CoinGeek Conversations

Setting a festive mood with a holiday shirt to boot, Charles Miller kicks off the CoinGeek Conversations Christmas Special this year, sharing a bubbly toast with his guests: CoinGeek Reporter, Becky Liggero, and Osmin Callis, the Founder and CEO of Mode 8. The two battled it out to the end in an exciting quiz covering topics, such as Bitcoin SV (BSV) companies, Bitcoin terminologies, entertainment, science, and a final odd one out round. Formulating the questions using ChatGPT, Charles marveled at how the language model came up with its responses, as well as abstract images for BSV companies, based on the very little information he gave. The first round focused on Bitcoin SV companies, with Charles asking participants to identify BSV their names based on AI images. The next round shifted to general knowledge, covering topics such as the Olympic Games in London, planets, Komodo dragons, and Taylor Swift albums. The third round took a unique turn, presenting descriptions from Robin Kohze, CEO and Co-founder of Vaionex, with participants tasked to identify Bitcoin-related terms based on these descriptions. In the final, odd one out, round, participants had to pick the word or phrase that didn't belong among four choices. The competition was fierce as Osmin and Becky vied to answer questions, earning points for correct answers. At the end of the quiz, the scores were tallied, ultimately revealing the winner, with prizes, like the bubbly, ‘magically' passed across the online connections! To find out who won, you'll need to watch the show and perhaps test your knowledge by attempting some of the questions! Best of luck, and may you have a joyful holiday season from the CoinGeek Conversations team!

In the latest episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller meets Michael Simeon, the Co-founder and CEO of VPD Money, a company which promises to create "The Bank of You."  "VPD" stands for "Virtual Payment Digital." Michael explains that they would have made their tagline, "The Bank of You," the name of the company but that there are regulatory restrictions on using the term "bank" in the name of a business.   Charles explores the user experience by signing up for VPD Money during the conversation. Michael guides him through the process, highlighting the flexibility in funding options, including transfers, card transactions, and unique codes like USSD codes, popular in Africa. One objective of VPD Money is financial inclusion, particularly in underserved regions. Michael expresses his passion for empowering communities: "we let you build your home bank." He emphasizes the challenges faced by those in remote areas where traditional banking is a challenge. VPD Money aims to bridge this gap. Michael highlights the strategic deployment of Point of Service (POS) machines, saying, "we have partnerships with all the places where we push out POS machines". These machines facilitate easy access to financial services, especially in areas where physical banks are scarce. When asked about the company's progress, Michael reveals, "we have over 50,000 customers," categorizing them into global customers, SMEs, and the unbanked. He touches upon the future capability of international remittances, contributing to the financial inclusion of the global community. Charles asks about Michael's entrepreneurial journey, referencing his previous venture, VoguePay. Michael explains a difference, stating that VoguePay is a payment processing company, while VPD Money is a comprehensive digital banking experience. Michael discusses VPD Money's future plans, including personalized savings features. He shares a concept of saving customers 20 per cent of their earnings monthly through AI-driven insights and negotiated discounts. Having extensive experience in the crypto space, Michael reveals that he was among the pioneers introducing crypto payments in Nigeria back in 2014. He acknowledges the unexpected trend of Nigerians using crypto as a store of value against their currency.  

CoinGeek Conversations concludes its three-part Block Dojo mini-series with insightful conversations featuring innovators in blockchain technology.  In the latest interviews, Charles Miller meets three entrepreneurs completing the business incubator program: Robin Russel of Satva Trust, who discusses the use of blockchain to enhance emissions reporting in the shipping industry; Priyatham Varma of Back3nd, who explains his mission to empower non-technical individuals to create fintech products; and Luiz Adler of Smash Mountain Studio, who shares the journey behind developing the world's first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu game.  In the first interview, Charles speaks to Robin Russel, Co-founder and COO of Satva Trust, a company using blockchain technology to improve emissions reporting in the shipping industry. Robin stresses the importance of accurate data in an industry that releases around a billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, making up three per cent of the world's total emissions. The current data on emissions is unreliable, creating problems for financial stakeholders like lenders and insurers. "It's really a question of visibility," Robin explains about having clear information to make informed decisions about business risks.  When discussing the market for emissions data, he explains that lenders and insurers pay for risk assessments using emissions data, along with shipowners who "would really like to showcase how well they're doing in that direction". However, unreliable data makes it hard for shipowners to showcase their environmental efforts. The first step to producing more reliable data is to eliminate self-reported data from ships. Robin notes the importance of using satellite data, which includes weather, sea conditions, ship details, position, and speed, processed through AI. Charles asks about the social and environmental motivations behind the venture. Robin asserts that "we're all interested in sustainability," acknowledging the team's commitment to addressing climate challenges.  As for the unreliability of data in the shipping industry, Robin noted, "It seems like a situation that needs to change. The technology exists now to make a change."  Next, Charles sits down with Priyatham Varma, founder and CEO of Back3nd and a former web developer and educator. He has a mission to empower individuals without technical skills to create their own fintech products. As Priyatham puts it, "Back3nd is a no-code platform where anyone can easily build blockchain applications, especially for the fintech industry.” The platform is so simple to use that even those unfamiliar with coding will be able to build a business on top of blockchain, he says. "Blockchain is an entirely new system and is rewriting the entire finance industry. You can be a beginner, but in two years, you'll be an expert in blockchain space.”  Back3nd includes products like payment gateways, peer-to-peer lending platforms, and analytics dashboards. Back3nd offers a range of subscription plans but as Priyatham explains, "if you don't want to subscribe, you can still use the free version, but we'll be taking a larger commission on every transaction. Subscribers enjoy reduced transaction costs and access to features like analytics dashboards.” As for Back3nd's target users, Priyatham explains, “the first customers are entrepreneurs or innovators who want to build something on top of our platform, 60 per cent of the entire blockchain ecosystem consists of people who aren't coders but want to build something on top of it.”  Lastly Charles speaks to Luiz Adler, founder and Game Director of Smash Mountain Studio, about the latter's journey behind creating the world's first Brazilian J

Charles Miller is once again exploring innovative ventures in the Block Dojo incubator program on this week's CoinGeek Conversations. Rafaela Azevedo's The Chain Academy trains developers for Web3; Kenneth Kelly's Revested streamlines real estate transactions; and Marcus Odubonojo's Motion Shield simplifies car accident reporting— all showcasing the potential of blockchain technology. Kicking off our series of interviews, we begin with Rafaela Azevedo, the founder of The Chain Academy, who takes a unique approach to training developers for the rapidly evolving Web3 space. Rafaela's journey into the tech industry is influenced by her tech background, as she explains that “all my family is in tech." Her parents, both developers, played a significant role in shaping her passion for technology. Growing up surrounded by the world of coding, Rafaela embarked on her coding journey at a very young age. "I was coding when I was six years old with my dad. I just got really passionate about the idea and just went for it," she recalls.  The Chain Academy is an educational platform for developers entering Web3. The training program not only focuses on individual skill development but also aims to link developers with potential employers. “They are going to be skilled up to collaborative commercial projects where they can actually have their first experience and create a portfolio," she notes. The Chain Academy offers a unique learning experience with a step-by-step approach, short videos and text, catering to individuals with varying attention spans. In addition, AI technology will be used to provide instant feedback to developers, assessing their strengths and areas for improvement.  The Chain Academy's roadmap includes a commitment to addressing various blockchains, starting with Solidity and Ethereum and expanding to others such as the BSV Blockchain. As for the company's revenue model, Rafaela says it will include a subscription model for developers and fees for businesses posting projects. Next was Kenneth Kelly's Revested, a blockchain-based business that aims to simplify and expedite the process of buying and selling houses. Kenneth is keen to point out that Revested utilizes blockchain technology to eliminate old practices in the real estate industry. "The problem in the industry, going back to my grandfather's time, would be that one in three property sales fall through, and on average, it takes between three and six months. So, you know, huge problem within the space."Revested addresses these challenges by streamlining mundane processes, especially with compliance and regulation. As Kenneth explains, "KYC when you come on to Revested is simple.. you enter your name, email, passport, and take a photograph of yourself. We then upload your property title deeds, which we can cross-check using machine learning against the land registry document."Blockchain technology will be used in the digital exchange for property transactions. "We're building a custom layer two platform, essentially a digital exchange to connect a wallet dependent upon the currency and to be able to trade that currency in and out of the exchange."Kenneth envisions a future where property tokenization enables instantaneous transactions. "You could be down in the pub on a Friday, and you could be selling your property in minutes instantly," he says. However, Charles raises concerns about the potential risks and the necessity for a thoughtful decision-making process in real estate transactions. Kenneth responds by highlighting the role of machine learning in scanning title deeds for underlying issues, saying, "there's new machine learning models that are really pushing boundaries within the legal space."When asked about the business model, Kenneth explains "we would take a percentage of transaction fees based o

The latest group of entrepreneurs to graduate from Block Dojo, the London incubator programme for startups building on the BSV blockchain, are sharing their ambitions on CoinGeek Conversations over the next three weeks.In the first show, two founders describe their business plans. First, Ash Yarro's Trackr HR is designed to bring technology, particularly AI, to bear on the inefficiencies of the highly-lucrative recruitment business. Ash was already an experienced entrepreneur. But when he talked to his girlfriend about her work in recruitment, he was astonished at what he heard: “it became apparent that there were just so many complexities and long, laborious processes within being a recruiter.”Ash realised he had found his next project. He contacted friends who work in recruitment and HR and asked to spend time with them at work to learn about their business. He says he discovered “so many problems in terms of fragmented systems, outdated practices and just so many spaces for top candidates to slip between the cracks”. Unlike in the working practices of lawyers and accountants for instance, he said, new technology was rarely being used.So how is Trackr HR going to fix that? Ash says it will be a “multipronged solution”. AI will be deployed right from the first contact between the recruiter and their client, to analyse conversations that describe the role the client wants to fill and the kind of candidate they're looking for. From that, AI will generate a brief. Then throughout the process, AI will continue to improve efficiency by analysing applications and video responses by candidates, saving the recruiter time and allowing a more systematic approach. Ash believes the business is ready for innovation.  AI is also an important component of Kofo Are's Thier idea. She describes it as “a mobile platform for the prevention of obesity and type two diabetes”. Her customers will be big businesses who want to improve the health of their staff - not least, Kofo says, because obesity costs companies $3,000 to $15,000 per employee per year. The first part of the idea is to give users an app that will track the exercise they take and their food and drink consumption. This information will then be used to recommend interventions - anything from changing your diet to something more ambitious: “We will match you with a health care practitioner who will offer interventions tailored to your specific needs. We'll also match you to groups on the platform because we plan to have communities where we group people based upon their risk. The purpose of the communities is because we believe in the power of peers: when you're in groups and you know you're suffering from the same type of disease, we tend to encourage one another to make the right choices around food, around exercise, around the hours of sleep.”One of the benefits of Thier, in the UK at least, is that it would take some of the pressure off the National Health Service. Kofo agrees that would be a “great thing”. But of course, working with businesses, she knows she also has to incentivise them financially, by pointing to the benefits they'd enjoy with fewer staff absences and by slowing the growth of ever-increasing health insurance premiums. Don't miss next week's CoinGeek Conversations, to meet more Block Dojo entrepreneurs. 

In the latest episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Jack Pitts, founder of Slictionary, Brendan Lee, founder of Elas Digital and CoinGeek's Charles Miller delve into Zeke Faux's new book, Number Go Up. Faux, a journalist from Bloomberg Businessweek, takes readers on a journey through the crypto world, focusing on characters like Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX, the cultural phenomenon of Bored Apes, and the mysteries of Tether's $68 billion valuation.  The book's format, a first-person narrative, fascinated Jack, who said he enjoyed the informal style. Faux's approach reflected the author's personal experience as he became a character in the story. Brendan found the storytelling engaging, describing it as an adventure that kept him hooked: “the author managed to get into the offices of several of these really high flying crypto executives. And I mean, it kind of reads like a bit of an adventure.” Charles discussed the evolution of Faux's perspective from a seemingly innocent article about Sam Bankman-Fried to a more critical stance, especially regarding FTX's legitimacy. The conversation touched on the author's initial portrayal of FTX as a “thought experiment”, later questioning its potential scam-like nature.  A discussion on Tether's central role in the crypto world surfaced, with Brendan raising concerns about Tether's backing and its potential impact on the overall economy. He emphasized that Tether's $68 billion valuation should have corresponding funds in a bank account. They discussed the suspicions surrounding Tether's operations, with concerns about its actual reserves and its role in market manipulation. “I suspect and a lot of people in the BSV community as well, that Tether, there's not much money there at all,” Brendan asserted.  Jack meanwhile argued that regulators should focus on auditing the trading practices of platforms like Binance and Bitfinex rather than questioning Tether's reserves. “What they need to audit is not what's backing the treasure chest. They need to audit how the treasure chest was obtained, which means they need an audit of Binance. They need an audit of Bitfinex and an audit of Tether to find out what trades were being made, how they were being made, and what dirty people they were trading with, and how they were manipulating prices to basically make themselves all that money.”   The conversation turned to the NFT craze, with Jack criticizing the quality of the digital assets. “I think the funniest thing about the NFT craze is the levels of ideocracy behind it. So first of all, the pictures themselves aren't even on the Ethereum blockchain. And yet the funny thing about these NFTs is they have to be really low 1980s quality pictures.”  Brendan brought up the exploitative nature of some artists profiting from NFTs. “I was reading about these people who were creating NFTs and they were paying the artists, like $10 to create all of this material and then going and making $10 million from selling them. It's not just lazy, but it's exploitative.” They proceeded to discuss a section of Faux's book, which delves into the bizarre world of Bored Apes and how Faux risked $20,000 of his own money to purchase an Ape, with the goal of gaining access to an exclusive party and later selling the digital asset. The Bored Ape phenomenon represents the broader NFT craze, as discussed by the participants. They critiqued the low-quality, pixelated images of these digital assets. “I find the whole Bored Ape kind of hype cycle which I think really has largely ended now seems to be one of the strangest things that's happened in crypto,” Brendan noted.  A significant part of the book explor

