EEA Regional Representative, Samrat Kishor, Partner at Golden Next Ventures and Co-Chair at Baseline Protocol.
The EEA recently appointed Samrat Kishor as its new EEA Regional Representative in India. Samrat will provide local support to ensure that regional EEA members are well-positioned to leverage the EEA’s programs, interest groups, working groups, and resources to achieve their desired business results.
He is an accomplished individual who is passionate about Ethereum for the benefit of everyone. Samrat’s expertise and leadership will help to accelerate Ethereum adoption and support the activities of EEA’s growing member base.
Below is a Q&A with Samrat on his experience, his new EEA Regional Representative role, and his insights on trends he is seeing locally. To get in touch with Samrat, connect with him in the EEA Member Portal or reach out via Twitter or LinkedIn.
Please tell us a little about yourself and your company.
I have worked with consulting giants such as KPMG, Deloitte, and Accenture Strategy. I am a mentor on Startup India, B-Nest Smart City Incubator and Atal Innovation Mission, all programs run by the government of India. Additionally, I am the Co-Chair of Baseline Protocol, an EEA Community Project.
I am excited to take on this additional responsibility as the Regional Head for the EEA.
I’m also a partner at Golden Next Ventures and a new-age venture fund where we invest in early-stage startups by establishing trust and empathy with the founders. We are building a close-knit community of founders who can grow as a nexus and fund the next wave of promising ideas. We work with businesses focused on blockchain, AI, mixed reality, and quantum computing.
How do you hope to positively impact the EEA as the Regional Representative for India?
I hope to work with the existing members of the EEA and help them get business opportunities so they can thrive as blockchain starts to receive more mainstream attention. Specifically, I intend to act as a local touchpoint for individuals at corporations and startups who may want to understand the core benefits of their EEA membership and are more comfortable talking to someone they know.
I plan to conduct introductory sessions and take up speaking slots at prominent events which will help us spread the word to professionals and students about Ethereum and the EEA and its membership benefits. Overall, this should all add up to higher adoption for Ethereum and the integration of the right talent in the Ethereum ecosystem.
What current trends are you seeing in India, and do you think they differ from other regions?
The current trends in India fall into two areas:
One, developers have an increased interest as well as growing expertise about building Blockchain technology. Secondly, companies have experimented and now understand it is worth investing time and resources in real use cases. Often, large corporations that I speak with are hesitant due to minor challenges such as speed, scalability, and bad press due to rising prices or hacking of cryptocurrency exchanges. They often need one educational experience to understand that the Ethereum world has massive amounts of benefits for them.
It is important to note that some of the best blockchain contributions have come out of India. Ethereum has always been at the center of conversations due to rising ETH prices, but the community has gained immensely in India from educational initiatives run by the Ethereum Foundation, EEA, and Consensys.
What first brought you to the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, and why did you decide to become a member?
I had been following the activities and events of the EEA for a while, but I became deeply involved with other members through the Baseline Protocol. I decided to become a member because I saw an avenue where I could add value to the Alliance, so I reached out to the EEA Membership Team expressing my interest in contributing to the growth of EEA.
Please tell us a bit about your work with EEA Community Projects.
I am the Co-Chair of Baseline Protocol, which is being developed with backing from EEA Community Projects. I have been working with the group for almost 1.5 years now, which has helped me to recognize the value of baselining. Another project I have been focused on is establishing the Indian community for Baseline. Part of this involves hosting weekly office hours where we invite guests from various industries to talk about their data synchronization problems and explore how Baseline Protocol can solve them.
In addition, I have recently joined a working group under the EEA Community Projects which is working on L2 scalability standards for Ethereum, and I am advising a company that is building a tokenized infrastructure platform for real estate through utilizing Ethereum. Finally, I am advising a company that is building a Gold-Backed crypto token, which again utilizes Ethereum.
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