Felix Xu graduated with Finance, and Information Systems degrees from New York University, which is known for its Computer Science and AI research. For the past 6 years, Felix has been working on venture capital investment in Fintech, big data and AI startups. Most recently he led blockchain sector research and early-stage investment at Fosun Group, one of the largest conglomerates in China. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of ARPA, Bella Protocol.

Felix Xu’s views on scalability

During the interview, Xu describes scalability as the ability of a system to handle increased load or traffic. In the context of blockchains, it is the ability to process more transactions per second (TPS) in order to meet the growing demands of users, something that layer 1 networks really struggle with.

Why is scaling such a problem?

“The two most obvious examples of a Layer 1 network are Bitcoin and Ethereum. These blockchains are base networks – they handle every aspect of every transaction on-chain and without assistance from any other network. 

But this makes transactions on those blockchains extremely heavy and slow – every single new transaction needs to be validated by the network; then, before a new block is added to the chain, it requires to be checked against the entire history of the network. There are no shortcuts in layer 1 blockchains.”

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The importance of Layer 2

Xu also touches upon the importance of Layer 2. Layer 2 blockchains are so-called because they sit as a second layer on top of a base mainnet.

“Layer 2 chains are designed to enable more transactions per second to be processed, and they achieve this by doing something novel – they move transactions off of the heavy mainnet. Different layer 2 solutions achieve this in slightly different ways, but the objective is always the same: streamlining the amount of information that needs to be validated by cumbersome underlying blockchain.

There is a multitude of layer 2 solutions currently being used with different blockchains, but for simplicity, let’s look at one of the most well-known, to better understand how it works.”

About ARPA

In fact, ARPA is a blockchain-based layer 2 solution for privacy-preserving computation, enabled by Multi-Party Computation (“MPC”). Founded in April 2018, the goal of ARPA is to separate data utility from ownership and enable data renting. ARPA’s MPC protocol creates ways for multiple entities to collaboratively analyse data and extract data synergies while keeping each party’s data input private and secure.

As Xu explains:

“We propose a blockchain-based secure computation network of Multi-party Computation (MPC). ARPA cryptographically enables private smart contract, unprecedented data-at-use privacy protection, as well as scalable computational sharding ARPA network is flexible, easy-to-use, and compatible with existing blockchains such as Ethereum and EOS. Let’s rethink blockchain for the real world”.

About Bella Protocol

Bella Protocol is an aggregated user interface for existing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols. It aims to simplify the user experience of existing DeFi protocols and allow users to deploy their assets and earn yield with ease.

“Our protocol aims to create a better user experience by eliminating the high fee and slow transaction issues that can affect some blockchain platforms like Ethereum while simultaneously improving the user experience through its simplified DeFi smart portal.

Bella’s smart pool feature allows users to access the best yields available in the DeFi market while benefiting from nearly zero gas fees since these are directly subsidized by the platform. The project launched in September 2020 as the first project distributed via Binance’s Launchpool platform, and has secured investments from several prominent firms, including Arrington XRP Capital and Ledger Capital.”

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4IR: AI Blockchain Fintech IoT Reinventing a Nation by Dinis Guarda and Rais Hussin (4irbook.com)

Dinis Guarda citiesabc openbusinesscouncil Series is also available as podcast on

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dinis-guarda-citiesabc-openbusinesscouncil-series/id1510330391

On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1vA8KaDaRpJ0mAfpNbfTSF?si=H_WngL4RSOyu1W7VAmM41w&dl_branch=1

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xMDMyMzg4LnJzcw==

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/953a5156-823c-4e86-baeb-4fda1128e44c/DINIS-GUARDA-CITIESABC-OPENBUSINESSCOUNCIL-SERIES

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post New Podcast: Felix Xu and The Future Of Blockchain And DeFi At citiesabc & openbusinesscouncil podcast series appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Change is a powerful feature. It reshapes global business and society (as a whole). As the emerging technologies turn human-centric in their nature, financial services are also facing a breakthrough in their conventional mechanisms. This is pivotal in its evolution into a more sustainable and inclusive industry altogether. This evolved version promises to restore public trust, with almost no trade-offs between yielding profits and ensuring positive social impact.

The financial services are undergoing disruptive innovation due to key driving factors- evolving customer expectations, rapidly advancing technologies, and changing landscape of regulatory grounds. Fintech innovations like cryptocurrencies, Big Data, and peer-to-peer lending are grabbing the attention and imagination of investors and customers.

Creating the Future: a Hacker’s Guide to Financial Services is a comprehensive report powered by Finastra FusionFabric.Cloud, where over 50 contributors have shared over a hundred predictions on the financial future. The report by Fintech Talents (by VC Innovations Ltd.) creates a relevant narrative, depicting some of the intriguing insights over what trends are going to redefine the future of our existing financial and banking system.

Path-breaking solutions to carve out better financial systems

ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) for a sustainable finance

Over the past few years, the ESG criterion is a popular key metric that investors use to evaluate businesses. The parameters that decide the ESG criteria differ as per the industry standards. The environmental criteria could include everything from energy usage to how waste is disposed of, and even the treatment of animals.

On the other hand, the social criteria are primarily related to a company’s conduct with its stakeholders and its business relationships. This includes its treatment of the suppliers, the relationship with the surrounding community and the social impact it makes on them, or even the conditions of its employees.

Governance criteria, however, have traditionally been an afterthought. Nevertheless, its true meaning is changing, being relatively pertaining to environmental and social issues. Everything from executive pay to shareholder rights, or internal controls- are all relevant to investors within this criterion.

Contributors to Fintech- investors, consumers, and incumbents believe that the industry plays a central role in finding unique solutions to the challenges posed by ESG. The EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations were introduced in March of last year. This was followed by a roadmap published by the Treasury in the month of October that outlined new Sustainability Disclosure Requirements.

This is to continue with the development of the frameworks for appropriate regulation and reporting of ESG in financial services. Gartner reported that 85% of investors considered ESG factors in their investments in 2020. This illustrates the rapidly growing importance investors place on ESG issues.

While sharing his concern about the inadequate upgradation measures, Dinis Guarda, founder of intelligenthq, citiesabc, and openbusinesscouncil says for the report by Fintech Talents, “According to an estimate by OECD and World Bank, an investment of 6.9 trillion will be required by 2030 to meet the ESG targets for climate and development. The current spending on infrastructure is no more than USD 3.4 – 4.4 trillion, lagging significantly behind what is required”.  

The year 2022, for Mohamed Moullouze, Chief Innovation Officer at Attijariwafa Bank, will be the year for FS firms to make a progressive effort in bringing ESG products and services within the market. From green loans and mortgages to carbon tracking capabilities, and sustainable account checking- the innovative financial features are much awaited in the markets.

Embedded Finance ensures Bank as a Service (BaaS) experience for the consumer

Embedded finance is a seamless integration of financial services into a platform that has been functioning non-financial traditionally. For example, a ride-hailing app (like Uber) can accept cashless payments being made by its users on its digital platforms like apps and websites.

