Rojin Nair, Advisor
June 1st, 2021
At Incyub8 Inc, Rojin is focusing on nurturing and guiding various national and international start-[...]
Category Archives: Fintech Interviews and Podcasts
Influential economist Daron Acemoglu: Forward Thinking on technology and political economy
McKinsey Global Institute | Michael Chui and Anna Bernasek | Jul 14, 2021
The influential economist connects the dots between artificial intelligence, productivity, wages, and inequality, and how to counterbalance the impacts of automation.
In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, hosts Michael Chui and Anna Bernasek speak with Daron Acemoglu. Daron is a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a coauthor (with James A. Robinson) of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, and the author of many influential academic papers. His research covers a range of topics, including political economy, economic development, economic growth, technological change, inequality, labor economics, and economics of networks.
Michael Chui: Can you state simply what was wrong about the way that economists thought about technology?
Daron Acemoglu: There are three interrelated things about it. One is actually its descriptive realism. And a good, rich model has to have close connection with the data. And if you look at the way that economists think about technology, it’s this latent variable that makes you just more productive. But very few technologies actually do that. Electricity didn’t make workers more productive. It made some functions in factories more feasible, and some few items more productive. A hammer doesn’t make you more productive in everything. It makes you just more productive in one single, simple task—hammering a nail.
See: Getting tangible about intangibles: The future of growth and productivity?
But the second is that it may well be that computers augment educated workers more than high school dropouts, so inequality can increase. But at the end you shouldn’t see the high school dropouts lose out. Their real wages shouldn’t decline. And the real wages of workers shouldn’t decline. But, in fact, one of the striking but very robust features of the last 40 years of economic development in the US and the UK has been that many groups, especially low-education or middle-education men, have actually seen their earnings fall, some groups by as much as 25 percent, in real terms, since 1980. Phenomenal. This isn’t the American dream. You can have productivity improvements—capital benefits, firms benefit, but workers, especially some types of workers, all workers overall can lose out in real terms.
And then third, it’s not just whether we’re going to increase the productivity of skilled workers versus unskilled workers, both of which benefit all of them since they are complementary. It’s more like, are we going to completely give up on unskilled workers? Are we going to try to replace them? Are we going to try to replace humans? Are we going to create new tasks for humans? How are you going to use the AI platform? All of these questions about the direction of technology become much more alive, and then also the productivity implications become much more interesting.
Michael Chui: It comes in different forms, but in 20 years, 60 percent of the jobs that will exist will be ones you’ve never heard of. And we’ve tried to uncover that, and it seems that that rate of change in occupations, and even tasks and activities, is quite a bit slower than that. What is your research saying?
Daron Acemoglu: That’s exactly what I’m talking about. We haven’t done enough of that. We don’t have the same detailed data, but at a more ocular, statistics level, at high level in the 1920s and ’30s, it’s much faster. We do have many new tasks. It’s not like we don’t have any, but they are not enough, exactly. That is the imbalance that I’m talking about.
See: AI Will Transform 500 Million White-Collar Jobs In 5 Years; Silicon Valley Must Help
Michael Chui: Are we just not inventive enough to come up with new tasks? Or do we need universal basic income, because we’ve come up to such a pace?
Daron Acemoglu: That brings me to my second explanation. It’s not that we have this imbalance because we have suddenly found much better ways of doing automation, doing machines, doing algorithms. Perhaps it is that we are inefficiently biasing our direction of technology. You can think that perhaps the possibilities offered to us haven’t changed, but because of who’s making the decisions, incentives, institutions, aspirations, we have gone more and more in an inefficient direction of doing too much automation and not enough of the other things.
Let me give you one example. I don’t think it’s the most important example, but let me give you one example to explain what I mean. Our tax system, if you look at today, if a company buys a machine to displace workers, it will pay about a 5 percent tax on the spending on that machine. If instead you hire the workers, you’ll pay something like 25 percent to 30 percent tax.
The US tax system provides an enormous subsidy to firms to buy the machines and replace the workers. Did this subsidy exist before? Yes. But much, much smaller. In the 1990s, the difference was 25 percent to 15 percent to 20 percent. So we are increasingly subsidizing firms to automate. If you have many incentives like this—and we can talk about what the other ones are, which are softer perhaps, but are no less important in my opinion—then you’re going to go more in the direction of automation. You’re going to leave lots of low-hanging fruit. And those low-hanging fruit might have been very important for that productivity improvement.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
 |  |  |
FFCON21 ON-DEMAND VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE! Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
EasyFi CEO on Current Lending and Borrowing Issues and Comments on DeFi
EasyFi is a universal layer-2 lending platform focused on improving the landscape of lending and borrowing digital assets. It is an open network infrastructure that facilitates peer-to-peer and cross-chain asset settlements. In a first-of-its-kind in the DeFi space, users’ creditworthiness is being appraised by EasyFi using a protocol called TrustScore.
Crowdfund Insider reached out to Ankitt Gaur, the founder and CEO of EasyFi, and discussed the current issues and bottlenecks in the lending and borrowing space. Gaur also shed light on the concerns of dApps built on Ethereum and how the future looks for layer-2 based alternatives. Furthermore, he detailed how he views the DeFi space to evolve in the next 5 years and how EasyFi is working towards embracing the changes.
Crowdfund Insider: Decentralized lending protocols have become widely-adopted with the introduction of highly popular flash loans and other widely-used DeFi products. What future potential do you see for the DeFi space in the next five years?
Ankitt Gaur: In the DeFi space, five years is a very long time. So, even if DeFi turns mainstream and replaces traditional systems, it won’t be a surprise for me given its tremendous potential. Also, if the past 6 months are anything to go by, DeFi is looking at astronomical growth. And this growth is not only about the mass adoption, but also about the huge influx of DeFi applications and solutions.
See: Open Finance data adoption varies by country (but one thing is certain)
To date, the majority of crypto users are interested in speculating, rather than underlying technology. The latter is what defines the true value of a project. So, in the coming years, I foresee huge investments made for user education. By this, users shall understand better the tech behind a DeFi solution and its use cases. So, I believe project fundamentals will drive the value of the currencies and not the trends.
Five years from now, I’d love to see DeFi solutions being the first option in certain financial verticals. Also, my best guess is that the major banks and financial institutions would have embraced DeFi solutions and make use of yields & liquidity generated by DeFi. The coexistence of traditional methods and DeFi sounds exciting to me. And this creates a window for regulations to come into action. Nothing groundbreaking, but I see it as bringing more security and credibility to space which is beneficial.
Crowdfund Insider: Ethereum based platforms are currently dominating the DeFi industry. Which protocols and platforms are the ones to watch closely at this time and why?
Ankitt Gaur: Despite Ethereum’s growing transaction fees and time, I believe Eth-based DeFi solutions shall continue to thrive in the near future. The proposed Eth 2.0 and its complete implementation is at least a couple of years away. Rightfully so, users and devs alike are looking out for alternatives to Ethereum.
See: OpenSea best month ever, NFT Avatars trend continuation, and Web 3.0 tipping point
This is exactly where ventures like Polkadot, Optimistic Rollups, ZK Rollups, Arbitrum and Polygon (previously MATIC) are gaining traction. Being layer 2 blockchain networks, they provide a more user-friendly experience with regard to speed and transaction costs. The reason I am keen on scaling solutions that are not trying to replace Ethereum but to augment it. And I see this as a win-win situation for all.
The versatility and robustness of Ethereum, coupled with the low latency of these platforms is truly how the DeFi industry can evolve and grow. Currently, blockchain networks are working on interoperability which shall open the door for a plethora of DeFi solutions to complement one another. Moreover, this will improve the accessibility of financial products in the future. And we all know that ease of access is an important factor behind the adoption of DeFi solutions.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
| | |
FFCON21 ON-DEMAND VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE!Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
Fintech Fridays EP54: How Digital Identity will Transform Human Potential
NCFA Canada | Jul 9, 2021
JOIN US ON A STORYTELLING JOURNEY EVERY FRIDAY.
EP54: How Digital Identity will Transform Human Potential
Featured Guest:
DAVID LUCATCH, Co-Founder, Director and President, Liquid Avatar Technologies Inc. (LinkedIn)
About Liquid Avatar Technologies Inc.
Liquid Avatar Technologies Inc. focuses on the verification, management and monetization of Self Sovereign Identity, empowering users to control and benefit from the use of their online identity.
The Liquid Avatar Mobile App, available in the Apple App Store and Google Play is a verified Self Sovereign Identity platform that empowers users to create high quality digital icons representing their online personas. These icons allow users to manage and control their digital identity and Verifiable Access and Identity Credentials, and to use Liquid Avatars to share public and permission based private data when they want and with whom they want.
The Company has a suite of early stage revenue generating programs that support the Liquid Avatar Mobile App program, including KABN KASH, a cash back and reward program that has over 500 leading online merchants and coming soon, an integrated offering engine. In Canada, the Company also has the KABN Visa Card, a "challenger financial" platform that allows users to manage and control a range of financial services for traditional and digital currencies. The Company is currently exploring expansion of the KABN Visa Card program to other geographic regions, including the USA. The Company's subsidiary, Oasis Digital Studios, is a creative and development agency that supports a wide range of artists, talent, and enterprises with Non-Fungible Token (NFT) solutions.
Liquid Avatar Technologies Inc. is publicly listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) under the symbol "LQID" (CSE:LQID).
The Company also trades in the United States under the symbol "LQAVF" and in Frankfurt under the symbol "4T51".
If you have not already joined our mailing list and would like to receive updates on Liquid Avatar Technologies Inc., please click hereto join!
For more information, please visit www.liquidavatartechnologies.com
About this episode:
On this episode, show host Anna Niemira sits down with guest David Lucatch of Liquid Avatar Technologies Inc. They discuss the ins and outs of digital identity and it's transformative potential for both consumers and businesses. Enjoy!
Subscribe and tune in each Friday to check out the latest movers and shakers in fintech. Listen to more podcasts here:
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3
Fintech Friday Transcript of Episode 54: David Lucatch of Liquid Avatar Technologies Inc.
Intro: Welcome to fintech Friday's a weekly podcast brought to you by the National Crowdfunding and Fintech Association of Canada and partners. Covering all things fintech, blockchain, AI and alternative finance.
