Many of my investments are in companies that make products or services that have the potential to change the world. It’s therefore a real pity that I never had the chance to invest in Soylent, a product that may redefine what food is. (Note: If shares should become available on secondary markets please let me know!)

Never heard of Soylent? It’s a powder that you mix with water to get a drink that has all the nutrition and vitamins you need to live healthy. It takes less than 5 minutes to make Soylent and it costs less than $10 per day! Soylent saves you time and money and makes it easy to get all the right nutrition elements that you need for a healthy life. 

I first heard about Soylent 2 years ago and found the idea intriguing. However, you could not buy the product yet at the time (it only started shipping in the US around April 2014), so I could not try it out and therefore sort of forgot about it. Every now and then I read an article (either very postive or very negative: disruptive technologies are always quite controversial and lead to lots of online discussions. Just like Bitcoin!) and I decided to order Soylent if it would become available in Canada. And indeed, a few weeks ago I read that Soylent was now for sale in my new home country, so I ordered a batch of the product.

My first shipment of Soylent arrived earlier this week and the past 3 days I lived mainly on this product. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical when I started this food experiment, mainly because I like to eat good food and I spend quite a lot of money on it. I could not imagine that a cheap powder-based drink would change the way I would eat for more than a day.

Preparing Soylent is very easy. With your first shipment comes a big jug in which you put half a bag of Soylent powder, then you fill half the jug with water and you shake the mix for 30 seconds. You then add the remaining powder, fill up the jug with water and shake again for 30 seconds. Done! It’s best to drink Soylent chilled, so I put it in the fridge and started my new ‘diet’ the next morning during breakfast. In October bottles of Soylent will go on sale as well, meaning that you don’t need to prepare it yourself anymore.

I live fairly healthy, with lots of exercise, not too much stress, and good food (plus several vitamins and mineral supplements, based on the results of my human genome sequencing). So I assumed Soylent would not make me more healthy, it would merely make eating faster and cheaper.

I got up a bit too late and had an early meeting in my office, so I did not have a lot of time for breakfast. Normally I would have a large glass of water (I start every day with a large glass of warm water), make some yoghurt with fruit and eat some bread with jam or cheese. Now I had my glass of water as usual and then I drank a smaller glass of Soylent. I finished breakfast in less than 2 minutes and jumped in my car to drive to downtown Vancouver.

Soylent tastes a bit like pancake batter or possibly a kind of oatmeal, not a bad taste actually. It was not something I needed to get used to, and over the past days I started to like it more and more. It was very easy to drink, it reminded me of having a milk shake, partly because it has the same texture and it came straight out of the fridge so it was very cold.

When I arrive in the office normally the first thing I do is to make myself a strong coffee. But now I did not really feel like drinking coffee, which is very strange for me. I normally drink at least 2 cups of coffee in the morning and on average about 4 cups of coffee per day. A workday does not really start until I finish my first coffee. But today I was a bit thirsty and decided to have a glass of water instead.

2 hours later I made my first coffee, and that was actually the only coffee I had that day. I wasn’t sure whether not drinking coffee was related to Soylent, but after 3 days I recognize the pattern: I only drink 1-2 cups of coffee per day now instead of 3-4, and I don’t miss it at all. I actually prefer an extra sip of Soylent instead of a coffee and the main reason I drink coffee is because I am so used to making one that I don’t really think about it.

After 2 meetings, around 11 AM, I normally get hungry and start looking for a cookie or a banana. But instead I decided to have half a glass of Soylent and my craving for other food was gone right away. And I started to really like the taste of Soylent!

Lunch was simple as well. Just a big glass of Soylent followed by a glass of water. For some reason Soylent makes me more thirsty, despite the fact that a jug of Soylent contains 1.6 liters of water. I drank my lunch while doing emails, so I did not have to stop working, saving me at least 30-45 minutes (if I don’t have a biz lunch I normally I walk out to a restaurant, buy some take-away food and eat it in my office).

I had a bit more Soylent during the afternoon and had no craving for other food at all. And even better, I felt a lot more energetic. Normally I start to get a bit sleepy after lunch, but with Soylent there was no dip at all. The next day was exactly the same, so it seems Soylent is at least part of the reason for it.

When I came home I had a normal dinner. I decided not to go cold turkey and completely stop eating food, but to just replace breakfast and lunch with Soylent (except for business lunches). At home we try to have breakfast and dinner together every day, so I don’t want to change our daily schedule by suddenly just drinking Soylent. Dinner is more than just eating to me, it’s a good time to talk about the day with the family and to listen to Scott and Elaine’s stories. That ritual won’t be changed by Soylent.

I actually realized that because dinner is now the only ‘real food’ meal of the day, I tend to enjoy the food more than I would normally. It also feels like I eat more slowly. After not chewing for most of the day it feels good to eat some solid food.

I have now been drinking most of my meals for 3 days and I am very positive. There were no side effects for me because of Soylent. If you search the Internet lots of people say that their bodies and digestive systems have to get used to Soylent during the first days, but for me that was not the case. I felt at least as healthy as usual and slept very well. I suspect that not drinking as much coffee and not eating any sugary products are important reasons for this.

As a bonus I seem to be losing weight as well. Likely because I eat less calories, especially during lunch. Also there are no snacks in between, I totally lost my cravings for something sweet or some carbs in the late morning or mid-afternoon. When I want to eat something I just take a sip of soylent.

Based on my very limited observations and based on my personal taste, I do believe there could be a huge market for Soylent. The food seems to be healthy, at least more healthy than the food that most people in the (Western) world eat. It is also relatively cheap compared to buying fresh foods: for about $10 per day you can have the equivalent of 3 meals and some snacks per day, and this price may come down further if the soylent production scales up.

And not only that, the food can also save you at least 2 hours per day, assuming you only eat Soylent. No more grocery shopping for fresh food, no more cooking dinner (and cleaning up afterward) and not spending more than a few minutes on eating the food.

I have only tried Soylent for 3 days now, but I am convinced that I will keep eating it on a semi-regular basis. Not for all my meals, but possibly a few days per week for breakfast and/or lunch. Although many hardcore Soylent users have been eating just Soylent for weeks or even months, I won’t give up good ‘real’ food for Soylent. But I could imagine that when I should be alone at home for a few days that I would eat just Soylent to save time.

