Blockchain for Good

[Music] my name is Henry rlan uh my passion my focus in life is the future of finance and money I I do this as a co-founder of nine blocks $100 million Market neutral crypto hedge fund today we're going to talk about blockchain for good with a lot of the benefits and we're going to really try to cover in a couple minutes that we have the Practical impact that blockchain technology can have not only on the future of our lives our careers but also on each one of us personally as well I cannot promise you we're going to cover everything in the next literally 14 minutes we have but I promise you it's going to be insightful interesting and exciting and to this because because we have a dream team panel today with us U Vanessa G that was just introduced she's the managing partner agai Adventures but one thing you don't know about her a part of our VC investing she does she's a big Polo player and she used to do horse uh competitions of jumping so here we go a lot of talent here in the VC world next to her is Dominic who just a discuss he's a chairman of the Iota Foundation you just saw what he did with adgm but the one thing you may not know about him he grew up in a village of 800 people a German speaking Village in Italy here we go fun fact there's a whole history about that you can learn about on Wikipedia and of course last not last but not least this Ahmed someone on that I known for many years the COO co-founder of zodia markets who by the way when is's not running the business he's a qualified Cricket coach there you go so if anybody looking for for some tips you have it all there guys let's Jump Right In Dominic I want to kick off with you we just saw the news that came out with Iota we I want to talk about blockchain for good maybe before we talk about the future can you share with us right now what has been the good that crypto or blockchain has done let's say in the last couple of years and then we can talk about the future yeah of course um I think it really the the answer to that question really depends on who are you asking right like if you ask us I would say that all of us come from a sort of like privileged position right like I can confidently say working in blockchain for the last 10 years it hasn't really touched my everyday life yet right like I'm not really using crypto every day because it's not really adopted everywhere because we have a good Financial system we have good financial markets we have access to the right uh uh infrastructure but if you ask people in Emerging Markets like Vietnam or if you ask people in in more sort of Crisis States like the Ukraine or in Argentina blockchain is part of their everyday life because it's the only way in which they actually have access to a reliable Financial infrastructure right and so um for example we have a team of around 20 people in Argentina and we don't pay them in Argentinian pezel for obvious reasons right uh we pay them in stable coins and so uh we do our monthly payroll in in stable coins and with that they can actually pay for their living expenses they can pay for their rent and I would say that is really being a huge impact in those markets now obviously this is not why blockchain was created alone right blockchain was really there to sort of create a new Financial system that is decentralized that is fully efficient that can run autonomously where we go from this paper based system towards a fully digital one right and so I think the everything that's happening here in in the UE and specifically in adgm I think that will really Define the future of blockchain where we're really going to work on actually tokenizing those assets oh come back tokenization obviously in Argentina especially with the new president we'll see what that goes on Dominic mentioned uh infrastructure you know Financial infrastructure I want to move it to you man on you know what you talk about fincial even systems trading ecosystems is blockchain has provided good in the last couple years and what do you think how can blockchain provide good in this space so so I think there's two areas really so financial markets infrastructure has been lacking financial markets infrastructure whilst Dominic's absolutely spots on there's privileged people in privileged markets that have access to good fast movement of assets and and and cash actually there's a huge amount of uh improvements that can be made from a trading perspective if we don't think about every day um can we be more efficient can we be more efficient with capital can we put Capital to use more effectively by you know by eliminating days and days and days of movements of money uh between participants that's one angle that we're seeing and we're seeing that in the financial markets because us equities are going to go to a t+1 settlement cycle uh in May and what we're finding is firms out of Asia are looking at that going this makes my operations much harder um but there's a whole ream of stuff that we can look at in terms of broader financial markets infrastructure can be optimized through utilization of immutable transparent distributed Ledger technology that you know that today is commonly known as blockchain yeah that's a nine trillion that Dimitri was talking before uh on from copper but I I'm going to move it to you uh you know when it comes to I mean obviously we talk about financial ecosystems infrastructure when it comes to blockchain for good can you give us I know you focus a lot on the social good side of blockchain Technology right can you show what US if what have we seen recently with blockchain when it comes to making good around the world but also what you think is the landscape for next couple years sure um so I'm also the president of the blockchain