Anna Niemira: [00:00:04] Hello and welcome to the NCFA Canada summer edition of the Fintech Fridays Podcast. NCFA is a leading community-based FinTech and crowdfunding association driven to advance innovation finance sectors. This is Anna Niemira. I am today's podcast host. Our podcast introduces remarkable people from the FinTech community and showcases industry trends and developments. You can always refer to the past episodes by visiting our website to connect with our incredible guests and their stories. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's podcast. We are thrilled to welcome our guest, David Lucatch of Liquid Avatar Technologies, which is a high-quality, digital, image-based Personal Passport containing public and securely managed private information that users can choose to share when they want and include only the information they want simply by sharing their image. David, great to have you here to discuss, especially nowadays, an engaging topic.
David Lucatch: [00:01:21] Thank you. And it's a pleasure to be here.
Anna Niemira: [00:01:24] Great to have you here once again. Let's talk a bit about digital identity. It's a little bit controversial topic, and I'm sure that our listeners would like to know a little bit more about it. What is a digital identity and how it is different from what we have right now?
David Lucatch: [00:01:48] Well, it's a good question. And I don't know that I would qualify as controversial, but I would try to qualify as innovative. Digital identity is really taking the paper or electronic data that you have now that represents yourself and it could be as something as a paper-based or card-based doing something like your driver's license and electronic could be a username and password and taking those to a digital state where, you know, we're using blockchain technology to ensure that you have absolute control over its use and functionality.
Anna Niemira: [00:02:29] Well, recently, during the last few months, we've been talking, media was talking about cyberattacks, there were some issues. So, when we have everything digitally that possibly can represent some danger for us, that our data can be stolen. So what is the level of security pertaining to our data stored digitally?
David Lucatch: [00:02:55] Well, again, I mentioned something a minute ago and that, again, is a really good question. The key behind security is, how does someone access the data and as we found, unfortunately, you know, organizations were able to find on the dark web CRA username and passwords. So what we've done is installed biometrics. So, for you to manage to control your digital identity in your digital credentials are verifiable credentials. We use techniques that require you to identify yourself biometrically. And where we start with that is with facial recognition. Now, one would argue, well, you know, we could use a fingerprint, we could use a retina and we could use all these different tools. But when we're verifying someone's identity, the easiest thing to start with is something that is easily recognizable. And there's very few pieces of identity that you have that have your fingerprint or your retina or anything else. But there is identity documentation that you have that has your picture on it. So, when we start with the know the customer process, know your customer process or KYC, and identifying an individual so that they can store, manage, and control digital identity, we start with the basics and with a piece of identity that will have an image on them that we can cross-reference. And then we store a digital map of your face.
Anna Niemira: [00:04:21] Well, we know that KYC, it's rather a complicated process. And this is the issue a lot of companies are dealing with, and individuals, every single time you're going somewhere, you have to show your I.D. It's it's troublesome. You have to pull a bunch of papers to prove your identity. So what are the exact user's benefits from holding a digital ID versus a traditional one?
David Lucatch: [00:04:52] Well, first of all, it's there's a lot of convenience. You know, we use our mobile phone for everything, so it means we don't have to carry everything everywhere. Now, I want to be clear about this. We don't store data on the phone. We are cloud-based. And so at the end of the day, you know, everything is in the cloud. So your phone is sort of the gateway to your phone is lost, stolen or compromised, we're not going to end up, you know, having data compromised because your phone was lost or stolen. But what are the benefits to a user is very simple that they have control over the data in a way that they've never had control before. Let me use an example for, let's say, a young person who walks in and wants to buy something that is age-restricted. They generally have to show a piece of identity that has their image on it and their name and all their usually their address and usually, you know, is a driver's license. And that's too much information to show for a verification of age where a digital credential would pass back and forth between the individual and the organization wishing to verify that and the user could only provide at that time the fact that they were over, for example, in the province of Ontario, they were 19 or over. And so it really makes data more controllable by the individual. We don't have to give out pieces of information that are not relevant to a transaction. It also makes it easier for an organization to ensure that the people that they are engaging with are who they say they were. And we can take that in, which I'm sure you'll ask questions about, but from a business standpoint, it means I'm only dealing with real people now. I'm not dealing with fake people, you know, multiple personalities or multiple usernames and, you know, bots. So there's a lot of value in the equation and a lot of convenience and it would mean that I don't have to remember any of my passwords anymore. So I don't know how many passwords you have, but I have a lot of passwords. And remembering them or using a system to control them can be dangerous. If I could just use my biometrics in conjunction with a verifiable credential, it would make it so much simpler to get into, for argument's sake, my bank account.
Anna Niemira: [00:07:16] Yes. So, is this technology going to make our world much more organized?
David Lucatch: [00:07:25] I think I think organized is one. It's going to make it more convenient, it's going to be easier and faster and if used properly by all parties, it will make it safer as well. You know, there are many regulations around the world, starting in Europe with something called GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation that has changed the way that we deal with data even around the world because many countries have adopted the basic principles and are enhancing those principles of GDPR. California has done that, Canada is looking at it with the updates in PIPEDA. So identity is changing and we've now got to download that requirement to manage that data, the consumer, or the user. So we're stepping in, we're helping the consumer by providing them tools and services that allow them to better manage to control that identity. But we don't own it. We don't rent it. We don't sell it. It's all under the control of the user.
Anna Niemira: [00:08:27] Yes. Well, there's one thing certain in life, and it has been proved true, throughout the centuries, that the only constant is change. So naturally, we are changing how we deal with our ID as well and how we use it. So how exactly can we manage our digital ID?
David Lucatch: [00:08:51] Well, like wallet for currency or for other pieces of identity. And I'm going to try and make it very easy. If I ask you to go into, you know, your wallet or for some people a satchel or a purse or whatever the case may be, you're going to have ID, you're likely going to have some cash or change on you, whatever it is, you're going to have different things that you already control. And so the process is effectively the same. Instead of having it in a conventional wallet, you know, you might have a wallet for your identity and you might have a wallet for your money or change or whatever the case would be. You're also going to have a wallet for your identity, and that'll be an electronic wallet in which you can control various aspects of your data. Now, some of us are already used to doing that with things like Apple Pay and Google Pay. But those are two things. One, those are edge-based. So they sit on on a phone. And two, there is a third party that controls them. Apple or Google has the right to tell you what can go in those what can't go in them. And they have the right to manage a lot of the data that goes that's being dealt with in there in. In our system you manage and control all of that. We only provide the tools for you to do that. So it is a completely self-sovereign identity. It is independent and independently managed. And so you will have a wallet which your employer might give you a credential similar to the card that you might use to enter a facility. But now it'll be a digital credential that sits in a wallet that is accessible by your phone. It might be your driver's license, it might be your student identity. It might be a bus pass or transport pass. There are so many different things that we use, again, username and passwords that this will be a wallet which you control and we provide biometric control that you control with your face and other aspects that allow you to manage all your identity in a very simple and easy manner.
Anna Niemira: [00:10:56] Hmm. Well, that's, actually, that's fantastic. That's definitely very easy to use and very convenient. So what is that what is the implementation process?
David Lucatch: [00:11:07] Well, right now, users, and I want to stress that there are three parties in this process. There is a holder or someone who as an individual holds all their credentials. There is an author or issuer, an organization that issues those credentials. And so like a bank or an employer or a government. And then there are what we call verifiers and verifiers are those that want to make sure that the information you're providing or for to give you to verify your identity, your access, or your qualifications are correct. And I'll talk about something for a moment as I go through the implementation process but we call those three organizations the holder, the issuer, and the verifier part of what we call a trust triangle. And a very interesting but simple to understand the use case of the trust triangle, a process that is not digital identity, but one that we all deal with on a regular basis is if I walked into a grocery store and I filled my basket with goods and I walked a walk to the checkout, I'd likely use, in most cases debit or credit. And when I swipe, tap or insert my card, I'm now creating a relationship as a holder of that card with the supermarket, which is trying to verify my card, and my bank, which is the issue of my card, so we're used to doing this every day. And once I start that process, the verifier asks if I want to continue with it. The bank verifies it and then says, yep, David has the money or David has the credit in which to proceed with this transaction. But hold on a second. We just want to make sure it's David, so, David, can you enter your pin so that we do all of that and then I get my groceries and I walk out of the store in the transaction is completed and it's gone. Digital identity works the same way except the challenge might be that I'm asked to prove with my face that I am who I say I am. So it's a very similar process to what we're using today. So the implementation process follows that. So the government, or like the Ontario government is proposing that by the end of the year, the issue, some type of digital identity. BC is working on it or Quebec is already started with QR codes on covid credentials. There are lots of different organizations that are starting to issue digital credentials. And you'll see the implementation process will be that the issuer will issue a credential. The holder will hold that credential in their wallet, and they will go to locations where they need to be verified. And we're developing an onboarding process not just for the consumer, but both for the the author, those organizations that want to author credentials. So we SAS model for business and we're working also on the verification process that SAS business model as well, or software as a service where verifiers will be able to easily verify a digital credential. But it is still fairly early days. And if you think about an example, as Tesla builds more and more cars, they're putting in more and more charging stations. So you're the infrastructure is going to take on a life of its own and build very quickly because, you know, up to now digital identity or identity on the Internet, it's been a very, very large challenge.
Anna Niemira: [00:14:23] Right, since you actually mentioned the timing - so that is still developing and it's still growing for further implementation. So how far away we are from the general worldwide implementation of digital identification?
