Block Issue 08

EDITOR’S NOTE

Being able to bring BLOCK magazine back to Dubai has been an unexpected treat. After all, what better place for a publication dedicated to the emerging tech and digital health sectors than an emirate that has made it its mission to pursue a vision for an economic future driven by innovation and technological advancement.

This issue we explore Woonkly, a company that is making waves for its Metasocial Network - a decentralised social network based on NFTs and IPFs. Read their cover story on page 22.

We’re also tapping into the trends setting this industry up for the future - get to know NFT artist Amrita Sethi, delve into the future of GameFi and Web 3.0 with Hubertus Thornhauser, and find out at how the construction of the largest bitcoin mining facility in the UAE is putting the Middle East on the map.

That being said, here come the thank yous. Firstly to SiGMA Group Founder Eman Pulis, whose fearless leadership has led this company to explore shores beyond its birthplace. Thanks also go to the team behind these pages, Maria, Kyle, and Darlene, to our photographer Robert and of course to Claire for taking the design of this magazine to new heights.

Enjoy the issue,

We speak to Bijan Alizadeh Fard, co-founder of the largest crypto mining site in the UAE.

The President of Catalunya’s Blockchain Association discusses the future of blockchain.

at Woonkly.

Investing in and mentoring projects that add value to the Blockchain ecosystem.

Hubertus Thornhouser discusses the future of GameFi and Web 3.0.

AIBC Pitch winners Mysa Finance share the latest on their upcoming projects.

Med-Tech Pitch’s first winner Tanya Colonna on the benefits of preventative care.

SwissBorg discusses how the gaming sector is leveraging blockchain technology.

A quick dive into a new generation of Financial Information Exchange Networks with Louis Bellet.

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.

Get to know the key figures in the affiliate marketing and gaming scene.

The BLOCK is published by Viking PC Health Ltd., Sigma Group, 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.aibc.world

Looking to the future, the way forward feels full of possibilities and opportunity. We could think of no better way to kickstart the year than to return to Dubai for our first event of the year.

The supershow, which follows a successful first launch in 2021, opens under the prestigious patronage of the Private Office of His Highness Sheik Saqer Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi and His Excellency Adnan Al Noorani, and offers exceptional opportunities for expanding your network in one of the most-forward thinking regions when it comes to technology.

With a vision of the future firmly focused on innovation and technological advancement, the emirate continues to establish itself as a leader worth following, a nexus for the kind of investment and entrepreneurship that promises to define this era.

Drawing the leading figures of the emerging tech world, the expo aims to strengthen connections between policy makers, influencers, and investors, to spark good ideas to life, and to share knowledge. This coming together inspires the growth of this flourishing hub - attracting a new generation of entrepreneurs as the UAE continues to make its mark on the world blockchain map.

Later on in the year we’ll also be launching an ambitious plan for several new shows, establishing a foothold in other regions envisaging a similarly bright future, such as Canada. We hope to see you then.

Enjoy the show,

EMAN PULIS

Founder of SiGMA Group GP, Ikigai Ventures

MED-TECH STARTUP PITCH

The Med-Tech World Summit is all about the future of the digital health sector, which is why we’re committed to helping this innovative industry grow by offering support to startups and entrepreneurs. For the past two years more than 200 startups have benefited from this platform. Over 100 companies based in this dynamic and emerging sector will be selected to showcase their products and initiatives throughout the event. Each startup selected will have a 1x1m booth at the Med-Tech World 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 benefiting from online exposure. The Startup Pitch is only open to startup companies, meaning recently launched startups that aren’t supported by a public company. An independent panel of judges will select ten of the best companies and entrepreneurs to 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. Find out if you could be the next startup unicorn!

STARTUP? APPLY AT MED-TECH.WORLD

SELECTED 100 STARTUPS

• 1x1m booth at the Med-tech World Summit including cost of printing and furniture

• Meet top investors and mentors

• Invitation to premium networking events during Med-tech World summits and throughout the year

• Brand exposure across our publications

• Social media visibility through our websites

• Article in magazine + official photoshoot

• A free 2x2m booth at Med-tech summit 2021, including printing & furniture cost

• Prize from official collaborators

• Free consultancy and potential leads from leading industry veterans

• PR pack from Med-tech

WINNER BEST 10 STARTUPS

3min Pitch + 3min Q&A on main stage in front of top investors

• SiGMA group 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

THE GENIE IS OUT OF THE BOTTLE: WHY ARE VCS EXCITED ABOUT GAMEFI?

Industry insiders know that in order to survive the fierce market race, especially in the bear crypto markets, one needs to stay current with the trends at all times.

Words by Dr. Irina Heaver

As the industry matures, adopting a thorough approach and following the market trends systematically will ensure the return that investors are looking. Among those on the inside, rumour has it that the industry has a new favourite segment, and I personally see this segment expanding beyond our wildest imagination.

For those who have been in the crypto space for a few years, we are accustomed to seeing trends coming and going, but I have yet to be as excited about a trend as this one. I see the tectonic shifts in the market caused by the collision of two universes – the multibillion traditional online gaming industry and a relatively new, but already amassing multibillions, DeFi.

“Play-to-earn” will truly change how we see online gaming, and how players will expect to be treated and interacted with. The online games that are implementing the perks of decentralised finance in order to incentivise their players will take over the market from those games that are neglecting this development.

As always, numbers speak louder than words. Causing tectonic shifts in the industry, the GameFi boom has been marked by soaring sales of NFTs as in-game collectibles, amounting to $2.32 billion in Q3 2021 alone. The market cap for virtual world dapps has surpassed $4.6 billion, marking the dawn of a new era in the world of crypto. An astounding 2.5 million unique users connect to dapps on a daily basis, making blockchain games account for half of all blockchain usage. Zoomers are seen as showing a 44% increase in user engagement with dapps, which testifies to the fact that the trend is truly going viral.

And all of this is merely the beginning.

Of course, building a DeFi powered online game is not as easy as it may sound. There are a lot of technical challenges to overcome. Projects have to consider utility, safety and transactional fees, as large communities of gamers come with large gas fees. The ultimate pathbreaker Axie Infinity migrated from Ethereum to the Ronin sidechain to reduce gas fees for its users, which made the latter the number one chain by volume of transactions in GameFi. Polygon is becoming increasingly popular with game dapps as well. The renowned project Decentraland gave rise to virtual worlds and is among the first games migrating to the chain. Cross the Ages, one of the most exciting projects in this space, is building on Polygon as well, having assessed the multiple choices available.

The industry is developing very quickly, and having a game itself is no longer enough, it is not only about gaining ownership of in-game collectibles, but also about owning land – virtual land, to be precise. A place where gamers can build their own presence and develop the direction of the game. Virtual land sales have reached $42.6 US million, opening up exciting investment frontiers. According to a recent report from Grayscale, virtual gaming worlds could bring in as much as $1 trillion annually.

As for the players, I predict that for even more people this will become a fulltime job, as gaming has never been more profitable. Gaining true ownership of in-game collectibles, reselling game signature NFTs on dedicated marketplaces, creating new breeds of game characters and whatnot now allow gamers to live their wildest dreams – earning a living while playing their favourite games.

Not so much an inside scoop, but rather the talk of the town now, GameFi is opening up new frontiers for the entire crypto community – developers, traders, and businesses. Being one of the most engaging ways to introduce the world to decentralized finance, GameFi starts to pioneer the yet uncharted waters of the market which will, no doubt, drastically transform the traditional online gaming space.

About Dr. Heaver

Dr Irina Heaver is a General Partner at IkigaiVentures.io, an early-stage venture capital fund. Irina is an active investor into Web3 economy supporting crypto and DeFi projects. She is a leading cryptocurrency and blockchain lawyer based in Dubai and Switzerland where she also serves as a Board and Council Member.

TOTOZ OPEN ZONE LIVING

عمتجم نم TOTOZ ةلمع Open Zone Living

Special Economic Zones through DeFi services.

Oz Finance leverages blockchain technology to provide individual and business residential status in one of its supported Special Economic Zones. By simply staking the Oz token, individuals and corporations can enjoy the benefits and opportunities that come with living and doing business in privacy-protected, zero-tax enabled, Special Economic Zones (ecozones).

An ecozone is an area within a country that is subject to different economic regulations than other regions in the same country. Taxes are lower, government processing is faster, and regulation is lighter, thereby offering a business-friendly environment to anyone who operates within the rules of the ecozone. Ecozones serve as an entry point for pioneering projects and businesses.

BY SIMPLY STAKING THE OZ TOKEN, INDIVIDUALS AND CORPORATIONS CAN ENJOY THE BENEFITS AND OPPORTUNITIES THAT COME WITH LIVING AND DOING BUSINESS IN PRIVACY-PROTECTED, ZERO-TAX ENABLED, SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES.

CEO Jin Gonzalez writes about the launch of the Oz Blockchain Protocol, explaining how they’ve leveraged blockchain technology to provide capital, credit, and community to its supported

Approximately 5,400 ecozones exist in over 140 economies, with over 500 new ecozones added yearly. Although these zones provide regulatory cover and lower taxes, they lack the capability to provide credit, capital and larger market opportunities to businesses and projects that operate within.

Oz complements the needs of ecozones by providing capital, credit, and community to receive and share the benefits with its community; specifically privacy-protection, regulatory cover and tax-free operation. Oz aims to democratize ecozone benefits for all its members.

Oz’s unique token structure and staking agreements simplify the onboarding process for individuals and corporations into ecozones, making associated benefits accessible to its members. Tokens are structured as investments into participating ecozones, thereby granting individuals the same benefits that traditionally would have only been available to high net-worth individuals and large corporations.

Oz’s first ecozone participant is the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) via its exchange GlobalTradeX, located at the center of Asia within the Philippines, a few hours from Manila. This partnership sets the gold standard for subsequent global ecozone partnerships in addition to democratizing ecozone benefits.

The Oz team of recognized experts is led by Chief Strategist Jin Gonzalez, Capital Markets Expert Ramon C. Garcia Jr., Tech Operations Expert, Marco R. Urera, Tech Mastermind Lim Hui Jie, Ecosystem Architect Vincent Choy, and Ecozone Specialist Jonathan Shek.

To gain access to Oz’s network of Open Zone benefits, TOTOZ holders only need to stake their tokens for a minimum number of years and complete KYC requirements. The token is

pegged to a fixed-dollar rate based on two simple packages: Individual or Corporation.

TOTOZ’s supply is capped at 8 quadrillion and it has unique tokenomics that reduces the supply of the tokens while increasing demand for its use; which is agnostic to price changes in the token, creating a perfect storm event for value increases.

Oz’s roadmap is packed with a variety of new projects, including the launch of the Oz Blockchain Protocol, a bonding curve to accelerate community growth, and DeFi services to provide capital and credit to the ecozones and its members. Oz’s working projects also include integrating physical assets, NFTs, Metaverse applications into its ecosystem.

Oz is capturing the full potential of decentralization by merging blockchain technology and crypto projects with real-world applications.

OZ COMPLEMENTS THE NEEDS OF ECOZONES BY PROVIDING CAPITAL, CREDIT, AND COMMUNITY TO RECEIVE AND SHARE THE BENEFITS WITH ITS COMMUNITY; SPECIFICALLY PRIVACY-PROTECTION, REGULATORY COVER AND TAX-FREE OPERATION.

UNLOCKING THE CREATOR ECONOMY

For this cover story, BLOCK magazine meets up with Daniel Santos, CEO and Founder at Woonkly for an in-depth look at their NFT-based decentralised social network and how they’re empowering content creators, influencers, and artists to create, manage, and monetize their creations through a one-stop-shop.

How did you get into this space? Did your own background as an influencer inspire you to create a decentralised social network?

I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was 15, continuously trying to learn and discover where the opportunities would be in the future, always thinking big. I have always envisioned changing the world. You need to believe in it and in yourself. I wanted to change people's lives for the better.

I realised that Youtube could be a very powerful way to build a community that could support my goals, my projects, and I worked hard to become one of the most influential youtubers in Spanish, with 300.000+ subscribers, and it definitely paid off. My fans helped me fund my startups and it was the first step to start building something big. I wouldn’t be where I am now without all my supporters.

Years ago, I realised that the world needed a decentralized social network, that there was a need to be met, so I started working on building it. There has always been this discussion about the ownership of your data, and I wanted to give the people the ownership of their data back. We know that tech companies make huge profits out of their users’ data, their users’ hard work and we believe that this is unfair. We need a social network that shares the advertising revenue with the users. We need a new model that is fair for the content creators.

When I discovered the blockchain/crypto world, I realised not only that it was the place to be as an entrepreneur, in the same way the internet was in the late 90’s, but also that it was perfect to build the “new” social network that I had envisioned. I started working on it, we launched an ICO to get the first funding and then our token, the WOOP, was created. Our early backers had a huge return, and as the price of the WOOP and our reserves grew significantly, we had enough funding to turn our ideas into actual products.

