There are endless opportunities for crosspollination between these four conferences. All eyes are on Europe for the Malta Week between the 15-19 November.
Aleksey Leonov
Maria Debrincat
Kai Dowling
Dr. Irina Heaver
Ana Maria Duarte Delgado
Jan Kowalczyk
Zak El Maaroufi
Sofya Puzhaykina
Marie Reyal
Sintija Rimsa
Bernard Schranz
ARABIC ADVISER
Sirine Mannai
While all issues of BLOCK hold a special place in my editorial heart, this edition is unique for exploring a number of exciting firsts.
Following the 2020 roll out of 10 key languages across our websites, we have published the last 3 editions of BLOCK magazine in both English and Mandarin. This publication however debuts its content in Arabic, marking a memorable place in our print history. This is, of course, a nod to another first: the launch of the first AIBC Summit to be held outside of Malta. The business-rich emirate of Dubai has much to offer the entrepreneurial world.
A high-growth economy and competitive incentives offer opportunities for established businesses and startups alike. Recent investment in the emerging tech sector has provided a favourable landscape for innovation to flourish - putting Dubai at the heart of trade between East & West.
In this issue we tap into the companies and individuals at the heart of the region, asking them what makes Dubai such a great place to create the businesses leading tomorrow. We also delve into the trends embodying the tech zeitgeist - discussing everything from NFTs to DeFi - the special feature starting on page 24 covers all this and more.
It’s time to say my thanks. Gratitude is owed to AIBC founder Eman Pulis, whose fearless leadership has led us through some tricky terrain. Thanks also to Jessica, her creativity continues to take this publication to new visual heights, as does Aleksey’s inspirational photographic direction. Lastly, the editorial team for their invaluable contributions.
Enjoy the issue!
Why Dubai? What makes the emirate so attractive as a place to do business?
Blockchain: giving the vulnerable entry to a global marketplace.
Globiance discusses banking the crypto industry for this cover story.
Dr Marwan Alzarouni on bridging the gap between regulators and businesses.
BLOCK speaks to the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
Relive the best moments from our time in Dubai.
Sorina Campean on connecting students and alumni with industry leaders.
What’s driving innovation in digital healthcare?
Can Ethereum reach Bitcoin’s height? We asked Tone Vays.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without prior consent in writing. Opinions expressed in the BLOCK are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. All reasonable care is taken to ensure truth and accuracy, but the editor and publishers cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions in articles, advertising, photographs or illustrations.
FEATURE
ةلاقم THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION OF PUBLIC HEALTH
What are the trends shaping digital health?
Get to know the key figures on the emerging and medical tech scene.
The BLOCK is published by Viking PC Health Ltd., Judge Paolo Debono Str., Msida Skate Park, Msida. MSD2032, Malta. Would you like to be in the next issue of BLOCK?
For more information regarding advertising opportunities kindly call Katy Micallef on (+356) 9915 0486 or email at katy@sigma.world. www.aibcsummit.com
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<h3>bringing together investors, innovative projects, and experts</h3>
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This spring brings with it a much needed breath of fresh air for the events industry. With a swift vaccine rollout underway, Dubai has emerged at the forefront of countries looking to rejuvenate a tourism industry still drowsy from its pandemic-induced hibernation - coming out on top as one of the most open travel destinations this year.
This, coupled with a growing reputation as a financial and tech hub for the emerging digital world - including having been amongst the first to champion Blockchain technology, has allowed the emirate to attract interest from businesses and entrepreneurs focussed on exploring new niches in innovation and economic diversification.
It is fitting then, that this will be the location of choice not only for the company’s first in-person events of 2021, but for our first major expos to be held outside of Malta. Dubai’s friendly people, Blockchain and financial ecosystem, tourist attractions and connectivity make it an ideal host city for AIBC.
Like most other businesses out there our plans have undoubtedly been shaped by the current pandemic. Restrictions meant that we had to make the tough decision to rethink our original calendar of events which were launched last year.
In addition to finding success in the virtual realm with a series of online conferences, our efforts in the midst of a pandemic have paid off and we’re excited to step back into the real world. The industry has certainly been craving another conference, and we feel the time is right to step up our game and forge ahead with an ambitious plan for two supershows.
The AIBC Summit is all about the future of the emerging tech sector, and our Emerging Tech Startup Pitch is the answer to keeping up with this innovative industry. For the past two years more than 200 startups have benefitted from this platform. Over 100 companies based in AI, Blockchain, Quantum Tech, FinTech, Big Data, and IoT will be selected to showcase their products and initiatives throughout the event. Each startup selected will have a 1x1m booth at the AIBC Summit. The selected 100 will also have the opportunity to be surrounded by top investors and mentors, being invited to lavish networking dinners as well as benefitting from online exposure. However, the Emerging Tech Startup Pitch is only open to startup companies, meaning recently launched startups that aren’t supported by a public company. The competition keeps getting fiercer as only the best 10, as decided by an independent panel of judges, will make it through to the Pitch during the final leg of the Summit. Taking part guarantees valuable insights and critical feedback from the judges although the prize package will give just one lucky startup a massive head start when it comes to expanding their business plans.
STARTUP? APPLY AT AIBCSUMMIT.COM
• 1x1m booth at the AIBC Summit including cost of printing and furniture
• Meet top investors and mentors
• Invitation to premium networking events during AIBC Summits and throughout the year
• Brand exposure across our publications
3min Pitch + 3min Q&A on main stage in front of top investors
• Social media visibility through our websites
• Article in magazine + official photoshoot
• A free 2x2m booth at AIBC summit 2021, including printing & furniture cost
• Prize from official collaborators
• Free consultancy and potential leads from leading industry veterans
• PR pack from AIBC
• AIBC will provide the VIP networking opportunities for you to connect to potential customers and/or investors
• Free co-working office space
• Title winner for best startup
AIBC UAE - Dubai marks an auspicious start for AIBC Summit’s first steps into global waters. The event, which runs from the 25th to 26th May 2021, will be held in the emirate of Dubai. The show premieres at the InterContinental Festival Arena Dubai, a luxurious location set in the heart of the UAE’s financial and business hub.
The world has been hungry for in-person events for the better part of a year, and the AIBC UAE super-show will bring the best of emerging tech and innovation to a new destination - uniting investors, regulators, and innovators.
AIBC was always envisaged as a meeting point of persons from all across the globe, and Dubai offers a unique opportunity to encourage the leading minds from both the West and the East to sit, break bread, and sign deals.
Creating an environment where connections are made is at the heart of AIBC, which is why Dubai was a first choice when picking a venue for the first emerging tech event of 2021. Its central geographical location and connections to all major tech hubs in the industry make this progressive UAE emirate a good fit for a brand seeking the space to explore new opportunities and move beyond local ambitions - bringing East and West to their natural meeting point.
Apart from the local culture giving delegates the opportunity to focus deeply on learning about the various industries on show, the business environment created by the local government has allowed for a blossoming incubator of innovation and emerging technology – an idea further encapsulated after they adopted the moniker “Silicon Oasis” in a tech-heavy borough of the city.
برغلا يقتلي قرشلا
Heavy investment in the emerging tech sector, and support from the government means that the emirate continues to play a pivotal role in connecting the Blockchain and crypto ecosystem both locally and on a global stage.
So, what to expect? It will be all go on the AIBC expo floor as some of the best in the business layout the products and solutions shaping the future of this industry.
The hybrid event will see two complementary supershows, AIBC Dubai and AGS Dubai, take place under one roof. To leverage the crossover potential for investors in the emirate business hub, a virtual expo will unite exhibitors for both brands across one floor - bringing the best in the business to a firstclass meeting point.
Additionally, delegates can expect some riveting discussions during the two-day conference. Key figures on the AIBC stage include Dr. Marwan Alzarouni, CEO of the Dubai Blockchain Centre, Roger Ver, Founder of Bitcoin.com, Brock Pierce, Member Board of Directors for SRAX and former US Presidential candidate, Prof. Scott Stornetta - widely known as the founding father of Blockchain, Justin Sun, founder of TRON, Loretta Joseph, a consultant for The Financial Services Commission (Mauritius), and Steve Chao, Founder and CEO of Turing Industries.
The agenda for the event has been created alongside several tech experts, and will feature a series of panels and keynotes including regulatory updates focussed on the Middle Eastern region, the rise of digital currencies, the trends shaping 2021, the future of digital banking, and AI solutions for trading platforms.
The competitive AIBC Pitch is also back, bringing 10 of the most promising startups to a stage of judges as they battle it out in a bid to take this year’s startup crown.
GLOBIANCE CEO OLIVER MARCO LA ROSA AND CO-FOUNDER IRINA
MUDREAC ARE NO STRANGERS TO BLOCK MAGAZINE, HAVING FEATURED AS OUR COVER STORY BACK IN 2019. WE CAUGHT UP WITH THEM TO FIND OUT WHAT’S BEEN KEEPING THEM BUSY SINCE THEN.
THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE WAS IN MAY 2019. A LOT HAS HAPPENED IN THE INDUSTRY AND GLOBALLY SINCE THEN. HOW ARE YOU AS A COMPANY AND PERSONALLY COPING WITH THE GLOBAL COVID CRISIS?
Our family is doing well. Irina and I enlarged our family with a new baby boy, who is 11 months old now. We’re able to spend more time with our kids and are enjoying a flexible lifestyle. Working from home has become natural for us as well.
Our team is spread all over the world, with an active presence in Germany, Malta, UK, Singapore, Turkey, India, Brazil, Australia and Argentina - so we constantly work remotely and as we have many new colleagues, we never feel isolated or bored. In fact, I would say that the crisis has made us much more busy, due to the increased adoption of digital currencies. Nearly every person we speak to has heard of crypto and many own and trade not only Bitcoin but also exotic coins. It’s an amazing time and we are happy to have been here from the beginning of a new financial revolution.
Definitely. We are in the middle of it. People are taking back their financial freedom. Where traditional systems fail and fail to provide returns, new solutions will inevitably come into play.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) lets everyone enter the world of offering financial services and, for example, lend to or borrow from individuals directly – essentially everyone becomes his own bank.
This permissionless world of DeFi places trust in the smart contracts running the automated systems and products driving the market rather than a centralized entity, such as a bank in the traditional world of finance. This is the essence of the revolution and is opening up financial freedom to the world, including the often-forgotten vast amounts of unbanked people (which sits at approximately 1.7 billion people on the Global Findec database as of 2017).
“ The target date for the GoLive of the first GlobianceBANK is Q3 this year ”
In a relatively short time since the first of the DeFi protocols hit the Ethereum main net in early 2020, we are seeing exponential growth in the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi smart contracts - which currently sits at around $60billion TVL (Defipulse.com). So, the revolution has started, and we can all participate by linking a web3 wallet to DeFi protocol and start lending, borrowing and earning from the many DeFi products and protocols which are growing daily.
But really, we are still early to the game, with the size of the addressable market estimated to be somewhere in the vicinity of $640 trillion to as high as 1 quadrillion USD of traditional derivatives and financial markets which are set to be disrupted.
We have closed a lot more agreements with banking partners and have ourselves transformed into one. With the difficulties our high-risk clients are facing onboarding to banking solutions we have decided to provide more services directly to provide more services in a seamless experience to our clients. In addition to the European and Singapore platforms we have just set up new platforms in Argentina, Brazil and Australia and plan to launch further platforms soon. We have also decided to open our own bank – GlobianceBANK.
THAT’S EXCITING! SO, WHEN CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE THE GLOBIANCEBANK PROJECT COME TO FRUITION – AND WHAT ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
The target date for the Go-Live of the first GlobianceBANK is Q3 this year. Setting up more fully owned banks and banking solutions gives our clients more possibilities to store their funds across multiple accounts and jurisdictions to ensure the safety and accessibility at any time. Besides enabling us to provide more and cost-efficient banking solutions demanded by our high-risk clients it will also allow us to trade securities, so new features will be added to our platform.
Today our volume is dominated by business clients. We know most of our clients personally and many were with us from
the beginning. We understand that for a business it is not reasonable to write support tickets and wait days for an answer, so we are always available personally and take the time to listen to the wishes of our clients. We provide custom solutions and implement features demanded by our clients.
We also provide services to retail clients but they only make up a small percentage of our clientele today.
Our main business is exchanging crypto and fiat currencies. To ease the crypto to fiat transfers we offer our own IBAN ranges, also catering to the high-risk industries. We have LT, GB, FR, ES IBANs that we can provide to clients dedicated. We provide also Multi-Currency Wallet accounts in our Singapore EMI. After going through our KYC/KYB procedure our clients enjoy limitless transactions.
Then we have Individual and Corporate Cards connected to the accounts, which have up to 500,000 Euro monthly limit. Recently we also introduced our Crypto Processing Gateway.
Our crypto processing gateway has been active since April. It was a product that was in high demand with our clients. It basically replaces credit card payment gateways.
