#Ep. 08: When VCs go eye to eye with Blockchain!

About this Episode

Ahmed and Faisal sit down with Fares Ghandour, Partner at Wamda Capital which is a VC based in Dubai, to discuss the latest news, trends and the really interesting debates that circulate in the blockchain space.

Fares first introduces Wamda Capital and shares the investments they have made in the blockchain space as well as thoughts about regulation in the region and how regulation is being shaped by the blockchain start-ups they are investing in.

The three then start of the discussion on this week’s news starting with Japan’s approach to tackle illicit crypto activities, and how as a developed market it is increasingly active in regulating this industry. They also touch on how crypto is becoming less and less used for illicit purposes as it actually makes it easier to get caught using crypto for fraud!
We discuss a wide range of topics from this piece; from bitcoin maximalism, to working with regulators, and to a new generation of regulated exchanges implementing pieces of software that allows to track the origin of funds of cryptocurrencies and tokens.

In the next news article, Ahmed opens up the discussion about a crypto start up called Dfinity which just raised $102 million and what this means for investments going forward, particularly in a bear market.

Then we discuss the findings of one particular research showing that from the top 100 cryptocurrencies on coinmarketcap, only 36 projects have a working product with users. Fares shares a very interesting perspective from the VC angle and argues the importance of protocol development first before assessing working products.

Ahmed and Faisal also question the viability of the current VC model, and Fares shares how he thinks the VC model will change in the future.

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

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Articles links:
Japanese Police to Fund Crypto Criminal Tracking Tool
Cryptocurrency Start-Up Dfinity Raises $102 Million to Build Internet Computer
Cryptocurrencies in the top 100 with working products
Mount Gox bitcoin theft flow of funds- you can toggle your mouse to track where the bitcoins went after they were stolen

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