VX Technologies Executive Director of Global Partnerships, Catherine Lephoto, is no stranger to the world of blockchain and digital innovation. In 2022, she sat down with Charles Miller on the sidelines of the BSV Global Blockchain Convention in Dubai to discuss VX Technologies and its blockchain-based solutions on CoinGeek Conversations. This time, Catherine is back to shed light on Alpha DAPP, the flagship product of VX Technologies, which has the potential to be a game-changer not only for Africa but for countries worldwide.Alpha DAPP, as the name suggests, marks the start of decentralized applications (DAPP). As Catherine explains,  Alpha DAPP which operates on the BSV blockchain aims to harness the power of blockchain technology. However, what makes Alpha DAPP truly exciting is that it offers a user-friendly experience. “On the face of it, does not look like it's blockchain. It still looks very much like what people are currently accustomed to. So when they interact with the platform, they would not even know that they are actually working on a blockchain platform,” she notes.  Catherine recalls the challenges of explaining the concept of blockchain, especially the process of managing a 12-word seed phrase to access a blockchain account. As she points out, people are accustomed to creating an email account with a simple password that can be easily retrieved if forgotten. Alpha DAPP has addressed this by making blockchain technology accessible to any average person. “When I interact with it, it's like I'm interacting with any other app on my phone or on my computer. It's simple,” she says.  Catherine is keen to point out that VX Technologies is committed to upholding data sovereignty, ensuring that users maintain privacy and ownership of their data. “Our company is all about data sovereignty,” she asserts. Unlike traditional centralized platforms where data is often controlled by third parties, Alpha DAPP users have control over their data. . Alpha DAPP has made the whole process user-friendly and familiar. Users can log in using a simple email address, eliminating the need to download wallets or remember complex seed phrases. A blockchain wallet will be assigned to each user, and in the event of a data loss, Alpha DAPP provides an option to retrieve the 12-word seed phrase. “The idea is the privacy still remains yours, the sovereignty of the data, the ownership is still yours. But now what we have done is we have created the interaction, essentially the bridge to the blockchain in a manner that is familiar, which is using a simple email address to log in,” Catherine explained.  Catherine also discussed Alpha DAPP's potential impact on education and employment recruitment and the role it can possibly play in these sectors. With academic records stored on Alpha DAPP, graduates can present a QR code during virtual interviews, enabling employers to verify their credentials instantly. This streamlined process eliminates the need for graduates to travel long distances for interviews, especially in remote areas, reducing the financial burden and enhancing the efficiency of the recruitment process. According to Catherin, this approach can significantly address high unemployment rates in countries like South Africa. Catherine also stressed that records must be issued by a credentialed authority to ensure trustworthiness. “With everything that we do, the record has to be issued by a credentialed authority,” she asserted. Students cannot simply create their own records, as this would risk compromising the integrity of the system. Instead, universities and educational institutions have a critical role to play in the issuance of records, which Alpha DAPP securely records on the blockchain. Catherine highlighted the importance of the first customer and the value of reference

Headquartered in Dubai, Blockchain Smart Technologies prides itself as a global leader in “blockchain distribution”. The company set up shop in Dubai because of the city's early adoption of blockchain technologies. According to CEO Dr Eva Porras, this presented an excellent opportunity for the company to provide blockchain solutions across various sectors, starting with a particular project: "what brought us to Dubai specifically was our willingness or interest in helping the airport make better use of their runways," Eva noted.  Speaking on this week's CoinGeek Conversations, Eva explained that her role extends beyond Blockchain Smart Technologies as she is also the managing director of SmartLedger. Despite offering similar products and solutions, she clarified that the two companies are separate entities.  "These are two independent businesses, totally independent," Eva said. Yet, as she points out, most partners are involved in both companies, sharing a common vision and passion for blockchain technology. For Eva, this allows for seamless collaborations on a range of projects and solutions while at the same time, building a robust blockchain ecosystem. Blockchain Smart Technologies has developed a variety of consumer-focused apps designed to address specific needs and provide real-world solutions to users. One of these, TicketMint, offers a service that issues tamper-proof tickets. "The customer is the owner of the event, and we provide the certificate that not only cannot be forged but can also serve various purposes for the event owner," Eva explained.  Eva and her team took a “horizontal” approach, expanding their solutions across different sectors. Beginning with TicketMint, they developed various products and services, including wallets and solutions for artists' intellectual property rights. Eva's academic background adds a unique dimension to her role as an entrepreneur. Her two-volume book, Bubbles and Contagion in Financial Markets, explores the dynamics of market bubbles, emphasizing the impact of value and contagion on market behavior. Eva discussed how her academic perspective gives her an advantage in understanding market psychology and activities – particularly those of unscrupulous players in the ‘crypto' market: "I can see them planning, setting their business to steal money from other people or to run these rumors that will confuse those who are less used to this type of scenario". For Eva, the utility of blockchain technology is more important than the speculative price of cryptocurrencies. She highlighted the importance of small token values in promoting the growth of the blockchain ecosystem. Smaller token values allow for faster, high-volume transactions, making blockchain technology more efficient. "I think this is the one technology that is going to allow the next revolution. Without these, there is no revolution," Eva said. While some individuals in the Bitcoin SV blockchain community are hoping for an increased value of its token, Eva believes that the true wealth generated by blockchain technology comes from its utility and transformative power. "I don't think they really understand the implications. The value of each token has to be the driver of the value that this token provides to the ecosystem," Eva noted. Eva's vision for the future is to create solutions using blockchain technology. She expressed enthusiasm for projects that can make a profound difference in people's lives, such as identity verification and solutions for refugee camps. In these areas, Eva sees the potential to simplify and improve the lives of millions.    

Chatbots have been a staple of the digital landscape for years, offering solutions to queries, performing tasks, and even providing companionship. But the game is changing. At the London Chatbot Summit, a gathering traditionally focused on chatbots, this year's focus was artificial intelligence (AI). CoinGeek Conversations host Charles Miller had the opportunity to delve into this transformative shift and interview two prominent attendees, Craig Massey and Professor Elizabeth Stokoe.  Craig Massey, a serial entrepreneur, previously the founder and chairman of Block Dojo, has now ventured into the realm of AI with his new incubator, AI Forge. He says Block Dojo had a significant impact on the blockchain industry, accounting for 24% of all blockchain start-ups in 2022. Despite this, Craig decided to embrace AI with his new enterprise: "we've taken all the learnings from the blockchain incubator and transposed them into an AI incubator." Massey discussed the appeal of AI to corporates, emphasizing the differences in enthusiasm. While blockchain faced internal conflicts and scepticism, AI is met with eagerness. The AI technology complements blockchain in areas like content creation, rights management, and combating fake news, adding a layer of rigor. It also streamlines back-office processes within corporations, making them more efficient and less bureaucratic. With AI Forge's commitment to business-to-business solutions, it's no surprise that they've been attracting corporate interest. As Craig Massey mentioned, "We had 324 applications into cohort one. We've already surpassed that for Cohort two." This overwhelming response demonstrates the growing interest in AI and AI Forge's initiatives, he says. Massey's words also shed light on their rigorous selection process, with a final 30 contenders facing a judging panel that includes luminaries like the head of AI for Google and Meta as well as AI founders with successful exits. AI Forge's approach seems to be resonating, as Massey explains: “the applications we've had are clever, more product-oriented". The focus on productization and collaboration with interested corporates, signing letters of intent and pursuing proof of concepts, reflects AI Forge's proactive approach to creating solutions that could lead to quick acquisition, suggesting future trade sale exits, potentially in the range of £30 to £40 million. Massey hopes that blending AI with blockchain creates a synergy that could redefine industries. As he notes, "for me, they're not like two separate technologies. They're a perfect marriage." This intersection promises a bright future where chatbots powered by AI become smarter, more intuitive, and deeply integrated into our daily lives. Still at the London Chatbot Summit, Charles embarked on a quest to unravel the enigmatic world of AI-driven chatbots. Inspired by the potential of AI Forge's startups, he delved into questions that seems to hover over this dynamic field: can AI-powered chatbots ever match the conversational finesse of humans? Are these bots capable of rivalling human interactions? Charles turned to the expertise of Professor Elizabeth Stokoe, an authority in the science of conversation. On the relevance of her field to the chatbot industry, Professor Stokoe stressed the need to analyse whether chatbots genuinely engage in conversations by leveraging research on human interaction. When discussing her methodology, Professor Stokoe explained how conversation analysts like herself rely on recordings of real-life interactions, avoiding simulations or interviews. They focus on what unfolds in the actual interaction, including the moments of engagement and disengagement. She recounted a study that revealed the architecture of initial inquiry calls to community mediation services, highlighting key points t

Yves Mersch, a former governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg and member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB), recently shared his valuable insights on the world of cryptocurrency, its regulation, and the distinct significance of Bitcoin SV. In a candid conversation with Charles Miller on CoinGeek Conversations, Yves provided clarity on these complex topics in a straightforward yet insightful manner. The Role of Central BanksYves began by emphasizing the important role of central banks in safeguarding a nation's currency. He stated, "as a regulator, the ECB has a mandate to defend a currency which is supposed to be stable." Central banks like the ECB are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the stability of their respective currencies and facilitating secure and efficient payment systems. Embracing Technological InnovationIn the realm of financial innovation, Yves highlighted the positive stance of central banks. He explained, "the ECB has always considered innovation in the financial area as something positive because the ECB is supposed to work in a functioning market economy." The pursuit of technological advancement to enhance competitiveness and support economic growth has been a consistent focus for central banks. Balancing Innovation and RiskYves pointed out that any financial innovation, including cryptocurrencies, is subject to careful scrutiny. "ECB has all the ways to analyze what are the potential benefits for society at large and for the institution, and what are the risks that come with these benefits." Central banks must assess the potential benefits to society and the institution against the associated risks. Unique Risks in the Crypto WorldYves noted the distinctive risks posed by the crypto world. He stated, "you rely on the technology which is highly decentralized and where you have risks which are also risks that you find in the traditional financial world." Additionally, the crypto world introduces governance risks due to its lack of a clear liability structure. These governance issues add to the traditional financial risks inherent in any financial instrument. Challenges in Global RegulationAddressing the subject of global cryptocurrency regulation, Yves acknowledged the problems, saying, "unfortunately, this is very difficult." He explained that international bodies like the Financial Stability Board, G20, and others issue recommendations rather than binding regulations. Jurisdictions are encouraged to implement these recommendations in their national legislation but achieving a universal, comprehensive regulatory framework remains challenging. Systemic Risks Posed by Tech CompaniesYves delved into the potential risks of major tech companies launching successful cryptocurrencies. He noted that these entities, due to their substantial customer bases, could influence monetary policy through their stablecoins. "That could distort the monetary policy transmission mechanism," Yves cautioned. Without direct access to central banks, these companies would rely on intermediaries for liquidity, potentially disrupting monetary transmission. Role of CBDCsThe topic of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) also came up in the conversation. Yves clarified that CBDCs are designed to complement existing financial instruments rather than replace them. They aim to provide central banks with a digital presence while retaining the fundamental attributes of cash in a digital form. The Bitcoin SV DistinctionIn the midst of this insightful conversation, Bitcoin SV emerged as a prominent player. Yves Mersch's perspective sheds light on the unique attributes that make Bitcoin SV stand out in the ever-expanding world of cryptoc

Elas Digital co-founder Mohammad Jaber is carving a unique path in the world of digital consultancy, leveraging blockchain technology to solve complex problems across various sectors. In a recent episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Mohammad shared insights into the Elas approach to business and his journey within the Bitcoin SV ecosystem. As he tells Charles Miller, "Elas is a digital consultancy company that focuses on building its own proprietary technology, using blockchain to help businesses and governments of all sizes to leverage off this revolutionary technology, to solve problems that they otherwise could not solve with legacy technology.”  One example of Elas' work revolves around combating counterfeiting in the luxury goods industry. Mohammad explains the collaboration with Ali Beydoun, founder and CEO of Manufact, who approached Elas with an issue. "Manufact facilitates authenticity in the luxury goods market in a way that undeniably gives confidence to all stakeholders in the industry," Mohammad explains. Elas' solution not only safeguards brands but also assures consumers of impeccable provenance. A live demonstration at the London Blockchain Conference showcased how Elas is revolutionizing authenticity verification. While opening a sealed box of Vinyl Cigars, a boutique cigar manufacturer in Los Angeles, Mohammad demonstrated blockchain's tamper-evident capabilities, coupled with digital twin pairing and the technology's ability to record events in real-time. As Mohammad recounts, "we leveraged off the existing hardware and processes and configured it to be able to also interact with the blockchain once a trigger was done, such as opening the box". This innovation not only enhances transparency but also records supply chain events onto the blockchain for future reference. For consumers, accessing product information is a breeze. When Charles inquired, “You don't need any special downloads or anything to make this work?” Mohammad agreed adding, a simple tap, even before purchase, reveals a wealth of information—production date, country of origin, product details, and supply chain history. Another noteworthy collaboration involves Tokneovate, a pioneer in voluntary carbon credit derivatives trades. "Tokenovate wanted to revolutionize the entire financial and trading world. They had some very, very ambitious milestones," Mohammad proudly announces. Elas is executing the first live trade using Bitcoin script and smart contracting on the blockchain - a monumental achievement in the carbon credits trading domain. Despite the demanding workload, Mohammad is thrilled about Elas' growth. "We are attracting a lot of interest and engagement. It's very exciting," he says.  As for life in the business world, Mohammad says it's "survival of the fittest." He acknowledges the challenging times but underscores the importance of providing value and maximizing opportunities. Furthermore, Elas unveils a groundbreaking offering—a private ledger on the public blockchain. Mohammad explains, "We use the Satoshis on the Bitcoin network to create private compartmentalized zones." This innovation guarantees impeccable provenance, a crucial factor for governments and enterprises seeking unparalleled transparency. "For certain types of customers, it is a recommendation that we will make," Mohammad adds, emphasizing the flexibility of this solution across diverse industries. As an independent company, Elas is always on the lookout for opportunities and like-minded partnerships: "we're still rolling along, and the future's looking very bright."    

Darren Kellenschwiler's long BSV history runs from the tumultuous days of the BCH-BSV split to his current role as a technical lead at the BSV Blockchain Association.On this week's CoinGeek Conversations, Darren takes a trip down memory lane with Charles Miller, recalling the end of 2018 when he hosted Bitcoin meet-ups in London. It was during this period that the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) split occurred, resulting in heated debates and ideological divisions within the community. Darren recalled the atmosphere, when "everything was a little tumultuous, and people were taking different ideological stances. There were very strong arguments - over a beer! That's the sort of atmosphere at that time. It was the hash wars era." Darren was on the Bitcoin SV side of the divide, firmly believing in Dr Craig Wright as the inventor of Bitcoin. As he explained, "I had made my mind up years before that this chap, Dr Wright is the inventor of Bitcoin. So I didn't really waste my time with the crowd that were somehow rebelling against him." As Bitcoin SV emerged, Darren took “a leap of faith” despite the ongoing debates about Dr Craig Wright. As he says, “there wasn't a lot of public detail with respect to the evidence for Dr Craig Wright having invented Bitcoin." This period also marked the birth of the "Bitcoin protocol is set in stone" campaign. One of Darren's notable contributions to the BSV community was Baemail, an email application integrated with micropayments. He explained his motivation behind it: "I don't like spam. I hate reading emails that are not relevant to me. So I thought, attach some value to it. We'll create ‘inbox economics', where the highest in the inbox is the person who paid you the most for you to read it." While Baemail gained quick adoption within the BSV community, it faced challenges in achieving widespread usage due to limitations in BSV wallet adoption. Darren's journey continued when he met Brendan Lee from ELAS Digital at a conference in London. Brendan bought Baemail and hired Darren, making him a co-founder of the company. Together, they delved into building Metanet applications and experimenting with hosting entire websites on the Metanet, a concept that was both groundbreaking and esoteric at the time. Today, Darren serves as the technical lead of the utilization value stream at the BSV Blockchain Association. He described his role as multifaceted, involving contributions to various aspects of the BSV ecosystem. He also emphasized the Association's responsibility to ensure that the user experience and businesses built on BSV remain intact and thrive. Darren also highlighted his passion for tackling complex challenges and his role in documenting, analyzing, and improving wallet architectures within the BSV ecosystem. He mentioned the importance of effective communication and collaboration with developers, including discussions with Dr Craig Wright, to advance the ecosystem's growth and development. Darren Kellenschwiler's journey in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem exemplifies the resilience and dedication of individuals committed to the vision of a stable, scalable, and innovative blockchain. As Bitcoin SV continues to evolve, Darren and others like him play a pivotal role in shaping its future.  