“ People are taking back their financial freedom. Where traditional systems fail and fail to provide returns, new solutions will inevitably come into play ”
اًضيأ مدقن نحن .ءلامعلل عوضخلا دعب .انب ةصاخلا EMI ةروفاغنس يف تلامعلا عتمتي نأ عيطتسي ، انب صاخلا ( KYC / KYB ) ءارجلإ .ةدودحم ريغ ةيفرصم تلاماعمب انؤلامع
ةطبترم تاكرشلاو دارفلأل تاقاطب اضيأ انيدل
ىلا يرهشلا اهمادختسا دح لضي يتلاو
“ We are still early to the game, with the size of the addressable market estimated to be somewhere in the vicinity of $640 trillion to as high as 1 quadrillion USD of traditional derivatives and financial markets which are set to be disrupted ”
As you know there are certain risks and disadvantages when you offer credit card payments - card fraud, charge backs, rolling reserve, where the card processor holds a part of your money back for a certain time.
Now crypto processing is integrated as a checkout option in the same way, but instead of with credit card, clients pay with crypto. It can be used by any business but is most effective for high-risk industries.
It is by design that there are lower fees, no risk, no rolling reserve, and transactions are definite.
The product is available in a white-label version for the merchant and seamlessly integrated in his platform. The integration can be done in a short time and there are no setup costs involved. Payments in crypto are definitely the best solution for high-risk merchants today.
We invite all merchants to open a free account and try crypto processing in addition to the current payment gateway. Merchants do not need to worry about the volatility of the received crypto assets as those can be automatically converted to fiat currencies.
We provide this solution also to other banking and payment services providers.
WHERE WILL 2021 AND BEYOND TAKE YOU, WHAT ARE YOUR AMBITIONS OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS, AND WHAT KIND OF CHALLENGES DO YOU ANTICIPATE?
In 2018 we set ourselves the goal to become a globally recognised financial service provider.
We still have a lot of work to do but I think we are progressing well and on a good road going forward. We expanded quite aggressively in 2021. The rest of the year we will slow down and focus on improving our platforms and services and grow the client base in our new markets.
The biggest challenge for the industry is regulation and while we are regulated in Europe and Singapore already, we will seek licensing in other important markets like Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and Korea as well.
In this special feature focusing on Dubai we take a look at what’s dominating the Blockchain and Crypto space. From NFTs to DeFi, we ask what novelty trends have caught the eyes of the influential and whether they’re here to stay or just passing through. We also caught up with what the thought leaders of 2021’s thriving emerging tech scene are up to and why many have chosen to make the emirate their first port of call for the development of both existing and new business opportunities.
The environment created by the local government and the region’s proactive approach to technology has certainly allowed the emirate to become an incubator of innovation – an idea further encapsulated after the emirate adopted the moniker “Silicon Oasis” in a tech-heavy borough of the city. In building a hub for entrepreneurship, Dubai has
thrived as one of the most open and accessible locations for companies and investors to set-upshop in 2021. In an interview on page 28 Issam Kazim, CEO of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing shares his thoughts on how the UAE is leading the way for a revival of tourism and trade, as well as how the region has a key role to play in shaping the future global economy.
A global aviation hub - the Dubai International Airport connects Asia and Africa to the West, making it the perfect global customer base - you can reach 2/3 of the world’s population with an 8-hour flight, making the region an easy place to do business from.
Read on for a series of exclusive interviews and feature articles. Keep an eye out for the QR Codes as well - you can watch all our interviews in full on our AIBC youtube channel.
rom the beginning of time, humans have been figuring out how to pull resources and capital together to achieve a positive social or financial outcome.
The industrial innovations starting from the railroads and shipping companies caused legal innovation that brought us the concepts of partnerships, joint-stock companies, limited liability companies, preferred shares and so on.
All of the above was done with the view to efficiently pull capital together, as well as to protect the participants from adverse legal consequences.
The ICO mania of 2017, despite coming with a lot of backlash, has shown us that the future of funding is decentralized. The rise of DeFi, albeit that we are still early, has shown us that the future of finance is decentralized. The pandemic of 2020 has shown us that the future of work is remote and decentralized.
So, why are we still thinking of companies as a legal establishment on paper, sanctioned by a government, that has a seal and a board of a few people in charge of a centralized collection of individuals that come to an office from 9 to 5?
I think we all would agree that this concept of a company is morally outdated, especially considering the rise of open source projects that are being launched on decentralized protocols, and other innovation such as smart cities and selfdriving cars.
A Dubai-based company doing business with a Swiss-based foundation brings all sorts of transborder issues into play - which hordes of lawyers and accountants will happily charge you for. Internet native companies, such as internet native money – Bitcoin - have the potential to enable groups of people to operate more efficiently by relying on smart contracts to govern certain processes. Through the use of smart contracts, the company can automate certain aspects related to the way they operate, reducing operational costs and improving internal
controls while simultaneously increasing the overall transparency.
The search for a legal structure for decentralized autonomous self-governed organisations - that transcend jurisdictional borders, that has a legal personality and can contract in its name as well as manage and deploy capital started in 2016 and proceeded with various degrees of success.
The all too well known DAO that launched on Ethereum resulted in the Ethereum fork. Several initiatives attempted to put a ‘legal wrapper’ over DOAs allowing for the limitation of liability for the participants.
In my mind, this is like trying to improve on the horse and carriage when planning to invent the car.
Perhaps we can start with a clean page and work on structuring an internet native company?
تاكرشلا لبقتسم ”ةيزكرملالا“
“ The ICO mania of 2017, despite coming with a lot of backlash, has shown us that the future of funding is decentralized ”
WITH AIBC’S FIRST MAJOR EXPO OF 2021 LINED UP FOR AN INAUGURAL LAUNCH IN DUBAI THIS MAY, BLOCK CAUGHT UP WITH ISSAM KAZIM, CEO OF THE DUBAI CORPORATION FOR TOURISM AND COMMERCE MARKETING.
DESPITE THE PANDEMIC, THE UAE IS LEADING THE WAY FOR THE REVIVAL OF TOURISM AND TRADE. HOW HAS DUBAI MANAGED TO COME OUT ON TOP AS ONE OF THE MOST OPEN TRAVEL DESTINATIONS OF 2021? IN ADDITION TO AN AMBITIOUS VACCINATION PROGRAM, WHAT MEASURES HAS THE EMIRATE TAKEN TO ENSURE SAFETY FOR VISITORS AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY?
At the heart of Dubai’s ability to quickly and safely open its tourism and business events sectors was the effectiveness of the city’s response to the global pandemic at its outset. Driven by the city’s leadership, a robust approach was taken to minimize the impact through a citywide sterilization programme and strict limits on movements and gatherings. Following this, as economic sectors gradually reopened, we worked with stakeholders across the public and private sectors to create a framework within which it was possible to both prioritise the health and safety of all participants
and delegates, while at the same time provide platforms for showcasing new products and innovation, networking, professional development and knowledge sharing.
This meant that after Dubai was able to reopen for international tourism on 7 July, 2020, international business events had also resumed by 1 October, with guidelines in place to ensure measures such as social distancing, regular sanitization and safe dispensation of F&B were in place. This led to the successful hosting of major events such as Gitex and Gulfood, each attracting delegates from around the world.
We expect to build on this over the coming months with more major business events on the calendar, as we accelerate towards the hosting of Expo 2020 Dubai and AIBC Dubai. And with the rapid rollout of a nationwide vaccination programme, Dubai also continues to underline its status as a destination that has been able to effectively combat the global pandemic.
GLOBAL TECH EVENTS ON A LARGE SCALE?
Dubai stands out as a destination for global tech events due to both its robust business events infrastructure in place around the city and the focus on innovation that is propelling economic growth here.
Thanks to strong connectivity with the rest of the world through Dubai International Airport and via homegrown carriers Emirates and Flydubai, as well as other airlines, organisers can easily attract a global audience to their events here. Beyond this, Dubai is home to a wide range of venues that can handle events of all sizes and a diverse hospitality sector that offers accommodation choices across different budgets and segments. Crucially, we also have the expertise in the sector, with experienced professionals able to help planners create impactful events.
For companies looking to hold large scale global tech events in Dubai, there is the added benefit that they can tap into the city’s own innovation in this field. Focused on becoming a Smart City and embracing technologies such as AI, Robotics, Blockchain and 3D printing, Dubai provides an ideal setting for exploring and shaping the future global economy.
“ At the heart of Dubai’s ability to quickly and safely open its tourism and business events sectors was the effectiveness of the city’s response to the global pandemic at its outset ”
YOU COME FROM A TRADITIONAL FINANCE BACKGROUND - HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR WAY INTO BLOCKCHAIN AND CRYPTO?
I’m familiar with the fiat and monetary system and I know it’s a flawed system, so when I came across Bitcoin it was perfect because it’s not linked to a central bank or government. It’s the opposite of an inflationary fiat system. It’s a deflationary scarce asset on the Blockchain, in digital format. For me it was a no brainer. Since then, I’ve been investing and trading Bitcoin - investing in ICOs and advising on a lot of crypto projects. I think just the fundamental value of the Bitcoin network was enough to convince me this is the future, and I should really focus on it.
WHAT OTHER ELEMENTS IN THE CRYPTO SPACE EXCITE YOU? IS IT DEFI, NFTS OR A COMBINATION OF THE TWO?
I think more so DeFi because I see more long-term value in it, and the products and services coming out of it are disrupting the centralised finance world. If you look at the amount of money in the centralised finance world, it’s hundreds of trillions - if DeFi is disrupting that industry then that’s a big market to target.
NFTs are a great innovation and super hyped right now, I think anything you can digitise and prove to someone that you have the ownership of - is actually very useful, very disruptive. The lowest hanging fruit is art. It’s a different purpose with NFTs than with DeFi, which is longer-term and more value-added to people investing in crypto in general.
WE ARE BARELY KEEPING UP WITH ALL THE NEW PROJECTS AND RE-IMAGINING OF EXISTING TECHNOLOGY - WHAT ABOUT THE REGULATORS, ESPECIALLY ON THE UAE SIDE - HOW ARE THEY COPING?
There’s the Abu Dhabi global market which has issued framework and regulation around digital assets, although not quite so much around utility tokens.
at the moment, and it’s so fragmented. I think it will get better over time though. For DeFi it’s going to take regulators a while to get to grips with it, but ultimately they’ll find a way to monitor transactions on DeFi.
ARE THERE ANY DEFI PROJECTS
YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT RIGHT NOW?
I’m super excited about Shisha Finance, which I founded about 4 months ago.
In a nutshell it’s a decentralized DeFi fund. What we’re trying to deliver to the market is definitely unique. I think it also challenges the centralised finance world of traditional funds, where you have all these caveats, like needing to do a minimal amount, or be an accredited investor, and so on. Why not just utilise a platform that can give you exposure to a good quality DeFi portfolio managed by people who have the background and experience to do it?
In the DMCC they’ve made an announcement that there will be companies that can actually issue utility tokens from Dubai. In terms of regulation the problem is that crypto’s international - so you need regulation globally. You need to have a set framework where a lot of jurisdictions agree - because there’s a lot of uncertainty in regulation
We really want to add value to people, especially those who are new to DeFi - we’re trying to get them to have a one-stop-platform where they can participate and automatically get exposure to a diversified DeFi portfolio of projects - which we’ve handpicked and spoken to and more often than not partnered with. Most are projects we invested in early in or advised on, so I think we have a really good connection with a lot of quality projects.
We also want to do a play on NFTs, and reward stakers with NFTs - you can possibly even get an NFT fund, so you could have a portfolio of different collections of NFTs over time.
“ If you look at the amount of money in the centralised finance world, it’s hundreds of trillions - if DeFi is disrupting that industry then that’s a big market to target ”
FOUNDER OF SHEESHA.FINANCE, MR SAEED AL DARMAKI DISCUSSES DEFI DEVELOPMENTS WITH DR IRINA HEAVER.
Dr Yana Leonova, Founder member of London Blockchain Foundation meets with Dr Irina Heaver to discuss how Blockchain can give the most vulnerable entry to a global marketplace.
YOU’RE ACTIVE IN THE BLOCKCHAIN SPACE. TELL US MORE ABOUT THE PROJECTS YOU’RE CURRENTLY WORKING ON THAT ARE UTILISING BLOCKCHAIN IN THE REAL WORLD ECONOMY.
I am focussing on the economics of agriculture, I’m a strong believer in technology, tech that actually benefits people and brings real value. The world is developing so rapidly, everything is so digitised, especially in the developed world, but also in developing countries.
If you look at statistics from the United Nations you will see around 1.7 billion people don’t have a digital identity, they don’t have access to banks - they don’t really exist. But on the other hand, they have mobiles, they have social networks. They have access to this global community even though they aren’t recognised by this community.
I saw how the proper understanding and application of Blockchain can
actually benefit people, and create trust and transparency.
Recently I was involved in a project in Haiti. And the Haiti government, together with the World Bank set up a Blockchain for small farms and you can now trace products from seed-to-sale.
it’s sold. You can see that in a traditional economy the Haitian farmer - who has a very basic income - is making only 2% of the value of the price that this mango is sold for - and the other 98% just disappears. Proper implementation of Blockchain can help eliminate the middleman and bring access to the global marketplace for the most vulnerable in our society, give them a digital identity and lead them to funding.
It’s not only about profit but helping to solve social issues, reach people, educate people and gather peoplegiving them a feeling of community - of being international people in the world.