Today, the WOOP is listed in various exchanges and there are several big ones lined up for the near future. As Woonkly.com grows, so does the WOOP and the thousands of holders that believe in us.

You launched the Metasocial Network in Abu Dhabi during the Formula 1 Grand Prix - what does this emirate have to offer the blockchain sector?

A lot of things are going on in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They are open, they want to attract innovation, and they know the crypto/blockchain world can bring talent to build an entire ecosystem. The UAE is a great place today for crypto startups. At the UAE we have a great regulatory environment, a very supportive administration, and we’ve been very fortunate to have great partners and investors that believe in Woonkly and that are helping us achieve our ambitious goals.

The network is based on NFTs and IPFS. It’s the first of its type - tell us about your plans for this.

NFTs are booming, and we wanted to take the advantage of jumping into this exciting market, so we decided to push hard on bringing NFTs to our decentralized social network, even making NFTs a key feature at Woonkly.com.

On the other hand, the content our users create and share is not stored on a centralized server (i.e. AWS, Google Cloud) as in most social networks, but on thousands of users’ computers through an IPFS (Interplanetary File System).

When we were designing the decentralized social network we knew that in order for it to be completely decentralized, IPFS should be a must. We want to take advantage of blockchain–based services that can help us build the best product, the more decentralized and the most userfriendly. We are working hard on it, adopting all the innovative technologies that are around.

What are the benefits of having a decentralized global directory of influencers, artists, content creators, and metaverses?

There are a lot of NFT marketplaces, and we believe the ecosystem needs a one-stop-shop and a directory for all the participants. There are new products and services popping up every day, and the information is spread out on tons of sites, everything is very fragmented. We aim to become the leader in the industry, the reference for everyone interested in this world.

What will the Woonkly Metasocial Network bring to the NFT ecosystem?

Creating NFTs is not easy - yet. At Woonkly we are meeting an actual need: users want to create NFTs easily, in one click. Upload a photo, turn it into an NFT and sell it. All in one place. We want to attract not only the early adopters, but the millions of people that are looking for a decentralized social network and also want to easily create and manage their NFTs.

THERE ARE A LOT OF NFT MARKETPLACES, WE BELIEVE THE ECOSYSTEM NEEDS A ONE-STOP-SHOP AND A DIRECTORY FOR ALL THE PARTICIPANTS.

How has the emergence of NFTs contributed to blockchain adoption?

NFTs are bringing millions of new users to the crypto/blockchain world, people that didn’t even know about crypto, that were not holders. The strong interest in NFTs is bringing the masses closer to the industry. NFTs and crypto gaming are attracting millions of new users that are learning how to use a wallet and how to interact with these crypto-based services. It’s unbelievable the exponential growth in adoption that we are seeing these days. This is totally unstoppable. The market can go down, crypto prices can drop, but the adoption is there, and we are in the right place to take advantage of this trend.

Navigating the NFT minting process isn’t always straightforward. How easy is it for influencers and artists with limited blockchain knowledge to use the network?

Using a crypto wallet is still not very user friendly, but we are working to make the entire process of minting an NFT super easy. We really believe that now anyone can create an NFT at Woonkly.com

THE MARKET CAN GO DOWN, CRYPTO PRICES CAN DROP, BUT THE ADOPTION IS THERE, AND WE ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS TREND.

When it comes to security, what policies do you have to ensure the intellectual property of creators is protected?

This is one of the biggest issues for NFT marketplaces. Our users are required to pass a KYC (know-your-customer) process that prevents them from infringing copyrights, and we also have a big team that works hard to protect creators. At the end of the day, we believe that regulation brings safety and trust, and we want to become the most trustful place to work with your NFTs.

Tell us about the content creation process, how has this platform empowered users?

Woonkly is giving the users the power to own their content. Their posts are theirs, they can turn their content into NFTs, and they also can benefit from monetizing their content as Woonkly shares advertising revenue with the holders of the WOOP token. Now users can actually participate in the success of the platform they are in.

Looking forward, what do the next few years hold for Woonkly?

We’ve been building an impressive platform and we’ll keep improving it, listening to our users and having a clear goal of offering the best experience out there. On the other hand, we’ve been working hard on bringing amazing content from top celebrities to our platform. Big news is coming!

We have a great team, awesome partners and the ambition to become the top player in the world.

Tell me all about Soundbite art?

It’s something that I created a couple of years ago, it’s a new art genre and style that's unique to myself. It's my voice. In fact, I used to call it Voice Note Art. I've now moved it to Soundbite and it's all based on sound, art, technology, and storytelling.

So what I do is I take a word or phrase, or even a name and capture the structure of the sound wave my voice makes when saying it. I draw each of the lines of the sound to match the meaning of the word. It's about being able to capture the essence of the story - whether it's a person, a city, or even a concept like blockchain or NFTs. In fact, I created a soundbite called What the NFT . So it's about being able to use technology in a way that art has never seen before.

What is an NFT for you? There's so much FOMO going on from the investors, speculators and NFT artists. Can you create separate compartments for all of that? Or do you think it should be merged into one space?

I do think that it's important to understand the journey as this is constantly evolving. Where it started to where it is now is a whole different place. The NFT market began as a place where, for the first time, digital artists were able to make their art rare and scarce - by mining it into the blockchain. That was just revolutionary in itself.

It started off in the fine art market phase - with people like Beeple, Fewocious, and Pak and other very big NFT artists that came about as a result of it and were selling at very high prices.

Founder of Soundbite and the first UAE artist to launch an NFT portfolio, Amrita Sethi is bringing stories to life with her pioneering approach to visualising sound. Irina Heaver meets up with her in Dubai.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, DIGITAL ARTISTS WERE ABLE TO MAKE THEIR ART RARE AND SCARCE - BY MINING IT INTO THE BLOCKCHAIN. THAT WAS JUST REVOLUTIONARY IN ITSELF.

WHAT I HOPE WILL DEVELOP AFTER ALL THE HYPE IS OVER, IS THAT THERE WILL BE A DEEPER APPRECIATION FOR ARTISTS AND FOR THE ART THAT THEY CREATE.

Now with the emergence of Bored Ape Yacht Club and all these other PFPs, this is where art trading and trading and investment start to come into the picture. So it is evolving and yes, art was probably at the core of it then. Art is now part of it, but it's definitely not central to it.

It's moved closer towards having a community. So having something like a Bored Ape Yacht Club means that you're part of an elite club. It represents that you were somebody who caught the wave early, so it almost becomes similar to real world billionaire clubs.

That's why a lot of celebrities are buying into that project because it's got cache, it's like driving a Ferrari. So communities are now being organised by things like millionaire clubs, or even by nationalities anymore.. While before we would have a flag or a passport, we now have a virtual representation to show where you belong.

It's almost like creating a new community for all the business entrepreneurs, because once you have the community it means you’re moving into the concept of utility. People are now buying into communities that promise added value. Not everyone is interested in the art.

PFP projects are run like proper businesses. It's run like a proper machine and almost like a mini project, which I would say not all artists have access to. So it starts to beg the question - what is NFT art now? Is it fine art or is it a PFP project?

As you rightly said, while art is not your forte, you’ve come to appreciate the artworks when you see them. What I hope will develop after all the hype is over, is that there will be a deeper appreciation for artists and for the art that they create.

The one thing I want everybody to remember is that we can't kill creativity just for the sake of profits. We still need to harness this. I think the great thing about NFTs or even gaming and the metaverse is that they’re going to unlock such an amazing amount of creativity that we’ve never seen before.

A lot of my artwork is taking someone from the physical world into the digital - while still remaining physically present. Going into the metaverse is the perfect way for this hybrid reality to come through. So do I think that this has got legs and is here to stay? One hundred percent.

THE ONE THING I WANT EVERYBODY TO REMEMBER IS THAT WE CAN'T KILL CREATIVITY JUST FOR THE SAKE OF PROFITS.

SOCIETY 4.0

WITH VIRGINIA MIJES MARTIN

In an interview with Kyle Galea, the President of Catalunya’s Blockchain Association and emerging tech afficionato Virignia Mijes Martin spoke about what we should come to expect in the very near future.

SOCIAL MEDIA, DEVICES AND DECENTRALIZATION ARE THE AUTHORS OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.

With the Industrial Revolution 4.0 being one of the most prominent yet nebulous terms being used to describe the disruptive industries of the future, how do you think the growing digital revolution will affect the economy to come?

Modern technologies and revolutionary innovations have greatly altered the nature of production and trade, both nationally and internationally. Disruptive technologies such as Blockchain are applicable to all industries and sectors with cross-cutting and global applications being the basis of the new architecture of the future. Examples include providing greater transparency and security in trade, along with the assurance that scheduled contracts are reliably executed while goods and services are paid for with digitally verified registration.

Social media, devices and decentralization are the authors of the digital transformation.

The evolution of Industry 4.0 technologies: AI, VR, IoT , robotics ect, are applied to the value chain of companies that are transnational as these new disruptive technologies are inherently decentralized. In the end, it is the convergence between exporters and importers, manufacturers and consumers and in publicprivate relationships that impacts global trade.

The key issue is to acquire information about markets and potential partners in collaboration to create new products. In both the financial sector as in DeFi as in emerging industries such as Gaming, empowering new creative ways of monetization for all actors supports decentralization.

Are certain sectors going to be more affected than others?

Which cutting edge technologies do you think will have the most significant effect and why?

There are some sectors such as the health sector that are going to advance by decades of research and development through experimentation in the Metaverse. The education sector is going to be transformed with the creation of talent profiles nonexistent until now. The need for multidiverse, decentralized and multicultural techno-hybrid teams are the new definition of talent.

In another example, the energy sector is completely transforming towards a technological framework that drives innovation in sustainability, or even in the tokenization of energy or the potential of technology in traceability and carbon reduction.

Although for me, the gaming sector is going to be the most prominently changed. The model has shifted towards gaming-to-earn and, more importantly, towards gaming platforms being used for business not just for leisure. In this sector, we have talent already leaning towards decentralization and with great knowledge in technical development that is also very collaborative when it comes to sharing knowledge, so it will lay a spectacular foundation for all the growth of the new digital era.

What role would emerging industries such as

NFTs and the Metaverse have in

this?

Non-fungible tokens have revolutionized sectors from sports, fashion, art to even real estate. NFTs are now a new source of revenue with the potential for billions in growth in the industry being unstoppable.

In 2022 we will see the virtual economy of the metaverse. The value of the metaverse is in community, enterprise and its investors. It sits on the foundation of creating physical and virtual identities where work, play, socialization, investment and the global ecosystem are at its core and across all sectors.

Democratized decentralization, new products and services are a transition that triggers the metaverse. Adoption will be and is based on the architecture of game developers.

Platforms will include virtual labs, creative business models, avatars, NFTs and Dapps. The focus will be on playing to win, collecting, socializing and generating content. There even sectors such as TV, Music, Media and many others that will have their spaces and creations.

What would a modern enterprise need to succeed in the economy of the future?

Being disruptive. We are facing a window of opportunity for the creation of new markets that will impact sectors across the board. The Digitisation of physical and virtual identities, finance where the globality of society participates, technology that bursts into new decentralized architectures, new digital products or services, accelerated developments and collaborative investments that see in technology companies a lever for immediate and future growth.

Modern companies are no longer local, they are multicultural and without barriers when it comes to sharing knowledge. They must have autonomy and the vision to create competitive companies with a vision of the future, liquid, under the paradigm of interconnectivity , sustainable and with a great capacity to react holistically.

J O IN TH E FUTU RE O F WE ALTH

PUTTING THE MIDDLE EAST ON THE MAP

Tell us a bit more about your plans, I hear you have some exciting things coming up.

Phoenix Technologies started Bitcoin mining in Dubai back in 2015. Later on we moved to Canada, Russia, and the US, and we’re very happy to be back in the UAE, at the biggest mining site in the world, which is 650 megawatts. As part of the first phase we purchased $650 million of equipment from Bitmain, and are deploying it this year. So this is a $2 billion project, which as a single site, is the biggest in the world.

Expansion plans are in motion, but as of now we are trying to finish the first phase, it’s quite an ambitious task. We are using the latest technology from Bitmain and working closely with their engineers to develop this project together over the next 6 months.

Dubai has quite a harsh and challenging climate. How are you managing the cooling and ventilation?

We are using a new water cooling system from Bitmain. We use water evaporative chillers to cool the containers. We have tested this system at 60 degrees and it works perfectly. It's much more efficient than the traditional immersion cooling, which is costly and needs a lot of infrastructure.

