Crypto in Daily Life: Demystifying Wallets, Payments & Security

to meet you. My name is Andrew and I'm in crypto studying from 2016. I have a pretty long and interesting experience. I come to crypto from traditional business from banking. But then we decided to you know to diversify somehow our assets and starts to explore new opportunities which blockchain brings.

Uh we create an investment fund. we starts to invest into the blockchain projects. Uh after that we you know like experience we have a positive and negative experience. We decided to uh explain people how to use the crypto in a daily life and uh the easiest question is and actually the easiest position is how to use it. We we explore uh and we're trying to understand why uh millions are turning uh into crypto because uh we have um a pretty big excessive control on our own uh personal financing when we have a cases when our banking accounts are blocked.

We have a delays. We have a high cost of uh uh transactions. We have a we have a pretty decentralized uh services. I mean like uh if we have fiat on our accounts and we need to use them somehow, we we don't have a possibility to you know like to use your euros for example in um you know in another country. Uh what is the difference uh in custodial and non-custodial wallets?

Uh the main difference is that uh in custodial wallets your personal keys are held uh with a third party. It means that you take his operational risks while uh using your crypto. For example, uh if you uh hold your money on a third party and it is somehow hacked for example, you will lost your money. For example, if uh owner of that project will scam like for example we have a cases with FTX you will lost your money and you will not be able to return your money. So we are uh we recommend during the last five years to people to use uh non-custody wallets.

Several years ago it was very hard to explain people why they use why they should use non-custody. But today uh due to the simplicity due to the accessibility of the technology we recommend always to use uh these type of wallets. What is the main difference in non-custody? As I mentioned, all your private keys are kept on your devices or per on your personal uh papers. In uh custody, all your keys are kept with a service provider.

I mean sex for example or any other uh or any other providers. Uh I think that what uh you know we we come to the event with our solution which we have already developed. Uh we have uh different activities for users of our wallet. Uh how to use our wallet? You can easily download it from Google or Apple store.

You can uh secure your uh your seat phrase. You can customize your uh desktop and you can easily use it. Right now we have users can only receive crypto, send crypto and buy crypto using your uh fiat cards, Visa, Mastercard. In several months, I think we will finish the discussion for the off-ramp solution and uh cryptocards.

Uh yep. So

just to continue the discussion, can you like expand on is crypto really alternative to traditional payments or is it merely like an additional thing we can use? Now

uh as of now uh this is a good alternative. I mean uh you can use crypto all around the world. Right now there is a lot of tooling uh I mean crypto cards onramp experience. You can even cash out for example if you need cash there is a lot of uh official legal methods to take uh fiat. You can pay with crypto using your Apple and Google pay.

So it's pretty much easy to use crypto in daily life. And yes this is a good alternative. We have spoken a bit about like the main security issues probably people encounter. So can you name like the main mistakes done still by the users probably which are not that similar with the VA free and so on.

Uh in terms of securities uh there are two types of wallets cold and hot wallets. Yeah. Uh we recommend first of all if you use your crypto in daily life for example for trading, gaming and other issues to use a hot wallet. If you use it as a methods of uh holding your investments for sure use a cold wallets. It's much safer.

Uh and uh I think that's uh that's the main recommendation. Don't uh attach your wallet to different online gaming platforms or any uh you know like any web three nonrusted platforms because I lost a lot of money personal money uh when I was using my wallet for example you you go to some website you connect your wallet your uh your funds are drained so it's pretty much risky

okay and there is also like a big discussion question about user interface currently. So some people encounter issues in using crypto just because it's hard to them to understand how the app works. So how do you see the development of this user interface in the like last months probably year?

Can I rephrase please?

Yes sure. So I mean there is a big discussion that people who are new like to crypto payments and so on encounter issues that it's kind of hard to understand how to use crypto in a safe mode as well. So how the technology is developing lately?

Do you remember do you remember Apple Pay like 10 years ago? I was working in the bank and when Apple pay comes to you know to European market let's say I was thinking that uh Americans try to steal our money and control our money and nobody wants to use it today I think that everybody is using Apple Pay. So the same will be with the I mean with the crypto payments with the crypto and web 3. uh today it sounds strange and new but I think this is a very good alternative uh world and this is we are still very early I don't know how much millions today use but we still are on a very early adoption stage so if people are interested how the market works how the products works the first my recommendation don't invest in uh don't trade because anyway you will cost you money. Never trade.

First understand how the uh how the you know like the blockchain works. What is the what is the essence of the products? H and only then starts to on board starts to use the blockchain technology.

Since you're also the founder of belong, how do you see this interconnection between your community? So does it support people to switch more of to attract like new members from it?

In Milan, uh I I am right now I'm living in Burgamo and uh in Milan we do regularly events, small events like a meetups where we explain what is the blockchain uh the essence of the blockchains in a very easy words. We're not trying to you know like to make it complicated but we just for your understanding we explain blockchain uh technology on the uh in comparison with the garden for example or some libraries. So uh we try to simplify it and this is my you know like time which I'm ready to spend to explain people how not first of all how not to lose their own money. pretty interesting perspective. Probably the last question I would like to explore with you.

How do you see in Italian context the importance of this educational process in web 3? So I mean many users are not probably that commonly using crypto. So is it important for businesses at all to be involved in this educational processes?

Uh starting from the last year I see that's from my perspective. Yep. Uh I see a great step forward because uh in Milan in Bakonia University they have association uh in uh Florence they have uh Nanabiana which also like looking on that they do some meetups organize events uh in Milan we have uh crypto conferences in Naples right now we have events. So a lot of people who are interested they at least on this stage can come on these events see people ask the teams what they are doing if they want to understand where where the market is going. So I think that ital Italy you know uh is going its right way but unfortunately in two conservative way.

This is my thoughts.

Thank you so much. Do you have any questions from the audience? we would be very glad to answer them.

Thank you so much, Andre, once again. And now we're going to proceed to the panel.

Okay. Thank you guys very much. [Applause]