The two sides of innovation: technology and communication 

Currently, Eric holds the role of Senior Communications Advisor for Web3 at PIABO, a deep-tech communications agency. At the EBA, he will contribute his experience and knowledge to the ESG & Sustainability Working Group and the SSI working group as well as upcoming activities at the intersection between AI & Blockchain.  

“A professional with Eric’s proficiency in blockchain, who has a deep understanding of the technical functionality and knows how to communicate technology effectively, proves to be an invaluable asset. We are fortunate to benefit from his shared expertise and experience within our membership and working groups. I look forward to the collaboration,” says Dr. Michael Gebert, Chairman of the EBA. 

Three questions for Eric

We took the opportunity to speak with Eric about his expectations for the industry in 2024. Here are his insights:

_{^{Eric moderating a talk with Piers Ridyard, CEO of Rdx.Works, Fabian Vogelsteller, Chief Architect of LUKSO, Sarah Lopez, CEO of Kaleido und Bill Laboon, Head of Education at Web3 Foundation at Blockchance 23.}}

🎤 Eric, in your opinion, which main trends will define the blockchain ecosystem in  the next 12 months? 

I expect that decentralized physical infrastructures and corporate loyalty programs  will receive a lot more attention, while we see a continuation of many parallel trends: CeFi will be adopting compliance-technology and hire more bankers, while traditional finance will dive into real-world asset tokenization. DeFi and especially DEX will continue to replace CeFi due to their higher resilience against  corruption, and protocols are continuing to become more and more scalable and anti-fragile, by learning from their bugs and hacks.

🎤 In your opinion, what will be the next milestone for blockchain? 

The best case scenario to me is when Blockchain won’t even be noticed and talked about anymore, because instead of focusing on the infrastructure behind the products, marketers will highlight the product benefits and how it impacts businesses and consumers’ lives. 

I think that policy and regulation  could give the ecosystem a great boost and the needed recognition once decision makers  understand that Blockchain-tech is sustainable – it has the “electric vehicle engine”-effect, but for the traditional finance sector. It will replace lots of the engine parts in the back-office and IT-infrastructure. It’s often said that most banks employ 90% lawyers and 10% finance experts. It sounds scary for the compliance departments, but it would cut costs and save energy. 

🎤 Blockchain and AI re said to be a good match. How do you think both technologies can profit from each other?

I use AI every day, thanks to the value created by creative individuals, researchers, and builders  who train and build products on LLM solutions: And right now, no one was paid whose knowledge and content was used to train the AI’s. I believe we will see that data-pools offering token-incentives to data-providers will provide a much more sustainable business-model for every stakeholder, while AI-models will face some  challenges in the process of product development.

🎤What role do associations like the EBA play in the current state of the blockchain industry?  

Often Web3, Crypto and Blockchain are evangelized by tech nerds, libertarians and hard-core believers. I think that we’re missing out on facilitating a conversation on a “Web2.5” meeting-ground that is set between the current state and the more decentralized world. An association is the necessary neutral ambassador bringing both sides together. On this neutral meeting ground, we can work on addressing  negative perceptions and translating the benefits of our worldview to decision-makers, winning over  new supporters 🙂

The post Welcome to the EBA community, Eric Holst! appeared first on European Blockchain Association.

Secure and flexible nodes for institutional delegators

Various protocols, complex infrastructure, unfamiliar processes – staking can be an intimidating form of digital asset participation for non-experts. Restake has set out to offer a simple and flexible solution, especially to institutional delegators like venture capital & crypto funds, exchanges, wallets, and custodians, as well as traditional investors, who especially benefit from being educated on how they are able to get rewards through diversifying their portfolio with digital assets and the risks and rewards compared to existing financial products they know. “We want to make life easier for finance professionals by offering our clients a standardized and platform agnostic framework that lets investors manage their staking needs in a highly secure, scalable and flexible environment”, says Ralf Taner, Head of Business Development & Partnerships at Restake. 