David Lucatch: [00:14:42] Well, Australia is already issuing digital birth certificates. So, you know, we think of ourselves, the North American, a bit of a bubble, but we are not leaving this for those that are old enough to remember, you know, for years, you could buy a can of pop or soda, depending on how you phrase it, in a vending machine using your phone in Europe and in Asia but you can't do it in North America. So everybody's trying to adapt quite quickly because if you think about the value proposition to business and the value proposition of businesses is let's look at the credit card and identity fraud industry that globally is a 30 billion dollar industry. In North America alone, it's about 12 billion dollars. Now, I can use my card online. I could give my daughter my card and she could use it online. So it doesn't take a lot of sophistication to use someone else's card. And so, you know, there's very little information you need to know about the person in the car to to be able to use it. But what if I said to you, every time you use the card over a certain limit, even in e-commerce, you know, the organization, the issuer would ping you to ensure with your face that this is your card. I mean, if the value proposition of business is is so immense, it's so immense. But until recently, technology didn't exist. So we're seeing everywhere, especially, you know, we talk about, you know, covid credentials. And there was a survey that just came up by travel week that showed that a significant I think it was well over 80 percent of respondents agreed that if necessary, willingly and if necessary, they would easily use a vaccination passport. So one of one of the primary opportunities for digital identity is creating digital identity in conjunction with test results or vaccine results so that everybody can easily travel again. And so there is this movement very quickly to get this onboard and work with it so we can get industry and lives back to normal.
Anna Niemira: [00:16:47] So when we talking about the businesses and when we are talking about the advantages for the businesses, often, it pertains to making money. So how those businesses, the implementation of the digital I.D. process is going to be beneficial for these companies when are we talking about modern monetary advantages?
David Lucatch: [00:17:17] That is a great question. So is it revenue-driven? Is it cost savings driven? Is it a bottom line? So I'm going to focus on the bottom line. So you know, how businesses make more money. So I think we would agree that if people could freely travel again, the travel industry would benefit from that in all facets. The hospitality industry would benefit, the entertainment industry would benefit. For those organizations to make more money, they're going to have to implement controls that are going to ensure that people are safe to enter a facility. And to do so, we have a system that is very, very nominal costing. It's zero cost for the consumer. We never charge a consumer for any of our technology. Our business partners have to for that that that cost. And it becomes a revenue generator for us. But on the business side, we've got processes that allow even small restaurants and organizations to eventually be able to implement this, so that they can get back to making more money. The world has changed and we have to change with it. So we're all about getting people back to normal and kick-starting the economy so that people can make money from the services that they currently offer or did offer.
Anna Niemira: [00:18:38] Right, so we're talking about, most right now, using for mobility and operability as well that, you know, the businesses can operate and also individuals can simply use it for easy transition and going to places and they have proof of vaccination, they have proof of the I.D. and the entire process, which right now seems to be very complicated, eases up. So that's what it is.
David Lucatch: [00:19:08] Well, that's one example. I think that's an easy example for people to embrace. But I think for the for for for the payment industry, it is a massive advantage because of the networks because, you know, fraud would diminish. So it's about identity. And we look at three different things. It's about identity, access, and qualifications. So for identity, where identity is required, let's say, you know, let's take a cannabis retailer. Cannabis retailer is under strict guidelines to make sure that they sell only to people who are above age that has a certain qualification and age qualification so that their business can be in jeopardy if they don't follow those rules and there are only as strong as the weakest link. So what happens when a clerk decides I'll just sell it anyways and inspectors there and they get caught? They can lose the right to do business. But if it was required in the transaction process that you verify age and use digital identity, that would be another solution to keep businesses on the road. But I think of it this way. If you think about identity, access, and qualification and a very simple example is a doctor enters a hospital to check-in. They provide their digital credential for their identity, verifies that they are who they say they are, they that their access qualification is already there, that they have privileges in that hospital and their qualification is up to date and they can perform surgery in that hospital. So there are lots of different opportunities within a number of different sectors. But I think that the because it's self-sovereignty, because it's blockchain based and because it's trusted, or trustless, I'm sorry, not trusted, but trustless this will implement very quickly because it hasn't existed before and it makes our entire world safer and more efficient.
Anna Niemira: [00:21:05] Right, so there's definitely additional value creation. So we are addressing also legal issues here, administration issues, academic issues. So practically everything can be, any aspect of our life, can be in our digital identity and it can be addressed all the time. But at the same time, is it not too much information accumulated in one spot?
David Lucatch: [00:21:32] Actually, it's completely decentralized. I would argue the contrary. So right now, corporations know everything about us because they own all the data. They own all the identity information. You know, I walk in somewhere and they want all my information about me before I do something. They may only need a small sliver of my information and they might only need it temporarily to create to complete a transaction. So I think it's completely the opposite. All these systems are designed to ensure that me, as the owner of my data, I am in control of that. I am in control of all my information. I only provide certain information to complete a transaction, not to pass data, but to complete a transaction. So a good example of that would be the grocery store never keeps my pin. They don't know my pin, but I need to provide that piece of information to complete the transaction. So what if that pin for that particular transaction was an age verification or an access verification that I am entitled to be able to come in here? It doesn't mean that that a facility needs to keep that information. They've just verified that that information is true. So I would argue vehemently that this provides the the ecosystem with less data and less control over me and more control in my hands.
Anna Niemira: [00:22:55] So you mentioned that there are biometrics and facial recognition used for using digital identification. And then we have to share it with businesses when we're doing certain transactions. Does it not represent the danger that we are sharing the information with them? Or, is the system working in the way that we are still holding this completely and we are just using this for the confirmation with other companies, getting that confirmation without getting our biometrics out or our facial recognition information, or any other data?
David Lucatch: [00:23:34] It's the latter. It's the fact that they never get that information. It is again, like a pin. It's the challenge. It's the answer to the challenge. So if, you know, if we don't add to a verification process, a challenge and it could be authenticator, doesn't have to be biometrics. There are other opportunities as well. One-time passwords. There's lots of different situations. But we don't add that. We're not adding an additional level of security. So, again, when you are typing in your pin unless somebody is standing in front of you looking at it or copying it, nobody gets your pin. So facial recognition is a map, not your picture, but the map behind facial recognition is a way to create a verification, just like a fingerprint that you use or a thumbprint use on a phone. We won't go into phone technology, but, you know, we're not we're not storing that for the purposes that map for the purposes of identification. We're storing, using it for the purposes of verification.
Anna Niemira: [00:24:42] So this is actually going to be a lot of changes in regards to the business environment as well because the businesses will have to embrace consumers' rights to manage and control their identity, the personal information. So how businesses can embrace it?
David Lucatch: [00:25:02] Well, I'm going to go back to a story. And it's quite a few years ago. So it's almost 25 years ago. It's probably twenty-three, twenty-four. So my team in the late 90s, I led a team that actually worked with the data providers, Visa, MasterCard, and Canadian banks to develop the way that people type in their credit card online. And it didn't exist before that. Somebody had to invent it and I like to say I think our team was the ones that did it. And for Canada. So before that, no one ever shopped online. So people were telling me left, right, and center, no one is ever going to shop online. I don't think we would say the same thing today. You know, we weren't going to register for courses online. I talked to the University of Toronto, which is my alma mater, in two thousand and eight, 2009, about doing digital lectures online and they basically said no one is ever going to do digital lectures online. So we, as you said, the only constant is change and so I think this is a process that creates value, it gets people back to work, back to play, back to travel. So I think everybody wants to find the fastest route to that and because it is built on open standards and it is going to be effectively affordable to everyone. I mean, we're working on situations with our competitors in this field. What if someone doesn't have a digital identity? How are they going to be able to do things that those with digital identity. So inclusion. But frankly, the Internet was not fast enough. It wasn't technologically developed enough. And the technology around it to ensure that identity was a process, we sort of threw that out the way. Now that it's coming full force, I think we're going to have to reckon our ability to deal with it very quickly.
Anna Niemira: [00:27:05] Yes, you brought actually a very good issue because, in the Fintech, in general, there is this division between banked and unbanked. And also, that seems to me, that the same is important also for digital identity as well. When we're talking about a global aspect to it. They are still the regions in the world that have trouble accessing the Internet. However, most the people nowadays have phones. So if we can implement digital I.D., then most likely that can be also used in those different regions in the world and you can expand to different geographical regions, which right now are limited when it comes to access to bank or some businesses or some other industries as well.
David Lucatch: [00:28:04] I agree. If you look at we if we look at the Internet today, we look at services are available to one hundred percent of the addressable to 100 percent of the online market. And the first one we would say is, is search. I think everyone online uses search, in one form or another. You pick the search engine that you like and you generally, at one point in time during the day, are looking for something. We all use electronic communications. We're doing that right now. We're doing a podcast, you know, over electronic means, over the Internet. You know we all use a browser. I don't think anyone doesn't use a browser. There are very few that might not. But I think everyone uses browsers. So I think those three services are addressable to one hundred percent of the market. Our belief and obviously everyone has to do their own due diligence and anything they're doing. But our belief is that digital identity is addressable to 100 percent of the market because everyone online is a person and young old will eventually have to do identity. And we're even putting in safeguards. We're building new technologies that will allow parents to be able to create, you know, data guardianship for their for their children. And in the event of a challenge or problem or situation that an individual wants to be able to manage, they can have a second or signed somebody who could get into their digital identity in the event that there was an issue or unfortunately, a demise, because we don't want necessarily our social media profiles living on forever. And we do want to be able to get into some of our bank accounts of someone to get into bank accounts if necessary. But again, they would have to qualify. They would have to provide biometrics. There's a whole process, but they have their own digital identity to be able to cross-reference. But at the end of the day, I think this is an inclusive process that covers not only North America, which covers the online population, representing about 90 percent of the people in North America, but it covers over five billion people worldwide.
Anna Niemira: [00:30:11] Right. So in consideration that all this information is going to be stored on our mobiles, at least for now.
David Lucatch: [00:30:19] No, no, it's not stored on your mobile.
Anna Niemira: [00:30:22] It's also the cloud. That's right. Let me rephrase that. We are using our mobiles to access the cloud and then provide our information. When will we need eventually some different equipment to do it, or for the expansion and to facilitate also easier usability, or will phone always represent that tool we need to access our digital ID?
David Lucatch: [00:30:55] Well, let me be clear. It's any Internet-enabled device that has a camera on it. So would be a laptop, a tablet, a mobile phone, and so as foreign factors and technologies become more pervasive, the way to access your information will become more engaging as well. So, you know, we've heard stories of virtual reality. We're already working with augmented reality. So, you know, as technology becomes more intriguing, faster, better digital identity will keep up with that because it's the credential behind who you are, not what you use to prove who you are.
