Here at ARK we are always talking about disruption and now we are faced with huge disruption. The coronavirus outbreak has massive implications on many levels for the whole world, not least of which is the need for many people to work remote where possible. This episode is a discussion about what that looks like during a time of mass quarantine. We are focusing our discussion on the realms of communication and entertainment. First of all, we discuss video conferencing and naturally, our eyes are on Zoom. Having grown rapidly in the last few years, Zoom will probably prove to be even more important as social distancing is enforced. From there we turn to messaging and texting in a professional context, looking at Slack in particular. We consider some of the other concerns in this period of remote work, particularly security and how the cloud has helped businesses alleviate security concerns. The conversation then turns to entertainment, as we first look at professional sports events, almost all of which have been postponed or canceled, and what might take their place in people’s lives. We can already see E-sports growing, even before the outbreak. We finish off talking about television and movies, arguing that on-demand services will probably strengthen under current conditions with traditional cable suffering due to the absence of sports. Listen in to get it all! “I think with the absence of live sports what we are really starting to see is online gaming taking off.” “There will obviously be a fall off when we do resume normal life but I think it is demonstrating this idea that watching virtual sporting events and virtual games is actually very entertaining.” Key Points From This Episode: The new outlook on working from home in a time of crisis Eric Yuan, the beginnings of Zoom and the rise of video conferencing software. How Zoom has managed to gain market share. Possible problems and roadblocks for Zoom as more people need more time on video. Zoom’s hardware, in-house data centers and excess capacity for scaling. Reasons for Zoom’s hyper-competitiveness in today’s market. Real-time, quick communication through text messaging; Teams versus Slack. Security concerns in the remote work realm and the benefits of cloud applications. The outlook for these high-value companies in the context of coronavirus. Looking at entertainment right now and the rise of gaming in lieu of live sports. Twitch-streamed virtual sports events and the possibility of celebrity partnerships. Regular, amateur gaming numbers in the US with new big event games. On-demand television and movie entertainment.

Our guest for this week’s episode is Nic Carter, Partner at Castle Island Ventures and Cofounder of Coinmetrics.io. In this episode, we dive deep into some of Nic’s current cryptocurrency obsessions. We start off covering the history of Bitcoin’s predecessors, leading to an interesting realization that the crypto industry today may be forgetting the lessons drawn from previous attempts to create a private money. We then shift the conversation to stablecoins and the implications of their continued growth. In doing so, we highlight that stablecoins today are virtually no different than reserve-backed currencies of the past. We end the conversation on an interesting theory that, contrary to popular belief, crypto may actually be good for the dollar. We explore different cases of dollarization and the heterogenous mechanisms by which they’ve emerged. Tune in for all of that and more! “Bitcoin is sufficiently decentralized so far that it’s avoided this kind of key man risk – the ability for the government to raid the offices of someone somewhere and shut the system down.” “You could store a billion dollars’ worth of Bitcoin in a single unit public-private key pair. This allows for extremely strong ownership, especially in countries where the banking system doesn’t work very well.” Key Points From This Episode: How Nic became Fidelity’s crypto analyst after a brainstorm with former ARK analyst Chris Burniske. Bitcoin’s most underappreciated property: ‘auditability’ The birth of Coinmetrics Anonymity, reliability, and the distinction between digital cash and electronic money. Bitcoin is the culmination of disparate prior technologies. A history of Bitcoin’s ideological predecessors: E-Gold and Liberty Reserve. The fundamental role centralization played in Bitcoins predecessors’ downfalls. The appeal of fiat-backed stablecoins. Why it is unlikely that Ethereum will unseat Bitcoin, and Libra’s loud ploy to overthrow centralized currency. Dollarization: benefits, adoption patterns, and how successful iterations are bottom up. Why crypto is potentially good for the dollar due to the dollar’s desirability. How credibility, not just technology, affects the adoption of new payment systems. The benefits of seedless mobile wallet setups.