Adding the FS feature to business, retail, and corporate customers to a point where they would prefer the consumption of services is BaaS. This makes it convenient for the customers to access these services even at third-party interfaces. Now, to remain relevant, the banks must adapt to this evolving trend by collaborating with service providers, distributors, and enablers. To meet the scalability targets, an open API platform-based approach could be implemented.

Almost every vertical of the finance ecosystem has been impacted by embedded financing. From offering insurance for home appliances at the point of purchase to buying parking through Google Maps- everything is possible with the ingression of embedded finance.

Today, there is virtually no part of the finance ecosystem that hasn’t been impacted by embedded finance. Everything from offering insurance at the point of purchase for home appliances to purchasing street parking through apps like Google Maps has been made possible due to the spread of embedded finance in everyday experiences.

Big players like JP Morgan (who is using some of its $12bn of its tech budget over the next year for developing embedded finance), Goldman Sachs (announcing its own BaaS portal for developers), and Barclays (launched Rise Start-Up Academy for fintech entrepreneurs) are coming up with innovative ways to make the most of the upcoming trend.

“I think more specialisation per underserved industries will see new embedded finance collaboration occur in 2022. Aside from just payments and investments, I think the next evolution ventures into the area of royalties and affiliate compensation solutions that leverage the same concepts for creators” Australia Hoover, III, CEO, CDC Federal credit union.

Open banking and embedded finance, combined, could open up numerous gates for an inclusive ecosystem. This means the lenders and borrowers from all financial backgrounds could be allowed to participate equally on common grounds. With an increasing number of use cases for embedded banking, every business can potentially become a Fintech that provides more frictionless and personalised services.

Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

DeFi is the umbrella term for all blockchain-based financial apps. These apps offer (and perform) conventional banking services over a platform that is mostly based on smart contracts. These smart contracts negate the involvement of any middleman or broker for the culmination of financial transactions.

“Decentralisation is the term of the day – everyone is speaking about it,” says Dinis Guarda, Founder of intelligenthq, citiesabc, and openbusinesscouncil. “DeFi is not just a trend; it is clear that an average person is tired of centralised money supply control; the unprecedented growth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies proves that.”

It is his belief that the advent of a new financial era with the rising DeFi and Web 3.0 trends offers new avenues for the diverse user base to engage interactively with finance. Speaking specifically in the context, Guarda adds “The current financial system is not working for everyone, it is clear. The communities that have been unable to build generational wealth are looking for a meaningful alternative”, for the report by Fintech Talents.

There have been significant barriers to entry with conventional financial systems. Traditional financial institutions consensually required complex infrastructure, well-trained staff, and intricate IT backend systems to ensure regulatory obligations. DeFi simplifies this system overall. Users can engage themselves in frictionless transactions- borrowing, lending, insurance, liquidity, and compound- all on one platform. DeFi is evolving as the innovation advances, though, there are still many challenges that DeFi will need to address.

Platformification

The accelerated digitalisation of products, services, and processes has altered the traction banks followed for over years. The pandemic itself was enough to project the loss of agility in the traditional banking system.

The API-enabled fintech ecosystem dramatically changed the outlook of financial services. This clearly depicts that a platform provides the required flexibility and innovation while imparting the simplicity of transactions in a most cost-effective manner.

Platformification enables financial institutions to offer a wider range of products and services to their customers using a plug-and-play business model. Collaboration and innovation are at the heart of a successful platformification plan. With a product mix, the traditional financial institutions can benefit from the innovations and embrace APIs. As easy as it is said, achieving these goals could be quite challenging for these institutions.

As more and more customers are getting accustomed to taking advantage of countless services at their fingertips, accessing a wide array of financial tools at a single platform is a preferred mode. This is why despite established brand names, banks operating in traditional ways are unable to support the features that users expect.

“The Banking as a Platform model allows FIs to securely expose their platforms to fintech and developers in the cloud via open APIs. Trusted third parties can access and build on top of existing FSI platforms and FIs can augment their services with third-party offerings and make these new services available to customers through their Super Apps or channels. It’s all about becoming part of their customers’ lifestyle rather than simply being a banking app”, says Özkan Erener, CEO of VeriPark.

Platformification establishes an ecosystem that offers the right products for the clients on a single platform like WeChat. This ensures retention and resilience amongst the customers even in an increasingly competitive environment. Specialised services that particularly target the niche audience create fintech sub-sectors like wealthtech and insurtech that could leverage the financial services for a better future.

Financial services are evolving for a sustainable future

The community of innovators is quirky to be able to see what is coming for the future, not just what is happening now and here. They are able to capture and predict the impact new services and products will make on the evolving needs of the customer. What the stakeholders’ demand is more transparency and accountability from FIs. This requires improved financial performance while meeting regulatory compliance. Nevertheless, the most important attribute for a successful financial process is the ability to articulate the unique culture of the society and amalgamate it with the evolving trends.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post How Innovation And Sustainability Carve The Future Of Financial Services appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

The creativity of projects on Ethereum is exploding in areas such as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), gaming, Web 3.0 and the metaverse. Ethereum’s usage is at an all-time-high, with the number of Ethereum addresses exceeding 177 million and tens of thousands more added each day. While high network usage indicates strong adoption, it also establishes a need for scalability and privacy-enhancing solutions.

With this in mind, ConsenSys engaged Mastercard to co-develop key building blocks to make blockchain technology scalable on the Ethereum Mainnet or for private use; providing benefits for all stakeholders in the ecosystem.

ConsenSys Rollups is an innovative modular software solution for permissioned blockchain applications focused on providing scalability and privacy capabilities that can be connected to any Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchain. It can be used on the Ethereum Mainnet, or on private ConsenSys Quorum networks. ConsenSys Rollups leverage zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to protect specific transaction elements, such as account balances, sender, recipient, and amount, to prevent this important transaction data from being shared publicly across the network – significantly enhancing the privacy and confidentiality of transactions. Zero-knowledge proof technologies enable one party to verify their knowledge of something to another party without having to convey the information itself. ZK proofs can then be used to verify and certify batches of transactions without having to execute them directly on the blockchain network. Solutions built with ConsenSys Rollups can currently achieve a throughput of up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) on a private chain while only 300 TPS can be achieved on private chains and 15 on the Ethereum Mainnet.

Programmability on zero-knowledge rollups is designed to enable additional functionalities in the future. Even higher transaction throughputs are expected to be possible through reliance on trusted parties for data availability.

“ConsenSys Rollups enables vastly more scalability in addition to strong privacy protections to both enhance solutions for existing use-cases and enable new use-cases. This innovative solution will help accelerate the building of the future of finance”, said Madeline Murray, Global Lead of Protocol Engineering at ConsenSys.

ConsenSys Rollups will enable more types of blockchain use cases  

By increasing scalability and confidentiality for asset transfers, ConsenSys Rollups enables the implementation of new, innovative use-cases including:

• Central Bank Digital Currencies(CBDCs): CBDCs issuance on top of a ConsenSys Rollups powered Quorum network can provide scalability and privacy capabilities for digital currency transfers among central banks, commercial banks, and retail users.

• Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs): DEXs built with Rollups will bring scalability to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and NFTs, and more use cases on Ethereum that need faster settlement but the security guarantees of Ethereum.

• Micropayments: Micro payment applications that see users pay, for example, on a per-stream or per-view basis will require high throughput to properly function as large numbers of users interact with platforms and decentralized applications (dapps). Rollups on mainnet will allow Ethereum to scale to meet the demand of new Web3 economic paradigms without network congestion, high fees, or finality challenges.

• Private transfer and taxes: ConsenSys Rollups open a new pattern for confidentiality on the Ethereum Mainnet, or on Quorum powered networks. With partially anonymous rollups, users can transfer or swap tokens and transact with partial anonymity. Use-cases that require auditability and transparency but also maintain user confidentiality will be enabled with rollup solutions. This could remove the next barrier to entry for more DeFi or cryptocurrency users on new services.

Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President of Digital Assets and Blockchain Products and Partnerships at Mastercard says, “We believe there is real potential in blockchain technology helping to solve real-world problems. We’re in the early stages, but are starting to see efficiencies in how permissioned and private chain product constructs use open-source technologies. Our work with partners like ConsenSys will continue to advance this space.”

ConsenSys Rollups is compatible with all tokens that follow the ERC20 standard.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post ConsenSys Team Up With Mastercard to Launch ConsenSys Rollups – A Blockchain Initiative To Provide Enterprise-Grade Scalability To Financial Organizations appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

The Hedera Governing Council, the group of diverse organizations responsible for stewarding the Hedera network, has announced the approval of a plan to allocate 10.7 billion hbars (approximately 20% of total supply), currently worth US $5 billion as of September 16th, 2021, towards the development of the Hedera ecosystem. The resolution was approved at the July 14th Governing Council meeting, at which time the value of the allocation was approximately US $2 billion.

Hedera’s Governing Council has initially earmarked up to 5.35 billion hbars, worth approximately US $2.5 billion as of Sept 16th, to the newly established independent HBAR Foundation. The HBAR Foundation will have autonomy over the administration, development, and deployment of its hbar distributions, and will provide grants to developers, startups, and other organizations to accelerate the development and adoption of the Hedera network for a wide variety of applications in decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), gaming and other industries. The HBAR Foundation will be led by Shayne Higdon, a hands-on enterprise software executive with significant venture capital and private equity experience, having led 40+ M&A and corporate venture transactions in areas such as SaaS, multi-cloud, application performance, and identity management.

“The Hedera network is the most widely used public ledger in the world, and with the establishment of the HBAR Foundation we aim to drive exponential adoption, growth, and value,” said Shayne Higdon, Executive Director and CEO of the HBAR Foundation. “Our mission is to fund a future where entrepreneurs form digitally-native economies and ecosystems, controlling their own assets, identities, data, marketplaces, and more. We are excited to engage with and support organizations and teams that share this vision.” 

The remainder of the allocation will be designated for partnerships and other initiatives designed to strengthen the development of the Hedera ecosystem. Hbar to be allocated to these initiatives will be moved from Hedera Treasury accounts.

Hedera’s Governing Council currently comprises 23 organizations from around the world, and is the most diverse by sector and geography of any public decentralized network. Participating organizations are responsible for governing the network (including treasury allocation) and operating nodes. Hedera network nodes, which are hosted by individual Council Members, now exist on every continent except Antarctica.

“We believe that for the Hedera network to reach its full potential as the trust layer of the internet, we must continue its strategy of decentralizing the governance of the ecosystem, which started with its unique Hedera Governing Council structure,” said Mark Radcliffe, Partner at DLA Piper, a member of the Hedera Governing Council. “Our aim with the transfer of these assets is to ensure that decisions about the growth of the network will continue to be further decentralized through the role of the independent HBAR Foundation.”

“Two years have passed since Open Access, and the Hedera network is now the most used, energy-efficient, enterprise-grade public ledger on the market,” said Mance Harmon, CEO of Hedera Hashgraph. “In our mission to make the Hedera network the de facto standard for the decentralized economy, it is now time to empower additional organizations to speed up network adoption. We are pleased that the Hedera Governing Council has made such a significant commitment to accelerate the decentralized growth and usage of the network.”

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post DeFi Adoption: Hedera Governing Council to Allocate $5 Billion in HBAR to Independent Foundation and Ecosystem Development Initiatives appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

The two organizations have been working together since 2019 and copyrights for the first time are represented as digital assets. The history of SIAE began 139 years ago and today, with Algorand, the organization embraces a future empowered by technology to continue its mission of protecting creativity for its users.

The world changes and rights become digital assets

This week, more than 4 million NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) were created that will digitally represent the rights of the more than 95,000 SIAE members authors. NFTs, a type of digital asset registered on blockchain, will thus be used for the first time represent author’s rights of SIAE members. Digitizing these rights on a decentralized and transparent public blockchain is the first requirement to build an open infrastructure able to protect author’s rights end-to-end, as envisioned by SIAE for the future of the industry.

“Ensuring the protection of creativity has been SIAE’s mission for 139 years, and this project demonstrates that our goal is to continue to guarantee it for the next 139 years,” said Gaetano Blandini, General Manager of SIAE. “We are not interested in building technological infrastructures to generate profit. Instead, our goal has been and always will be to create value addition for our members. This is why we can afford to talk about open infrastructures and make all our know-how available to the community. Blockchain technology is definitely an interesting strand to continue exploring because of its transparency and efficiency – by design – features, which are fundamental for those who, like us, manage the salary of other people’s hard work.”

The creation of these unique digital assets is the first step towards even more ambitious goals, allowing for more transparent and efficient management of the rights themselves, in their journey from those who use the right (those who listen to music, for example) and those who live with royalties (the music creator). In the future, the role of intermediaries in the ecosystem of content and rights management will change radically. SIAE, a non-profit organization that truly belongs to the authors, can and will facilitate a transition to new blockchain-based platforms that will rapidly and profoundly change the business models for many other intermediaries across the management of rights and contents.

An open project on a public blockchain accessible to anyone

The project started in Italy and has the potential for international adoption. Copyright management is a global topic and blockchain-based solutions are scalable for broad adoption. To benefit everyone in the content creation and consumption ecosystem, all global copyright collecting agencies must strive for mass adoption, in a phased approach. SIAE intends to share its project results with the broader community to expedite the truly decentralized management of this metadata, which is fundamental for accurate and transparent management of rights. In this way, we would quickly arrive at a truly decentralized management of these metadata, which are fundamental for a correct and transparent management of rights. The system is also already designed – in a vision of true open decentralization – to be able to transfer management directly to rightholders, who will then be able to manage directly the metadata relating to their rights.

“SIAE has brought an ambitious project to life, where transparency and simplicity in data management are becoming a new reality for their industry,” said Professor Silvio Micali, winner of the Turing Prize, MIT Professor, and founder of Algorand. “SIAE is a forward thinking organization that will open up new opportunities as they build the foundations for new economic models. I am thrilled to have SIAE a part of the Algorand ecosystem as they embrace the scalability, efficiency and security of Algorand.”

