The Boston Blockchain Podcast EP 6 | Paul McCarthy Talks Blockchain & The Future Of Chrysalis

[Music] cubic Labs presents Boston blockchain week stepping into the future celebrating the creators innovators and heroes of blockchain and web3 I'm Mike Joshua for Mudhouse media reporting from Boston blockchain week 2022 presented by cubic Labs with me now is Paul McCarthy CEO and founder of Chrysalis hello Paul hey Mike how are you very well uh so tell us a little bit about uh Chrysalis maybe a little backstory for us we might help put the uh what kind of what we're doing but my background has been in kind of the forensic space and I think one of the things having had friends that have had issues where either they've lost their keys or had access to wallets or been compromised in some way there's no kind of easyweight method for people to have that issue resolved right so it got me thinking I guess through the whole problem and really what we've created with Chrysalis is kind of a risk management solution for the whole ecosystem so we essentially are creating a kind of a trusted chain of custody on your assets and if you had happened to be in a situation where those assets get hacked or stolen or for example if your assets have been a victim of an insolvency or bankruptcy you essentially your claim as a creditor are already documented and we can help with its retrieval and recovery so so we are essentially creating the analogy you know that that risk management system for the whole ecosystem which I think having looked from the kind of traditional Finance space from from the inside out from a long time I think it's what's been missing so that's what brings you here to Boston blockchain week yeah so um I'm actually a member of cubic so delighted we're seeing the guys in the energy in the activity they put into getting the event together for the last number of months great to see activity here in Quincy and uh sitting here in the cubic offices which has been you know just from my own perspective has been a godsend you know I'm the proverbial middle-aged guy with a bunch of kids I'm not going to move to Miami to start the blockchain startup and uh they play hockey you know so having the ability and access to that type of network and an ecosystem on my doorstep is phenomenal right right and that's uh that's part of the importance of Boston blockchain week as well is access but it but it goes beyond that talk talk a little bit more about uh you know whether you're whether you're local National or somewhere in the world the the importance of uh of this week I think you know the Boston blockchain week I think look one of the things that we've I think we've observed a couple of things maybe at a macro level and then a micro level is you know I Boston I think from an academic and other Industries has this dominant position right and I think the guys actually did a white paper on this a couple of months ago where they saw like Talent leakage from the whole industry in blockchain in particular in technology going to other areas in our Silicon Valley and I think there's a real opportunity to kind of reinvigorate that and kind of hold I'll call it that intellectual and knowledge here in in the state and and really make that an incubator in a hub of industry and I think then spreading that as well here more so to the South Shore as well right so you've seen concentrations of that in you know Cambridge and Boston and stuff but spreading that wealth down here to Quincy into the South Shore and really making this an incubator that could be really helpful um I think there's a huge opportunity I mean of course we live in a kind of a global world and into the connected world but I think the one of the things that I've noticed you know having gone from consultant to you know running my own company and I think we having access to people that have kind of understand the ecosystem have that Knowledge from the academic but also the practitioner side is critical you know and being able to tap into that and I think that's just the opportunity to to evolve so yeah and there seems to be so much so much Innovation right here on the doorstep so it seems like a a no-brainer to have it to have it here in in Quincy yeah what do you see the future of blockchain technology looking like I know it's a big question yeah it is a big question and and I suppose I I come at it from a very different angle so my my background had been in kind of Designing anti-financial crime systems right so looking at things like corruption other types of things identifying money laundering activities sanction evasion activities the thing why I I'm actually really excited about the possibilities of blockchain is that we have an opportunity perhaps to eliminate a lot of that in the system in the ecosystem so what was interesting for me having kind of traversed the old world the color the tradify and the defy world is that in the old world when we were doing investigations into this type of work it was quite difficult to actually be to you know if you're dealing with cash it becomes it disappears right so you can't actually trace the activity um in this world I think there's a perfect balance between preserving people's anonymity plus perhaps being being able to socialize who in fact are the Bad actors within the ecosystem so there's there's a real interesting opportunity with blockchain to be able to for me to to for and for us to to minimize to optimize you know I call it that type of activity in the system and then the other side is corruption right so for example you know one of the other other type of work that I've done in the past is working with like Global Aid organizations and and you know as you put money into you know government grant programs and building out infrastructure and there's a real opportunity and of eliminating corruption with with blockchain type Solutions right so integrating things like um surveillance or Digital Imaging type technology where you can monitor the progress of capital infrastructure projects lacking that in the blockchain so as so funds can be released on a kind of you know on a proceed basis it eliminates a lot of I call it corruption out of the potential system so there's I see very practical implications as I said I mean I see a lot of brilliant engineers and doing a lot of things but I think what you're seeing now is practitioners like me coming into the industry and seeing the possibilities and how blockchain can be applied to solve very real problems that we've struggled with and obviously Business Leaders I think you've just explained a lot of it that Business Leaders that perhaps blockchain is something that they don't understand or they're afraid to to get into but you're you're explaining literally explaining to them of why they should get get involved so just uh just talk a little bit about more about getting Business Leaders involved in in blockchain and how it can help them you know so if you think about the major risks that know any CEO or c-level executive have to think about within an organization is obviously efficiency organization efficiency cyber security concerns and risks as a huge huge issue and there's there's the opportunity to kind of really solve some of those fundamental problems with blockchain right so so if you think about blockchain in terms of its application because of its inherent trusted in the technology you have an opportunity to eliminate things like auditing reconciliation so all of those Downstream type processes that naturally occur in any type of reconciliation process essentially can be far streamlined right security so for example the Cyber blockchain has proven it's worked in the last about 10 years people have been trying to hack it it's immutable um information can be preserved and be in a way that's non-destructible right so so the idea of having information secure and I think that the opportunity to socialize information I think we're getting into a world as well where I think a lot of organizations have over time Legacy have acquire and obtain and retain information because that's how their business was built especially related to Consumer data and I think a lot of them if you'd ask them today that they have a very clear view of what information you need and what that's value they probably wouldn't want to retain and obtain that information if they had a choice if they had utilities or other nodes for example they could tap into to be able to able to determine okay what is the piece of information I need so it aligns with my business model I think that's where we're going and so so so when I talk about the security side of it like so if I can eliminate what information I need if I can rely on third party or trusted sources to identify the information I need when I want it I know eliminate a lot of risk for my ecosystem and I think there there's a huge opportunity in that regard what's new with Chrysalis anything uh this week that you're rolling out or rolling out soon that you're excited about we're very excited about where we are I think we're you know going back to my earlier description I think we're solving something very unique and that's needed in the ecosystem we just launched our demo so we're you know actively in fundraising mode we're talking investors and being able to show on real you know rather than off the PowerPoint or off the page and show them in real life what this actually looks like has been just a fundamental change very excited about that and you know you know we're really excited about the next few months ahead even though we're hitting some strong headwinds at the moment brought from a macro and economic perspective I think what we're providing actually is something that we required right so um we look at things like insolvency and bankruptcy is probably becoming more relevant in the space our system actually solves that so if we can establish the end of custody which we qualify creditors right so we we are actually we believe that given where we're at and what we're doing there's just so much opportunity and we're very excited about it how do listeners get in touch with Chrysalis so the easiest way is you know checking out LinkedIn um or check out our website Chrysalis digital asset exchange dae.com and get in touch we'd love to hear from you we're also on Twitter and various channels as well so we'd love to hear from you excellent thank you Paul appreciate it thanks Mike appreciate it for more on Boston blockchain week go to bostonblockchainweek.com for more about cubic Labs go to cubiclabs.com