THERE’S A LOT OF INNOVATION COMING FROM THE BLOCKCHAIN SPACE - WHAT ARE YOU INVESTING IN?
Take the mango, which is gathered by Haitian farmers, you can trace its lifecycle all the way to Walmart where
I’m risk averse, and all this trading is very much speculative for me. I believe in digital assets in general and I think it’s a very predictable stageeverything is going digital now. I am not going into cryptocurrencies myself, but for digital assets like security tokens, yes I am. Currently for me Bitcoin is very speculative. I don’t see an asset link behind it, just hopes and predictionsbut it’s not really backed by anything valuable in my opinion.
“ Proper implementation of Blockchain can help eliminate the middleman and bring access to the global marketplace for the most vulnerable in our society ”
DR. MARWAN ALZAROUNI, CEO OF THE DUBAI BLOCKCHAIN CENTRE, AND MEMBER OF THE GLOBAL FUTURE COUNCIL ON CRYPTOCURRENCIES AT THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, SITS DOWN WITH DR IRINA HEAVER FOR AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW.
YOU ARE QUITE AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF OUR CRYPTO AND BLOCKCHAIN COMMUNITY IN THE UAE - TELL US WHAT’S KEEPING YOU BUSY AT THE MOMENT.
We do a lot of stuff here in the UAE and also internationally. I am a member of the Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies - which is part of the World Economic Forum. We try to shape the crypto space to make it more everyday for the normal person and for the regulators.
When it comes to the Dubai focusI’m part of the Dubai Future Council on Blockchain - I play a different role there, which is centred more around regulation. I also head the Dubai crypto task force. We look at the laws issued and give them feedback, as well as organise studies around tokenisation and crypto in general - bridging the gap between the regulators and the businesses that move to the UAE.
WHAT IS THE MOST INNOVATIVE THING COMING OUT FROM THE DUBAI REGULATORS RIGHT NOW - WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT?
Right now we’re in this foundation phase, which means allowing the
technology to actually be regulated - not harshly but within a wireframe kind of structure. That will allow future regulators to come in and regulate things like transactions on the Blockchain, smart contracts, tokenization and NFTs and other tech. We need to have some kind of framework, especially when it comes to things like KYC and AML. We need to have some kind of protection mechanism, to protect not only the companies that are going to be based out of the UAE but also the consumer as well.
For me it was through law enforcement. Back in 2012 I worked for the Dubai police as a forensic investigator and during one of the conferences I saw a presentation on how Bitcoin was used on the Silk Road and I thought to myself - this is traceable and I think Bitcoin can be traced, because it’s the concept of knowing your transactions - and that’s when I really dug deep. I realised this is not only used for listing activities but can also be used as both the medium of exchange and a store of value. It’s amazing, we’ve never seen this in the history of mankind before.
TALKING ABOUT BITCOIN BEING A REALLY GOOD ASSET AND A REALLY GOOD STORE OF VALUE. WE SEE COMPANIES LIKE TESLA WHO ARE PUTTING 1.5 BILLION OF THEIR TREASURY INTO BITCOIN - DO YOU SEE GOVERNMENTS PUTTING THEIR TREASURY INTO BITCOIN ANY TIME SOON?
This will eventually become a normal, everyday thing. Usually the first to jump in are all the people who will recognise any kind of new technology, often criminals who try and take advantage of it. Then the private sector and eventually the government.
“ With Bitcoin you will not really understand it unless you try it - it’s the same thing with Dubai - you will never appreciate it until you come here”
The likes of Tesla and Microstrategy have already put them in their treasury and so I think it’s only a matter of time for us to see the government moving into this space.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT RIGHT NOW? ARE YOU DOING ANY WORK IN DEFI OR NFT PROJECTS?
I’m very much into NFTs right now and before that DeFi - but this is only 2 aspects of how revolutionary this tech is. We’re still very early in this space, there are many more things that will come in. Once we overcome the scalability issues and other minor things, we are going to see a huge boom in this space, with new players coming in, new ideas - not just from us but from the younger generation.
Micropayments is an amazing space. I think we are underusing it right now. Everyone is paying subscriptions and this subscription economy is not sustainable. It makes sense to create some kind of economic model where you pay for your content graduallyeven for browsing the internet..these kind of micropayment projects will eventually become the norm in the future.
WHAT MAKES DUBAI A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE, WORK, AND PLAY?
It’s all about the people that live here and the culture we create here. With Bitcoin you will not really understand it unless you try it - it’s the same thing with Dubai - you will never appreciate it until you come here. When it comes to setting up a business it’s really important to choose the right jurisdiction, and I think for crypto the most friendly right now is the DMCC. Start very agile, start very small - but start in the right jurisdiction.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ALL THE NEW TRENDS EMERGING EVERY OTHER MONTH? HAS ANYTHING CAUGHT YOUR EYE?
We are still in the early stages of this technology and it’s very normal that any emerging technology tries to find its use cases. In the beginning, Blockchain seemed almost to be the solution looking for a problem, now obviously we’re getting more applications that have potential to really address the issues in our society and I think NFTs is one of them.
I think the exciting part about NFTs is that you will see not only the creation of some digital art and some music content on the Blockchain but most of all - if you think about what this can unlock in terms of IP rights and the digitization of IP rights, you can actually give a value to that and make transfer of ownership way easier. I think that will probably be the real use case for it.
In the short term I think we’ll see some interesting stuff happening in the art space. We are working on
very exciting projects with large corporate partners in the motorsports industry and also of course in the arts industry.
I’m very excited about the music industry, I think to digitise content and to give more power to the creators, compared to the platform owners who currently have all the power in the market, and in the value chain - I think that’s also a very interesting use case.
“ If you think about what NFTs can unlock in terms of IP rights and the digitization of IP rights you can actually give a value to that and make transfer of ownership easier “
DR IRINA SPEAKS WITH HUBERTUS THONHAUSER, TEZOS FOUNDATION COUNCIL CHAIR
DeFi has become the latest growth area of Blockchain and Crypto/ Digital Currencies. By using the power of smart contracts running inside the Blockchain; DeFi allows for stakeholders of cryptocurrencies to earn additional rewards other than the traditional capital appreciation associated with the real-time value of the tokens.
These rewards are the result of both staking and farming activities which lock up the associated cryptocurrencies for a determined period of time and deliver liquidity to trading/exchanging/ loan/insurance financial activities running directly on the Blockchain environment. DeFi behaves exactly like a Neo Bank (Digital Bank) completely run in the Blockchain space - the same way applications run in a digital cloud environment like Amazon Web Services.
The most important area that needs to be addressed is security, security in the context of DeFi is often associated with Smart Contracts Security and DApps (Distributed Apps) Security. Both are written in code such as Solidity or Java Script; as with any code there are bugs (normally 1 bug per 1,000 of lines of code), and some of the bugs are serious flaws which lead to critical vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers to drain the digital wallets of smart contracts. The best way to address this is through regular smart contract
audits. Smart contract audits combined with testing eliminate the majority of the visible vulnerabilities in the smart contract codefixing them before going live.
The second important area to be addressed is performance, Blockchain because of their consensus mechanisms and their distributed nature don’t always scale or perform well when too many transactions are scheduled in parallel. Especially Blockchain like Ethereum, popular with DeFi implementation and notable for bad performance when transaction volumes increase. This area is difficult to address since it often requires migrating to a Blockchain with better performance. Blockchains like Binance Smart Chain are fully compatible with Ethereum and are known to have better throughput capabilities.
The third to be addressed is the cost of transactions; the Ethereum network also suffers from serious shortcomings in this area. During normal periods transactions costs are effective and affordable, however when the network is clogged, the transaction costs increase dramaticallysometimes the costs are even higher than the returns of the associated trades. The costs of the transactions can be addresses by Layer 2 solutions or by Blockchains. Some Blockchains can deliver 0 costs or near 0 costs for the transactions and therefore are preferred by users of DeFi projects. Once again, Binance Smart Chain offers lower and more stable transaction costs while at the same time offering full compatibility with Ethereum smart contracts.
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By using smart contracts running inside the Blockchain; DeFi allows for stakeholders of cryptos to earn rewards other than the traditional capital appreciation associated with the real-time value of tokens ”
The fourth area to be addressed is the usability and the friendliness of the operating environment for non-technical users. The usage of DeFi wallets such as Metamask are not so easy to use for first time users or non-technical users. We need to develop more friendly wallets as well as more friendly DApps. We need to deliver better user awareness and training in the usage of these technologies.
Next to be addressed is governance, which allows for better transparency and participation of the members in the decision-making process of DeFi. One of the best technologies to enable this capability is the usage of DAOs.
The last area to be addressed by the DeFi is the integration with real world assets. In the DeFi space digital currencies are 100% synthetic assets that only live in the digital space. Any future growth and acceptance of DeFi will require a proper integration of these synthetic assets with real world assets such as: Gold, Real Estate, Listed Company Shares and Commodities (such as Oil). The wrapping of integration of real-world assets with digital ones will deliver much higher value to the DeFi and market acceptance. The integration will also delivery a lower degree of risk, better stability and provide both for fractional ownership as well better liquidity capabilities in DeFi.
The growing space for Defi is promising, with big advances in digitalization, friendliness, transparency, speed and liquidity, and value for its users. By addressing the current shortcomings of DeFi we can guarantee better acceptance of this technology in the current market place.
ecentralization is not only about the code; it can also be applied to communities. In an increasingly fragmented world, facing unprecedented economic and social challenges, the innovations of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized exchanges (DEX’s), and decentralized finance (DeFi) allow global collaboration of likeminded entrepreneurs to innovate across borders in ways never before imagined.
The reasons for the blistering early success of this decentralized trifecta (DAO, DEX, DeFi) are many, but they start with the modern hunger for freedom. Every age has had its definitions of liberty, and in the hyperconnected world of 2021, there is broad recognition that many aof the traditional legacy systems of finance, government and society are in need of the same kind of radical disruption that has upended the economy through technology
in the past 30 years since the dawn of the Web.
Let’s start with the DAO, whose roots go back to Ethereum’s early days and the concept that organizations can automate governance globally with smart contracts instead of legal structures, regulations and courts. Malta was an early pioneer in permitting DAOs, and in April 2021 the US State of Wyoming passed legislation legalizing the DAO as a form of LLC. The rapid ascent of Uniswap, which is both a DEX, with a $32 billion fully diluted token market cap, as well as a DAO governed solely by its token holders and subject to no visible jurisdiction, has raised the stakes on the prospective battlefield between traditional global regulators and well-funded technology innovators.
The DEX format allows global participants to trade with anyone else on a decentralized platform, often employing the even more recent development of the Automated Market Maker (AMM), which has led to an explosion of volume and liquidity for both Uniswap, and for Ethereum-based trades, and its Binance Smart Chain equivalent, Pancake Swap, which recently passed Uniswap in both volume and total value locked into smart contracts.
“ The door to the future of the world economy has been opened, along with tokenization of physical and digital assets, and they cannot be un-invented ”
MICHAEL TERPIN, CEO OF TRANSFORM GROUP WRITES ABOUTTHE FUTURE OF INVESTMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN A DECENTRALIZED, GLOBALLY CONNECTED WORLD.
Just as the automation of stock trades led to the ascent of NASDAQ and the death of the trading pit of live brokers on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange (and elsewhere), there is a real threat to the global financial capitals that they will ultimately be replaced in a free marketplace by faster, better, cheaper DEX alternatives, just as discount brokerages killed off the retail brokerage business for the “too big to fail banks” like JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank.
Finally, DeFi, which has grown from a fragile experiment to a fast-growing $100 billion juggernaut, threatens to disrupt the global banking and bonds markets with smart contracts, liquidity staking and yield farming currently generating exponentially higher rates of return over traditional banks (infinite when compared to European banks paying negative interest). The masses have no understanding yet of the yields they are missing out on, just as the populace had few alternatives to authoritarian governments prior to “Arab spring” revolutions fomented on Facebook. Decades earlier, the fall of the Berlin Wall was precipitated by the “decentralized” communication vehicle known as the fax machine.
The globalization and decentralization of organization, trade and finance has also meant a decentralization of the traditional financial industry power centers (New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong), with the 2020-21 pandemic emptying out these pricey cities in favor of Zoom conferences from anywhere and a shift to low-tax and no-tax jurisdictions with innovation-friendly regulation. The best and brightest entrepreneurs have always voted with their feet, and this movement is accelerating with the advent of a global Blockchain network of payments and smart
contract solutions that eliminates the need to deal with antiquated layers of middlemen and hostile, rentseeking jurisdictions for cross-border payments and global e-commerce.
Dubai has become a centerpiece to this important movement, reshaping itself to be the digital crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East (a role played in ancient times by Constantinople, now called Istanbul). In the past year, this effort has accelerated with its opendoor approach to hosting both innovation and trade, but also physical gatherings (including the AIBC conference I’ll be keynoting in May 28th). Several innovative DeFi companies have sprung up in the UAE itself, including Sheesha Finance and EmiSwap. Other jurisdictions have set their sights on attracting DeFi companies, ranging from Singapore to Panama to the Comoros.
