In his capacity as Head of Group Strategy at DIFC Authority, Christian is responsible to develop and continuously evolve the strategic agenda and initiatives of DIFC in line with the UAE’s commitment to innovation and development of future economies.

We start off speaking about the foundations of his experience in the region and work towards the future of fintech, blockchain and crypto within DIFC's ecosystem and the regional market places.

If you are looking to know more about regulations, setting up and getting ahead within the region, this episode is a great listen.

We want to give a special shoutout to our sponsor Blockfinex. Blockfinex offers one of the most competitive trading fees compared to industry leading competitors as well as a quick onboarding process for its users. You can find them at blockfinex.com

Special Guest: Christian Kunz.

Did you hear about that $69 million NFT sale on Christie’s? Well, we just dove right into NFTs! NFTs or non-fungible tokens are unique digital items that are not interchangeable. We are beginning to see the rise and value of NFTs take off, mostly in the creative industries, where we see digital art, music and other creative work being bought and sold as NFTs. In this episode we explore the state of play of the NFT world and how they have taken the world by storm this past year. Our guest, Ryan goes on to discuss the origins and beginnings of NFTs and the creative industries, namely creators and artists in Hollywood, his former hometown.

We continue discussing the potential and opportunity NFTs hold for creators that have been traditionally left out of the spotlight and off the stage. Ryan describes how new and young creators can take work into their own hands and start making a living for themselves without necessarily needing to answer to the current “gatekeepers” of the creative industry.

Ryan shares the work they are doing at Crucible and his vision for the platform and how it will contribute to a larger paradigm shift of what he calls an Open Metaverse. We also touch on the future of NFTs and how the world will look in a decade’s time because of this new technology.

We want to give a special shoutout to our sponsor Blockfinex.

Special Guests: Ryan Gill

Special Guest: Ryan Gill.

We start off speaking about what blockchain applications are currently live in the region and where enterprise utilizes blockchain for the betterment of business. Saqr and Akbar both share their views on the current state of blockchain use in the Middle East and general region.

We go on to discuss the challenges of raising funding for Proof of Concept projects. Both our guests walk us through their experiences in each of their domains and advise companies on how best to approach funding for a POC.

Finally we discuss what adoption of blockchain technology will look like, specifically for enterprises.

We want to give a special shoutout to our sponsor Blockfinex. Blockfinex offers one of the most competitive trading fees compared to industry leading competitors as well as a quick onboarding process for its users. You can find them at blockfinex.com

Special Guests: Akbar Farook and Saqr Ereiqat.

In this episode of Encrypted, we are sharing the Digital Keynote as a podcast on our channel, to share with our community and audience! In this episode we have superstar speakers from the United Nations, Ant Financial and Swedish Government, moderated by a world-famous radio host & TEDx Speaker all debating on how Blockchain technology will be leveraged to fight the economic collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key takeaways from this panel includes:

1. Innovation and adoption has to come from both government/public sector and the private sector
2. Actual serious adopotion after pilot project/demos is still low
3. Blockchain has a marketing problem

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word and hitting that subscribe button!

Special Guests: Ben Treganna, David Suomalainen, Ken Rutkowski, and Tony Sun.

Mariam who is the Head of the Center for the 4th Industrial Revolution led the report's formation, paritcularly from a policy standpoint. In this episode, we discuss:

1. Mariam's insights from Davos
2. Key takeaways from the report
3. How particular challenges such as regulation and stakeholder engagement will be overcome?
4. A brief look into the 7 Case Studies included in the report
5. C4IR's stance on cryptocurrencies
6. Top down vs bottom up approach to deploying innovative opportunities

This was an extremely insightful podcast where we see the Dubai Blockchain Strategy and the Federal Blockchain Strategy achieving higher levels of success!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word and hitting that subscribe button!

Special Guest: Mariam Al Muhairi .

We discuss how the record industry is not paying it forwards to the artists and creative teams involved in music production and how blockchain through Tune Token and Cre8tor app will enable a fair share of earnings.