High quality staking infrastructure – a necessary step to widespread adoption

“Reliability and security is what finance professionals are looking for first, when considering new investment opportunities. Service providers like Restake play a crucial role in driving adoption of new tech and investment concepts – especially in the EU, which upholds high standards in finance and data security”, states Dr. Michael Gebert, Chairman of the European Blockchain Association. “We are pleased to see more services that offer enterprise-grade staking solutions coming from European start-ups, and it is a great pleasure to work and discuss with the Restake team. I am looking forward to seeing their customer base grow.”

The post EBA welcomes Swiss Staking Service Provider Restake! appeared first on European Blockchain Association.

Helping to create a transparent cryptocurrency market 

With a team of 43 specialists operating from four different locations (Kyiv, London, Gothenburg, and HongKong) the company offers services that help safeguard interactions in the crypto market, protect businesses and users from scammers, stolen coins and damage to their reputation, and conducts blockchain investigations in cases of discovered theft. The experts check crypto addresses and transactions for signs of dangerous affiliations and suspicious sources in accordance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). For businesses the company offers additional services like API integration, consulting, and automated KYC. 

A tool for everyone to protect assets and reputations 

“The promise of cryptocurrencies is a more trusted and transparent financial ecosystem. We want to help fulfil this promise and make the cryptocurrency market a safe space for everyone, thus creating an input in the digital assets’ mass adoption”, says Niko Demchuck, Legal & AML Specialist at AMLBot. “We are thrilled to be working with the EBA community on making web3 a secure and trustworthy infrastructure and contribute our knowledge to the EBA’s working groups.” 

“Trust is the foundation for the prosperity of any web3 business. Unfortunately, the importance of services that strengthen trust and transparency in the crypto space is growing. After our recent announcement of the Verified Staking Provider Program, I am ecstatic that AMLBot has joined our community, bringing additional expertise in securing community trust and transparency. We are eagerly anticipating the collaboration!”, says EBA chairman Dr. Michael Gebert. 

👉 If you want to learn more about next steps for AMLBot and the top3 tipps for a safe crypto experience, read our interview with Legal & AML Specialist Niko Demchuck.

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🎤 Daniela, tell us a little more about the Hyperledger Foundation. What is unique about it and what are your goals for the coming years?

Hyperledger Foundation is a community and member-driven, not-for-profit organization that fosters the global development of enterprise-grade open source blockchain and related technologies. We host the world’s largest ecosystem focused on the open development of these technologies. The size and scale of our community and our commitment to collaboratively developing the foundation technologies for decentralized networks, transactions and trust set us apart. 

Our mission is to accelerate the development and deployment of Hyperledger technologies with the aim of transforming existing markets and creating new ones.

🎤 Which current innovations do you think will impact the blockchain and DLT landscape the most in the long term?

The market and technology are both maturing quickly so there are critical developments happening on many fronts, including:

• Advancements in interoperability to support multi-chain solutions and hybrid networks
• Verifiable credentials as they are critical to digital identity as well as payments and transactions
• New tokenization models that hold the promise for vastly more efficient and cost effective ways to transfer of assets, make payments and complete other financial task

🎤 Which benefits do you see in cooperating with the European Blockchain Association?

We are well down the path to a world with a network of networks and not one network to rule them all, so collaboration and standardization are key. At our core, we are a community of developers looking to create open platforms and so want to work with others leading the charge for openness and standards.

🎤 A main goal for the cooperation is to foster standardization and interoperability. What are the challenges in this area and how do you want to address them?

Hyperledger Foundation has long maintained there will not be one blockchain to rule them all. It will take a mix of blockchains and blockchain-related technologies to maximize the value of distributed ledgers, smart contracts, digital assets and self-sovereign identity between businesses, across industries and around the world. Our position is that open source and open development create common and even shared building blocks for distributed networks and solutions. We encourage cross-industry collaboration  with a large and diverse community of contributors to ensure good governance, software stability and open platforms. We have multiple projects and labs, including Hyperledger Cacti and Hyperledger FireFly, working collectively to tackle interoperability challenges.

🎤 What challenges do you foresee for widespread adoption of blockchain technology?