As entrepreneurs seek a way forward in a post-pandemic world, they are seeing that many of the assumptions about society and economy have been turned on their heads in 2020 and 2021. Will anyone ever question relying on a Zoom meeting as a viable alternative to hopping on a plane again? How can perpetual fiat money printing be without consequence? Must there not be far better alternatives to solve the world’s problems than the same inflexible hierarchies that got us into this mess in the first place?
One thing is for certain: the door to the future of the world economy has been opened, along with tokenization of physical and digital assets, and they cannot be un-invented. I refer to this paradigm as Pandora’s Blocks (and I am currently writing a book with that title). As superior solutions in need of understanding, then adoption, then cultural and governmental support, they will ultimately prevail.
“ Every age has had its definitions of liberty, and in the hyperconnected world of 2021, there is broad recognition that many of the traditional legacy systems of finance, government and society are in need of the same kind of radical disruption ”
JIMMY NGUYEN SITS DOWN WITH DR IRINA HEAVER FOR AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW. JIMMY IS THE FOUNDING PRESIDENT OF THE BITCOIN ASSOCIATION, A SWITZERLAND-BASED ORGANISATION THAT SUPPORTS BSV.
We believe the BSV is intended to scale big and support massive transaction volumenot just of payments, but data transactions too. We’re interested in projects and opportunities that have big scale use of Blockchain technology, especially here in the UAE - and in particular Saudi Arabia, where we hope to do more in the coming year.
We’re dealing with public service applications which need a Blockchain with bigger scale and that need a chain that has high data capacity and low transaction fees - it fits with what I view are the key advantages to our approach to Blockchain.
We’re also very interested in projects which have a bigger impact on the world, not just crypto trading for investment. I’m in this space to develop the BSV into the next technology platform that transforms the world.
We’ve also found that this is a region where people are very interested in the utility of a Blockchain and that aligns well with what we have to offer.
Enterprise and government. We definitely want to support and nurture developers and startup entrepreneurs - one of the goals is not just to grow the usage of BSV as a Blockchain technology but to grow education. There’s not enough Bitcoinknowledgeable engineers in the world. We’re trying to train people as well as business and government representatives on the use of block tech for large-scale enterprise and government use.
BSV HAS SOME VOLATILE HISTORY, PERSONAL ISSUES, TECH ISSUES, THE HASH WAR - WHAT WILL BE DONE THERE?
We live in a digital currency world that is very tribal. People like to challenge and attack each other on personality as opposed to focussing on just technology. If you look at the fundamentals of what we say, what we want to do, which is to scale a Blockchain, offer more efficient payments for super low fees - our average transaction fee now is less than one tenth of a cent, last year it was one, one hundredth of a cent - we think that’s what Bitcoin was born to be able to do.
The only reason people think we’re controversial is because they think Craig Wright is a fraud for saying he’s Satoshi Nakamoto. What I would say to them is: it doesn’t matter. I’ve never asked a single person to support, build, or invest in BSV, because I believe Craig Wright is Satoshi. You should choose any Blockchain to build on, as well as any asset to invest in, based on its fundamentals. We’re a technology ecosystem, we’re a Blockchain, we’re bigger than any one person.
CEFI AND DEFI ARE QUICKER, MORE TRANSPARENT, AND CHEAPER. AS STEPHAN MEADE, FOUNDER AND CEO OF MONETAPRO SEES IT, THE FUTURE FOR COMPANIES WILL NO LONGER BE ON THE TRADITIONAL STOCK EXCHANGES.
There has been a lot of excitement around the growth and increase in Bitcoin (BTC). I’ve watched with mild amusement as the bigger companies, financial institutions, traditional funds, and even state pensions look at BTC as a qualified investment asset.
This is similar to creating a fund just to invest in gold (Bitcoin), and then you miss the ability to use the stock market to raise money.
One is an asset, the other is a tool.
For those of us who have been in the space since the early days (Brock Pierce, Michael Terpin, Steve Beauregard, and others), we’ve long held (no pun intended for the HODL’s), that Bitcoin would be a good (not sure we believed this good!) investment over the years.
For Bitcoin’s value now, let’s do some paper napkin math. Follow the example to see how Bitcoin is still a good investment opportunity:
Bitcoin is currently priced around $60,000 and has a Market Cap of $1 Trillion.
Gold, by contrast has a current price of around $600,000 (for a standard Bank Brick) and a corresponding market cap of $10 Trillion.
If BTC were to rival gold, and perhaps grow to the same size, that would mean BTC would go from $1T to $10T market cap. That would push the price up ten-fold, and thus the correlated price of BTC would go from $60,000 to $600,000.
Simple math.
Could that happen? Absolutely. How?
If you are tracking the rise in Bitcoin, many people reference the S2F (Stock-to-Flow) model. Well, I have something called the C2F (Cash-to-Flow), or B2f (Bond-to-Flow).
Within large companies there is an estimated $2 Trillion dollars sitting in “cash” on the balance sheets. Not only does this do very little for the companies, but it is also somewhat irresponsible. If companies start to move a percentage of their holdings, even 1-3% into BTC, it would drive the price higher.
More money invested, means more demand, and more demand means higher prices.
This is occurring now with public companies and CEOs such as Elon Musk, Michael Saylor and others. Heck, even Ray Dalio (a longtime skeptic) has said BTC ‘should be part of any diversified holding’.
However, to me, that’s not interesting at all! Trying to figure out Bitcoin is like learning to invest in gold and missing the stock market.
I hope you would agree that gold is an important asset - it is but a small sliver of what became the global financial market.
Gold is an interesting asset, and as an institutional investor you might invest in Gold, and you might even create a fund to do so. However, and more likely, you will invest in many different stocks across different asset classes. Even more so, you might even help companies raise money as a precursor to being public on one of the exchanges.
When you look at the stock market, it has a value of over $100 trillion, and thousands of companies that use the market as a way to raise money, grow, expand, and provide liquidity. The stock market is a much bigger segment than gold and performs a completely different function.
So then, what do I compare to the size, scope, and impact of the stock market?
If you look at Coinbase, which just went public, what is it an exchange for? Simple. It’s for the trading of Crypto assets.
The future for companies in raising money will no longer be on the traditional stock exchanges. They will be in the CeFi (central financial exchanges - Coinbase, Centurion, Binance, Bittrex, etc.), and DeFi (decentralized financial exchangesUniswap, Sushiswap, Polkadot, etc.). The time cost and expense of traditional markets will not be able to compete with these new distribution platforms.
That’s right- Tokens, Coins, Crypto Assets, are all just a type of tradable, early-stage stock. A company can use the US exchanges to eventually go public, or they can look at the digital exchanges and do the same thing, just potentially quicker, cheaper, and with more transparency.
All of this comes from a term I call ‘retrospective evolution’. Which means, look at what has worked in the past (traditional exchange financing), and then figure out how to use future technology.
Bitcoin may be like gold, but DeFi is like the stock market.
“ The time cost and expense of traditional markets will not be able to compete with new distribution platforms like CeFi and DeFi ”
In anticipation of our first event to be held outside of Malta, we headed to the emerging UAE emirate of Dubai to find out what makes this unique hub tick. In this Dubai Special Edition we caught up with some of the biggest names in the emerging tech sector - many of whom can be found on the AIBC UAE - Dubai stage and expo floor this May.
From the NFT trend to the seed-to-sale benefits of a Blockchain, and DeFi to Dubai, we get to the bottom of what everyone’s talking about in 2021. Scan the QR code next to their quote to watch the exclusive interview in full.
Gordon EinsteinFounding Partner, CryptoLaw Partners
“ The ability to form human organisations on the Blockchain without government permission is both massively efficient and liberating. ”
Dunstan TeoCo-founder & President, Sanctum
“ A lot of people putting their funds into DeFi don’t understand the tech, whether the smart contracts actually work. I feel like they’re taking a huge risk. That’s going to be a huge problem. ”
“ This bull market is very different. Look at the NFT space, DeFi - for the very first time I can see how traditional finance entities are actually going to get disrupted. I couldn’t see that in 2016. Now the game is on. ”
“ You will very quickly be able to identify the right people, and they can move you forward very quickly. Dubai is not just a great place to do business but to grow business. ”
“ We’re going to be hosting the Future Blockchain Summit this October alongside four other big tech events, uniting the tech industry for one week of big tech shows in the heart of Dubai. ”
“ Bitcoin is a proven asset class - all of the new stuff is experimental. I think Ethereum has moved from experimental to something that is actually proven. Now Visa is settling transactions using the Ethereum Blockchain. ”
“ When I watched the Cyprus banking confiscation in 2013 - that’s when it hit me that I needed to put my money into something safer. I wanted my savings to be unconfiscatable and Bitcoin was the only way to go. “
“ We saw how the mainstream financial markets saw crypto as a threat from afar but never really adopted it. We decided to create one of the first regulated OTC custody and asset managers for the crypto space called Hayvn. “
“ If one AI is nefarious, then from the data the other AIs will have an opportunity to see a common truth. They can act independently but the moment they start speaking to each other we’ll have no control. ”
“ Dubai is very attractive to businesses, you can reach 2/3 of the world’s population with an 8 hour flight. If I’m going to have a global customer base, I need to bring them to a place where they’re all welcome. ”
“ The bank account penetration compared to the mobile wallet penetration is huge. For example, India: 1.3 trillion people, while bank accounts are at 2 hundred million, mobile wallets are nearing 8 hundred million. ”
Saqr EreiqatChapter Leader, Global Innovation Institute
“ Blockchain is not going to disrupt anything - but it’s going to remove friction out of the equation. I believe Blockchain in itself is really what’s going to drive us forward. ”
Gustavo
Head of Biz Dev, DMCC Crypto Centre /CV Labs Dubai
“ The DMCC is an environment for entrepreneurs and investors looking for a new, powerful market to do business in. If you are a Blockchain developer or investor and want to do something in this market, then this is the place. ”
Founder & CEO,“ Our aim is to be a bridge between the crypto and the commercial market. I think DeFi will be the structure for a new financial worldcurrently a lot of projects are not user friendly - but i’m confident we can improve that. “
ءاضقب اندعس ،تايلاعفلا ملاع نع ليوط عاطقنا دعب ضعبب انيقتلا .يبد ،لامعلأا ةرامإ يف مايلأا ضعب تاثداحم ءارجلإ ةيراجتلا لامعلأا ملاع يف ةزرابلا ءامسلأا نيشت كولب ملاع يف نلآا عئاش وه ام لوح ةعيرس مهنم ديدعلا دجاوتيسو ،ةرفشملا ةيمقرلا تلامعلاو )AIBC( ”نيشت كولبو يعانطصلاا ءاكذلا“ ضرعم يف .ويام رهش يبد يف قطانملا رثكأ نم ةدحاو حبصتل يبد تزرب ام ناعرس اهسفنل ةناكمو مسا تعنصو ،لامعلأل ةحوتفملا .تايلاعفلاو تاكبشلاو لامعلأل ادئار اًزكرم اهرابتعاب
BLOCK CAUGHT UP WITH SORINA CAMPEAN FROM UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD’S SAÏD BUSINESS SCHOOL ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTRE TO DISCUSS HOW PROGRAMS LIKE THE ONETWORK CAN HELP MBA STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS BUILD CONNECTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH INDUSTRY LEADERS.
This is Sorina’s second trip to Malta. What was originally planned as a quick weekend break to celebrate her birthday has turned into a 3 month extended stay to explore Malta’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Entrepreneurship education is of course right up her alley - she runs a number of forward-thinking initiatives, including the Trailblazer Chronicles, a speaker series for which she most recently interviewed Kickstarter
Co-founder and former CEO Yancey Strickler, as well as the oNetwork, a program bringing together 55 advisors dedicated to supporting the entrepreneurial mindset and career aspirations of Oxford students and alumni.
She’s also leading on speaker engagement for University of Oxford’s flagship entrepreneurial event - the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum - an annual conference paving the way for globally connected communities, idea generation and venture growth. This year the forum was hosted virtually, and besides keynote speakers like Niklas Zennström, Co-founder of Skype, Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Founder of Care.com and Bracken Darrell, CEO of Logitech, it also convened over 2000 students, entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders from around the world.
As Lisa Lang, founder and CEO of Thepowerhouse Group quipped while on stage at the 2020 entrepreneurship forum, “The new solutions we need require a new approach to how people work together.”
“ A friendship is born out of these interactions and the expert ends up being a long term mentor, or investor. I’m a true believer that letting this happen organically leads to better results over time ”
The oNetwork program is a great example of this kind of thinking. Helping students to connect to what’s happening in the market and to get a better understanding of how to start or grow a business, the program is backed by senior experts who offer over 200 hundred hours of pro bono engagement per academic year.
“Most of these people are at the stage where they’ve achieved professional success, so they just want to give back and support the young generation of entrepreneurs. I think it’s all about the energy they take from our students, the excitement, the fresh ideas.”
1The top level is what she calls the acceleration level, this is where they facilitate exposure and access to financing opportunities, through valuable connections to world-class investors. It is this top level of the pyramid that Sorina focuses on with the oNetwork.
“What we do is try to connect our students and alumni with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and industry experts, who through their connections will help the business accelerate, grow and reach its full potential.”
“They might decide to pursue a venture in any industry from health care to iGaming - so the way we’ve built this community is to make sure that we cover all sectors, so that when a student or alumnus requests support and advice I’m able to match them with the right person in that specific area.