Learn about:

• Their journey to securing recognition in technology
• Gaining momentum with music industry executives
• Onboarding and recognising tomorrows future artists
• Using blockchain tech where it matters
• Why being completely decentralised is not a reality

We also have some fun with music industry stories that involve millennials, rock stars, chickens, tents, blockchain and “wasta”.

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word and hitting that subscribe button!

Special Guest: Erik Mendelson.

Fredrik is focusing on making data on the blockchain more accessible to project founders, investors, and individuals by analysing and aggregating public blockchain data. The two talk about the right types of metrics needed to measure the right levels of adoptions and how to measure the success of a product and its market fit.

Extraordinary data they showcased in Berlin shows that there is 1 Ethereum address for every 110 people. Only 1 in every 110 people! But is this the right metric to measure for success?
Fredrik argues that they’re creating a platform not just to state what the right metrics are but to allow their users to have a say in what success looks like and what are the right metrics to measure.

Of course, retention rates are top in priority and Fredrik explains a certain case they’ve been seeing within the context of the MakerDAO project. He argues that although the macro data for MakerDAO are positive but when you dig into the data, there are many surprises in store. Surprise surprise, retention rates in crypto-related products such as MakerDAO are still super low!

Fredrik also goes into his enterprise experience, working for one of the largest Norwegian media companies which looked to implement blockchain in their operations. Going into the infrastructure of trust, particularly in a jurisdiction like Norway where people trust their government, the pair really explore if blockchain, privacy by design and all the things this industry stands for matters for these types of institutions and countries.

Before the pair sign off, Fredrik goes into his takeaways from Berlin Blockchain Week. He sees usability and real use cases are coming to front and center instead of fancy tech stuff taking the limelight.

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Special Guest: Fredrik Haga.

Ahmed dives into Gavin’s value system and tries to understand why he is pursuing the path he is currently on. Driven by curiosity, we learn that he helped to code the ideas that Vitalik drew up for Ethereum and is increasingly curious about what else he can create next!

Ahmed, curious about Gavin’s experiences, wants to find out the challenges he faced in the past 6 years as a prolific tech leader in the field and most importantly how he discerned the cynical from the authentic.

We also get some interesting opinions on a few topics:

• Bitcoin vs Ethereum? Gavin gives us his views on which one he’d pick if bitcoin and ethereum were hanging off a cliff!
• If blockchain was deployed in a country, which country would you deploy it in? Gavin thinks superpowers!

On one of the last things advocated by Gavin is a push for reducing the need for trust in the world; less trust, more truth.

Music Credit: LAKEY INSPIRED

Track Name: Warm Nights

Music By: LAKEY INSPIRED @ https://soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired

Original upload HERE – https://soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired/warm-nights

Special Guest: Dr. Gavin Wood.

Sponsored By:

• CBX : CBX is a digital asset trading platform dedicated to providing users with safe and professional digital currency trading services. The company has independent operating teams in UAE, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the London, other countries and regions.

With an established career in engineering, entrepreneurship and investing, Ahmed was intrigued to find out Richard’s core and to see what influenced him to become the person he is today. Richard shares parts of his childhood experiences when growing up and how his post-university experiences, particularly in building companies, has built much of who he is today. This led him to believe that developers and computer engineers are the primary driving forces behind successful businesses.

Moving onto Web 3 and its construct, Richard talks about why Web 3 is his focus touching on the intersections of easily architecting software that is easily interwoven in our lives, how the world currently works and how start-ups succeed.
As Google came up with the motto “Don’t be evil’, Fabric Ventures thought about this differently. Their motto is ‘Cant’ be evil’ and Richard discusses the story behind why they came up with this motto and concepts such as privacy by design.

As Fabric Ventures are currently fundraising, Ahmed was intrigued to find out how Richard and the team are trying to convince the wider investor community and traditional LP’s to invest in this new wave. The ideas surrounding Web 3 are great, but how can you rally traditional investors to back you? Richard articulately lays down the the things that get the investors excited and things that they should avoid.