Swiss entrepreneur Bernhard Müller's app, Centi, built on the Bitcoin SV (BSV) blockchain, is a platform that offers financial services which combine the revolutionary capabilities of digital money with the trust and security of traditional banks. Centi's creation of the Centi Franc Stablecoin (CCHF), a stablecoin connected to the Swiss franc is a significant achievement for the BSV blockchain. According to Bernhard, the Centi Franc is a "stablecoin of a new category, which is fiat guaranteed". He stressed that this guarantee provides peace of mind, saying, "you know exactly how you can get your money as it is backed by a Swiss bank guarantee." On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Bernhard details the process behind the Centi franc, explaining that for every token issued, the bank provides an equivalent amount of money as a guarantee in the event that Centi defaults. He outlined the steps involved, from contacting the bankruptcy trustee to the bank's role in collecting data and distributing funds. Bernhard emphasized, "you have this guarantee, which is quite unique". Bernhard also points to the Centi Franc's capability to handle micropayments, not just for trading between cryptocurrencies. "It's a direct-to-consumer stablecoin," meaning that users don't need to have large amounts of money to interact with it. Bernhard aims to get more people, including developers and businesses, to use Centi Franc. Presenter Charles Miller suggested that the Centi Franc represents "genuine digital cash." Bernhard agreed and pointed out that when you use cash, you don't have to share your ID or leave behind any digital traces, as opposed to other financial transactions, such as with banks, where you need to share all sorts of personal information. Centi does not rely on loans from banks, instead, it front-loads the money. This not only minimizes the bank's risk but also ensures Centi maintains sufficient reserves. The Centi Franc's real power is in its versatility. As Bernhard points out, "If you want to have a Swiss franc that's ultra-versatile and can be used for micropayments...that's not something you can do with money in a bank account because it's not cash."  Bernhard also unveiled Centi's merchant list, highlighting its growth. He explained that consumers can directly pay merchants, and Centi's competitive pricing is one of the reasons merchants choose to accept it. It's also good to note that the absence of chargebacks and faster access to funds is an added advantage to merchants of Centi. Furthermore, Centi has partnered with Centbee, a wallet provider based in South Africa focused on facilitating cash payments and remittances within Africa. Bernhard described their partnership as an opportunity to create a remittance product that fits well with Switzerland's unique remittance landscape. Switzerland is a significant source of remittance payments, surpassing even the entire United Kingdom, despite its smaller size. This is due to Switzerland's diverse society, comprised of both locals and international workers, including refugees. Centbee, on the other hand, offers cash, bank payments, and mobile money services in sub-Saharan Africa, and now expanding to countries like Brazil.  Combining Centi's infrastructure in Switzerland with Centbee's offerings, the collaboration aims to create a remittance product that can meet the demands of the current remittance market. Bernhard Müller's Centi combines the best of traditional finance with the possibilities of the digital age. As he notes, Centi offers its users the convenience of web3 technology while maintaining the familiarity of web2, making it an exciting prospect in the world of digital finance.  

Musician-turned-tech-entrepreneur Shem Booth-Spain demonstrates his passion for revolutionizing the music industry through Blarecast, a music platform poised to empower artists and content creators by enabling them to own and monetize their data using the power of Bitcoin SV.  Shem's journey began in the world of music. From a young age, he immersed himself in creating music, from traditional rock and roll to electronic sounds. His experience as an independent, unsigned musician in London made him aware of the challenges musicians face in self-distribution. As he points out, blockchain's potential in the arts is still largely untapped, and he is passionate about leveraging technology to empower content creators. Shem believes that Bitcoin can play a significant role in this transformation. As he says, "Bitcoin is a medium, and our understanding is growing of what we conceive Bitcoin to be able to do." His initial encounter with blockchain came when he and his band inscribed a message onto the BTC blockchain. He thought of storing more substantial data on the blockchain, however, as he points out, BTC had its limitations. It wasn't until the restoration of the original Bitcoin protocol on Bitcoin SV in 2019 that Shem and his team embarked on the "Data blast" operation, where they stored various data types on the BSV blockchain. This led Shem to realize that Bitcoin's potential goes way beyond data inscriptions. "I think that's actually a very interesting story of how we now understand Bitcoin in a lot bigger viewpoint than just inscribing little bits of information," he says.  Funded by venture capitalist firm Ayre Ventures, Blarecast is developing both iOS and Android apps, with a focus on ensuring a seamless and enjoyable user experience. Blarecast facilitates instant payments for music consumption, eliminating the lengthy delays often associated with traditional music distribution systems. As Shem puts it, "Bitcoin is a technology of empowerment," and Blarecast aims to simplify and streamline the payment process for both artists and listeners. When asked about approaching big record companies, Shem says that the key lies in conveying the usefulness and applicability of blockchain technology rather than delving into its technicalities. The music industry has experienced challenges, from piracy to the emergence of streaming platforms like Spotify. Now, with Web 3 technologies and the introduction of peer-to-peer payments and NFTs, more business opportunities are coming to light. As he states, "it's about why this technology is useful and important to a prospective partner or a client." Blarecast will allow users to make micropayments using a BSV wallet. However, Shem acknowledges the need for user-friendly payment options, "multiple tokens, multiple currencies, any fiat currency, so that whatever the consumer wants to pay, there's a seamless choice to do that." Blarecast will ensure a seamless payment experience for a global audience.  Currently living in Japan, Shem is optimistic about blockchain adoption in the country. He notes that past crypto speculative bubbles have tainted perceptions of blockchain technology, leading businesses and individuals to be more cautious. However, he believes that once a few businesses experience the speed and efficiency of blockchain technology, more will follow.  Blarecast's goal is to build a stable business that benefits artists worldwide, and Shem envisions a modular ecosystem that can adapt and evolve with emerging technologies. He stresses, "we're trying to build something that's got longevity."  

In a recent episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller sat down with Rafal Gelner, the co-founder and CEO of Zetly Fueling Sports, to delve into the exciting world of merging real and virtual experiences for sports enthusiasts, with a particular focus on football.  Zetly Fueling Sports is exploring various avenues to create immersive experiences for sports fans, incorporating elements like NFT gating and NFC (Near Field Communication), a wireless technology that enables devices like smartphones and contactless cards to exchange data when close together. As Rafal explained: "let's say a user has a favorite jersey or sports jacket, that will be connected to the NFT. When the user goes into a match or an area where this can be scanned, you can have access to the areas to take part in reward programs". He emphasized the endless potential of this approach, comparing it to a ‘golden ticket' that provides access to VIP areas and other club offerings. Zetly is gearing up to launch a pilot sports metaverse in collaboration with Robert Rice's Transmira and Omniscape. Transmira is creating digital replicas of entire stadiums through photography, allowing users to virtually explore these venues.  Zetly wants to make sports experiences more accessible to everyone. As Rafal noted, "Zetly gives access to the people that cannot afford to go to the real match or real stadium." Furthermore, users in the virtual realm will have the unique ability to interact with those attending the real event, and vice versa. This bridging of the physical and digital worlds enhances the sense of community for sports enthusiasts” and "if you've got a family member or a friend who's actually at the game, you can sort of be there with them - or at least see them." Rafal envisions the metaverse expanding not only within the stadium but also encompassing an entire city, making the digital twin concept a tourism attraction. As he explained, Zetly's all-in-one platform will include NFT gating, utilities, sports quizzes, and support for sports clubs to tokenize and engage their fans. BSV (Bitcoin SV) is Zetly's blockchain of choice. For Rafal, BSV's enterprise-level capability and ability to scale exceptionally allows for fast and cost-effective transactions. This choice to build on BSV not only guarantees streamlined transaction handling but also positions Zetly to easily accommodate substantial growth and adoption. Rafal was enthusiastic to share news that Zetly will showcase their innovative solutions and pilot program in Seville, Spain, this month. This opportunity will give them substantial exposure to some of the world's largest and most renowned sports clubs.  However, Rafal acknowledged a challenge in blockchain education. "People like the idea but they don't understand blockchain," he noted. To bridge this knowledge gap, he emphasized the need for education and awareness, especially within the sports community. Rafal Gelner's vision for Zetly Fueling Sports aims to engage sports fans through tokenization while giving a full-on immersive experience to users in the real and virtual worlds. With a focus on BSV's capabilities and a commitment to user-friendly subscription models, Zetly aims to revolutionize the way sports enthusiasts experience their favorite events. As Rafal says, "the sky's the limit," and Zetly is well on its way to soaring high in the world of sports technology.

Blockchain technology promises innovative solutions to long-standing problems across various industries. To learn about the work of a blockchain consultant, Charles Miller sat down with IBM blockchain specialist Agata Slater in this weeki's CoinGeek Conversations. In the interview, Agata talks about her role, IBM's approach to blockchain and the implications for Web3 technology. As a blockchain consultant at IBM, Agata focuses on helping enterprise clients design and implement blockchain solutions. This includes everything from identifying use cases and architectural design to the actual implementation and ongoing technical support.  According to Agata, IBM assists a diverse range of clients with varying levels of blockchain knowledge. Some approach IBM with a vision for implementing blockchain while others have specific problems they need to solve, with blockchain potentially being just one piece of the solution. Agata emphasizes that the primary goal should always be addressing the client's problems effectively, even if it means advising against blockchain when it's not the right fit.  Agata's department, IBM Consulting, remains technology agnostic. This means they can propose solutions from IBM's software portfolio but are not limited to them. They can leverage existing solutions from the market or partner with technology providers to best address the client's needs. For Agata, this flexibility allows them to serve and support clients in the most effective way possible. When it comes to selecting the right blockchain solution, Agata points out that many enterprise clients prefer permissioned blockchains like Hyperledger Fabric due to their focus on privacy, control, and compliance. She acknowledges that while permissionless blockchains have their place, enterprises often require a high degree of control and stability, which permissioned blockchains can provide. Agata also discusses the concept of Web3 what she sees as its four pillars: identity, tokenization, traceability, and payments. She sees Web3 as a promise of what the internet could become and believes these pillars are essential enablers for realizing that promise. While solutions for these aspects already exist, she believes that Web3 can bring them together in a decentralized ecosystem. Interestingly, Agata holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, where she studied the language of the Caribbean. She explains how her academic background focused on language and identity, which involved ethnographic research and the analysis of grammatical features in vernacular speech. While her academic journey may seem unrelated to blockchain, she points out that understanding cultural nuances and effective communication are essential skills when dealing with diverse clients and communities in the blockchain ecosystem. While Agata acknowledges the passion around the different blockchain technologies and protocols, she says she refrains from getting caught up in debates over which blockchain is superior. As for her thoughts on Bitcoin SV's capabilities, she acknowledges its potential in terms of scalability. She anticipates that only when more enterprises with substantial scale requirements enter the ecosystem will BSV's full potential be realized.

In the concluding episode of Coingeek Conversations' summer series, Charles Miller engages in a discussion with Amy Bowe, the entrepreneur behind Block Dojo's innovative blockchain platform, GHGBlaze. GHGBlaze is dedicated to assisting companies in obtaining precise assessments of the carbon emissions associated with their products. As Amy says, the need for accuracy is gaining traction as companies are faced with mounting pressures to disclose their carbon emissions. With the growing mandate for these disclosures, there is a heightened legal liability linked to their precision, she points out. Amy also draws attention to regulations implemented in European Union nations, which effectively impose taxes on the carbon emissions of imported goods.  To determine the tax obligations for imported goods, a comprehensive understanding of their associated emissions is imperative, she notes. Furthermore, Amy underscores an emerging commercial demand for low-carbon commodity products. To cater to this demand, she emphasizes, it is imperative to be well-informed about the emissions tied to the products one is marketing. GHGBlaze aims to enhance operational efficiency by offering a centralized and standardized solution for the storage of emissions data. This centralized repository can then be accessed by relevant parties to extract the necessary data. The primary source of revenue for GHGBlaze is anticipated to be derived from subscription agreements. As Amy explains, companies keen on accessing this data will be required to pay an annual subscription fee. In addition, GHGBlaze plans to leverage the tokenization aspect of blockchain technology. Under this framework, each emissions data point will be assigned a value based on its perceived utility, thereby incentivizing companies to provide this valuable service. Amy firmly believes that blockchain technology is a valuable component of GHGBlaze. As she points out, “the immutability aspects are valuable but when it comes down to these incentive payments and having effectively creating a market through tokenization, that can't be done with a centralized database," she says.   In summary, GHGBlaze, under the leadership of Amy Bowe, is poised to play a pivotal role in helping companies accurately assess and disclose their carbon emissions, while also aligning with emerging regulatory and market demands. Through blockchain technology and tokenization, GHGBlaze aims to revolutionize the way emissions data is stored, valued, and shared within the business landscape. 

Carby is the first marketplace for future carbon credits, solving liquidity, scalability and transparency issues of the market. It's CEO and Co-founder Mark Moores believes more carbon projects are needed to fight climate change. Speaking as a father, Mark tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek conversations, “when you have a child, you re-evaluate things and you think about the future and one thing you've got to think about is what type of planet are we bequeathing our children?”   With Carby, a platform that connects carbon projects with carbon credit buyers, Mark is addressing climate challenges by scaling the voluntary carbon market. The platform will help provide project developers with funding to overcome cashflow challenges while giving them access to liquidity solutions in the market. In effect, the platform will encourage project developers to increase the supply of carbon credits as buyers signal a future demand. Project developers will be able to sell NFT's that represent a specific carbon credit in a specific future year. Attached to the NFT is an advance purchase agreement that gives project developers a legal obligation to deliver the carbon credit to the buyer once it's been produced.  CyberXchain looks to incentivize ethical hackers using blockchain technology  Cybercrime is a massive problem, says Jean Lehmann, Founder and CEO of CyberXChain, a marketplace that brings together ethical hackers and businesses. As defined by Jean, “ethical hackers are essentially professionals, security experts, consultants looking to flag, fix and identify vulnerabilities in computer systems so companies can be better informed of the vulnerabilities and the steps on how to fix them.” As Jean explains, “everyday brings in new headlines of cyber-attacks, we are observing a never ending cycle of cyber-attacks and the cyber arms race between the attackers and the defenders.” Jean's solution is to create a trust and economic layer between ethical hackers and businesses. With CyberXchain, ethical hacking is democratized, made more accessible and cost effective for both businesses and ethical hackers, he says. The platform will have its own token that ethical hackers can directly be rewarded with upon job completion, through their digital wallet. According to Jean, using blockchain technology will improve operational efficiency and create economic incentives . “I look at blockchain as a way to create an economic policy, governance and technology ledger, which is going to bring various types of efficiency and benefits around smart contracts for rule based automation of security events,” he says. After many years of working in cybersecurity, Jean realized that the service model to counter cyber-attacks is not scalable. For his part, CyberXChain will address the cybersecurity challenge while creating economic incentives, ultimately improving security posture. Watch the full episode of CoinGeek Conversations' third installment of its summer special series featuring Block Dojo entrepreneurs here:  

On the second installment of CoinGeek Conversations Block Dojo series, Charles Miller speaks to two entrepreneurs who are looking to improve business efficiency with blockchain technology.    Sports Finex is a platform that enables quicker and cost-effective business deals between financial institutions and football clubs. According to its Founder and CEO, Nico Malgeri, the platform aims to streamline the tedious part of the dealmaking process. “We simplify the whole process of finding opportunities in the football market for financial institutions that want to invest in football,” he says.    As Nico points out, Sports Finex solves a recurring problem in football clubs. “When football clubs sell a player, they don't get the money all in one chunk, usually in installments, this process involves many intermediaries and takes a lot of time,” he says. With Sport Finex's invoice financing solution, both parties will be able to close deals faster and players will be able to receive payments seamlessly.       In addition, the platform will make use of an AI machine learning system to match financial firms to football clubs while also leveraging blockchain technology to validate stakeholders and store data. As Nico explains, blockchain will provide that extra layer of security to avoid leaking deals to the public.   Sports Finex will charge both stakeholders a subscription fee and take a small percentage in commission from both parties.    Similarly, BizCrunch facilitates deals but this time, between investors and the businesses they want to acquire. According to its Founder and Head of Growth, Alfie Lambert, the subscription-based platform offers investors information and an analysis of companies that are not listed for sale, but perhaps interested in selling.     As Alfie explains, the platform will use algorithms to find data that companies don't usually highlight in their portfolio's.    As for the use of blockchain technology, Alfie says “One problem is trust from either end, that's where we want to harness the immutability power of blockchain.”   Currently in beta, BizCrunch plans to launch its platform in September.  

