BLOCKERMAG - The Blockchain Business Magazine - Issue 1, December 2018

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ISSUE 1. DECEMBER 2018

BLOCKERMAG CRYPTO // ICO’S & STO’S // LATEST TECH // FUTURE TRENDS // INNOVATOR SPOTLIGHT // INVESTMENT // EVENTS

BUILDING THE FUTURE SPECIAL REPORT: BLOCKCHAIN IN INSURANCE more on Page 21

in brief

Blockchain news and updates for December more on Page 6

DECENTRALISED INSURANCE BLOCKCHAIN’S BEACHHEAD IN A CONSERVATIVE INDUSTRY more on Page 27

Women in tecH We talk to Danielle Khayat Saikaly about why she’s betting big on blockchain. more on Page 17


CONTACT US B locke r ma g Whisper Media Timsbury, Bath, BA2 0HB, United K ingdom E: W:

07 ER I C A STA N FOR D Blockchain is solving the insurance sector’s biggest problems

hello@blockermag.com www.blockermag.com

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EDITORIAL R ICH AR D P OT T S Publisher K AR IS COPP Editor

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Blockchain, insurance and data walk into a bar…

CONTRIBUTORS Erica Stanford, Helen Tanner, Danielle Khayat Saikaly, Dr Yannis Kalfoglou, Luis Novella, Calogero Scibetta, Hossein Kakavand, Gary Nuttall, Adiraj Gupta

SUBSCRIBTIONS SUB SCR IBE ONLINE www.blockermag.com Blocker ma g is FR EE in digital format, or you can get it in print.

© COPYRIGHT Blocker ma g is a brand name of Whisper Media LTD and protected by copyright.

17 DA N I E L L E K H AYAT SA I K A LY Innovator Spotlight and Blockercon speaker

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IN THIS ISSUE —

K AR IS COPP

BLOCKCHAIN IN INSURANCE

Special Report: Blockchain in Insurance

Page 7-9 BL O CKCH A I N I S SOLV I NG T H E I N S U R A NC E S EC TOR’ S BI GGE ST PROBL E M S Erica Stanford looks at some of the ways blockchain is shaking up insurance

27 DEC E N T R A L I S E D I N S U R A NC E Blockchain’s beachhead in a conservative industry

29 AD IR AJ GUP TA The next frontier in blockchain and payments

Page 11-14 BL O CKCH A I N, I N SUR ANC E A N D DATA WA L K I N TO A BA R … Helen Tanner analyses how blockchain, data and insurance can work together as a perfect trio Page 21-25 S PEC I A L R E P ORT: BL O CKCH A I N I N I N S U R A NC E Editor Karis Copp takes a detailed look at blockchain in the insurance sector Page 27-28 BL O CKCH A I N ’ S BE ACH H E A D I N A C ON S E RVAT I V E I ND UST RY Dr Yannis Kalfoglou and Luis Novella explore some realworld examples of decentralised insurance using Smart Contracts

INNOVATOR SPOTLIGHT Page 17-19 DA N I E L L E K H AYAT SA I K A LY Founder of The Chain Economy Consultancy and Senior Lecturer at ESCP Europe Business School

31 L OOK A H E A D The next issue of Blockermag explores Blockchain in Law

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Page 29-30 A DI R AJ GU P TA Talks about the evolution of Crypto Launchpad and the next frontier in blockchain and payments


WELCOME Richard Potts, Publisher, Blockermag

blockchain technology has the potential to transform business as we know it. our mission is to facilitate that change through insight, analysis and expert opinion from the world’s blockchain and business leaders.

I’m delighted to present this first issue of Blockermag and indeed, to return to my roots as a Publisher after several years building technology events. My business was founded on a very simple mission: to help businesses cut through the noise and reach what matters. Blockermag is the latest manifestation of that idea, and I can think of no better technology to tackle than blockchain. Blockchain is a technology of incredible potential. It could transform the way many types of transaction are carried out, prevent fraud, enable people to control their data and facilitate frictionless trade across a globalised world divided by borders. It is also, like many complex new technologies, beset by hype, lack of understanding and questionable practices. It’s exactly this tension that triggered us to f irst launch a global blockchain conference, Blockercon, and now this magazine. I hope it helps you cut through the noise and reach something of value to your business. Please do get in touch with us, we’d love to hear from you.

RI C H ARD P OT TS Publisher - rich@whisper.media

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editor’s Note Karis Copp, Editor, Blockermag

“As well as insights and updates from the breadth of blockchain, each issue will include a special focus on a key vertical market, and we’re kicking off with insurance.”

Putting together the f irst issue of Blockermag has been an eye-opening experience.

special focus on a key vertical market, and we’re kicking off with insurance. This issue includes comment from founder of Cryptocurrency Simplified, Erica Stanford (p 7), Dr Yannis Kalfoglou, chief AI and blockchain officer at EKA Tech Consult and Luis Novella, partner at VIVAT Group (p 27), and Helen Tanner, founder of Data3 (p 11).

After enduring some ups and downs in the market, it’s so encouraging to read these optimistic and passionate visions of the future from industry insiders who really know their stuff. With blockchain, it’s impossible to imagine all the use cases and opportunities the technology offers, but Blockermag attempts to highlight as many exciting and innovative endeavours as we can pack into a single magazine.

There is also a special report on blockchain in insurance, with wisdom from Everledger, Distlytics and Luther Systems (p 21).

As well as insights and updates from the breadth of blockchain, each issue will include a

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Please enjoy the very first issue of Blockermag.

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ADVERTISE IN BLOCKERMAG

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IN BRIEF New and noteworthy in December

DOVU Wallet beta launch in December

Amazon Web Services moves into the blockchain game

UK-based DOVU are releasing the beta version of the DOVU wallet to a controlled group of users this December. With the wallet, users will be able to earn tokens by sharing information on mobility, and earn rewards from DOVU’s selected partner network.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has thrown its hat into the blockchain ring, announcing two new services at its Re:Invent event in November; Amazon Quantum Ledger Database and Amazon Managed Blockchain.

The company is also set to launch their Security Token Offering in January 2019. In a statement, Founder and CEO Irfon Watkins said: “Through our Security Token Offering (STO), we will again lead the way in experimenting with tokenisation, becoming one of the first companies in the UK to allow individuals to purchase tokenised equity in our business.”

Talking about the ‘QLDB’, AWS CEO Andy Jassy said: “We had an epiphany We had to build something like this ourselves a few years ago to have a transactional log for every data plane change to make operations and billing easier, so we didn’t build that in a relational database and built what we call QLDB, an immutable, transparent ledger that we thought we could externalise.” Users of the second service will have the ability to use Ethereum or Hyperledger Fabric with AWS’ managed blockchain solutions.