About SIAE

Founded in Milan in 1882, SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) is a public economic institution and membership base for the management of copyright, ranked sixth in the world ranking of companies collecting, as confirmed by the data of the Global Collections Report 2020, published by CISAC (Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Auteurs et Compositeurs). Every year SIAE releases more than 1.2 millions of licenses for the use of works protected by it, guaranteeing payment to authors and publishers the right compensation for their work. SIAE also supports the Italian cultural and creative industry with economic contributions for numerous artistic initiatives, and it is at the side of various social activities and solidarity. For more information, visit www.siae.it.

About Algorand Inc.

Algorand is building the technology to power the Future of Finance (FutureFi), the convergence of traditional and decentralized models into a unified system that is inclusive, frictionless, and secure. Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand developed a blockchain infrastructure that offers the interoperability and capacity to handle the volume of transactions needed for defi, financial institutions and governments to smoothly transition into FutureFi. The technology of choice for more than 500 global organizations, Algorand is enabling the simple creation of next generation financial products, protocols and exchange of value.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Italy’s Largest Collective Management Organisation, SIAE, To Launch More Than 4 Million NFTs On Algorand For 95,000+ Creators appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Calvin NG Interview Focus

1. Professional and Academic Career. 

2. First steps as an entrepreneur

3. What did you learn from your experience in Malaysia? And from a lifestyle perspective and how business is done, what’s the difference between Hong Kong, China and Malaysia?

4. Can you tell us more about some of your achievements back in the day?

5. How is it to manage a successful fund?

6. How and when did you discover blockchain and crypto?

7. What do you -and Plutus VC- look at when it comes to investing in a new project?

8. How do you see blockchain and crypto right now? What are your thoughts on DeFi?

9. What is real DeFi?

10. Can you tell us about DAO and your company MantroDAO?

11. How do you see decentralization and centralization of systems today?

12. What are your views on NFTs and other blockchain trends?

More Interviews

Bobby Lee Interview – Bitcoin Pioneer, Founder of World’s Longest-Running Crypto Exchange, Author The Promise of Bitcoin

Interview with Selena Le, Founder & CEO of WSAFE Impact Venture – Investing In A More Sustainable Future in Vietnam And The World

Interview with Leemon Baird – Prof. of Computer Science & Founder of Hedera Hashgraph, The Alternative To Blockchain Consensus

Eric Yaverbaum, CEO of Ericho Communications – Communications and PR Veteran, Bestselling Author of Leadership Secrets of The Worlds Most Successful CEO’s

Explaining Wholistic Wellbeing: Dinis Guarda Interview RoundGlass CEO Sunny Gurpreet Singh

Interview takeaways

Discovering Bitcoin And Blockchain – The Next Big Thing?

It wasn’t until 2016 that my very good friend from GRL, he’s a managing director of a fund, a property fund, a very big property fund, introduced me to Bitcoin. Right, that was in 2016. One day he sent me a wechat message with a newspaper article that said that this guy raised funding using cryptocurrency. And I think: maybe that is the future? And then I look up, what is Bitcoin?. I’ve heard of it before, but it wasn’t until 2016 that I really looked into Bitcoin and you know, my first impression of Bitcoin was; I told my friend, this is a perfect scam. That was my first impression. Really. I say: they don’t have a founder, you launch a token, it goes up in value, just like that. And nobody can find who is the person behind it. Isn’t that a perfect scam? There is nobody for you to arrest if anything goes wrong. So, that was my first perception and when my friend came to Shanghai, we started going deep into crypto, into Bitcoin, into Blockchain, then I suddenly realised, after a month and a half, I told my friend: I am taking back what I told you about what was my first impression of Bitcoin. This is another chance in the Internet space.

How To Be Successful As An Investor

Investment is a good way to learn more, because I meet a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of smart people. Some people are even much smarter than me, you know. So the people of the younger generation, with brilliant ideas and so on. And as an investor you see a lot, you learn a lot. And you can also, from the experience, because we could put money into the companies, and some companies, even if we don’t invest, we follow up, seeing: were they able to get successful? And if they fail, we would like to know why, why they failed. At least, I was telling myself that if I were to launch my own company again and become an entrepreneur, I would at least know one thing: what road that I could take would definitely fail.

Calvin NG Biography

Summary

Calvin NG is the current general partner at Plutus VC, managing a $200 million blockchain and innovation and investing into many blockchain and technology companies worldwide. Calvin NG  is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor with many successes and achievements on his belt (Digital Hollywood 2017: HKE2022 / Retech 2017: ASX:RTE / Citic Telecom 2007: HKE1883 / THE9 2004: NCTY). 

Biography

Alongside his work as general partner at Plutus VC, He sits on the board of two online games start-ups, an ecommerce Company and an entertainment fashion commerce Company in China. Calvin has extensive experience in the digital media, social networking, online games and gaming space. His past includes consultant to SULAKE *Habbo.com (world largest teens virtual world). He was also the Vice President of CITIC PACIFIC (*SEHK0627) and CITIC TELECOM 1616 (*IPO-2007: SEHK1883) responsible for their new strategy and new media development. 

Prior to this Calvin was part of the team that successfully clinched the deal for World of Warcraft in China in partnership with THE 9 (*IPO-2004: NCTY) and also developed China’s first digital comics magazine and 3G comics on mobile. 

In 2007 Calvin won third place in China Entrepreneur Competition (he was the only foreigner to have won a top placing till today). 

Back in 2000 Calvin master-minded the control of more than 90% of cyber cafes in Malaysia and is the only Company that partners with all the major PC games publishers worldwide. A former veteran in the promotional advertising industry, Calvin had won numerous awards and tenders from top international clients for four years straight (Triumph International and Public Bank). During the Daytona USA craze back in 1994, Calvin took a video arcade game company from USD 5 million in sales to USD 50 million within just a year. 

His entrepreneurship career started at the age of 17 where he was featured almost every year on the Malaysia Newspapers for operating the biggest teen charity events. Calvin started trading biscuits for toys in kindergarten, initiated his school 1st Computer club at the age of 13 and founded LSCC (Leaque of Schools Computers Clubs) and the biggest inter-school challenge ‘COMP QUIZ’ in Malaysia. At school he’s the 1st person to hold a Funding Director position in both INTERACT and LEO club because his projects bring in the bucks. At the age of 16 he started STEP ONE a Co that organizes weekly tea dances and parties making him the richest kid in school. 

Calvin NG Links & Sources

https://www.openbusinesscouncil.org/wiki/calvin-ng/

http://plutus.vc/#dom2

https://www.pgconnects.com/hong-kong/speakers/calvin-ng/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/plutusvc/about/

https://www.topionetworks.com/people/calvin-ng-5f3d2189105eb5327eafa480

https://pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/233344-81#overview

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Interview with Calvin NG, General Partner at Plutus VC – How To Successfully Manage a $200 Million Blockchain And Innovation Fund appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Global Industry leaders, thought leaders, Universities and government officials will speak during the 3-day openbusinesscouncil summit in partnership with WSCF World Smart Cities Forum and in collaboration with Ruh Global Impact on 20th, 21st and 22nd April 2021.