Ahmed shifts the conversation to the types of entrepreneurs that Fabric will typically back. If you’re a Web 3 entrepreneur reading this or listening to the podcast, make sure you listen to what Richard had to say!

Enterprise and tech titans - how are they looking at this and will they be adapting? Ahmed and Richard discussed whether or not the current incumbents will be able to change their business models to the new world of Web 3 and the new value chain that will emerge as a result. Richard draws interesting comparisons from history citing the move from IP to cloud (around 10 years ago) created lots of software applications and resulted in huge value creation. He argues we may see something similar when we move from IP to an architecture whereby people and companies all hold their own data and share it at their will in an interwoven system.

Finally, the two touch on regulation to see how GDPR and Open Banking will be able to aid this nascent industry in moving forward!

All this and more is discussed in the week’s episode of Encrypted!

Special Guest: Richard Muirhead.

Ahmed first questions Phil about what his title actually means and Phil drills down into the idea of leaderless leaders, and how every person becomes their own leader.

Before talking about the Exodus phone, Phil delves into his entrepreneurial career, how he helped HTC become a global brand and how he got into the crypto space.

The pair go on to discuss the Exodus phone, key management systems, how HTC's Blockchain phone is different to its competitors and the importance of shipping products first!

We hope you enjoy!!!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Special Guest: Phil Chen.

Ahmed sits down with Mohammed Al-Sharid, the Senior Project Manager for Business Development & Global Partnerships at the Smart Dubai Office, which is a government agency in the UAE tasked with making Dubai the happiest city on earth.

Mohammed gives a deep dive into how Smart Dubai are using their role as an implementor and orchestrator within the blockchain ecosystem to ensure Dubai becomes the first blockchain powered city by 2020.

Mohammed starts off the deep dive by talking about the 3 pillars that defines Dubai’s Blockchain strategy.

The First Pillar: Government Efficiency

Mohammed explains the 3 different elements (Use Cases, Blockchain Platform and Blockchain policy implementation) within the first pillar and how the three contribute to help the government of Dubai increase efficiency within their government departments. Make sure to listen to this episode to find out about these 3 elements, especially If you’re a start-up, policy implementor, and also interested in crypto. (Yes, a Crypto Positioning by Smart Dubai is cooking under the hood for 2019).

Mohammed also mentions a couple of uses that is being implemented currently.

The Second Pillar: Industry Creation

To achieve the 2020 vision, Smart Dubai have been running the Global Blockchain challenge for the past 2 years where they have received hundreds of applications across the world to tap into the growing innovation taking place globally. The Global Blockchain Challenge is back for 2019, where Dubai is calling all blockchain start-ups to apply to the Challenge. The 20 shortlisted winners will be competing in the Future Blockchain Summit organised by Smart Dubai which is taking place in April 2019. P.S. Application deadline is 30th January 2019. Details are below.

The second part of the Industry Creation is about helping to accelerate blockchain projects at the Dubai Future Accelerators program where start-ups work with government agencies for 12 weeks to build a proof of concept.

The Third Pillar: International Leadership

This pillar is about cross border collaborations to build Dubai as an international leader within the blockchain space. Listen in to hear how they are building bridges with other cities to build blockchain use cases.

As well as building Dubai as a hub, they are actively learning from different jurisdictions such as Malta and Crypto Valley in Switzerland.

Finally, listen into how one of the live blockchain use cases being built across several government departments in Dubai regarding payment reconciliation.

Global Blockchain Challenge Details
Link: Smart Dubai Global Blockchain Challenge
Applications are open until 30 January 2019, 11.59pm GMT +4.

For more information about Smart Dubai, please click on this link Smart Dubai.

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Special Guest: Mohammed AlSharid.

Kris shares his experiences in educating people from different backgrounds about the technology, and his experiences in helping enterprises deploy blockchain solutions.

Ahmed digs a bit deeper to understand the notion of open and closed blockchains and how this fits in with private and public implementations. For example; Does a public closed blockchain make sense?