Anna Niemira: [00:31:39] Right. So, definitely, in consideration of what has happened in 2020, we are looking for different solutions for urgent issues that we have at hand. And definitely, the digital I.D. provides a venue for us to explore it and get back on track, as you said, back to normal and start our lives once again from a different perspective. But how you can see this develop and expand in the future? Because we are addressing current issues, but then we have five, ten years from now. So in your opinion, how this can expand and help us in our lives, help us when it comes to businesses? What is your point of view about it?
David Lucatch: [00:32:34] Well, obviously, I'm a big proponent of it. And we're already looking, you know, down the road at where virtual reality comes in play, the metaverse comes in play, how this will open up new doors for the medical industry, the educational industry, the information services, e-commerce, gaming, whether it's e-sports or other types of games. So we travel. There are so many avenues for us to explore. What we're really focused on today is creating baseline products that a user can expand with. So based on the technology that's available today, we're building our solutions to manage the infrastructure that is available today. But we know that that that access to credentials will change. So we're not talking about changing necessarily the credential. So a driver's license has existed for, I would say probably 100 years. Its form may have changed slightly, might have gone from paper to plastic and then now to electronic and digital. But the process of having a driver's license has never changed. So we have to start with the baseline credentials and then work around how they will be implemented, presented, or how they will be issued or authored and verified, and how the user will or the holder will store them. So, we're again, we go back to that triangle between the holder, the issuer, and the verifier. And we're really focused on providing tools and services for each one of those parties and expanding the opportunities as their infrastructure expands.
Anna Niemira: [00:34:22] Right, so we're not changing the actual process, we just changing how we presenting that, right? So, as you mentioned, with the driver's license, the document stays as it was. It represents the same value and the point of identification, except how it is being presented. That it's going to be much more convenient and available for us and the businesses way.
David Lucatch: [00:34:54] I agree, 100 percent agree. You know, we businesses and individuals are used to change again. You know, a few short years ago, you couldn't take courses online. Now not only can take courses online between but you can take exams online. When we took our company public last year, in 2020, we've done it a number of times with other organizations in the past. You'd have to go into a lawyer's office and you'd have to sign everything. And they are all these folders. We did everything remotely using DocuSign. So so now that is a recognized way of signing documentation, so we're changing. What we have to do is, is work with that change to make it better for us and this is the really hard part. We're not only going to see changes in the way we do things, but we're going to see changes in responsibility. I'm going to be responsible for some of my data. And there are other companies out there that are giving users value propositions to partner with them, for them to sell the data and the user to get money from the use of the data. So there's lots of new industries being born out of this and a lot of new companies. And we believe based on our positioning and our, you know, acumen and our team, which is a phenomenal team, that that we hopefully have a leadership position in this industry.
Anna Niemira: [00:36:23] So, digital ID is one thing. The entire infrastructure about it, what it can be done with it in the future, and how it can go towards different industries, the possibilities we don't even know about right now. We cannot pinpoint it at the moment. It's just truly exponential.
David Lucatch: [00:36:45] I agree. There are many opportunities, again, not just for the holder of the credentials, but for the authorization, or the authoring of an issuing of credentials, and certainly within the verification of credentials. I think it will make, you know, it will make it easier for us to do things in more advantageous for us to engage in certain pieces or certain opportunities without having to give away all our rights or all our data.
Anna Niemira: [00:37:11] Yes. So at this moment, since we are rushing to have everything implemented right now and start with a digital identification, what is the most urgent issue that this industry needs to resolve to have this truly pushed forward and implemented on the global scale?
David Lucatch: [00:37:37] Travel. I think the first one will be travel and travel is driven by health and health records. So, I think the travel industry is probably, and the hospitality industry as well. So, you know, again, I could go on and on and on on this. But if I take the travel and hospitality industry, I think they can benefit the most initially from digital identity to ensure that users are safe to enter a facility, safe to travel, give comfort to others. So it's not just about my own safety, my own value, but it's the people around me. If I'm confident that the people on a bus or on a plane are safe to be there, then it'll increase my opportunity to want to do those things, or a restaurant, or a public event. So it's really about creating safety awareness. And I think the travel in the hospitality industry can be leaders in this this space.
Anna Niemira: [00:38:38] So hopefully the current world health issues will go away, but at the same time, we hope for the digital ID to stay because we have full control as individuals. It's easy to use, has really a lot of possibilities and it definitely eases up our lives. Particularly, we are living in a very busy world right now and we want to move and meet and be mobile, so digital ID actually gives us an access to travel, to do financial things and many other aspects of life, just all under one umbrella.
David Lucatch: [00:39:25] Yeah, I believe so. I think it's really important that we don't look at this as as a detriment to our ability to do things, but, you know, helps us open up new frontiers and gives us as individuals control over the data that has been for many years controlled by others. So it's an empowerment strategy. And it's one that hopefully consumers and again, issuers and verifiers will embrace. We're seeing that every day. I mean, every day we're seeing, you know, covid passports or vaccination passports. And we're seeing new opportunities for people to ditch the password or do this or do that. And so it's already underway. So, you know, sort of the train has left the station. It's just we've got to make sure everybody's onboard where the train is leaving the station. We've got to make sure everybody's onboard would be a better way for it.
Anna Niemira: [00:40:25] Yes. You used the word empowerment. And I really like that word. It just gives us additional possibilities and empowers us, as users, as well. And on that positive note, of the empowering note, I would like to thank you for joining us for today's podcast. I truly appreciate you sharing all the information and giving us details, how it works, how it can be used, and whatever questions people might have, we will be more than happy to hear it. And also as the company, will you be able to provide the information people can use it, visit Liquid Avatar, the website, correct?
David Lucatch: [00:41:16] Yeah, it's www.liquidavatartechnologies.com and they can fill out a contact sheet or, you know, they can reach out to me directly. And I'd be happy to speak to anybody who has any inquiries.
Anna Niemira: [00:41:32] So let's keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well, that everything is being implemented fast enough for us to start our lives as we had before it and enjoy them, but at the same time with new perspectives.
David Lucatch: [00:41:50] Absolutely, and it was a real pleasure being here today Anna and I thank you so much.
Anna Niemira: [00:41:54] Thank you so much. And ladies and gentlemen, that's a wrap. On behalf of the Fintech Friday's podcast we would like to thank David Lucatch of Liquid Avatar Technologies for joining us on the show and you for tuning in. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us. We always welcome your feedback. Once again, I'm inviting you to visit NCFA website to check out some of the fantastic past episodes. We look forward to having you next Friday for another episode of FinTech Fridays. Have a great weekend. Thank you so much.
Outro : you've been listening to Fintech Fridays brought to you by NCFA and partners. Tune in weekly for the latest fintech Friday podcast by subscribing to this channel. The National crowdfunding and Fintech Association of Canada is a non-profit actively engaged with social and investment fintech sectors around the globe and provide education research industry stewardship services and networking opportunities to thousands of members and subscribers. For more information please visit ncfacanada.org. Oh yeah.
End of Podcast
Subscribe and Listen to more Fintech Fridays podcasts here
Join NCFA's weekly Podcast series 'FINTECH FRIDAYS' where we sit down with the incredible people in the Fintech community and talk about leading fintech products innovations developments and challenges!
Interested in getting involved as a partner or participant? info@ncfacanada.org
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
| | |
FFCON21 ON-DEMAND VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE!Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
Task Force on Financial Stability: Report release
Brookings Institution and the Initiative on Global Markets at the Chicago Booth School of Business | Jun 29, 2021
For the past year and a half, the Task Force on Financial Stability has been identifying gaps in the financial regulatory architecture and other features of the financial system that make it insufficiently resilient to adverse developments. Co-sponsored by the Hutchins Center at Brookings and the Initiative on Global Markets at the Chicago Booth School of Business, the task force recommends ways to assure that the financial system can support economic growth even after the economy and financial system have been hit with a bad shock.
See: Cyber Risk is the New Threat to Financial Stability
The report focuses on vulnerabilities outside the regulated banking system—the U.S. Treasury market, clearinghouses, open-end mutual funds, and other markets and non-bank financial institutions—because the capital footings and regulation of banks were substantially strengthened after the global financial crisis. It also recommends ways to strengthen the regulatory structure and process.
At this report release event on June 29, the task force co-chairs, Glenn Hubbard and Don Kohn, summarized the task force’s findings and recommendations. Following their presentation, a panel that includes task force members and academic experts on finance discussed the recommendations and underlying financial stability issues.
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the 135 page PDF report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
| | |
FFCON21 ON-DEMAND VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE!Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
Doug Ellenoff on US Reg CF Increasing Issuer Caps to $5 million: Investment Crowdfunding Will Challenge Traditional Venture Capital
Crowdfund Insider | | Jun 15, 2021
The US investment crowdfunding industry received a boost this year as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adjusted the securities exemptions that platforms and issuers utilize to raise growth capital online. Along with other improvements, key changes include the adjustment of Reg CF (Regulation Crowdfunding) to allow for the funding of up to $5 million – from a previously anemic $1.07 million, and a boost to Reg A+ to up to $75 million from $50 million.
Many, if not most securities crowdfunding platforms, utilize the three main crowdfunding exemptions – Reg CF, Reg A+, and Reg D 506c. Reg D, currently available only to accredited investors, remains the most popular securities exemption in the US powering a $1 trillion private capital market.
Recently, Crowdfund Insider connected with Doug Ellenoff, Managing Partner of Ellenoff, Grossman, and Schole – a top legal firm engaged with the Fintech sector, as well as a leading SPAC advisor, for his thoughts on the future of online capital formation. Ellenoff has been engaged with securities crowdfunding since before the JOBS Act of 2012 emerged as the legislative path to legalize raising capital on a digital platform. Counsel to the Association of Online Investment Platforms, and a regular suspect within the halls of Congress and financial regulatory agencies, Ellenoff has long been an advocate for the emerging industry. CI asked Ellenoff for his expectations for the industry in the coming years.
Reg CF received a material boost from the SEC in March by increasing the funding cap to $5M. Beyond more money, how will this impact the ecosystem? More quality firms? What else?