In this exclusive interview for AIBC, Irina Heaver sits down with Mr Bijan Alizadeh Fard, partner at Cypher Capital and Co-Founder Of Phoenix Technologies, to talk about the construction of the largest crypto mining site to open in the UAE and their plans for a 10,000 square foot blockchain hub in Dubai. Supported by the Abu Dhabi government, they’re making waves for their use of clean energy.

In a sense it's going to be a very unique project, it's the first time that something this size is being deployed. This will put the Middle East on the map as a dominant location for bitcoin mining.

THIS WILL PUT THE MIDDLE EAST ON THE MAP AS A DOMINANT LOCATION FOR BITCOIN MINING.

I REALLY THINK THAT IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS, DUBAI WILL BECOME A CENTRAL HUB. I BELIEVE WE WILL SURPASS MIAMI AS THE LEADING CRYPTO HUB IN THE WORLD.

Building such a large project in the Middle East requires a lot of governmental support. What sort of support are you getting? How did you get the government on board?

For years the UAE government has been working with blockchain and cryptocurrencies - and it’s quickly become a blockchain hub. A lot of people are coming here to carry out their projects. So in regards to this project the government has given us a lot of support, such as a subsidised electricity rate for example.

In the future we want to sell this hash rate or give this hash rate back to the community, to the people in the Middle East - so the plan will be to build a blockchain city.

I also hear that you're going to be using the resources that you accumulated through mining for your new ventureCypher Capital.

We initially created a company called Phoenix VC, which we started with a $10 million capital pool. It was successful, so we decided to go a step further and create Cypher Capital.

It's going to be a hundred million dollar fund that is going to be invested in blockchain projects, supporting this project on a long-term basis. Apart from that we are building a 10,000 square foot blockchain hub in Jumeirah Beach Residence Dubai. The idea is for people who have great ideas to come and get support from those in the know. To be honest, investment is only 50% of it - the other half is giving back to the community. The only way to grow this business is to educate the community.

Tell me about Dubai becoming a crypto hub for the Middle East? What do you see happening on the ground?

Regulation is changing very fast. What we have seen is the MCC issuing licences that support crypto trading or crypto custodies. This is the start of a movement. We’re not there yet though - we still have some way to go before we fully incorporate this into the ecosystem.

Persuading giants like Binance to come into the city and set up their headquarters here is a sign that the government is very proactive when it comes to moving towards this phase. We also don't have tax in the UAE, which is a massive opportunity for blockchain projects.

It's also one of the most beautiful cities in the world and a very good place to live and work. So I really think that in the next few years Dubai will become a central hub. I believe we will surpass Miami as the leading crypto hub in the world.

INVESTMENT IS ONLY 50% OF ITTHE OTHER HALF IS GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY. THE ONLY WAY TO GROW THIS BUSINESS IS TO EDUCATE THE COMMUNITY.

INVESTING IN PEOPLE

You run New Tribe Capital - an early stage crypto investment fund with over $100 million under management. Tell us more.

Our New Tribe Capital VC is actually more of a family VC. We chose to do it together, we see the value of not only providing capital to a new startup, but also in providing support.

We go above and beyond to do whatever we need to help with tokenomics. I know this from first hand experience. We are just a group of nice people who saw the potential of something and invested in it. We've got the money and we're happy to help build the ecosystem further.

Do you think that's the future of investments?

Do you think projects are not looking just for money but also support?

About a year and a half ago, when New Tribe was formed, our vision was to invest in people. So whenever we have a project, we actually have multiple calls with the founders and support them as much as possible, whether with centralised exchanges, launch parts, or fundraising. If you're investing money in a project it’s because you believe in the project. You want that person to succeed. It doesn't really cost a lot of time and effort.

I understand that economics is your big passion. You like digging into history, you like digging into the economic part of it. Tell me more about that.

NEW

DO IT TOGETHER, WE SEE THE VALUE OF NOT ONLY PROVIDING CAPITAL TO A NEW STARTUP, BUT ALSO PROVIDING SUPPORT.

History tells us that there is a shift in economic structure over the centuries, which happens maybe once every hundred years - factories revolutionised the 19th century, now I believe digital assets will do the same for the 21st. This shift is actually one of the primary ways that the capitalist economy has to distribute the wealth.

Let's take as an example the strongest economy in the world - the US. The average net worth of an individual is about a hundred thousand dollars. Meanwhile, the 1% are at the 10 million mark.

So if we assume that each of them gets a 5% ROI a year over 10 years, the average person worth a hundred thousand dollars will get $163,000. However, someone worth 10 million will get 16 million. In the run up to those 10 years the difference was only 9.9 million, but after nine years, it's actually 15.9 million.

So that's an increase of 60 percent. So I'm very bullish on a change of economic structure, because we can see that there is a process happening where digital assets replace physical ones in an inevitable trend that is going to happen throughout the 21st century.

Irina Heaver meets up with Victor Olmo, a Partner at New Tribe Capital, a VC that is committed to investing in and mentoring projects that add value to the Blockchain ecosystem.

TRIBE CAPITAL VC IS ACTUALLY MORE OF A FAMILY VC. WE CHOSE TO

I'VE BEEN GIVEN SO MUCH IN THIS SPACE THAT PAYING IT FORWARD TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY WAS SOMETHING I THOUGHT WAS RIGHT TO DO.

So do you see a big wealth transfer happening as well?

I've been given so much in this space that paying it forward to all members of the community was something I thought was right to do. While we don't give financial advice, whatever knowledge I have, I share.

In Dubai we have a group of friends that do the same thing. Whenever someone wants to get into crypto they actually go for a coffee, they meet them. The hope is that this person, once they have the knowledge, will continue to spread it. The potential of our space is massive. The way I see it is we're just getting started. We cannot obviously avoid the rich from investing in digital assets, but we can lower the tier for people whose income is not so high, so they can have the opportunity to invest in something fantastic.

Do you see GameFi as a path towards digital assets adoption?

The traditional gaming industry is massive, so eventually it will evolve across the whole of the crypto space. So do I believe that it's going to be a good path for transition and adoption? For sure, but I think not only for gaming but DeFi as well. DeFi is a massive industry that is booming at the moment. Why? Because there is a race for innovation that doesn't happen with traditional finance. It's a race to see which one is going to have the best product.

DEFI IS A MASSIVE INDUSTRY THAT IS BOOMING AT THE MOMENT- THERE IS A RACE FOR INNOVATION THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN WITH TRADITIONAL FINANCE.

DUBAI, THE CRYPTO OASIS OF THE WORLD

In an interview with Irina Heaver, Ralf Glabischnig speaks about the UAE’s efforts in becoming a global pillar of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and the role it plans to pay in the very near future.

Given that you're working on making Dubai the crypto hub for the MENA region, you seem to be starting with the middle east but then why not aim for the world?

We want to decentralise so instead of having the power in Silicon valley, we want to bring it to the Middle East to our new crypto hub. I'm originally from Switzerland. I moved to the famous crypto valley in Zug in 2005. Then in 2013, we saw interesting entrepreneurs coming in like Vitalik, the founder of Ethereum, and Nikolai Udianskyi, the founder of Bitcoin Ultimatum. Out of this ecosystem, we created Crypto Oasis.

We just brought out the last top 50 report and now it's grown to more than 1,100 companies involving more than 6,000 people. So it’s most likely the biggest group in the broader global crypto ecosystem. I love Dubai, so I would like to make Dubai and the Middle East the biggest crypto and blockchain ecosystem in the world.

Could you tell me more about the DMCC crypto centre? Tell me which direction you want to take it? What are you aiming for?

My target is to connect to the whole ecosystem with my team and to find the best 10% to invest in and to get together with other funds, like Gulf Capital, like Woodstock Fund who we are partnering up to invest with. How do we find the best deal flow? You have to talk to a lot of people.

Are you concerned about other crypto centres coming up? There's one coming up in the Dubai World Trade Centre. Do you see that as a competition?

Absolutely not. I'm happy about everyone who's coming, because I still believe this whole ecosystem is probably only one by one square centimetre while the market could be the whole wall behind us. So I'm happy about everyone who is helping and building this ecosystem. Bahrain, Qatar, whatever it is, there's a lot of things to do, but the opportunity in Dubai is so huge at the moment and when we can scale that out of here, I'm sure there's enough space for everyone.

Do you see the gamified metaverse trend as a passing trend that will just die a natural death, like ICO's or do you think that there is something longterm for all of us to get involved and excited about?

I say ICOs didn't die because we still do token sales in every kind of way. It just has another name. The token is a core part of our blockchain industry and it's always funny when you hear “yes, I like the blockchain, but I don't like crypto.” A blockchain without a token doesn't work, quite simply.. Now onto the Metaverse, I believe the metaverse is much more than the new blockchain space, but blockchain can enable ownership in the metaverse. So this is a huge opportunity and I think we are not too early to understand that if Facebook is rebranding to Meta it's already public. Even the New York Times knows about it now and I think there's a huge opportunity and that's probably interesting.

I see the Metaverse as a big business opportunity, but I'm also a little bit afraid. You see that people are already spending eight hours a day on Instagram. On Instagram, most of the people in that space are not themselves living a life that they are not actually living. It might become a place where people run away from reality.

INNOVATION IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD

Dieter Brockmeyer is no stranger to a rapidly changing environment. In an interview with Kyle Galea, Dieter elaborates on the role of the Diplomatic World Institute power of wholistic innovation, modern politics and everything in between.

What is the mission of Diplomatic World and how does it illustrate the changing geo-political and technological environment?

Diplomatic World is driven by the spirit of “We are all connected”. That means problems can only be solved in a joint effort. This was the core from the beginning when the magazine was launched more than 20 years ago and established itself as a recognized opinion platform in the Brussels region where heads of state and other stakeholders can express their vision of the future of our planet. However, there are limits as a magazine to act. Therefore, we founded the Diplomatic World Institute in summer 2019, a think tank to take direct action. One of our first initiatives was to launch the Wholistic World Innovation Trophy, WWIT in short.

Of course, the pandemic starting only a few months later changed everything, delaying projects but also providing new opportunities. The newest kid of our group’s family is Diplomatic World Media, a streaming platform extending the reach of the magazine and the institute globally. Only a few years earlier this would have been much more difficult, and I think this illustrates very well the impact of new technologies: It brings us closer together – and with increasing speed. Not everybody likes it, and it challenges the old global order. We want to get our voice heard to act as sort of a moderator in this situation.

NOT EVERYBODY LIKES IT, AND IT CHALLENGES THE OLD GLOBAL ORDER.

Dieter BROCKMEYER

How do you expect the changing geo-political environment to affect technological innovation?

We see a lot of skepticism rising towards new technologies. Of course, this will change nothing. Once a new technology is out you either make the best of it, or somebody else does to your disadvantage. Maybe you can slow it down a little, but that’s the utmost you can do. Therefore, banning cryptocurrencies will only have the opposite effect in the long run. Introducing your own currency is smarter. We can see an emerging struggle on who will control the crypto and blockchain space. My fear is the same may happen that we saw with the upcoming internet. I remember well the hopes for universally free and educated societies and look at what the situation is today.

MY FEAR IS THE SAME MAY HAPPEN THAT WE SAW WITH THE UPCOMING INTERNET. I REMEMBER WELL THE HOPES FOR UNIVERSALLY FREE AND EDUCATED SOCIETIES AND LOOK AT WHAT THE SITUATION IS TODAY.

Which cutting edge technologies do you believe will have the most significant effect on democracy and how?

This is hard to predict. There is a lot happening now. There sure is a lot of potential in the blockchain, decentralized banking, or the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, DAO in short. These and others are very interesting approaches for sure, however, the proof of concept is still missing for all of them. I like the idea of “automated democracies”. However, it can also be used for autocratic systems. Blockchain too is a potentially dangerous technology depending on how it is used. The only thing that seems to be certain is that the upcoming decades will be highly dynamic and full of surprises. I’m afraid, not only pleasant ones.

What is Wholistic innovation and how does a broader comprehension

of the ongoing technological revolution benefit us?

Already the magazine claims to interlink diplomacy, politics, business and culture since they all are connected. This is a universal truth, anything I launch in one sector also has impact on the neighboring one. Way too often we must realize that the “neighboring effect” is the opposite of our positive intentions. We often realize it too late. We must be much more aware how everything interacts. We need innovation, lots of it, in all sectors to tackle the global challenges, not only with climate change. A lot will be technological, but this also requires that we adapt to sometimes rapidly changing situations.

What do you think is the core message of your book Pandemia’s Box and how do you think that the debate it seeks to spark will take shape?

The matter is highly complex, therefore it would be arrogant to claim to have come up with any solutions. It’s an analysis trying to show where we should think more wholistically towards having a positive impact on the planet. I can spark debate, and this may lead to solutions. Since I’m not the only one taking this path, chances are likely that all these initiatives together will have a positive impact.