Today’s guest is Matt Zeiler, Founder, and CEO of Clarifai. Clarifai is one of the first startups to apply modern deep learning for image recognition. Their tools are currently used by clients like Staples, OpenTable, and the US Department of Defense (DoD). In this episode, Matt sheds light on the company’s founding story and how an internship at Google was the catalyst for the creation of Clarifai. He also talks about what it’s like competing against industry giants like Facebook and Google. Clarifai’s algorithm and their ability to collaborate rather than compete with their clients truly sets them apart. Matt also sheds light on the benefits of the network effect for both the customers and the company. Matt talks about some of the interesting use cases of their technology, like Trivago, which uses image recognition to organize hotel photos or how the DoD uses it in natural disaster recovery. Matt believes that AI is a great service to the government in helping citizens in many ways, and Clarifai is incredibly proud to be a partner. Tune in to learn more about AI image recognition and be inspired by Matt. “At Clarifai, we don’t compete with our customers. We want to be seen as that partner that is going to take your data, learn from it to solve your business problems together.” “I really think that AI is going to be better than humans in so many different ways, and it’s already better than humans in a lot of ways for very specific use cases.” Key Points From This Episode: Learn more about Matt’s background, his Ph.D., and what ultimately led him to start Clarifai. Seven years on: Clarifai’s products, their customers and how they use the products. Some of the other applications of AI that Clarifai is potentially interested in getting into. How Clarifai aims to gain a competitive advantage. Why the API model works so well in the AI image recognition space. The different mix of products Clarifai customers use and why they choose them. Learn about the benefits that customers get from sharing their information on Clarifai. Why there is not really a limit to how large Clarifai’s model can grow. Where Matt sees Clarifai’s potential labeling feature taking the company in the future. Matt’s experience of working with the government and why he is proud to work with them. How AI could be used in natural disaster recovery efforts. The potential of video in the space, the neural network structures, and various use cases. Matt’s insights into the AI competition between the US and China.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is dominating most headlines of every news channel in the world. To learn more about this virus and its implications we talked to Professor Isaiah Arkin. He is the Arthur Lejwa Prof. of Structural Biochemistry at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the former Vice-President for Research and Development at the University. He holds a Ph.D. from the Yale School of Medicine in Cell Biology. Professor Arkin’s research has succeeded in shedding new light on the inner workings of flu viruses and in particular how a virus avoids anti-viral therapy. In this episode, Prof. Arkin clarifies some of the misconceptions around the coronavirus and draws parallels between the common flu and SARS. We discuss the threat level of the coronavirus, what we can expect from the disease, how we can control it, and whether the global fear is justified. In the second part of the show, we discuss immunotherapy, which he believes is ‘the next big thing’ in healthcare. He walks us through what the future of cancer research holds, why we should look to the natural world for answers and highlights some interesting research that is currently happening. As usual, our interaction with the Hebrew University was a fruitful one and we look forward to engaging more at NEXUS: Israel 2020 in New York.

This week’s guest is Chip Wilson, entrepreneur, philanthropist and most notably, the founder of apparel company Lululemon. Long before Apple and Tesla opened their owned stores, Lululemon pioneered the concept of vertical retail in North America. Unlike other sports apparel companies that sold to retailers, Lululemon designed products were sold exclusively in its own stores. By owning all aspects of design, marketing, and retail, it commanded software like gross margins. In this episode, Chip gives his insights on Lululemon’s business model, why Kit and Ace didn’t take off and his latest involvements in Amer and Anta, which some are calling the Nike of China. We are excited to discuss with Chip his innovative business model approach and how Lululemon was able to become brand pioneers, carving out a corner of apparel and creating the athleisure market.

Eleven years since the creation of Bitcoin, its security model is still not agreed upon. Our guest today goes by the Twitter pseudonym Hasu (@hasufl), an independent cryptocurrency researcher who publishes work on the subject of non-sovereign money and has taken a recent interest in Bitcoin’s security model. We kick off our conversation with a recognition of the power of pseudonymity in the digital realm and the implications of our ability to access an abundance of information in a post-internet world. We then take a deep dive into the world of Bitcoin, unpacking its security model. We begin with an explanation of Satoshi Nakamato’s explicit design goals to achieve the properties of an apolitical monetary system. We introduce an intuitive way of thinking about proof of work, highlighting Bitcoin’s innovative ability to coordinate trust, and facilitate the transfer of value without relying on a centralized authority. We explain why Bitcoin needs mining and how the network incentivizes miners. We place particular emphasis on the economic incentives required to secure Bitcoin and a potential shift in these incentives over time. We finish with an outline of countermeasures against a potentially weakening security model, in hopes to further encourage conversation. Key Points From This Episode: The transition from information scarcity to information abundance since the internet. Democratic values provided by the internet and its culture of pseudonyms. Satoshi’s design goals and Bitcoin’s security principles Why Bitcoin needs mining Timestamping with Nakamoto consensus Miners’ influence on the network: what miners can and can’t do How to think about proof-of-work What secures Bitcoin: a combination of cryptography and economic incentives Acknowledging a shift in Bitcoin’s security model from block rewards to transaction fees Countermeasures to Bitcoin’s changing security model Tweetables: “Money and finance are spaces that have historically had huge barriers to entry and largely been protected from disruption. Cryptocurrency is able to exist outside of the curfew of government regulation.” — @hasufl “The market value of rewards is tied to the health of the network. As a result, the entire balance sheet of miners is tied to the health of the network. If users lose faith, miners lose their investment.” — @hasufl “If there ends up being a problem, and we are in a hurry to fix things, then it’s way easier to make a mistake, adopt an imperfect solution, or implement something without full community buy-in.” — @hasufl

