Campus-born, crypto-bound: alumni thriving in Web3

With over 7500 crypto aficionados, a mesmerizing galaxy of purple and pink filled the venue of Canada’s largest crypto and Web3 event. Founder Tracy Leparulo (external link) , with her signature magenta hair, took the stage to mark the beginning of the 2024 Blockchain and Crypto Conference.

Featured in last month’s newsletter, “Meet the visionary behind Canada's largest blockchain conference,” Leparulo is a graduate from Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM).

“I started my first Web3 Bitcoin event back in 2013,” Leparulo announced to the crowd. “Since then, we’ve been doing events all around the world.” Ultimately, her team had one mission: to bring Web3 and cryptocurrency to the masses through live experiences.

Vivid green beams of light projected onto the audience and digital banners displayed the words ‘Untraceable’—Leparulo’s signature brand that has worked alongside many blockchain leaders. Even the sunshine made an appearance, making the mega outdoor cabana the perfect place for crypto traders, developers and enthusiasts to network. 

This event took place August 13 and 14 at the Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto. And this massive venue didn’t fail to host the most high-profile blockchain and emerging tech event for crypto-enthusiasts. With six years in the running, this conference brought together over 250 speakers to debate how future technologies impact the social, economic, environmental and political landscape of our global economy. 

In fact, several members of the Untraceable team are alumni from TRSM at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). Another notable alumni speaker from the event is Anthony Di lorio (external link) , the co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Decentral and Andiami. Dean Skurka (external link) , President and CEO of WonderFi, was also a familiar face from TMU.

Mahyar Akhbari (external link) , Co-Founder of the Blockchain Futurist Conference, is yet another TRSM alumni. Akhbari graduated from TMU in 2009 with a Bachelor of Commerce, Marketing and Entrepreneurship. 

Prior to his involvement in the blockchain industry, Akhbari worked in banking at both TD and HSBC. However, it was back in 2013 when Akhbari discovered his passion for Bitcoin. “I started going to these weekly meetups that Tracy was hosting,” Akhbari explains. “Those meetups went from fifteen people in a bar to a thousand people, we were lucky enough that those meetups were where Ethereum was born.” 

Ethereum (external link)  is a decentralized blockchain platform home to digital money, global payments and applications. Essentially, it lets you be your own bank as you can control funds with your wallet as proof of ownership—and no third parties are necessary.

Akhbari expands on the success from this year’s event. “If you're a Canadian in the blockchain space, there’s no other event to go to in Canada to make a common network and meet other companies, find customers, be on the leading edge investors,” he suggests. “So, it is the place to be for Canadians.”

As an alumnus, Akhbari advocates that networking has brought him to where he is today. Specifically, the Untraceable team met through Enactus (external link) —a student organization at TMU dedicated to the art of entrepreneurship and using the power of business to support a greater change in the community. “We were on the ground floor of learning and creating an industry in a lot of ways,” Akhbari recalls. “We thought the best way for us to be involved is producing events and doing large scale things.”

Akhbari adds that crypto is the intersection of every industry with technology—it’s one of the fastest growing tech fields in the world. “It's the most important technology since the Internet. It's the most transformational technology that crosses all industries, all governments.” He explains that blockchain and crypto currencies all work on decentralized systems. 

Decentralized technologies allow data to be shared securely with all participants having equal access. So, while Leparulo’s brand may be called ‘Untraceable,’ they continue to leave quite the ‘trace-able’ mark on the blockchain industry.