IT’S AN ANALYSIS TRYING TO SHOW WHERE WE SHOULD THINK MORE WHOLISTICALLY TOWARDS HAVING A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE PLANET. IT WOULD BE FATAL TO DRAW THE LESSON THAT GLOBALIZATION IS WRONG, BUT WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT DIFFERENTLY.

What do you think are the best lessons we could learn from the ongoing pandemic?

We already learned a lot about what went wrong in globalization during the last decades. It would be fatal to draw the lesson that globalization is wrong, but we need to think about it differently. Our problems are global, and they can only be solved by working together globally. We are at the beginning of a long steep road. We must take it if we want to live in a pleasant world – and on this planet. We only have this one.

WE ARE AT THE BEGINNING OF A LONG STEEP ROAD. WE MUST TAKE IT IF WE WANT TO LIVE IN A PLEASANT WORLD – AND ON THIS PLANET. WE ONLY HAVE THIS ONE.

Tell me about Ghaf Capital. You're quite a new kid on the block and already made so many investments over the last year. Tell me about Ghaf Capital, who are your partners and why now?

Ghaf Capital actually is the first UAE based and homegrown venture capital firm. We're not a fund. We are actually four family office investment professionals that work together and it's mainly local families. Well-known entrepreneurs with great networks. I joined them last year just to add a more international flavour to the team.

Our focus is really Web 3.0 so we invested in that infrastructure. We invest in the building blocks that create the next generation of the internet going from games to NFTs to DeFi infrastructure but also to exchanges where we recently invested in the first African crypto exchange, CoinMARA. Basically it's completely across the board. The goal is really to provide to the entrepreneurs. We invest in added value and on-ramp into the UAE or broader Middle Eastern ecosystem.

So why is it important for projects to have their on-ramp to the Middle East?

The Middle East is a very important market in terms of demographics. It has very young clientele. The average age is much lower than in many other parts of the world. The adoption of mobile technologies and crypto in particular is higher than in other parts of the world and at a faster rate.

So it's important to provide entrepreneurs access to these regions but it's not only that, it's also the setting up of companies. We are very well connected to the infrastructure of the UAE and we can provide the companies with this assistance. On top of that, obviously we have connections not only in the Middle East but also beyond in terms of marketing and contact to exchanges.

There's a lot of excitement about Gameify. Do you see that as a valuable segment to invest in or do you think it's just hype and it will all go away?

If you think about it, what we are seeing here with web three is the evolution of the internet. So we have actually the next layer of the internet where creators, builders, and users, basically all part of the infrastructure. Play-to-earn is a great example for that.

I remember when one of my first startups was in the classic free-toplay game space in the year 2000. Everybody was screaming in the old industry, “what is this free to play?”, “How can this be a viable business?” Now it has become mainstream.

They are pretty annoyed about that because they don't want to give away some of their part of the pie. So I think it has a lot of legs because it involves the users as much as the creators and infrastructure providers.

Are there games out there that you want to give a shout out to, that you iinvested in, that have a great UI UX and also a great game to play because it's also good to have a game where people can earn?

Absolutely. We invested in a number of NFT based play-to-earn games in our portfolio. But one project that I particularly liked because of its long-term vision is Cross The Ages.

The reason why I invested in this company was particularly because of the team. They have assembled a group of fantastic artists. I think it's roughly 70 people in the artist space, who worked for brands like Harry Potter, Marvel, League of Legends, Game of Thrones, and so on. So really people who know this industry deep inside are part of the core team.

The vision of Cross The Ages is to create seven novels written around seven books, basically that are going to be gameified. It's a long-term project. It's not just a quick coin flip it's something that's supposed to become the future type of game for the metaverse. It's evolving and it bridges the gap between crypto, between collectors and between the gaming industry.

So it's beautiful and has some elements of DeFi, but also some elements of collectibles and NFTs. So it's exciting to see that, but the main reason why I invested in that is really the team and the long term vision.

RELIVE MOMENTS THE

We’re known for pulling off great networking evenings and 2021 held some of our most memorable events.

From intimate dinners to relaxed get togethers, last year stood out as one of our busiest, with global events lighting up the night sky throughout the year.

Take a look back at some of the highlight gallery moments from a year of milestone moments.

NOV 2021

Joanna KINASTOWSKA Founder Mysa Finance

BUILDING BLOCKS

Mysa Finance is an up-and-coming blockchain project laying the foundations for a new era of real estate. BLOCK magazine sat down with them following their well-deserved win at last year's AIBC Startup Pitch.

Congratulations on winning the 2021 AIBC Pitch! Now that the excitement has died down, how does Mysa intend to follow up on this success?

Thank you! And thanks to all the unsung heroes at AIBC/SiGMA for putting on a great show, conference, and giving startups such a great opportunity! As for us... who said the excitement has died down? We are very proud of our victory and will surely be yelling about it from the rooftops for the foreseeable future! Needless to say: our team is just as excited as ever. If

MOST PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO DEDICATE THEIR LIVES TO LEARNING THE INS-AND-OUTS OF REAL ESTATE, THEY JUST WANT TO BUY OR RENT A NICE PROPERTY AND LIVE THEIR LIVES, AND THAT’S WHAT WE INTEND TO EMPOWER THEM TO DO.

this a reality, it will serve as a “proof of concept”.

As someone who just bought a house, I know first hand that buying property is complicated and tedious - how will putting the real estate economy on the blockchain help make transactions simpler and more accessible?

First of all, congratulations on buying a house! I’m sure you did your research and made a smart purchase, and that is one of the keys to growing your wealth, so bravo to you! The goal of making transactions simpler and more accessible is to lay everything that people need to make wise investment decisions (and follow through with them) right in front of them on a silver platter. Although the legal landscape of many countries may not allow for it today, we are taking solid steps towards having all real estate transactions on a public blockchain.

This means that eventually, all or most price (and other) data will be publicly available, trustworthy, and verifiable… and that will allow people to have all the data they need to make wise investment decisions. After that, it will just be an arms race full of healthy competition (ideally) for platforms to organize this data and allow users to interact with the DeFi world. Mysa intends to be one of, if not the, top platform like this.

Is the industry moving in this direction yet, what are some of the hurdles to adoption?

Yes. It is moving in the direction, but very slowly. The reason it’s not moving more quickly is the legal framework around real estate. It’s very hard to e.g. tie the ownership of real estate to a virtual token. While we can move very quickly in the blockchain and DeFi worlds… when it comes to physical real estate, you are still oftentimes limited to the speed of your local government. We’re doing the best we can to work with and show lawmakers the power and utility of DeFi, but at the end of the day… It will take time before it’s adopted on a governmental level. This is why so many blockchain real estate projects before us have failed — they underestimated or just couldn’t find a way to work with the legal aspects of real estate. We are patient, we believe we can soldier through the tough times, and we are committed to fighting the good fight.

WE’RE DOING THE BEST WE CAN TO WORK WITH AND SHOW LAWMAKERS THE POWER AND UTILITY OF DEFI, BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY… IT WILL TAKE TIME BEFORE IT’S ADOPTED ON A GOVERNMENTAL LEVEL.

Crypto investors can earn passive-based income from your NFT-based investment tool - tell us more about this.

Soon we will release our utility token, $MYSA. If you stake $MYSA, you get an NFT. That NFT entitles you to a portion of the profits from the real estate we manage. The profit is paid out regularly in our token, so you earn income without lifting a finger. I’m simplifying here, but essentially: owning our NFT is just like owning income-generating real estate, without having to manage it. Long story short: staking $MYSA = sweet, sweet passive income for you.

When can we expect the MYSA token to be released?

I can’t make any promises, but if all goes perfectly well: our public sale should go live by the end of next year (2022). We’d prefer to under-promise and over-deliver, so emphasis on the “if” and “should”.

OWNING OUR NFT IS JUST LIKE OWNING INCOME-GENERATING REAL ESTATE, WITHOUT HAVING TO MANAGE IT.

Can you explain in more depth about how you employ machine learning to value property and perform risk analysis?

Property value and risk assessment are some of the most important factors when it comes to real estate investment. Machine learning is an incredible technology that has come a long way in recent years… So it’s only natural for us to put 2 and 2 together: We source lots of good, clean real estate data and use machine learning to model how the value of any given property might change over time. This backs up our investment decisions, allows users to know the value of their investments, and identifies potential investments we might not have found ourselves. We have a very talented and passionate expert in AI, Prof. Maciej Komosiński from the Poznań University of Technology, leading our efforts in AI and machine learning.

ACTUALLY, IT'S ACTAFI

In an interview with Kyle Galea, Acta Finance’s Founder Christof Waton spoke about what the rebranding to ActaFi represented, how the venture was breaking ground in the DeFi world and what the community and the Blockchain world should be looking forward to.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION IS A HOT GLOBAL TOPIC AND CARDANO SCORES TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE BLOCKCHAIN INDUSTRY.

Why did you go for a fully decentralized system?

It’s transparent, immutable, and permissionless. When looking at the finance side of crypto, the centralized systems have been accused (and for good reason) of manipulations. The team goes for a fully decentralized system so that every transaction is recorded on the blockchain (transparency), which makes it secure from manipulations (immutable), while the users stay in control of their assets at any time (permissionless).

Cryptocurrency is becoming mainstream, which means that regulations are (finally) starting to pop up. Binance has already faced the torment of regulators and that will only become more efficient. It is only a matter of time when centralized entities are due to an audit of the user’s assets, which will open up Pandora's box.

ActaFi is a whole, innovative ecosystem, built on 2 blockchains. It would be needless to say that we are here for the long run and therefore want to protect ourselves from potential negative impacts to the industry.

ACTAFI IS A WHOLE, INNOVATIVE ECOSYSTEM, BUILT ON 2 BLOCKCHAINS. IT WOULD BE NEEDLESS TO SAY THAT WE ARE HERE FOR THE LONG RUN AND THEREFORE WANT TO PROTECT OURSELVES FROM POTENTIAL NEGATIVE IMPACTS TO THE INDUSTRY.

AVALANCHE IS EVM COMPATIBLE, ALLOWING US TO EASILY FORK OUR ECOSYSTEM TO OTHER BLOCKCHAINS LIKE BINANCE SMARTCHAIN (BSC) FOR EXAMPLE.

THE ACTAFI ECOSYSTEM BRINGS INNOVATIVE PASSIVE EARNING OPPORTUNITIES AND INCENTIVIZES THE USER-BASE GROWTH, BY INTRODUCING A SUSTAINABLE ON-CHAIN REFERRAL SYSTEM.

What benefits could that contribute to your ecosystem and community?

Within the ActaFi ecosystem, users not only stay in control of their assets but can also choose on which network / blockchain they operate our ecosystem on, as we are developing cross-dual-chain.

Smart contracts are the most vulnerable part of any DeFi project and are being audited prior to making them publicly available. Everytime we release a product, or feature, an audit will be required for the entire ecosystem.

Why did you pick Cardano and Avalanche as the pillars of your cross-dual chain system?

Energy consumption is a hot global topic and Cardano scores top of the class of the blockchain industry. Other than that, the RealFi and B2G approach Cardano has is something we admire.

Knowing Cardano is opening up its ecosystem, it will take time for the blockchain to be able to handle high frequency usage, which DeFi is. The team took the responsibility of being capable of bringing the ActaFi innovative DeFi ecosystem at all cost, by developing cross-dual-chain on Avalanche, which currently has the best financial dApp infrastructure. Fast, reliable, cheap, the perfect combination for the end-user.

What opportunities does the move from ADA Finance to ActaFi provide in terms of community and branding?

The name ADA Finance limited our audience to be attractive within the Cardano ecosystem. Having a neutral name helps us to establish our brand within any ecosystem. We are developing on Cardano and Avalanche simultaneously. Avalanche is EVM compatible, allowing us to easily fork our ecosystem to other blockchains like Binance SmartChain (BSC) for example.

Passive income has been a cornerstone of ActaFi’s vision of its own DeFi ecosystem. How does its utilities, including its unique referral system, contribute to this?

The ActaFi ecosystem brings innovative passive earning opportunities and incentivizes the user-base growth, by introducing a sustainable onchain referral system.

There are fees, or a lockup, in place to guarantee a sustainable multi-passive earning model, which feeds the quarterly buyback of the NXF token, which gets distributed to the referral system and DAO program.

THE GOAL IS TO DESIGN A GOOD INVESTMENT EXPERIENCE WHERE PEOPLE CAN DISCOVER WHO THEY ARE AS INDIVIDUALS AND INTEGRATE MORE AND MORE CRYPTO INTO THE WAY THEY INVEST.