Crypto entrepreneurs make Forbes’ 30 under 30 Forbes Magazine released its annual 30 under 30 list, and this year it highlights the work of four crypto entrepreneurs. Olaoluwa Osuntokun, 25 years old, is the founder and CTO of Lightning Labs. Lightning is an open protocol that ‘leverages the power of blockchains and smart contracts to make cheap, fast, private transactions available to anyone around the world’.

Los Angeles-based startup Coinmine is launching a home mining device which can be operated from an app. While it is not able to mine Bitcoin, it can mine Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Zcash and Monero, and users will have the ability to add other currencies in the future. Retailing at $799, the system is described as user friendly, and the amount of electricity required to power it akin to using a vacuum cleaner.

Nader Al-Naji, 26, is founder and CEO of Intangible Labs and creator of its stable cryptocurrency Basis. 28-year-old Hunter Horsley is CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, which created cryptocurrency basket BIT10. The only female in the cryptocurrency space to make it onto the list is 26-year-old JB Rubinovitz, who started Bail Bloc, mining cryptocurrency and converting it to US dollars and donating the money to The Bronx Freedom Fund.

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Co-founder and CEO, computer scientist Farb Nivi, said: “Crypto is not just about buying and selling magical internet coins. It’s about people combining computation to decentralize the world’s money and information from the hands of a few and into the hands of the many. We made this easy enough for anyone to do.”

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01 E R IC A STANFOR D Co-founder of Cryptocurrency Simplif ied

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BLOCKCHAIN IS SOLVING THE INSURANCE SECTOR’S BIGGEST PROBLEMS In 2017, IBM released a report claiming that blockchain could help ‘radically improve the insurance industry’. Erica Stanford believes this is an understatement, and looks at some of the ways blockchain is shaking up insurance. There are currently many issues within the insurance industry, one of which being a lack of transparency. If there is an incident, the insurance company first has to find out all the details, then the individuals in question have to speak to humans, without being able to see or access any of the details pertaining to them. Individuals are often not clear what they are paying for, what their rights are, and what protections are on offer to them. Insurance companies also spend a lot of time and money on verifying claims, looking for fraud and on litigation. “46 PERCENT OF INSURANCE COMPANIES EXPECT TO BE INTEGRATING BLOCKCHAIN WITHIN TWO YEARS” Businesses would have to be a lot more transparent; people would be able to see all data, claims and payouts (anonymously) from all insurance providers in live time, to make the best decisions, putting consumers back in control; third party brokers could be cut out of the picture, resulting in lower premiums; fraud would be highlighted, and it would become easier to identify insurance companies with poor records for paying out. Suddenly, there would be open data relating to what each insurance company will and won’t pay out for, and discrepancies between providers will stand out. There are also multiple benefits for insurance companies themselves using blockchain.

Fraud Prevention

made, and to which insurance companies. “ANY SUSPICIOUS CLAIMS OR ACTIONS MADE COULD INSTANTLY BE MADE CLEAR TO THEM” If insurance companies were to work together and share their data – which could be done anonymously, by digital ID – onto blockchain, the help of blockchain and AI, trends – such as repeated fraudulent claims, would stand out. Every individual could be given a unique digital address – with all details linked to blockchain. Insurance companies would be able to see all information about their prospective customer, and track any previous or other claims made. Any suspicious claims or actions made could instantly be made clear to them.

Improved Customer Relations Insurance companies would be able to make this data accessible to their customers, privately, so that individuals would be able to see the accuracy of all details, and track progress of all claims.Blockchain would allow all parties to see whatever live-time progress updates insurance companies wanted to share, and customers will have the option of choosing insurance providers based on transparency.

Data Security Insurance companies hold a lot of very valuable and very private data, which is currently stored in centralised databases.

If all claims were made available on blockchain, trends would become apparent, and fraud would be much easier to spot. There would be immutable records of what claims people have B L OC KE RM A G ©

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“EVEN IF ONE OF THOSE NODES WERE TO BE HACKED, THE INFORMATION BY ITSELF WOULD BE UNREADABLE”


- BLOCKCHAIN IN INSURANCE These are vulnerable to being hacked, therefore insurance companies have to ensure they are employing robust and up-to-date security measures.

such, car insurance is typically paid monthly or annually. We are already seeing changes in car use; per-use companies such as Uber and Zipcar are becoming more prevalent. As public and shared transport options become ‘smarter’, using AI algorithms and adapt shared transport to where it is really needed – the Citymapper bus is a prime example – many people will simply no longer need to own cars. Car insurance may well soon be based on a per mile or ride basis, whereby data including the driver, the route chosen, the time of day, the other traffic on the road all affect the insurance quote, which could be paid automatically by the driver’s ID, in the same minute as they remotely hire the car.

Blockchain allows insurance companies to effectively cut their data into lots of little pieces and store those pieces of data in decentralised nodes (storage computers) all over the world. Even if one of those nodes were to be hacked, the information by itself would be unreadable, so it would be worthless to the hackers. Blockchain allows only those with the designated private key (like a security access code or encrypted password) to access the data and put it all back together again, and this offers two levels of very securely encrypted means of impenetrable data storage.

Cars will also be fitted with tracking and recording devices and meters. Any accident or bump will be recorded, with the blame being apportioned, and will be far less reliant on human errors of judgement or witnesses to determine the cause. Claims could, in theory, be instantly settled with settlements paid out via smart contract.

Cost Savings “PWC ESTIMATES SAVINGS OF $5-10 BILLION FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES”

“AS HOMES BECOME FILLED WITH SMART GADGETS AND APPS THAT TRACK YOUR LIFESTYLE, HEALTH AND SPENDING – THERE IS FEAR THAT INSURANCE COMPANIES WILL USE THIS DATA AGAINST PEOPLE”

Blockchain reduces admin, improves data storage and processing, and offers a real reduction in losses to fraud and litigation. PwC estimates these savings to be 15-25 percent of total expenses, resulting in an estimated saving of $5-10 billion for insurance companies.

Health and life insurance policies are based on data that is a true reflection of an area or a society, not of the individual. As homes become more filled with smart gadgets – smart bins, smart toilets, smart fridges, and apps that track your lifestyle, health and spending become routine for the mainstream – there is fear that insurance companies will use this data against people. Insurance companies will be able to see, for each individual and family, what they are buying, what they are eating, how long they are spending sitting down, or watching violent content, how much each individual is exercising, their 24/7 health stats, and even what is in their stool – and could give different risks and quotes to each individual, even refusing to insure them, based on being able to track their every habit, if this data is shared. This could, in theory, lead to people being scared into making ‘better’ choices in line with insurance firms’ guidelines, but it could put insurance firms in huge positions of power, where claims are rejected based on their insider knowledge that one had a glass of wine, or anything else which they could deem to invalidate a claim.