Soylent is certainly not for everyone, and most people will be very skeptical at first. But over time I think more people will try it out and will realize that it can be a good partial alternative for their normal diets. It saves time, is healthy and cheap. It may even help to solve the problem of hunger in the world. Soylent is disrupting the food industry, it could very well be the future of food!

This summer I’m too busy with work to go on a long holiday, so we’re just taking a few shorter trips. In early July we spent some days in Kelowna and Banff, and last week we did a trip to Southern California. I had accepted to speak at 2 conferences in Los Angeles so that was a good reason to bring the family along and plan some activities in between the conferences.

The first conference that I spoke at was the Silicon Dragon conference in Pasadena, a conference about tech and investing in China. We decided to stay in The Langham Huntington, where I stayed a couple of monts ago as well when I did 2 talks at Caltech and in Burbank. It’s a beautiful classic hotel with great service and nice views from the rooms (especially those on the backside of the hotel).

We did a bit of sightseeing in Pasadena, which is very nice place with some older buildings and nice shops. We also took the kids to the Caltech campus close to downtown Pasadena. We’re showing the kids all world-class universities when we are in the area: for example a couple of months ago when we were in the Bay area we went to Stanford and to UC Berkeley with them. Not sure if universities will still be around when they are ready to go there in 10-12 years (also education is being disrupted!), but it’s always good when they know what the campuses of these universities look like.

The Silicon Dragon conference was interesting and a good way to catch up with a lot of people (a lot of friends from my China days were there). The venture capital / dealmakers in China panel was fun to participate in and I even did an interview with CCTV (China’s main broadcaster) about investing in China and about online entertainment trends in Asia.

After the panel I picked up my family from the hotel and we drove 2 hours south to the Legoland Hotel in Carlsbad. We stayed there last year as well and it’s a good base when you plan to visit Legoland. However, the hotel is very much overpriced (almost $600 per night for a room without a balcony) and is super crowded in the summer months. The service is mediocre as well, it’s basically a 3-star hotel with 5-star prices. But the kids love it and that’s what count. But after last week’s experience we very likely won’t be back anymore, and certainly not in high season.

Legoland on the other hand was great and the kids had a fantastic time. As usual in theme parks we got VIP passes, but the park had changed the system. Last year when we visited Legoland we just got special tickets so that you did not have to wait in line at any of the attractions, but this year they changed to electronic devices. For an additional $25 per person you would have a 25% shorter waiting time, for $50 a 50% shorter waiting time and for $100 per person your waiting time was 5% of that of normal ticket buyers.

Pretty decent pricing (esp. compared to the price of the Legoland Hotel), because the waiting time at the most popular attractions was between 60-90 minutes. With the devices we had to wait max. 5 minutes at each attraction, and if you input the next ride while walking there you have almost no waiting time. We saved many hours of waiting because of the devices, so it was totally worth it for us.

Scott and Elaine both had their first rollercoaster experience in Legoland. They both liked it, but Scott felt one rollercoaster ride was sufficient for a day while Elaine was really excited and afterwards wanted to try every scary ride that we saw. Interesting to observe how different siblings can be.

After a couple of hours we left the park and drove down to San Diego, where we had booked a suite at the Hyatt next to Sea World. The place was quite nice, with a balcony overlooking the Mission Bay marina and a (bit crowded) pool with slides for the kids.

The next morning we took a water taxi from the marina to Sea World, the quickest and easiest way to get to the park. The boat captain made a little detour to show us some seals and then dropped us off at the back entrance of Sea World. So no waiting lines to enter the park. The only problem was that we had to pick up our VIP passes at the entrance of the park, so we first had to take a walk.

Sea World still had the old system where you could bypass all the lines, but because of all the negative publicity after the release of Blackfish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OEjYquyjcg) there were not that many lines anymore. Even at the top attractions waiting times in the middle of peak season were just 15 minutes! But the tickets were still quite useful for the shows: most of them are fully booked if you don’t come at least 15-30 minutes in advance, but with these tickets you get the best seats even if the show is full already and you can show up any time.

After Legoland Scott and Elaine were not too impressed by Sea World’s rides, but they liked the shows a lot. The orca and dolphin shows were both quite impressive, and the one with the sea lions was a big hit with the kids as well. We left around 4 pm and took a water taxi to the hotel from the back entrance.

In the hotel we went for a swim and then we drove along the coast to downtown San Diego. The city is very nice (I had only been there once before) and has a very relaxed feel. I especially like all the marinas, it seems like everybody has a boat in San Diego.

After dinner we put the kids to bed and then I worked a couple of hours in the living room. Although I try to keep up with important emails during the daytime I get so many mails that there is no way I can answer all of them on my phone. Even on my laptop I can’t answer all of them anymore and these days chances are you don’t get a reply anymore if you mail me. For a long time I tried to answer all my mails but I have given up on that. So if you ever try to get in touch and don’t get an answer, just send a follow-up mail (they do get priority!).

The next day we visited friends from Hong Kong in their holiday home in Newport Beach. They are both in the traditional finance industry, so we talked a bit about the latest developments in blockchain land (still one of my favorite topics) and the p2p lending world. I also took Scott to the beach, just a 2 minute stroll down the lane from their house. Many of the beaches in Southern California are wide and sandy, and the one in Newport beach was no exception. Great places to hang out and spend a lazy afternoon!

Late in the afternoon we drove to the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica, a very nice hotel overlooking the Pacific. I went for a run on the beach while the kids went swimming in the ocean, and after that we had a quick dinner in downtown Santa Monica. After dinner the kids were tired and went to bed straight away, while I worked for a couple of hours.

The next morning I got up early to drive to downtown Los Angeles for Keynote 2015, a distributed ledger conference, where I was invited to speak on investing in blockchain tech. The conference was held in the main ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, an amazing location! In the 1920s the first Oscar award ceremonies were actually held right in this place, and the hotel had several pictures from events in those days on its walls.

The blockchain conference was very interesting and gave me some new insights on what’s happening with bitcoin, and I enjoyed discussing the investment opportunities in blockchain technologies. The crowd was very different from the ‘old’ bitcoin conferences, where most people were very familiar with bitcoin already. At this conference I met several people from banks and other multinationals who were still new to the bitcoin world. Also a couple of speakers were pretty much anti-bitcoin, which made for some lively discussions. Thanks for organizing this Moe, it was great to be part of one of your events again.