On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, two entrepreneurs from London's incubator program Block Dojo speak to Charles Miller about their start-ups and how they can solve real world problems.  First up is Ditto, an AI-powered platform that aims to help people combat loneliness. “We are in a global epidemic of loneliness,” says James Kirk, Ditto Founder and CEO. Research suggests that over half the adults living in the United Kingdom experienced loneliness in 2022. The platform which focusses on companionship and mental well-being will utilize advances in AI technology, allowing users to have human-like conversations with Ditto.  The platform, which is connected to the internet, will have access to real time information, but unlike Amazon's cloud-based voice service Alexa, it will proactively learn about its users' lives. The platform will ask questions about the users' likes and dislikes, store and remember this information and eventually match up users with other human beings with shared interests and experiences.   James is currently working with a team of experts which includes an engineer with expertise in AI technology and a professor working in the intersection of AI and healthcare.  According to James, there's a role for technology in companionship. Some studies even show that people feel more comfortable speaking to a machine than a human being. As he points out, technology “is always there, it's always going to say the right thing and it's non-judgmental.”  On the second part of the show, Tristan O'Dwyer, Founder and CEO of Vymt, talks about his platform for social media influencers who operate in the gaming sector.  As he explains, today influencers receive all the revenue, leaving their followers unincentivized. Vymt takes a different approach by rewarding viewers with a blockchain-based token for discovering and following new talents.  A QR code will randomly pop up on the screen while viewers are engaged in a video. The viewer will then scan the QR code and be directed to either a multiple choice question, an opinion poll or a feedback survey based on the content. If answered correctly, the user will be rewarded with a token that has real world utility.    According to Tristan, the business model essentially allows users to move around the platform and find influencers. In turn, viewers' attention is distributed equally and advertising revenue is likewise spread out.  Catch these Dojo entrepreneurs on the first of four CoinGeek Conversations Summer Special Episodes.     

For James Belding, the co-founder and CEO of Tokenized, the launch of his desktop app just days ahead of the London Blockchain conference in June was the fruit of years of work, ever  since he appeared at a CoinGeek conference with his self-funded team in Toronto in 2019. Described as a “self-custodial and enterprise-grade digital wallet …for issuing, managing and holding digital assets including Bitcoin SV”, Tokenized boasts an elegant interface, an easy sign up process and an impressive range of functions.Sure, it's taken a while, James admits, but that's because he wanted his product to be more than just “the hundredth wallet that wasn't that good and that didn't distinguish itself at all from anything else.”Tokenized's distinction lies in the wide range of what James calls “instrument types” that it supports. So in your wallet, you can have an eclectic mix, including bonds, tickets, coupons and loyalty points as well alongside fiat currencies. Despite the name of the business, James plays down the tokens themselves, partly because he thinks people have a distorted idea about them from the hype around dodgy NFTs. The tokens are just “tiny, tiny pieces of the puzzle,” he says. “You just make a token on chain. Maybe it's a five, or twenty percent improvement over current things”. It's the rest of what blockchain can do that is key to what he wants to achieve with Tokenized: “the real unlocking of value - and where all the hard work is - in the smart contracts and all the implications that arise from those”. On this week's CoinGeek Conversations, James talks about the journey from initial idea to product launch, and explains why he thinks users will agree that Tokenized was worth the wait: “We really put our blood, sweat and tears into it to make it as compelling as we could, as simple as we could. But right now anyone can download the app and they can use it as what we think is probably the best Bitcoin wallet or even crypto wallet in the whole industry.”Part of that claim rests on the thinking that James and his team have put into security. By reducing Tokenized's own custody of assets, they have put their users in a more direct relationship with the blockchain: “we saw a non-custodial approach [allowing] users to connect directly with the DLT [digital ledger technology] as intuitively very compelling from a security point of view.”That has an additional benefit when trying to sign up customers, big business especially: he can tell them that they don't need to put their faith in Tokenized being around forever - although he is confident it will be! But if the company were to disappear, the Tokenized protocol, which is open source, would still exist and continue to operate, and users could access their assets through alternative interfaces. “I think that resonates very well” in discussion with potential customers, James says. “It's a really powerful message and we get a lot of positive feedback for it.”So what are the prospects for signing up big business users? James is cautiously optimistic: “we're in active discussions with a lot of big players that are getting their heads around it. I wouldn't say we're at a stage where one of the biggest players is ready to drop everything, but we're basically at the point where I think a bunch of pilot projects are going to start rolling out quite soon”. 

From BSV entrepreneur to start-up enabler, Kirsty Barany-Gibson is no stranger to the Bitcoin SV community. Prior to taking on a position at global investment firm Scale Facilitation, she was known to the BSV community as the founder of Clear Sparrow, an online dating app that utilizes Bitcoin SV technology. Today, Kristy heads Access New York, a program by Scale Facilitation, offering start-ups and small-medium enterprises access to New York City resources. On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller catches up with the BSV entrepreneur who passionately shares her thoughts on Blockchain technology, its most promising use cases and how she enables innovative start-ups and SMEs through Access New York.    “We have a very much diversified portfolio. We're looking into companies in biotechnology, healthcare, obviously blockchain, so essentially anything that is a high disruptor in established industries,” she says. As an entrepreneur in the blockchain space, Kristy firmly attests to the countless benefits blockchain technology brings to a business. “You need it, otherwise you are going to be at a massive disadvantage,” she asserts. She points to blockchain's ability to enhance process efficiencies through transparency while allowing companies to reduce liability and cost. Thanks to Clear Sparrow, Kirsty speaks from experience. Her platform is unusual among dating apps in that it uses blockchain technology to store users' information. It verifies a user's background through checking government records as a precondition to the access of potential partners. Kirsty is also keen to point out the superior power of BSV's technology saying “the only blockchain that is able to handle the speed and the volume is BSV”. As head of Access New York, Kirsty is enthusiastic about onboarding companies that utilize blockchain technology. As she explains, “I see the BSV blockchain as a way of future proofing the companies that we invest in” she says.   Kirsty believes that the most successful companies of the future will be those that integrate blockchain technology at an early stage. As for companies planning to integrate blockchain later on, she says it is viable, but more expensive. “If you're able to capture real live data, immutable, you are sitting on a goldmine, that is where the value is, so if you would talk to me and say, well, we can do it today, make a small investment and build it versus well, we'll see in five years, then you're losing five years of these amazing value that you could have been tracking since the beginning,” she explains. Furthermore, Kirsty alludes to the fact that there is an abundance of talents in the BSV community that can help companies integrate blockchain: “there's a group of amazing developers within the BSV community that have been devoting years to building the building blocks, so they are there - you only have to literally bring them into your business and open a whole new dimension to it.”      Kristy's background in technology goes back to her childhood years. Her father was in one of the largest information technology distributor companies in South America. Kirsty also worked at a cybersecurity firm in the United States that serviced some of the largest brands in various industries. “I protected the oil industry, central banks. I was never the builder, but I always understood exactly how it worked so I could implement it in a very successful way,” she says.     With a deep appreciation for blockchain technology, Kristy continues her journey, hoping to find more use cases that can truly unlock the value of this technology. As she says, “there's a lot of very profitable business models out there that have never been touched just because there's never been that transparency in

The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) has been using blockchain technology to deliver assistance safely and securely since 2017 through an initiative called Building Blocks. It's a privately managed blockchain network which allows various humanitarian organizations to coordinate efficiently, while allowing people to simply access their essential needs.     As Houman Haddad, Head of Emerging Technologies at WFP explains, Building Blocks is “a humanitarian blockchain network which aims to, in a neutral manner, bring various actors together as hundred percent co-owners, co-operators and co-governors.” On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller finds out how multiple agencies use the private blockchain to enable a cohesive working environment while at the same time, allowing people to receive different types of assistance with less complexity.  As Houman points out, “by putting the people we serve at the very center, gaining a common visibility on who's assisting whom, we can coordinate that assistance to ensure more equitable outcomes and make the redemption process simpler for the people who are dependent on that assistance.” Oftentimes, humanitarian agencies serve people who lack digital literacy or don't have access to phones or connectivity. So how does the system work? As Houman explains, “the way we've designed our system is so that the people we serve don't need any of those things - or don't necessarily need any of those things - but we do need connectivity and a device at the point of distribution.”   In the current system, the UNHCR, which has a mandate for protection of refugees, collects documents (if any), biographic and demographic data, as well as biometrics from every refugee family who in turn receive an identification card that only contains a pseudonymous code. WFP then creates a blockchain account using the pseudonymous code for each refugee family. WFP's onchain work begins as they deposit food tokens into a blockchain wallet associated with the family's blockchain account. In effect, WFP will not have the refugees' names or birthdates, therefore protecting every individual's identity.   As for redeeming entitlements, an individual can go to a supermarket, simply select items and checkout using the UNHCR ID card. WFP then needs to authenticate the transaction through various methods, depending on a country's limitations. “In Jordan, it's by iris biometrics. In Bangladesh, it was finger biometrics before COVID. But it can be anything. It can be a QR code. It could be a simple pin,” he says.          Houman envisions a future where individuals take complete ownership of their accounts by owning and controlling their own private keys. “At that stage, we won't simply hand them their private key, they will generate their own private key and we will transfer ownership to them,” he says. Houman is also keen to point out that the use of a private blockchain ties in well with the United Nations “do no harm principle, at heart.” As he points out, “we store non-sensitive data on chain, although it's private and we protect it heavily.” While the UN's humanitarian initiatives make use of private blockchain technology, Houman admits that he favors the concept of a public blockchain for its self-sustaining ability, not dependent to any organization.     Despite recognizing the advantages of a public blockchain, Houman remains steadfast with the use of private blockchain for WFP. While working on a proof-of-concept initiative in Pakistan, backed by Ethereum technology, Houman and his team quickly discovered issues with speed and cost. He also wasn't keen on the fact that the transactions, although pseudonymous, are publicly visible. 

Times are changing, literally. The Nowatch wearable looks like a watch but doesn't function like one. Instead of telling the time, the device's main use is to register its owners' biometrics. As MintBlue CEO, Niels van den Bergh points out, the watch allows its users to be ‘in the now': “It doesn't tell you the time, it only gives you time,” he says.   The BSV blockchain helps Nowatch to track a person's vitals, breathing, heartbeat, steps, sleep cycle among many other measures. Similar to other smart wearable brands, the information collected from its user used to be stored in the cloud. But as Niels points out, “Nowatch really wants to pioneer and push boundaries in this field.”  And so the brand aims to take smart watches to the next level by offering its customers the opportunity to own and monetize their own data with the use of blockchain technology.  As Niels tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, every Nowatch user will own their own data. “You can do things with it that you can do when you are an owner: you can share it, you can sell it, you can rent it, you own it, you decide,” Niels says.  There are benefits to sharing your Nowatch data to your service providers. For instance, your doctor can access and monitor your sleep cycle after prescribing you new sleep medication or your gym trainer will be able to access your vitals and see how your body reacts to an exercise routine. With the data-sharing capability of Nowatch, people can receive better service.  As for monetizing from your data on the Nowatch, Niels says it's possible, for instance, for a research organization to track hundreds or thousands of people's heart rates during a football match. “That's cool information that research labs can use well, and imagine the machine learning algorithms that also can be fed with this information, it's truly authentic information that you buy from an owner,” he says.   Nowatch is one of the many clients of MintBlue, a company that offers blockchain services to businesses. MintBlue's vision is to create a public protocol spec, not only for Nowatch but for competitor smart wearables that want to integrate the technology as well. As Niels says, “we are like the Yoda to the heroes, we help organizations reap the benefits of Web3, we make it very easy for organizations to just plug and play our SDK and APIs into their backend systems.”   MintBlue also wants to have all its use cases collaborate using BSV technology saying “the BSV blockchain is one global ledger for everything, for all use cases, so all of the clients that we sign up can interoperate.”    From a business perspective, Niels says it's all about finding the right use cases, as well as focusing on marketing and sales. He believes personal connection is everything. As he points out, “business is still people talking to each other and trusting each other.” For Niels, at the end of the day, business boils down to people having a relationship.

For more than two decades, Giovanni Franzese has been working for the telecoms giant Ericsson where he served most recently as Head of Blockchain Business Development. As an engineer, Giovanni liked to experiment with different types of technologies, but it wasn't until six years ago that he decided to use blockchain technology to develop a product solution.The product, Ericsson Customer Acceptance is a big win for Ericsson. As he explains, “it's a big product, it's very successful, and we have we have a very vast adoption.” As he tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, innovation from within a corporation is extremely complex. “Innovation comes through acquisition, it's much easier: you buy a company which has a brilliant idea,” he says. In Giovanni's case, his idea to use blockchain didn't happen overnight. He admits that transforming his idea into a viable product was a struggle at first, but he worked  ‘under the radar' and step by step: “it's like Lego bricks buildings, the first one and then the second, and then it was a good building at the end,” he says. It also helped that he found an internal stakeholder to sponsor his idea.Ericsson Customer Acceptance is backed by Hyperledger Fabric, a private blockchain technology. While building the product, Giovanni wasn't aware of any public blockchain with secured scalability and high transaction rates per second. On top of that, he was wary of proposing the use of public blockchain which he colleagues might fear would potentially expose corporate data.    As Giovanni explains, the challenge continued as there was resistance to a product that had the word blockchain associated to it. As he points out, “at the very beginning nobody wanted it because it's not a secret that blockchain is still a little bit controversial, especially when we have such scandals like FDX.” Despite the roadblocks, Giovanni's blockchain-based solution was deployed to several Ericsson customers. At the end, he says “the benefits were so evident.”Giovanni left his position at Ericsson to join nChain where he plans to expand the BSV-supporting global tech company into a consultant service company. Only a few weeks after taking on the role of nChain executive partner, Giovanni had the opportunity to speak at the recent London Blockchain Conference. He highlighted his experience in developing, implementing, and eventually providing blockchain solutions to big corporates. In his talk, he shared a significant career-lesson to his audience: “I don't regret what I did and the decisions I took six years ago when I decided to embrace blockchain and use private, but my message to the audience today was, if you have to start now, then don't do it in the way I did with the  use of public, use Bitcoin SV, because that is the right choice today.”Giovanni is impressed with BSV's capability to do 50,000 transactions per second and compares it to Ethereum which can only do an average of seven transactions per second, he says. He then compares the two blockchains to modes of transport saying BSV is like a Ferrari while Ethereum is like a little bike. As for discussions on using private vs public blockchain, Giovanni says, “now is the time to go public.” He supports public blockchain by saying that private blockchains are for the most part centralized, costly and it don't exploit the full capabilities of blockchain technology.