Handling Contracts Insurance contracts are legal contracts and must be kept securely and sent safely between parties. Blockchain allows for all contracts to be kept securely on a ledger and for every access, change and transfer to be recorded immutably.

The Future of Insurance Insurance will change. Currently, most insurance policies are based on 12-month premiums. This will change to per-use policies and highly individualised quotes and policies, as smart tech, wearables and connected devices become more prevalent and give more data on individuals than we can currently imagine today. AI, algorithms and smart contracts on blockchain will automate a lot, including quotes, payments, claims, decisions and payment settlements. “SHARED TRANSPORT OPTIONS BECOME ‘SMARTER’, USING AI ALGORITHMS AND ADAPT SHARED TRANSPORT TO WHERE IT IS REALLY NEEDED; MANY PEOPLE WILL SIMPLY NO LONGER NEED TO OWN CARS”

E R I C A STA N FOR D is a crypto investor and cofounder of Cryptocurrency Simplified, founder of the Crypto Club, blockchain consultant and co-founder of Authorated, a blockchain platform to save publishing.

For example: cars are currently largely owned or leased for 12-month plus periods, and as IS S U E 1

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- BLOCKCHAIN IN INSURANCE -

BLOCKCHAIN, INSURANCE AND DATA WALK INTO A BAR… —

Nope, not another techy ‘joke’. Blockchain + Insurance + Data = a powerful combination. Helen Tanner analyses all three components and how they work together as a perfect trio.

Using data to generate insight can help businesses to make smarter, better informed decisions on sales, marketing, pricing and resourcing within their businesses: data-informed decision-making in action.

1. blockchain is just a database Whilst you won’t have to look far to find an array of overly complex diagrams showing you how blockchain technology works, it comes down to this – blockchain stores data, in a database, that’s decentralised. Simples. Just like standard databases, there are the same challenges and opportunities with managing data on blockchain. 1. Database design – as with standard databases, the design of your blockchain is critical to get right from the start. What do you need to store on blockchain? Does it need to be public or private? Which blockchain will you use? How will your blockchain link with other blockchains through standard protocols? Will you be blockchain agnostic? There are many considerations here. 2. Database security – there have been major hacks in the blockchain and cryptocurrency world with many businesses, and users, losing massive amounts of money. Expect to be hacked. Design with cryptosecurity at the core right from the start. Get help from cryptosecurity experts as it’s well worth the investment upfront. 3. Data protection – GDPR applies to all European businesses and European residents. Blockchain databases need to comply with the same regulations as standard databases. Right to access? Right to be forgotten? Data portability? Make sure you understand the implications and design for GDPR and other regulatory requirements. 4. Data analysis – many companies are sitting on a data goldmine that, if they tapped into it, could make them more money. Mining your data could help you to acquire and retain customers much faster and easier than ever before. Your data is a major business asset – use it. 5. Data visualisation – you can do really cool things with data. Visualising data makes patterns and trends easier to spot. And interactive data visualisations can be built into user-facing online tools to wow your customers.

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01 H ELEN TANNER founder of Data3, a data and marketing lab.

2. insurance on blockchain is attracting investment In 2018 alone, 46 insurtech blockchain businesses raised formal investment. That’s according to the good folks at Sønr, the Bristol-based insurtech data intelligence platform. And since 2015, these businesses have raised funds to the tune of $3.2m. Consider the money raised from initial coin offerings (ICOs) and token sales, often the favoured approach for blockchain startups, and you’re looking at a further $7.3m raised. $10.5m just for insurance blockchain projects. Whilst being nowhere near the figures reported in fintech, and particularly in the investment space, these are significant numbers nevertheless. Sønr’s top ranked and ones to watch in the insurtech blockchain businesses include: »» iChain – are creating insurance wallets. Founded 2016, based in Tokyo | Y105.4m disclosed investment. »» Utocat – provide blockchain editing solutions. Founded 2014, based in Lille | €1m disclosed investment. »» Poleecy – claim to be the first in the world doing underwriting on blockchain. Founded 2018, based in Rome | €300k disclosed investment. Of course, insurance comes in all different shapes and sizes – travel insurance, home insurance, vehicle insurance, healthcare and a range of other insurance categories, therefore the blockchain projects are, and will increasingly be, diverse. The world of parametric insurance is leading the way, so check out Fizzy from AXA too. And for an array of insurance blockchain stories, you can listen to Walid’s podcasts at Insureblocks.com. buyer could be a business owner Why does insurtech lag behind fintech when it comes to blockchain?

Acryptocurrency selling shares, or a trader selling or an artist selling a

painting or a musician selling royalties. It’s more complex. In most fintech blockchain projects, particularly those raising funds through ICOs, the One-to-one transactions are the entry blockchain sits between two parties – a seller and a level space for blockchain use cases. buyer. The seller offers digital assets and the buyer Insurance is more complicated. pays for them in digital currency, with the blockchain sitting in the middle. A buyer could be a business owner selling shares, or a trader selling cryptocurrency or an artist selling a painting or a musician selling royalties. One-to-one transactions are the entry level space for blockchain use cases. Insurance is more complicated…there’s the insurer, the insured, the service provider and the reinsurer – that’s four parties at a minimum. Therefore, insurtech blockchain solutions need to be built as ecosystems and not one-to-one blockchains. That’s why insurtech consortiums are rising fast with the inclusion of multiple parties working collaboratively within the insurance ecosystem. B3i, the blockchain insurance industry initiative, is a great example. B L OC KE RMA G ©

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3. DATA opportunities to exploit blockchain technology in insurance The opportunities for insurance-related blockchain data are huge. The most common area is using data to better understand customers. Who are your highest value customers? How do they behave? Are you attracting the customers you want to? Are you retaining the customers you want to? What golden nuggets can we can find out about customers that we didn’t know before? Using data to generate this insight can help businesses to make smarter, better informed decisions on sales, marketing, pricing and resourcing within their businesses - data-informed decision-making in action. Data can also help businesses identify where they can be more efficient. Speed of blockchain transactions is a well-reported challenge, albeit the Ethereum transaction speeds are still quicker than traditional processes if you allow for the myriad of intermediaries slowing down processes from start-to-end. Tracking transactions and how well your processes are working is massively helped using data, whether it’s in insurance, blockchain or any businesses. Whatever analysis is explored, data visualisations are powerful. They quickly enable you to share insight stories without showing the data under the bonnet. Quick to understand, easy to interpret – good visualisations of blockchain data, insurance data, or any data is key. At Data3 we create online tools to explore patterns and trends and we enable different business leaders to dive into the data depending on their differing priorities.