Doug Ellenoff: Limiting Reg CF to a million served several regulatory functions, it contained the severity of any problems that may have arisen with investors had the program had inherent issues, it marginalized its utility to issuers and as a result stigmatized it as being “rink dink”. This caused large law firms, accounting firms, and investment firms to explain it away as something without much use and more of an amusing fad. The miscalculation though in my judgment was that entrepreneurs aren’t dissuaded by passive-aggressive roadblocks, they are emboldened, and used the 5 last years to demonstrate that the stated concerns for fraud were without statistical merit.
See: NCFA Response to CSA on NI 45-110 Harmonized Securities Crowdfunding Rules
If regulators and investor protection advocates were self-reflective, they’d go back and remind themselves of their standard narratives in 2012 and learn how misguided they were in frustrating the landmark legislation. The peddling of concerns of fraud were never legitimate for Reg CF and merely a tactic. Raising the $1mm threshold amount to $5mm is a simple and clear statement that the industry from the platform operators to the entrepreneurs have conducted themselves admirably because if they hadn’t, the program wouldn’t be poised for continued and expansive growth.
The $5mm cap will attract bigger and more interesting dealflow, addressing larger addressable markets, and likely but certainly no guarantee, quicker and larger exits.
Besides more entrants to becoming platforms, I’d expect more established capital markets professionals and firms to tiptoe in as well. At $1mm, you are competing directly with “friends and family” funding rounds, at $5mm you are becoming more competitive with smaller venture firms and family offices. It’s exciting and validating and the trajectory couldn’t be more clear.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
| | |
FFCON21 ON-DEMAND VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE!Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
Fintech Fridays EP53: Staying True to Bitcoin
NCFA Canada | Jun 4, 2021
JOIN US ON A STORYTELLING JOURNEY EVERY FRIDAY.
EP53: Staying True to Bitcoin
Featured Guest:
Guest: CHRIS NAPRAWA, President, TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. (LinkedIn)
About TAAL
TAAL is a global team of industry leading experts focused on creating the future of blockchain mining. We are on a mission to be the world’s largest, vertically integrated blockchain service provider. We take complex business operations and deliver turn-key solutions to enterprise clients, streamlining their entry into the industry. Currently we are managing and operating over 2,900 PH with a focus on SHA-256 coins with continued global fleet expansion strategies
For more information, please visit our website: https://www.taal.com/
CSE Symbol: TAAL
About this episode:
On this episode, our host Manseeb Khan sits down with Chris Naprawa the President of TAAL. They chat about what is Bitcoin SV, how crypto can save global warming, and how to stay true to Bitcoin. Enjoy!
Subscribe and tune in each Friday to check out the latest movers and shakers in fintech. Listen to more podcasts here:
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3
Fintech Friday Transcript of Episode 53: Chris Naprawa of TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc.
Intro: Welcome to fintech Friday's a weekly podcast brought to you by the National Crowdfunding and Fintech Association of Canada and partners. Covering all things fintech, blockchain, AI and alternative finance.
Manseeb Khan: [00:00:00] Today I got Chris from TAAL. Chris, Thank you so much for joining me today.
Chris Naprawa: [00:00:31] Great to be here. Happy Friday.
Manseeb Khan: [00:00:33] Happy Friday. I guess for the four or five people that may not know essentially who you are, what TAAL does?
Chris Naprawa: [00:00:45] All right. Well, I'll try to fit that into the next 45 minutes. So here's TAAL. Quite simply, we are a blockchain infrastructure player. So everybody understands infrastructure on the Internet, a whole bunch of computers and hosting, and all that sort of stuff in a data center. We're kind of like that, except for blockchain and blockchain right now, we believe is kind of like the Internet wasn't like nineteen ninety-six. You know, not a lot of people are using it right now, but I think everybody's going to be using it for absolutely everything and in the next three to five years. So, you know, our goal is to kind of be the the picks and shovels of this blockchain . Klondyke that's coming our way.
Manseeb Khan: [00:01:25] Yeah, it's extremely exciting what's kind of happening in the space right now, like it's this past. I mean, as I guess in the course of this entire pandemic, there's been a lot of interest in the Crypto and Blockchain space, which has been exciting, especially for a guy like me that's been having the show for a little over three years, But now everybody's very familiar with the lingo. I mean, people are starting NFTs. Left, right, and center, we're living in a very interesting and really great time for it to be the space.
Chris Naprawa: [00:02:09] One hundred percent. And maybe, you know, a smart guy like you can explain this NFT phenomenon to me.
Manseeb Khan: [00:02:16] Yeah. okay I'd love to, So these are essentially just digital art. Right. So in the future, are you going to see is instead of hype, instead of people having an original Mona Lisa or if it's a Van Gogh, they'll have these digital frames where people can have what they can create their own pieces of art. They'll have a one on one. So later down the line and probably the next 10 to 15 years are going to see digital frameworks of people owning like their own art. So we kind of like a rotating screensaver in a sense of the kind of art pieces that, you know, which is pretty interesting because, you know, it's not only 2D, also 3D is also very interactive. So that's another place of value for up-and-coming artists and investors. I guess,
Chris Naprawa: [00:03:00] Hopefully, with the original I've heard you burn them like the NFTE is the only copy.
Manseeb Khan: [00:03:06] Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So it just it's just a one-to-one kind of video. Right. Sort of just like as soon as it gets transferred over the original gets burnt. Yeah.
Chris Naprawa: [00:03:13] That must be hard as an artist.
Manseeb Khan: [00:03:15] I mean. Yeah, I mean I think about like, you know, going for like just creating the art all the way. It's like auctioning it to like I don't know my own art. No, it's, it's definitely super difficult as an artist. But I mean it is adapting. It is changing. It is relatively extremely new. Saw the guidelines and regulations haven't really been set in place for it to be, I guess, anything too crazy sense. Yeah.
Chris Naprawa: [00:03:41] Well, you know, I think that's, you know, that's thematic with kind of the tokenization of real-world things, you know, and not just money in art, but all kinds of other things and fractional ownership of things. And you know that tokenization when you start thinking about, you know, so many people using that in so many different ways and also an industry, what you really need is a robust platform or protocol that can handle all that traffic. And that's why, you know, that's why we're so dedicated to the Bitcoin S.V. protocol. Yeah. Because it scales up like crazy and it's super, super cheap. And I think they go for any protocol to work and going to go global. That's what it has to be. And, you know, as far as your imagination can take you on all these kinds of things where, you know, stock markets are going tokenized, all kinds of things, are getting tokenized where you can have partial ownership of things and it is real. And the blockchain really is, you know, a consensus tool. Right? It's a public ledger of truth. And that, you know, it can't be changed, especially on something like Bitcoin, S.V., which is a proof of work. Like once is there, it's there. And that's what makes so many of these applications so exciting.
Manseeb Khan: [00:04:55] Yeah, of course. I mean, that's a great segway into what Bitcoin S.V. is and I guess the emphasis on it, because, you know, if anybody kind of jumps on your website if anybody's following anything that you guys are doing, you guys are very, very bullish on Bitcoin SV. And just give us a rundown of what it is, how I got started, and essentially why you guys are so passionate about Bitcoin SV.
Chris Naprawa: [00:05:16] Listen. This should really be what the whole show is because there's going to be people online here today. They're going to just be hearing about Bitcoin, asking for the very first time and for people that are kind of committed to blockchain and bitcoin. And if they're curious, we might just ruin their weekend because they're going to be reading all weekend again and digging in and rolling up their sleeves to this. Oh, and I'm quite passionate about it. You're absolutely right. I think that's a great word about it, you know, even religious about it. So in 2008, there was a white paper called the Bitcoin White Paper, and it's right here on my desk. I keep it on the top of the pile, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. And it's very short. It's worth a read. I read it every week or so. And what it talks about there is this concept of electronic cash. And the word cash is really important to the whole central theme here. Right, because of cash, what is cash? Cash is a medium of trust. We trust each other. I can come and knock on your door and buy your bike for one hundred dollars you trust or I give you two redmen for that. You're good and we don't. So, so, so this whole DFI and decentralization. It has to be peer to peer for that to work, so you need this system of trust and the Bitcoin ASV is 100 percent true to the original white paper as it was designed. So the first papers written in 2008, the first block was mined in 2009. And then after that, things started to change on the BTC network. You know, I call that one the one that's trading at fifty-five or six thousand dollars. They call it BTC. I don't call it Bitcoin because it's not Bitcoin anymore. Something different.
Manseeb Khan: [00:06:56] Something different. Of course, it's something completely different, which is a So yeah.
Chris Naprawa: [00:07:01] It's not bitcoin. It's and they changed it and they change it for a whole bunch of reasons. Some of them were nefarious. Some of them are, you know, to get the node sizes down and all that sort of stuff. And then it started to morph into this kind of store of value and lost all its utility. It is functionally useless, that one. That's why they have exchanges and custodians and all these other things where it stopped being peer to peer. You know, what they really do is recreate a lot of the aspects of the financial system. And now all of a sudden we have intermediaries that we don't know and we shouldn't trust. And there are so many examples of why that doesn't work from Mt. Gox on forward, like there's just disaster after disaster, because people are buying things they don't understand for people that they don't trust. And sure enough, bad things happen. So if you restore to the original, which is which only happened a couple of years ago, now it's really working like it's really working. And we're seeing real adoption on this. There are all kinds of controversy around it. You know, the Ethereum group hates it. Why do they hate it so much? They hate it because it's a major threat to their network, because we can do everything, absolutely everything. Except it's faster and cheaper.
Manseeb Khan: [00:08:20] Everything and more, faster, cheaper. That's probably that's the main draw of it. Right. Is it's it's so much it's more versatile. It hasn't spun off to something that it's not of what Bitcoin is currently,
Chris Naprawa: [00:08:33] But it doesn't scale. Right. And they identify that. And now that's why they're working on 2.0 and they're moving away from proof of work into proof of stake. And they're trying to make all these compromises because the original design doesn't scale. And transaction costs on Ethereum are going last month average about sixteen, seventeen dollars this month like thirty dollars. Now, back it up just a second. If I'm if I am a young artist and I'm creating all kinds of art and I want to sell NFTs and I've got a blockchain that costs thirty dollars a transaction and I've got one that costs half a penny. Yeah, I might choose half a penny one hundred and not get all tied up in the politics of it. Of course. Of course. So, so. And we think millions of people are going to make that choice and certainly, lots of big industry are making that choice because so many of the great applications on blockchain, they don't work with high fees. They don't work. If it's really slow, it doesn't work. So we think, you know, the author under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, you know, it's now been realized that that guy is really a guy named Craig Wright. He's an Australian living in the UK. Craig's an advisor to our firm. He's a shareholder of our firm. He holds many, many patents on enterprise applications on Bitcoin. And he's an absolutely fascinating character. And it's really, really important that just like on the Internet, when the early days, you know, 96, 97, there was a whole bunch of industry leaders, of course, many of which don't exist today. So I just read that story about Sergey Brin walking into the offices of Excite and trying to sell Google for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They and they threw him to the sidewalk, you know, try on one point five trillion for science today.