for social impact Coalition which focuses on four themes so one is financial inclusion that we've discussed the second one is sustainable Supply chains the third one is climate and the fourth one is identity so those are really the four themes where you can think about blockchain for social impact um just to give you some stats you know there's 1 billion people that don't have identity in this world that means one billion people that can't have access to financial uh system that can't vote that can't even vouch for who they are in the world there's about a 100 million displaced people as of today uh whether internally displaced or refugees and 40% of these people are children meaning that they're going going to be growing up either in camps or without a home or for be forced to move because of War because of internal issues in their countries Etc so how can blockchain help here you know if you have a permanent identity that is recorded on a blockchain that cannot be tempered with that the government can't tempered with that you know a person in a situation of War can't temper with that gives a lot of you know help to these people and they don't have to depend on governments or third parties to say who they are so identity I think is is a big um issue and blockchain can help a lot sustainable Supply chains obviously you know we all want to know you know where this dress came from how my telephone is manufactured if you read a book called red Cobalt you'll know the situation in which you know Cobalt is extracted yeah and it needs to it's important that everyone is accountable for you know their supply chains and you know we have cop coming up next week and uh actually the blockchain for social impact Coalition is focusing even more on climate now creating you know Carbon markets carbon offsets and we're merging the blockchain for social impact Coalition with a um crypto U Accords that is going to focus on the offset of the ethereum footprints so identity and Supply chains I guess the two areas to watch especially with cop coming up was I just want to move it to you on what's something that I guess related you said okay how can people be helped on that perspective let's say in areas of Charities donations money movements right what do you think can we actually have on when it comes to DLT is there any practical aspects as well that we can do a part of traceability there's there's many but I think two concrete examples that I'll touch upon and um I I'll shamelessly plug something that we did and have been working on on with charitable foundations most notably we're a we're a UK headquartered firm uh and we've been working with the maker Wish Foundation in the UK uh about two weeks ago we um we received the first donation via crypto to make a wish to to basically make a wish of a of a critically ill Child come true uh that was a donation that was made um through blockchain technology through cryptocurrency uh it came through a custody wallet that was fully vetted uh all the kyc requirements that were Complete because the charitable Commission in the UK obviously has all of the same requirements and more than many financial institutions uh and that was converted into fear and then dispersed to uh to the needy the the other big impact that we are continuing to work on it was an initiative that we started about seven or eight months ago I'll also highlight it was a fully female lead initiative I did not lead it uh they very kindly asked me to speak to support but but the team that ran that was F female uh and did it across four institutions that help supported Zod markets our custody business make a wish and and parity Technologies who facilitates the tech the next stage of that for us talks about a little bit of what both Dominic and um and Vanessa touched upon which is actually the dispersement side how do you get money where it needs to be faster cheaper better I think I'm stealing Demetri's line from earlier um and actually it's super important to look at correspondent banking challenges right there's a lot of money that's wasted and lost and and how do you then Trace that actually if we can get dispersements either maybe through stable coins as you touched upon into markets that need it and we've got some great examples of unhcr doing that uh for for Ukrainian refugees but actually more broadly if you can utilize blockchain to trace my donation I made my donation here and actually I know where it's gone because I've got it on an immutable Ledger I can see that it's actually made it to the person or the people or the foundation in the jurisdiction that really needs it that transparency I think drives a lot more social awareness and a lot more understanding of actually I want to donate such that my money is getting to the people that really need it not going into overheads to pay banks for moving money around the world or management or whatever it might be there's obviously part of that in Charities but I feel like that's a huge area and a huge area of opportunity and growth for good utilizing block creates accountability from that perspective as well but just on that point do I'll move to you obviously what you're saying is great but we need it's great that I can donate in crypto and I know exactly where it's going but for that a lot of places where you donate the real life activity in a village is not had there's no crypto there's no probably no internet right how do I'll move it to you like how do you connect then the crypto world and the web tree and all cool stuff that we're doing with a day-to-day offline world and try to bring them together so we can have that traceability that was one was mentioning yeah know of course and I think I really want to highlight one point where why a AI