The next morning I made a walk around Santa Monica before packing our suitcases and driving to the airport. I handed in my Silvercar and one of the Silvercar employees drove us to departures (great service!). We had a quick lunch in the lounge and then boarded our flight back to Vancouver. I had a fun and productive couple of days in SoCal, and the family enjoyed it as well!

Our fund CrossPacific Capital has a job opening for a public relations and digital marketing manager, based out of our Vancouver office.  Below are the requirements for the job, if you’re interested or want more information please contact Ms. Rui Habib at rui@xpcp.ca

Company

• CrossPacific is an asset management and advisory firm, strategically headquartered in Vancouver, BC Canada, North America’s Gateway to Asia.
• CrossPacific invests in Canadian and select US technology companies and creates value through cross-border business expansion into China. CrossPacific also invests in companies that would be investment targets for Chinese companies looking to expand their presence in North America.
• CrossPacific is managed by 2 Managing Partners and 1 CFO. The team is strengthened by 2 Venture Partners, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, and Advisors.
• CrossPacific is expanding rapidly and we are now looking to hire a Public Relations and Digital Marketing manager for our Vancouver office.
• The nature of our business means that potential candidates must be fluent in Mandarin Chinese (spoken and written).

Responsibilities

• Digital Marketing
• Managing Public Relations for portfolio companies
• Original digital content creation
• Translation support (Mandarin to English and vice versa)

 Required Expertise

• 3-5 years of experience working in public relations or related social/digital marketing fields
• Experience with mobile, online interactive and social media tools, techniques and best practices social media advertising, SEO, user analytics, blogs and email campaigns both in China and in North America
• Experience managing a budget
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Proven knowledge of graphic design principles, layout and production of high quality print and online material
• Eager interest in technology
• Prior start-up experience a plus – not a requirement

Education Level

• University level undergraduate degree from recognized university
• Native Mandarin
• Fluent English
• Other languages a plus

Compensation & Perks

• Salary negotiable
• MSP
• Medical and dental insurance
• Awesome Gastown office with waterfront views, accessible by Canada Line, Expo Line, Millenium Line, and many downtown buses

CONTACT: Ms Rui Habib, rui@xpcp.ca

Grace’ family is visiting at the moment, so we decided to take them on a trip to Kelowna and Banff. The holiday was relatively short (we left on Thursday and came back on Tuesday), but it was totally worth it despite the long distances that we had to drive. In Kelowna we stayed at the Delta resort on Okanagan Lake, one of the nicer places in town. The kids were happy that we went back to this hotel because they like its pools, and I like it because of its location (you can walk into town and you can run along the lake right outside the hotel room).

Upon arrival in the hotel we had a drink  in the club lounge on the 9th floor, with a great view over Kelowna and the lake. After that we drove to Quails’ Gate winery for a visit. As with many of Okanagan’s wineries the vineyard is located close the lake with nice views.

I played tag with the kids (they needed to get some exercise after hours in the car) and the family took pictures. We bought some wines in the shop and checked out the restaurant (a good one, but no kids allowed…) and then went back to Kelowna.

At night I worked a bit in the hotel room and enjoyed a bottle of Quails’ Gate rose wine with the balcony doors open. It was really warm in Kelowna (close to 40 degrees Celsius during daytime), but at night the temperatures were just perfect.

The next morning we drove to Lake Country (15 min north of Kelowna) for a tour of the 50th Parallel Estate winery. We were a bit early so we first drove to Coral Beach, just down the road from the vineyard.

I really liked the small beach, the water was blue and super clear and there was a small playground for the kids. I could have stayed there a bit longer actually, but we made an appointment that I was looking forward to, so had to leave.

At 50th Parallel Curtis and Sheri-Lee (the owners) were waiting for us, they had just arrived by boat with some friends. That’s a nice way to travel to work! After short introductions they showed us the ins and outs of the winery while we all enjoyed a glass of chilled Pinot Gris.

50th Parallel has a great location with its vineyards right on Okanagan Lake, meaning that in winter there is normally no snow (it can get pretty cold in the Okanagan in winter). If you would go up another 300 meters the climate would be completely different.

The winery only started in 2011 but they now already have some award winning wines. We among others tasted their Gewürztraminer, the Chardonnay, the Rose wine and of course their Pinot Noir. I especially liked the Gewurztraminer and the Pinot Noir, I found them better than most of the Okanagan wines that I have tried over the past 2 years.

In the caves Curtis let us try their latest, still unbottled, Pinot Noir, directly from the barrel. Really interesting to drink this new wine and to see how its color and taste are already developing.

After almost 2 hours we left the winery and went for lunch at a nearby restaurant before driving to the Mission Hill winery in West Kelowna.

In terms of architecture Mission Hill is by far the nicest winery in the Okanagan, but I am not a big fan of all of their wines (their Pinot Noirs are great though). I was a member of their wine club for a while so that I would receive their best wines every 3 months, but I decided to cancel it earlier this year.

Scott and Elaine running around at Mission Hill

After 2 winery visits in a day the kids were obviously getting a bit tired, so we went back to the hotel where I went for a swim with them. On the way back we suddenly saw huge smoke clouds coming out of the mountains to the south east of Kelowna.

The first smoke from a big forest fire Turned out that a forest fire had started on the outskirts of Kelowna and that is was growing very fast in size. Many houses were evacuated and one of the 2 highways out of Kelowna was closed because of the approaching fire. I followed the news on Twitter, which is still the best way to get up to date ‘breaking’ news. The next day the fire brigade managed to contain the fire, but at the same time many other fires in British Columbia had started and parts of the province were covered in smog.

Saturday morning we drove from Kelowna to Banff, a long but beautiful ride through British Columbia’s interior and across the Rocky Mountains. I was aware that it was quite a distance to drive, but what I didn’t know was that most of the road would be just 2 lanes. Even Highway 1, the main highway that basically goes from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic is mostly a 2-lane road until the Alberta border. That, combined with several road construction sites, didn’t make for a smooth ride. However, the amazing scenery compensated for that and by late afternoon we arrived in Canmore.

The next morning we had planned to visit Banff national park, but the weather wasn’t great (just 20 Celsius and overcast).

Therefore we decided to drive to Calgary instead, where the weather was supposed to be nicer. I had only been to Calgary once on a business trip and had not seen much of the city, so this was a good chance to check it out.