London, 14th April 2021 

openbusinesscouncil summit offers businesses and governments solutions to the urgency to create awareness for digital transformation, 4IR Tech to empower businesses and SMEs.

The openbusinesscouncil Summit and Awards, in partnership with citiesabc and World Smart Cities Forum, is running an online event with the aim to strengthen businesses, startups, and government’s strategies post COVID-19.

The summit provides access to a unique audience and has indirect digital streaming in social media, that reaches over 10 million people.

The experts include, amongst others, high-profile personalities such as:

• Javed Jaffrey – Bollywood film, TV Actor and Personality
• Dr. Scott Edward Parazynski – Former Nasa Astronaut and CEO of Fluidity Technologies
• Valeriya Ionan – Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine,
• Jaewon Peter Chun –  President at World Smart Cities Forum.
• Ben Goertzel, Founder of SingularityNET, co-creator Sofia the Robot
• Dimitrios Psarakis – Brussels Council former EU Parliament
• Michael Stanley-Jones – United Nations Environment Programme
• Surina Shukri, CEO of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC);
• Professor Kiran Fernandes, Professor and Associate Dean Durham University
• Jawad Sardar, Director SUM Global – Smart Cities Specialist, Advisor to UK and Governments globally

The openbusinesscouncil summit team offers a 3-days event, covering urgent issues trending and disruptive topics, such as the boom of 4IR and AI, DeFi, the always-widening possibilities of blockchain and AI, the impact of leading tech in Finance and Society, the rising importance of NFTs, etc, in more than 50 panels.

Dinis Guarda and Hilton Supra founders of the event say: “We all have the power as stakeholders and our destinies to use the tech of our time, digital literacy and simultaneously using 4IR technology as a direct consequence of the COVID-19 crisis to serve and empower businesses and professionals worldwide #obcsummit.”

The openbusinesscouncil digital summit will cover how COVID-19 is rapidly transforming Organisations. Businesses and Governments can only survive and ideally thrive, in an environment where new consumer behaviours can accelerate their digital transformation efforts.

openbusinesscouncil citiesabc summit will reflect and offer panels and masterclasses on:

1. Creating Smarter Digital Transformation Businesses in a Time of Covid-19 with 4IR, Big Data, IoT and Cybersecurity to Businesses and SMEs;
2. Challenges and Opportunities Digital HealthTech & Wellness Post Covid-19 and Digital Inclusion in Cities and AI
3. How can Tech4All, Tech4Good and AI4Good Support CSR and CDR;
4. Smart Cities and Digital Twins
5. The Future of Collaborative Innovation, Media, IP, Digital Platforms with 4IR & AI;
6. Finding our way Forward with UN SDGs, ESGs in the Post-Covid-19 World;
7. Redesigning Businesses After Covid – ESG – Sustainability – Finance and Digital Transformation Investment
8. Centralised Finance vs Decentralised Finance, Digital Assets – NFTs;
9. Scale-Ups and Venture Capital Accelerator Networks Aiding Growth to the Business Startup Ecosystem?
10. Fintech, GovTech, LegalTech and PropTech, & The WorkPlace of the Future
11. Blockchain, DeFi and CBDC – the Next Fintech Frontier
12. ESG, Carbon Footprint and Energy

About the organisers: openbusinesscouncil is a Leading Global Digital Business Directory Certification and Marketplace created by a team of global thought and business leaders with more than 20 years of working with governments, business networks, tech ecosystems and  universities.

citiesabc.com is a platform for smarter cities and their creative industries – art, music and film NFT marketplace network. citiesabc offers tools to the organisations and the people of the cities.

World Smart Cities Forum is a non-profit organisation established to assist local governments and municipalities to solve current urban challenges by building and developing human-centric smart cities around the world.

The event will be streamed in the fast-growing Dinis Guarda YouTube Podcast series https://www.youtube.com/c/DinisGuarda/videos

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/openbusinesscouncil-summit-and-awards-tickets-136828817677

For more information https://openbusinesscouncil.org/summit/

Summit & Awards video: https://youtu.be/hb9hnc9NHu0

Media and Contact: Serafima Semkina

serafima.semkina@ztudium.com – +447771321078

__________________________________________________

Meet The Speakers At Openbusinesscouncil Summit and Awards

The biggest names to speak at the conference and their bios can be accessed below. Openbusinesscouncil ensured the highest quality of speakers, who come from top positions in their fields.

Ms. Valeriya Ionan, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, Ukraine 

Currently working as a Deputy Minister for Eurointegration in the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, she is in charge of the digital literacy national program (Diia. Digital Education), development and growth of SME with help of digital instruments (Diia.Business), new digital professions, online children protection, euro integration. Before working for the Ukrainian government, she was an entrepreneur. Valeriya graduated from the  MBA program at Edinburgh Business School Eastern Europe in Marketing, Organizational Behavior, Negotiations and Human Resource Management.

Jaewon Peter Chun, President at World Smart Cities Forum

Jaewon is the President of World Smart Cities Forum (WSCF), which is a non-profit organization based in London, England. He also founded ARK-i Labs in New York City, which is a smart city curator and investment company. Besides, he also founded and have run XnTREE, a Tech accelerator in Level39 which is the largest open tech cluster in Europe, which is located in Canary-Wharf financial district in London. In 2018, he was appointed Master Planner, head of Korea’s smart city national pilot project, to create a master plan framework.

Jawad Sardar, Future Cities & Prosperity Specialist, DIT UK

Jawad is a  smart cities specialist who works with national and local governments across the world to develop leading smart governance, mobility, urban planning and sustainability projects. Most recently overseeing the Prosperity Fund Global Future Cities Programme (GFCP) for the Department of International Trade (DIT) as their Future Cities & Prosperity specialist. Jawad also works with tech companies to help build smart cities applications and use cases for Ai, IoT, AR/VR, and data analytics in cities.

Neil Milliken, Global Head of Accessibility, Atos, AxChat, W3 consortium advisor

Neil is the Atos representative on the Business Disability Forum Technology Task Force and have successfully instigated the adoption of and implemented the Accessible Technology charter. His role is to help make the world a better place by delivering better technology for his customers and staff, embedding inclusive practice into the Business As Usual Processes of organisations with thousands of employees and turnovers numbering in billions. His clients include: BBC, Department of Health, Ministry of Justice, Insolvency Service, and NHS.

Scott Edward Parazynski – Physician | former NASA astronaut

Scott is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. A veteran of five Space Shuttle flights and seven spacewalks, Parazynski’s latest mission was STS-120 in October, 2007 – highlighted by a dramatic, unplanned EVA to repair a live solar array. arazynski said he wanted to build a company based on what he’d learned as an astronaut, from collaborating with colleagues around the world to training and designing things in virtual reality. In 2016, he founded Fluidity Technologies in Houston. The company’s first product, the FT Aviator, is a joystick used to fly DJI drones as smoothly as possible with just one hand.