“Our experts interact with students in a variety of ways, giving lectures or putting together workshops on specific topics that they know very well. They can be invited as speakers for the conferences that we organise but also - and this is the most sought after type of engagement - they also do one-to-one advisory sessions.”
Sorina explains that the way she thought about developing this program relied a lot on having the right chemistry between the experts and the students and that it is a ‘strong relationship that is being built’. She also strived to create the space for collaboration amongst members of the oNetwork, so that ‘they also take something away from their engagement with the program’.
“What happens a lot of times is that a friendship is born out of these interactions and the expert ends up being a long-term mentor, or investor. I’m a true believer that letting this relationship happen organically leads to better results over time.
Diversity is at the core of what Sorina does, and since starting out, the oNetwork has grown to 54, with experts from across 11 countries and 13 different industries.
“We are very close to striking a balance between men and women, so this is something that I care deeply about.
Members of the oNetwork hail from 11 countries, with professional expertise spanning across 13 different sectors, so students have access to C-level executives and established entrepreneurs who have extensive experience in a very broad range of business areas.
It’s really hard to convince female entrepreneurs to get involved in these kinds of programs, mainly because they have a more limited amount of time available but this is something that I’m very keen on and I’ve been working really hard to achieve that representation.”
“ What we do is connect our students and alumni with business leaders and industry experts, who through their connections will help the business accelerate to reach its full potential ”
THE CRYPTOCURRENCY HAS HELPED ESTABLISH A STRONG GLOBAL COMMUNITY WHO ARE ALL FANS OF THE DIGITAL CURRENCY, BUT IT ALSO HAS ITS FAIR SHARE OF DOUBTERS.
Words by Kai Dowling
The numbers of critics of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are slowly decreasing especially after the record year in 2020 and the most recent spikes in 2021.
2020 saw Bitcoin surpass huge milestones and barriers such as the $30,000 and $60,000. This resulted in many financial institutions and influential businessmen backing the cryptocurrency such as Crypto-attorney, Gordon Einstein, and companies such as PayPal all showing their support for Bitcoin. Additionally, Elon Musk and Tesla’s $1.5billion investment also played a part in Bitcoin’s rise in price. Therefore, if most, not all, influential people and companies have the ability to effect Bitcoin – what happens if sports really get involved? Would this encourage crypto-adoption and make the price pass the 100k barrier?
Step in Chiliz. Chiliz is a fan token that serves as a digital currency for the chiliZ and socios.com platform. These tokens are specific to a certain club and provide fans the accessibility to an encrypted ledger of voting and membership rights ownership.
Chiliz already have a number of big clubs in football that use a tokenisation system which gives fans the power to vote on certain topics such as kit selection or merchandise. These clubs have all partnered with the crypto-fan engagement focused platform Socios while a number of Premier League clubs were paid in Bitcoin by eToro for a sponsorship deal. This is all well and good but my curiosity is in something bigger, what if clubs start paying wages or transfer fees through Bitcoin? How will this effect crypto-adoption?
Think of it like this – it’s transfer deadline day, which is one of the most anticipated days when it comes to football. A breaking news banner pops up across the screen – “Club X buys Player Y for 10,000 Bitcoin.” This is the type of crypto-adoption I am thinking about, big players going for Bitcoin/cryptocurrency rather than cash. The impact will be there for everyone to see. Something similar has already happened, on a much smaller scale.
David Barral, dubbed as the “First Bitcoin Player” was signed by Segunda B side DUX Internacional de Madrid through a cryptocurrency transaction. This transfer already made an impact around the world with so many news agencies covering it, imagine if a huge club is next.
If a huge transfer happens then Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will definitely hit the mainstream and I personally think that this day is closer than we think. Big clubs around the world are already advertising crypto-currency – Arsenal advertise crypto on their pitch side advertisement boards and Southampton FC pay their player bonuses with Bitcoin, however this is still optional. It’ll take just one big transfer to open the floodgates and take it to the next level.
Having said that, when we cross over the pond to the US, the sports industry and crypto are already thriving like a match made in heaven. Many NFL teams are already adopting crypto payments for in-stadium services, by accepting Bitcoin or Ethereum while the NFL itself has given permission to clubs to pay their players and staff in crypto, something that is lacking in European leagues.
This resulted in a historic deal as the Carolina Panthers’ Russell Okung was the first ever NFL player to be paid through Bitcoin. Okung saw part of his $13million salary go to Strike who then pay Okung in Bitcoin. Russell Okung has set the ball rolling in the NFL, encouraging other players to get paid in Bitcoin but he is not the first US sports star to receive this type of payment. NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie and several New York Yankees squad members have all received parts of
their salary in crypto. Now, Kansas City Chiefs’ Sean Culkin also became the first ever athlete to switch his whole salary into Bitcoin.
The sudden rise in price of Bitcoin has certainly caught the eye of a number of high-profile athletes and if this trend continues, I see Bitcoin and crypto becoming the norm in sports. Several movements by big sports teams and influential athletes will definitely push Bitcoin to the next level.
Sports and cryptocurrencies definitely have a future together and crypto can use sports to boost its popularity among the masses and mainstream audience. The relationship is still at the infancy stage but with many clubs implementing cryptocurrencies in their transaction modes and players requesting to be paid via crypto – the sky is the limit for this relationship, and I believe sports and its loyal communities will elevate the crypto industry to levels we did not foresee.
“ The sky is the limit for this relationship, sports and its communities will elevate the crypto industry to levels we did not foresee ”
TRON, IS ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST POPULAR BLOCKCHAIN-BASED OPERATING SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD. TRON WAS FOUNDED IN 2017 IN DEDICATION TO ACCELERATING AND TO THE DECENTRALISATION OF THE INTERNET THROUGH BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY AND DECENTRALIZED APPLICATIONS. KAI DOWLING SITS DOWN WITH JUSTIN SUN TO DISCUSS TRON, NFTS AND CRYPTO ADOPTION.
FOR THOSE NEW TO THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY - COULD YOU EXPLAIN WHAT TRON IS ABOUT?
In 2018 TRON acquired BitTorrent, the leader in peerto-peer technology with the aim to build a free, global digital content entertainment system with distributed storage technology, that allows easy and cost-effective sharing of digital content. With highly scalable, fast and affordable technology, TRON has one of the largest and most active communities in the whole crypto space and has established itself as an extremely agile ecosystem.
- WHAT IS YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?
TRON’s improved Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism for transactions are also not only confirmed by all network nodes, but by regularly elected superrepresentatives, the number of which is limited to 27 and receive significant rewards from TRON for their work. The network also provides each user with the opportunity to conduct about 15 simple transactions for free, which is not the case for many other competitors in the field.
The DeFi boom is another factor that sets TRON apart from the rest of the competitive landscape. TRON has cemented its dominance in the industry and currently TRON DeFi ecosystem has a total value locked equalling $14.3billion and is home to over 46% of the total market cap of USDT.
DO YOU SEE CRYPTO-ADOPTION
SKYROCKETING THIS YEAR, MORE THAN IT ALREADY HAS? WILL WE SEE CRYPTOCURRENCIES OTHER THAN BITCOIN ENTER THE MAINSTREAM?
The 2021 bull run has helped catapult crypto and Bitcoin into the conversations of the masses. There has also been an uptick in social sentiment about Bitcoin, this may be because of interest from respected thought leaders such as Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, as well as institutional interest that has grown exponentially this past year. Bitcoin has gone from just being a worthless speculative asset to the conversation that everyone and their grandmother is having.
COULD NFTS
TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
The JUST NFT Fund is TRON’s official entry into the NFT market. With the acquisition of “OCEAN FRONT by Beeple, Picasso’s “Femme nue couchée au collier” and Andy Warhol’s “Three self portraits”, the fund already has a value close to $30 million. I have been collecting NFT’s for a period of time and recognised the value it could have for the entire crypto economy.
DO YOU THINK THAT NFTS ARE HERE TO STAY AS A 100 YEAR PRODUCT OR IS IT A BUBBLE WAITING TO BURST?
NFT’s could have a variety of potential use cases outside of digital content. Including turning financial documents into NFTs to manage financial supply chain logistics such as assignment of payment obligations. Gaming and tokenization of in game assets is another great example of a use case that a lot of projects are currently working on. NFT infrastructure can also enable various applications from appraisals and insurance to securitisation and asset-backed lending. NFT’s have a bright and unlimited future and could revolutionise the art and entertainment world.
TRON is always building and innovating! Picasso and Andy Warhol will soon be the first works of master artists to be tokenized, and is an exciting new launch to be looking out for. We have also entered multiple strategic partnerships across the industry to bring innovative Blockchain solutions to the TRON community. This has opened access to IDO’s, SHO’s, cross-chain oracles and others such functionalities on the TRON ecosystem. We also announced the TRON Hackathon as part of our $120million Entrepreneurial support program recently, this is to help foster the growth of DeFi and NFT’s on the TRON ecosystem. So far the program has received a lot of interest and we expect to see the launch of many exciting new projects very soon.
With $14.4 Billion total value locked in TRON’s DeFi ecosystem, TRON is already well on its way to becoming the global settlement layer. In the next five to ten years we fully expect to see TRON develop into an economic necessity in the world of cryptocurrency. The mass migration of projects and the boom of USDT on TRON are just a few indicators of the winds of change.
“ TRON is one of the largest and most used Blockchain ecosystems in the world and we only plan to cement that place as we move forward ”
BITCOIN AND ETHEREUM ARE THE GO-TO CRYPTOCURRENCIES OF THIS DAY AND AGE. MANY INVESTORS LOOK AT BITCOIN AS A DIGITAL GOLD WHILE OTHER INVESTORS, LIKE MARK CUBAN, ARE INTRIGUED BY ETHEREUM’S POTENTIAL. KAI DOWLING REACHED OUT TO TONE VAYS FOR HIS INSIGHTS ON THIS INTERESTING TOPIC.
During 2020 Bitcoin experienced a huge rise in popularity. Many economists and experts were waiting for its downfall but today Bitcoin is still alive and kicking, breaking more barriers in 2021.
The pandemic has certainly accelerated crypto’s popularity and many investors are reaping the benefits
from getting in early. With Bitcoin’s success many are searching for the next big coin - with Ethereum being the people’s choice.
Ethereum has failed to reach the heights of Bitcoin but many investors are now hoping it can eventually reach the number one cryptocurrency in the game.
In the past Bitcoin was not taken seriously with many investors thinking of the cryptocurrency as just a fad with no real potential. Fast forward a couple of years and Bitcoin is a few steps away from the mainstream.
Major investment banks like Goldman Sachs are looking at ways to incorporate Bitcoin into their operations. The bank recently relaunched its cryptocurrency trading desk which will see them deal Bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards for clients.
Meanwhile, JMP Securities expects a $1.5 trillion of incremental capital flow into Bitcoin, a larger amount than its current market cap, while German authorities are currently developing technology that allows investors to buy and sell securities on the Blockchain and in exchange receive central bank money.
These significant moves in the market have resulted in Bitcoin becoming the world’s third largest currency.
However, Ethereum hasn’t reached the levels of its competitor. The second biggest cryptocurrency has struggled to break the barriers Bitcoin has surpassed with ease, as investors are still waiting to pass the $2,000 mark. Ethereum is responsible for the growth of new tokens that follow the
ERC-20 spec but several issues are holding it back from growing.
The smart contract platform showed early signs of promise but due to a number of disadvantages, according to Tone Vays, Ethereum will fail to reach the heights of Bitcoin.
Speaking to Dr Irina Heaver in an AIBC interview, he said, “It was when I watched the Cyprus banking confiscation in 2013, that’s when it hit me that I needed to put my money into something safer. I wanted my savings to be unconfiscatable and Bitcoin was the only way to go. Still, today my most important property is Bitcoin and the number one reason anyone should consider Bitcoin for some of their savings.”
The benefits are something he understands well. He looks back to a time when his family fled the Soviet Union for the US and were only allowed to leave with 100 US dollars per person. “It didn’t matter how much wealth you had. Bitcoin stops that. No one has to know how much Bitcoin you have, you can transfer it, there’s no permission - I continue to educate people that these are the properties that matter.”
“This is what separates Bitcoin from everything else in the crypto space. It is the only one that’s decentralized and the only one where you can and should run a node and the only one with the mining structure that burns enough electricity not to get attacked.”
“ There is really no advantage that Ethereum has over Bitcoin. It is not a scarce asset & even its creators will tell you that using it as money or store of value is not wise ”
“I do not have an expectation that investors would choose Ethereum over Bitcoin in the long term. There is really no advantage that Ethereum has over Bitcoin.
Yes, there are more projects built utilising the Ethereum Blockchain but 99% of those projects are totally useless with the majority of them being outright security scams. As the SEC continues to bring charges against these companies it will reflect on Ethereum’s popularity as well.
As an investment, Bitcoin once again shines since Ethereum does not even know what their future inflation rate will be. It is not a scarce asset & even its creators will tell you that using it as money or store of value is not wise.
On the technological side, Ethereum has proven that it is not decentralised and any mistake can be reversed. Ethereum is essentially a centralised project, with leaders that have the ability to alter tech in the chain.