I was surprised to see how quiet the city was. Downtown hardly anybody walked around and the shops were virtually empty. Very different from Vancouver, even though we even find that a quiet city (after China it’s hard to consider a Western city vibrant…). I assume it’s mainly because of the recession: Alberta relies on the oil and gas industry and has some major problems because of the low oil price.

As usual I also checked out the housing prices, for the price of a small bungalow in Vancouver you can here get a huge mansion! Not that I would want to live here, especially the long, cold winters would drive me nuts.

In the afternoon we went back to Canmore where the weather had cleared up and drove the Kananaskis Trail. Highlights were the lakes along the route and a white water river with kayakers. Pretty cool to see them in action in the fast flowing river, I had never seen this before.

Monday we spent the whole day sightseeing in Banff National Park, a huge park on the border of Alberta and British Columbia.

We started off in Banff where we drove up to the hot springs and later checked out the Bow river and the golf course of the Fairmont hotel.

After that we drove the Bow Valley Parkway to the famous Lake Louise. I had seen many pictures of the lake and the Fairmont hotel next to it, and I had high expectations. However, I was a bit disappointed to see the lake in reality. It was beautiful, but I had seen so many other beautiful lakes, mountains and glaciers over the past days that I did not find it very special.

The hotel looked a bit out of place to me, without it the lake would have been much nicer. Also it was way too crowded. This is the place that everybody wants to see, so it’s probably the busiest place in the whole area.

We left Lake Louise after half an hour to drive the Icefields Parkway. This is a road through the mountains, following the Continental Divide, that connects Lake Louise with Jasper. Along the route there are many glaciers and (ice cold) lakes, it makes for a fantastic ride with lots of sightseeing places. It reminded me a bit of areas in Western Xinjiang, along the Karakoram Highway.

Throwing stones with Scott at Bow Lake

Among others we stopped at Bow Lake, which is probably even more beautiful than Lake Louise, with incredible colors and 2 magnificent glaciers above it. And the best thing? Hardly any other tourists!

Family picture at Bow Lake

The ride back went relatively easy (I was prepared for a much longer drive), and within 11 hours (incl. several stops) we were back home in Vancouver.

There are tons of wildfires in British Columbia and we saw quite some areas with thick smog. But luckily no fires close to the highways, so we did not have to make any detours. Vancouver is also quite smoggy because of fires on Vancouver island and north of Whistler, but not as bad as the smog that we were used to in China!

Back home in Vancouver: smoggy skies because of wildfires

Over the past 9 months I have been following the Volvo Ocean Race on an almost daily basis. I love sailing and this is the biggest ocean sailing race in the world. The race organizers designed a great mobile app and have a good website, so you can follow the participating boats continously. All boats have their own on-boat reporters who file daily articles and videos for the site. There is a live race tracker where you can see in real time where the boats are, with among others their speed and the distance to the race leader, making you feel like you’re part of the race.

Scott and Elaine also love the race and each have their team that they support: The Chinese Dongfeng team for Elaine (just like Grace) and the Dutch Team Brunel for Scott (just like me). On many days the first thing Scott would do after getting dressed in the morning was to check the Volvo Ocean Race app on his iPad for the standings. If there were any overnight changes he would immediately let me know.

I had planned to visit one of the stops of the Volvo Ocean Race with the kids, but none of them fit my and their schedule. But then I realized that there would be a stop-over (not a real stop, just a one day pause during the last leg) in The Hague right when I would be in The Netherlands. Unfortunately I could not take Scott and Elaine because they still had their last week of school, but I decided to go with my sister and my dad instead.

On Friday morning I drove from Amsterdam to The Hague in Vincent Everts’ Tesla. Vincent, who is a well known Dutch trendwatcher, wanted to interview me about the latest developments in Bitcoin and blockchain land. He offered to take me to The Hague in his car so he could ask the questions while driving. That was of course fine with me, because in that way I could avoid taking a train. Vincent did 2 video interviews, this one and this one (sorry, both are in Dutch).

Trains are not too bad in Holland, but for some reason I often seem to have trouble with them. For example, over the past week in Holland my public transport card stopped working, causing me to miss a connection. The next train that I could take was a slow train and eventually had a big delay, meaning that I was 10 minutes late for my meeting instead of 40 minutes early (if I had waited 30 minutes for the next fast train I would have still been on time).

Vincent had never been to the Volvo Ocean Race and didn’t know much about it, but I guess he liked how enthusiast I was about it, so he decided to join as well. After picking up my dad and Sonja we drove to Schevingen harbour where the boats had arrived a few hours earlier. It was great to see the racing yachts in real life. They are 65 feet, so considerably longer than my 48 foot yacht, but if you see them there they actually look relatively small. Racing all over the world’s oceans in these boats looks easy on a video on your laptop, but in reality it may be quite scary.

The boats have a very spartan interior, there is almost nothing inside the hull in order to make them faster. In one of the exhibition tents you could walk/crawl through a model of one of the boats. I didn’t want to wait in line for that, but if you watched the people doing that you realize there is hardly any living space inside. And they live on these boats for 9 months in all kinds of weather, from hot tropical (no air conditioning!) to almost Antarctic cold in the Southern Pacific Ocean, while going super fast through huge waves. Quite amazing actually, I never realized this until I saw the boats in front of me.

I bought a couple of t-shirts and caps for the kids and looked at some of the team’s tents (mainly selling team products). Coincidentally Bouwe Bekking, the captain of my favorite Team Brunel, was there giving a speech right when I was in their tent. I have come to respect him a lot over the past 9 months, he is a very professional sailor who keeps his cool in difficult situations. He has become a minor celebrity because of the huge media exposure of the race (the race even made the Dutch evening news a couple of times) and it must have been strange for him that people suddenly ask for his signature.

After a good lunch (all kinds of fresh fish, Scheveningen is a Dutch fishing fleet harbour) we decided to drive home before the regular Dutch traffic jams would start. Although I did not get to go onto any of the boats and although I did not see any of them in action, I am glad I went over to The Hague for this. I now respect the sailors even more and I have a new item for my bucket list: one day I want to sail on one of these ocean racing machines!

Last weekend I traveled to France with my parents to watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the oldest and possibly the most difficult endurance race for both racers and their cars. We arrived in Le Mans on Friday afternoon to pick up our tickets and to check out the race track. It was my first time at the 24 Hours and it had been on my to do list for a couple of years already.