Former iOS developer Kevin Healy first found fame when he released a video on YouTube called “What is Ethereum?” Published in 2016, in the video, Kevin shows developers how to build on the Ethereum blockchain. Despite thousands of views and some revenue he received from the video, Kevin removed it from his YouTube channel as he was worried about some of the dodgy ads that appeared alongside it. It is now back on the channel, clearly labelled as out of date and “posted for historical purposes”.   Kevin is now part of the education team at the Bitcoin Association, a non-profit organization that aims to advocate and support the adoption of BSV blockchain technology worldwide. As he tells Charles Miller on this week's episode of CoinGeek Conversations, his more general concerns about Ethereum grew after the spat between Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin and Dr. Craig Wright broke out in 2018 at the Deconomy Conference. In the midst of the controversy, Kevin felt the need  to “pick a side”. Then he release another successful video. Again, it received thousands of views. But this time, Kevin explains why he believes Dr Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto. Despite anticipating some negative responses, Kevin went on to defend the man he believes to be the inventor of Bitcoin.    At the start of his developer career, Kevin created apps for Apple's App Store. His exposure to investments and technology while growing up led him to a career in technology: “My dad is a wealth advisor - a portfolio manager - and so I've always been comfortable trading stocks. Part of the reason I was obsessed with Apple is because we bought a lot of Apple stock when I was young,” he says. Kevin remembers owning his very first iPhone in high school and thinking “how do I learn to program this thing?” This thought process eventually led him to focus his studies on computer science. Kevin says that his early obsession to Silicon Valley success stories drove him to use the same business model as Facebook and Snapchat while building apps. Looking back, he says “it was a silly thing to do.”As the app industry evolved, Kevin realized the chances of making millions as a single developer became slim to none. As he explains, “in those early days there were people that were making millions as a single developer but as the app platform matured, then it was more companies and you needed venture capital, and the labor for building apps became really expensive.”At present, Kevin speaks of the advantages of Bitcoin technology based on what is written in the Bitcoin White Paper. At the recent London Blockchain Conference, Kevin focused on how to solve problems using Bitcoin. As he points out, the ability of Bitcoin to do micropayments solves many issues we encounter on the Internet today: “If you want to do small casual payments, then you can't do that with a trusted third party because they have to be able to reverse the transactions and they have fees. It's just too expensive to do it that way. If we want to do micropayments, then we need to get rid of it [third-party involvement] or we need a model without them.”  Kevin refers to a valuable takeaway he got from one of Dr Wright's interviews where the nChain Chief Scientist spoke about mercantilism. After watching the interview several times, Kevin says he realized that “money comes second, it's the goods and services that really is the wealth of society.” He relates this form of economic policy to the Bitcoin economy saying “money gets people's attention and the fact that the other tokens have gotten so much money, they've gotten so much attention and there's something sad about that, but at the same time too, it's also been a great filtering mechanism because now everybody inte

How do venture capitalists make investment choices? There are many answers to this all-important question for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital for their start-ups.  Tokentus, a German publicly listed VC company is an early stage investor that focuses on the blockchain market. Its Investment Manager, Mona Tiesler says one of the top criteria they look at in a start-up is its founder's strengths - including his or her background, mindset, commitment, knowledge of the technology - as well as the business use case and the product market fit. Another important aspect is the team behind the founder and whether are complimentary to his or her skill set. As Mona tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Tokentus is focused on finding start-ups in the Web3 space. While the term Web3 varies in definition, for Mona it can be explained as a decentralized web with Web3 companies being those that utilize blockchain technology to create efficiencies.   Tokentus however is not aiming to add all types of blockchain-based companies to their portfolio. They focus on financial services in Web3 related businesses, as well as some consumer facing businesses such as those in retail payments. According to Mona, Tokentus favours infrastructure and applications that will essentially power the future internet.   Mona points out that Tokentus is blockchain agnostic. She believes that every blockchain is different and that each serves a unique purpose. In her opinion, BTC is the safest when it comes to store of value while ETC offers the biggest community with more potential in adoption opportunities. Mona believes that blockchain will continue to evolve:  “I don't think necessarily the landscape we see now is going to be the landscape we see in the future, but I do believe that there will be a myriad of different blockchains existing in the future, utilized for different use cases.” For some, the emergence of blockchain technology is likened to the onset of the consumer internet. Many companies formed during the internet's early days failed to see it through, in effect, missing the opportunity to benefit from the technology's success. But with blockchain technology now in the palm of our hands, the opportunity presents itself once again. And so, the question is: which blockchains will survive the test of time and which won't?   Mona predicts “there will be some sort of consolidation process. I wouldn't say every blockchain I haven't heard of is going to be weeded out. I don't have a crystal ball.  But there's incredible building going on, so maybe a big winner could be one we haven't even heard of yet.”  

You can't escape debates about AI at the moment. BSV entrepreneurs are as fascinated as anyone else - perhaps more so if they have experienced previous tech revolutions. Jerry Chan has gone public with his cautious scepticism about the much-publicised dangers of AI, but in this week's CoinGeek Conversations, the former blockchain infrastructure developer and Wall Street technologist says he also sees the potential of AI, and that it could have a role in his forthcoming Frobots game. “I am impressed,” he says of his experience with ChatGPT, “it is effectively like Google search on steroids …But it doesn't know if what it's saying is true or false.”It's been suggested that what's unique about generative AI (that is, AI which creates its own content in its responses) is the existence of emergent properties - higher order functions which weren't written into the software but somehow appear, if not of their own accord then at least to the surprise of its programmers.Jerry believes that these kinds of property don't mean we need to attribute sentience to AI or to worry that it's acquiring human abilities. You can think of AI as the “equivalent of saying somebody's brain has massive breadth but very shallow depth - they can know much more about many more topics than any one human brain and sort of overlay layers of meaning and see which layer of meaning makes the most sense. But at the end of the day, the thing that makes humans humans is we have our own internal volition - we don't have a program we're going by.”To try to define what is unique about human beings, Chan points to Richard Dawkins' book, The Extended Phenotype, which talks about how our genes are responsible not only for the physical manifestation of our bodies - the phenotype - but also for the ways in which we affect our environment too. That starts with the genes producing cells which act together, each cell ‘knowing' whether it should be, say, a skin cell or muscle cell. When the cells lose this ability to act together and can only behave independently, they become cancer cells, no longer a useful part of the being in which they live. So, says Chan, “we as humans have innately - down to our cellular structure - a notion of self, even cellular self, which aggregates …and AIs are nothing like that”.Despite his mild scepticism about the dangers of AI, Chan isn't saying that its developers should be left to do entirely as they please, because there are also potential dangers: “Regulation would be good because if something comes out of regulation that says ‘let's put some checks and balances for whatever AI you create …Let's not plug it up into the nuclear launch code system, let's agree not to do that'. That would be a good regulation.”More immediately, Chan is interested in AI as a part of the STEM education game, Frobots, which he is developing. The idea is to teach players computer programming, but AI gives another dimension to the idea: “humans could write programs to fight and AIs could write programs, and I'm not exactly clear whether it's certain that AI would win, because compared to chess or Go, which we know AI wins …the game is not well-defined. It's an open ended game”. 

Calvin Ayre: Blockchain can make governments look good to their citizens The London Blockchain Conference next week will be held at a prestigious venue in Parliament Square - no coincidence because its tagline is “Bringing government and enterprise onto the blockchain”. As conference creator Calvin Ayre explained in this week's CoinGeek Conversations, the use of blockchain could benefit both governments and citizens:   “Governments can use this technology to manage data in a way that makes them look really good to their citizens. They're saving costs. They're being able to provide unique services that weren't possible before.”  But the “honesty and truthfulness” of a government will also become more transparent to its citizens, which may not always be welcome, Ayre believes: “it's going to be interesting to see how this unfolds because we do know that a lot of governments don't like things that force them to be honest”.  The conference is “about solving big data challenges in a unique way with blockchains”. And although Ayre is a big supporter of the Bitcoin SV (BSV) blockchain - partly through his Ayre Ventures, which invests exclusively in BSV businesses -, he insists that the conference is not a BSV event: “BSV is just a tool. If someone else has another tool that wants to compete in that space, then the conference is open to them.”  Indeed, the conference advertised for participation by supporters of any other blockchain that had what Ayre considers essential to serve this market - unbounded scaling, the ability to make nano payments and a readiness to follow all existing laws - but nobody applied: “nothing came back. Not one person. And I found that shocking actually”.  Ayre draws a complete distinction between the work he supports and the rest of the ‘crypto' market. He sees no future for crypto and backs the suggestion of a Select Committee of British MPs who recently recommended that crypto should be regulated under gambling laws rather than financial - as it currently is under the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) in the UK.   “Innovation on blockchains will happen after the crypto nonsense is cleared of the way,” he says. And as a former entrepreneur in the world of online gaming he believes that crypto is “like gambling - only it's like illegal, unregulated gambling”.  On the current media focus on AI, Ayre believes that more important technological developments will be centred on the implementation of BSV and IPV6 - an internet protocol that allows greater scaling of IP addresses than the currently more common IPV4.   “You're not going to solve the challenges that the Internet has with artificial intelligence. You need what BSV does to make the Internet work better, for artificial intelligence to work better. They are things that will actually work together”. The BSV blockchain could provide a record of the provenance of data used in AI - an essential additional component to make its results more trustworthy.   On the question of Dr Craig Wright's many ongoing court cases, closely followed in BSV circles, Ayre is a huge supporter of Dr Wright on social media, but admits “I'm not a fan of all his court cases. I actually wish that there was a lot less of that and a lot more focus on business.” Nevertheless, Ayre has no doubts about Dr Wright's claims - “of course I support him because he's right. I just don't think that all that stuff needs to be proven right now”. He jokes that “everything looks like a nail to Craig and he's got a couple of hammers in his hands”.  The London conference will be the first of a regular annual event, Ayre says. From next year, he wants to expand it from this year's two stages - focussing on business and technology - to three, and to extend th

Tim Malik, CEO and co-founder of Combat IQ, has come a long way since participating in the Block Dojo program in 2022 - the London incubator for start-ups building on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. His Combat IQ, which has since been with company accelerator, Techstars wants to be a game-changer in the combat sports industry with its AI-powered analytic platform.   Armed with investment, a vision and determination, Tim says his team exceeded their own expectations in completing their prototype and having the opportunity to conduct real-time pilots with sports leagues. The company now plans to scale their operational capabilities as they look to raise a seed round at the end of the Techstars program.   On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller and Tim catch-up to talk about Combat IQ, how it uses AI to process data and how blockchain can play a role in resolving disputes in the sports betting industry.    Combat IQ is about delivering data while providing great benefits to industry participants. Fight promoters will be able to use the data provided to them by the platform to augment community-building on their websites. Rights-holders can maximize value as viewership increases and more sponsors advertise in their league.  As Tim explains, real-time data delivered during sports broadcasts allows viewers to engage more. “The world of sports broadcasting, sports viewership is changing dramatically. As the younger generations get in, they're changing the way people view sports, how they interact with it, and people are always looking for real time information in convenient ways. Fans want to see data points,” he says.  In addition, Combat IQ enables real time markets combat sports betting. As he explains, “we send odds to betting companies directly and they would put those odds on their marketplaces for people to bet with”. Until now, betting in play is mostly limited to UFC. With Combat IQ, he aims to enhance people's betting experience by providing leagues with real-time data using cameras and motion tracking systems. The league can in turn use the data to educate and engage their fans in the same way blue chip leagues such as NFL and F1 do.  How does Combat IQ apply AI in data analytics? As Tim explains, an automated system works in place of a person who identifies certain components of a fight such as the number of strikes on the ground - which he says is impossible for people to track. Measuring factors such as speed of punches and kicks, which humans cannot do through the naked eye, are also made possible with Combat IQ's system. Components are analyzed by a system that will determine which metrics have the greatest impact. Combat IQ will then provide the AI-processed data analytics to leagues for their own use.  How does blockchain fit into Combat IQ? Blockchain is utilized in the sports betting part of the platform. “When we deliver odds to sports betting companies, we actually publish those odds to the blockchain at the same time,” Tim says. “And that's how we create, an immutable record for dispute resolution, conflict settlement.”Watch the full interview on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations.   

Entrepreneurs Alyna, Jonathan and Dimitar found new and clever ways to improve the way people work, eat and conduct business. While all come from different backgrounds, together they share a common vision: using blockchain technology to leverage their business platform.  Pakistani entrepreneur Alyna Butt wants to revamp the overall work experience through Squadbond, an all-in-one workplace platform similar to a productivity management software, but with an added feature: a token reward system. While productivity management tools help with efficiency, they lack the ability to reward workers for their achievements. As Alyna points out, employees want to be recognized for the work that they do. With Squadbond, she says “people can own their performance.”  As she tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, the platform will includes a feature that would allow employers to track a worker's milestone achievements and offer them rewards for a job well done. “The tokens are highly-customizable,” she says. “They [employers] can attach a monetary value to it or they could give a gift card or …give out equity.”    Having been on both sides of the spectrum, as an employer and an employee, Alyna believes that there is a disconnect between the two. According to her, companies spend about £2,600 a year on every employee to have access to productivity management software - only to realize that employees are challenged by having to use them. In turn, she says issues like improving retention and employee engagement remain unresolved. Alyna believes that an incentive system is a simple solution that would help connect employer and employee.  From bridging the gap in the workplace to connecting food producers to consumers. Gud Italia, an international ‘farm to fork' marketplace is the brainchild of Jonathan Silvestri, an Englishman with an Italian father who worked as a chef in the UK. Having been exposed to the restaurant business at a young age, Jonathan knew that the high demands of the industry were not for him. He then took on several careers: as a food journalist, an actor and a civil servant in the UK.  It wasn't until after moving to Italy fifteen years ago that he found his way back to the food industry. He met with some of the country's artisan food producers and immersed himself in their stories, learning about the history of Italian food production. He later realized that there is a missed opportunity in the distribution of Italian goods to the UK. As he explained, artisan producers in Italy have a difficult time getting their products out to the UK. “The quantities required of them, it's too much, it's too heavy, they have other barriers, language barriers, logistical barriers, marketing costs, all those kinds of things so they often avoid selling to the UK altogether,” he says.  With Gud Italia, he aims to bring Italy's artisan food products to the UK while utilizing blockchain to timestamp a product's journey from production to destination, as well as the delivery timeline and temperature in which it was stored. As Jonathan points out, the system will not only benefit consumers by providing knowledge on their food's history but it will also offer farmers and producers a chance to be known, be exposed and to build their brands.  From food to real estate. Dimitar Hadzhiradev wants to build trust between landlords and realtors through blockchain. Dimitri, a landlord himself, gave an account of his unpleasant experience with property managers while trying to rent out his property from overseas. As he explains, “it's always a pain to find a trusted partner who will manage my property. Of course you can go the traditional way to an agency, but agencies are inefficient.” With Sprooce, he says all transactions