Manseeb Khan: [00:10:20] Yeah, that's right.
Chris Naprawa: [00:10:22] And this is similar right now. Like this is like nineteen ninety six and the Internet, that's where we're at right now. And it's way too early for anyone to claim victory on anything.
Manseeb Khan: [00:10:33] Yeah, no, I completely agree. And it's and it's too late for people to kind of. I think that time's up and you know that they can't get into it like it's I've probably talked at nauseam, We're so early, like nothing. The applications that we're currently seeing right now are going to be absolutely like ten years from now, 20 years from now. Like, my little brother is like 14 right now, 15. Imagine he gets his hands on it. The technology that he's going to build, it's like it's it has such amazing potential. It's again, like you said, like we're the gold rush. Like you want to be the guy selling the pads. The shovels are going to be selling the maps of where to find all the gold that we're living in a really great time, dailing it back to finding. And just how did you get on as an adviser? That's my question of like, how did you find them? How did you get as an advisor or was the whole process like you said, he's a very fascinating character, I believe and I want to hear more about that whole story in that whole process.
Chris Naprawa: [00:11:38] Also, I'll send you some links later to some of stuff for you to look at. It's fascinating stuff. But Craig himself, you know, I'm not an expert authority on Craig, but I've certainly read volumes. I've watched hundreds of videos and interviews and feel like, you know, I need to understand this. If what we're doing is evangelizing the restoration of the original Bitcoin and we have the founder and inventor on the team, I better try to understand that as much as I possibly can. Yeah. So, you know, that whole story is a long one, but essentially we have another really amazing benefactor, a wonderful guy named Calvin Ayre, who's our largest shareholder. Calvin's a Canadian guy, and he became rich and famous because he had a company called Bodog. And Bodog was an online gaming website and ecosystem. And that's how we made his big dough. And if you think about that situation, that whole online gaming was you know, it was in the darkness, you know, and people were using it. There was a lot of controversy around it. Certainly, the authorities really pushed back on it. And now we've got DraftKings sponsoring NFL stadiums, and that's how that has changed.
Chris Naprawa: [00:12:53] Yeah, OK. And Bitcoin is the same. You know, in the beginning, you know, one of the side effects of making this incredible invention, it was also like the perfect money laundering tool. And people figured that out. You put a bunch a whole bunch of computers on one side and the other side comes money that you can put on a memory stick and put in your pocket and get on an airplane and fly to Malta. Or you can go to anywhere, anywhere. Yeah. So there's there's still a contingent of folks that really like that aspect of it and would like to keep it that way. But Bitcoin as it was designed, was always designed to be completely compliant. That's another big change that happened in the early years of Bitcoin. And in fact, Craig, right when I got a law degree, part of the process of getting Bitcoin so we could understand how to make it compliant because it would never be what it could possibly be if it was in the shadows. It has to be regulators, governments and everyone else for it to be for it to get to the vision of what was to be. Our CEO met Craig early on in his career, and I was going to do a lot of details. But there are lots of reasons that Stefan felt that Craig was on to something with this whole Bitcoin and way, way back when Craig was still an auditor. And they've been a passionate trio ever since. And we are just one company in Calvin's ecosystem that he's trying to build around Bitcoin. S.V. And even in the last six months, I would say there are now I think we have three investors now in this company that are running professionally, run funds that are only investing in Bitcoin, S.V. Wow, looking for opportunities. So for the young developers out there and people with dreams, I'm going to tell you right now there is money out there for you if you have a good idea and if you have something that has some economic worth.
Manseeb Khan: [00:14:45] Yeah, your ideas are worth something. So don't give up. You got to keep going. So this is actually a pretty great transition. So what was it like going public and just like having that ramp up going like what was that process like? You know, especially being the small, small percentage or of companies actually becoming public via like using crypto as a vehicle? Like what was that whole process like? Like just walk me through that, please.
Chris Naprawa: [00:15:12] Well, this company was very public when I became president. But, you know, this is the fourth time I've been president of a small company like this in public and one private. Yeah. And I will tell you and I think all entrepreneurs would probably agree if you can do it without going public, do that. Yeah.
Manseeb Khan: [00:15:32] Yeah.
Chris Naprawa: [00:15:34] Because this whole ecosystem, you know, all those big towers they build down. Oh, yes, mostly built from fees taken from public companies with lawyers and accountants and all these folks that have to get paid is extremely, extremely expensive to be a young, small public company. But in some new industries, Bitcoin being one of them. Another great example would be cannabis. You know, you can't find meaningful private investment. In the early days, it didn't exist. So you had to spread out and find all the other enthusiastic speculators out there that want to participate in this and form your capital that way. Yeah, but, you know, you can't be in the public markets without loving the markets. And I love the markets. I've always loved the markets from the very, very beginning. And I'm comfortable in this public setting. But it's not for everybody and it's not without an extreme amount of heartache. And everybody gets an opinion. Everybody gets oversight. And you're the only people that have to do all the work. There's only one group of people doing the work.
Manseeb Khan: [00:16:44] And it's you. Yeah, it's. Oh, yeah, I know you probably you know that if you don't have to go public, don't go public.
Chris Naprawa: [00:16:56] It's a graveyard. It is just a graveyard of broken souls that haven't made it. But like anything, if you have a dream and you want to and you want to do it, it's possible. And the other thing that most people find out when you are a public company is just how many people it takes to be successful, not only in your company but your advisors, your bankers, the salesmen, the traders, like the market makers. There are all kinds of people that are helping you every single day. And if I could give a shout-out to all those people today, I just say thank you very much, because I don't say thank you often enough and you can't do it by yourself. You can't.
Manseeb Khan: [00:17:36] Yeah, no, it definitely takes a village, especially building a company and building something that is a product primarily built on trust. And you're building a network that is a peer to peer. You're building out a network where you get people to talk to strangers from across the world, being able to just bond to be like, yeah, not hey, I'm going to send you this. I understand you this much this. Perfect. Here you go. I'm forty forty-four hundred kilometers away from a sec. Here you go. And then, you know, it takes quite a bit of trust, not only the product but internally the teams to make sure they're like, hey, like I got you. Like I have you, you got my back. Cool, because we're building something that's completely new in the dark and we're just, you know, we're learning how to build a shovel.
Chris Naprawa: [00:18:23] Yeah, yeah. But it's it's, you know, like any like any industry gets overregulated and then new things show up. Some of these new exchanges showing up and then the advent of the SPAC. And, you know, there's all kinds of different vehicles. And, you know, one thing that all the regulators and the governments forget is that capital is highly mobile. It'll go wherever it needs to go to seek out higher returns. So if things get overregulated or things get too complex or too expensive, yeah, capital will go elsewhere and, you know, postcode, that's one of the things I'm really interested to see is because all this money that's coming out, all this free money, something it's going to get paid for somehow. And yeah,
Manseeb Khan: [00:19:03] Yeah, that's there has to be a course correction. There has to be a course correction.
Chris Naprawa: [00:19:07] There's a lot of people to just kind of pick up their stuff and leave if it's too expensive. Yeah.
Manseeb Khan: [00:19:12] Yeah, it's that's definitely fear. I guess not. Which is it's so interesting because, you know, like up until like two years ago, if you had a conversation, a regulation, like we were just getting started, deregulation. Now people are like, honestly, everybody's just like whoever can, like, figure out the regulations, the sooner the better, because that's just money. Just waiting for them to kind of come through. Right. What is your take on regulations? And like, I guess in some cases, overregulation. What is what are your thoughts on that?
Chris Naprawa: [00:19:39] This and I think when it comes to something like the monetary system like this, thought of DEFI and we're all going to have this kind of magic money that has nothing to do with the government or anything like that forget it like that's not happening. It's a central pillar of every single government that they control the money system. They absolutely have to. And they're not going to get away from that. And so, you know, it's amazing to see a place like China, for instance, being one of the most progressive places on crypto because it is centralized, it is completely controlled. So so and this and this notion of money not already being digital, it already is like it already. Yeah. There's no such thing as money. There's not a vault somewhere with all this money in it. It is just an imaginary thing that we trust in, you know. Yeah. Like anything else. And so I think like most things. Here in this country in particular, will be a little bit too slow, will probably be a little bit too heavy-handed, and then we'll have to catch up. And, you know, Canadians will always do the right thing. But once they've tried everything else, once they tried everything else, then they'll do the right thing
Manseeb Khan: [00:20:53] And or just wait for other people to kind of see what's going on to I was going to let all the other countries kind of do the thing. We're just going to sit here and just have a coffee and just wait and see if they come back. If they come back if they don't. Although now we know we'll try something else. The Canadians, that's probably, I guess, one of the more frustrating aspects of having such a flourishing market of Canadian crypto is that Canada slow. It's very conservative. It takes time, the checks and balances, which makes us great. But equally, you know, we're definitely missing up on a lot of opportunities by not being the number one country.
Chris Naprawa: [00:21:27] Yeah, but on the flipside of that, like our exchanges, like the Canadian Venture Exchange and the Canadian Securities Exchange and the Neo, you know, these exchanges are actually very, very progressive on a global scale. And, you know, which is that's where the industry got funded. That's where it's been funded. Yeah. That's very hard to list a crypto company in the U.S. and you got to go through a lot of hoops. The auditors don't want to deal with you, all that kind of stuff. So, you know, credit where credit is due, we and, you know, Canada is kind of seen as this resource economy, you know, oil and gas and mining. And people will probably appreciate, like when there are investors investing in the mining and oil gas companies in Africa or somewhere in the middle of South America. It's like it creates real economy. There's real social benefits. Yeah. To to this money flowing into these places that otherwise would have nothing, of course. And it creates jobs and education and health care. And there's a lot of economic social good that comes from, you know, let's call it what it is. Speculators are speculators.