BLOCKCHAIN + INSURANCE + DATA = the days of making business decisions based on gut instinct are over The alignment of data, insurance & blockchain is just beginning; it’s embryonic in the vast majority of businesses right now and there is much more to come as blockchain becomes increasingly mainstream, and as data-driven decision-making becomes the norm. We work with insurance, financial services and blockchain businesses helping them to transform their data into new sources of revenue, and we generally do cool things with data. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch. HE LEN TANNER is the founder of Data3, a data and marketing lab.

02 U TO C AT Blockchain editing solutions

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03 P OL E EC Y Underwriting on blockchain

04 ICH AIN Insurance wallets

05 FI ZZ Y Flight delay insurance

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—

TUESDAY 4TH - THURSDAY 6TH JUNE 2019 Paintworks Event Space, Bristol, UK

the global blockchain conference

Co-located with

/ WWW.BLOCKERCON.COM

/


day 1: start and scale your blockchain business We’re bringing the leading experts to support your blockchain venture through workshops, seminars and coaching in this high-intensity day to help you start and scale your blockchain business.​ Day 1 includes the ICO Pitch and BlockerSpark - the Blockchain Startup Festival.

day 2: total immersion into blockchain! Expect to hear from the brightest minds in blockchain tech presenting their expertise on the keynote stage as well as panel discussions, workshops and valuable training. Day two begins with VIP breakfast networking and ends with a drinks reception for blockchain leaders and enterprise businesses.

day 1: deep insight into blockchain platforms Day 3 offers deep insight into blockchain development & platforms. Expect a programme of talks, workshops and interactive sessions designed by developers to answer all your questions about deploying blockchain in your business, or launching your own blockchain enterprise. Followed by the event afterparty!

WWW.BLOCKERCON.COM


- BLOCKERCON SPEAKER -

01 DANIELLE K H AYAT SAIK ALY Senior Lecturer at ESCP Europe Business School London and Paris

“ I T H A S T H E POWE R T O COM PLETELY CHANGE OUR ECONOMI C SYSTEM AND MODEL” — Danielle Khayat Saikaly

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DANIELLE KHAYAT SAIKALY —

Karis Copp speaks to Danielle Khayat Saikaly, Founder of The Chain Economy Consultancy and Senior Lecturer at ESCP Europe Business School, about why she’s betting big on blockchain.

Danielle Khayat Saikaly became aware of blockchain quite by chance, but it wasn’t long before she developed what you might describe as an obsession. “I began my involvement with blockchain technology while following the thesis of one of my students who wanted to enquire as to whether Bitcoin was an asset that could be included in a portfolio,” Danielle tells me. “So I started looking into it, and honestly, I was instantly bitten by the bug. I think this technology is totally fascinating because it has the power to completely change our economic system and model.”

believe we are all linked by the chain Ireputation, of action, reaction, behaviour and and there is an ideology behind the blockchain technology which is very much collaborative – we are linked by a chain and we can all involve each other in any kind of business process.

“THIS TECHNOLOGY HAS THE POWER TO CHANGE THINGS IF IT IS WELL IMPLEMENTED AND IF ENOUGH PEOPLE KNOW WHAT IT CONSISTS OF AND HOW THEY CAN BE INVOLVED, BECAUSE EVERYBODY CAN BE INVOLVED”

people are involved, the more they understand what we are talking about, the more we will see the economy will change at a faster pace.” Danielle was so enamoured with blockchain, that she found herself embarking on a completely new career path, for the second time in a three-year period. “It was so fascinating that I shifted my whole career towards looking into blockchain technology, and trying to educate and consult around the subject. So I set up The Chain Economy Consultancy, so called because I believe we are all linked by the chain of action, reaction, behaviour and reputation, and there is an ideology behind the blockchain technology which is very much collaborative – we are linked by a chain and we can all involve each other in any kind of business process.”

A senior university lecturer, Danielle’s background is in banking, having worked in capital markets in London between Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley. After ten years, Danielle decided it was time for a change – she started teaching at her own alma mater, ESCP Europe Business School, which has a campus in London and another in Paris. “As soon as I began teaching, I just loved it, it’s a real passion. “I love working with the students, I love exchanging knowledge and just adore this kind of job, which is very different than banking! This is my third academic year at the university, and I’m now also teaching the Masters in Management and many other finance courses, so a very broad horizon.”

The Chain Economy Consultancy aims to make blockchain technology understandable for everyone, hosting education sessions with startups, boards of directors or simply businesses wanting to explore the potential of blockchain and find out whether implementation would be beneficial to them.

Once her student had introduced her to the world of cryptocurrency, Danielle embarked on in-depth research into the market, and soon found that it was just the tip of the iceberg. “I started looking into the technology around all the payment tokens such as Bitcoin, but the more I was doing research, the more I liked the blockchain technology for the multiple other use cases. I think it’s very important to educate people around these use cases and the many possibilities the technology offers. The more B L OC KE RMA G ©

There is some crossover between her two passions; with her university hat on, there is now blockchain and cryptocurrency material in the syllabus: “Blockchain does play a part in my role as a lecturer. In our Advanced Masters in Finance we have started putting together a blockchain-specific lecture, and the Masters in Management includes a session on fintech with half of the session focused on blockchain. We - 18 -

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- BLOCKERCON SPEAKER are going to be doing even more in the next academic year.”

“THERE IS A LACK OF GLOBAL STANDARDISATION FOR ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS – WHY? WE CAN DO IT, WE’RE IN THE 21ST CENTURY”

This puts Danielle in a unique position – talking about blockchain with younger people as well as those currently in the world of work, already well-used to the systems in place. Is there a difference in the attitudes to blockchain between these groups?

“I’m very curious to see when the central banks, and I truly believe this is the next step, will start issuing cryptocurrency. Because cryptocurrency has lots of advantages, and those are the advantages that have pushed us from one form of currency to another throughout history. In terms of time frame for this vision, it really depends on how quickly people will understand the advantages to them, for example sending money abroad with zero fees.

“BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY CAN DO MUCH MORE THAN CRYPTOCURRENCY, AND THIS IS WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD BE AWARE OF” “The students I teach, usually between 20 and 28 years old, are very curious about blockchain technology, they all want to try and write a piece on it or do their thesis around it, they are very enthusiastic. They really want to understand the fundamentals e have lots of disparity around the technology and in wealth, the middle how it could be class is shrinking globally, implemented, but all of them and this technology has the started knowing power to change things. about the technology via Bitcoin. The first thing I try to tell them is that the blockchain technology can do much more than cryptocurrency, and this is what everyone should be aware of. It is applicable in many different use cases, with still so many to discover.

Some commentators can be more sceptical when it comes to the future of cryptocurrency, imagining it to have a far more subdued future than Danielle is envisioning. Will we really see such widespread demand? “Yes, when people start understanding how useful it can be in terms of money transfer. There is a lack of global standardisation for electronic payments – why? We can do it, we’re in the 21st century. We should have some kind of standard, and the blockchain could achieve that. Think also about capital markets; I have worked in capital markets for nearly ten years, and it takes a few minutes to close a trade yet it takes three days to settle it. Why does it take three days? Because you have many intermediaries between you and the clients with whom you have traded, you need to clear, check and match your trade. But the blockchain can do that immediately.

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“ A LOT OF PEOPLE LOST CONFIDENCE IN THE INSTITUTIONS THAT WE TRUSTED, AND THIS LACK OF TRUST REALLY WILL DRIVE PEOPLE TO LOOK AT OTHER FORMS OF MONEY”

“It’s just like the internet was in the early 1990s – no-one thought about social media, for example, and today social media is such a key part of the internet. So, the younger generation is very receptive, they pick it up quickly and perhaps find the use cases more appealing than the older generation. Some of the challenges with the older generation is giving them the time to change their mindset, the economic model that we know today.”

“Something else that might really drive demand is the lack of trust. You look around, you talk to the young generation or even older generation, following the 2008 crash, a lot of people lost confidence in the institutions that we trusted, think of all the people that lost their pensions for example. And this lack of trust really will drive people to look at other forms of money. The biggest challenge for the banks is to try to regain the trust that they have lost.”

Is it really just a case of a matter of time as people change their mindset? Danielle believes it is, but how much time is difficult to say. She certainly couldn’t be accused of thinking too small when it comes to the applications of blockchain; she thinks it will change the world. “I really believe there is a chain economy that can be created by collaboration, by including as many people as we can in our economic system. We have lots of exclusion and lots of disparity between the ultra-wealthy and people struggling, the middle class is shrinking globally, and this technology has the power to change things if it is well implemented and if enough people know what it consists of and how they can be involved, because everybody can be involved. IS S UE 1

Who knows for certain exactly what the future looks like with blockchain technology, but perhaps Danielle could inspire all of us to think a little bigger about the opportunities ahead. Get inspired by Danielle in person at Blockercon 2019 , taking place 4-6 June in Bristol, UK DA N I E L L E K H AYAT SA I K A LY is a Senior Lecturer at ESCP Europe Business School and founder of The Chain Economy Consultancy Ltd. - 19 -

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Fireside i The off-grid startup technology festival 3-4 September 2019 | Near Bath Fireside Summit is the UK's first off-grid startup technology festival, taking place just 5 miles from the city of Bath on Tuesday 3rd & Wednesday 4th September, 2019.


- BLOCKCHAIN IN INSURANCE -

SPECIAL REPORT

insurance —

Editor Karis Copp takes a detailed look at what some of the UK’s experts on blockchain in the insurance sector have to say about the challenges and opportunities the technology brings.

So much of insurance is about eliminating the need for trust. Before I can legally operate a vehicle, for example, I must have insurance for myself and that vehicle, proving my responsibility as a driver. To run a business, I must have public liability insurance to prove my responsibility as a business owner.

SPECIAL REPORT

“IN THE UK ALONE, MORE THAN HALF A MILLION INSTANCES OF INSURANCE FRAUD WERE DETECTED IN 2017, WITH ONE INSTANCE OF INSURANCE FRAUD DETECTED EVERY MINUTE, ACCORDING TO THE ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH INSURERS.”

BLOCKCHAIN IN INSURANCE

Of course, not all types of insurance are legally required, but even the ones that aren’t are built on a foundation of trust. The concept of insurance is thought to stretch back thousands of years. Before official organisations, before regulation, merchants would redistribute goods across ships in order to mitigate the risk of losses should a ship sink; they would have needed to have trust in their fellow traders. Trust is still core to the sector. Insurance firms trust that should unfortunate events or circumstances occur, the information we provide is correct, and we trust that insurance company will pay out and cover the costs. Fundamentally, blockchain operates on a different principle – the elimination of the need for trust. An immutable ledger without the need for a third party to oversee and validate transactions or any other contractual agreement. It’s no surprise then, that attention on a global scale has turned towards blockchain’s potential within the insurance sector. The issue of trust brings us nicely on to a major global challenge for insurance – fraud. In the

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01 T RUST Still a major factor in insurance

UK alone, more than half a million instances of insurance fraud were detected in 2017, with one instance of insurance fraud detected every minute, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

the two insurance companies to check against duplications or very close claims, without sharing any real information with each other. It solves the issue of duplicated action, while maintaining privacy.

The shortfalls in the industry that mean processing claims can be a lengthy and tedious operation are the same ones that contribute to fraudulent attacks; numerous parties involved, siloed data records, a lack of transparent sharing of information – it almost serves as an invitation to criminals who can make multiple claims across various insurers. Of course, this isn’t just a headache for the insurance industry, it causes higher premiums for consumers.

“We have less than 0.1% false positive rate, the response time is less than one second and we have done this for 250,000 claims so far.”

“THE UBIQUITY OF INSURANCE FRAUD HAS ALSO BEEN AIDED BY A LACK OF TRACEABILITY”

The ubiquity of insurance fraud has also been aided by a lack of traceability; the ability to accurately identify and validate an asset is essential in order to conclusively insure it. The more complex the supply chain of an asset, the more opportunities there are for fraudsters to strike. The fact that these items are high risk can mean particularly inefficient processes due to siloed data and convoluted paper trails ultimately owing to a heightened lack of trust.

Luther Systems, an enterprise blockchain technology company based in London, are one such company assisting insurers in the challenge of tackling insurance fraud. Hossein Kakavand, CEO of Luther Systems, gives an example of a common problem: “Say I go to two insurance companies and get myself insured against a condition, and the next year I develop that condition. I go to a hospital and get some kind of treatment, either myself or through the hospital, and submit the same invoice to both companies, or make slight modifications to each, and get paid twice.