Ever wondered how books get published? It's not an easy process says Arsim Shillova, co-founder and CEO of Libraro, a platform that will allow the general public to have access to unpublished books – and help publishers decide which to support. Arsim, an author himself, was disheartened after seeing first-hand what it takes to get a book published. “I actually wrote a book and decided to try and get it published through the traditional way of sending it to a literary agent and to my disappointment, I never got a response,” he recounts.Out of curiosity, he decided to visit the publishing company to get a better understanding of the process. As he tells Charles Miller on the latest episode of CoinGeek Conversations, “when I entered this office, I realized why I never got a response, because the office was full of manuscripts. Physically it was impossible to read that many. But technology should be able to solve this problem.”Arsim says that authors like him stop writing after experiencing rejection through the traditional process. With Libraro, he wants to give writers an opportunity to get their work out to the public. As he explains, Libraro allows authors to write from scratch or upload their content onto the platform. Artificial intelligence will then provide a synopsis of the manuscript as well as offer suggestions for possible improvements. Once the content goes live, readers can access the author's work with an option for both parties to engage with one another. “It's almost like another social community platform,” he says.    The platform utilizes blockchain in such a way that content on Libraro is recorded on the ledger: it is immutable and offers a layer of protection: “intellectual property rights are something of a concern to everyone out there who writes something,” he says. “We will use blockchain to timestamp the manuscript, so we know that there is a digital record and it sits in blockchain with your credentials.”Libaro is currently in talks with the London Writers' Salon, a writers' group with twenty-thousand members. “The idea is we want to channel these writers to our platform,” Arsim says. From books to sports. Next up, Charles speaks to James Hart, Founder and CEO of Rumblebox, a platform that makes use of NFTs to fund new sports leagues and events. As James explains, sports fans will be allowed to crowdfund through Rumblebox in exchange for benefits such as tickets, VIP access to the athletes, merchandise and monetary rewards.James says their plan is to target the Gen Z. To start with, they intend to focus on emerging sports such as esports and YouTube boxing: “the younger fans that are more NFT-friendly, are more likely to have completely different tastes and in the way that they consume sports, for example, they like esports way more than football, and in some countries they like YouTube boxing over traditional boxing”.Part of Rumblebox's strategy is to partner with an athlete or influencer and to leverage their audience by having these personalities act as endorsers of the new sports league or event. As James explains, Rumblebox will work similarly to NBA Top Shots, a popular NFT marketplace that allows users to trade on the platform regardless of their knowledge of the technology behind it. Just like NBA Top Shots, which has a million users, Rumblebox will price its products in US dollars. According to James, their objective is to create new sports franchises or sports leagues that will bring long term value: “the more profitable and more organic growth that they [athletes and influencers] get for the fan base for those leagues and events, the more valuable a season ticket or a VIP access pass is going to be.”Watch Arsim and James talk

Solving lack of financial inclusion in Africa with Wleepay Two-thirds of the African population don't have access to traditional financial services, says Wleepay founder and CEO Lionel Bernard. Because of this, he started Wleepay, a company that offers mobile financial services to the unbanked in Africa. “The word Wlee is used by certain tribes on the west coast of Africa, it literally means money,” Lionel says. Wleepay is currently available in his home country of Liberia and will soon expand to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast. According to Lionel, banks in Africa are scarce and target only high-end customers, leaving the average person with low income to the unbanked population. Wleepay will address the lack of financial inclusion in Africa by offering its potential customers some attractive features. “Our fees are way lower than competitors. In some cases, our competitors are charging twenty percent in transaction fees.  We're charging between two and five percent,” he explains. “The other thing we're providing is better customer service, which is something you can't get with others. We also provide a crypto wallet.” The mobile financial service company also plans to onboard small businesses such as street vendors and taxi drivers onto the platform to accept payment through Wleepay's QR code.  Lionel left his software engineering career in the United States to pursue entrepreneurship in Libera. As he tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Wleepay allowed him to pursue entrepreneurship whilst also making a social impact. “The entrepreneur in me is eager to leverage this opportunity because I see the problems that exist and I believe that we can provide a better service to the unbanked in that part of the world. The social impact component of all of this is that a lot of unbanked folks that live in rural areas especially simply don't have an alternative. They're being taken advantage of in terms of pricing, in terms of quality of service, in terms of lack of better financial services that allow them to transact across borders,” he asserts.Repolify: creating effective communication between government and society Also speaking to Charles on the show is ‌Artur Lucyk, co-founder and CEO of Repolify, a platform that also aims to solve a social problem, this time, in the democratic system of government. “Repolify is a blockchain-based platform that will engage citizens in the political process,” Artur says. “It is designed to revitalize democracy and provide people with updates on the political process or political decisions on a national and local level.” The platform allows users to see updates on existing laws, new and pending bills, as well as other developments in government pertaining to their topic of choice. A user can choose between topics like the environment, social welfare and taxation to receive updates on, after which, users are allowed to comment or give feedback on a specific issue. Additionally, users can access names of politicians in charge of government projects, which in turn can help voters make informative choices come election day.Artur was keen to point out that Repolify aims to offer quality content. “We will have journalists and policy professionals supervise and oversee the quality of content and kind of the level of engagement, make sure this really works and provides value,” he asserts.  The platform will also use artificial intelligence to simplify and compress lengthy government documents for its users. “What we are trying to achieve is more simplicity, more understanding, and more awareness into what's going on.”Artur, a lawyer by profession, had his share of experience protesting against the government in his home country Poland. He says there isn't enough understanding of government policies within the country. With Repoli

As the world enters into the Web3 era, entrepreneurs are getting more creative, finding new ways to cater to the young generation with advanced technologies such as blockchain. A prime example is the startup founders at Block Dojo, the 12-week London incubator course where businesses are developed and pitched to potential investors. Block Dojo participant Lena Rantsevich describes her platform as the new CV and the new standard for the future of work. “Reputy.io is a soul-bound talent wallet that helps people better express themselves and find better jobs and faster,” she says. Soul-bound, a term coined by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin means a token containing personal information that is validated. “It could be your medical history or driving history, anything that goes into your digital ID or digital passport,” Lena explains. Reputy.io uses the Bitcoin SV blockchain to store information such as photos or videos that showcase an individual's skill set. A feature on the app allows for verification of a skill or talent performed in front of an audience. As Lena explains, every “entry goes into a wallet, there is no scoring, no assessment, it's not traumatic unlike other reviews platforms.” For jobseekers, the app is free, with an option to pay for premium access. Similar to LinkedIn, users will receive notifications when a new vacancy with a matching skill set appears. As for employers, a monthly fee offers the opportunity to search for talents that would best suit their needs. Lena also mentions an embedded marketplace on the platform that will provide users access to coaches, services and training courses. Lena believes the platform will draw in the Gen Zs. As she tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations “there's playability of the social media - Gen Z will love it because there's a lot of creativity and customized interfaces inside.” Also discussed on the episode is the future of travel. Alex Hurd's TravelVRse offers a new take on how we plan travel. TravelVRse uses Web3 technology and lets users visit a destination without having to leave home. The new platform provides a travel experience in the metaverse. “You will come into a virtual world, you'll be able to pick a city that you want to go to, then you'll be able to see a range of tours in that city that you can go with, and there'll be themed tours,” Alex says. As Alex points out, millennials are moving into virtual reality and web3. In turn, he says hotels, restaurants and art galleries are keen on investing in their platform to help keep up with the young market. “Hotels and landmarks are paying for this service, that is fully immersive, so you really get to feel what it's like in that local area, and then for the hotel, they want you to go and stay in the area and stay with them,” he says.TravelVRse will use blockchain technology in its token reward system. Virtual travelers who complete challenges inside the metaverse will be awarded tokens that can be used in the real world - for instance, a free stay at a sponsoring hotel.     According to Alex, the TravelVRse app is available on the Meta store and will eventually be available in the Apple store. The first city tour launching in June will be in San Diego.Lastly this week is CarStash, an app that will bring reliable blockchain solutions to the car industry. It's co-founder and CEO Charles Feibel says “Carstash is basically creating a digital passport for car owners on blockchains so they can store all the history and maintenance records of their car.”As Charles explains, they plan to onboard establishments that cater to the car industry first before releasing the app to users. After which, he says they plan to target car collectors, luxury car owners and the likes who wish to keep the value of their vehicle. “You will basically receive a logbook wi

Julio Alejandro disagrees with much that's said in the Bitcoin SV world. But he's a rarity among its critics in that he welcomes the chance to debate the issues and he praises Dr Craig Wright - “an incredibly smart, capable human being” - for his willingness to engage in dialogue around contentious questions of government, money and self-determination.As CEO of the London-based JADA consultancy, Julio provides public workshops and offers his services in private client work on blockchain and other leading technologies. Born in Mexico, he has also worked as a journalist which, through first hand experience, heightened his awareness of the problems of immigrants in both North America and Europe.He believes in the power of blockchain to solve some of the problems of material inequality and unequal human opportunities through creating alternatives to the monopolistic power of the nation state - in its provision of passports and money in particular.At the first of Dr Wright's recent Masterclasses, in London, Julio challenged Dr Wright in the Q and A session, putting forward libertarian arguments for blockchain that he claimed could be achieved through the creation of DAOs (decentralised autonomous organisations). Dr Wright argued that the autonomous communities that Julio promotes necessarily exist under national laws and that opting out of those laws and the societies they exist in is not possible in the real world. Speaking on the latest edition of CoinGeek Conversations, Julio follows up that discussion, questioning the Western-centric view of the world and arguing for the development of more autonomous, self-directed communities: “Why do we believe within this Western vision of imposing on a group of people that this is the best system of thought? So when we say, ‘is this right wing or left wing or whatever wing', my answer is: let other people, that are not harming someone else, create their own things - which can be a cryptocurrency or a country, a legal system. We should be coding and actually building those countries that demonopolise. That's a DAO. It eliminates the monopoly. If we're not eliminating a monopoly, we fail. If we're not eliminating the nation states, we also fail.”He sees blockchain as a liberating technology that could spread the spirit of entrepreneurship and self-determination around the world - including to his own country of origin:“The level of entrepreneurship in the largest Hispanic country in the world that has 130 million people - in Mexico and 40 million living legally or illegally in the United States - is a disaster. It's horrible. It's almost nonexistent. Bitcoin and blockchain, sadly, does not exist in Mexico.”In the spirit of his desire to engage with Bitcoin SV rather than just attack it, Julio has already proposed starting an “Intentioned Community” for those who support the ideas of Craig Wright. In a new post on his LinkedIn profile, he outlines what he has in mind: “Rent one building, let's move twenty entrepreneurs in. Craig's rules, choices, residents, and standards. We'll be 50, 300, and eventually 2,000 tech entrepreneurs in one district in London. Who's down for a #SatoshiVillage? Healthy, long-term, sustainable, tech-fitness oriented community.”Sounds good - a bit like nChain, but healthier! 

Blockchain technology is starting to impact other fast-developing tech fields such as AI and IoT. That was the message from two senior representatives of nChain, who are both organising conference events that will bring experts from the different areas together to learn from each other. Owen Vaughan, Chief Science Officer of nChain Licencing and Alessio Pagani, Research Director of nChain were talking on the latest episode of CoinGeek Conversations. Owen is convening a workshop on Blockchain and AI at IEEE Coins 2023 in Berlin in July. And Alessio is doing the same in relation to IoT at the Global IoT Summit, to be held in October. Neither conference is focussed on blockchain but these sessions will bring the expertise of nChain, the London blockchain development company, to a wider audience, as Alessio explained: “that's our role. That's why we are organising a workshop to help those experts in IoT to understand more about blockchain and also for us to have feedback about our research in that field and discuss with the experts - and hopefully share more about BSV and blockchain in general”.In relation to AI, Owen says “it's a time when I think a lot of people are asking the question how can these two great advances in computer science in the twenty-first century talk to one another?” Owen's conference, COINS, sounds as though it would be crypto-related but that's just a coincidence. It's been running since 2019 and COINS stands for Conference on Omni-layer Intelligent Systems.Owen is confident that nChain's work will be useful to AI developers - even if they are not aware of that yet. “They might not realise the technology we've developed could support what they're doing. I'm particularly interested in blockchain for data usage and auditability and things like that or identity management and decision making. And these things are very relevant in AI at the moment.”With IoT, Alessio says it's not just about remote sensors feeding back data from the field - traffic information, for instance, or from actual agricultural fields - but also the personal data that we collect on our phones. Use of the blockchain would remove the third party from that system. So instead of sending the information to one of the tech giants “it gives you back the ownership of the data and it allows for everyone to have access to that data - if you want”. A blockchain system would allow for that kind of control of personal data - so, for instance, Alessio says, you could provide health data for research if you chose to, or restrict the level of detail you allow. There is concern about the power of AI, but Owen says that incorporating blockchain into systems could help provide much-needed accountability - or ‘decision auditability': “so if an AI ever makes a decision, maybe it advises you to make a particular financial trade and you question that in the future it's very convenient to have an audit trail. Why did it make that decision? And this is a whole field of research now called AI Explainability. So I think the blockchain will be very useful in checks and balances …so that we can be sure why [AI) is making decisions and make sure it's compliant with legal, ethical and moral standards.” 

MintBlue, a blockchain-as-a-service platform which utilizes the BSV blockchain, recently announced that it broke a new world record by making 50 million transactions on a public blockchain in 24 hours. The company's co-founder and CIO Pieter Den Dooven tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations how they set up the challenge and describes the micropayment transactions: “all of them did a very small amount of money from one place to the other place and they also all had a little payload in it”.  Den Dooven says his team was confident they could break a previous record of 35 million transactions a day. “We aimed for 40 million, but overshot that with an extra 10 million and came at 50 million”. They later found out that a higher number of transactions had been claimed on EOS but Den Dooven is confident that mintBlue holds the record for a proof-of-work blockchain.    As far as sustainability goes, Den Dooven believes there is no such a thing as “too big” when it comes to adding data to the blockchain. He referred to a section of the Bitcoin White Paper which allows a developer to make adjustments. “You can remove certain parts of the data that you personally don't need and so there's this way of keeping track of the blockchain without keeping everything,” he says. In the second half of the show, Den Dooven discussed mintBlue's services and how it can benefit businesses. The company's focus is on delivering blockchain solutions that can solve real world problems. Accounting and invoicing are some examples he mentioned that would greatly benefit from mintBlue's API product. Den Dooven was keen to point out that mintBlue's software is for developers and entrepreneurs who want to build out a business. For €49 a month and €0.01 per kilobyte, mintBlue customers can easily write code on the blockchain, he says. “It's a no code and low-code platform which allows you to automate a lot of things without having to write code.”  mintBlue plans to add new features this year such as smart contracting and state machines— a feature that allows different companies to work seamlessly with each other. After winning the BSV hackathon held in New York City in 2021, Den Dooven and his team went on to build mintBlue. Prior to the hackathon, Den Dooven worked at a consultancy firm that he founded doing mostly blockchain research and development projects for various companies and industries.  Den Dooven's passion for bitcoin spans over ten years. “It's been a long journey,” he says. As for his thoughts about the future of bitcoin? He says, “I'm particularly happy with how things are moving in the BSV space. We have a lot of solutions for today's problems. There's a lot of work to do, but for us that's a good thing, because we think we can solve a lot of the problems that are apparent in these times.”  