A: The biggest pitfalls are around balancing transparency and true decentralization with data privacy and security. This holds true whether you are building a large trade network, new financial instruments or digital identity tools. Establishing good governance and using open platforms and industry standards ensures that there’s no over reliance on any centralized party. Private and public sector participation in open source communities like Hyperledger Foundation ensures that. The power of blockchain technology lies in recording or verifying a transaction or identity over a network hardened by distributed trust. Assuring organizations and individuals that they can participate in such networks to validate critical tasks and transactions without seeding control of sensitive information will go a long way towards accelerating adoption.

The post Collaboration in a network of networks – a conversation with Daniela Barbosa appeared first on European Blockchain Association.

Hyperledger Foundation: Building enterprise-grade blockchain solutions since 2015

Hyperledger Foundation was founded in 2015 to bring transparency and efficiency to the enterprise market by fostering a thriving ecosystem around open source blockchain software technologies. As a project of the Linux Foundation, Hyperledger Foundation                on coordinates a community of member and non-member organisations, individual contributors and software developers building enterprise-grade platforms, libraries, tools, and solutions for multi-party systems using blockchain, distributed ledger, and related technologies.

Enabling the ecosystem to advance collectively

“There is no shortage of innovation in both the development and deployment of enterprise-grade blockchain technologies”, says Daniela Barbosa, Executive Director, Hyperledger Foundation. “We see a rapid evolution of the market with advances and implementations happening across web3, digital identity, multi-chain networks, verifiable credentials, tokenization and a host of other applications. Cooperating across all areas of the industry is now more important than ever to avoid innovation siloes and ensure the whole ecosystem advances together. We are very much looking forward to working towards interoperability and standardisation with the EBA community.”

The two organisations agreed to identify and share practices, collaborate on events and speaking engagements, and build a strong presence in Europe together.

Building the future: regulatory foundations and enterprise-grade solutions

“The Hyperledger Foundation is an organisation that we are very excited to work with. Both      parties bring vital competencies to the table, which, when combined, have the potential to have a significant effect on the industry. While the EBA is presently concentrating its efforts on regulatory and legislative matters, the Hyperledger Foundation has unparalleled experience in developing the most effective solutions for business organisations     ”, says Michael Gebert, Chairman of the EBA. “For businesses to reap the benefits of the most recent advances, both parts must be coordinated. I, along with the entire EBA community, eagerly anticipate innovating together. ”

🎤 Learn more about the Hyperledger Foundation, its goals and plans in our interview with Executive Director Daniela Barbosa.

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🎤 Vicktoria, at w3.fund, investments are only one part of the package. Why do you put a lot of extra effort into projects like the w3.hub or the w3.vision?

The reason we put so much effort into projects like the w3.hub and the w3.vision is because community is a crucial component for us as a Web3 investment fund. The w3.vision x DMEXCO, as one of the largest Web3 and marketing events in Europe, reaches nearly 40 thousand people. This event not only caters to Web3 natives but also to institutional companies or brands that utilise the infrastructure and application of Web3 startups. The community gets a big platform to share their ideas through this event. Similarly, the w3.hub will be the go-to space for the Web3 scene. There is currently no place in Berlin where everyone can come together, meet, exchange ideas, work together, or host events. In summary, web3 is all about community, and we invest in it accordingly.

🎤 You also invest in both, start-ups and digital assets. How do you decide where to invest? What are you looking for in a start-up or digital asset?

The approach to investment at w3.fund is centred around identifying startups and digital assets that have the potential to solve real-world problems and improve existing solutions through the use of blockchain technology. The focus is on investing in applications that people will use in the future, such as tools, products, and innovative business ideas. Key areas of interest include asset tokenization, gaming, refi, defi, and virtual fashion, as well as opportunities for the metaverse. The investment range includes equity and tokens in pre-seed and seed rounds, and the team places a strong emphasis on investing in serial entrepreneurs with experience. By prioritising these factors, we aim to invest in the most promising projects that have the potential to make a significant impact in the web3 space.

🎤 So, which current projects and web3 innovations do you think will impact consumers the most in the long term?

