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.

With Matt Hamilton and Gary Sheynkman as our guest news commentators.

We discuss some unlikely stories, including you’re not a banana if you say you’re a banana and how this ties into stable coins and FinCEN, how China appears to be 'protecting' (cough cracking down cough) its crypto businesses and a quick catchup on where Telegram Open Network is heading with the SEC.

Special Guests: Gary Sheynkman and Matt Hamilton.

Ahmed is in one of his favourite places in the world, Shanghai, for the Shanghai Blockchain week. In this episode, he caught up with James Wo, CEO and Founder of Digital Finance Group.

The two delve right in to talk about James’ incredible ventures as well as latest topics in the crypto world including:

• Digital Finance Group’s $80 million venture fund which was raised from traditional capital in Shanghai (02:10)
• Bridging UAE and China: Why are they setting up an exchange in Abu Dhabi and how they got an In Principal Approval from the ADGM (04:50)
• How MENA is a big enough market for multiple exchanges to operate (09:00)
• Proof of work Vs Proof of Stake (12:30)
• Would you choose Bitcoin or Ethereum. Interesting thoughts from James! (15:15)
• Blockchain and crypto ecosystem in China (16:54)

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

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: James Wo.

Ahmed reminisces the first time he and David first met, remembering a quote he would never forget; ‘Everything that can be decentralized will be decentralized’. This was jokingly described as Johnston’s law when David first introduced this at the Coin Summit in 2014. Great, things will be decentralised but when and to what extent? David does a good job showcasing how and when certain processes and use cases should be decentralised.

The two dig deeper to explore what use cases we are seeing today that is both decentralised and has some credible adoption behind it. Other than Bitcoin, of course, David goes onto explain how Factom, a decentralised blockchain that anchors into bitcoin and ethereum, has secured hundreds of millions of business records and cites a couple of uses by real companies using Factom as a way to record business documents. This is where the amazing TikTok Baidu case was revealed by David. You definitely don’t want to miss this interesting court case story, oh and the supreme court of China was involved too.
David goes into what Factom is and why it exists claiming that it solves as many problems as bitcoin does as its core focus is on record keeping which allows for strong transparency and accountability.

Ahmed shifts the conversation to see David’s opinion on which jurisdiction is the best for blockchain and crypto. In his words - ‘Switzerland. Hands down’. Ahmed, a bit shell shocked dove in to understand why David thinks Switzerland is the hotspot for blockchain and David urges blockchain projects should consider moving to Zug, which is dubbed as Crypto Valley.

David further shocks Ahmed when Ahmed asks him Bitcoin or Ethereum. David chooses Ethereum for a number of reasons - Do make sure to listen to hear why!

Before the end of the show, the pair go off on a completely random topic - Homeschooling. As David mentioned he was homeschooled, Ahmed was intrigued to find out what is homeschooling about, hows it different from public schooling and why parents make the decision to homeschool their children.

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: David Johnston.

Next, the hosts discuss the US SEC’s rejection decision on 9 ETF proposal and the rebound on that decision along with its effects on the crypto market.

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!

Sources:
China is now policing cryptocurrency by targeting WeChat accounts

SEC U-Turn on ETF Rejection — A Balancing Act for Adoption?