As the Philippines embarks on a path to digital transformation, government agencies and various organizations are looking in to blockchain technology as a tool to help the country achieve its goal.   Shortly after Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. was inaugurated as the 17th president of the Philippines last year, his administration announced its desire to streamline government services with the use of new technologies. In response to the government's call, the province of Bataan hosted its first blockchain conference on October of last year. The event was attended by local and international blockchain leaders, as well government officials from the Department of Information and Communications Technology— the agency tasked by the President to implement digitalization in the country. With the aim of putting forward blockchain services to government and businesses, nChain, a global tech company that offers blockchain solutions and products, participated at the event. As Stefan Mathews, nChain co-founder and executive chairman tells Claire Celdran in this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, what followed after the event was a series of talks between nChain and the local government of Bataan that resulted to a memorandum of understanding between the two parties to establish a digital platform for the province to streamline current systems and procedures of government services. “During the event and several meetings afterwards, I had some fairly deep conversations with Governor Garcia and Congressman Garcia and their vision for this technology and the application of it in government is second to none. I mean, they are very, very progressive thinkers.”Bataan is poised to become the country's blockchain hub due to its special economic zone status. Nonetheless, Stefan notes that Bataan's freeport status is irrelevant to nChain's objective. “The reason we're there is the technology and the opportunity to do things with the technology that benefits the province but also benefits the country.” Coincidentally, Stefan has been residing in Bataan for nine years. He believes Bataan is a natural fit for blockchain activity.With the aim of forming partnerships and strengthening relations, nChain recently embarked on a series of meetings with government officials, financial institutions and a top university in the country. As a result of these initiatives, nChain has formed a partnership with Ateneo University in delivering blockchain education to its students. “We will be working with faculty staff to train them on the delivery of blockchain courses, blockchain material.. we will be sponsoring or providing grants or funding projects for three PhD students at the university to extend their research in blockchain here in the Philippines, which also includes making available the entire intellectual property portfolio of nChain for students.. and finally, there is the internship issue, we want to provide internships both in our companies and in terms of what we're doing in Bataan for university students to be able to complete their education.”On top of the work nChain is doing with Ateneo University, Stefan also announced the company's plan to launch a Blockchain Dojo incubator in Bataan. Stefan says the initiative goes hand in hand with their aim to “foster Filipino innovation in the building of solutions on the blockchain that will be deployed domestically, but also potentially, internationally, it also allows us to contribute to possibly uncovering a Filipino unicorn.”Perhaps one of the most memorable part of nChain's recent activities was Stefan's meeting with Philippine President “Bong Bong” Marcos. As Stefan says, the casual conversation which took place over lunch at the presidential palace covered a number of topics pertaining to the delivery of blockchain services in Bataa

Nathan Cropper knows all about the dark side of crypto. He spent eight years at Barclays, tracking down dubious account holders as part of the company's Financial Intelligence Unit. He was in “a small team that conducted the first analysis of Barclays-wide crypto exposure”. So don't try telling him that Bitcoin is untraceable.   His job was a little unsatisfactory because he never found out what happened to the individuals whose accounts he flagged up: the cases were just handed over to the authorities and were then out of his hands.   But this education in the murky side of crypto opened his eyes to its potential for legitimate business. On this week's CoinGeek Conversations, Nathan talks about the intellectual and career path that has taken him from Barclays to his new position as Head of Business Development at the Vaionex Corporation.  His education got a boost when he caught a talk by Dr Craig Wright on YouTube. He remembers that what he learnt in that two-minute clip “answered so many questions in my head that …weren't able to be answered by the rest of this community in the world of crypto. I was like, wow, this guy just said something fundamental. I'm going to actually spend a lot more time looking at what he's talking about and also this thing that people are calling BSV”.  He was on his way to his next role, at TAAL, the mining and transaction processing company. That was two years ago. And now he's moving again, to a Business Development role where he can make use of his knowledge and enthusiasm to make Bitcoin SV an integral part of the financial world that he used to be part of: “I have got so many ideas about how we can integrate and how we can connect in with the banking system,” he says.  Nathan stresses the importance of facing up to the regulatory hurdles that BSV must negotiate if it's to realise its potential. That means passing a whole lot of tests to be accepted as financial market infrastructure: “MasterCard have done it. Visa has done it. The faster payment system have done it. There's a whole load of financial technology out there which have demonstrated that they can be considered financial market infrastructure.”  He explains the thinking behind the financial authorities' careful scrutiny before they award the coveted infrastructure status: “if there's something wrong taking place on the Visa network, it would be absolutely terrible if everybody's card stopped working. That would be dreadful. They can't allow that to happen. So we need to be able to demonstrate that we have the same level of controls in the BSV network so that we can actually encourage big players to want to onboard the network and have people transact on top of it.”   But achieving that status won't be easy, he warns: “there's a lot of hard work. And it's not simply going to be an easy road. It'll be a challenging one. It's one which I think collectively as an ecosystem would be extremely valuable for us to do.”  So business development at Vaionex is going to be busy - not only in attracting new customers to its multi-product offering, but also in working with other players such as the Bitcoin Association, in taking BSV's financial utility to the next level.    

Until now, the kind of people attracted to Bitcoin have mainly been developers, says Kurt Wuckert Jr. But that needs to change in order to create real Bitcoin businesses and convert existing businesses to Bitcoin.“If we were better at sales and marketing,” Kurt believes, “we might not even be in the blockchain economy at all. We could all be selling solar panels or something and make pretty good money. So it really, I think, is largely a culture thing.”Changing Bitcoin culture would mean bringing in experienced salespeople - and it wouldn't matter if they came into the job knowing nothing about Bitcoin: “it's not that difficult to just hire good experienced people from sales, “ says Kurt. “I mean, there's there's companies that have SAAS [software as a service] salesmen or enterprise cloud computing salesmen. These guys could pretty quickly get up to snuff on selling Bitcoin SV solutions. Get them out there, get them knocking on doors, build leads, build clients, build business. It's formulaic. It's not that hard to do if you put the right people on the job.”Kurt was speaking on this week's CoinGeek Conversations, the second part of his interview for the show. This week he took a step back from discussing his day-to-day responsibilities as CEO of the mining business GorillaPool, and spoke in his capacity as Chief Historian of CoinGeek. With that longer-term perspective he stressed the importance of increasing the throughput of transactions on the blockchain to make up for the halving every few years of the ‘subsidy' (the block reward payment in Bitcoin) that miners receive for adding a block to the chain:“If you were just mining casually in 2009, you were earning 50 coins a block. And the average miner is earning less than seven coins a block right now. So there has been a - I don't know what that is - ninetyish percent drop off in profitability, really, if you're measuring in Satoshis. It's bad. And so we need to do better. We need to have massive blocks because that is Bitcoin's security model at scale.”So the mining network - and therefore the continuing existence of Bitcoin - depends for its future on more businesses creating transactions to be processed. Kurt is confident that will happen, but says “we've got to hurry”. The problem is that in the past few years, too much emphasis has been put on the extremely volatile price of coins rather than on their utility: “people kind of can't get it through their heads that there are other ways to make money with blockchain.”If that doesn't happen soon, there's a doomsday scenario in which the whole Bitcoin economy grinds to a halt. People will look back on this time, Kurt speculates, thinking that “maybe blockchain was just a bad idea. And it's going to be real humbling in ten years [when] all of us are just doing something different because nobody actually got a real customer”.But, ever the optimist, Kurt hopes the current depressed market conditions will actually prove to be just what Bitcoin needs: “this is actually what I love about bear markets,” he says. “They make people reassess that ‘Hey, maybe I've been wrong. Maybe I need to rethink the profit model of being in this economy'. And yeah, I mean, we just need somebody to get out there and seal the deal …or else.” 

When you set up a blockchain mining pool, there's plenty of complicated technology involved. And if it's just you and a few colleagues and friends, when you switch it on for the first time, it's not immediately obvious whether it's working. Your computers have to compete with others on the network – the Bitcoin SV network in this case – to ‘win' the next block on the blockchain. But are they in the game?  At the start of his GorillaPool enterprise, its founder Kurt Wuckert Jr. says, “we weren't even sure if we would build a block. We didn't know that we had it right. And then within about an hour of us putting it up, we found a block, which was our only indicator”.It was the fulfilment of a long-held ambition for Kurt, CEO of GorillaPool, as he explains on this week's CoinGeek Conversations; “I was very interested in doing some of these things that I've theorised in Bitcoin for a very long time and said, you know ‘what we need is an active public pool in BSV. We need a pool that is run for the sake of doing cool stuff …I really wanted to test theories and really push the limits of Bitcoin.”A mining pool combines the efforts of a group of mining computers, sharing the rewards between members whenever any of them wins a block. GorillaPool is open to all: you can join up your own computer to the pool - but we're talking industrial strength computers here, not just your laptop - or you can pay Kurt and his colleagues to set it up for you, renting the hardware and running it. It will cost you between $3,000 and $10,000 depending on market conditions, to put yourself into the Bitcoin business.As to whether or not it is profitable, Kurt says that depends on timing: the price of the specialised ASIC chips that power mining computers fluctuates with the market price of Bitcoin - because everyone wants them when it's profitable to mine. So Kurt's advice is to buy your equipment when the market is low, and sell when it's high:“I've been in mining since 2013, and so this is now my fourth bear market. And what I've seen is that the people that really grow are the people that at the top of the bull market are selling their coins, but they're also selling off their fleet. They're selling their ASICs because they might have bought an asset for $2,000 at the bottom of the bear market, but they can sell it used for eight to $10,000. And it's going to be obsolete in the next cycle anyway …And so if you do that, I've seen a lot of people do really well.”If you have faith in the long-term value of Bitcoin SV, would you be better off simply buying some when the market is low, and waiting it out? Kurt believes mining is a better option because it forces a kind of self-discipline, making you, effectively, invest regularly, in the form of electricity bills to keep your computers running, and reaping the occasional reward when the pool wins a block. No matter how you might intend to make regular savings, it usually doesn't happen, but if you're in a mining pool, it happens by default: “it really is the opportunity to just put it on cruise control, let it do the work and it's disciplined for you”.On next week's CoinGeek Conversations, Kurt talks about one of his other roles, as CoinGeek's Chief Bitcoin Historian.    

SLictionary, a dictionary platform powered by Bitcoin SV, wants to compete with traditional dictionaries to become the premier dictionary in the world. Similar to how Oxford English Dictionary was compiled, SLictionary uses a crowdsourcing method in collating words and definitions. However, SLictionary does not follow an authority like the OED does on who gets to decide on its content. On SLictionary, it's the votes of the users combined with the machine's learning algorithm that fills in for the traditional editorial experts. On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, SLictionary co-founder Jack Pitts tells Charles Miller “we [SLictionary] are just the platform provider for the real keepers of the English lexicon, and the real keepers of the English lexicon have never changed, it has always been the English [English-speaking] people.” SLictionary introduces features never seen before in any word-defining platform. For instance, a ‘celebrity auction' that allows users to own and monetize word definitions created by an individual who invented the word or is considered expert of the subject. As Jack suggests, these bespoke definitions will set SLictionary apart from other dictionaries.For as little as a penny, Jack says users can immerse themselves in a unique and entertaining dictionary experience. “We make it not only easier for you to get a great definition but you get one that you really engage with where there's a picture or a video or a celebrity,” he says. These features are expected to enhance every user's experience and entice more people to use the platform. “If there's a bit of entertainment in the dictionary, along with the kind of factbook nature of it, I think a lot more people would really enjoy using the dictionary,” he notes.Jack was also keen to point out that “the English language is fluid and it's going to suffer from all kinds of changes.” With the help of blockchain technology, SLictionary will be able to document the evolution of a word based on how people view it at any given time. As Jack says, “that's what the blockchain is all about.. blockchain is about preserving things in posterity so that we don't lose them.” Jack offers advice to Bitcoin entrepreneurs, saying “if you're thinking about starting a business because of Bitcoin, I think you're not really doing the right thing, I think you have to start with your passions and find something that you wish to fix in the world.”  Despite Jack's extensive background in finance, it's his interest in vocabulary building that prompted him to create SLictionary. At present, approximately 2,000 word definitions, all coming from the BSV community, can be found on SLictionary. Jack plans to market outside the BSV community in the next year to onboard celebrities who are known to be inventors or experts on particular words.Jack believes that by doing so, a level of intrigue among word nerds and geeks will take shape and entice them to join the platform. “I think once we get going and we show students in colleges, universities and high schools that they can make money defining words in a competitive environment, I don't think there's any stopping it, really, I think this is happening, it's just a question of how fast.”  

Dr Craig Wright is looking at a screenshot of the early Bitcoin website which someone has posted on Twitter. It's from January 3 2009. He remembers what was going on at that time: “first launch of the code, making sure everything ran. The first set of problems shortly after that week, when it needed to be restarted.”Dr Wright, who signed himself “aka Satoshi Nakamoto” on the previous week's CoinGeek Conversations, this week reminisces about how it all began. He was testing his systems, with the transaction in question being one he was sending to himself between two of his own computers.He is happy to admit that the Bitcoin website “demonstrates my lack of design skills”. There were other features he would have liked to have added but it was early days and “you can forgive me for not having everything perfect”.He says he would probably have been making this particular transaction in the computer room he'd constructed in one of the outbuildings of his Australian farm, some hours drive from Sydney. It would have been a very techy scene: “computers, printers, more computers, screens everywhere. And me in the middle with roller-type chairs so I could get back and forth between the sites.”So it must have been a big moment when the Bitcoin software was finally working? “Having it actually run, yes, it was good,” he says, adding with a smile, “having it crash shortly afterwards wasn't”.A Eureka moment in fact? “Yeah, I'd say that would be the way you would look at it. I mean, I had been working on trying to find a solution to micropayment problems since 1997. So yeah, it was nice to finally have something that worked.”To devise Bitcoin as a technical and economic system, Dr Wright had studied in a wide variety of fields: “Bitcoin is really a combination of computer science and economics and game theory and by having a background on all of these topics it makes it much easier”.On the question of who knew that he was Satoshi Nakamoto back then, Dr Wright says that it was more widely known than he realised at DeMorgan, the business he founded to exploit blockchain opportunities. He didn't tell his staff that he had invented Bitcoin “but I found out later that they all knew anyway”.It seems that the staff were keeping a secret from him, rather than the other way round, as he discovered when he questioned a colleague: “‘So you guys know that I'm Satoshi?' He went,'well, yes'. ‘All right, so why didn't you talk to me about this earlier?' He went ‘well, we didn't think you wanted to. Obviously you wanted to be private, so we just didn't tell'.” As to why he hadn't told them himself, Dr Wright just says “I didn't think there was a reason.”There may be a chance to hear from some of those who knew Dr Wright at this time when he calls witnesses to the appeal hearing in Oslo later this year in the case which he is defending against Magnus “Hodlonaut” Granath. The appeal follows the original case heard in September 2022 at which several character witnesses gave evidence on his behalf. In the re-run, Dr Wright promises there will be “more” such witnesses talking about his work on Bitcoin.     

The UK government has announced a consultation on crypto regulation. Dr. Wright believes that rather than new regulations, the priority should be to enforce existing financial laws because crypto is not outside the conventional financial system: “I mean, we should just actually start applying the rules and the argument that it's new, that it's online... It's really not.”As far as Bitcoin SV is concerned, new regulation should be welcomed, and probably won't require changes: “it'll just make our life easier as everyone else has to now start doing things that we've been doing already.”On the first of a new series of CoinGeek Conversations, Dr. Wright defends his sometimes aggressive style on social media. He admitted that “some of it” might be seen as the digital equivalent of yelling, but insisted that was “usually only when there's trolls and you want to shut them down”. On a recent YouTube interview he'd had some harsh words about Binance. On CoinGeek Conversations he backs up his view by describing an experiment he'd conducted to demonstrate how someone could make use of it in a way that could allow money laundering: “I set up in one day 10,000 email addresses and registered 10,000 accounts on Binance from the US, both in the US and the foreign Binance where I had a two BTC limit. And in theory, their argument is that they have AML provisions, but that's $40,000 an account. So that's $400 million a day that I could transfer. And I could have added more accounts.”Another way of showing that the ‘crypto' sector isn't operating as it should – if further proof is needed for anyone reading the news recently – is that there are more Bitcoins in total that are claimed to be on exchanges than the 21 million that will ever exist.“I mean in some of these like FTX and Binance together, there were over 40 million Bitcoin being sold …And even when you account for the same thing being sold in multiple exchanges, like some people argued, it's still too much Bitcoin.”As for selling blockchain solutions to industry, Dr. Wright believes there's a big marketing job to be done by nChain and others: “if there's no one telling them, then how do they know?” He compared this phase of developing the­ blockchain sector to his experience of the early days of the internet, when there were “big, massive conferences, multiday events” to which he was invited. “I went to parties by Cisco [and] from Sun. I got flown around the world when I was young because of Digital Equipment Corporation.”In that spirit (without the free air travel), the London Blockchain Conference is coming up from May 31 to June 2.In a second CoinGeek Conversation show next week, Dr. Wright discusses the origins of Bitcoin and explains how he set it going from his farm in Australia.                   