Manseeb Khan: [00:22:32] And yeah, like you mentioned before, right of money's mobile, especially, especially today, right, like, you know, if we have more Canadian crypto companies kind of just being in Canada, developing, building out, these are creating like smaller Microeconomics, which right now we can become to tokenization of economies were like, hey, you know, some kid gets an investment. This crypto company, he starts with something that does well. As far as another kid, I just kind of build it, grow from there. It's yeah. I mean, I guess to you, how important is Canadian crypto?
Chris Naprawa: [00:23:03] Yeah, I don't I don't think it's overly important. I think I think it's somebody is going to figure it out and we're going to adopt something, but we should be open enough to allow development. And you know, in the oil and gas business, the mining business we have, we have tax credits to incentivize investors to invest in those kind of businesses. And we should have the exact same for technology. We should have tax credits that allow investors to invest here at home and support young developers to create new things on a tax advantage basis, because that actually really, really works. And it creates jobs. It creates a lot of economic benefit. You know, is it important to us that we invented here? Maybe, maybe not, but we're going to use it. And that's for sure. One way or another, we're going to use it.
Manseeb Khan: [00:23:52] Gotcha. That's, it's very fair. So we should make
Chris Naprawa: [00:23:56] we should make Canada mining-friendly like there's going to be a lot of pricing power. Yes. We'll talk about all the power involved in crypto mining and it is a lot.
Manseeb Khan: [00:24:05] Gotcha. Yeah, not
Chris Naprawa: [00:24:06] As much as, you know, we use every day in our cell phones and every is your computer that you're on right now, like the vast data centers, sprawling energy consumption, you know, places like Niagara Falls would be a great place to set up a big crypto hub right on right on all that that that green power that's sitting there.
Manseeb Khan: [00:24:27] Of course. Of course. I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, processing power is going to become a processing power, like as power outages is going to become one of the next interesting topics at issue to focus on, because, hey, it's great that we have all these people who are crypto. All right. Well, if my computer's firing, your computer's firing. My entire building's computer is computers firing. OK, well, that's a lot of energy, a lot of heat. That's a lot of it's going to, you know, what's the economics, the environmental impact of all this? Right. We're going to put this what are the solutions? It's we're coming. It's a very interesting problem with crypto is going to slowly now lead in more. It's like there's global warming and climate change as a general, like when I was right. Crypto right. Even crypto might even solve global warming if it becomes cold. You know,
Chris Naprawa: [00:25:11] So often there's a technology looking for a problem, you know, and that's kind of how I feel about the DFI stuff. It's like your kind of looking for a problem for most of the industrialized world. The banking system kind of works. You know, I can walk in pretty much anywhere I've ever gone and I can buy something with a credit card and it works and maybe it's too expensive for fees and all that stuff, but it kind of works. Yeah. So let's make sure we're actually addressing a problem. And that's where blockchain, you know, if you think about it outside the financial system, you know, in supply chain or in any kind of business process where there are third parties that introduce friction and cost, you know, the ones that get disintermediated, what people really want is things to be easier and cheaper. Yeah. And if you can make that happen, not only for people but for industries, then you've got a world-beater.
Manseeb Khan: [00:26:06] Yeah. Yeah. Which is the goal. The goal is speed and efficiency. Just to kind of like just trim the fat and be as productive and officials we possibly can because the world is getting faster and you know, it's not going away for us. So we had to we've got to catch up. We've got to run out eventually. So touchy about this topic just a little bit. But could you talk a little bit more about what blockchain processing power is? And essentially what does that mean to TAAL and why is it so important?
Chris Naprawa: [00:26:33] Yeah, it's important to us, you know, so, you know, the thing with blocking is decentralized, so you've got this decentralized consensus with all the mining companies and the miners out there. And for a company like us that is really focusing on commercial-industrial applications for blockchain, we need to be able to offer service level agreements and consistency and uptime that they're used to in other industries. So, you know, if you're if you are hosting your website with Amazon, for instance, your expectation is that thing is going to be working most of the time. Ninety-nine points nine percent of the time is up and running. And so the same thing as you're doing, you know, some sort of work for watching for corporations. They have that same expectation. So for us, we need to win a lot of blocks. So for us to put stuff on the blockchain, we have to win the blocks. And right now we're winning kind of 30 or 40 percent of the blocks every single day on Bitcoin ASV. And that gives us the ability to work with applications and work with developers to be able to put a whole bunch of information on those blocks and then also retrieve it. So it's very, very important that we have a lot of processing power. So we talk about that in the measurement is called peda hash . That's how we measure it all. And the good news is for the mining community and people that have to run mining machines is your costs are very predictable because the computers either on or off. Yeah. And when it's on. You know, whether it wins a block or not, the cost the same, it costs the same. So getting access to low-cost power in an environmentally sensitive way is really, really important. We're using a lot of, like stranded gas in Alberta. We could talk about our country's energy policy as much as you want another segment. But you know, that policy is stranded. A lot of jobs, a lot of gas, and a lot of people's jobs and livelihoods. But it's creating an opportunity for people like us that we can do this inexpensively and in an environmentally sensitive way because that gas is going to get flared one way or another whether we use it or not. So we'll use it. So that's really, really important to us, that we're able to continually win blocks on the BSP blockchain every single day, 24 hours a day.
Manseeb Khan: [00:29:06] T I want to talk with Canadian Energy. I love Clean Energy Fix me why I wake up in the morning. OK, so what is I guess the TAAL Console like. What is it like Why, why did you guys get that started. Like give the sermon that
Chris Naprawa: [00:29:27] The council is nothing more than it's just like an interface for our enterprise clients to be able to deal with that. So right now it's really, really simple. But the goal is that you add on more products and more services and people can do analytics and all kinds of things that they expect to do. Just just like if you're you know, the broader category that we fit into is cloud computing. So in that category, you would expect a whole bunch of services and analytics available. Even if you had a Shopify account, for instance, right here, you would expect to go into your account and you'd be able to see all kinds of things, what your transactions look like. The same kind of principle analytics upgrade your service. You know, I've got three point-of-sale servers. I want to go to ten. You know, I should be able to click, click and get that. That's the expectation of of of clients. And we got to live to that standard, even though it's a brand new industry.
Manseeb Khan: [00:30:18] Yeah, that's I get extremely frustrated but extremely exciting all at the same time because you're building you know, you're building a very high demand product for everything. I don't know if I can brand new market which
Chris Naprawa: [00:30:29] People want to do stuff on their own. You know, whether it's whether you're an individual consumer or you're a corporation, you want to beat your expectation as I can log in and go, bom, bom, bom, I just get what I need.
Manseeb Khan: [00:30:39] Yeah, of course. I mean, like, it's simple when you're a kid, you definitely you know, I wanted to help you out at the time. You sure you want to buy stuff? You want to actually have at least the least amount of friction as you possibly can with the touchpoints.
Chris Naprawa: [00:30:59] There are so many exciting applications coming on a blockchain. And, you know, from social media, gaming supply chain, you know, health care, health care is a big one. You know, we've got some exciting clients in health care, for instance, you know, and you look young and healthy and ever been in the health care system. But like for a lot of people, it's a very frustrating experience if you're involved or get into it. So, yes, you imagine that you know, you're in some kind of accident, you're hurt. So you have your record with your family doctor. You have a record with the hospital in a pain clinic, the blood clinic, the MRI, all these things. They have all your information. If you flip it around and say, I own my own patient record. Yeah. And commission based and I can give permission to all these different groups on my phone to be able to put those records on-chain. So it's really important that it can't be hacked or disrupted. And that's what the blockchain does so beautifully because it's cryptographically secure.
Manseeb Khan: [00:31:56] Yeah, yeah.
Chris Naprawa: [00:31:57] And I own that patient record. All of a sudden I don't have to go back to the blood clinic again because the pain clinic needs it in the hospital with my blood works there. I'm going to give you permission to look at that. Yeah. And then you fast forward a few years from now. Now think about millions of people having their own patient record that they all actually own. And you get an of being on your phone and it's like Johnson and Johnson or Harvard Medical School wants to access your patient records. Would you like to allow them to do that for a study? Yeah, all that big data we talk about big data a lot like that's a really good source of big that's going
Manseeb Khan: [00:32:29] Let's say fast forward it's not only going to be your health care information, but it's going to be everything.
Chris Naprawa: [00:32:48] A lot of big companies have figured it out. Right. They've figured out how to monetize our data and now we need to figure out how to monetize our own data because it's going to monetize one way or another.
Manseeb Khan: [00:32:58] We know exactly. I mean, like, hey, topping it off of how we kicked off this conversation with Google, I like, hey, you know what? Data is a massive, massive industry, you know, like, you know, like we oh none of we own none of our data. Like you know. I don't own my own health card number and my password, everything, everything should be on your phone, right? So I decide that is a very interesting and exciting space because now you get to own your data. You have companies like Brave and a few other companies out there. That is a great one that actually paying you for your actual data, for your information to get money off. And I mean, hey, why not? You know, like if you're going to target all these ads, you want to make a fraction of it.
Chris Naprawa: [00:33:36] Yeah, well, for the older people in the audience, they'll remember, like Canadian Tire, like we used to have Canadian tire money. Oh yeah. They had their own printing press and they made money and they gave it to you. I've still got all my Canadian tire money around here somewhere.
Manseeb Khan: [00:33:49] I think I think I have a ten cents like Bill somewhere in room. Like I definitely have one time I was from So yeah and now we're living in a digital digitized version of Canadian Tire Money, where not only Canadians, I can make their own money. Everyone can make their money at this point. Yeah.
Chris Naprawa: [00:34:05] Yeah. Which is right. And it should be fair and equal. And, you know, a few of the largest, most profitable companies in the world, they don't give us anything back.