Debra Ruh, Founder & CEO Ruh Global IMPACT

Debra has worked as a Global Inclusion Strategist since 2001. Before she became an entrepreneur she was an executive in the banking industry for many years. She created Ruh Global Communications to help clients reduce their compliance and brand risks associated with inclusion and create programs that act as a positive differentiator. The goal is to help our clients thrive in this space and empower them to be global problem solvers, champions of change, and transformational leaders of social change.

Joy Tan, SVP Public Affairs, Huawei

Joy leads a diverse team of communications and media affairs professionals to convey Huawei’s cutting-edge innovation and best practices as a global technology leader to U.S. audiences. Together with her team, she is committed to telling the unique story and rapid growth of Huawei, which has grown into a $122 billion multinational company, whose products and services are used across 170 countries from its inception over 30 years ago.

The inaugural summit reached 50,000+ live views 300,000+ post-live views with a global media outreach in social media and PR of over 10 million people!

The April 2021 summit and awards are expected to far exceed this with the addition of more key speakers and participants.

The event will be streamed in the fast-growing Dinis Guarda Youtube Podcast series:

https://www.youtube.com/c/DinisGuarda/videos 

Tickets:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/openbusinesscouncil-summit-and-awards-tickets-136828817677

For more information:

https://openbusinesscouncil.org/summit/

Summit & Awards video:

https://youtu.be/hb9hnc9NHu0

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 120+ Speakers Including Former Nasa Astronaut Scott Parazynski, Bollywood Actor Javed Jaffrey Join Global Digital Transformation Openbusinesscouncil Citiesabc Summit Looking at Best Ways to Cope With Covid-19 Business Challenges appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

citiesabc and openbusinesscouncil CEO Dinis Guarda’s recent webinar showed the important role that digital assets, NFTs and DeFi will play in the future of the global economy and exchanges. In conversation with fintech pioneers in Europe and the US, Guarda fuelled debates over cryptocurrency and how to bridge the gap between traditional banking and modern finance. The article below outlines important points made (and conclusions drawn) from the webinar.

Crypto, blockchain, bitcoin, DeFi; these are words heard of by many and understood by few. A top priority for Guarda and the other panellists was to democratise the language surrounding modern (and future) finance, and stress its newfound (and continually increasing) accessibility.

True, crypto holds a diminutive place in the global financial landscape at present – evidence of its relative exclusivity. The digital crypto landscape currently stands at $1.7 trillion: a meagre sum next to the world economy in collected GDPs (excluding assets), which currently stands at $83 trillion; or next to the FX market, worth $7 trillion; or the equities market, worth $85 trillion; or the fixed income market, worth over $100 trillion.

However, Douglas Borthwick, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer of INX Services, anticipates these figures will “change at a speed which no one is really ready for”. He argues that while only 0.5% of Americans have an electronic wallet at present, there is a chance that, within the next year alone, as many as 60% will. Indeed, the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) seems keen to discard ACH and swift wire transfers, and encourage the American citizen to use USDC stablecoins instead. Drawing an analogy, Borthwick reminded his audience that cell phones were shunned by the average citizen in the first ten years of their existence as they were deemed dangerous and unnecessary; current statistics estimate that there are now 1.4 mobile phones for every American citizen. In other words, it is not unprecedented for an innovation to flatline before it surges.

The panellists agreed this surge starts now. Already, blockchain is being adopted outside the realm of pure finance, with retailers and auction houses such as Christie’s employing NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) as an alternative form of commercial transaction. While the first wave of cryptocurrency users and advocates were “anarchists” coming out of the 2008 financial crisis disillusioned with the economic establishment – in the words of panellist Guenther Dobrauz, Partner at PwC Zurich – the second wave is sure to be a larger group of people following a more global movement away from traditional finance.

What does blockchain offer which traditional finance does not? The primary selling point is the removal of middlemen – or, as Borthwick puts it, “friction in the marketplace”: “assets, especially on the equity side, are going to move to blockchain for pure AML (anti-money laundering) and KYC (know your client) reasons”. Borthwick resorted to another analogy to further illustrate these advantages:

Remember in the old days when you wanted to raise funds, whatever your target, 1 million, 5 million, 100 million, you always had to give 5-6% to the underwriter: the person helping you raise that money. You don’t have to do that anymore with the type of security token that we designed and put together with the SEC.

What is the next step in Borthwick’s game plan? To passport digital securities that have come out in foreign jurisdictions for use in the US, so they can be traded on American exchange platforms. Two essential challenges remain: first, that the technology developed for blockchain was not intended to bridge any gaps between modern and traditional banking; second, that European countries are largely divided when it comes to blockchain rules. This poses real, legal problems; but Borthwick is confident that the impending surge in blockchain adoption will be naturally accompanied by new regulatory and compliance laws: supply follows demand. Indeed, Borthwick anticipates that “every single company specialised in equity – in the US, Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere – is going to move to the blockchain. Every five-year note, every ten-year note, every treasury bill, will move onto the blockchain.” The regulation of coins and tokens will thus be institutionalised.

Hirander Misra, Chairman & CEO of GMEX Group & SECDEX, further expanded on the jurisdictional challenges touched upon by Borthwick:

Let’s say there’s custody and issuance in the UK but that particular entity doesn’t want to issue tokens; how do we overlay that with tokens? Let’s say the Seychelles offer those out to a wider audience, but then how do you align the corporate actions or proxy-based actions or any other elements by way of smart contracts with those jurisdictions? […] Everyone talks about blockchain being a magic wand formula, but a liquid bond – whether it’s on a blockchain or not – is still a liquid bond.

While the digital exchanges set up in the blockchain landscape act like walled gardens on security, Misra argues, this is a problem which can be solved from a technical perspective. Indeed, he sees “a lot of opportunity around structuring products and packaging them in portfolio-based plays.” There is a gap in the market for the distributed transfer agencies and registries specialised in token transfer, which Misra identifies as a crucial playing point.“The focus has got to be on quality rather than quantity,” he argues. “Quality will lead to trust and scale accordingly.”

Peter Kristensen, Co-CEO at JP Fund Services, also stressed the importance of quality and transparency: “you can run from regulations, but you can’t hide from them,” he said, reflecting on his own professional experience. Derek Mayne, co-Founder of Cresco, championed similar ethics, arguing that his enterprise is built on three pillars: regulation, insurance, and blockchain. It’s this “three-way balance” that makes Cresco FX products desirable, according to Mayne. But transparency is not easily reached. Borthwick spoke of the challenges of DeFi work in the US; DeFi is based on anonymity, yet “you cannot move an INEX token to another wallet unless that wallet is whitelisted” – that is, unless it has gone through AML and KYC checks. This restricts the DeFi audience as institutional players are highly sceptical. The landscape is more positive when it comes to individual customers, however, whose number is increasing rapidly. Indeed, digital assets are now being held by an unprecedented amount of digital custodians, sketching out a greater need for interoperability in a young, fresh financial space with no pre-existing standards.