Two of my friends were racing this year, Alexandre Imperatori in the LMP1 class and Ho-Pin Tung in the LMP2 category. I have been following Ho-Pin since 2003 when Grace and I produced a program for Chinese TV about him in London and at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. He has had an impressive career since then, among others winning the Formula BMW Asia, the German F3 and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia.

Alex I got to know a few years later in Shanghai, and his wife Karen is now actually a venture partner in our venture capital firm CrossPacific Capital. Alex is also a very accomplished race car driver, who among others won the A1 Grand Prix championship and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. This year he focuses on the World Endurance Championship and the VLN Endurance Racing Championship Nürburgring.

It was quite warm on the drive over to the circuit, but once we were there it suddenly started to rain hard! Luckily we brought umbrellas, but my shoes still got quite wet. Because there were not many people yet on Friday (the race starts Saturday at 3 PM) we used the time to get a feel for the place. We visited the village and went to take a look at both Ho-Pin and Alex’ pit lane garages. Behind the pit lane we coincidentally met Karen, who was on her way to see Alex in the driver parade in downtown Le Mans.

The next morning we arrived at the track by 10 AM, so we would avoid most of the traffic jams. That turned out to be a good idea, because it only took us an extra 20 minutes to park our car. We walked around a bit and then met Alex at the hospitality area. His racing team, the Swiss watch brand Rebellion, had 2 hospitality lounges and they were great. We spent quite some time in these locations over the next 36 hours.

The food in the lounges was excellent, with many different hot dishes being served all throughout the day and night, plus tons of desserts, many different cheeses and lots of snacks. Of course the wines and Champagnes on offer were great as well (this is France!). I think I had about 6 meals per day while watching the race in the lounge, so when I’m back in Vancouver I will need to run a bit more.

We had a quick lunch with Alex around 1 PM, I was surprised to see how relaxed he was 2 hours before the start of the race. He would be the starting driver for his car (the #13 in the LMP1 class) so soon after he had to leave. Then Karen came over and I talked with her about some business deals that we had looked at over the past days.

 Pit lane before the start

Half an hour before the start we went over to the Rebellion pit lane garage to watch the start of the 24 Hours from there. That was quite exciting, the atmosphere is obviously very different from when you’re outside on the grandstands. After spending the first few rounds on the ground floor we went up into the main grandstand ourselves to watch the race from above.

Watching the start of the race in the Rebellion team garage with the other drivers

While there we saw on the screens that a car caught fire and leaked oil and that another car crashed into it from behind. When the cameras zoomed in we realized that the car that had crashed was Alex’ car! It soon became clear that it was not a major accident and that he hadn’t been hurt, but the car had to be get back to the pitlane to be repaired.

Alex’ car gets repaired

We went back there as well to watch the repair process from the back of the garage. The atmosphere was quite stressful, but I was surprised to see how well organized the mechanics were. Because of the accident the safety car went out, so the team did not lose too many rounds to the competition, but having this happen to you early in the race is bad luck of course. The crew managed to repair the car in a couple of minutes and we left to have a drink in the lounge and watch the race unfold from there.

With H-Pin Tung behind the pit lane

Then I got a WeChat message from Ho-Pin, whose pitlane garage was just next to that of the Rebellion team. He had not driven yet, but when we met up he was also quite relaxed. I guess that’s what sets the professional drivers apart from the rest. I had not seen him in a while (he lives in China and Holland, and I am now mainly in North America) and it was good to catch up.

Alex during a break in the race

Back in the lounge Alex had changed to jeans and a t-shirt for a meal with Karen (pasta again for him). Despite his accident (which wasn’t his fault) he was in good spirits, he just felt unhappy that his car had the bad luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Pretty cool, I guess for him it’s kind of normal that these things happen.

After that I went for a walk to one of the curves with my parents. It’s pretty cool to see the cars braking from 300 km/h to below 100 km/h in a split second and then accelerate again. If you see the cars coming up to the curve you think there is no way they can brake on time. Super spectacular!

The LMP1 class had mainly hybrid vehicles and they are faster than the normal LMP1’s like the one Alex was driving in. They are also much more silent, and you can especially hear the difference when you are at one of the curves where they accelerate out of it. Not sure if I really like it though, the raw sound of Alex’ and Ho-Pin’s machines sounds much better to me and fits better to car racing.

Alex’ LMP1 car

Just before it got dark Karen and I took a helicopter ride over the Le Mans circuit. When you’re only in the main grandstand area you see just a tiny part of the 13-km track, so taking a helicopter is excellent to get a better view of the circuit. The helicopter was quite fast, but the race cars easily outaccelerated us on the track below. Very cool to experience this, especially during sunset. We made one full round over the circuit and then did another half lap over the woods at a lower altitude over the circuit.

After that it became dark and the cars put on their big headlights to drive through the night. At night Le Mans looks very different from during daytime, more spectacular but also more dangerous. Alex took over as the driver of his team’s car around sunset and so he would be the first one to drive at night. When I asked him about that half an hour before was going to drive he said he actually liked it. You feel like you’re going much faster, he said, because you don’t see as much. Race car drivers are different from other drivers I guess!

Late at night we went back to the hotel for some sleep and the first thing I did when I woke up the next morning was to check how all the cars had been doing during the night. Luckily both Rebellion cars and Ho-Pin’s car were all still in the race, but they all lost some places during the night. On our way back to the circuit I checked all the news about what had happened during the night so I was well-informed by the time we got out of our car and heard the sounds of the engines again.

Back at the track I immediately noticed how tired most people looked. Many had probably stayed overnight and others had spent the night drinking and partying. That’s the nice thing about Le Mans, there are concerts at night and everybody is having a great time both during the day and at night. But of course in the morning it may be a bit harder to get adjusted to daylight.

We started with some coffees and a second breakfast in the lounge, before walking over to the pit lane garage. There had been a problem with Alex’ car and the mechanics were repairing it. When also the other Rebellion car came in we left, there is not enough space for the mechanics to work with visitors disturbing them. We decided to walk over to the main grandstand opposite the garage boxes and watch the repair process from there. It took quite some time but eventually they managed to get both cars back on the road again.