To celebrate the end of 2022, the team behind CoinGeek Conversations brings you a festive special edition: the CoinGeek Conversations Christmas Quiz. Diddy Wheldon from Women of BSV, Becky Liggero from CoinGeek and Alessio Pagani from nChain were all put through their paces by CoinGeek's Charles Miller. The contestants' knowledge was tested on subjects including music, Bitcoin SV and former CoinGeek Conversations guests. It was a competitive affair as there could only be one winner, so the guests had to be ready to ring their buzzers as quickly as they knew the answer. Please watch and find out how you score. Thank you for tuning in to CoinGeek Conversations this year, happy holidays and we will see you in 2023 when the show returns for its next sparkling season. 

On this week's episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller meets three entrepreneurs from the Bitcoin SV incubator Satoshi Block Dojo, each developing a new platform that could change the way we live and work. Do you want to create an NFT but know nothing about blockchain? If so, listen up! With HQNFTs, you can create artwork on the blockchain without having to write a single line of code. As HQNFTs CEO Divya Prashanth says “it's a one-stop shop NFT ecosystem.” With the platform, Divya blends her passions for art and technology. While she believes that NFTs bring awareness of blockchain technology, she says most artists are still disenfranchised. “When I talk to my artist friends, it's become very evident that the biggest blocker is blockchain itself …there's only a few hundred thousand blockchain developers when compared to about 18 million web developers and the costs are way too high,” she explains. Divya thinks that the art industry should follow companies around the world in adopting Web3 and blockchain technology: “if brands and companies do not take Web3 seriously they will probably be left behind.” The idea is simple: “we are the Wix of NFTs - it doesn't matter what the utility is, it could have no utility or it could have a utility, you can just come in onto our platform, create an NFT collection and spin it off onto your own contract."  HQNFTs currently uses various blockchains. As Divya states, “we love all blockchains.”  Bomi Mosuro's heart was set on building music software since his teenage years. And he's turned his dream into reality through his company The House of Sounds.The House of Sounds is developing a number of platforms that can assist artists in the music industry. One such  platform is Beat Lab – a project management tool for an organized music-making process. It helps collaborators work seamlessly together while creating a song or a soundtrack. “It basically synchronizes people …the tool helps them get in sync,”  Bomi says. Beat Lab allows it's users to communicate, send messages and exchange files all in one platform. Some have likened the platform to Trello, a tool used for managing projects and tracking workflow and tasks. But unlike Trello, Beat Lab will have other special features such as a social platform where users can discover other collaborators in the music industry.  A rapper by profession, Bomi shared his strategy in song writing. His use of sound mimicking is incorporated into another software he is developing called Fluid Flow. Bomi describes Fluid Flow as “a songwriting tool that is powered by artificial intelligence.” Aside from the mimicking, the software will offer other features that will help ease the pressure on songwriters.   Payments infrastructure platform Intrasettle is onboarding multiple CBDCs into a single ledger allowing cross-border payments and other kinds of financial exchange. “The idea here is very simple,” says its CEO Kumaraguru Ramanujam. “We want to have multiple central banks issue central bank money in this platform so that we could encourage instant settlements and cross-border payments on one platform.”How does it work? As Kumaraguru explains, the money issued on Intrasettle is “basically a representation of the CBDC, so it's a tokenised cash on our platform for them to get the benefits of having multiple CBDCs in one.”  The platform can be likened to a foreign currency exchange for CBDCs except that it can also be used for securities settlements, bonds settlements and anything to do with cross-border cash. Kumaraguro admits that there are several projects like Intrasettle undergoing pilot testing at the Bank for International Settlements. So what makes his platform unique? He plans to use Bitcoin SV technology on 

On this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller hears from three tech entrepreneurs who are completing the Satoshi Block Dojo incubator programme. Before they pitch their Bitcoin SV business ideas to potential investors, Charles gets an exclusive account of their plans.   First up is Michael Olagunju. His platform, AirMaths, provides school students with access to quality maths and STEM education. The business idea came from Michael's own experience at school, when his parents couldn't hire a tutor to boost his grades - which he needed for a ticket to a top university. Luckily, they discovered Exam Solutions a platform that offered free bite-sized videos to help students like him achieve their academic targets. With Exam Solutions' help, Michael won a place at university and achieved a first class honours degree in Maths - from which he went on to a trading career. But Michael then returned to his passion for education by acquiring the Exam Solutions business after quitting his trading job. With the help of Satoshi Block Dojo, he plans to take the already-busy platform to the next level. As he explains, “the idea is to be able to understand the true learning experience of a child, but also their true skill level”. Identifying these factors will assist them by providing the student with precise learning targets. It's much like trading he says, “it's all about trying to understand the true value of the market.. and from that, you can inform your decisions.”AirMaths will be launching a subscriptions model that will target schools and students between the ages of 15 and 18. For as low as £10 a month, he says, students will be able to access the platform's features and receive payouts in exchange for entering their test scores. He notes that having access to students' test results helps the platform verify their learning programmes. “It's quite a data-dependent process where we constantly need to compare our model to the their real grades - and in order to get their real grades …we're incentivising students with payouts.”   As he explains, “being able to make those payouts to our clients via the Bitcoin SV blockchain as a micropayment is cheaper than doing it via, say, PayPal.”  Next up is Annie Siara, founder and CEO of Lunique, an online retail platform that aims to bring the luxury shopping experience into the Metaverse.  Just like a high end retail store, Lunique offers a VIP shopping experience for its targeted young affluent consumers. The personalised experience includes an avatar who will assist each consumer in a customised fashion.Annie believes that new technologies such as blockchain can help solve real world problems. In this case, it's a matter of improving customer service – in the context of a looming recession. “Luxury brands cannot decrease their prices because it decreases their brand value, so they need to increase the value that they provide consumers,” she notes. High value goods purchased through Lunique will be given a ‘birth certificate' that will be stored in the BSV blockchain. As she points out, the certificate “acts as a proof of receipt as well as proof of authenticity for that product.” This would allow consumers to resell the product with confidence as data from the purchase is stored in the ledger and cannot be changed.Finally, Borja Burgillos talks to Charles about 5tars, a platform that gives football enthusiasts a chance to predict the outcome of a real game and earn from it. He wants to take casual gaming to a whole new level by using Web3 and blockchain. Every participant who wishes to join must pay a fee to enter a virtual arena that is connected to an actual game taking place in the real world. A participant is now able to place their bets based on their predictions. A participant's earnings will depend on the total community of people who p

The capability of the Bitcoin SV blockchain to power a new internet will be realised when consumers see just how efficient the technology is, according to Jack Davies, Senior Researcher at nChain.  Jack believes that mainstream adoption of complex, blockchain-based technologies, like Web3 and the metaverse, will ultimately be driven by a killer application or implementation that will make using the internet easier for ordinary people.  “At the end of the day, the nuts and bolts of the problem will come down to how do you get this in the hands of everyday people and users, how do you get them to see the value that we're talking about.”  As he tells Charles Miller on this week's episode of CoinGeek Conversations, this is a subject he understands deeply, thanks to his work on the Metanet, a protocol developed by nChain's Chief Scientist, Dr. Craig Wright.  Jack sees the Metanet as a perfect example of how to build interoperable websites and systems using the BSV blockchain. He says that while the idea of putting data on the blockchain might seem commonplace now, when he first joined the company in 2018, it was “quite niche.”  One of the features of Bitcoin SV that Jack thinks is most valuable is its capacity to conduct peer-to-peer transactions. This creates an internet of value – a network where assets and money can be transferred over the internet between peers without the need for trusted intermediaries.  This combined with Bitcoin SV's scaling ability will allow for the easy application of micropayments, which Jack believes will be game changing in allowing people to monetise content on the internet.  He says that allowing customers to pay tiny amounts online to read articles or watch videos they're interested in is more efficient and appealing than traditional advertising or subscription-based models.  Jack says that this incarnation of the internet, where users can communicate and transact directly with a native monetary system is what's so appealing about concepts like Web3 and the metaverse and all stems back to the Bitcoin White Paper, which first appeared in 2008.  He is a big believer in a regulated digital asset industry and points out that another advantage for retail customers is that Bitcoin SV is much more pro-regulation than other digital currencies, especially BTC.  “It's a good thing that people will see through some narratives. Like the idea of BTC as digital gold has clearly not played out particularly well in the last year. I think it's down by some very large percentage right, again, not good for retail consumers.”  Indeed, BTC prices have been highly volatile this month following the collapse of FTX, one of the largest digital currency exchanges, and it has seen a nearly 70% drop in value since its all-time high last November.  This is disastrous for any retail customers who have put their faith in BTC and demonstrates exactly why Jack is right to say that stricter regulation is necessary to build a strong and reliable BSV ecosystem.

When you're asked to do a survey online, what is your reaction? For most of us, it's an eyeroll and clicking through the questions as fast as possible. But what if you were incentivised for taking part? That might make a difference.  That's the idea behind CoinSurvey. The company, which took part in the second cohort of the Satoshi Block Dojo, wants to use rewards to help survey creators get more responses from their customers.   Ole Knutli, CEO and Co-founder of CoinSurvey, explains that the start-up is using the scaling power of the Bitcoin SV blockchain to allow clients to offer varying amounts of money to those who take the time to answer questions.  “Using the blockchain we can make incentives really, really cost-efficient, so you can add incentives as small as a cent, you can add incentives across every question, or you can change how much you want to incentivise them for different questions.”  One of the reasons that clients might want to have different rewards for questions is to remove bottlenecks in the survey, by ensuring more difficult or time-consuming questions are better rewarded.  Ole is also keen to diversify the incentives on offer to respondents, for example enabling tree planting as a reward as he believes that this will help entice a varied range of people to take part.  Ole explains that his background working as a consultant for several large municipalities in Norway has helped him to understand the importance of having accurate customer feedback.  While he didn't work within the survey industry, he did rely heavily on customer feedback data and therefore appreciates just how vital it is for clients to know that actual customers are doing their surveys.  “If you want to do a survey about who made a purchase, you want to make sure that those answering the survey are actually the ones who made the purchase and today it's a little bit all over the place and we think blockchain could be a very good way to tackle this problem,” he says.  CoinSurvey hopes to compete with industry giants like SurveyMonkey by focusing on this tracking element of the business, as the level of accuracy and transparency provided by using the BSV blockchain will set them apart from other companies.   The business is run by Ole, his brother, and a friend of his from college who he has partnered up with before to build a Norwegian crypto exchange called Bitruption, that is still licensed and in action today.   They joined together to take part in the Satoshi Block Dojo in the latter half of 2022 and since then have been focused on launching the product and working with clients.  But there are also plans to expand the business and introduce an audience panel that will allow users to sign up to the website and get paid for recording responses to general surveys, improving traffic to the site and facilitating BSV onboarding.

Bernhard Muller, General Manager and Founder of BSV payments processor Centi, thinks the key to creating a popular, scalable product is ensuring that anyone will be able to use it, not just people who are interested in Bitcoin.  “We really want to design a product for everyone, my mum, my brother, my uncle, everyone who doesn't know about Bitcoin, who doesn't care about Bitcoin even,” he says. He believes that Centi's simplicity will be its USP and will enable it to be rolled out to a range of different customers who haven't necessarily used Bitcoin or integrated it into their business model before. For example, he tells Charles Miller on this week's episode of CoinGeek Conversations that he is purposefully targeting the media and events industries, through the launch of Centi's ‘space concept'. This feature will allow merchants to customise pages on the app so users can buy tickets and merchandise quickly and easily online.  “For example, if you want to sell a consumer a hamburger at the event, you can basically purchase the product digitally, directly in the app and then you just need to go and collect it rather than standing in line somewhere.” The peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin helps to ensure that transactions are extremely quick and direct, and if both customer and merchant have Centi enabled, the funds go straight from one to another, without travelling through any custodians or middlemen. So far, there are three onboarded merchants who are using the service commercially; one is a bar, one is a ramen noodle store, and one is a clothes shop, but Bernhard hopes to have at least a thousand merchants by the end of 2023. While this might sound ambitious, he explains that they already have strategies in place to work with other partners who already have a long list of customers.  He also hopes that the straightforwardness of the product, thanks to a recent redesign, will prove to be a winning combination for commercial clients. But, just in case that wasn't enough to attract new users, he's incorporated a faucet into the app.  This means that anyone using the Centi app can receive 1 Swiss Franc (approximately 1 US dollar) just for signing up. Bernhard explains that faucets were big in Bitcoin in the early days and are aimed at getting people to experience the product without needing to connect their finances to the app.  He's excited about the potential he sees for getting outsiders involved in Bitcoin SV and references the BSV Global Blockchain Convention as an example of how much opportunity there is, especially in comparison to how it used to be.  “The first conference we had in London after this whole split ordeal between BSV and BCH happened, I mean, it was a tiny group of people, I don't know maybe a hundred, two hundred people that were there and now this has grown substantially with all these ambassadors and Block Dojos' and Citadels.” 

Many farmers in Africa are unbanked and may not even have access to the Internet. But the tech startup E-Livestock Global is offering a blockchain solution for such customers that makes use of an RFID system to trace cows' histories, enabling buyers to learn about a cow's health records among other valuable information. For a subscription fee of just $2 US, a cow is implanted with an RFID tag and its history is updated throughout the animal's lifecycle. The electronic ID system adds value to the livestock, says company CEO Chris Light. Chris, a technologist whose background is in the international development sector, tells Charles Miller on this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, “by getting health care and having it through our system, we're offering [farmers] healthier cows and reduced mortality.”    Chris says the platform is designed with the farmers' digital and financial inclusion in mind. As he points out, “some of the pilot farmers, they don't use technology and they're not in the banking system… but they don't need to have a cell phone to use our system, they just need to be enrolled in it.”With the use of blockchain technology, E-Livestock Global delivers an identification system for livestock much as humans can be identified through passports and ID cards. With the use of their service, buyers will be able to purchase cattle remotely and not have to fly to Africa to inspect the animal in person. They simply need to check the data recorded on blockchain.  “We use the blockchain for provenance,” Chris says, “so you can't fudge the record - which wouldn't happen with the paper systems.” A pilot study tested their platform in Africa with ten thousand animals. But as Chris reveals, they have access to a market of livestock of up to 25 million to date and plan on branching out to four countries. And it's not just cows that their system can help with. He says it also works with sheep, pigs and goats: “our system is ready to do all that.” The company is hoping to make a public announcement in the near future about the work they are doing with the London-based blockchain development business, nChain. “I think we will get into payments ...we're going to be a little less supply chain but a little more of value add,” he notes. With E-livestock Global's digital system in place, not only will the animals benefit but so will the company's customers, says Chris. “We envision as we get to scale that we're going to have different customers, we're going to have commercial farmers, smallholder farmers, governments and large organizations.”At present, cows have ear tags to help farmers identify cattle for their records. But with E-Livestock's vision, these may not be necessary in the future. So MOOve on over ear tags! Blockchain RFIDs might be here to stay!