Additionally, no one knows what will happen with Ethereum 2.0 as they move from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake eliminating their Miners. Personally, I feel that having mining is the only thing that makes it a Blockchain so we will see what happens.
In the end, any wise investor would stay clear from Ethereum other than a shortterm trade to acquire more Bitcoin. Bitcoin sidechains like Liquid and RGB can provide the same foundation layer for projects that Ethereum does, people just need to wise up and do some research,” says Tone. However, Ethereum does have its fair share of supporters, such as Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban who believes that Ethereum is the closest crypto there is to a true currency.
Ethereum uses a different Blockchain to Bitcoin and is considered to be far more flexible, since other cryptocurrencies can be created on Ethereum Blockchain.
The well-known investor, who claims to have a portfolio consisting of 60% in Bitcoin, 30% in Ethereum and the remainder in smaller cryptocurrencies, thinks that Ethereum is more of a currency than Bitcoin.
Cuban highlights Ethereum’s smart contracts, NFTs and defi to be game changers which has led a lot of investors to keep an eye Ethereum and its potential growth. The cryptocurrency is showing a lot of promise for development due to these features and therefore, it is adaptable over time.
“ No one has to know how much Bitcoin you have, you can transfer it, there’s no permission - I continue to educate people that these are the properties that matter ”
IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW MARIA DEBRINCAT SAT DOWN WITH SEAN CASSAR, AN ARTISTICALLY TALENTED CREATOR OF FUNCTIONAL AND AESTHETICALLY PLEASING SPACES FROM DESIGN HUB MALTA TO DISCUSS THEIR ARRAY OF SERVICES AND HIGHLY-PERSONALISED INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR DESIGNS.
WHO IS DESIGN HUB MALTA AND WHAT KIND OF PREVIOUS PROJECTS HAVE YOU WORKED?
DesignHub Malta is a team of architects and designers brought together to focus on high-end functional and useable designs. Our company offers an exclusive service for a discerning clientele who aspire to elevate the standards of their living and work spaces. Some of our previous projects include big names such as the revamp of the classic Eden Cinemas, Hammett’s Gastro Bar, 23 Boutique Hotel, Gamesys Offices, luxury residential villas and apartments.
We have a dedicated and experienced team that follows up with office clients. We are currently offering office hybridization design and fit out packages that will enhance the post-Covid usage of big online companies.
A PROSPEROUS ECONOMY DESERVES HIGH QUALITY INFRASTRUCTURE. HOW ARE YOUR DESIGNS AIDING IN PROMOTING AND ADVANCING MALTA AS A DESTINATION FOR HIGH-VALUE USERS TO ATTRACT BUSINESSES?
Unlike other companies here at Design Hub we choose our clients as much as they choose us. In all our designs we try to our best to promote Malta as a go to destination with the aim to attract
business. We offer a range of materials and services from our shop which enables us to offer a design and fit out package to both residential and commercial. When a client uses our services to restore a unit, we do our best to respect and embellish that building by keeping its old characteristics and incorporate modern designs making it visually and practically attractive and functional. Steered by varied clients’ aspirations, as well as our widespread experiences, we, as a firm, design interiors which allow clients to fully express themselves in their set goal.
HAS BEING THE ONLY NATIONAL DESIGNER LISTED ON A LIST OF EXCEPTIONALLY INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS OF ICONIC DESIGNS PAVED WAY FOR FURTHER BUSINESS ABROAD?
All the effort and work that went into our projects didn’t go unrecognised and in the end everything is paying off. It’s been a pleasure and very humbling to be honored with various awards throughout our 10-year journey. Our personal business mission is to be able to increase the owner’s market value with our ‘one-off’ interiors and exteriors in Malta as well as abroad, offering professional services to foreigners investing locally or overseas. We look forward to having more opportunities to design and fit out projects outside Malta in the near future.
“ Unlike other companies here at Design Hub we choose our clients as much as they choose us ”
ةثيدحلا تاميمصتلا جمد للاخ نمو ةميدقلا
WITH GAINS IN MOMENTUM OF BOTH THE CRYPTO MARKET AND DEFI SPACE, THE ATTENTION OF THE USER BASE IS MOVING TOWARDS PLATFORMS IN THE DEFI SECTOR – GABRIEL ZANKO, CEO OF MOBILEYOURLIFE AND OF URANO CAPITAL LOOKS AT THE ROAD TO MAINSTREAM ADOPTION.
In the last 13 years after Bitcoin’s white paper: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was released, we have seen the first glimpse of how innovation in the financial world is about to be disrupted for the first time by a network without any centralized party or organisation.
Bitcoin became the first application within the ecosystem called the Blockchain. Which in essence is the record-keeping technology behind the Bitcoin network. In the Bitcoin paper it is explained in detail how the technology works and after figuring out the brilliant design of the Proof of Work, which discusses how peers go about time-stamping the ledger and makes a bit of effort to identify and verify the hashes that represent blocks of transactions.
By representing a block as an SHA-256 hash, peers are required to spend computational power to produce a matching hash that generates a new addition to the ledger. It is like a one-time puzzle that the computer(s) must solve using computational power. This hash then becomes part of every hash added afterward in a long chain of blocks that all participants agree is correct.
As you can see so far, Bitcoin has brought about innovation – and as Peter Thiel says in his book Zero to One - early innovation with the Bitcoin and Blockchain network created a whole new pattern that moved us onwards from Web 1.0, which was an interconnected computer system designed for scientists to share experiments in portals such as AOL and early Yahoo.
These online service providers were the gateway to Web 1.0, where businesses, individuals and governments began to consume and occasionally post content. Web 2.0, whose business model relies on user participation to create fresh content and profile data to be sold to third parties for marketing purposes. Indeed, the internet has become a massive app store, dominated by centralized apps from Google, Facebook and Amazon.
The rise of technologies such as distributed ledgers and storage on Blockchain will allow for data decentralization and create a transparent and secure environment, overtaking Web 2.0’s centralization, surveillance and exploitative advertising. Decentralized infrastructure and application platforms will displace centralized tech giants, and individuals will be able to rightfully own their data.
Web 3.0 will bring us a fairer internet by enabling the individual to be a sovereign. Web 3.0’s decentralized Blockchain protocol will enable individuals to connect to an internet where they can own and be properly compensated for their time and data.
With the rise of decentralized networks, the Ethereum network builds on Bitcoin’s innovation, with some big
differences – it lets you use digital money without payment providers or banks. But thanks to smart contracts Ethereum is programmable, so you can also use it for lots of different digital assets – even Bitcoin. So, it goes beyond Bitcoin in the sense that it is not only used for payments or store of value, but rather as a marketplace or platform to build financial services, games and apps that cannot steal your data or censor you.
DeFi is aiming to bring the traditional finance products into the Blockchain. With the main goal to replace legacy and centralized institutions with ecosystems and technologies, completely decentralized living as an ecosystem for all types of products - such as lending to Automated Market Making (AMM) and examples such as Uniswap and Compound. It is remarkable how it grew the DeFi market during 2020, increasing up to 51+ BN USD in Total Valued Locked in DeFi.
There are several challenges such as energy consumption and the switch from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake as Ethereum 2.0 is aiming to achieve - which will enhance speed and efficiency to build more solid products. Most applications are built today in Ethereum and more recently on Binance Smart Chain.
This is only the beginning but the technology from Bitcoin and the rise of Web 3.0 are allowing emerging markets and the whole world to tap into networks more transparent and more accessible to the people.
“ Decentralized infrastructure and application platforms will displace centralized tech giants, and individuals will be able to rightfully own their data ”
DR CONRAD ATTARD IS THE DEPUTY DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF ICT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MALTA, AS WELL AS A LECTURER AND A RESEARCHER WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER INFORMATION SYSTEMS. HE IS CURRENTLY LEAD RESEARCHER ON A PROJECT FOCUSING ON PERVASIVE ELECTRONIC MONITORING (PEM) IN HEALTHCARE. HE TAKES A DIVE INTO THE RESEARCH DRIVING INNOVATION IN DIGITAL HEALTHCARE.
Ilike to compare digital health to when we plan a holiday. We book all we need through technology. All this is done through a user-friendly system, whose connections between different local and international providers we trust will give us the holiday we planned. Similarly, digital health solutions can enable us to learn more about our health, to get treatment, and even to prevent ourselves from getting ill in the first place.
All this is already possible, of course, but it’s challenging for several reasons.
At the Faculty of ICT, we are currently focusing on improving the quality of life of people living with chronic illnesses or who need medical advice through technology-enabled health services. This work is related to personalised health, but digital health depends on health information, which needs to be collected from sensors using wearable devices, or else through the logging-in of observed information by professionals.
For this information to be truly useful, it needs to be as complete as possible, as well as secure and correct. And, in fact, that is where the problems with such systems begin. All these attributers create a challenge, particularly because the information currently available is dispersed in unintegrated IT solutions, with our main hospital’s health systems and those of other local and international hospitals acting separately.
Three projects we are currently working on aim to counteract this. The first is the Intelligent Aggregation and Adaptive Visualisation project, which focuses on integrating data from different IT solutions. Using an oncology-related case study, we want to see how this data could be used by professionals to improve their understanding throughout the patient care pathway. The second, is the Data Visualisation using BI for Digital Health project, which looks at how different IT dashboard solutions could help hospitals manage details for both out-patients and resident patients in a local hospital.
The final project looks to take such technology straight to the patient. Related to pervasive electronic monitoring in healthcare, and with several projects funded through UoM research funding and the Research, Innovation & Development Trust (RIDT), this project aims to take into account the different aspects formal and informal carers have to grapple with when looking after the elderly, particularly those living with dementia.
Our work here is to create a system that can predict when wandering may cause danger to them, thus allowing carers to take more informed decisions that do not limit their patients’ daily activities whilst keeping them safe. To create such digital health systems, we need multi-disciplinary teams that contribute by giving feedback and participating actively in the full life cycle of the research.
2021 is the year of medical education, leveraging augmented reality, virtual reality and emerging technologies, but this also reminds us of a very powerful point: digital health solutions have to be adapted in a way that different professionals can engage with, particularly in these difficult and extraordinary times. To be effective these technologies need to be reliable and keep both the professional and the patient in mind at all times.
By adopting effective, well-designed AI solutions that capture the user experience required to succeed, professionals working hand-in-hand with our research projects are learning about such technology. They are also helping us build datasets to improve the algorithms and designs using state-of-the-art tech. Data is required to build the models that are proposed, and to obtain successful outcomes we need as much data as we can humanly collect to give us real-life scenario predictions.
Through the data we have already collected we are now creating simulations for professionals to experience what life
is actually like for their patients. The professionals here include occupational therapists, medical doctors, physiotherapists, nurses, and nursing aids, all of whom work in local hospitals.
While these professionals have years of experience, which can be vital for our data collection, the majority of them can only imagine what their patient actually goes through. So by using simulations that replicate these challenges using technology and simulation suits, we are giving them the chance to improve the decision-making process. Needless to say, all this has to take place in a space that allows for zero tolerance when it comes to deviating from established standards.
Meanwhile, to make sure that it is not just current professionals who have this opportunity, the UoM is introducing a masters of science in Digital Health. This is a joint collaboration between the Faculty of ICT and Health Science, with a contribution from different faculties to cover different aspects that such an area requires.
Ultimately technology can be vital in health, but at its core its function is always the same: to empower us to do much more than we imagine. Our main hope is that those who require access to health services come to see such technology in the same light they view technology when it comes to travel and all the other wonderful things it has helped make easier and more seamless.
“ 2021 is the year of medical education, leveraging augmented reality, VR and emerging technologies, however digital health solutions have to be adapted in a way that different professionals can engage with ”
CLINICAL AND HEALTH TECH ADVISORS TO MED TECH WORLD, DYLAN ATTARD & RYAN GRECH ARE BOTH PRACTISING PHYSICIANS WITH A PASSION FOR HEALTH TECH AND A BELIEF THAT DIGITAL IS A KEY PART OF SOLVING THE LOOMING HEALTHCARE CRISES. IN THIS ARTICLE THEY EXAMINE THE TRENDS SHAPING THE BEGINNING OF A DIGITAL HEALTH REVOLUTION WITHIN MALTA.
has certainly been a rollercoaster, but speaking as individuals infatuated by digital health, it has also been one exciting year. Digital health was bound to take centre stage sooner or later, and it took a pandemic to accelerate this, giving it the visibility it deserved in the first place. Even though COVID exposed a multitude of weaknesses in
most healthcare systems around the world, the industry showed resilience coupled with innovation and fast adaptation - something which admittedly most thought could never happen in healthcare. Now that we seem to be emerging victorious against the invisible common enemy, it is time to take stock and reflect, to pave the way for the present and future of healthcare.
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The amount of medical data that we are collecting is everexpanding, not just from every contact point we have with a healthcare provider but also generating data through increasing consumer wearable devices. Think about it, your average consumer based smartwatch can track your heart rate, obtain a three-lead ECG and check your oxygen levels, and this is just the beginning. Whilst it is good that we have so much data at our disposal, as it enables personalised and predictive medicine, not all of it is useful information. Enter AI, it is pivotal to handle all of this data and sift signal through the noise. The application of AI will extend beyond this. We can already see heavy use of chatbots whose role will continue to expand. But we think that 2021 will be the year in which AI starts making it into mainstream medicine via applications in Radiology and clinical support tools. Practitioners that will resist such change may find themselves obsolete sooner rather than later.