We walked for an hour along the track watching the race cars and then went to the lounge for lunch. We joined Karen and Nick Heidfeld for lunch, although I was still full from breakfast. Nick, who used the be a Formula One driver for many years, now drives the other Rebellion car. He still looked quite fresh 21 hours into the race. Nick told us he would drive the last stint of the race in the Rebellion #12 car, and Alex would be the last driver in the Rebellion #13 car.

I did a few emails (I had hardly done any work since arriving in France) while watching the screens and then about 30 minutes before the end of the race we walked over to the team lounge above the pit lane. That’s probably the best place to watch the race.

Watching the finish of Le Mans 2015

You are literally rigth above the pit lane, so you see all the action below you, and just a few meters from the track. We watched the last laps from there and saw the Porsche team win the LMP1 one race. I was happy for Porsche, they hadn’t had a win in years (and of course the fact that my main car is a Porsche also helps!).

Selfie before the winner’s ceremony

Then we went down to the pit lane to watch the award ceremony. A huge crowd had formed, not sure how all these people suddenly got onto the track, but it was great to be cheering with them for the winners. Alex team finished 18th overall but they were best non-hybrid LMP1 one team, so they got trophies and bottles of Champagne on the podium as well.

View from the podium (taken by Alex!)

Then we walked over to the Pegasus garage box to congratulate Ho-Pin with finishing the race. He said it had been a tough race and he was obviously not too happy because of all the bad luck his team had had (last year he had a much better result), but I guess that’s life in endurance racing. At least his car made it to the finish line, but for a pro that’s not enough.

After the race with Alex and his Le Mans trophy

We didn’t want to leave at the same time as the crowds, so we had an early dinner in the lounge with Karen. There we waited for Alex, who was still busy with a briefing and interviews. When he came out the team was just starting a celebration party on the terrace of the Rebellion lounge. I took a picture with Alex and his trophy and then we left the Le Mans circuit around 5 pm. Most people had left already so we had no traffic jams at all.

I look back at an amazing weekend in Le Mans. This was a truly great experience, actually much better than any Formula One race I have been to. Of course it was extra special because we had access to many areas that the general public can’t visit and because my friends were driving, but even without that I think it would have been a great event. But being able to get away from the crowds and have nice drinks while watching the race made amazing instead of just great. I am very happy I had the chance to experience this and I hope to be back one day for another race!

(See here for Part 1)

The vision of the blockchain summit was “We are gathering top thinkers in the world of blockchain, digital currency and bitcoin to help define the future”, and the organizers indeed put a very interesting group of people together. A combination of entrepreneurs, investors, journalists, regulation experts, scholars, laywers and academics. See here for a full list. The sessions were moderated by 3 people: First of all well-known economist, advisor to many heads of state, and author of The Mystery of Capital, Hernando de Soto. Next to that Michael Casey from the Wall Street Journal, and author of The Age of Cryptocurrency. And finally Matthew Bisshop, the US Business editor of The Economist magazine. Three very different persons, who did a great job moderating the event.

 

Preparing for a group picture

It was not a summit about bitcoin, but about the blockchain. That is the underlying ledger of bitcoin that is put together by the miners and that can be used for a lot more things than just keeping track of all transactions. This doesn’t have to be the bitcoin blockchain, it could be the blockchain of another cryptocurrency as well. For now that seems unlikely because of bitcoin’s network effect. But because of bitcoin’s bad name (mainly its association with Silk Road, Mt. Gox and the fact that people still seem to think it’s criminal money) another cryptocurrency could still appear and beat bitcoin. Or there could be different blockchains based on different cryptocurrencies. But in the end every blockchain is similar: it is a ledger and once you put something on it you can never take it off anymore. So to stay in Necker Island spirit: what happens on the blockchain stays on the block chain!

Most things that were discussed during the summit could be tweeted or put on social media. There were just a few topics that we agreed not to talk about (Chatham rules), so I won’t mention these here (mainly government related or related to specific confidential projects). Generally everybody was very open with sharing their information. All sessions were recorded, so you should be able to see most of the content online in the next couple of days.

Looking back, there were 4 main themes that came back regularly and that we discussed in detail. These are (in random order): identity, property rights, elections and the Internet of Things. A summary of the main ideas for each theme:

Identity: We discussed that the identity stack is a core application for the blockchain, it’s a critical piece for further development and needed for a trusted information economy system. This can be achieved by putting verified personal data on the blockchain. One project in this space is the Open Mustard Seed project, Patrick Deegan gave us a presentation about this. One of the other participants, Marshall Turber, is working on a similar idea. He is creating an integrity index using Ethereum, his project is called the Bucky Integrity Index.

 

Actress Lucy Liu joined via Skype

Property rights: Hernando de Soto wrote in his book The Mystery of Capital that many assets in developing countries can’t be capitalized because there are no titles for them. Having property deeds could make a lot of dead assets into assets that can be capitalized, meaning that they can more easily be sold to outsiders or that they can be used as collateral for a loan.

Having a system for property rights can make a poor country grow, and can help the lower classes to start businesses and grow more prosperous. So far that was quite hard to do, however, but the blockchain suddenly gives us a tool to easily put these rights in a database and to (for example) build smart contracts on top of them. The company Factom is doing this for Honduras already, where all property deeds will be put on the blockchain. The potential of this is huge!

 

Hernando shows us the documents needed to get property rights in Peru

Elections: The blockchain can be used for voting, making elections complete transparant. You could watch the voting in real time, but you would not know who voted for whom. Someone mentioned that it can bring democracy to the world (I’m not a fan of democracy in every situation, for the simple reason that it leads to slower decision making, so that argument is not very strong IMHO), but if it can replace existing voting systems I’m all in favour of it. I would not be surprised if a lot of democratic countries would strongly resist this, and if that’s the case it is clear there is a need for blockchain elections. On a smaller level it can get people to participate in decison making, even for example for a parent teacher association.

The Internet of Thing (IoT): IoT will connect all electronic devices, it will do with the physical world what the Internet did for the digital world. All devices could be put on the blockchain and they could communicate with each other and even pay each other with smart contracts. The killer app for this will be the Economy of Things, meaning that exisiting ‘things’ can be used more efficiently. For example, at the moment cars are only in use about 4% of the time. If they can communicate with each other people can car share more easily, especially when autonomous vehicles will hit the market over the next years. Another example is that currently 20% of all trucks on the roads are empty, the IoT could reduce that number.