Everledger, an asset-tracking blockchain technology enterprise, currently focuses on blockchain solutions for higher-value markets. Calogero Scibetta, Head of Business Development at Everledger, explains how the firm is driving transparency and facilitating trust in insurance. “Since the very early days, it was clear to us that the lack of provenance was a problem that multiple industries were facing, albeit different manifestations,” Scibetta says.

“There is a great deal of analysis that this is a real problem – the challenge is, the two insurance companies don’t want to share information with each other, and in some cases cannot legally, so they just have to absorb the cost. We have developed technology which creates a Common Claims Repository using our proprietary Luther Enterprise Infrastructure Architecture (LEIA), which essentially enables B L OC KE RMA G ©

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ince the very early days, it was clear to us that the lack of provenance was a problem that multiple industries were facing

“Empowered customers, governments and businesses now have higher standards when it comes to sustainability and the social impact of the goods they consume across the supply chain - 22 -

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02 T R AC E A BILI T Y of H IGH VALUE A S SET S Complex global supply chains make provenance an issue for insurance

03 IN S UANCE FR AUD Barriers to sharing information allow duplicate insurance claims to be a common fraud risk for insurers

04 C RY P TO R ISK Cryptocurrencies lack many of the institutional insurances offered to f iat money


SPECIAL REPORT required to create them. He continues: “Working with insurance companies was a natural extension of the work we were already doing, as many of such goods are high-value assets which are vulnerable to fraud and risk as insured items. Authenticated traceability and transparency are top of mind for insurance companies and this is what we can provide. “By enabling the gathering and sharing of information around the assets, insurance companies can reduce risk related to fraudulent activities. Insurers are also missing ways to share information in a more efficient and secured manner, to enable their services to be effective and efficient. Having that one source of truth of authenticated provenance for high-value assets as a result of our application will be critical for them to verify information.” “THE SMART CONTRACT IS POISED TO BRING ABOUT SERIOUS DISRUPTION” A common thread in my discussions with these two organisations is the less than desirable processes of sharing information between companies within the sector. Of course, these businesses don’t want to share data for many reasons; data privacy, competition, or regulation in certain markets and countries to name a few. However, it is often necessary for firms to work together. This takes us back to the issue of inefficiencies in the workflow, as long, drawn-out processes mean making a claim, receiving a pay-out and closing the case are expensive and time-consuming. This is an issue far from limited to fraud; the industry is up against these challenges in every area of claims processing. This is where the smart contract is poised to bring about serious disruption; the ability to provide all parties with access to the necessary information, including up-to-the- minute updates, and without having to share private data could potentially streamline all insurance processes. “WE ESTIMATE THAT THE OPERATIONAL COST SAVING IS ABOUT 75 PERCENT” Luther Systems’ Kakavand provides another hypothetical example, this time for general claims processing for household insurance, also powered by the LEIA: “I make a claim, the claim goes to the insurance company to review and approve, and then sent to a supplier, who acknowledges it and provides an estimate of what they are going to do, and what it is going to cost. “In time they are going to provide a service to replace the product and send an invoice. The estimate is received by the insurance company, B L OC KE RMA G ©

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they approve it, they acknowledge it and validate it, and then when the invoice is received, they verify and validate the invoice as well. “They match the estimate and the invoice, and they subsequently send that to their finance department to generate a payment – once the payment is complete, the claim is closed. he insurance This complicated industry has been process involves m u l t i p l e one of the leading participants industries in adopting from different this technology, organisations, so a smart contract ahead of banking is actually an and other financial ideal solution for this, where you services execute, validate, verify and store the data across multiple participants. We estimate that the operational cost saving is about 75 percent.”

T

As well as a myriad of opportunities to drive efficiencies across existing insurance areas, the rise of cryptocurrency and blockchain use brings with it its own unique risks which requires unprecedented protection. We have all no doubt heard horror stories of various cryptocurrency hacks, instances of targeted fraud or even simply technical glitches that have resulted in huge losses for investors. Gary Nuttall, founder of blockchain consultancy Distlytics, sees this as a great opportunity for insurers. “Insurance allows us to do innovative new things without completely being exposed to the risk. “THERE ARE OF COURSE EXAMPLES ALREADY OF CRYPTO EXCHANGES THAT ARE INSURED” “Therefore, when you get involved with cryptocurrency, there is risk inherently involved – you could lose the cryptocurrency, for example, or it could be stolen. When things go wrong with blockchain, who do you turn to? With a bank, if there is a suspicious transaction you can speak to the bank manager. That concept doesn’t exist in crypto, so you do need to make it insurable.” “There are of course examples already of crypto exchanges that are insured. Coinbase, for example – their hot wallets are insured, so it’s definitely a growing market.” We’ve looked at the blockchain use cases in the insurance sector, but what about barriers to adoption? The question is whether or not we are likely to see widespread espousal to the point of real

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- BLOCKCHAIN IN INSURANCE disruption. Thanks to its traditional business model, complex regulatory frameworks and vast range of products and markets, the insurance sector often comes up against criticism that it is slow to evolve, or resistant to embrace change from a technological standpoint.

SPECIAL REPORT -

working alongside Lloyds of London, I saw that despite working with a business process that is 340 years old, they insured very innovative risks. We insured nuclear power stations, oil tankers, even space satellites, so pretty risky stuff! It shows that insurance has an appetite to insure new and even obscure things.”

Is this set to be an obstacle for blockchain in the insurance industry?

“INSURANCE ORGANISATIONS NEED TO ASK THEMSELVES WHAT CHALLENGES THEY ARE FACING THAT BLOCKCHAIN CAN SOLVE”

“INSURANCE HAS AN APPETITE TO INSURE NEW AND OBSCURE THINGS”

As the insurance industry moves forward and increasingly adopts blockchain technology, it’s important that businesses look at the bigger picture. Blockchain for blockchain’s sake is not the way forward; rather insurance organisations need to ask themselves what challenges they are facing that blockchain can solve.

Everledger’s Scibetta doesn’t think so. “The insurance industry has been by far one of the

Businesses also need to take a collaborative approach – working with your peers to achieve common goals is brilliantly facilitated through blockchain, as it allows you to protect your own interests, and could mean increased efficiencies as well as time and cost savings that benefit you and your customers.

Calogero Scibetta from Everledger

leading industries in adopting this technology, ahead of banking and other financial services. We have seen the emergence and development of projects both in the B2C space and in the B2B, and there are consortiums already in place and different specialties exploring it. The technology is still in its infancy, but adoption and embrace in the insurance industry has been very positive.”