The younger generation who are most familiar with running their whole life on a smartphone is making way for on-demand healthcare whilst also inspiring individuals to be in charge of their health. COVID has made us realise that telemedicine works and that most consultations can occur online. As consumers, we also want things to be done at our convenience. All of this is pushing towards a new patient pathway which amalgamates virtual and physical together into a hybrid model causing a re-think of how we practice medicine. We believe that different models of healthcare pathways will emerge this year and it will ultimately be patients who will choose what works. Providers that deliver high quality, interoperable, timely and personalised service will be amongst the ones who come out on top.
The rise of smart hospitals is undeniable. A connected infrastructure of medical devices, software applications, healthcare systems and services will enable the sharing of crucial data in real-time. It is game-changing in several ways. It does not only boil down to monitoring a patient’s condition and getting a quicker accurate diagnosis but also optimising the care process in healthcare institutions to reduce errors and efficiently allocate resources, ultimately reducing the cost of healthcare. In 2021 we
predict that we will see an increase in smart medical devices. This will in turn boost in-home, in-clinic/hospital and on-the-body use of IoMT devices driven by increased accessibility, increased patient-centred personalised care and the need to drive down healthcare costs.
Funding for digital healthcare has also been exceeding expectations year-on-year, with an unprecedented number of IPOs and SPAC deals last year. It shows that enterprise commitment is there and the momentum we all craved is with us. We must not forget though; interoperability is a must, consumer trust is key, regulation is essential and like it or not, we are going to enter a new normal.
We are also excited by the prospect of digital health in 2021 within the Maltese islands. Whilst we’re proud of the way a tiny island in the Mediterranean handled COVID, we are equally appeased how both public and private institutions, together, have used technology to react to a pandemic which caught us off guard. Over the past months, Malta proved that its historic role as Nurse of the Mediterranean is well deserved. It has also shown that what we have been suggesting, that of public-private partnerships for the advancement of digital healthcare does make sense.
We believe that this is just the beginning of a digital health revolution within the island of Malta. Startups, research and infrastructure are underway and we are thrilled to be amongst the pioneers leading the way to a digital health utopia.
Alongside years of experience in leadership roles, Dylan Attard and Ryan Grech have co-founded Digital Health Malta an NGO with the aim to help transform digital health in the Maltese Islands. Furthermore, they are also co-founders of a local healthtech startup Tabib Technologies, with the creedo that healthcare should be accessible to everyone and anyone. They have recently joined the company, serving as ‘Clinical & Health Tech Advisors’ for the emerging Med Tech Summit to be held in December 2021, in Malta.
“ We believe that this is just the beginning of a digital health revolution within the island of Malta ”
STEFAN BUTTIGIEG IS CO-FOUNDER AT DIGITAL HEALTH MALTA AND A SPECIALIST IN PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE. HE CURRENTLY LECTURES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MALTA FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES ON THE TOPICS OF DIGITAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN HEALTHCARE. FROM CONTACT TRACING APPS TO THE RISE OF OPEN SOURCE HE EXAMINES THE TECH CREATING TRANSFORMATIVE AND EFFECTIVE CHANGE.
We’ve heard about COVID-19 Dashboards, Github Repositories, Contact Tracing Apps, Digital Vaccination Cards, Daily COVID-19 updates. You’ve seen it all, and this would have not been possible without the silent digital revolution that took place with public health departments around the world. We have noted situations where this has happened practically overnight and underfunded public health departments suddenly had a flood of digital and human resources coming their way to help them tackle this sudden onslaught of information and new workflows.
Talk about digital revolutions in public health were in public and academic discussions for many years but there has never been the momentum that has been noted with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) took the lead in multiple ways in this silent digital revolution and made this happen through a number of initiatives. One of the flagship initiatives that supported the pandemic in more than 30 countries is Go.Data. Go.Data is a freely available outbreak management information system that supports national public health emergency responses with management of COVID-19 positive cases, their contacts and relevant linked data such as Lab Results, Event data and more.
This is just a fraction of the digital work done by WHO and their partners. They’ve worked on an international COVID-19 Dashboard, opened up multiple Github Open Source Repositories to support the Public Health Informatics and Data Science community and through Github and the momentous public support they even set up an open-sourced COVID-19 App that currently is being piloted in Nigeria. From the Artificial Intelligence point of view, there was also incredible work done on launching chatbots to combat misinformation on Facebook Messenger and Viber.
Even something as simple as the interactive timeline of the WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic reflects strongly on the silent revolution that took place in one of the highest-ranking global health organisations.
chains of transmission. And how about Interoperability?
The collaboration across the European Union with respect to this has been ground-breaking and phenomenal with an EU Federation Gateway service delivered in a record-time.
Talking about Contact Tracing Apps, we even observed the classic battle for which technologies will be widely adopted as seen in the DP-3T (the decentralised model) VS PEPP-PT (centralised model). A technological battle that usually took years was compressed intensely in a period of 5-6 months with different technologies that had diverging philosophies and modus operandi. Does anyone remember the video format battles: Betamax vs VHS anyone? DVD vs Blu-Ray?
THE RISE OF OPEN-SOURCE
If you do a search on Github for COVID-19 you get more than 91,000 results. This attention has been unparalleled and has brought intensive efforts from all over the world to scale up data science efforts that supported the digital revolution. Ministries for Health or Technology from all around the world setup such as the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sport in Netherlands, Israel’s Ministry of Health and even Poland’s Technology Ministry dedicated efforts to open-source repositories that are constantly updated with source code or COVID-19 related datasets.
THE WAY FORWARD - WILL THIS REVOLUTION END WITH COVID-19?
The topic of Contact Tracing Apps was one of the digital public health highlights of 2020 and this can be clearly seen from the global and regional efforts that brought about these initiatives.
Contact Tracing Apps around the world designed landing pages that looked much more like Mobile App sites rather than government sites - simply have a look at the websites of some European Contact Tracing Apps such as Italy’s Immuni App, Malta’s COVID Alert and Irelands’ COVID Tracker. This made perfect sense in the mad rush to get as many users as possible on-boarded in order to break the
The silver lining of the COVID-19 Pandemic has definitely been the silent digital revolution of public health. Many public health professionals and organisations took steps forward that would have never thought possible if the pandemic didn’t happen.
How can we sustain this monumental growth and change?
The scaling up of digital resources needs to be enhanced with dedicated long-term funding, legal frameworks, increased human resource capability and strategies that need to be backed with significant investment in education and capacity building. Only through this holistic approach can the global public health movement move forward in the upcoming decade.
“ The silver lining of the COVID-19 Pandemic has definitely been the silent digital revolution of public health ”
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OSCAR L. ANDRADE Founder
Bancambios Exchange arrives to support the new asset class and increase the TLV. We are preparing the launch of a multi-blockchain decentralized exchange for traditional Capital Market traders, which includes a Decentralized Asset Management Monitor, buying Options and Reflective Balance.
Bankera provides payment accounts, payment processing (fiat and crypto), card issuing, business loans and white-label solutions. It works closely with digital businesses, including crypto, emerging tech, affiliates, and similar companies. Bankera offers SEPA and SWIFT payments, multicurrency accounts, mass payouts and debit cards.
MARK ATTARD Partner & CEO
BDO is an end-to-end professional services and advisory firm, with over 40 years’ experience in advising organisations in accelerating business growth. We have extensive knowledge in managing licence application processes and assisting with the documentation required by the relevant authorities.
BitBay Pay is a regulated payment provider, processing payments in the 10 most popular cryptocurrencies with automatic conversion to USD, EUR, GBP, PLN. An Estonian cryptocurrency licence allows us to process Crypto to Fiat payments and Fiat to Crypto withdrawals. Conversion to FIAT, API and POS app is the main BitBay feature.
BitCherry is the first distributed e-commerce network in the world, committed to empowering the traditional retail service industry through blockchain technology, and in creating a new shared e-commerce super ecosystem.
We keep operators safe from publishers bidding on their keywords in PPC Ads. Right now you are paying publishers that are stealing your own organic traffic, we can help you solve this problem. With our service you can find all publishers that are using your brand-keywords in PPC Ads (brand-bidding).
BMIT Technologies - Malta’s largest data centre, with additional data centres in Germany and Italy. BMIT Technologies offers Co-Location, Cloud and Hybrid IT services. Offering 24x7 support and specialised Managed IT Services to customers ranging from the smallest to the largest operators.
Cashaa is a global banking solution for crypto businesses and individuals. It’s the world’s first banking platform that enables the seamless transaction of both national currencies and crypto from the one account dashboard. Cashaa solves the critical problem in the crypto industry which is underserved or refused service by traditional banks.
Invest – an all-in-one decentralized trading & exchange platform has introduced its trading wallet & copy trading system helping beginner & intermediate traders copy the crypto deals to make profit.
is also launching Crypto Concierge Platform (Trading allocation wizard) with guaranteed profit percentages that match all trading styles.
Chetu provides custom software development as well as payment processing, hospitality including F&B, Self-Service, Retail, Security, Ticketing & Event Management, Digital Entertainment, C II & CIII Development, Mobile Apps and Lab Cert. & Testing. You own the code when we’re finished.
Chiliz is a digital currency for sports and entertainment platforms. It fuels the world’s first scalable, tokenised voting platform, Socios.com where fans can buy, trade, and execute voting rights with their favourite sports teams.
Clickmate is a world-leading finance affiliate network, focusing on cryptocurrency products. With unparalleled access to direct brokers, Clickmate is renowned for high conversion rates and a family-like atmosphere where affiliates come together to solve problems and break all-time revenue records together.
A multifunctional and democratic crypto exchange. As one of the first on the market, we give financial benefits to active users. CoinCasso is a holistic project, which means implementing solutions on a few business layers regarding the cryptocurrency solutions to make using easier for our users.
CoinsLoot has brought the world’s first crypto loot boxes with cryptocurrencies, DeFi, NFT and physical items in the form of a DApp. Get the desired item or an item with even higher value due to the provably fair algorithm. Investors will be able to purchase Loot Tokens and stake them in the smart contract and earn profits every single time a user opens a Loot Box.
CoinsPaid offers a high-end, reliable solution to accept, exchange, and securely store crypto payments from all over the world through its platform. CoinsPaid also offers exchange & OTC desk, white label solution, hot wallet system and B2C crypto wallet with a built-in exchange, a payment feature Plug & Pay and transaction monitoring tool CoinsPaid Explorer. In 2021, the company is launching a digital magazine, CoinsPaid Media.
ROGER A. STRICKLAND JR Director
CSB Group is an established and leading services provider and has been involved in the industry since its inception in Malta. Our highly experienced and trusted professionals are specialised in providing comprehensive and personalised services to clients wishing to licence, setup or relocate their operation to Malta.
MAGO Co-Founder
Dash is a payments-centric digital currency that enables anyone to make quick, easy and cost-effective payments at any time, anywhere in the world, without going through a central authority. Based on a decentralised peer-to-peer network and secured by strong cryptography, Dash offers a safe and user-friendly payment method without barriers.
The ABEYCHAIN is a leading public chain that has implemented a PoW+DPoS hybrid consensus with a focus on high performance and security for decentralized applications and financial transactions. The ABEY Foundation contributes Governance, Research and Guidance, while maintaining the integrity of the ABEYCHAIN technology for today and for the future.
Daxchain is a digital currency trading platform offering services for crypto traders and merchants, who trade in virtual currencies. Our leading blockchain technology enables us to provide fast and secure operations with advanced anti-fraud measures. Daxchain’s mission is to provide excellent services, technological innovation, low fees, and rigorous security standards.
NIKITA VASSEV CEO
Revolutionary decentralized platform with guaranteed pool liquidity for millions of users. A DeFi that includes: sports, prediction market, P2P on cryptocurrency rates and NFT collecting. Integration with Web 3.0 wallets allows users to connect to the platform without KYC and registrations.
DANIELE MARINELLI Founder & CEO
Launched in 2018, DTCircle is aiming to become the most significant decentralized social network infrastructure from Europe that is powered by the Quared blockchain system, which is an enterprisefocused, permissioned blockchain infrastructure specifically designed for financial use cases.
Free TON is a fully decentralized self-governed blockchain, giving power back to the people through freedom of speech, information and software. It uses its own decentralized interoperable multiblockchainplatform architecture based on Turing-complete smart contracts. Free TON is supported and powered exclusively by the Free TON community.
TZAHI KANZA Managing Partner
FutureBlock is a unique Blockchain startups investment and acceleration program. FutureBlock incubates and invests in Blockchain startups with proven business models. We provide deep operational support to startups and help them build market-leading Blockchain companies.
HugeOffers is one of the most well-known affiliate CPA networks in the crypto industry. Converting FB, Google, Native traffic and more using advanced technology with machine-learning, together with advanced algorithms, to distribute your leads to over 300 leading brokers. Converting all types of traffic sources, affiliates of HugeOffers can expect the ultimate performance and highest ROI on the market.
