Bitcoin Presentation at DeepSec 2012

Thanks to all my friends at DeepSec in Vienna. It was great to meet you in person during the November 27-30th, 2012 conference.

The Evolution of e-Money (DeepSec) from Jon Matonis

The Evolution of E-Money

I introduced digital bearer certificates and bitcoin at the 7th annual ITWeb Security Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa (May 15-16th, 2012).

The Evolution of E-Money

For further reading:
"E-money raises privacy concerns", Nicola Mawson, ITWeb, May 17, 2012
"Bitcoin: a mobile money alternative", Gareth van Zyl, ITWeb, March 26, 2012

Monetising Game Play on Social Network Sites

I was invited to speak at the KPMG eGaming Summit in Gibraltar (31 March 2011) on the topic of "Monetising Game Play on Social Network Sites". The presentation gives an overview of the current state of the virtual currency industry and also introduces bitcoin as the ideal digital representation of a physical casino chip.

Monetising Game Play on Social Network Sites from Jon Matonis

The full KPMG Programme and agenda which included opening remarks from The Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana, can be found here.

Currency Design For Social Networks

I recently completed this presentation on virtual currency issuance and management. As never before, the virtual world and gaming environments are providing incredible opportunities for the nonpolitical digital currency ecosystem. While private currency issuers tepidly begin to circulate beyond the in-world environments, it creates a set of economic and legal considerations that may give rise to a form of "virtual" central banking. Undoubtedly, this will have implications for corporate revenue and profitability models, not to mention being a distinct challenge to the government-issued political currencies.

Currency Design For Social Networks
by Jon Matonis

View more presentations from Jon Matonis.

Legal Issues with Virtual Worlds and Social Media

On February 3rd, 2010, The George Washington University Law School Cyberlaw Students Association hosted Jim Gatto, head of Pillsbury’s Virtual Worlds and Video Games practice group, who spoke on Legal Issues with Virtual Worlds and Social Media.

There are lots of interesting issues around virtual goods such as: How should we value virtual currency? What about taxation, seizure, property rights, etc...? If virtual goods or avatars have real-world value can companies just up and delete them or take them away without compensation? Are they “assets” if a company goes out of business? What happens to someone’s virtual goods when they die in the real world?

Virtual currency issues and virtual goods issues are covered in pages 35-37 of the presentation. Gatto states that "many virtual currencies will be viewed as 'stored value' or 'gift card' accounts by relevant state and federal regulators."

For further reading/viewing:
"3 Reasons Pay-With-Facebook Won't Squash All The Other Payments Providers", Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider, February 8, 2010
"What Happens to Your Virtual Property When You Die?", Stephen Wu, 3D Internet Law, December 2, 2009
"Intersecting Interests: Virtual Worlds and the Law", Metanomics with Robert Bloomfield, May 20, 2009
"Monetizing the Metaverse", Metanomics with Robert Bloomfield, October 13, 2008
"Taxation of Virtual Worlds", Metanomics with Robert Bloomfield, October 22, 2007

Follow the Money: New Payment Systems Used by Cybercriminals

A fairly remedial presentation on digital currency issuers and money transfer enforcement was given at the RSA Conference by the Department of Justice on April 11, 2008. Listen to DOJ presenters Howard Cox and Kimberly Kiefer Peretti for the law session, "Follow the Money: New Payment Systems Used by Cybercriminals".

Digital Gold Industry Overview

On December 13, 2006, Jim Davidson released the comprehensive presentation, Digital Gold Industry Overview from The Free Market Monetary Education Association.

The Free Market Monetary Education Association was organized in Kansas in October 2006. The group is a Kansas not-for-profit corporation. The nature of the business entity is "...to provide education in the practical aspects of free markets, finance, monetary policy, and information systems."

The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Jim Davidson. Raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Jim was valedictory speaker at his high school commencement. He attended Columbia College of Columbia University as a National Merit Scholar, John Jay Scholar, and Kansas Scholar. In 1985, he received a bachelor's degree in history from Columbia. While in New York, he worked in the banking industry as weekend shift supervisor for a lockbox operation handling about 45 million dollars a week and managing a crew of twelve. In 1987 he received a master of business administration from Rice University's Jesse Jones Graduate School of Administration. Since then he has worked in aerospace, real estate, finance, marketing, and management consulting.

In addition to The Indomitus Report, Jim is writing a book on new countries and another on privacy. Jim is also the co-author of The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age (James Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, 1999).

For further reading:
"Interview With Free Market Money Guru, Jim Davidson of Vertoro, parts 1-2, parts 3-4", Mark Herpel, American Chronicle, November 14, 2007

Esther Dyson's PC Forum 2003 with Jon Matonis

The following is from Esther Dyson's PC Forum 2003 gathering at The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess on March 23-25th, 2003. Photos are courtesy of Dan Bricklin.

As a counterpoint discussion to a single unified database such as Oracle, I was featured on a panel named "Beyond Relational: What and Where" along with Zvi Schreiber (CEO and Founder, Unicorn Solutions), Kevin Turner (President & CEO, Sam's Club/Walmart), and Maria Martinez (CEO, Embrace Technology). At the time, I was the CEO of Network Inference, a business intelligence software company in London.








from Esther Dyson's Monthly Report Release 1.0
Volume 21, No. 3 (March 23, 2003)
Showcase Panels, pp. 88-89

Onotologies: Beyond database

Ontologies truly make data come alive; just like living systems (or profitable companies), they produce more than they take in. If you feed an ontology a given amount of data, its reasoning powers can produce more information than you entered. This means not just crunching data to produce an invoice, but crunching models to make inferences. That enables users to do everything from data integration and re-engineering to complex modeling and design tasks - not only for physical products, but also for commercial relationships, workflows and perhaps one day of business processes. The models in themselves are interesting, but what makes them useful is that they can be used as tools both to implement processes in software, and to redesign what has been modeled.

In the old days, information was painstakingly entered into ontologies by domain experts, such as those who worked at Cycorp, the leading ontology research project that is now a for-profit company (though it still does a lot of research). Today, much of the information comes through Web services interfaces - the best way of handling the complexity and volumes of data that make ontologies both useful and in the long run necessary. Without data representation standards, the difficulties of seamlessly integrating the processing capabilities of traditional systems and the reasoning power of ontology-based systems would be almost insurmountable. Beyond that, the spread of ontologies will require not just agreement on technology, but also on domain expertise, as Jon Matonis of Network Inference notes below.

Jon Matonis, Network Inference: Ontology requires harmony

As it happens, one of the tools enLeague is using at Coca-Cola is Network Inference's ontology and logic layer engine, Cerebra. Based on FaCT, one of the leading academic description-logic engines, Cerebra has been refined to optimize for commercial capabilities such as speed, scalability and predictability. The company has a number of commercial customers in addition to enLeague, including Clinician Support Technology (medical), and Qinetiq, the commercial arm of the UK Ministry of Defense, specializing in defense, aviation, and energy projects. Network Inference is also working with IBM's T.J.Watson Research Lab.

Network Inference ceo Jon Matonis earlier worked at VeriSign, where he learned about the importance of trust and of bottom-up networks. He sees vertical domain experts ratifying objective ontologies and also creating a separate cottage industry for ongoing ontology development. "Pharmaceuticals, clinical healthcare, and financial services are early adopters for Network Inference because of the existence of explicit, mutually agreed-upon global ontologies," he says.

Digital Identity Forum Presentation by Jon Matonis

On October 18, 2000, I presented at the first annual Digital Identity Forum in the Marlborough Hotel, London, UK. My topic was "User-Friendly Digital Signatures" made available through the deployment of the Hush Encryption Engine.

The Digital Identity Forum is a not-for-profit event designed to bring together decision makers in political, economic, business, social and technical areas to discuss digital identity in Europe today. Sponsored by Consult Hyperion, it allows key players and commentators to engage in valuable education, interesting discussion and genuine, interactive debate.

International Chamber of Commerce Presentation by Jon Matonis

In November 1996, I was invited to speak in Paris at the Commission on Financial Services Meeting for the International Chamber of Commerce. My subject matter was the still-evolving concept of digital authentication for internet payments, and the introductory guest presentation was given by Andrew Crockett, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (B.I.S.).

NACHA Presentation by Jon Matonis

In October 1996, I was invited to speak at the NACHA Internet Council Meeting in McLean, Virginia. My subject matter was "Introduction to Internet Security Issues", which included an overview on Internet security basics, digital signatures, and public key cryptography relevant to the members of NACHA.

Formed in 1996, NACHA’s Internet Council addresses issues that advance electronic commerce over open networks and facilitate digital business transactions in a straight-through and secure manner. The Council has 75 members that focus on challenges and opportunities in the payments environment, including authentication; data security; risk management; compliance; emerging technologies; and online and mobile banking.

FFIEC Presentation by Jon Matonis

In April 1996, I was invited to speak at the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's EDP Symposium for Online Personal Computer Banking. My subject matter was Internet security issues for retail banking in the context of supervisory concerns relevant to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.