A NEW WAVE OF INNOVATION

راكتبلاا نم ةديدج ةجوم

Irina Heaver meets up with Anthony Lesoismier Geniaux, Co founder of SwissBorg to discuss how the gaming sector is leveraging blockchain technology to bring players new opportunities to collaborate, compete, and earn.

One of the things which is very unique to SwissBorg is your SwissBorg family, what are you delivering to your community that makes them such huge supporters?

When you look at marketing strategy or growth strategy, you can always find ways that help you to grow your user base. But there is no strategy when you bring a message of honesty. When you speak from your heart there is almost something mystical that is happening. People connect. It's not about the service they will receive. For us it has never been about having the best promotion or the best incentive, it has always been about communicating.

The goal of the company or project is not to earn money. It's a nice, let's say collateral effect of having a mission, but it's not the reason why you create a company.

You want to facilitate a future, a vision for this planet and for people. We know that there are things that need to be fixed in the traditional world, such as a very limited amount of access to wealth management. As a human, the most important thing is to belong. We all want to belong to something, to be part of the crowd.

You have invested in some amazing projects. Tell me about SwissBorg Ventures.

The initial idea of SwissBorg Ventures is born from witnessing that one of the greatest outcomes of crypto and blockchain is to allow anyone to invest in it, letting people with great ideas more easily finance their vision. When you look at the traditional world, few ideas manage to secure funding, but there are thousands of ideas that are coming to fruition in cryptos.

It comes with good and bad but in the end it is fantastic because this is a new wave of innovation and entrepreneurship that has opened this door. It's all about building the mission because there's so many projects out there.

You need to know yourself to become a better investor. So for us the goal is to design a good investment experience where people can discover who they are as individuals and integrate more and more crypto into the way they invest.

Until now technology that has achieved mass adoption has only benefited the few - spending a few hours feeding data into the system only to be rewarded by a small rush of adrenaline and never getting back any value. With blockchain we now have a chance to change the game. I think in the end we see the greatest outcome from technologies that free our time, allowing us to do things that we love and that we believe in. So from many to many, instead of from many to few - our goal is to invest in projects that do this.

So are there specific industries that SwissBorg supports, any trends that you're seeing in the crypto space that you are focusing your attention on?

So I think one of the industries that we’re looking at specifically is gaming that leverages blockchain technology. What we've seen in 2021 is more and more people using crypto, or rather buying crypto, because the use case for crypto has so far just been speculation. Most of the people that buy crypto are not really using it. I think we need to design experiences that invite people to use crypto. The beauty of crypto is that it can be used.

Gaming is one of the industries that will really help this to happen, and so that's one of the reasons why at SwissBorg we're very excited about investing in games, to help them to see that there is value besides speculation.

At the end of the day when you design a game and inject the crypto and blockchain economy it gives an even stronger sense of community. It helps people to create value within the game and these values belong to them. They don’t belong to the game developer, which is the beauty of it. Our mission is to help people to get access to the value they create within technology and virtual reality.

I see several trends emerging in the GameFi space. The first one is moving from play to earn, to play and earn. So enjoying playing and eventually earning something, either by accumulating rewards in the game through NFTs or coins or by becoming an e-sports star.

Today I think there is no reason why if you're very good at playing a game, it couldn't also be your profession. A hundred years ago if you were good at football or tennis you would just play for fun, it was hard to imagine yourself being a professional because the infrastructure was not ready. Now we’re ready and I think blockchain will just accelerate.

And with games come guilds. So we also see tokens that have merged with the concept of a decentralised autonomous organisation. What they do is recruit players to play within games - so now you can become part of these guilds, play games and accumulate rewards. It facilitates economic growth as well, because even if you’re a student on a low budget, you will still be able to find the means to play and bring value back to the guild through the DAOs.

What GameFI and blockchain can bring to the table is the opportunity to collaborate, compete and earn. You can send special features or items from the game to your friends through your wallet - that is going to bear value. It's not just a free sample to lure you to the game, to spend money. Now you have true value - you’re invited by your friend to participate within this game economy. It’s created a completely different narrative, which is why I think it’s going to accelerate adoption.

FOR US IT HAS NEVER BEEN ABOUT HAVING THE BEST PROMOTION OR THE BEST INCENTIVE, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT COMMUNICATING.

I THINK IN THE END WE SEE THE GREATEST OUTCOME FROM TECHNOLOGIES THAT FREE OUR TIME, ALLOWING US TO DO THINGS THAT WE LOVE AND THAT WE BELIEVE IN.

A NEW ONLINE ECONOMY

IoTeX is leading the decentralisation of the machine economy - Claire Biasco and Marcos Dinnerstein explore how strengthening the connection between the physical and digital worlds is empowering a more equitable future.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET, YOU CAN SEE AND CONTROL HOW YOUR DATA IS USED, INCLUDING ACCESSING DAPPS THAT LET YOU MONETIZE YOUR DATA.

Web2 saw the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, cryptocurrencies, decentralised finance (DeFi), Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence. These were evolving independently and had not yet combined their strengths to become more prominent. The data generated and the revenue from that data have Big Tech's exclusive property.

By the end of this year, over one billion health fitness wearables will be connected to the internet. By 2030, according to McKinsey & Company, over 120 billion smart machines will generate an IoT economy valued at up to $12.6 trillion.

Decentralised blockchain projects like IoTeX have built revolutionary technology challenging centralized powers to ensure individuals get back control of their data, their smart devices, and the value they generate, in a bid toward a more equitable future.

IoTeX is leading a new online economy based on machine-to-machine and person-to-machine transactions. These transactions are fully automated with software-based contracts - smart contracts. IoTeX calls this economy MachineFi.

Now, we see the convergence of each of these technologies, and the result is MachineFi, which integrates connected devices, blockchain, DeFi, AI, and Machine Learning.

MachineFi makes it possible to uncouple the data pools from the big tech companies and return the value to its rightful owners, the creators. This has only become possible because these separate technologies are now being employed in concert.

The interplay of these parts creates an economic system where business is conducted autonomously - machine to machine and people to devices. Now the everyday people who own these revenue-producing machines can participate in this new economy, MachineFi.

But how will you and I be a part of this new economy?

The MachineFi Portal is a first-of-its-kind gateway to securely connect these technologies and make them available to individuals and businesses.

If you don't have a Pebble yet, you can still go to portal.machinefi.com to get a Virtual Demo Device and explore how the MachineFi Portal works.

IOTEX IS LEADING A NEW ONLINE ECONOMY BASED ON MACHINE-TO-MACHINE AND PERSON-TO-MACHINE TRANSACTIONS.

The digital economy functions using this input from the real world. Whether it's proving you performed an action, measured the temperature at a given location, lowered your blood pressure, used your autonomous tractor to plant this year's crop —whatever people or businesses value— there's incredible value in mirroring the real world online. Now people, not just corporations, can enjoy this value.

For the first time in the history of the internet, you can see and control how your data is used, including accessing DApps that let you monetize your data.

The MachineFi portal is something new to the world, and hundreds of people can register their blockchainpowered Pebble Tracker on the MachineFi portal and explore how it works. In the future, other devices will be able to connect to this portal, exposing entirely new suites of data to these DApps.

With MachineFi and the MachineFi portal, IoTeX has kicked off a new era in which people can easily take back control over their lives, challenging the power Big Tech currently has.

Founded in 2017, IoTeX is an EVM-compatible blockchain platform to fuel the Internet of Trusted Things, an open ecosystem where humans and machines can interact with guaranteed trust and privacy. IoTeX envisions a future where everyday people can own and control their smart devices, as well as the data and value they generate.

Backed by a global team of 30+ top research scientists and engineers, IoTeX combines blockchain, decentralized identity, and secure hardware to enable user-owned IoT devices and networks. IoTeX will empower the future machine economy and redefine the trillion-dollar IoT industry by connecting the physical and digital worlds.

MACHINEFI MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO UNCOUPLE THE DATA POOLS FROM THE BIG TECH COMPANIES AND RETURN THE VALUE TO ITS RIGHTFUL OWNERS, THE CREATORS.

FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Yellow is an ecosystem of Blockchain products and services for Web3 Internet of Finance. The Yellow Network promises a new generation of Financial Information Exchange Networks, aggregating order books of all participants, and globally scaled by the state channel technology. BLOCK sat down with their CEO, Louis Bellet.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your passion for innovation. How did your personal journey start?

From the moment I first touched a keyboard I knew I’d found my life’s passion in information technology. I love coding and hacking, mainly focusing on cybersecurity. I’m also a serial web entrepreneur with over 20 startups under my belt. When the time came for Web1 to scale to Web2 elastic cloud, I went hardcore on Big Data and Cloud infrastructure, pioneering cloud adoption for EU retail banks and companies. I want my professional legacy to live on in the hundreds of apprentice developers I mentor in Yellow, Openware, and our free Hackademy. I teach the younger generation of Blockchain developers to think outside of the box and code smart.

How did you get into the blockchain industry - what inspired you to shift your focus to it full time?

Since Napster, my greatest passion has always been Peer-2-Peer tech and connecting people. Needless to say, when the Blockchain technology and Bitcoin were released, I dedicated a lot of time to research and tinker with it. I believe we’re on the verge of a financial revolution, and just like Cloud infrastructure had to scale to keep up with ever-increasing Internet usage, so will the modern Fintech infrastructure.

The crypto exchange market is quite crowded. How did Yellow manage to stand out from its competitors?

Yellow doesn’t compete – we connect. Blockchain is about interconnections and a vibrant ecosystem that allows people to enjoy seamless transactions from dApp to dApp working together. Almost every Blockchain project can find a traction point to connect and work together. We’ve already established strategic partnerships with many top-tier projects in the crypto space.

I BELIEVE WE’RE ON THE VERGE OF A FINANCIAL REVOLUTION, AND JUST LIKE CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE HAD TO SCALE TO KEEP UP WITH EVER-INCREASING INTERNET USAGE, SO WILL THE MODERN FINTECH INFRASTRUCTURE.

Despite growing tremendously in scale over the last couple of years, DeFi has yet to achieve the stability reached by traditional financial institutions. What’s holding the financial revolution back?

Crypto finance lacks traditional finance's trusted infrastructure and maturity to protect retail investors. Blockchain tech and DeFi are not there yet. Traditional finance has scaled just fine without any Blockchain technology. State channel’s tech can tap into billions of transactions per day, better than any Layer-1 or DeFi, and we can scale Blockchain solutions to where modern Finance needs them. Still, we should learn from traditional Finance how to scale responsibly. We can scale through a new generation crypto-clearing-house. Imagine a multilayer accounting system on Blockchain with collateral like banks trade, and they have liabilities to each other.

Look at the traditional finance ecosystem – just in the US, FINRA oversees more than 624,000 brokers. The combined market cap of top-20 stock exchange operators is over $115.7 Trillion. There’s a clear separation of responsibilities between custodian banks, brokers, and exchanges, enabling investor protection. The legal framework is defined and in place.

Now let’s take a look at crypto finance as we have it – brokers do not really exist in crypto, although about 400 small exchanges are functioning as ones. People randomly trust their funds to unlicensed crypto traders.

The combined crypto market cap is barely above $1.5 Trillion. Of course, even though the exchanges claim to be “regulated,” nobody actually licenses them. There is no separation of responsibilities – modern crypto exchanges act as an all-in-one unlicensed bank, broker, and exchange with no possible auditability and accountability. To ensure the crypto revolution happens, we must learn from traditional finance and define the trusted crypto infrastructure that protects the investors. Tell us more about the Yellow Network project.

Yellow builds the Web3 generation network for global remittance and liquidity sharing based on cutting-edge scaling state channel technology called the Yellow Network. It’s a significant undertaking, but together with our remarkable technology partners, we will power it through and make Crypto and Blockchain tech helpful to people globally. In the end, when the new trusted crypto infrastructure is in place, it shouldn’t matter to retail customers that it was crypto under the hood that made it possible.

TO ENSURE THE CRYPTO REVOLUTION HAPPENS, WE MUST LEARN FROM TRADITIONAL FINANCE AND DEFINE THE TRUSTED CRYPTO INFRASTRUCTURE THAT PROTECTS THE INVESTORS.

Yellow.com will be one of the peers of the Yellow Network - what are the benefits of having a decentralized exchange portal?

Yellow.com will be an example of a Yellow Crypto Franchise business and showcase the potential income model so that crypto brokers can see the benefits of participating in the Yellow Network.

Last but not least – can you recommend any cool new projects we should keep an eye on?

I think the potential of state channel technology initiated by StateChannels.org is very underrated and the most promising Fintech scaling strategy out there.

IN THE END, WHEN THE NEW TRUSTED CRYPTO INFRASTRUCTURE IS IN PLACE, IT SHOULDN’T MATTER TO RETAIL CUSTOMERS THAT IT WAS CRYPTO UNDER THE HOOD THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE.