K A R I S C OPP is Blockermag Editor at Whisper Media

Nuttall echoes this sentiment, also rejecting the notion of insurance as an overly cautious industry. He adds: “During the time I spent

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next issue: blockchain in law

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DECENTR ALISED INSUR ANCE:

blockchain’s beachhead in a conservative industry SMART CONTRACTS ARE ALREADY AUTOMATING INSURANCE PAY-OUT PROCESSES IN A NUMBER OF MARKETS. DR YANNIS KALFOGLOU AND LUIS NOVELLA EXPLORE SOME REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES OF DECENTRALISED INSURANCE.

under the loosely coined umbrella category of ‘decentralised insurance’. The idea behind decentralised insurance is that insurance products can be built based on blockchain technology using smart contracts, that are created by multiple individual sovereign entities rather than a central intermediary. The individual participants can earn fees for their contribution to the product, and external individuals can also invest in tokenised risk pools as a new asset class. Since the smart contract controls all aspects of the insurance product, the premiums can be significantly reduced as the smart contract itself has no need to produce any actual profit.

01 E X T ER NAL W E AT HE R EV EN T S Automatic claim payments could be triggered using blockchain

“ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING ASPECTS OF CHANGING INSURANCE USING BLOCKCHAIN IS THE WORK DONE UNDER THE LOOSELY COINED UMBRELLA CATEGORY OF ‘DECENTRALISED INSURANCE” The modern insurance industry dates back hundreds of years and has traditionally been an intermediary-driven, paper-based, highly capitalised industry, where personal relationships matter as much as the elegance of mathematical models used for underwriting, pricing, and asset valuations. It’s not surprising that given the industry’s traditional outlook, blockchain enthusiasts and entrepreneurs rushed into early explorations on how this game-changing technology could improve insurance. Incumbents, too, have begun exploring applications of blockchain and large consortia emerged as a community-driven force to bring about change in insurance. But one of the most fascinating aspects of changing insurance using blockchain is the work done IS S UE 1

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Smart contracts can enable the automatic payment of claims based on triggers such as an external weather event (e.g., drought, flood, wind speed, or flight arrival time) as witnessed and verified by an oracle. And not only that: smart contracts can execute the terms of an insurance product automatically, such as operational level adjustments to premium charges, including commission and tax, payouts, reinsurance premium cession and claim recoveries. “A PERMISSION-LESS BLOCKCHAIN BACKEND INCREASES TRANSPARENCY IN THE FLOW OF INSURANCE PREMIUMS AND CLAIMS PAYMENTS” Working examples of decentralised insurance include the Etherisc line of products for Flight Delay and Crop Insurance and AXA’s Fizzy for Flight Delay. The Etherisc Crop Insurance product aims to make insurance affordable to a mass market of low-income and often uninsured farmers. The application lowers the frictional expenses associated with the acquisition, administration and claims handling of insurance policies, thus making them more cost-effective. The use of a permission-less blockchain backend increases transparency in the flow of insurance premiums and claims payments, and the incorporation of IoT devices like weather sensors, machine


- BLOCKCHAIN IN INSURANCE -

Smart contracts can enable the automatic payment of claims based on triggers such as an external weather event (e.g., drought, flood, wind speed, or flight arrival time) as witnessed and verified by an oracle.

Reinsurance market by Dr Yannis Kalfoglou & Luis Novella Find more at: http://www.kalfoglou.info

learning algorithms that assess satellite imagery and a weather index insurance model complete the product offering. Etherisc also recently announced a partnership with Aon and Oxfam to deliver crop insurance in Sri Lanka. “UPON THE PLANE LANDING, THE ACTUAL LANDING TIME IS ALSO LOADED IN THE SMART CONTRACT, WHICH COMPARES IT WITH THE SCHEDULED LANDING TIME AND TRIGGERS A COMPENSATION IF YOU ARE 2 HOURS LATE OR MORE.” AXA’s Fizzy is focusing on flight delay insurance. The idea behind this, is that when your flight is delayed beyond a permissible time delay (for example two hours), the smart contract-based insurance product will automatically send you a compensation pay-out to your digital wallet, or through a fiat payment gateway. Behind the scenes, when you subscribe to an insurance policy, the details are registered in Fizzy’s smart contract. Upon the plane landing, the actual landing time is also loaded in the smart contract, which compares it with the scheduled landing time and triggers a compensation if you are 2 hours late or more. B L OC KE RMA G ©

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So, where do these early trailblazers lead us? We see a future where decentralised insurance applications can become a common theme. The automation offered by blockchain technology, especially with immutable and tamperfree recording of information (such as event trigger data) and the use of smart contracts to programmatically execute insurance policies make it an obvious technology choice. However, we also note that any such product should also respect and work on improving existing insurance business practices, especially at large incumbents. From our personal experience developing a smart contract driven crop insurance product in sub-Saharan Africa, working with a large local insurer, it appears that interest is strong and a decentralised insurance product can co-exist alongside other traditional insurance offerings. DR YA N N I S K A L FOGL OU is Chief AI and Blockchain Officer at EKA Tech Consult. LU I S NOV E L L A is Partner at VIVAT Group.

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- INNOVATOR SPOTLIGHT -

ADIRAJ GUPTA —

Karis Copp speaks to Adiraj Gupta about the evolution of Crypto Launchpad and the next frontier in blockchain and payments.

Adiraj Gupta’s company Crypto Launchpad got its start with a flash of late-night inspiration. A week and a half before he was due to travel to Sydney to take up a role as COO at a startup, he was struck by an idea.

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Adiraj still travelled to Sydney to meet with the owner of the startup, Steve McDonald, but events took a different turn. “It just happened that rather than me start working for Steve’s company, I managed to convince him to come onboard at Crypto Launchpad as CFO. Steve was the perfect person to bring on board because he was a director at Macquarie Bank, Australia’s biggest investment bank, so it was a massive boost to the project as we got started.” Crypto Launchpad has weathered changes in the market by diversifying its offering. In the relatively short amount of time since the project’s inception, the business has gone through a lot of different stages, starting with the focus on Adiraj’s original vision.

“I was up late one night, and I thought: one of the biggest needs in the crypto space was proper independent due diligence,” Adiraj explained. “So, at around 2am on a Thursday night I had got up, drew everything out and how I saw it working, and just started making all these plans in the middle of the night!”

e’ve developed what I believe is one of the most in-depth due diligence frameworks in the world at the moment, particularly in this space

Now he had his vision, rather than take time to figure out his next move, Adiraj got straight to work making it a reality the very next day. “It just so happened that the next day we had the Social Enterprise World Forum here in New Zealand, so I was due to go along to that.

