Philly Blockchain Tech

Philly Blockchain Tech is a meetup for technologists and entrepreneurs to share and learn about the latest in blockchain based technologies, decentralized systems, and the exciting possibilities they unlock!

ScopeLift is proud to participate in organizing monthly Philly Blockchain Tech events, and assist with sponsorship when needed. Learn More →

Resources

ScopeLift contributes to the production of high quality educational resources, helping to bring an understanding of blockchain technology to more developers and users.

Build Blockchain Tech

ScopeLift’s founder, Ben DiFrancesco, authors Build Blockchain, a no-nonsense weekly newsletter focused on the technical aspects of crypto. It helps make complex topics approachable, and to place developments in the blockchain world within their social and historical context.

Speaking Engagements

ScopeLift wants to share our knowledge with the wider community of developers, entrepreneurs, investors, and other mainstream users. We do this frequently through podcasts and conference speaking engagements.

If you're interested in a technical talk at your conference, company, meet up, podcast, or other venue, please reach out! Below, please enjoy a sample of talks given at events in recent years.

QuantLayer Podcast: A Tale Of New Digital Primitives

September 16th, 2019 on QuantLayer

Founder and CEO Ben DiFrancesco makes his second appearance on the QuantLayer podcast to discuss new digital primitives, why it’s OK to like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and a host of other topics.

Off The Chain Podcast With Anthony Pompliano

July 31st, 2019 on Off The Chain

ScopeLift founder, Ben DiFrancesco, joined Anthony Pompliano as a guest on his Off The Chain podcast. They discussed the crypto world from my perspective his perspective as a developer, especially focusing on how smart contracts allow engineers to build new kinds of software systems.

QuantLayer Podcast: The State Of Crypto

July 2nd, 2018 on QuantLayer

ScopeLift’s CEO, Ben DiFrancesco, joins QuantLayer hosts Vikram and Faizaan. They talk about the Elixir programming language, how he finds clients and what software is like at bigger vs smaller companies. They also discuss the current state of crypto with the early internet, get Ben’s thoughts on the current scaling debate for smart contract platforms, and how big companies might benefit from wide crypto adoption.

Why Developers And Entrepreneurs Should Be Excited By Blockchain

November 16th, 2017 for Build Blockchain Tech

Ben DiFrancesco launches Build Blockchain Tech, a new initiative to create blockchain resources aimed at developers and technologists. But why should we be excited about blockchain anyway? In this video, we go past the hype and look at the real, fundamental possibilities for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Threads, Queues, and Things to Come: Present and Future of Concurrency in Swift

August 15th, 2017 at 360iDev

This technical conference talk was aimed at experienced iOS developers looking for a deeper understanding of writing performant, concurrent code on Apple's platforms. In addition to exploring the current state of the art, the talk explored possible additions to the Swift language in this area we may see in the future.

Elixir Through Other Eyes: A Non-Rubyist's Take

October 28th, 2016 at EMPEX

A lightning talk discussing my experience coming to Elixir from a mobile background, rather than from Ruby, which is more common for new Elixirists. We see some ways in which the Elixir community might welcome those from other language backgrounds, as well as developers learning Elixir as their first serious programming language. There is no recording of this talk, but slides are available here.

Compiler's Aren't Magic, So Let's Build One in Swift

August 22nd, 2016 at 360iDev ● September 17th, 2016 at Indie DevStock

A technical conference talk aimed at demystifying the world of language implementation. In it, you're introduced to my simple programming language, Bitsy, and walked through the creation of a Bitsy Compiler in Swift.

Roundabout: Creative Chaos Podcast - Episode 58

May 26th, 2016 on Roundabout: Creative Chaos

Ben DiFrancesco joins Roundabout hosts Tammy and Charlie to discuss lots of nerdy stuff: life as a consultant, continuous learning, getting into programming, and (of course) zombies.

A Practical iOS Primer for Web Developers

February 24th, 2016 at the New York Code + Design Academy

Given for students at NYCDA in Philadelphia who were completing a Ruby on Rails boot camp, this talk gave a practical introduction to iOS development for a group of new devs who had no prior mobile development experience. It focused on areas of greatest difference between iOS development and their course materials: building UIs, programming languages, and deployment.

A Case Study on Reusability in Interface Builder

September 10th, 2015 at Philly CocoaHeads

A lightning-style talk exploring multiple ways to implement the same view in Interface Builder, with the goal of layout reusability in mind. We examine each implementation in Xcode and the tradeoffs involved, and draw some conclusions about which approach worked best.