Manseeb Khan: [00:34:16] No, exactly. I mean, like the data is powerful, right. Especially now with where we're making sure our data is encrypted with security breaches coming in every day. People are getting hacked every day. If you just people just losing passwords, having a more and more secure way to kind of not only protect your information, but be able to monetize from it's a phone almost like some sort of flip it on to you. I'm like, Chris, what are you most excited about in the industry? Like, I guess what keeps you up at night, either in a good way or in a bad way?
Chris Naprawa: [00:34:45] For me, there are only two enemies, and those enemies are time and money. And so go and get the money, make sure that we are properly stacked, and work against time. And there's a million time bandits out there every single day that wants to steal your time and take you off course. And, you know, I always say that discipline is one of those easy things to talk about. It's really easy to talk about being disciplined. It's actually hard to do it. It's really hard to do it. And being disciplined means saying no. It's like, no, we've already decided this. Here's where we're going, right or wrong, OK, we've picked our path and we're not going to hedge your bets. You know, we're going forward. We're 100 percent all-in on this plan and get everybody onside with that. So that's you know, and that's not just your people in the company. That's all your everyone around you, of course, don't want to derail or you, no doubt, or whatever. You know, you've got to have faith in yourself and be willing to move forward no matter what every single day. You know, for me, do I have a lot of worries? I don't have a ton of worries. I think worrying is, you know, that's a pretty big waste of time.
Chris Naprawa: [00:35:59] I've got a problem. So I'm going to sit here and feel badly about it for the next two hours. Yeah, I
Manseeb Khan: [00:36:03] Know it's a waste of time and energy. It's the two things that you're trying to not do. Yeah. All right. It's not going to help. Yeah, it's not going to help you,
Chris Naprawa: [00:36:12] You know, but I've been really lucky to be involved in emerging industries. You know, I was involved in the wireless business. You know, when Digital Wireless was just coming out, I was involved in the Internet just at the very beginnings and cannabis and now and blockchain. And, you know, it's you get to hang it with a certain kind of group of people that are like-minded and enthusiastic and entrepreneurial. And, you know, that's a great way to live your life if you're that way.
Manseeb Khan: [00:36:42] Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, it's always exciting, you know, being able to kind of jump out of the industry, kind of like this is absolutely nothing like the industry. Before I would I was that was the door like, where do I go? I like how do we how about we jump in, let's get going like I'm fired up. Yeah.
Chris Naprawa: [00:36:58] Yeah. You know, there are other ways to live your life too and that's and that's fine too. And to each their own safety and security also means a lot to other people. And I know one thing is like none of us are getting out of here alive, that's for sure. So, you know, it's on you to find some happiness along the way and find some challenge and cause, you know, one of the things that were you know, we talk about focus a little bit like the information. We are pounded with information
Manseeb Khan: [00:37:29] And we talk about time thieves
Chris Naprawa: [00:37:31] And there's just no way you can consume it all. It's impossible. So you've got to be careful in what you consume. And, you know, the way things are set up these days, it's harder and harder to find, you know, unbiased, factual, you know, interesting, engaging stuff because everyone's got an angle. And I just going to take that TV set and throw it right out the window. Nothing to look at. Yeah.
Manseeb Khan: [00:37:57] I mean, I use my TV for Call of Duty. Well, that's kind of it, but. Yeah, no, it's I totally agree with you. I mean, you know, you're constantly bombarded with information left, right, center emails here. It has text messages here. You just say it's tough to say focus. I mean, I guess this is where kind of what you said about. You need to have that discipline, need to have that focus of like, you know, like we're doing the right thing, I'm you know, I see this vision. I see this dream. This is a goal I have perfect. I'm just going to just keep on marching until I hit it. And if I hit it, fantastic. If I don't, OK, why the fact that I got hit, it was can't keep going. Right. So, you know, it's exciting stuff. Chris, thank you so much for jumping on the show. I mean, we'll be the best way for people to either reach out to you, to reach out to TAAL.
Chris Naprawa: [00:38:44] But I think we've got an Instagram. We've got a Twitter of our investor page is great or just TAAL.com Is an easy way to get involved. And there are tons and tons of resources like I said at the top like there are lots for the people that are curious about this stuff and really want to learn about it. There's a pile of resources on the website for everybody. Tell Dotcom and, you know, interviews and videos and all that stuff. And that's how I like to learn as well. So we got to populate with those kinds of things that I like.
Manseeb Khan: [00:39:16] Ok, awesome. Thanks so much.
Chris Naprawa: [00:39:18] Thank you.
Outro : you've been listening to Fintech Fridays brought to you by NCFA and partners. Tune in weekly for the latest fintech Friday podcast by subscribing to this channel. The National crowdfunding and Fintech Association of Canada is a non-profit actively engaged with social and investment fintech sectors around the globe and provide education research industry stewardship services and networking opportunities to thousands of members and subscribers. For more information please visit ncfacanada.org. Oh yeah.
End of Podcast
Subscribe and Listen to more Fintech Fridays podcasts here
Join NCFA's weekly Podcast series 'FINTECH FRIDAYS' where we sit down with the incredible people in the Fintech community and talk about leading fintech products innovations developments and challenges!
Interested in getting involved as a partner or participant? info@ncfacanada.org
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
| | |
FFCON21 ON-DEMAND VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE!Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
‘Last year we saw about a 300% increase in transactions just using cryptocurrency’: Coinpayments CEO
Yahoo Finance | Jason Butcher | June 2, 2021
Jason Butcher, Coinpayments CEO, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the outlook on cryptocurrency payments.
Video Transcript
- Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. Dogecoin got a new lease on life today. What started out as a joke cryptocurrency now has a market value of $54 billion after Coinbase said it would allow users to trade Dogecoin on its platform beginning this week.
Here to talk about the outlook for cryptocurrencies is Jason Butcher. He is the CEO of coin payments. We're also joined by Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre.
So Jason, good to have you here. I know that your company was the first crypto payment processor. It came to be in 2013, and a lot's happened in this space in that amount of time. I'm curious if you allow Dogecoin on your platform?
JASON BUTCHER: Yeah, absolutely. We are probably one of the first groups to support Dogecoin. It really is a form of payment. We support over 2,000 cryptocurrencies. So Doge has definitely been a part of it. We've always supported the Doge community, between each other providing the ability to support transactions between each other, but also any merchants who want to accept Dogecoin as a form of payment as well.
See: CoinPayments Set to Remain Leading Crypto Payment Processor Finds D-Core Survey
JARED BLIKRE: Jared Blikre here. We had this crypto conference in Miami. I don't know if you're going to be a part of it. But there is a lot of excitement around it, a lot of institutional players there. You got your start in 2013. I went to the first Bitcoin conference down in San Jose. Things have changed a lot. Can you speak as to how serious Wall Street is taking crypto now? And is that really necessary to lift it off the ground and really make it mainstream?
JASON BUTCHER: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I'm not going to be at the bitcoin conference myself. Although, I'm going to have some of my team there. I was actually just on a phone call with some of the lead crypto guys from PayPal earlier. And they're all heading there. They're all extremely excited.
So I think the biggest thing is, when you look at Wall Street, or you look at some of the big financial players, what the biggest change was regulation. So a few years ago we were looking at what's going to happen with our business and other businesses in the space. And my feeling was is that as regulations come into place, it will start to move all the big players, the financial institutions, the organizations, and the likes of PayPal, and Square, and others. [INAUDIBLE] when they have clear, precise ways of making sure their business is intact with their financial regulations, they'll all start playing in the market.
And we see that huge today. We also see a huge growth toward the adoption of large financial players, as well as retailers and e-commerce organizations, and groups where we saw, for example-- or last year we saw about a 300% increase in transactions just using cryptocurrency, just in the last year.
- Why do you think it is, though, Jason, that some businesses and individuals are not taking advantage of cryptocurrency? Is it the fear factor? Is that they-- is it that they don't truly understand the space?
JASON BUTCHER: I personally think and relate this to many conversations I have, is that like the credit card industry, many people didn't have credit cards initially, right? And many businesses didn't accept credit cards because they just didn't know. They weren't familiar with it. They didn't trust it. They didn't have the confidence in it. And they were fearful from not accepting cash.
See: JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency to transform payments business
So today, as you know, most places around the world accept credit cards as a form of payment. And I believe that crypto is starting to get to there. So there's an education process. There's an adoption phase. There is the request from their clientele.
So I think that whole area is starting to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and more of the consciousness that, hey, cryptocurrencies are a form of payment, and it can be trusted.
JARED BLIKRE: I'd say you have a unique window into some of the data surrounding crypto payments here. And I'm wondering, with a lot of the tokens and coins, including bitcoin itself getting sliced in half over the last month, or approximately thereof, have you seen a drop off in crypto transaction volumes? How levered is the space to the actual price of crypto?
JASON BUTCHER: Well, it's actually a common discussion that we have internally in our own team, as well as with many people, merchants especially. And really if an individual is holding a cryptocurrency and they wish to make a purchase with that, they're going to probably prefer to make that payment, especially if their assets or their money is in crypto, compared to, say, having it somewhere else.
Just like I suppose you would think of, say, cash or credit. If someone has access to credit, they'll most likely use their credit card over their physical cash. So like crypto, if they're holding their funds or their assets in crypto and they don't have access to other funding means, they'll most likely make a payment using that crypto.
So in our systems, for example, two months ago we saw volumes of around $700 million. This month we saw just a slight underneath that market. So yes, there were slight changes. But that's also depending on the markets, the time of year, et cetera.
See: Bank of Canada to become new regulator of fintech companies doing payments processing
But year over year, we've seen consistent-- and month over month we've been seeing consistent growth in the amount of transactions, and the total volume of transactions that we're seeing processed.
We do also see a change in some of the processing that is happening from people using Bitcoin, to, say, stablecoins, where about 95% of the transactions used to all be in Bitcoin. Where we're starting to see that around 80%, and much more of a higher usage of stablecoins.
- Well, Jason, we'd just love to get your thoughts on the Federal Reserve working on its own digital currency. But they're saying that there's going to be a need for what they're calling a stablecoin. So their form of a digital currency would be tied to something like the US dollar or to an asset like gold. How might that change the playing field for cryptocurrencies if and when that day happens?
Continue to the watch the video --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
| | |
FFCON21 ON-DEMAND VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE!Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada |
