distributed ledger a distributed ledger. It's it's It's it's an open It's a document. It's a shared document within the network that each and every member agrees with So basically what that's what What a distributed ledger is And it's a lot of transactions in In other terms Cryptography For integrity, so It's the technology that blockchains used to secure the communication between the networks for those of us who deal with cryptography in today today experience so for blockchains different collections implement different different cryptographic Systems of encryptions to secure their communications But the most common ones are D s and a e s As well as mercury tree, which is used in most blockchain systems, but currently with privacy coming into play some Communities are the implementing zero knowledge proofs that secure was the The communications a bit better why renouncing privacy without this with zero knowledge proofs is where The implementation takes into account privacy so most blockchain social media based Solutions are being built with With privacy in mind. So Basically, they are trying to to bring into say ZKB's zero knowledge proofs into into their system so that they can make their information The the communication more private so These the the distributed systems use different approaches to to To handle data where as much as it's it's it's public and open source The this latest Function in a way that it's more like The copies are kept with within the network within the members the member nodes of the network So what's a smart contracts? This is the big question of the day. So smart contracts are basically Automated logic which is embedded within an agreement within Within a digital agreement where once certain conditions are met The contract is executed. It's an automatic process where if certain Things are met within the the contract That it's executed So So we have a use case where we have where you can imagine the insurance sector where There is an agreement between the inshwara and the inshwara for someone for for certain condition to happen then the smart contract contract executes and The logic was on so in this use case we have like In the farming sector if a certain temperature is recorded What happens? So in this case if temperature Rises to around 100 degrees in 100 days a contract is executed and inshwara pays a farmer a certain amount of money and The most obvious question most people ask Where does the smart contract get the information from? when if the temperature is 100 degrees so In the blockchain ecosystem we have oracles oracles are trusted sources of information So from this trusted sources of information people can Can call the api that out this information then you can use the information to To to draw your conclusions or to to check for certain conditions if they are met So there's another question which Most people ask which we are Most people equate blockchain to cryptocurrency For those who have been within who have been within been within the loop of the crypto the cryptocurrency market has been Really crashing down But most people still think that maybe because cryptocurrency is crashing, maybe we shouldn't Borrow into blockchain technology, but for those who know what blockchain is blockchain Is a technology that cryptocurrency used to to function So blockchain can be used in other aspects or to create more more self-sustaining solutions and more Distributed solutions within organization with without necessarily Using the cryptocurrency end of things because cryptocurrency uses blockchain technology to to run but But blockchain doesn't use cryptocurrency to run so you can build solutions Which are based on blockchain technology without necessarily understanding what's happening in the crypto world So I think That's one of the things that people confuse about blockchain and cryptocurrencies so Why blockchain technology most people ask themselves, why should we implement blockchain in our business The most obvious answer I normally give people is that as much as you You you want Businesses are evolving and basically the new technology in town that every business want to try is blockchain and For you to evolve with time you have to like Really a foundation for you to move from the Web to technology to web 3 because it's an it's an area where most companies are trying to To see how best they can fit into the ecosystem because Early on or during the web to our vent most companies were like, okay These are technology we're trying to implement, but maybe it won't work, but with with with with technology basically Time comes when we have to move on from certain of doing things to another way of doing things and the The modern way of doing things now is using blockchain technologies to in to remodel businesses to build more business better business and bias so I think It's it's it's a it's it's a point in time where This technology is going to take over in the near future and for For every company to grow and scale you have to implement it in your use cases so where Where has been blockchain adopted? I think because Blockchain is taking a very very major strides majorly in financial services supply chain healthcare environmental conservation So social media is coming up meta versus is It's it's it's a calming storm like also in the social media industry. I think blockchain is doing great because major companies are trying to To see the best way they can decentralize their operations financial institutions are trying to to enhance this the blockchain technology because most banks Most people are are being doubtful trust issues with banks. I think in the near future blockchain is going to like take much of It's going to take over the financial industry mostly because People don't trust banks anymore. So they need a way that is more transparent more honest More clear for them to draw conclusions as well as the information they share with these banks, which Necessarily banks don't need but you have to share for you to be For the traditional banks to to serve you better, but with blockchain technology I think you will just share the information that the banks need for you to deliver services once so basically