WHAT WE ARE PROPOSING HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE AND IS A GUTSY SHIFT IN HOW BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS, STORAGE AND CLOUD SERVICES WORK.

BEYOND BORDERS

A serious contender to become the first truly decentralised and anonymous alternative to the Internet as we know it, The Unigrid Network is proposing a revolutionary shift in how on-chain data storage and cloud services work. Maria Debrincat sits down with their CEO and Co-founder Evan Green.

Is there anything particularly interesting about the technical white paper you will be sending out to accredited firms and investors?

The white paper describes a completely new way of storing data and deploying services in a fault-tolerant and redundant manner. What we are proposing has never been done before and is a gutsy shift in how Blockchain networks, storage and cloud services work. It has the potential to completely change how we store data and deploy services on the internet.

How are you pushing this network forward to become the first truly decentralized and anonymous alternative to the regular internet?

The Unigrid Network does not discriminate against who can and will contribute compute cycles and data storage. We believe the only way for a network like this to work is to allow anyone to join. The Unigrid Foundation acts in the sole interest of pushing the network forward. It does not control which updates make it onto the network though. These decisions will be left up to the network itself with a voting system on-chain.

Can you expand more on your pitch deck?

We tried to focus more on how Unigrid will help and its solutions rather than get into too many technical details. One of the biggest problems with how the current internet functions is in how data is stored. We plan to revolutionise how this works by utilising Blockchain technology for fault tolerance and redundancy.

On a typical website, for example, data is stored locally on one server. If a client needs this data backed up and stored in another location there is a cost involved with moving that data and renting further storage space. On the Unigrid network, this will be a feature and not an afterthought. Data will automatically be backed up by sharding it into tiny segments then distributing it across the network.

We will also introduce parity blocks for fault tolerance and data redundancy. This will allow the network to self-manage what data is needed and how many copies of shards to store. As far as we are aware this will be a first in the world of Blockchain.

What are the biggest milestones on your horizon? As things stand?

On-chain redundant data storage will be our first step to the new network. We are pushing to have a beta of that working out this year. With this update, end-users will be able to store data on-chain that is sharded across the network redundantly. Another implementation we plan to add this year will be a free VPN service. This will allow end-users to browse the internet via an anonymous proxy through our network.

What do you consider to be your biggest strength as a team?

We have over 65 years of combined experience in software development with our core team. Our background is diverse, with many areas of expertise ranging from networking to mobile applications.

Do you have any new projects coming up that you're excited about?

Currently, we are working on an update to our protocol and releasing a new wallet. The wallet will allow us to generate new tokens for the current investors and will enable the distribution process to begin. The wallet itself is built utilising Java as we slowly start to move away from the old source code. This wallet will be the entry point to the Unigrid network. Here users will be able to either maintain their grid nodes or purchase data storage which can then be uploaded to the network. We will also be implementing an auto-update feature in these wallets so they are always up to date with network changes.

WE PLAN TO REVOLUTIONISE HOW THIS WORKS BY UTILISING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY FOR FAULT TOLERANCE AND REDUNDANCY.

AN ACL RECONSTRUCTION WILL LIKELY REINJURE IN TWO YEARS. ONE IN FIVE SOCCER PLAYERS WILL DEVELOP A HAMSTRING INJURY EACH SEASON. ONE IN FOUR PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S IS MISDIAGNOSED. WE CAN REDUCE THESE STATISTICS WITH ONE PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY.

A HELPING HAND

Can you tell us more about your product and the benefits it has in aiding athletes and patients with movement disorders and Parkinson’s?

One out of five soccer players will injure their hamstrings each season, Manchester United pays >£15M to injured players' salaries in one season, and we believe this is because of a lack of information during training. Sports scientists and coaches have many advanced tools at their disposal, but nothing that can help them understand what is happening at the local muscle level. We provide performance coaches and physical therapists information about specific muscles to help them adjust training progressions to athletes’ personalised needs for their specific sport and use this information to optimize performance, training with injury prevention in mind. Our data and analysis have saved Olympic teams over 30% of the time in the weight room while making them perform better- we have two athletes we work with competing now in the Beijing 2022 Olympics.

The same technology can provide a selection of the same outputs as a >€200k motion capture lab. These outputs are the gold standard for assessing movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s, but time in the lab is expensive, requires the space occupied by two hospital rooms, requires an expert to operate and analyze the outcomes, can have >2 week waiting times, and it can take weeks to analyze the results.

One in four people with Parkinson’s is misdiagnosed. With our device, we analyse movement in a more natural environment, at a fraction of the cost, with a low-profile device, without the need for an expert to operate it, and we provide actionable analysis outputs within 24 hours, leading to quicker and more effective diagnostic outcomes and we are working with the #2 rehabilitation hospital globally, the UMCG, to validate our device in this context and plan to submit for publication this year. This is a very scalable device.

In this exclusive interview, Maria Debrincat sits down with Tanya Colonna, CEO of Oro Muscles and Med-Tech World’s first Pitch winner, as she muscles in on her product and its benefits in improving training, rehabilitation and pushing the healthcare industry towards preventative care and telemedicine.

Can you briefly explain the process involved in manifesting your current project to its full potential?

Developing and providing value in each market involves focus and strategically timed expansion. Right now, we’re focusing on elite athletics, but our validation strategy doubles as we build up data for future regulatory approval and expansion into sports medicine and general rehabilitation.

Oro Muscles has secured a worldwide exclusive licensing deal with trusted, medical EMG suppliers. Can you tell us more about this deal?

We are the only company legally allowed to use the best sensor system on the market containing EMG + IMU in the field of elite sports and rehabilitation.

This year you took home Med-Tech World’s first pitch winner Award, how crucial is this award to a growing brand like yours?

We’re at a crucial inflection point in our company’s development – research, development, and hundreds of customer interviews have come together into a product that has proven utility in multiple markets. Taking home the Med-Tech World’s pitch award shows that our vision resonates with experts in our target markets and that we are on the road to a truly scalable, revolutionary solution.

What makes your company different from other medical brands?

The same fundamental technology that we have developed can optimise both elite sports and rehabilitation. This means that, unlike most medical brands, we don’t have to wait until we achieve regulatory approval and figure out reimbursement before we can generate revenue. We’re generating revenue now and reinvesting that to expand into medical, meaning we reduce the risk for our investors.

What are the goals you've set for yourselves in 2022 and how are you planning on getting there? Are there any challenges you expect to face in the coming year?

In 2022, we will raise funds to expand our team and continue iterating our product as we learn from our growing customer base about what they want to see and how we can more smoothly fit into their workflow. The most challenging part of this will be to make our marketing as cool as our productwe’re completely redesigning our website and our approach to social media; there is so much value packed into this technology, and we need to figure out how to quickly and clearly express this to the right people.

TAKING HOME THE MED-TECH WORLD’S PITCH AWARD SHOWS THAT OUR VISION RESONATES WITH EXPERTS IN OUR TARGET MARKETS AND THAT WE ARE ON THE ROAD TO A TRULY SCALABLE, REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTION.

When we started working on Med-Tech, we both set out with the intention of being an integral part of the revolution of the healthcare industry. For us, 2021 was just the start, as we continue to push in 2022, making it another pivotal year for us. At the beginning of last year, we highlighted the technologies that we thought were going to dominate 2021. Our predictions turned true, globally there was the emergence of many new healthcare pathways involving the increasing use of AI and IoMT.

Our prediction this year is on a longer timescale and perhaps more bullish than usual. We believe that in the next decade we will see healthcare applications to the metaverse or the healthcare metaverse if you will.

Looking at the concept of the metaverse in basic terms it is the assimilation of a number of technologies that enable the integration of physical with digital. Whilst telehealth has blurred the lines a bit in the past number of years, significant advancements in augmented and virtual reality as well as ever-increasing energy-efficient distributed ledger systems (blockchain) are bringing forward ideas that were never thought to be possible.

Multinational conglomerates are already investing heavily in the general idea of the metaverse. NVIDIA for example with its Omniverse platform is already implementing its idea of a work type metaverse in certain industries enabling life-like interactions on a platform for creators, designers and collaborators to work. Meta is another company moving rapidly in this space, after all this was the reason for a change in the name. A video posted in November by the company shows incredible progress with haptic glove technology that allows the user to experience the sense of touch in the virtual world. allowing the user to experience the sense of touch in the virtual world.

Whilst Meta's product and to a certain extent NVIDIA's projects are primarily aimed at the industries such as gaming you can easily see the applications of the above in healthcare.

There are also early healthcare case studies favouring the idea. Not needing to look far, Microsoft has piloted

using the Hololens technology in remote care and healthcare education amongst others. Now imagine, adding haptic feedback to surgical VR education simulation or simulating an immersive critical incident to train emergency responders. And the applications are almost endless. From gamification for improving health and fitness to surgeons having the patient's CT scan virtually imprinted on the patient during surgery aiding in even more precise surgical resections.

Whilst all of this sounds incredible we do appreciate that there will be key challenges that will be encountered. Perhaps one of the most important questions concerns how it will all work. Unlike other industries, in healthcare, we can't afford to not have interoperable components. So will the healthcare metaverse be one main open-source platform with key players allowed to plug and play provided they hit key security criteria? Secondly, we need several clinical trials and real-world use cases. We are starting to understand now that AI research in healthcare is still lagging and enclosed in a silo. Whilst we assume that AI + humans = better healthcare, there are no clinical trials to support this. This brings us to the third obstacle, patient data in the metaverse. Undoubtedly, the metaverse will generate a humongous amount of data, some of which may be in the hands of less trustworthy companies. Whilst companies knowing what kind of burger we like is not going to affect us much, companies knowing our genetic predisposition might affect a lot of things including insurance premiums.

The metaverse is still in its early days but we think that just like us you should be early on this bandwagon as it's a certain part of health 4.0. If you want to know more, feel free to connect with us.

WHILST TELEHEALTH HAS BLURRED THE LINES IN THE PAST NUMBER OF YEARS, SIGNIFICANT ADVANCEMENTS IN AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY AS WELL AS EVER-INCREASING ENERGY-EFFICIENT DLY SYSTEMS ARE BRINGING FORWARD.

WE BELIEVE THAT IN THE NEXT DECADE WE WILL SEE HEALTHCARE APPLICATIONS TO THE METAVERSE.

WE ARE STARTING TO UNDERSTAND NOW THAT AI RESEARCH IN HEALTHCARE IS STILL LAGGING AND ENCLOSED IN A SILO.

projects

TRANSFORMING THE FUTURE OF DIABETES CARE

Ciba Health is a patient-centered entity that focuses on preventive and holistic medicine. Innocent Clement, Founder & CEO of Ciba Health Digital Therapeutics writes about the Ciba Health Type 2 Diabetes reversal program.

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, having diabetes increases the risk of death by 50%. Furthermore, nine out of 10 people with prediabetes do not know they have it and when the condition becomes full-blown, it affects all aspects of a person’s day-to-day life — causing several issues including fatigue, lack of focus, anxiety, mood swings, and sexual dysfunction.

In addition, diabetes often results in kidney disease, nervous system complications, gum disease, and amputation of limbs. For employers, having diabetic employees can be expensive. More than $20 billion is lost annually due to unplanned, missed days of work related to diabetes. While it sounds hopeless, there are proven ways to reverse the disease. Ciba Health can help.

BESIDES LIFE-CHANGING BENEFITS FOR INDIVIDUALS, SELF-INSURED COMPANIES IN THE UNITED STATES ARE ALREADY SEEING UP TO A THREE-TO-ONE RETURN ON THEIR INVESTMENT AND A POSITIVE IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY.

Ciba Health, the personalised digital therapeutics and virtual care platform has launched a new Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Program that allows patients to learn about their unique diabetes drivers, achieve metabolic flexibility, and create life-long changes. Besides life-changing benefits for individuals, selfinsured companies in the United States are already seeing up to a three-to-one return on their investment and a positive impact on employee productivity.

In 2021 Ciba Health announced its partnership with Lockton Companies, the world's largest privately-owned, independent insurance brokerage firm. Ciba Health is disrupting and revolutionizing the treatment of pre and type 2 diabetes by reversing it, and we are proud to get recognition from industry leaders. We’re leveraging cutting-edge technology and a multidisciplinary approach to ensure long-term metabolic flexibility, which is a game-changer in the diabetes treatment space.

Self-insured companies are excited that something like this is finally on the market. Not only because it can help their employees to be healthy, happy, and more productive, but it will also enable them to save and shift their budget from treating diseases to investing in prevention and the general well-being of their employees.