PAUL MATHIESON Founder & CEO
Investment Evolution is a Malta-based company with its own IEC cryptocurrency coin/network and operates the IECX Malta cryptocurrency exchange. IEC cryptocurrency facilitates fast and free international payments to the Philippines by Filipino OFWs in Europe. We also provide cryptocurrency token creation/exchange listing services and plan to offer cryptocurrency loans.
Jobchain is a platform that allows anybody to hire and be hired anytime, anywhere, and getting paid instantly in cryptocurrency within a protected and verified environment. A financial, recruitment, and asset management services in one platform where users will be able to pay for goods and services with several cryptocurrencies, including JOB.
KPMG in Malta is a multidisciplinary firm committed to supporting clients in the emerging technology, DLT and AI space. It is a recognised systems auditor and one of the leading providers of tax, advisory and audit services, with a dedicated cross-functional team servicing Emerging Tech clients.
KSi Malta is a tax, legal advisory and corporate services firm providing a wide range of services to both local and international clients. KSi Malta is a member of Morison KSi, a global association of leading professional service firms, consisting of 150+ member firms, is present in 80+ countries, employs approximately 10,000 staff, and has a turnover of $1 billion.
Nerve Global is the first blockchain based crowdfunding platform that lets consumers instead of creators decide on content. It provides global access to crowdfunding without the need for a bank account.
Network Society Lab (NSL) is a venture development advisory firm headquartered in Malta with offices in Argentina, Australia and the United States. It focuses on adding value to startup, early-stage, and growth companies that are based upon exponential technologies and decentralised networks, including blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies.
NF Labs, a public-blockchain research & development company. NF Labs Carter is unique and non-fungible. This doesn’t mean we’re doing just NFTs; we do everything that’s unique. Now the blockchain space is crowded by fungible projects that range from AMM to some yield farming. But we want to make it real by transforming and applying blockchain to real-world problems.
NotifyAI, operates a proprietary push messaging platform that allows publishers to collect, manage and monetize their subscriber databases and performance advertisers to reach highly targeted users with a positive ROI.
OVR is a cutting-edge, customisable augmented reality platform powered by the Ethereum Blockchain Tech. The ultramodern decentralized infrastructure creates an immersive experience based on the user’s geographic position with the smart phone, and OVR Live facilitates greater communication and authentic interaction through user’s personal avatar.
PalletPal is the Middle East’s premier digital solution for supply chain and trade operations. Our team is building an intuitive, data-driven and transparent platform that facilitates customers’ end-to-end shipping lifecycle by connecting the different nodes of the supply chain in an allencompassing digital platform. Our mission is to make cargo shipping as quick and easy as booking a flight.
PayBox is a Fintech startup providing SMEs with digital business tools and a cross-border payment solution to enable growth. We offer cross-border payment, e-invoice, payroll, POS, crowdfunding and e-commerce solutions to SMEs. We strive to make digitization for SMEs hassle-free and streamlined.
Pieme application enables people to turn their homes into part-time restaurants or event venues and chat with friends - gaining rewards in crypto currency RRN (Rate and review) tokens. RRN is a crypto coin that will exclusively be used by guests to pay for meals and events on Pieme platform.
Private Financial Services is an international licensed corporate services provider. Our mission is to assist crypto and e-money companies in seizing opportunities and managing risks tied to their expansion across borders and industries (licensing, banking solutions, structuring, incorporations and many other different legal services).
Grand Innovasia Concept Corp. (GICC) in partnership with Impero Consortium Management Corp. (IMPERO) presents:
BlockchainFintech.ph
The Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) is the 1st INVESTMENT PROMOTION AGENCY TO REGULATE BLOCKCHAIN & FINTECH IN THE PHILIPPINES, under R.A. 11453, to introduce the:
AFAB will deploy the FIRST GOVERNMENT ISSUED LICENSE REGISTERED ON A BLOCKCHAIN.
Quantox Technology is an internationally renowned outsourcing company for Web & Mobile Apps development. We operate by ISO 9001 standards in all our 9 offices from 4 different countries. Top-quality approach to business led us to over 120 successfully completed projects.
Robot4Work Robotic Services provides humanoid robot employees to companies in the health and hospitality sector such as hospitals, clinics, retail stores, museums, schools, etc. as receptionists, wayfinders, welcome staff, or assistants, to provide relief for repetitive or dangerous work that humans should not do.
Salamantex is a fintech company specializing in developing smart, trustworthy, secure software solutions for payments with digital assets - from cryptocurrencies to loyalty points - and combining these services with existing payment solutions into one seamless experience. The Salamantex Crypto Payment software offers simple and intuitive access to payments with cryptocurrencies.
At SALUBATA we invent lifestyle technologies that help people and the planet. We presently occupy a niche focussed on low-cost recycled plastic shoes.
Save is developing a blockchain-powered system for greater control over pharmaceutical supply chains. $10B of perfectly good medications are destroyed each year in the US alone and this problem is global. We give federal governments and private industry the tools to eliminate this waste, increasing supplies and ensuring greater access to medications globally.
SolidBlock is building a new asset class based on real estate, combining the stability of the property market growth and efficiency of blockchainbased financial products. SolidBlock creates tradable digital assets backed by real estate that grant investors rights to revenue, dividends, or interest and allows them to benefit from the growth of their property as well as trade their assets.
Solitics changes the way organisations communicate with their customers, enabling them to increase conversion, retention, and LTV. Solitics is a real time customer engagements and analytics platform that enables organisations to create personalized, automated customer experiences, without a long, expensive data integration project. To learn more, please visit solitics.com.
Nicholas Levenstein & Company (Levenstein.net) and its website, TigerEx.net, operate funds, exchanges currency, licenses its trading software and offers financial products that are available to our customers due to cryptocurrency and liberalising markets. We would love to trade with you or have you as an investor in our funds!
Tourismo is a technology company that provides services like transportation, travel, digital payments, and acts as an aggregator to travel suppliers and financial services. More so, Tourismo is proud to have serviced institutions with their transportation needs and is still servicing tourism-related business in their digital transformation requirement. B2B-C Model.
Unicorn is a digital art-focused NFT platform that has a blockchain based NFT marketplace with auction features and is community governed. The focus is primarly on high quality digital art with limited collections that will be vetted by Unicorn initially before progressing to a community-driven decision.
VGPAY is a blockchain platform that offers transparency, anonymity, safety and immutability of transfer and remittance, all in one place, for individuals and merchants. We aim to integrate every business and user into a unified ecosystem, and contribute to make everyday life more safe, easy and efficient.
The company was established in 2019 in Dubai, working in the field of electronic mediation in the tourism and travel sector. It developed the virtual tours project with tourist guides to contribute to overcoming the challenges of the impact of Covid-19 and to form an opportunity to attract more tourists, especially those with modest financial means, the disabled, and the elderly.
International licensed bank, providing eligible individuals and businesses asset & digital asset banking and insurance services. Dealing with depositary transactions, multicurrency account management, and investment solutions services. Operational cryptocurrency exchange operator securing the opening of crypto accounts, storage of cryptocurrencies, acceptance of crypto deposits, issuance of security tokens and own cryptocurrencies.
JOSEPH F BORG Partner
WH Partners is a Malta-based leading law firm with a business focus and expertise in fintech, technology, tax, M&A and corporate finance. The firm also advises clients on intellectual property, data protection, capital markets, commercial contracts, real estate, employment law, trusts and foundations and citizenship, residence & immigration.
Chief Strategy Officer
Founded in 2018, WhiteBIT is one of the most secure trading platforms in the world. Built on cutting-edge technology WhiteBIT provides an institutional-grade experience for professional and novice customers alike. We are strong believers in education, and we have been actively collaborating and engaging in dialogue with key market players.
yeswetrust has developed the world’s first personal growth app that rewards people for a healthy lifestyle. The Tokens are earned while meditating and running and can be used in the yeswetrust digital app shop. Startups and Charities are funded from yeswetrust revenue. The global community decides by voting on blockchain which projects are to be funded.
ZBX is a regulation ready, end-to-end cryptocurrency & FIAT ecosystem. Registered in Europe, ZBX is a seamless platform that enables a full suite of Crypto and FIAT products, to assist Token projects, retail and Institutional Investors or corporate clientele. ZBX is built across 5 core functions: Order Book Exchange, OTC Trade Desk, Sophisticated FIAT & Crypto Payment Gateways, Exchange Listing Services & Token Presale, & Swiss Regulated Corporate & Personal Banking Services.
Levercode develops proof-based, reliable, low-risk technologies and data governance systems for governments and companies to execute digital transformation by providing quantum resilient digital authentication and digital signature platforms, enabling interoperability between different registries utilising a secure exchange layer whilst securing the compliance of data systems with the surrounding regulatory environment.
AMBCrypto is an independent blockchain and cryptocurrency news publishing platform. AMBCrypto was conceptualised and brought to life in 2018. We take great pride in the fact that we are a non-funded organisation and have seen exponential growth since inception. We are among the top cryptocurrency media portals in the world.
Asia Blockchain Review is the largest initiative for media and community building in Asia for blockchain technology. We aim to connect all blockchain enthusiasts on a regional scale and facilitate the technological foundation of blockchain through a range of group discussions, technical workshops, conferences, and consulting programs.
AtoZMarkets.com is one of the world’s largest media portals specialised in financial markets. Since 2013 AtoZ Markets has been unceasingly providing accurate signals, indicators, educational articles, as well as conducting trustworthy reviews for service providers, forex brokers, and crypto exchanges. All of this is for one simple reason: to make financial markets open and approachable for everyone.
CoinCodex is a cryptocurrency listings website and data aggregator that displays real-time information for 9,000+ crypto assets trading on more than 300 different exchanges. Users can access a wealth of data for each cryptocurrency that’s listed on CoinCodex – the platform covers the basics, such as price, trading volume, and market cap, but also caters to more advanced users by providing historical cryptocurrency prices and technical indicators.
CoinNewsExtra is the fastest growing global blockchain, crypto and fintech media platform with its headquarters in Lagos State Nigeria, West Coast of Africa. CoinNewsExtra’s mission is to educate the African populace and the world about emerging technologies, and how they can leverage blockchain and crypto to create wealth and innovation.
Coinpedia is the leading independent digital media resource covering a wide range of news on blockchain technology, crypto assets, and emerging fintech trends. Every day our team delivers the most accurate and up-todate news from both the decentralized and centralized worlds. Our primary focus is to provide our readers with the latest unbiased, carefully researched cryptocurrency news stories.
Cointelegraph is the leading independent digital media resource covering a wide range of news on blockchain technology, crypto assets, and emerging fintech trends. Content aims to deliver unbiased news, in-depth analytics, cryptocurrency price charts, insightful opinion pieces, as well as regular reports on the social transformation that digital currencies bring.
Cryptoknowmics Is an innovative platform that is dedicated to providing intuitive prospects and the latest updates about the cryptocurrency market and blockchain technology. For many business enthusiasts that are aspiring to venture into the cryptocurrency business, Cryptoknowmics is the best resource to gain insightful knowledge about cryptocurrencies. Get all the latest news and updates related to the crypto-universe here.
www.cointelegraph.com
CryptoNewsZ is a news publication that brings the latest news on cryptocurrencies, blockchain, ICOs, crypto exchanges, DApps, price analysis of cryptocurrencies, interviews, and other prominent events. We aim to evolve the crypto world to understand each concept. Ours is a commercial website providing news with an extensive reach of users across the world.
The Cryptonomist is a magazine based in Switzerland. It provides free insightful articles about trading, blockchain tech, cryptocurrencies and fintech. It is published online, for free, in both Italian and English. Also, The Cryptonomist provides blockchain startup and companies with marketing consultancy, translation, press agency services and much more.
Cryptopolitan launched in 2017 as a neutral, industry media. While many have come and gone, Cryptopolitan has grown to a team of 35+, with year-on-year growth. Cryptopolitan serves up industry news, crypto & blockchain tech reviews, product launches, and now reaches over 3 million crypto industry readers every year, with 110,000+ on email and social.
Established in 2016, The Fintech Times is a multimedia news outlet centred around the first and only dedicated fintech newspaper. Chronicling the latest developments in cutting-edge financial technologies including payments innovation, RegTech, Banking Transformation, AI, cryptocurrencies, WealthTech, cybersecurity, Insurtech and many more. Fintech needs an authoritative voice that gives our industry exposure and integrity.
The primary purpose of the Java Card Forum is to promote, as an industry, the development of Java as the preferred platform for interoperable smart cards, secure devices and other execution environments. The Java Card platform is now one of the most pervasive technologies in the world.
Malta Business was born to inform readers about the Maltese economic system and the many opportunities for project development that the island offers. We believe it is appropriate to make accessible the economic and social news about Malta, in the belief that companies should return to looking at the Mediterranean as a reference for their growth.
The Future is Now Media Group is a boutique media, consulting & PR agency, focused on image making, audit, strategy and tailoring editorial & digital marketing campaigns in top industry media for its partners all over the world.
U.Today Media Group is a global media organisation dedicated to helping you understand the new generation of tech and the future it brings to society. Our mission is to serve the emerging community of enthusiasts, professionals, and newcomers who explore, use, and develop the tech by heeding the core journalistic values of clear thinking, accuracy, and independence.