The two also talk about best approaches to identify a blockchain use case as well as dissecting the role blockchains will play as Kris argues its merely a tool that is analogous to the internet.

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Special Guest: Kris Bennett.

On today’s show, Ahmed explores an interesting application of blockchain technology: Energy!

Paul first talks about the challenges and pain-points that currently face the energy industry, before moving on to how these challenges can be solved.
Existing players in the blockchain market attempting to solve these challenges are explored as Paul explains the use cases within the energy sector in both the developed and developing markets.

He also takes us into a deep dive (in layman terms) into how Electron are utilising blockchain for energy, particularly in the digitalisation of assets.

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Special Guest: Paul Massara.

They discuss:
• How the Department’s current processes are inefficient
• How blockchain will help eliminate inefficiencies and why they need a blockchain
• Their successful pilot test with one free trade zone in Dubai

Mohammed delves into their Department’s blockchain journey and their approach to actually solve problems currently faced by investors and businessmen coming into the UAE.
As well as critically deconstructing the problem, Mohammed shared the grand plans for how their Department’s blockchain solution could not only be a solution used in the UAE but also shares their worldwide ambitions.

The crux of the conversation is all about digital identity and Mohammed discusses their ideas and implementations for how digital IDs can soon become a reality in the UAE utilising digital signatures.

All of the above and more will be on this episode of Encrypted Interviews!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other podcast platforms. And if you found it helpful or know someone who will, spread the knowledge and tell them to tune in!

Special Guest: Mohammed Shael Al Saadi.

Aniket gives a general overview of the current market state in India as he touches upon, the current challenges and the ever delaying regulation regarding crypto-assets and exchanges.

Ahmed shares his experience about the conference, the interesting projects he met and also the panel he was invited to speak at along with the IT Director of the Government of Goa.

The duo also tries to answer what could lie ahead in India’s blockchain story?

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word and do not forget to subscribe!

Sources:
Indian Crypto Regulation Ready by September: Official

They discuss:
• His very interesting flippening moment (jargon for how someone got interested in bitcoin and blockchain)
• Advice on how to the enter the industry
• Different applications utilised by blockchain and the Dubai Blockchain Strategy

They also delve into how the Dubai Blockchain Center is helping Dubai become a global blockchain capital and how blockchain entrepreneurs can get support from the Center. Also, cryptocurrency regulation is a hot topic where they discuss how the UAE is fairing against the world, especially on the back of a new crypto OTC license that has recently been made available in the region allowing for regulated crypto OTC desks.

All of the above and more will be on this episode of Encrypted Interviews!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other podcast platforms. And if you found it helpful or know someone who will, spread the knowledge and tell them to tune in!

Additional resources:
Dubai Blockchain Center
Smart Dubai Blockchain Strategy

Special Guest: Dr. Marwan Alzarouni .

If you are new to the space, they will help you to unwrap what bitcoin actually is by discussing the following:
• Why bitcoin exists and how it emerged
• 2 analogies to help you understand how bitcoin works
• Clearing misconceptions – Is bitcoin only used by criminals? Does bitcoin = blockchain? How many times has bitcoin been hacked?!!
• Breaking down private and public keys and wallets

They also discuss the incidents, both good and bad, in bitcoin’s 10-year history, including:
Crypto adoption rapidly increasing as blockiain.info, a free wallet provider, announces 25 million downloads of its wallet.
Bitcoin is legal in over 106 countries and legal tender in Japan, meaning people can use bitcoin as a currency to purchase goods.
The challenge of scaling bitcoin and how the community has responded so far. They will also be talking about the bitcoin fork which resulted in bitcoin cash’s existence and the implications of this.

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other podcast platforms. And if you found it helpful or know someone who will, spread the knowledge and tell them to tune in!

Sources:
Blockchain.info hits 25 million crypto wallets

Bitcoin legality

Still Don't Get Bitcoin? Here's an Explanation Even a Five-Year-Old Will Understand