6 Questions for Daniela Barbosa of Hyperledger

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!

This week, our 6 Questions go to Daniela Barbosa, general manager for blockchain, healthcare and identity at the Linux Foundation and executive director of Hyperledger.

At Hyperledger, Daniela is responsible for the overall strategy and operations of the organization, including staff, programs, expansion and the execution of Hyperledger’s mission. Daniela has more than 20 years of enterprise technology experience. She has a master’s degree in library (remember those?) and information science, which she put to work in the 1990s when the internet was becoming nascent for consumers and enterprises alike. An active voice in the industry, Daniela has been a featured guest speaker at many key blockchain conferences worldwide and advises the Hyperledger community on the use of open-source technologies. 

1 — What is the main hurdle in the way of the mass adoption of blockchain technology?

Onboarding. For enterprise blockchain, it is no longer a question of if the technology will work. We have seen plenty of proven enterprise networks across many use cases — in supply chain, trade finance, digital payments, healthcare and more. It is how those networks are governed as active growing networks beyond the POC stage and how you onboard a diverse ecosystem of both small and large players. 

In crypto, usability has a long way to go, as anyone who is not deep in the tech and has tried to set up their own wallet might tell you. Third-party services are certainly making some usability aspects easier, especially to buy and hold, but then we are getting ourselves back into the same game.

2 — Looking at the top 100 projects in crypto by market cap, which ones stand out to you — and for what reason?

Great, thanks for the question. I just spent 30 minutes falling down the rabbit hole. There are more than a handful on that list today that are leveraging our Hyperledger ecosystem… However, I had to pick one, it is Ethereum. The Hyperledger community has been part of the Ethereum ecosystem since the Hyperledger Foundation started in 2016. From 2018 onward, we have worked closely with the key stakeholders defining Ethereum-based solutions and use cases in the enterprise. In early 2017, our Technical Steering Committee approved the Hyperledger Burrow project, which was our first Ethereum-derived project that supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Then, in 2019, we welcomed Hyperledger Besu, a code contribution by ConsenSys. Hyperledger Besu is an Ethereum client developed under the Apache 2.0 license and written in Java that runs on the Ethereum public network, private networks and test networks and is designed to be enterprise-friendly for both public and private permissioned network use cases.

3 — Do you subscribe to the idea of Bitcoin as a means of payment, as a store of value, as both… or as neither?

I obviously subscribe to the idea of Bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment, otherwise I wouldn’t have spent all my first Bitcoin in 2012…. Today, I think it is both a store of value and a means of payment, especially outside of the United States. Just wished I had stored more of it…

4 — Who makes sense to you, and who makes no sense whatsoever?

The young climate activists who are fighting for their (our) right to live on a habitable planet make sense. We need to support climate action initiatives, in the streets and with global funding for innovation and sustainable development. 

People who stick with their “principles” without looking at facts and science make no sense. Even after being clearly proven wrong, they just double down.

5 — What was the most embarrassing moment of your life?

I traveled halfway across the globe for a meeting, padding in about 36 hours before the meeting to be well rested. I then showed up two hours late because I had the wrong address and stayed at a hotel on the other side of town from the actual meeting location. Forever a Road Warrior.

6 — Think of a favorite poem or song lyric. What is it, and why does it speak to you?

Bob Dylan’s “I used to care, but things have changed.” As Bob said when he received the Academy Award for best original song for “Things Done Changed” in 2001, it “obviously is a song that doesn’t pussyfoot around nor turn a blind eye to human nature.” Yes, indeed. People are crazy, and times are strange.

A wish to the blockchain community:

Keep building.