Ahmed Al-Balaghi
Co-Host of Encrypted
Ahmed is a Co-host of Encrypted and has been involved in the blockchain and crypto space since early 2016 spending. Working in the Far East and helping to bridge east and West, Ahmed has worked on a number of projects in this field and has invested and advised new projects. Business fluent in Mandarin, Ahmed co-founded the Fudan Blockchain Association in China and assisted multiple blockchain projects to tap into Emerging Markets. Previously, Ahmed held roles in Citibank and Dow Jones.
Ahmed Al-Balaghi has hosted 77 Episodes.
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#Ep. 30: Back to where it all started: Reflecting on 30 episodes
March 20th, 2019 | 29 mins 28 secs
milestone, reflection
The highs, the lows and everything in between! This is our topic for episode 30 where we reflect on our milestone of 30 episodes on Encrypted. Ahmed and Faisal talk about their experiences running the Encrypted podcast and renewing the purpose as to why they are dedicating time to it. We also talk about the Emaar ICO and why this is so significant. All this and more on this special episode.
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#Ep. 29: Assessing blockchain for insurance with Takaful Emarat and Addenda
March 12th, 2019 | 39 mins 35 secs
b3i, insurance, linkedin, private blockchain, risk
Bringing trust back to an industry built on it: Assessing blockchain for insurance.
Walid Daniel Dib from Addenda and Vivek Bhalla from Takaful Emarat join us in episode 29 as it is all about understanding the use case for blockchain in the insurance industry, an industry that is plagued with manual processes and very little innovation.
We also delve deep into how relationships are made between an established player and a small start-up that is deploying a very niche technology. -
#Ep. 28: Behavioural Science, Transparency, and the role of Governments: A conversation with Maja Vujinovic, the Former CIO of Emerging Tech at GE
March 3rd, 2019 | 43 mins 19 secs
In Episode 28, Ahmed and Faisal do their first remote recording online with their guest. Maja Vujinovic, CEO at OGroup and Former CIO of Emerging Tech at GE, joins this episode to share her works and thoughts surrounding behavioural science and crypto economics and how they will ultimately play huge in large corporates and governments!
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#Ep. 27: Future of Crypto: World Government Summit Special
February 17th, 2019 | 35 mins 50 secs
crypto assets, digitisation, dubai, regulation
Ahmed kicks off episode 27 in style at the World Government Summit where he is joined by Lawrence Wintermeyer from Global Digital Finance and Martin Bartlam from DLA Piper. In this episode, the trio delve into what the future of crypto looks like, how we'll get there, the current state of the market and also takeaways from this exclusive 3 day summit which was organized by the Prime Minister's Office.
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#Ep. 26: How blockchain is revolutionizing the real estate experience in Dubai
February 5th, 2019 | 46 mins 2 secs
In the 26th episode, Ahmed and Faisal host Khalifa Al Suwaidi, CEO of ERES and elaborate on the landscape of blockchain applications in the real estate sector in Dubai. They discuss the history, current implementations and the future foresight of blockchain in this space.
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#Ep. 25: The balance between ROI and Social Impact: A conversation with the Blockchain Founders Fund
January 29th, 2019 | 36 mins 52 secs
funds, impact report, investment, social, sto, un
In the 25th episode, (wow it has been 25 episodes already), Ahmed and and Faisal sit down with the Managing Partner of the Blockchain Founders Fund, Aly Madhavji to discuss their work with the UN, STO's and investments in the blockchain space both with a ROI lens and a social lens.
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#Ep. 24: Crypto Tales: The Success Story of Dubai's Bitoasis
January 22nd, 2019 | 51 mins 28 secs
bitoasis, dubai, exchange, regulation
Ahmed and Faisal sits down with Ola Doudin, CEO of Bitoasis. With Bitoasis committed to building the blockchain infrastructure for the MENA region through a crypto assets exchange, Ola describes her journey of founding Bitoasis. We take a deep dive into crypto licensing, opening bank accounts, Bitaosis' user demographics and more in this episode!
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#Ep. 23: An insight into Smart Dubai - What are they really doing in blockchain?
January 15th, 2019 | 25 mins 27 secs
2020, blockchain, smart dubai, strategy, vision
Ahmed sits down with Mohammed AlSharid from Smart Dubai where he takes us through Dubai’s visionary blockchain strategy which aims to make Dubai the first government to be powered by the blockchain by 2020. Listen in into how this vision is unfolding right before our eyes.
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#Ep. 22: 4 Blockchain Trends and Observations for 2019
January 8th, 2019 | 21 mins 47 secs
2019, build, regulation, sto, uae
In the first episode of 2019, Ahmed and Faisal are excited to be back and in this one, they share the different observations and trends the industry should look out for in 2019!
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#Ep. 21: World War Regulation - A conversation with Simmons & Simmons
December 19th, 2018 | 44 mins 9 secs
arbitrage, regulation, self regulation
Ahmed sits down with two Partners from Simmons & Simmons law firm to further understand the crypto space from a lawyers’ perspective. We chat about regulatory arbitrage, risk based regulatory approaches, self-regulation and more!
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#Ep. 20: What lessons did we learn in 2018?
December 5th, 2018 | 36 mins 36 secs
Ahmed and Faisal sit down with Samson Williams from Axes and Eggs to discuss the lessons learnt from this bear market and in general 2018. They discuss the pros and cons the industry has showcased in 2018 and how can the industry can move forward going into 2019.
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#Ep. 19: Is 2019 the year of enterprise blockchain?
November 27th, 2018 | 29 mins 2 secs
enterprise, hyperledger, private blockchain, qualcomm
Ahmed and Faisal are joined by Chris Fernandez, the CEO of Block Gemini which is a UAE based blockchain development house focusing on enterprise level blockchain applications. They talk about enterprise use cases, projects Block Gemeni are working on, challenges and how the enterprise blockchain world works!
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#Ep. 18: What a week of madness!
November 20th, 2018 | 24 mins 23 secs
bitcoin cash, etf, finma, sec
In this week’s episode, Ahmed and Aniket discuss the latest developments in the industry ranging from SEC clampdowns to the bitcoin cash hash wars. Ahmed also explains his takeaways from his attendance at the Sora Summit in Macau.
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#Ep. 17: Non-Fungible Tokens...WTF?!
November 13th, 2018 | 28 mins 35 secs
cryptokitty, fungible, gaming, nft
Ahmed and Aniket sit down to explore and make sense of the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) world. The hosts take you through what NFTs are, its importance, their applications, current developments and more on this week's episode of Encrypted!
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#Ep. 16: What is all the buzz about Security Tokens?
October 30th, 2018 | 35 mins 54 secs
regulation, security tokens, sto
Ahmed is joined by Kambio Ventures CEO, Louay Al Doory, and Binary Financial Managing Director, Saeed AL Darmaki, for a deep dive into Security Tokens at the World Blockchain Summit in Dubai!
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#Ep. 15: What does a Star Wars convention have to do with the blockchain world?
October 24th, 2018 | 20 mins 50 secs
blockchain, education, gitex, star wars
In this episode, Ahmed sits down with Kris Bennet, also known as the Blockchain Beard Guy himself to discuss blockchain education, how to evaluate blockchain use cases and what a Star Wars convention has in common with this industry!