Blood is a crucial supportive therapy within healthcare. Approximately 18 million blood components including red cells, platelets, plasma, cryoprecipitate, and a small amount of whole blood are collected each year in the United States, meaning it is of critical importance that blood remains pathogen-free. Today’s guest is Dr. Larry Corash, the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Cerus (CERS), a patient-centric medical technology firm focused on massively improving the safety of the world’s blood supply. Cerus is helping to shift medical paradigms around the prevention of transfusion-transmitted diseases from reactive to proactive. Before 1971, there was only one test that was done on blood before transfusion, which was a test for syphilis. Since then, tests for other viruses have been invented but the method remains cumbersome and accident-prone. Dr. Corash’s experience with patients who had been infected with HIV through blood transfusions was ultimately what brought him to do the research that lead to the development of the technology Cerus uses. Dr. Corash appears on the show today to speak more about Cerus’s mission, the science behind INTERCEPT technology, legalities around FDA approval in the US, and some of the great work they have already done to revolutionize blood transfusion safety practices globally.

On the podcast this week, we have Will Hershey, cofounder and CEO of Roundhill Investments, to help us breakdown Esports and the Gaming Industry. Will is responsible for the company’s indexing, research, and product development efforts, in addition to firm-level partnerships and operations. Before founding Roundhill in 2018, Will served as the Head Trader with Yorkville Capital Management, and prior to that he was with Yorkville ETF Advisors, where he was instrumental in the creation and growth of two NYSE-listed ETFs. We dive into the latest trends in gaming, what we are looking forward to as new tech develops, and different business models between streaming platforms, both in the east and the west. Will gives us his perspective on cloud gaming and the introduction of VR. For an incredible look into the world of Esports, be sure not to miss out on today’s episode!

Join James Wang as he interviews Cathie Wood (CEO and CIO at ARK Invest) on our recently published Big Ideas 2020 report. On this podcast Cathie will share her perspective on some of the biggest breakthroughs ARK believes should not be missed in the coming year.

As we wrap up 2019, we would like to thank everyone who listened to the FYI — For Your Innovation podcast. We received incredibly positive feedback for our podcast show and had some truly amazing guests in the past year, ranging from world class geneticists to founders and CEOs. In this final episode of 2019, we put together a “greatest hits compilation” of our five most popular episodes.   1. On the Road to Full Autonomy with Elon Musk (EP11) Elon Musk talks about how his engineering background drives his decision making for Tesla and why he is so confident that Tesla will achieve full autonomy. On this podcast: Elon Musk, Tasha Keeney, Cathie Wood. (Listen to the Full Episode)   2. Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer with Charles Graeber (EP21) For decades cancer was something that was treated rather than cured. Author of the book The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer, Charles Graeber unpacks the history of immunotherapy, why it remained on the fringes for so long, and why cancer might become a manageable disease. On this podcast: Charles Graeber and James Wang (Listen to the Full Episode)   3. The Genomic Revolution with Prof. Dr. George Church (EP26) Professor George Church is one of the pioneers of modern genetics. We dive into the stage of genomics, next generation oncology, the security and regulation of genetic information, gene editing, and the increasing speed of the genomic revolution. On this podcast: George Church, Manisha Samy, Simon Barnett, and James Wang. (Listen to the Full Episode)   4. Wright’s Law—Understanding Technology Cost Curves with Brett Winton (EP07) Brett Winton explains how Wright’s Law makes simple and robust predictions about technology cost declines, and why it’s at the center of ARK’s research. On this podcast: Brett Winton and James Wang (Listen to the Full Episode)   5. Cerebras’ Wafer Scale Engine AI Chip with CEO Andrew Feldman (EP37) Andrew Feldman, co-founder and CEO of Cerebras, joins us to discuss the Wafer Scale Engine, or WSE, an AI chip that is 50 times larger than the largest chips produced by Nvidia and Intel. On this podcast: Andrew Feldman and James Wang (Listen to the Full Episode)   We will be back in 2020 with new episodes and more exciting topics, because investing in innovation starts with understanding it. Until then, stay innovative!