The current Web3 innovations that will have the most impact on consumers in the long term are those that focus on digital assets with utility such as NFTs, which have specific functions within their ecosystems, such as in-game assets. Technologies such as soulbound tokens, ID-on-chain, and wallets also present interesting investment opportunities as it enables the consumer to store information on-chain and companies to track user behaviour throughout different platforms . At w3.fund, we believe in the tokenization of assets and its potential to effectively impact our lives, which is why we invest in projects like Cashlink or Fantium.

🎤 Which trends to are you expecting to evolve in the near future from the web3 and metaverse space?

Firstly, people will increasingly connect with a digital identity and take it across various platforms, creating a need for “avatar looks” such as virtual fashion or lifestyle products. Secondly, there will be a significant increase in events like concerts or meetups that do not replace real-life experiences but serve as a good add-on to connect with others. These trends will be leveraged when the technical requirements are met to accommodate many people at once in a server online and in the browser. The team expects a larger boom when crypto mobile emerges, allowing more people to fully utilise decentralised applications (dApps) on their smartphones. Digital ownership will become increasingly relevant, which is why w3.fund is also focused on investments that are creating platforms that are user-friendly and have easy-to-understand UX/UI.

🎤 Again, welcome to the EBA! We are very happy to have you on board. Which benefits do you see in cooperating with the European Blockchain Association?

The benefits of cooperating with the European Blockchain Association are numerous. Firstly, we believe that working collectively within a larger network can have a greater impact. As we have mentioned, community is a crucial component for us at w3.fund, and the European Blockchain Association shares this value. They have supported us on many levels and represent our values. In turn, we would like to support the ecosystem of the European Blockchain Association with our knowledge and projects such as our fund, conference, co-working space, and media. Our shared vision is to push topics forward progressively and educate people along the way, and together we are stronger.

The post A community to solve real world problems – introducing our new member w3.fund appeared first on European Blockchain Association.

w3.fund – made by builders, not bankers

Behind the w3.fund is a team of tech-savvy serial entrepreneurs and web3 natives. And while investments in web3 start-ups and digital assets of metaverse ecosystems are one core pillar of the fund, it does not stop there. 

“We are builders, not bankers”, Tim Keding Founding Partner of w3.fund states. “We don’t just want to put our money into promising ideas, we want to really shape the ecosystem. Besides investing, we educate, for example with our podcasts, we bring the community together at one of the biggest web3 events in Europe, the w3.vision conference, and currently we are setting up a large co-working space in Berlin to give the web3 community a home – where we will hopefully be welcoming many of the EBA members to events, hackathons and more. We are looking forward to engaging with this strong community of experts.”

A holistic approach to benefit all parties

“This holistic approach is precisely what the Web3 space requires. to take a comprehensive perspective” applauds EBA chairman, Dr. Michael Gebert. “Because of how quickly the ecology is changing, it is not always simple to distinguish between the wheat and the chaff. The formation of relationships and the gathering of the most talented individuals in the same room, either in person or virtually, will be beneficial to all parties concerned. The EBA community is looking forward to get involved and build the web3 future together!”

Want to learn more about the w3.fund and its activities? Visit the fund’s website here and read our interview with co-founder Vicktoria Klich here.

The post Bringing the web3 community together: w3.fund joins European Blockchain Association! appeared first on European Blockchain Association.

🎤 Friederike, back in 2019, what made you decide to set up your own blockchain?
Talking to researchers at the Max Planck Society, we were often approached with the request for something like a time stamp for their research data. As a central service unit, the Max Planck Digital Library already had implemented a research data certificate issued by the MPG (Max Planck Gesellschaft). But when you think it through, and it really comes to a legal dispute about ’who was first’ such a certificate might not be sufficient. Utilizing a blockchain to have those data certified decentrally was obvious. However, we could not find a blockchain that met our expectations and high scientific standards when it comes to sustainability, trust, performance, or cost, and energy consumption. Therefore, we decided to initiate our own blockchain, backed by research organizations worldwide.

🎤How does the Proof of Authority consensus work and what where your experiences with this type of consensus mechanism so far?
In contrast to PoW or PoS for example, all Validator nodes are known in the bloxberg blockchain. This means that behind each validated transaction there is a research organization which created the block. Therefore, the consensus is not secured by computational power or the amount of staked coins; it is secured by the reputation of each single research organization in the network.