Explaining the ethos behind it, Adiraj explained: “Before a company goes public in the ‘normal’ world, the biggest part of an investment bank’s role is to do a deep dive on that project, make sure everything checks out, make sure everything is guaranteed protected and covered, all the information is correct – basically carry out in-depth analysis on the entire scope of the project. “WE ARE CURRENTLY BUILDING OUR OWN BLOCKCHAIN, WHICH ISN’T AN ICO BUT IT CONNECTS EXISTING FINANCE AND BANKING SYSTEMS TO A BLOCKCHAIN LAYER”

“Cryptopia, one of the large exchanges, are based in Christchurch, so I reached out to them as I was there, and they told me to come along to the offices. That meeting was quite interesting, because I had written an article on how to invest in cryptocurrency about six months previously, and that article had gone viral in the Australia/ NZ region. Cryptopia had thousands of signups from that single article, which was number one on Google for a period of time, so when I went to see them, they already knew me a little from that.

“That was a service that didn’t exist in cryptocurrency, and I believe we’re still one of the only companies in the world in the blockchain space that provide that service. So we built the Token Assessment Framework, which consists of about 110 testing procedures at the moment, looking at an ICO from a range of different perspectives. As well as the blockchain check, we carry out a full security penetration. We also look at all the financial components, regulation, co-founder agreements and investor agreements. We’ve developed what I believe is one of the most indepth due diligence frameworks in the world at the moment, particularly in this space.”

“They were pretty receptive to what I was saying when I pitched my idea for Crypto Launchpad and how I saw it working. They told me they were on board and they would be my first exchange partner, and we could start moving things along. This was massive, because I believe at the time Crpytopia had around 400,000 customers – I believe now they are at around 2.5m.” IS S UE 1

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- INNOVATOR SPOTLIGHT Adiraj describes as a ‘complete reversal’ in the market. “Then, we were beginning to see exchanges reaching out to us enquiring about quality projects that we could list to them, as they just needed to be making money from listing fees. They could no longer afford to be ‘picky’. So that’s been an unfortunate situation in the market, and we’ve had to tweak that model a bit. Now we have a range of investment network partners and exchange partners, and it’s a case of: if you’ve got the due diligence done, you get a discount on listing with these exchanges, you get prioritised listings, and as well as that we will share the due diligence report with our investor network so they can make their initial decision.”

and that person needs to manage all that. We would connect banks and the payment network, and there will be no need for recompiling individual payments. “This will be purely infrastructure, we are not building the applications that sit on top of it. It will simply be open source, so any organisation, as long as the follow the rules and meet requirements and compliance, can utilise the technology. Over time if this project is successful, we plan to link banks all over the world, so money can be transferred globally with no fees.” The future of international payments seems to be a real area of interest for Adiraj, and sees this project as the inevitable next step: “In the future, I imagine all transactions will be completely free and almost instant, so it’s a no e’ll be opening a level brainer to progress of innovation in the down that pathway now and have this payments and fintech infrastructure in space that we’ve never place – if it’s not seen before us, someone else is going to do it, so it might as well be us leading the way!

As well as a shift in the business model, Crypto Launchpad expanded its offering in developing an advisory service, something Adiraj had initially resisted. “For a long time we said no to enquiries about adding advisory services to the business, just because we wanted to focus on our Token Assessment Framework, and there were already thousands of advisory companies around the world.

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“However the requests kept coming in, and we figured out that by helping a few projects launch we would actually be in a better position, because we would understand the ins and outs of a launch and that would be beneficial to the Token Assessment Framework. In the last year, we have probably helped about 11 projects take off.”

“Look at companies like Paypal, Stripe or TransferWise, the only core value they provide is the fact that they have bank accounts in all the countries in which they operate, which allows them to move money between countries. So, if we can do that and add a blockchain layer on top, therefore adding a lot more transparency and speed of transactions, we’ll be opening a level of innovation in the payments and fintech space that we’ve never seen before. So if your company has a better user experience than these companies, you can just build above our technology without worrying about setting up bank accounts in those countries, because we’ve already done that for you.”

“SAY YOU DONATE $1000 TO A CHARITY, YOU’LL BE ABLE TO SEE THAT $20 WENT TO ADMIN COSTS, $50 WENT TO STAFF COSTS, AND EXACTLY HOW MUCH WENT TO THE CAUSE ITSELF. ” The next step for Crypto Launchpad is arguably the most exciting, and something Adiraj is passionate about. “We are currently building our own blockchain, which isn’t an ICO but it connects existing finance and banking systems to a blockchain layer.

So, watch this space for Crypto Launchpad changing the face of international payments with blockchain, and catch him speaking at Blockercon 2019, taking place 4-6 June in Bristol, UK.

“For example, charities will be able to utilise the infrastructure that we are building, so say you donate $1000 to a charity, with this infrastructure enabled you’ll be able to see that $20 went to admin costs, $50 went to staff costs, and exactly how much went to the cause itself. It massively reduces the reporting costs for the charity and provides a way for those donations to be completely traceable.

A DI R AJ GU P TA is CEO of Crypto Launchpad

“That’s just one use case. Another example would be churches or community groups that quite often need to raise funding for something, and usually one person would give their bank details and others will put in a random amount of money, or someone makes a cash donation, B L OC KE RMA G ©

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01

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03 MEET SOME OF THE CONFIRMED SPEAKERS AT BLOCKERCON 2019, TAKING PLACE 4-6 JUNE IN BRISTOL, UK. GALLERY 1. SRINI KATTA Founder & CEO, Social Chains

4. FAROOQ AHMED Co-Founder & CEO, Arcift Technologies

7. LAURENTI ARNAULT Co-Founder & CEO, WTVOX

2. RHIANNON PAYNE CEO, Sea Foam Media

5. MATT LOCKYER Founder & Token Engineering Advisor, Soloblock Solutions

8. LUIS BUENAVENTURA Founder, Bloom

3. MICHAEL KWOK Project Lead, Decentralized Machine Learning

9. CONSTANTIN KLOECKER Co-Founder & CEO, Blockspace

6. DR. MIHAELA ULIERU Chief Alchemist, Endor.com

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09 10. CLOUDESLEY J. C. R. HOBBS Chief Legal Officer, Dominion Bitcoin Mining Company

WWW.BLOCKERCON.COM/SPEAKERS19

11. AVIVA ÕUNAP Chief Executive Officer, Savii Digital Marketing Agency 12. HANIFA AZRI Founder, Regal 38i83

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