There are a lot of industries Are adopting blockchain technology and it's just a matter of time Before we start seeing them in even in our local communities Yeah As I said earlier about trust. I think what blockchain does it makes things more transparent more honest and It gives power to the people because major blockchain project I build build with consensus algorithms with them The the the decisions are made with the members within the network. So majorly Where you can decide you have the power to do What best suits the community of the blockchain? hyperranger foundation so Now we are going to share what the hyperranger is doing to the ecosystem I think hyperranger was among the first Organization to to to bring about the use of the hyperranger of the of the blockchain To private organizations its models is itself as a way to As a way private networks could enhance companies growth of companies and give them a A platform a platform where they could develop and grow their solutions So basically hyperranger what hyperranger does it it gives a chance to communities to build Solutions which are tailored to their problems So basically that's what hyperranger does and much more So hyperranger is hosted by the rena the linux foundation there I think I think now It has been a while. So hyperranger has grown significantly with a lot of predict In the ecosystem Going to move Really fast for Yeah The technologies incubated by the hyperranger foundations We have basu Which which allows both public and private networks for For the sake of clarity. I want to elaborate something about public Public Blockchains and private blockchains as well as permission Blockchains. So for public proxies These are more open source Everyone can join you don't need anything You don't need permission to participate in the network. You just need an address Then you can directly participate to the network. That's for the public blockchains Then we have the private blockchains These are blockchains that you That are hosted within an organization. So basically The organization Is permissions and privileges of those who can join and leave the network That's where we have the permission blockchain these are blockchains that once that It's it's a mixture of hybrid and Private networks coming together So basically for you to be part of the network a certain network you have to be given permission ultimately But they are open. They allow for integration of other blockchain Systems into their ecosystem. So Yeah yeah for This is these are the Other projects that are hosted by the hyperlager foundation We have the public. I think this was among the first and most popular framework from the hyperlager community and It's it's it's it's the simplest of them or I think for me because it gives power to organization to like Prototype really fast implement their solution fast and also create a powerful modular solutions for your problem So basically with hyperlager public you can basically Define your business logic Atago then implement the rules you want for your For your block for your blockchain, then we're ready to go We have we have indie It's a it's a project that models around tools separates and recycle components For for providing digital identity identities within other blockchains. So basically This is is like Atul hack where you get all the Things you want to develop your solution Yeah, we are with Iroha a business blockchain framework designed to be simple is to to incorporate into Infraxial project by the cyberlager technology Is a technology That's modeled around DLT. So basically what it does gives Businesses a chance to easily develop solutions and incorporate them into the infrastructure Easily and we have so what? So to it's a model for building deploying and learning distributed pages so This is another project that is is yes We can proceed. I was checking if there's any question if we have any questions you can post there. I think I'm going over this really fast We have We have the tools These are like I think I can call them ideas. These are platforms that you can use to develop your solutions so Some of them are really technical, but some are easier to use So I'm going to go over the most popular ones the ones I've used cactus This one is used for integration to allow users to secure and integrate different blockchains. This one works for people Blockchains different organization can build their different projects and sometimes You want to make your your ecosystem interoperable with other systems Or other blockchains that use You are using so basically with cactus you can integrate your blockchains from different organization can integrate the blockchains The same organization can use its blockchain ecosystem to integrate different departments So that they can work concurrently This one is also this one is is like a measure of How good your solution is It gives a matrix on how Your solution is working. Sometimes you want To try and work with something that is that that are driven rather than Based on thin air. So what Kari Badass it tries to like give you Information on the progress of your ecosystem and how well it's working On what you have to improve on such So with say no Say no aims to bring the on demand as a serving the primary model to the blockchain ecosystem to reduce the effort required for creating managing and terminating blockchains So say no what basically say no is trying to do is to like create a A crowd-based infrastructure That you can use to create manage As well terminate your blockchains like If you create a solution online You have a platform where you can go create your blockchain Define your business logic manage your blockchain On crowd then once you feel like You have you you have used The solution the way you want to use it then you can terminate it again So explorer can view invoke deploy all of our query blocks transaction and associated data Network information chain codes and transaction of families as well As well as any other reference information stored In the laser. So basically You can take it from other blockchains for instance What other blockchains use To view their data which is on chain. So with explorer, it's where you