is succeeding where blockchain has sort of failed right because if you look at AI is like a an amazing technology where it can reap the benefits where you can really be productive just in your own sort of ecosystem right a single company can use AI today can use chat chat gbt and use generative AI to really be productive right increase Co increase uh productivity decrease costs now with blockchain the most difficult aspect of it is actually the ecosystem right you cannot use a blockchain just for one company because no nobody is actually going to use it right you're not going to reduce your costs through that you're actually going to reduce your costs or generate new revenues by actually convincing your suppliers convincing all of those ecosystem participants around you to actually use the same technology right through that it becomes incredibly efficient you know we always used to joke the world be would be so amazing if everything would run on the blockchain but how do you get everything to run on the blockchain and that's the really challenging part because with blockchain we've had so much uncertainty right uh where the where the crypto markets have obviously introduced a lot of excitement but also a lot of fear where there was a lot of doubts whether this technology actually has any real life benefits right and then you have the whole question around taxation of these digital assets around the regulatory side of these assets how they should be treated and then everything about how do you actually integrate those new systems into the old system right and so I think this is really where it is very important that we come together with The Regulators which is actually happening here in in adjm right who are really supportive of these new technologies to really remove this uncertainty so that the traditional players become more confident and so that we can then start building up these ecosystems because only if we have these ecosystems um can we actually integrated into the real world and just Vanessa in 30 seconds like do you think we'll see identity like do you think we really see identity being connected like everything we discuss on supply chain identity will become a reality in the next couple years when it comes to social good I think it's going to take time yeah what domic saying is great but like there's a time element to this as well right like I think especially on the identity side as it touches the sovereignty of States um there are systems where you can create you know your social construct with the identity but it's not the same as having a state given identity so we need to bring the states on board I mean frankly this fact I still go to many countries and my passport some has to stamp it they look at me make sure it's me I mean we still have a long way to go or having lawyers certified copy of documents I think we have a long way to go still but well we could you could um you could combine block chain and Biometrics and that may be the future with AI maybe that's the solution here we go as long as the guys at the airport are happy to be replaced by AI but that's a whole different conversation guys the my my bell is with me we have a minute left I'm going to ask you quick questions I want one or two Word answers and the bell is here to police you guys you ready I'm starting from you what is the one thing that is impressing you the most about UAE and Abu Dhabi regulatory Clarity framework and transparency wow man this should be the ad you should be on the marketing ad that uh dumb uh friendliness of the people openness and willingness to move things forward love it Vanessa uh openness uh and uh really the uh understanding of how the world works not a lot of regulators will have this feedback I can tell you that Bess I'm starting for you this time what is exciting the most about the future crypto um International platforms where people can trade around the world no connecting the real world with the digital one exactly hereo man 247365 man you're the tagline guy that's incredible Usman for you tomorrow I tell you you can hold one cryptocurrency for the next 20 years and not sell what cryptocurrency do you buy ethereum ethereum oh you can have a whole panel on that dumb very easy Iota I was expecting that Vanessa ethereum interesting my ethereum fans here this one is a funny one I'm starting from you Sam mman freed gives you a call and ask you for one piece of advice what do you tell him you should have asked for forgiveness Dom SBF calls you uh stay true to yourself well he has a lot of time to do that now Usman don't steal don't steal here we go your nephew comes to you and says he wants to get into crypto and he's wondering between these four jobs I'm starting from you which one do you recommend he joins to learn about crypto startup a trafi bank getting into crypto a consulting firm or the regulator startup why is that you're going to learn more in less time startup obviously startup come on this is incredible really if you're not in crypto what industry would you be in Vanessa financial services financial services Dum uh sustainability financing Financial Services Fin and last question to finish off our blockchain for a good panel classic whoever goes on stage with me uh I'm going start from you aan if you can have lunch or dinner with one person Dead or Alive lunch or dinner with one person that are alive who do you have lunch with Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali beautiful dumb uh Charlie Munger who sadly died yeah yesterday Charlie monger and Vanessa to close off our panel blockchain for good at the Abu fin week um maybe the friend of Charlie manger there we go ladies and gentlemen thank you very much that was a panel it's all the time we have