A list of some other things that we discussed during the past 3 days and things that stood out for me:

– It turns out that wallets may be one of the main hurdles for bitcoin adoption. Last year MIT gave all of its new students $100 in bitcoin and we talked a bit about what the effects of that. Soon a report about this will come out, but one of the important findings is that even MIT students (who are young and smart) struggled with wallets. Students that have easier-to-use wallets adopted bitcoin more than people who used ‘difficult’ wallets. Good news for Circle.com investors but not so much for Blockchain.info.
– Corporates worry that competitors can hack their blockchain and that’s holding them back from looking at blockchain solutions. Education will be needed.
– Although it should be well known for most people in the bitcoin community, we should keep on spreading the word about the fact that bitcoin is not an anonymous currency. One of the speakers remarked: despite media saying the contrary, any criminal that uses the Blockchain is a moron.
– Organizations like Western Union and payday loan companies are almost criminal. What they charge is ridiculous and we should find a solution for the poor people that now rely on their services. Oliver Luckett of theAudience made a documentary for American Express last year and learned that the average payback of a $400 payday loan in Mississippi is $1400, after on average 2 years! These people just don’t have access to other sources of capital. They often can’t get a bank account and therefore need to use check cashing services ($7 per check) and to pay bills ($7 per bill). That adds up after a while. These are the people that should be interested in bitcoin accounts, because it can solve some big problems for them and will save them a lot of money.
– Although most people at the summit talk online about bitcoin on a daily basis only 300,000-400,000 people engaged in online conversations about BTC so far (since BTC was introduced to the world in 2009). We tend to think that it’s much bigger because we live in an echo chamber, but it also means that there is a huge opportunity out there that we need to grab.
– A blockchain idea that came out of smaller group discussions is something that we called the sensor chain. This is a low cost sensor to measure weather data all over the world (e.g. temperature, air pollution, water quality) and which data is automatically stored on the blockchain as part of the Internet of Things. In this way we can help to save the planet and get independent data on what is really happening in the world. The data can’t be hacked or manipulated (once it’s in the blockchain it stays in the blockchain). A very interesting idea that hopefully can become reality.
– Related to this are personal carbon credits on the blockchain, e.g. you get these credits if you have solar panels on your roof. There is enough solar power to deliver energy to the whole world, but there is no decentralized grid yet.
– A fun part of the summit was when Bitfury introduced a mining lightbulb with an iPhone app. The idea was born last year (coincidentally on Necker island as well) when a few people were trying to get a Raspberry Pi to mine bitcoins. It was so hard to set it up (it took them 4 hours) that Bill Tai made the remark that mining should be as easy as screwing in a lightbulb. Well, one year later the lightbulb is there. The Bitfury guys hooked it up to a wind power generator that they rigged on the rooftop of the Great House and managed to mine some bits using just windpower.

It was a fun side project for them, not something that is core to the business. When I posted it on Twitter it got retweeted hundreds of times and I got tons of questions about it, it seems people did not realize it’s not a serious product. The chip is super efficient, but given today’s hashrate and the low bitcoin price you should not expect to make more than your electricity cost. However, it’s a good way to start mining and it may inspire others to build other easy-to-use miners. The gadget (because that’s basically what it is) also has an interesting feature: there is some kind of random lucky draw for users, meaning that if you mine you may suddenly get the ‘petasplash’: suddenly all the hashing power of Bitfury’s network is redirected to your lighbulb, meaning that you can suddenly earn a good number of bits. A cool project, especially when you should hook it up to solar power or to a Tesla battery, so that you don’t pay cash for the electricity.

 

Hernando de Soto and Richard Branson

What’s next?

If you made it until here you will realize that we discussed a lot of things and that we have a lot of ideas. However, what really counts is the follow-up. What might happen over the next weeks and months? We talked about writing a white paper for congress, because it’s important that the politicians have a better understanding of the blockchain and what can be done with it. Spreading the word on social media is also important, I guess this blog post is part of that strategy. We also discussed that academia should be more involved, as the link between entrepreneurs and the government (MIT now already pays some of the core developers, they took over this role from the Bitcoin Foundation). For that reason a textbook for students (Michael Casey joked that his book might be a good fit) and a PhD course are needed. The group will stay in touch through email (this morning we already received all email addresses) and through Facebook group to try to achieve these objectives.

The blockchain summit is now over and looking back I think it was totally worth my time. It was not cheap to attend and it took me almost 2 full days of traveling, but the value I got out of it was much higher than the real monetary cost and the opportunity cost of the event. First of all I learned a lot and we came up with many new ideas. Next to that I met tons of interesting people whom I often only knew from the Internet. As an added extra I even found 2 interesting companies that I may invest in. I am glad I took the time out of my schedule to attend.

Valery, George, Bill and Richard, thanks for hosting this fantastic event!

 

All pictures of the Blockchain summit are here in a set on Flickr.

The past 3 days I spent on Necker Island, Richard Branson’s private island in the British Virgin Island, with about 30 other people who are active in the bitcoin and blockchain world. It was an amazing experience, not only because the island comes very close to what I think paradise would look like, but also because the summit was very productive and gave me lots of things to think about. If I would not be a venture capitalist and if I would not be involved in Uvamo I might consider to work on blockchain themes full-time. It is clear to me now that the blockchain is the future and is already starting to change the world.

This blog post consists of 2 parts, this is part 1 in which I will talk about how I experienced spending time at Necker Island. Tomorrow I will post the second part, which is about the blockchain summit itself.

Despite the fact that most of the companies that I was involved in in China were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands I had actually never been there. The group of islands, located about 150 km west of Puerto Rico, is more unspoiled than I had imagined. Road Town on Tortola (the place where most BVI companies seem to have their P.O. Boxes) is a small town, likely with a ratio of at least 10,000 companies per inhabitant. It’s a great tourist destination, although a bit off the beaten path (something I like).

Getting there is not easy. From Vancouver I took the redeye to New York, then I flew to San Juan in Puerto Rico and from there I took a very small plane to Beef Island (which is connected by bridge to Tortola). At San Juan airport I already met several of the participants in the lounge and later a few others at the gate. Not all of us took the same plane, because each plane only fits about 8 people, but there are air services at least once an hour. On my plane there were 2 other participants, Mike, a bitcoin trader from Chicago and Danny who runs a fund that invests the money of the founders of Alibaba.