can like See what's actually happening when you can A certain address so you can see What what's happening the transfer transaction associated with the Address the data that is sharing Maybe even the the smart contract that that has been been deployed to using the address. So basically this is like It's like a profile name where you can go with the certain Address get the information about the the blockchain you are trying to associate with firefrying basically I will take it from from this view What basically firefry does it's like trying to connect public and private blockchains. So I have used firefry to like use create Connect a private network and a public network and make them interoperable But it's also it also has more use cases It can It can it gives you a chance to easily prototype and develop solutions Really fast on the ecosystem We also have the libraries that give us a chance to like Prototype really fast I release what but it gives you it gives you a shared reusable and interoperable toolkit For creating transmitting and storing forever digital credentials here you can This basically what it does it gives institutions like schools a platform where you can Have a decentralized database for your records where you can have shared Shared information Where you you can share your information with the people within your ecosystem Basically what it does it gives As a keyword and more As a keyword private It it enhances security and privacy into one package Transact aims to reduce the deferralment effort in writing distributed latest software by Providing a standard interface for executing smart contract That is separate from distributed written implementation so in this case for those who know DLT sometimes it's Some more cumbersome to for for a network to share a distributed ledger, but once you have like A platform where you can Share your logic then There's an interface a standard interface where you have a common agreed principles of developing certain solutions You can develop on on your own Without really relying on DLT because sometimes DLT technology entails a lot of A lot of protocols a lot of Principles that go that are pre in DLT because it requires a technical understanding as well a shared ledger which Can be a bit hard to maintain and share within the network Also, it's a shared cryptographic That in that in every information to of to avoid duplicating other cryptographic work and operating security in the process This is a reply that Allows the ecosystem to secure its share information and communicate Within its nodes it's it's a library that gives the network its power to be secure and safe from attacks and other aspects of Of communication domain specific These ones are technology that are tailored towards a specific Area like read is focused on supply chain. So In its more data models and data types and smart contracts and its business logic basically It's aligned to our supply chain In the supply chain out the flow of Of commodities and goods within the supply chain ecosystem Where it gives people An easy way of implementing its solutions. So basically it's it's it's an ecosystem that is Domain specific for that case So we also have other projects that Are not are not fully supported or they don't have an active community that is developing them, but they are useful basically Because like composer, I think for someone who's beginning to learn Hyperlegia its ecosystem Composer gives you an edge to like break in because basically it it has a lot of resources that teach in and around composer because if you go to Coursera and Udemy There are a lot of courses that teach on how composer works. It's I think it's one of the first Tools out there to be used And I I think it's still useful as much as it's not maintained, but it's pretty much useful. So Yeah I think for I will take questions. I've been I've been really brief and fast So I was going through everything. So even one as a question. I don't think we are we are We're much of an impasse. So I think you can unmute your mic Ask a question before we go to community building community engagements Hello Yes Hi as a Very good so far Um, I used sort of answered my question and I also took a look at the the website there. I was asking does this All of this is like open source and free to use Yes, everything at hyper ledger is is open source and And you are welcome to contribute. I think David will share much on that. Yeah Okay, um Could we have a bit more details on borough borough It seems that's Yeah Yeah Yeah You need something on that Yeah, from what you mentioned Although although I've seen a lot of things that seem to do very similar things but Appledger borough for motto. So Has something to do with the smart contract machine out there Oh We are we Yeah For borough, I think for borough what they are trying to do basically is that they're giving a chance of the A chance the apparatus ecosystem to connect To to to use the the power that comes with the evm Machine so basically it integrates both It tries to integrate the evm ecosystem in the apparatus ecosystem. So basically It's more of a permissioned Blockchain where they are trying to integrate where you can integrate the hyper ledger Networks to the evm ecosystem. It's like for those who If you are aware of the technical aspect of the blockchain developments, there is There is a way you bridge the private networks and the public networks so that you can Share the information between the two so basically what what that that's what borough does Awesome, thanks Some links into zoom chat borough is no longer an active project but other projects that are active have The same functionality. So for example fabric, you know, it can use the evm and so, you know, I'll drop a link and zoom chat to some resources Yeah Any other question Hi, it's uh, uh, Rajesh here Uh, certainly it's uh, it's very informative. Thanks for the sharing the knowledge I just would like to understand for the banking and financial services, uh, Which sort of uh, hyper ledger flavor, uh, that that's widely in use and what are the tools? Uh That that we can leverage on who Could be dead quickly Yes, so For the banking sector basically I will give