About the Ciba Health Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Program:

While “don’t eat carbs” is how a conventional doctor or endocrinologist would chiefly advise a patient with type 2 diabetes, this unique program helps achieve metabolic flexibility* — the body’s ability to burn available carbohydrates and fats efficiently without the help of external resources.

The program patients collaborate with a physician, dietitian, and health coach while leveraging wearable technology and customized, data-driven dietary supplements based on clinical assessment and lab tests. As a result, they can expect to eradicate the root causes that affect blood sugar levels instead of simply masking symptoms with medications. Ciba Health sets realistic goals that make lifestyle changes easy to achieve. There is no need for strict diets or restricting carbohydrates since the aim is to decrease insulin resistance in a sustainable way.

WHICH IS A GAME-CHANGER IN THE DIABETES TREATMENT SPACE.

WE’RE LEVERAGING CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY AND A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO ENSURE LONG-TERM METABOLIC FLEXIBILITY,

PRISM GALAXY

PRISM GALAXY

In this exclusive interview, Maria Debrincat speaks to Producer Signial of the Prism Invaders to discuss upcoming projects and the concept behind the brand.

What is Prism Galaxy and what are its main projects?

We’ve set up the Prism Galaxy Company as a celebration of our conquest of the Earth. To commemorate the inception of the Earth branch of the Prism Galaxy Company, we are planning to drop our first NFT project on the 22nd of February, 2022.

These NFTs dropped will be based on Red, Green, Blue among the 7 Prisms that contain the wonders of the galaxy.

Through the Prism Galaxy Company, we have plans to deliver numerous stories about the Prism Invaders and our experiences in the form of Webtoons, soap operas, movies, art, music and much more.

What’s the current runway and what are your future plans looking like?

Our first project is, the “Prism Invaders”.

Under the name of Prism Invaders, we have set plans to release music projects as collaborations between our warriors and musicians of Earth. Soundtracks and NFTs will be released and the successful release of these projects will enable us to deliver better IPs of Prism Galaxy to Earth and contribute in conveying our values and messages.

WE ARE COMMITTED TO CREATING ORIGINAL, QUALITY CONTENT, IN THE FORM OF MUSIC, IMAGE, FILM, FASHION, AND LIFESTYLE

On February 22nd of the Lunar calendar (March 24th), the first “Prism Invaders” artists will be revealed. These artists are a singer-songwriter sibling duo from Sindoshi city and their soundtracks are focused on the survival of the new Earth.

The next project in line will then be the “Prism Collectors.”

Prism Collectors can be said to be an “Artainment” project. Through this project, we aim to combine fine art and pop music, thus delivering content in the form of art exhibitions and NFTs for more beings of the galaxy and earth alike to enjoy.

The first exhibition “Prism Collectors Vol. 1: Coco Capitán'' is set to take place in February ‘22 of the Lunar calendar being March 24th in Shanghai, with limited NFT artworks.

Our endless stories will also be delivered through a webtoon series called “Prism Galaxy War”. Tune in to the history of the galaxy unraveling through the eyes of the “Prism Invaders”

Define and elaborate on the term artainment.

Fine art is delivered as content that can be easily enjoyed by the public along with commercial art such as Pop Music.

What is your company culture like?

We are committed to creating original, quality content, in the form of music, image, film, fashion, and lifestyle. We hope to create positive, substantial, and lasting change in culture.

We are dedicated to promoting and spreading a positive, creative, and spontaneous way of life.

Will the upcoming project you have in mind return value for all organizations within the network?

All projects are eventually linked to creating good content and delivering it to the public. Good content can inspire and message people. It can also give economic rewards to those who participated in creating this content. Everyone can win-win.

BETTING AGAINST MALTHUS

In a BLOCK opinion piece, SiGMA’s Content Research Lead Kyle Galea speaks about AI, Aging, how innovation can stop a crisis and how it already has in the past.

WE NOW FIND OURSELVES IN A NOVEL SITUATION WITH NO HISTORICAL PRECEDENT

For most of human history, the ability to reach a venerable age was itself a form of success. In a more hostile world, making it to retirement was an accomplishment rather than an assumption. The more our technology evolved and adapted, the more we were able to create an environment where broader demographics were allowed to live safely and well into retirement.

While this has been a genuinely positive outcome, we now find ourselves in a novel situation with no historical precedent. As the demographic from the largest population boom in human history ages while fertility rates across the developed world drop precipitously, we may soon be facing what some have termed an “aging crisis.” While the term “crisis” may be polarizing, this demographic shift will have massive effects on the global economy, political system and even society due to a broad array of issues such as dropping productivity or increased strain on healthcare systems. While the scale of such a shift may be daunting, the human ability to adapt and innovate cannot be underestimated when it comes to threats of this scale. To realize this, all we have to do is to look to the very recent past.

The Five-metal wager:

In 1968, American Biologist and Professor Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb. This text outlined the seeming inevitability that mankind as a whole was on the path to a demographic catastrophe. Citing Malthusian pressures, he indicated that the massive population spike where the global population doubled between the 1950s and 1987 would obviously outpace the species’ ability to sustain itself. Ehrlich argued that this would have devastating effects with conflict over resource scarcity and mass starvation sure to follow. While acting as an academic justification for this fear, it was also symbolic of a genuine panic during the 1960’s and 70’s that we had backed ourselves into a corner demographically with the media of this period, as seen in Soylent Green and Stand On Zanzibar, only giving voice to this concern.

This is where Business Professor Julian Simon comes in. Challenging Ehrlich on the grounds that human innovation and progress will find a way, the two settled on a bet. Selecting the prices of five metals: chromium, copper, nickel, tin, and tungsten, the two wagered on the inflation adjusted price of the metals by 1990. If their prices went up, this would prove that Ehrlich’s resource scarcity thesis was correct. If they went down, it would validate Simon’s argument that innovation would prevail.

Cue the Green Revolution. A combination of technological breakthroughs between the 1950’s and late 1960’s such as chemical fertilizer, mechanized irrigation and the use of high-yield crops would see an explosion in agricultural productivity. One of the key figures, agronomist Norman Borlaug, received the Nobel Peace Prize for saving an estimated 1 billion people from starvation. The revolution played a pivotal role in increasing nutrition, reducing poverty, causing a decline in infant mortality and even directly causing a decrease in carbon emissions and subsequent increase in land available for reforestation. Today, while having a larger population than the 1960’s, we are the best fed population in all of human history. In October of 1990, Simon received a letter from Ehrlich. In it, he found a check for $576 and 7 cents, settling the bet in Simon’s favour.

THE REVOLUTION PLAYED A PIVOTAL ROLE IN INCREASING NUTRITION, REDUCING POVERTY, CAUSING A DECLINE IN INFANT MORTALITY AND EVEN DIRECTLY CAUSING A DECREASE IN CARBON EMISSIONS

A path forward:

So what does the price of Tungsten in 1990 and efficient agriculture have to do with demographic aging? The Simon-Ehrlich Wager reflects a broader mechanic in the Anthropocene. In many ways, technological innovation is one of the main forces that our future is dictated by. Hence, an incoming “crisis” can be annulled before its effects can come to be felt if innovators, the private sector and policymakers preempt it through investment, enterprise and shrewd policy.

From my own personal perspective, I see two technological branches which hold extreme promise in this regard: artificial intelligence and bio-tech. In terms of the former, research by PwC led them to argue that AI can contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, an output higher than the GDP of China and India combined. Its ability to augment productivity to offset any shortfall would be monumentally important in the near future. Artificial intelligence also comes with the added benefit of increasing productivity while also reducing the necessity for the human element, making it the perfect remedy for this specific issue.

AI CAN CONTRIBUTE $15.7 TRILLION TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMY BY 2030, AN OUTPUT HIGHER THAN THE GDP OF CHINA AND INDIA COMBINED

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IS ONE OF THE MAIN FORCES THAT OUR FUTURE IS DICTATED BY

The latter, bio–tech, refers to a broad array of fields in medical and biological technology. In what the World Economic Forum has termed “The Longevity Effect”, advances in bio-tech could come to mean that the average person would be able to live a longer, healthier and more productive life that would dull any expected damage from a demographic shift. We can see the beginning of this phenomenon today. Japan has both a demographic trend towards aging as well as one of the most globally renowned healthcare systems. It may therefore be surprising to note that, according to a state survey in this very same year, over 40 percent of Japanese aged 60 and above were willing and even motivated to continue working. We also see a lot of overlap between the two areas. AI has already shown to be a powerful tool in the diagnosing of cancer, healthcare pertaining to Alzheimer’s disease and in putting aggregate data to good use. If we play our cards right, we may see a future where less people would be able to work less hours while living at the peak of their health for longer.

In conclusion, necessity has tended to serve as the mother of invention but only when stakeholders rise to the challenge. In the 21st century, innovation and technological advancement have been our main tools in both averting disaster as well as in creating a better and, in recent years, more sustainable standard of living. With this in mind, it is therefore up to the investors, entrepreneurs and researchers of today to spearhead a better tomorrow.

NECESSITY HAS TENDED TO SERVE AS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION BUT ONLY WHEN STAKEHOLDERS RISE TO THE CHALLENGE

SIGMA EXPO, MALTA, 2021

Who’s Who

neurothink™ CEO and Director, ABEY Foundation

The ABEY ecosystem features the ABEYCHAIN, a leading public chain implementing a secure PoW+DPoS hybrid consensus; the ABEY Storage Network and the ABEY Storage Token (AST); the aCash Token (ACT), the official Stablecoin of the ABEYCHAIN; and among the multitude of onchain apps built on the ABEYCHAIN are XSWAP.com, home of the latest DeFi platform; and the ABEY NFT platform, which includes MUSIC.NET, the marketplace focused on empowering creators, collectors, and artists.

abey.com

EDWIN MATA

CEO

and CoFounder, Brickken

Our mission is to give everyone access to liquidity, or investment, through an ecosystem based on an open decentralized protocol, available to all, fueled by Brickken’s utility token BKN, allowing any asset to be tokenized anywhere in the world in an easy and legal form.

www.brickken.com

SADIE

Founder & co-CEO, AuBit

TheFreeway platform by AuBit is the first in the world where users watch as their investments grow from the redistribution of revenues, meaning one 10 shares can become 11, 12 etc. The AuBit team comes from companies including Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Google and more.

aubit.io

Founder

Axiom are a specialist senior recruitment firm to the international Blockchain and Crypto markets. We work with VC’s and Founding Partners to establish and build amazing teams for rapid growth and delivery. With over two decades of international recruitment experience, we connect the global innovators within this emerging sector.

www.axiomrecruit.com

Founder, Bancambios Exchange

Bancambios Exchange, arrives to support the new asset class and increase 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.

bancambios.exchange

DR MANUELE BIAZZO

CEO, The BioArte Limited, Thebioarte

The Bio Arte is an innovative player in the field of personalised therapeutic. In-depth knowledge, cutting-edge bioinformatics technology, and a team that is consistently up to date with the latest in scientific research: Those are the genes in our DNA.

www.thebioarte.com

BRIAN ROGERS

HUTTON

OSCAR L. ANDRADE

ANDREW PHILLIPS

and CEO, Axiom Recruit

Director,

Centre for DLT

The Centre for DLT at the University of Malta runs a multidisciplinary Masters in Blockchain and DLT taking in students having a business, computer science, IT, economics, management, finance, or legal background. The programme allows students to both gain a wide understanding of the disciplines’ various perspectives whilst at the same time to dig deeper into their area of specialisation.

um.edu.mt/dlt

Founder and CEO, Cashaa

Cashaa launched in 2017 with a singular vision — to aid the adoption of blockchain-based financial products. It started as a peer-to-peer money transfer platform which transformed into a neo-bank. Cashaa has been helping businesses to access crucial banking infrastructure and deliver powerful products to their users since 2019.

cashaa.com

Head of Business development, Coin360

COIN360 is a cryptocurrency and crypto exchange live data aggregator. Our goal is to deliver vital market data in a visually engaging manner. Whether you are a professional or novice trader, media outlet, or just crypto curious, COIN360 offers indispensable tools to stay updated on the slightest cryptocurrency market movements.

coin360.com

Founder and CEO, Coinoxs

Coinoxs makes a difference to the cryptocurrency sector with its offices providing outstanding offline blockchain services in Turkey and the world. We facilitate the lives of our customers with the blockchain products we have developed, while at the same time being with them with technical support in all kinds of problems.

www.coinoxs.com

Corefy is a universal feature-rich payment orchestration platform for online businesses and payment institutions. Our technical platform includes more than 150 ready-to-use integrations with payment providers, acquirers and wallets around the world.

corefy.com

Founded in 2020, CryptoPerformance launched as a unique buy-andhold platform for crypto enthusiasts. Today CryptoPerformance is a 360 solution for all crypto-needs, including an in-house developed blockchain the CryptoPerformance Chain, featuring sub-currencies and NFTs, its native coin CPC, global fintech platform CryptoPerformance BANQ, Charity for Charities blockchain capabilities and more.

cryptoperformance.io

DR JOSHUA ELLUL

CAN AZIZOĞLU

KUMAR GAURAV

DENYS MELNYKOV

Co-founder & COO, CoreFy

YUN CAI

GIUSEPPE RIMOLA Co-Founder and CEO, CryptoPerformance

Colexion is Asia’s Largest Licensed NFT platform. Colexion brings forward a unique infusion of sports - entertainment & modern technology that profoundly influences how fans connect with the sports & entertainment industry. Digital Collectibles revolution identifies the pulse of the contemporary fan & gives them a platform to express & share their fandom with the community.