🎤 50+ organisations are building the bloxberg network today. What are their main needs and what are your goals for the coming years?
From my experience, research organizations who join the bloxberg association understood two things: they are aware that this groundbreaking technology will influence all aspects of our lifes, i.e. also the scientific world. And they see the potential benefits of the blockchain technology for the future of science. Shaping the blockchain for science, not being depended on commercial aspects and ensuring an independent and robust blockchain infrastructure for science, is what they want.
This year will be very important for bloxberg, and especially the blxb labs GmbH, the service provider for the bloxberg blockchain, as we will be issuing a token to ensure sustainable financing and to promote and support scientific applications on top of bloxberg blockchain.

🎤 What are the most common transactions on the bloxberg blockchain today? Which use cases do you expect to grow?
Today we see a lot of applications which are handling certifications of different kinds, i.e. master thesis or research data certification as well as secure cloud computing, to name just a few of it. In the coming years, I expect that we will experience advancements in the tokenization of science in many different areas, starting with research funding and research data marketplaces up to the incentivization of peer review processes.

🎤 What made you decide to join the EBA?
Everyone who is active in the blockchain field, especially in Germany, is to some extend a pioneer. For me, it is substantial and enriching to connect with others, exchange ideas and to support each other. Additionally I am very interested to learn more about the blockchain community and the many different use cases of blockchain technology that the EBA community is working on.

The post The importance of decentralised science: a conversation with Friederike Kleinfercher, CEO of blxb labs appeared first on European Blockchain Association.

“The market for digital assets – especially the secondary market – depends very significantly on industry standards and cross-company cooperation. The EBA is making a significant contribution to this, which we would like to actively promote”, Daniel Wernicke, Co-CEO of NYALA, explains the company’s motivation for joining the European Blockchain Association.

Empowering the transition of established players

NYALA is a technology company specializing in blockchain technology and a pioneer of regulated custody solutions for crypto assets. The mission: help financial service providers embrace the transition to the future of the financial industry. The NYALA Digital Asset Platform leverages a modern API to integrate the most important elements of digital asset management into existing systems and enables established players in the financial industry to tokenize and issue assets on the blockchain, custody tokenized assets and all relevant cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) as well as offer trading and staking of digital assets.

The best standards are developed in a joint effort

“When all participants come to the table with the philosophy of ‘compete and collaborate,’ new industries thrive. As important as it is for any organization to identify its unique selling proposition, defining and agreeing on standards and interoperability is essential for providing a customer-friendly product. I view it as a good indicator that our members are interested in this topic”, comments Michael Gebert, Chairman European Blockchain Association.

The post Hello and Welcome, NYALA! appeared first on European Blockchain Association.

“As a deep-tech company with strong focus on the latest innovations, we are heavily involved in blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. Being a member of the EBA enables us to share our views with a community of like-minded experts from the field and participate in the global evolution of the blockchain universe”, says Thomas Schmiedel, CTO at Rubinstein & Schmiedel.

New asset classes through innovative technology

Rubinstein & Schmiedel was founded in 2019 by Kirill Rubinstein, CEO and Thomas Schmiedel, CTO. The Swiss FinTech has 19 employees in Switzerland and Germany and specialises in the development of AI-supported capital investments. Having launched an initial successful investment product exclusively for high-net-worth individuals in 2019, it has been in stealth mode for the past three years. During this time the company achieved an outstanding track record with an exclusively AI-driven live trading approach – with an underlying technology, that was developed by Rubinstein & Schmiedel itself. The next step: scale it up into various investment products.

In the future, the company will offer its own funds to professional and qualified investors who want to profit from the development of new asset classes with the help of innovative, technology-driven investment approaches.

Innovation – a product of collaboration

“I am convinced that the biggest changes in the finance industry are yet to come, and we are seeing more companies from this sector join the EBA, whether it is custody, trading, or other services. Our organization’s diversity of companies and topics is its most valuable asset to its members. It’s also great to have a forward-thinking partner like Rubinstein & Schmiedel on board. After all, innovation is the result of collaboration.”, states Michael Gebert, Chairman European Blockchain Association.

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