you I think it's all about the integration part of the Of the of the ecosystems to integrate to our banking system I think fabric does something on the same But i'm not sure about that, but I will I think david wish Something on the same Yeah David So can you repeat the question please? Yeah, hi David. Uh, my question is about, uh, which hyper ledger flavor is it like hyper ledger fabric or any other hyper ledger flavor that we can use for the banking services And number two is like, what are the tools? Those are readily available Uh, the integrate end-to-end ecosystem or like develop end-to-end ecosystem That might be something specific to like even uh, cbdc or or specific to like any banking services Sure, got you got you. Yeah, let me drop a couple of links and as if you're sharing your screen You can either pull these up or we could just talk about them. So in terms of Use cases and which tools are good for which use cases? I think our case studies are a good, um resource for you, you know I mean the short answer is All of the different Dealties in the hyper ledger community are general purpose. You could use them to build, you know You know all sorts of different applications and we see that, you know We see people use a fabric or a basic for example to build all sorts of different things From finance to climate to supply chain to health care So it really runs, you know a wide range of options, but if you want to see what people are using Uh in production, that's where our case studies come in. I just dropped a link in the zoom chat We have a case study library that shows Goes really into deep details about different production systems And it talks about which tool they use why they used it what that kind of outcomes they saw of it So I think that's a really good resource for you and you can see for example In our case study library, there's some in the banking sector and again, it's not just one tool You know, there's an example of a cbdc built with a rohoff, for example Um in Cambodia, they they built a solution on a rohoff, but you know, there's other examples that use basero fabric So it's you know Everything is specific to the use case. So it's really hard to know without getting in the details about what's the best case What's the best fit for a given use case? But I think if you look at what has been built in production that could help you figure out Something that maybe is a good fit for what you're trying to do. So that's my recommendation for that And then I can speak about this more in a minute, but we also have special interest groups around different topics So if you want to talk to other people who have built something In a given space, for example in the financial markets, we have a financial market special interest group And that's a good resource. You can go and ask questions. You're like, hey I'm trying to build this or this is my use case. Do you have any recommendations? So the special interest groups are a good resource as well and we have those across a number of different industries and use cases Interesting David. I think after going through these the link that you shared Hyperledger fabric and aroha is the most commonly using Flavors for the banking services and the tools just now Those were present bed or those licensed versions are still open source that that anyone can directly get from the GitHub and use it The tools that as or whenever yeah everything that has ruined over all that is open open source So here I'll get you one more link and there's a reference to all of them So yeah everything not just the ledgers but the tools itself So for example firefly is a tool that you use with a ledger and that's that's available as open source Just like everything else here This is the top level here dropping one more link. This is the top level Page that links to all of the hyperledger projects and so you can find that there and all of those are open That's interesting. It covers almost all the tools here Okay, and in that case like how do we present to the banks? That these kind of open sources can be used because you know the banking services, right? They are very particular about licensing and security. So they are how how does like the hyperledger Winning the banking clients In terms of security and managing these open sources So if I understand your question, how do we talk to if a bank is interested in ledgers? For example, how do we talk to them about about it? I think so case studies are one of the ways to do it I think when we talk to when I've talked to people for example people really want to know That it's being used in a real world case You know, I think people have heard about blockchain have heard about ledgers And I think a question often comes up is yeah, but what what are people doing with it? Right, so the case I found the case studies to be very helpful And that's all public information feel free to use that as a resource if you're having a conversation With somebody at a bank for example another thing we've put together A publication I just dropped a link to this is we've created an e-book around CBDCs again to help facilitate those conversations If people are like well, I've heard about digital currencies, but I don't really know What it is or what's being done with it? You know, that's one of the you know hyperledgers trying to give you material to have those conversations So that that e-book might be a useful resource as well. I don't know if that answers your question or not, but Yeah, I mean my question is more of on the security because Thanks are much more concerned on the security and they are not Quite ready to use the open sources, right? So if we if I recommend for example hyperledger Uh Fabric with firefly as the tool that we can use it as it is not licensed and it's still considered as the open source How how ready uh that the banks to use this particular tool and how do we present this to the banks actually? Okay, I think I can take that one. So basically what's what happens here is just it's open source in in that once you take The like there's an existing There are existing libraries that you can implement within your use case So it gives you a platform where another and