On this topic, Misra advocated for a hybrid approach, drawing on both centralised and decentralised financial models; while blockchain purists are likely to argue in favour of everything being decentralised, says Misra, “legacy stacks – not just in the exchanges but in the banks – that are decades old aren’t going away anytime soon.” Moreover, the traditional ‘big players’ were “set up to be b2b”. The transition from b2b to b2c, as advocated by Guarda and Borthwick, was tempered by Misra, who suggested an approach closer to convergence than conversion.

Closing the discussion, Guarda was more optimistic about blockchain and crypto’s revolutionary capacities, returning to Borthwick’s point about DeFi’s velocity: where the financial demand exists, the regulatory and technological supply will follow. Although crypto exchange structures (centralised or decentralised) were not built on regulation, the move to blockchain driven by more established players in the field (NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange) changes standard regulatory practice while creating space for new financial services such as security token trading. Therefore, we can expect to see greater cooperation between blockchain and regulatory services – cooperation driven by necessity and mass-scale fintech democratisation.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Dinis Guarda’s LIVE Event Recap: NFTs, DeFi, Digital Assets Are Shaping The Future Of The Global Economy appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

· In partnership with INX Limited, a blockchain-based platform for trading digital assets and BTCU Ultimatum, a next-gen blockchain based on Bitcoin fork.

· The event can be watched live on Dinis Guarda YouTube channel on Wednesday 24th at 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT.

Blockchain is as diversified and complex as the opportunities it presents to the global economy. The frontier between the physical and the digital economy are blurred, and solutions to tokenize every aspect of the world accelerate. The new DeFi and NFTs wave are taking full advantage of what blockchain can bring to the global economy. And there is a discussion to have to make sure we do so in the right way.

That is what this Dinis Guarda openbusinesscouncil summit – citiesabc Youtube special LIVE event aims to bring about.

Moderated by openbusinesscouncil and citiesabc CEO Dinis Guarda in partnership with INX Limited, a blockchain-based platform for trading digital assets and BTCU Ultimatum, a next-gen blockchain based on Bitcoin fork, it will gather top industry leaders and experts in innovative companies, including Douglas Borthwick – CMO INX Limited; Dr Guenther Dobrauz – Partner & Leader PwC Legal Switzerland; Hirander Misra – Chairman & CEO GMEX Group & SECDEX; Derek Mayne – MD co-Founder CrescoFin; Peter Kristensen – Co-CEO JP Fund Services and Eric Ma – CEO BTCU Ultimatum, to discuss all the opportunities, challenges and consequences of this global disruption.

The finance industry, the first being disrupted by digital assets, is taking one step closer to full decentalization with the latest innovations in DeFi. New platforms and solutions are changing the rules, the players and the access to financial services. But there is much to discuss, including regulatory compliance and building trust, to make sure that DeFi doesn’t end up in just another buzzword.

Likewise, DeFi has in NTFs the most transformative and powerful tool now. NFTs are shaping the creative industry and the global collectibles economy as a whole, and pushing multiple industries such as real estate, sports, fantasy football, gaming, internet ephemera, etc.

Non-fungible tokens – NFTs are scarce digital cryptographic assets. This means that NFTs are unique digital assets that run on blockchains. NFTs create digital scarcity for a given asset, which is particularly interesting for art pieces and collectives, where there was none before. This lack of digital scarcity in the creative industry is one of the main reasons people have slowly but surely been gravitating to NFTs as a possible solution. But NFTs are still in its infancy and we need to make sure that they are actually developed for what they expect to be for: creating a fairer industry.

The last pillar of this LIVE event is the role that exchanges will play in this tokenized economy. The future of the global economy is based on platforms and marketplaces and so exchanges will be the critical new system of financial, trading and business interconnectedness.

What: Dinis Guarda openbusinesscouncil summit – citiesabc Youtube special LIVE event

Speakers: Douglas Borthwick – CMO INX Limited; Dr Guenther Dobrauz – Partner & Leader PwC Legal Switzerland; Hirander Misra – Chairman & CEO GMEX Group & SECDEX; Derek Mayne – MD co-Founder CrescoFin; Peter Kristensen – Co-CEO JP Fund Services and Eric Ma – CEO BTCU Ultimatum

Where: Dinis Guarda YouTube channel

When: Wednesday 24th at 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT

The Experts

openbusinesscouncil and citiesabc CEO Dinis Guarda will be joined by top experts and leaders in the blockchain space, including:

Douglas Borthwick – CMO INX Limited – The First SEC Registered Security Token IPO.

Douglas Borthwick is the Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Business Development at INX Limited trading platform company. A financial industry veteran with over 25 years of experience and a financial technology expert, Mr. Borthwick has worked with the likes of Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Latin American FX trading business Standard Chartered.

Dr Guenther Dobrauz – Partner & Leader PwC Legal Switzerland | Member of PwC’s Global Legal Leadership Team. 

Guenther is a Partner with PwC in Zurich, Leader of PwC Legal Switzerland, a member of PwC’s Global Legal Leadership Team directing the firm’s global legal practice comprising 4000+ lawyers in 90+ countries and the firm’s Global LegalTech Leader.

Guenther is the author of ten books on innovation and the European, Swiss and Liechtenstein legal regulatory framework as well as of 100+ publications in international expert magazines and has to date been speaking at more than 200 conferences worldwide. He also founded the Disruption Disciples movement and hosts the online series Appetite for Disruption.

Hirander Misra – Chairman & CEO GMEX Group & SECDEX, Partner at Digital Partners Network. 

Hirander Misra is the Chairman and CEO of GMEX Group (GMEX), offering innovative solutions for the creation & operation of electronic exchanges and post trade infrastructure in securities, FX, derivatives, commodities, crypto & digital tokenised assets. He is also part of the Mauritius Financial Services Commission task force on Digital Finance.

Derek Mayne – MD co-Founder CrescoFin;

Derek Mayne co-founded CrescoFin in 2019 and started the Cresco group of companies in 2011 with Cresco Capital Markets, a foreign exchange broker, adding Cresco Capital Management in 2014.

Known as Ice-Man in his early career as an engineer in offshore oil and gas production (as he specialized in sea ice, not G&T ice), he worked with Agip KCO in Kazakhstan and London and later founded Abai Resources Ltd to develop junior oil and gas in Kazakhstan. He has a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Calgary, where he also held an adjunct professorship.

Peter Kristensen – Co-CEO JP Fund Services – TradeMakers;

Peter Kristensen has an accumulated financial markets experience of over 35 years. Peter has an extensive career, starting off at a Danish Bank to Saxo Bank, where he became an expert in online trading. Peter is now the co-CEO of JP Funds and recently co-founded of investment platform trademakers along with Adam Hill.

Eric Ma – CEO BTCU Ultimatum, Former Community Manager CoinMarketCap

Eric Ma is the CEO of BTCU. Eric studied a major in Landscape architecture in the University of Winscouncil. In this position he got his project management capacities and foundations of working with teams and strategy. After this experience he worked in human resources and managed a big network of education in a major group out of Taiwan.