After arrival at the BVI airport one of Necker’s staff picked us up and we took a minivan taxi to the marina (next to the airport terminal, we could probably have walked it in 5 minutes). I quickly understood that on Necker you don’t have to do anything, so even for a short walk transportation is always arranged. We arrived at the jetty where one of Richard’s 600 horsepower speed boat was waiting for us. We stepped on board and were immediately offered a drink. The bottle of champagne looked inviting, but because it was hot and we were thirsty from the long trip we opted to start with a cold local beer.

Then we took off. First slowly because of all the anchored sailboats in the bay (which immediately inspired me to go sailing here one day), and then full power onto the sea. The guy who drove our boat told us that the boats go up to 90 km/h. Not sure how fast we went, but it was faster than I had ever gone on a boat. We jumped over the waves and it was actually hard to drink the beer from the bottle! I took a few pictures but had to watch out not to lose my camera because of the wind.

About 20 minutes later Necker appeared on the horizon. When we got closer to the island a drone circled above the boat so the participants on shore could see who was arriving.

Necker is a beautiful island, with white beaches, tropical vegetation, tons of wild life (including 7-8 feet long iguanas and a large flamingo colony) and of course 5-star accommodations.

Danny and I shared a Balinese villa and after a short stop at the Great House (the main house on the island with a large lounge and great views), we got a electric golf cart to drive to our villa. Our place overlooked one of the beaches and a lake full of flamingos (they can be quite loud in the morning!). We quickly freshened up (our luggage was already in the room) and then went back to the Great House for cocktails with the rest of the group and for the official opening of the blockchain summit.

Necker Island is about 300,000 m2, so it’s not a very large island (I sailed around it on a Hobie Cat in less than 30 minutes). Only about half of the island is cultivated, the other half still looks like most of the other islands (quite dry with not a lot of vegetation). The part where the 6 villas and the Great House (with 8 additional bedrooms) are located has undergone a complete metamorphosis, the vegatation is lush and Richard built decent roads. The beaches on this side are beautiful and there are several swimming pools and hot tubs. The best hot tub is on top of the Great House, the highest point on the island. There you feel literally on top of the world!

You can actually rent the island, with prices started at $65,000 per day. That may seem expensive, but the island can house up to 30 people, so it’s actually quite reasonable for such a place. Of course you can’t just rent it for one night (the minimum seems to be 5 nights), so you’ll always be looking at at least a few hundred thousand dollars, similar to what you would pay for a super yacht.

Many of the world’s celebrities have stayed at Necker over the years, although the staff don’t talk too much about who they have met. I understood that Google co-founder Larry Page got married on the island. He liked it so much that he bought the island opposite Richard’s. I sailed there to take a look, it seemed like a nice place to live as well.

For $65,000 per day you get everything you can imagine. All food and drinks are included and the island has a total of 120 staff, so you don’t have to do anything yourself. The service is extremely good. Not only do you immediately get everything you want, but the staff also anticipated your needs.

Most of the staff are in their 20s and clearly chosen because they love to party and because of their looks (especially many of the girls were stunning). Richard likes blond girls, that was clear! But they also work hard and seem to be very happy to work in one of the nicest places in the world. The manager of the island is a cool guy as well, my impression was that he runs the island very well.

Virtually everything is possible on Necker and some parties go on through the night. When I left this morning at 6 AM the last people had just left the beach party (I wisely left the beach before midnight, I can guarantee you that spending almost a full day on planes with a hangover is an experience you do not want to have more than once in your life).

At 6 AM we saw a staff member walking along the road with a big wound on his forehead. When we asked him what happened he said that while dancing a tree suddenly popped up in front of him! It’s all part of life on Necker. The previous manager on Necker did not allow the staff to drink or to (fill in the blanks yourself) with the guests, but that did not fit well with Necker’s culture so he only lasted for about a week! Anyway, what happens on Necker stays on Necker, but you probably catch my drift.

The villas are very nice as well, on par with the best accommodations in other parts of the world. You have total privacy in the villa even when the island is ‘crowded’. The bathrooms are partially outside but they are built in such a way that you can see the island but nobody can see you. Of course that may change now that drones are on the island!

The mini bar was well stocked with nice bottles of wine and champagne (all included in the price of course), but there was no opportunity to drink any of it. The only thing I drank in the room was espresso, all rooms have a very good espresso machines.

Having your own private island seems like a nice thing, but after staying on Necker for 3 days I am not so sure if it’s really something I would like to have (assuming I could even afford it). I actually subscribe to a private island newsletter so I paid a lot of attention to the details of what it takes to live here. I think Richard made a smart choice to build small luxurious villas on the island and rent these out. Not only does it make living a lot more affordable (I am sure he makes decent money with the prices he charges, even with 120 staff on the payroll), but it’s also nice to meet interesting people all the time (most visitors seem to be celebrities or business people). Living on an island on your own will likely be quite boring after a few days already. Good to know that I can take one that off my bucket list.

Richard Branson was the host, but he was not very much involved in the event. He showed up at some sessions and at some of the meals, but most of the time he was doing other things. Part of the reason was that he has recently become a grandfather for the first time (actually 3 times in the past 6 months, one of his kids had twins, and another had a daughter), and the grandkids were on the island as well during the event. Richard even took his 3-month old granddaughter to breakfast one day.

Richard is very charismatic and I think that’s one of the reasons of his success. He is always laughing and interested to talk to everyone. Interestingly he also seems very knowledgeable about the companies that he runs: during one breakfast I happened to sit next to him and he was talking to the lady opposite me. She is a bitcoin miner in her free time, but her day job is at Virgin Galactic designing the pressured spacecraft cabin and training astronauts (so she actually works for Richard). He seemed to know a lot about the details of the spacecraft when others asked questions about it and he wanted to see the latest pictures.

Richard seems like a great guy to work for. He is also very sportive, I was told he runs and kitesurfs in the morning and in the afternoon I saw him playing tennis with his personal trainer.

Anyway, back to the reason why we were at Necker. Although it may seem we only drank and partied that was certainly not the case, the main focus during the 3 days was on bitcoin and its underlying ledger, the blockchain. Tomorrow I will talk about the main themes we discussed, our findings and our plans for the future.

You can find part 2 of this post here.

A set of all pictures that I took during the Blockchain Summit is here.