starting from scratch where you have to come up with the Consensors the building blocks for your solution You just take these you take the the rebler rebrand that exists Then you can model your use case on top of The hyperledger technology Implementing you are required While implementing your security requirements to your ecosystem, but as well there are that give you Security enhancements that you can work from so like you are basically somewhere to start from rather than Started to start to build from scratch Uh, thanks David and Esra. I think like uh, yeah, do we have any certificate bodies? can uh, who can uh act on behalf of Someone is nodding their hand. Okay, let me Talk first actually. Yeah Hi, let's go ahead ID. Yeah. Hi. Great question Um, thank you for that question. I understand the perspective from which you're coming because Enterprise sales not only banks big conglomerates multinational steelco's insurance companies and likes want the stability in fact In fact, um, they like to they like to pay and mentally associate that payment with the guarantees of support That it appears on the surface that open source does not guarantee However, and I went through all of this to land by saying Hyperledger is slightly different in the the family of hyperledger frameworks are slightly different in the sense that Hyperledger first of all like Ezra described provides you a base set of templates as open source that you can pick up Hyperledger also now shows up these risks that are Oftentimes in the minds of bankers of other people by maintaining a network of certified and that probably is your next next question Certified implementation partners. They're all over the world. I'm sure there is a page on the hyperledger website I remember having seen it sometime in the past Where there is a list of approved Hyperledger implementation partners from India to South Africa all over the world These are people that know how to help implement this. That's the first comfort factor The second comfort factor is that many of the consortium partners in the hyperledger consortium Talk about biggest names IBM Hitachi Oracle Many of these big names are themselves customers of these open source framework So if you need some kind of references to give your customers Your clients some degree of comfort those are the two things. First of all, there's a There's a highly curated network of implementation partners and secondly the people who built and contributed to the network Are themselves customers. So if IBM trusts it Most likely apps are trusted most likely standing back with customers like the first bank would trust it. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's clear. So the consortium itself is So sophisticated to answer these kind of questions and the implementation partners are value-added To the hyperledger. This is one that I understand And yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the idea and just to share that the page ID was talking about I Dropped in the a link to it in the zoom chat Yeah, that's great. Actually, that's awesome So one more quick question if if no one have any questions. So as The debate and that's right here For the startups If they have to enter into the hyperledger market, what are the some recommendations that you make? where we can You can go Okay Sorry, I I may have some opinions about this so I Was in a mentoring session with some startups on Monday last week Monday eight weeks ago and one particular startup Informed me right there. I had no idea that they had connected with me on LinkedIn and they were They had internally independently adopted hyperledger as their framework blockchain framework of choice So this is kind of a Request to David Is it possible to have some kind of? Request to the governing body. I think it's called the tsc tech question in committee in hyperledger the global governing body to have some kind of perhaps discounted Implementation plan across those technical services partners for startups I think that that would be very very useful, but I think that they are Now these are this particular startup that I mentioned Did chose hyperledger independently? I think that if people like us as well David yourself myself started to actively promote hyperledger as a tool of choice And it becomes more visible to people in the startup community who are trying to build across Africa Then there will be more optic with that optic if we could get the support that if technical services partners can give an x percent discount for startups, then I think we'll see more more optic so I know it's not a direct answer, but that's how I'm thinking about the question. Thank you I have some thoughts on this too, and I'm happy to share and I'll drop some links as well For examples, but I mean there are startups. I mean the ecosystem is full of startups and You know, there's a number of different ways if I understood the original question Correctly, it's like what what would a startup do in this space and I think there's a number of things I think one just getting involved in the community You know, and that's open to anybody membership is not required anybody anywhere any organization anywhere any size can get involved You know, you can do what you're doing here is join and take part in a community call This is a meetup that's being hosted But there's community calls around all the different projects or all the different special interest groups So just being involved in the community is a good start You know and that can do a number of things for you one. It can help you with networking It can help raise your profile It can help people know that you know, you're a startup and you're offering services and there's all examples of that I just dropped a link to a lab A hyperledger lab called hlf operator that's being started by a small startup that offers You know services dlt services and so they use that lab as a way to raise their profile Let people know what services they offer like hey, we built this lab. We can build things for you as well So I think it all depends on your goals if you're trying to raise your profile or network with people getting involved in the community Is absolutely, you know great