Between 2018-2019 Eric became Community Manager for CoinMarketCap – the world’s leading platform source for crypto market capitalizations, pricing and information. Eric later took the role as the CEO Bione, a world leading cryptocurrency exchange for global digital asset professionals and enthusiasts, was established in May 2018 in Singapore. In 2020, he was approached by BTCU to become the CEO of the company.

The lines between decentralised finance and centralised finance are as blurry as they have ever been as the economy goes completely digital, with marketplaces and exchanges tokenizing different sectors of the global economy. And we need to make sure that we grab all the opportunities that DeFi, NFTs and Digital Assets bring about, while ensuring that they are developed and deployed in an ethical way. That is why these conversations are critical now.

The Digital Assets, NFTs, DeFi and The Future of Global Economy and Exchanges LIVE event is due to go live on Dinis Guarda YouTube channel on Wednesday, 24th March at 1pm EDT / 5pm GMT .

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Digital Assets, NFTs, DeFi and The Future of Global Economy and Exchanges LIVE Event On Dinis Guarda YouTube Channel appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is heating up. Amazon’s AWS Marketplace is offering Origin Protocol’s decentralized e-commerce platform Dshop to software-as-a-service customers (SaaS), as part of its partner network.

By Matthew Liu, cofounder of Origin Protocol and Kevin Goodspeed, a Senior Category Manager at AWS Marketplace

One of the emerging themes of the post-Web 2.0 world is decentralization, and more internet users are seeking greater control over their activities and data. Blockchain is a technology that enables the removal of traditional intermediaries from a vast array of applications. Blockchains provide a tamper-proof history of records and transactions in a series of blocks, or a ledger. Each block is cryptographically linked to a previous one, and any change to a block corrupts all subsequent blocks. Originally envisioned for peer-to-peer payments, some blockchains can also support business logic code, or smart contracts. Ethereum, created in 2015, is the largest blockchain that supports smart contracts, and it currently supports billions of dollars in economic activity and value.

Origin Protocol’s Dshop, available in AWS Marketplace, is an open platform for ecommerce that uses the Ethereum blockchain. Origin Protocol is an AWS Partner Network (APN) Technology Partner. Dshop has no setup costs and is 100% open source and customizable. Cryptocurrency payments are irreversible, peer-to-peer, and fast. Dshop supports cryptocurrency payments including OUSD, OGN, ETH, DAI, and all ERC-20 tokens, which reduces chargeback risk, cross-border payment overhead and delays, and processing fees.

In this post, I show how to create ecommerce storefronts that support cryptocurrency payments.

How it works

The entire front-end application logic, product database, and supporting media (such as product images) are hosted on the Dshop backend, which is an Amazon EC2 instance. Customers go through the typical purchase flow and pay via their Ethereum wallet at checkout. The merchant can configure their store to accept ETH, Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, any Ethereum token that they want, or both. Dshop has integrations with Stripe and PayPal for merchants who want to accept traditional forms of payment. Dshop also supports cash and manual payment methods.

Customer and order details are encrypted with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). The resulting hash and Ethereum payment transaction hash is sent to the Origin Dshop backend for verification. For a credit card payment, only the order details and transaction information are sent. This data is then downloaded and decrypted, which enables the merchant to send notification emails and fulfill orders.

Prerequisites

An AWS account

Solution walkthrough

Here is a step-by-step guide to launching a Dshop store. For more information, see the full documentation with images and support on GitHub.

Step 1: Deploying Dshop

Here is how to deploy your Dshop storefront. The first step involves subscribing to Dshop in AWS Marketplace and deploying it on an EC2 instance. Follow these steps to start the process of setting up your own Dshop.

Step 1.1 Subscribing to Dshop

1. Go to the Origin Protocol Dshop solution in AWS Marketplace.
2. Choose Continue to Subscribe.
3. Accept the AWS terms of service if necessary. After a few minutes, you see the license effective date instead of Pending.
4. Choose Continue to Configuration.
5. Choose the version that you want to run and the Region that you want to deploy to. The latest version is generally preferred.
6. Choose Continue to Launch.

Step 1.2 Deploying Dshop on the EC2 instance

1. For Choose Action, choose Launch from Website.
2. Choose your instance type. A minimum of 1 GB of RAM and 10 GB disk is recommended, which is equivalent to at least a t2.micro. Make sure that your security group has ports 80 and 443 open so that you can access the admin.
3. Select the VPC and subnet for the deployment of the new instance. The default settings are recommended. To use SSH access with the EC2 instance, choose a security group with port 22 open.
4. Choose a key pair from the available list.
5. If you do not have a key pair, go to the EC2 console. In the navigation pane, under NETWORK & SECURITY, choose Key Pairs. Choose Create key pair.
6. Return to the solution page and choose Launch.

Step 2: Configuring the domain and the Dshop node

Next, you configure the domain settings to work with the Dshop node. This allows visitors to navigate to your storefront. For more information, follow the instructions in Working with records in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

Step 2.1 Configuring the domain

1. Get the IP address assigned to your new instance from the EC2 console.
2. In the Route 53 console, select the zone you want to add this record to. The zone is your domain name. Choose Create record. You will create a new A record pointing at this address.
3. Choose Simple Routing.
4. Define the record, for example api.mydomain.com This is the backend administration URL and used as the shop’s backend. It is not the domain that your customers use to view the store.
5. Choose Create records.
6. In a few minutes, you can access the Dshop onboarding page by navigating to api.mydomain.com (or your chosen record) in your browser.

Step 2.1 Configuring the Dshop node

1. In a browser window, navigate to api.mydomain.com or your chosen record, and then enter your name and email address.
2. For the password, use the instance ID. For example, i-08bd2cff62ea24048.
3. In a new browser window, configure the server by following this. Use the EC2 instance ID as your initial password.

Stpe 3: Creating the Dshop store

After launching the Dshop node and configuring the domain, you can create and customize the Dshop storefront.

Step 3.1 Choosing the payment settings

1. In a new browser window, go to api.mydomain.com and enter your credentials.
2. Choose Settings and then Payments.
3. To accept cryptocurrency payments, under Cryptocurrency Payments, choose Connect or enter an Ethereum wallet address manually. Skip this step if you do not want to accept cryptocurrency payments.
4. Optionally, you can connect your Stripe or PayPal account and accept credit card payments. An Ethereum wallet isn’t required.
5. To save the settings and return to the home page, choose Update.

Step 3.2 Customizing the store

1. To create item listings, choose Products.
2. To create public collections of certain product types to help customers navigate your listings, choose Collections. These collections appear on the storefront.
3. To customize the look and feel of the store, choose Themes.
4. To configure third-party integrations, manage shipping and tax settings, or access other advanced features, choose Settings.
5. When you are finished, choose Publish Changes.

Cleanup

After you have finished, delete the deployed resources to prevent incurring ongoing costs. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Delete the EC2 instance that you set up to launch the Dshop.

2. Delete the Route 53 records associated with your Dshop.

Conclusion

In this blog post, I show how to launch a custom storefront that enables decentralized payments. You can accept cryptocurrency payments for your listings and start doing business globally without setting up accounts at payment processors or merchant banks.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

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