Colexion.io

Curate is a user-experienced focused NFT and Physical Goods Marketplace that allows its users to trade NFTs from different blockchains with no gas fees, supporting Ethereum, Solana, and others. Curate is also the only NFT marketplace that is fully working on both desktop and mobile, Apple Store included.

curate.style

Diversifi is an open protocol that addresses the DeFi fragmentation challenges of liquidity, data and functionality. It enables and operates a decentralized network of liquidity pools, data pools and functionality components that unify DeFi, CeFi and TradFi to enable the development of chain-agnostic web3 apps.

diversi.fi

Dukascopy Bank is a Swiss innovative bank providing brokerage, retail & corporate banking services to Fintechs, Digital Businesses and Marketplaces. Dukascopy Bank is also the first bank to issue its own cryptocurrency «DUKASCOIN». The Bank has 5 offices around the world & is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

dukascopy.bank

EX Sport Starz is a platform that allows sport fans to buy, trade and sell digital sports collectibles. The marketplace offers a variety of sports and has a special reward program for the collectors, athletes and sport fans.

www.ex-sports.io

FUNToken is the native token for the iGaming industry. It powers an everexpanding decentralised ecosystem for funding and integrating to all iGaming verticals. Listed on major exchanges, it hosts the world’s largest crypto gaming community.

funtoken.io

ABHAY AGGARWAL Founder and CEO, Colexion

SOUJANYA BHATTACHAYA Institutional Relationship manager, Dukascopy Bank

TOMÁS DOMINGOS Vice-President, Curate

TOLI MAKRIS CEO, EX Sport Starz

EITAN KATZ CEO and Co-Founder, Diversifi

ADRIAAN BRINK CEO, Funtoken

Globiance aims to provide services to all clients across the world with a global approach. Offering services to corporate and retail clients –Globiance platforms cover the exchange and trading of crypto and fiat currencies, payment solutions and worldwide transfers. Offering GBEX the first exchange token designed in a deflationary way.

globiance.com

MANUEL BLANCO

We created a new kind of decentralized oracle that is more stable than any other currency in the world including Gold and Silver. Also, we have backed up the value of the GAUGECASH by the blockchain class in itself, taking advantage of its economic scarcity principle.

www.gaugecash.com

Global Unit Pay is your guide to the world of payments. Global Unit Pay is an advanced blockchain-based platform with additional capabilities, providing the most complete and technically advanced set of services for conducting B2B, B2C, C2C financial transactions. Global Unit Pay is a payment platform for convenient online business anywhere in the world.

globalunitpay.ch

We provide microloans to Artisanal Gold Mines worldwide while helping them to employ socially conscious mining methods. In exchange, we get a 20% Lifetime Royalty share of ALL ongoing production. Our share of gold is sold to finance a Buy-Back program of our G1X Token on exchanges fueling an increase in value and providing optimal value liquidity.

goldfinx.com

Co-founder and CBDO, Hacken

A fully-fledged cybersecurity ecosystem founded in 2017 by industry experts, Big Four professionals, and ethical hackers. We’re focused on developing security infrastructure for the blockchain world and educating users on cybersecurity to make Web 3.0 a safer place. Hacken has saved clients’ assets worth >$10B and built >90K community.

hacken.io

ALEXEI DE BONO

Director, IDEA Intelligence-IDEA Group, IDEA Intelligence

IDEA Group is a fast-growing, young group of companies. Our core focus is to empower organisations and individuals to work more intelligently and effectively to achieve their business goals. These include IDEA Academy, IDEA Advisory and IDEA Intelligence.

ideamalta.com

OLIVER MARCO LA ROSA CEO, Globiance

Founder, Gaugecash

ANDREY KHOVRATOV CEO, Global Unit Pay

YEVHENIIA BROSHEVAN

PHILIPPE BEDENAREK CEO, GoldFinX

Jobchain is developing a platform to connect employers and employees anywhere, anytime. Users can find jobs anywhere while earning a salary in any cryptocurrency, including our own, called JOB, in a secure, transparent and user-friendly way through an All-in-One app.

www.jobchain.com

MACIEJ JAMIOŁKOWSKI

Business Development Lead, Nethone

Nethone is a machine learning-based fraud prevention SaaS company that allows online merchants to holistically understand their end-users both in web and mobile channels. With its proprietary online user profiling and ML technologies, Nethone is able to detect and prevent payment fraud, account take-overs, promo abuse and while reducing friction with payment routing and real-time recommendations.

nethone.com

JAAFAR

Lightency is a bridge between the traditional energy industry and decentralized finance. It democratizes investment in renewable energy projects and allows better monetized renewable energy generation through decentralized energy management systems and Yield farming protocols. It provides an opportunity to earn passive incomes while creating environmental, social, and economic impacts.

lightency.io

RUBEN MERRE

Co-founder

and CEO, NGRAVE

NGRAVE is a digital asset and blockchain security company on a mission to bring easy-to-use maximum security to crypto investors. It is the creator of «ZERO», the only crypto wallet with the EAL7 security certification, the highest in the world.

www.ngrave.io

CHARLES DONLY

SVP of Operations & Business Development, neurothink

My Liquidity Partner is a liquidity pool partnership program that provides 2,25% return a week as a partnership fee on your deposited Ethereum, Bitcoin, USDC or SHIBA with NO LOCK-IN PERIOD. Liquidity partners are allowed to withdraw at any time and can receive weekly payouts or choose “Hyper-Compounding” as an option.

liquiditypartner.io

neurothink™ operates a world-class Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) platform, providing a novel full end-to-end environment for data scientists to create, train, and deploy AI/ML models. Using its own high-performance enterprise GPU servers, neurothink™ can provide industry-leading compute and virtualization resources in a secure, customizable and automated environment.

neurothink.io

JOSÉ BAY CEO, Jobchain

SAIED CEO, Lightency

SOFYA PUZHAYKINA

Operations Director, My Liquidity Partner

OpenPayd is the leading global payments and banking-as-a-service platform for the digital economy. OpenPayd’s clients are delivering seamless user experiences and building a new generation of digital products, all through embedded financial services.

www.openpayd.com

KONSTANTIN

Founder and CEO, Payler

Payler is a group of companies that specializes in the development and implementation of high-tech payment solutions for medium and large corporate businesses. We not only follow trends but also create them. Our company employs over 100 qualified professionals in 4 different countries. Our best products are Card Processing, Crypto Processing, Internet Banking, and many others to be created.

payler.com

ALEX

Head of Growth, Peanut

Orica is the ethical funding platform for digital creatives and social impact projects. Our mission is to accelerate wealth equality through digital assets. Creators use Orica to access smart funding, sustainable mint assets and share royalties. Orica collectors drive global change through impactful investments. Together, we found a fairer world.

orica.io

Peanut develops unique DeFi tools and services that help crypto users to maximize profits, reduce risks and protect from DEX bots

peanut.trade

Oz makes accessible privacy protection, regulatory cover and tax-free living through regulated staking agreements available in its wallet using the TOTOz token. Oz further leverages blockchain applications in DeFi, NFTs and the Metaverse in order to bring real-life application and benefit to a global network of Special Economic Zones.

oz.finance

DELFIM

RealFevr is an NFT marketplace dedicated to officialy licensed sports video moments. These NFT moments become gamified digital collectibles by being integrated into RealFevr Play-to-Earn Games & digital collection challenges.

www.realfevr.com

DR. OZAN OZERK Founder, OpenPayd

KOPYLTSOV

DANIAL NANAEI Founder, Orica

STARIKOV

JIN GONZALEZ CEO, Oz Finance

CASCAIS

Head of Marketing, RealFevr

RICO PANG

Co-Founder and CEO, Sanctum Venture

Sanctum Venture are known for ‘Empowering Businesses Globally’, through Venture Building, Innovations, Synergy, Technology Transformations & Investment. The six key pillars to our group consist of; Technology, Investment/Capital, Media, Healthcare, Real estate and Philanthropy. Led by a globally renowned team, we pride ourselves on being an international multi-office with an unrivaled track record.

sanctumglobalventures.com

Scorechain is a Risk-AML software provider for cryptocurrencies. As a leader in crypto compliance, the Luxembourgish company has helped 200+ customers in 40+ countries since 2015, ranging from cryptocurrency businesses to financial institutions, audit and law firms, and LEAs. Scorechain supports Bitcoin with Lightning Network detection, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, XRP Ledger, Tezos and Tron.

www.scorechain.com

ADRIAN ATTARD TREVISAN

Co-founder & Managing Director, Umana Medical Technologies Limited

Umana Medical develops medical technologies to monitor critical vital signs. “Smarter Skin Technology”, a nanopolymer sensor that forms part of the Umana T1 system, is our flagship technology. Our products monitor patients in the fields of Cardiology, Diabetes and Telemedicine. In 2020, Umana joined multinational GPI Group operating across 60 countries

www.umanamedical.com

Chief Business Officer, Simba storage

Simba storage is an institutional-level cold storage for Bitcoin, that is based on a multi-signature algorithm and located in four jurisdictions: Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the UAE and New Zealand. Our company is an accessible, transparent, confidential and flexible crypto-asset custodial solution designed for individuals and businesses of all sizes.

Director, Ruby family foundation

Being the first decentralized blockchain-based Foundation with full funds distribution transparency and a 100% allocation towards global outreach programs for children and mothers, Ruby Family Foundation will address the major issues of poverty and lack of essential needs including access to basic medical assistance.

Business Development Manager, Stobox

Stobox is an award-winning company that provides technology and consulting to help clients leverage digital assets and tokenized securities. Stobox exists at the intersection of traditional finance and crypto and strives to enable businesses to implement decentralized technologies, simplify operations with digital assets, and remove obstacles to their adoption.

stobox.io

VERLIN SANCIANGCO Managing

simba.storage

JORGE SEBASTIAO

AIDA MUKASH MENA

PIERRE GERARD CEO, Scorechain

StormGain is a crypto trading platform for everyone. It’s a convenient solution for those who want to profit from either the growth or decline of the cryptocurrency market and from long-term investments in crypto assets.

stormgain.com

Director of Strategy & Partnership, The Future Hour

We are dedicated to media, incubation and were the co-organizers of the Los Angeles and Hong Kong blockchain week events as well as media partner of AIBC. Among many of the services we offer are go-tomarket strategy in China and the US, translation services, Podcast as a Service and strategic consulting and introduction.

thefuturehour.io

The TruNarrative platform facilitates the checks you need to safely, quickly, and compliantly onboard, transact, manage and protect your players throughout their lifecycle. Automate customer journeys for KYC, Document Verification, AML reporting, Fraud detection, Affordability and Behaviour Monitoring and make decisions with a single customer picture.

Trunarrative.com

WireCapital registered in Cyprus and operating at internet acquiring market as payment gateway since 2011, serving trading platforms in Europe, CIS, Asia, and South America. Company is fully certified by «PCI DSS Level 1» security standard and being officially registered payment agent of VISA and MasterCard. The main field of work is the provision of Internet acquiring services for the middle/high risk verticals.

wire.capital

Zelwin is the first marketplace of goods in the world where everyone makes money! Make purchases and earn. We value sellers and reward buyers. For every purchase, customers get guaranteed cashback in ZLW tokens. They are instantly able to exchange these tokens for various cryptocurrencies, USD/EUR, send them to VISA/MasterCard, or save them up.

zelwin.com

СoinsPaid helps 800+ online businesses accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. With 7,6 billion EUR worth of crypto already processed, they are easily a leading crypto payment ecosystem. The CoinsPaid ecosystem includes all services your business needs to accept crypto –from a payment gateway to an OTC exchange.

coinspaid.com

ALEKSANDR ALTGAUZEN CEO, StormGain

JIAZI LI

ADAM DOYLE Head of Gaming, TruNarrative

ANNA NOVOKHATCKAIA

Deputy CEO on development, WireCapital

NIKOLAY SHKILEV PhD, CEO, Zelwin

MAKSYM KRUPYSHEV CEO, CoinsPaid

PARTNERS

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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.