and anybody anywhere can do that Again, thank you for joining the call today You can always present a calls or organize your own calls or take part in calls There's calls around every hyperledger project again So if you want to kind of get involved and get expertise around a specific project Like maybe interoperability is your focus, you know, you can get involved in the calls around that and really, you know We'll answer but ask a bunch of questions you have get a lot of knowledge You can really tap into the expertise in the community just by getting involved So that's one recommendation And then for the question around if I understood the the next question around Um Getting listed as a you know a certified organization You know, we do have discounted membership for startups Basically, we have a tiered membership structure that's based on the size of an organization So there is a discount kind of already built in Um, so if membership in that certification program is something you're interested in we could certainly talk about that but I don't know if that answers The two questions around just startups, but those were some thoughts It's interesting. Thank you so much. Uh, David, Erie and Alistair Very insightful Yeah, welcome. I think now Because we are doing community engagement and community building. I think there are some aspects of the community which With our number, I think I think we can we can keep it open so that at least we can know What can be done to enhance community building, but basically from my observation I think virtual meetups are a good way to learn for for most communities around the globe But for for this side of the globe, I think virtual meetups as much as I really I'm a bigger advocate for virtual communities. I think Sometimes it becomes harder to to engage communities virtually maybe If any other person has an opinion around the same topic I think can share You can weigh in on it Yeah, that's a great question. I'm interested here at people think as well You know, I I think you're right virtual meetups may work well for some parts of the community But not as well for others and it certainly is no replacement for in person I think there's some advantages it helps you reach a broader audience But yeah, there's some disadvantages as well. You don't you don't have that same sort of Face-to-face interaction. So I'm curious to hear, you know, what people would find useful or suggest So if I may if I may lean in a bit So I think that the the demography of the african continent makes it It's useful to Slightly think about membership and participation slightly differently Compared to other chapters around the world, I think that In person where post in person meetings where possible are good But I don't know that the average Person that would like to attract Is more concerned Right now about membership participation In its in its on its own except we have some kind of compelling Elements to it aka in sales pitching aka a hook for instance David and I have discussed this before is it possible to have some kind of special discounts for africans? Around the certifications and the education packages on the linux foundation website. Is it possible? I know that it's a big ask to make but I can almost guarantee that if there was a special discount for education and certification for africans I can almost guarantee that we'll find a flood of Flood of interest, okay And you know, it may be difficult for me to articulate it, but I kind of feel like Membership and participation for in person will be difficult. So whatever we can get this number that we can get even on a virtual call Maybe we Maybe good enough to start with and let's start to build from there. You know, I think that we should If this has worked so far, you know, which is the virtual thing. Let's continue it When we have enough numbers we can then start to think about You know in person meetings because by definition in person is already geographically distributed I'm sure everyone here on this call I in at least five different locations on the continent. If not more, you know, so You know, I'm sorry. I mean sounds likely Uh pessimistic, but that's how I see it. You know, I I hope my opinion is useful. Thank you And I I could also just share my observation from other groups in the community too And I think the answer is you can do both as well. Here's as I'm going to drop a link here as well as just as a matter of fact the the india chapter Is very similar in some ways to the community in africa, you know, it's it's a big geographic range You know, india is a big country and there's groups all around it So it's hard to get those groups together in person So they have really relied on some virtual events to connect them all but Just this last weekend they did in fact run a hybrid event where it was in person and virtual So there's there's a link for example to the wiki page where they posted An event they did in bangalore that was part of this larger virtual event and some other Other cities and india did the same thing where they had kind of an in person component That was connect to the virtual component So I think you know that could be a model for what we do with the community in africa We could look at what you know kind of other parts of the you know Community have done in their region and really build on that So maybe the answer is both maybe we do want both kind of in person activities and virtual and I think this is a great start You know, I think just getting I've I've enjoyed this conversation and getting think getting things going is a great start you know, I think We'll get more people with another virtual event when it's not right next to the holidays too And we're also willing, you know, we can do this at any time You know, thank you for doing this at a time that worked for me, but I'm all the way in california if it's better You know, maybe there'd be more people who joined if it was earlier in the day, right? At africa, you know in africa, you know, so There's flexibility to do whatever the group thinks is best. So You know, we're certainly flexible Yes, yes go I agree with what David mentioned. Yes, like hybrid approach both both physical meetups