All around New York City this week, the exciting New York FinTech Week is taking place. The events that make up the week-long event cover all aspects of FinTech business and innovation within the city. Day 2 of the week was dedicated to what is currently the most exciting FinTech technology: Blockchain. The technology’s ability to completely revolutionize how business gets done has caused many eyes to be drawn to it. While the technology is still young, an ecosystem of visionaries, developers, and experts has emerged, and a selection of these foremost members of the Blockchain ecosystem were invited to participate on a panel at New York FinTech Week.
The panel was made up of the following Blockchain visionaries:
Joseph Lubin, co-founder of both Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, and ConsenSys, the venture production studio that builds decentralized apps for developers and backend tools for startups. Ethereum is a decentralized platform for applications that guarantees the apps run exactly as programmed, with no chance of fraud, censorship, or third-party interference.
Peter Borovykh, Blockchain Solutions Architect at BlockchainDriven, author of the upcoming book, “Blockchain Applications in Finance,” which releases in early September (he is having an opening event on September 6th, you can rsvp for it at bct.nyc), and Blockchain speaker and seminar instructor. He made his name originally in the world of finance, designing his own quantitative trading strategies, and has now shifted his focus to Blockchain, where he believes he can apply these complex trading strategies.
Borovykh has previously written for Silicon.nyc, and you can read his keys for Blockchain’s success here.
Anish Mohammed, Chief Science Officer at Blockchainsmokers, a Blockchain venture builder that provides funding and expertise to startups and midsized companies looking to take advantage of the Blockchain gold rush.
Thomas France, co-founder of Ledger, which provides consumers and enterprises with advanced security solutions for storing and managing crypto assets. As the industry continues to grow, security solutions will be a must-have for all Blockchain enterprises.
The panel was asked to provide their wisdom and give their view of the current Blockchain ecosystem, as well as how they see the technology and the community around it evolving and growing over the next several years, hence the title of the panel, Blockchain 2020.
Several Blockchain topics were discussed, but three key factors to Blockchain’s success stood out: scalability, security, and adoption. While all panelists agreed that adoption will come with time, they stressed that scalability and security were two problems facing cryptocurrencies currently, and that the most secure and scalable ventures will rise to the top.
These experts were asked a range of interesting questions, but perhaps the question that stood out the most to those attending was regarding the viability of cryptocurrencies as a global medium of exchange. Each Blockchain visionary had their own unique view of the matter, but Peter Borovykh’s answer painted a promising picture for the future of cryptocurrencies:
“It is true that currently, the daily volatility in the leading crypto assets, such as Bitcoin and Ether are substantial. But if we take national currencies of emerging economies, we will see something very similar: the national currencies of, say, Colombia, South Africa, Russia, and Mexico are twice as volatile than the US Dollar or the Euro. True, Bitcoin and Ether are even more volatile, but this, now, turns the question into which perspective we are using to look at cryptocurrencies.
Yes, currently, they might not have the ability to serve the world as a truly global currency, due to the relative immaturity of the market, but once crypto markets become more saturated, the price pattern and market capitalization will follow a logarithmic curve with negative convexity, lowering volatility and stabilizing the investment environment for investors and newcomers.”
Borovykh then announced that he is joining AxionV, an AI crypto fund, as a partner and their Head of Algorithmic Trading Strategies, a role that he believes will be greatly benefited by his quant trading strategies and his experience in both the worlds of Finance and Blockchain. He strongly believes that crypto investing is the best path going forward for investors of all shapes and sizes.
For undertaking your own Blockchain project, Blockchain consulting helps bridge the gap between your company and this exciting technology.
AxionV is an AI crypto fund which uses proprietary algorithms and complex trading strategies, combined with the power of machine learning, to consistently outpace traditional investments in the cryptocurrency space. They are holding an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) from September 16 – September 30, and Borovykh has high hopes for the fund, which is looking to raise over $55 million during this two week period:
“I’m always on the lookout for new and innovative Blockchain ventures, but none of them excited me as much as AxionV. Crypto investing is a space that I’ve been living and breathing. It’s the future. AxionV’s vision was one that I could see becoming the gold standard of crypto investing. I worked closely with the team as a Senior Advisor for several months, and the rapid growth of the crypto world made it apparent that AxionV’s position would cause it to capture that growth. As an Advisor, I have watched the venture grow and develop, and I knew it was a smart decision for me to get more involved. Thanks to the AxionV team for letting me take up a bigger role in this groundbreaking project.”
As the panel was focused on Blockchain’s future evolution and expansion over the next several years, panelists were asked to share their vision for the future of the technology. The panelists all had slightly different visions, but the common thread between them all is an overarching feeling of promise and potential. Where Blockchain will be in three years is still somewhat of a mystery, but the Blockchain experts on this panel are sure that it will realize its potential.
The Bitcoin fork will have massive ramifications on the crypto market for years to come, learn why here.