and Digital meetups, but also it depends again with the whole geographical area There wouldn't be much precedent for to do like physical meetups Mostly probably where I live which is in Tanzania because the blockchain community isn't like that active But like if you start with Nairobi in Kenya and like with Nigeria as well You'd you'd find like a lot of people be willing to come to events and so on so Well, that's great to hear you're in Tanzania. We do actually have a group there. It's smaller But that does show that there's some interest, you know in the in the area So, I mean, it's possible that maybe there are some people to get the other in person If that's something you're interested in talking more about I can help connect you to those So the the group that's been there that started there so far here. I'll put my email address in here You want to have a conversation about just The community in Tanzania feel free to reach out Thanks Thanks. Thanks for your contribution think the way To weigh in on the same. I think basically what's happening with African communities is normal because Sometimes we are we are aligned to what the organization that we are participating of I think what from what from what Actually they said I think It's more of what do I get once I show up At hyper ledger it's community What do they offer but what I think is that basically to build a community sometimes you have to begin with Maybe college people who are Curious and willing to learn so basically what I've been doing of late trying to engage with the colleges people are interested in the hyper ledger community what the hyper ledger is doing And they basically found a buzz around what basically hyper ledger is doing but Most people don't really understand the technical aspect of the Hyper ledger community because most people know hyper ledger You ask like in a group of 10 who know about blockchain They have heard about hyper ledger, but they they can develop on hyper ledger the tools around hyper ledger They don't know any but once you can create a a more interactive Community where people share ideas on the same where people are trying to create solutions around hyper ledger So something like an arcathon something like a physical meetup Something like maybe a bootcamp something that brings people together will share common core In and around the blockchain ecosystem and trying to develop on top of their parade ecosystem I think it's something that is out for it's open for discussion, but I think Trying something physical because I've tried like we we tried such a meeting with the organizers The turn up or slow Today we tried I was for maybe the timing was like these ideas are online. So maybe it's late But we we can model our timing we can We can try different times and try learn what time people are available But also keep the door open for something physical so that you can know what Members prefer is it physical or is it Virtual or is it hybrid so that you can at least make an informed decision based on what may pass thing and what? I think all that sounds great. And I think you definitely have You know everything you said makes a lot of sense around the approach we should take I will also just add that I think the pandemic Is something that you know all groups have suffered with you know I've been doing the meetups for several years now and groups that were really active before the pandemic just you know shut down And lost people lost an organizer and everybody I think everybody's in this start mode of having to restart So you I don't think the communities in Africa are necessarily alone on this. I'm needing to like rebuild things You know, I'm in California. We've started to try to do in person events again here too And it's been you know slow because the people The last time we had in person events was over two years ago and those people have all kind of you know Drifted away or not been engaged. So, you know, I think every this whole year coming up is going to be an interesting challenge I think for everybody to try to rebuild some capacity around kind of the community Building events. So I'll just throw that in there as well that the you know, we're kind of dealing with the pandemic after effects too, I think So I basically I was thinking maybe Because all the members for the attendees I was hoping maybe Next year we can plan something we can plan a for virtual A virtual meetup and again we can on the same we can also Keep in mind that we we have the dose open for us to have a physical meetup on the same So that we can create a more engaging community. So for all the attendees who showed up today, I think Apart from I'm not sure think You are going to take a We are going to be an To be our ambassadors out there so that we can enhance and build a community That is interested in learning For what I believe that does And I'm sure David will share something on the same. You don't have to be a technical person to To engage in the appellager community. There are some aspects in our in and around the appellager which doesn't require to be a computer scientist a programmer or Any other role you can take up a role that isn't you bring people together to share ideas to to like Bring up topics that Can enhance the usage and the adoption of the blockchain technology in this case the appellager. So basically that those are my thoughts on the same Again, yeah, thank you as for for putting all that together and sharing your thoughts and as far as community goes I mean, I do have a presentation I could go through but I thought it would be just better just Do what we're doing just have this discussion and answer questions and You know talk about suggestions and ideas. So but just to introduce myself I guess I didn't do that at the beginning My name is David Boswell. I'm the senior director of community architecture at the links foundation for hyper ledger And my role is to support people in the community. So people just like yourselves who are showing up and are interested You know, I want to just hear what you're trying to achieve and help you be successful at that. So, um, You know, I always say if you try to run an open source community and no community members show up Then you don't really have the community. So it's great. I'm glad that you're here and thank you for your time And again, if there's something that you're wanting to Do in the community, let me know and I'm here to support you with that If you have a question you can ask Yeah, one quick question from my side is what are the initiatives that the linux foundation is taking to include the students or college first grads uh involving in the community So I just want to understand because I don't have any idea on that. So maybe if you can shed some light on that That's a great question. Yeah, and I that's actually a really timely question too. So And I think as we mentioned this too So this is actually a good thing for us to think about a little bit So involving students in the community is critical I mean, I think that's something that's very important and working with universities is something that is a priority for us So one thing that we do every year to help students get involved is we have a paid mentorship program And actually the timing is great because it starts at the beginning of the year So every year and I just dropped a link to that. You can see an example of what we've done in the past years We set up a number of Mentors that are people in the community who are running a project or a lab Or are active in the community in some way and want to share their knowledge and help new people Get familiar with open source and learn some You know gain some expertise around hyper ledger projects. So This is a great opportunity for students So Just be aware of this at the beginning of the year. We will start the process of launching A new round of paid mentorships And so this is open to anybody both to be a mentor if you have expertise and you want to share that with a With a student or somebody else in the community We'll have a call for mentors to propose projects And once we have those mentors identified we'll then call Put a call out for students and mentees people who want to be mean mentees and get connected to those mentors to apply and then we do A round of matching mentors will talk to mentees and then select You know those will do that matching process and then the mentees will start On a project and at the end of the year they will then present what they've done And the goal being to really get You know give students or other people a chance to really have a chance to You know gain that expertise And get some support while doing that. So that's one initiative And certainly a big one since the timing is right. So just be aware of that if you Or other people in the community think that they'd like to take part in that Again that link I dropped to is to our wiki. There's no information up there yet I don't think about the 2023 program because we're still wrapping up the 2022 program But early next year the 2023 information will be available. So that's one thing we do Another thing is just Partnerships we do offer free membership for universities that are actively involved in the community So if that's something that you know, if there's a university in Where you are that wants to get more actively involved In the community And if being a member is something of interest and that's something we also offer because again, it's a party for us to work with universities So kind of offer that as something that could support a university's involvement Very interesting to me. I will be connecting with you mostly on this Take it further because I do have some of the universities who are interested to extend The knowledge of their students in the blockchain and not specific to the hyper legend But we can present to them to see like how we can take it forward from there That sounds great. Yeah, I dropped my email in the zoom chat. You know, please feel free to follow up Yeah, I have that David. Thank you Any other questions? My question again was on the mentorship program What what kind of like criteria are you looking for for mentors again? That's a good question. Let me see. I think that should be documented on here here. Let me see criteria eligibility I mean, it's pretty open. We do want to make it available For you know, as many people as possible to apply. So there's a page on the wiki that speaks about eligibility And then in terms of criteria, I think that really fits depends on the specific project um You know, for example, if you're doing a mentorship and it's around One technology versus another the mentors may be looking for one specific skill set or not, but Again, the goal is to take somebody who doesn't necessarily know everything There is to know about blockchain and help them get that expertise. So it's not like Somebody who is applying wouldn't have to be an expert in the technologies, right? They may need some basics around, you know a given Project again, we have if you want to look at examples of different projects and get a sense for that, you know It really runs kind of a range here. I'll drop a link to the 2022 projects You can get a sense for what You know was Being offered this year. I don't again. I don't know what it's going to be offered next year because we haven't run that yet But it really could be almost anything. I I'm looking here, right? Some of them are going to be Much more technical and some are going to be perhaps less technical and then Of the technical projects those really run a range too of what sorts of technologies are being You know Are involved in that project Also follow up question. Um They virtual only or physical only So yeah, you can be anywhere. I mean we we um You I mean the whole community is run kind of online. So yeah anybody anywhere can apply Oh, okay. Okay. Awesome. And also kudos on the links. You have them Real quick. Thanks. Yeah, great. Yeah. Hope. Yeah, glad those are useful resources I think if nobody has a question now, I think thank you so much for attending I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and for superiors. Happy new year You too. You too. Happy holidays to everyone and Ezra. Thank you again for putting this together Thank you. Happy happy Christmas and happy new year. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Have a good one, Ezra