Block Issue 11

Editor

Katy Micallef

Contributor

Maria Debrincat

Contributor

Lea Hogg

Senior Editorial Designer

Rocco Di Muni

Contributor

Matthew Calleja

Photographer

Robert Cuschieri

The emerging tech sector has flourished here in Dubai. Like magpies, talent has flocked towards its glittering cities, attracted by a thriving ecosystem that places innovation at its heart. This, alongside a trillion dollar economic plan, has fueled a surge in business, with companies focused on sectors such as AI, Blockchain making the emirate a first choice when it comes to digital innovation.

Our cover story for this issue focuses on Adir Buskila, Founder and CTO at Web3m. In his 8-page feature he looks at how Web3 is changing the marketing landscape and taking on tech giants Meta and Google. Their platform, he says, decentralizes ad data by sending all data back to the blockchain, giving power to each user—and every advertiser—in equal measure. Follow his personal journey from page 30.

We also sat down with blockchain’s founding father Scott Stornetta. A visionary ahead of his time, Stornetta has dedicated his life not just to the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, but to sharing it with others. Read his interview on page 15.

It is fitting that our first issue of the year will also see its subjects through new eyes - those of Rocco Di Muni, who takes over as editorial designer. Now to the customary round of thanks. To Group Founder, Eman Pulis, the force pushing forward all our best laid plans. Naturally the success of this magazine would not be what it is without the careful, thoughtful hands that help shape it, those of photographer Robert whose photography has brought each story to life and the editorial team - Maria, Matthew, and Lea.

Katy

Sales

Marie Reyal

Renee Micallef Decesare

Ana Maria Duarte Delgado

Denis Dzyubenko

Ayoub Hamdi

Ramy Ben Fraj

Zakaria El Maaroufi

Elisa Martinotti

Kian Sullivan

Julia Markova

Olha Kovalevska

Bertrand Neveu

Julia Markova

Olha Kovalevska

Translations

Ahmed Hasan

Alaa Barbarie

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without prior consent in writing. Opinions expressed in SiGMA are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. All reasonable care is taken to ensure truth and accuracy, but the editor and publishers cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions in articles, advertising, photographs or illustrations.

AlookatwhythelaunchofIslamicDigitalCurrencyisasignificantmilestone.

DECENTRALIZEDAI:THENEXTFRONTIERFORINTELLIGENTSYSTEMS

CarlosPradaonshakingupthestatusquointheWeb3ecosystem

AndyBleadenonusingDigitalHealthEcosystemstoconnect,convene,andamplifychange.

HowhastheMedTechlandscapeshiftedforrecruitersandemployees?

THE NEXT CHAPTER

Nearly a decade on from our very first event we’re eager to take on the next chapter, embracing a bolder direction - and playing an active role over the next ten years as the industry grows from strength to strength.

Four verticals and 150 squad members later, the Group is present in 6 strategic international markets - Africa, Eurasia, Americas, Asia, Balkans / CIS, and Europe. We’re also focusing on giving back to the communities we work in, building schools where needed the most through our charitable arm the SiGMA Foundation.

Since the 2020 pandemic we’ve set up a VC fund called Ikigai Ventures, where we invest in great founders and incubate entire ideas from the ground up. We have a global mandate, with an investment portfolio that includes frontier tech such as Blockchain and AI.

Drawing the leading figures of the emerging tech world, the expo aims to strengthen connections between policy makers, influencers, and investors, to spark good ideas to life, and to share knowledge. The event offers exceptional opportunities for expanding your network in one of the most-forward thinking regions when it comes to growing your business.

As of 2023 we’re also putting a lot of focus on quality content, bringing some of the industry’s most respected voices to the podium. VIP speakers such as Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort and serial entrepreneur and investor Gary Vee make Dubai an exciting place to be this March.

A business-first approach has stood the emirate in good stead, with a comprehensive $8.7 trillion economic plan aimed at enhancing trade and foreign investment and shaping the country into a global hub for entrepreneurship.

Later on in the year we’ll also be following through on an ambitious plan for several new shows, establishing a foothold in other regions envisaging a similarly bright future, such as Brazil and Manila. We hope to see you then

STARTUP PITCH

We’re committed to helping this innovative industry grow by offering support to startups and entrepreneurs. For the past two years more than 200 startups have benefited from this platform. Over 100 companies based in this dynamic and emerging sector will be selected to showcase their products and initiatives throughout the event. Each startup selected will have a 1x1m booth at the AIBC Summit. The selected 100 will also have the opportunity to be surrounded by top investors and mentors, being invited to lavish networking dinners as well as benefiting from online exposure. The Startup Pitch is only open to startup companies, meaning recently launched startups that aren’t supported by a public company. An independent panel of judges will select ten of the best companies and entrepreneurs to make it through to the Pitch during the final leg of the Summit. Taking part guarantees valuable insights and critical feedback from the judges although the prize package will give just one lucky startup a massive head start when it comes to expanding their business plans. Find out if you could be the next startup unicorn!

STARTUP? APPLY AT AIBC.WORLD

SELECTED 100 STARTUPS

1x1m booth at the AIBC Summit including cost of printing and furniture

Meet top investors and mentors

Invitation to premium networking events during AIBC summits and throughout the year

Brand exposure across our publications

WINNER BEST 10 STARTUPS

• Social media visibility through our websites

• Article in magazine + official photoshoot

• A free 2x2m booth at AIBC summit 2021, including printing & furniture cost

• Free consultancy and potential leads from leading industry veterans

• PR pack from AIBC

• SiGMA group will provide the VIP networking opportunities for you to connect to potential customers and/or investors

• Free co-working office space

• Title winner for best startup

3min Pitch + 3min Q&A on main stage in front of top investors

In this exclusive interview, blockchain pioneer Scott Stornetta shares his insights on the past, present, and future of blockchain technology. Interviewer Maria Debrincat offers readers a glimpse into the mind of one of the most influential figures in the industry.

“I foresee both AI and blockchain continuing to thrive. Both will flourish.”

Are you (or are you part of) Satoshi Nakamoto? If not, what does it feel like to be mentioned in Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper?

I first became aware of the Bitcoin white paper not long after it was released because I received unsolicited letters and emails asking if I were Satoshi. Those queries suggested that I might be Satoshi because three of my scientific papers on time-stamping written with my collaborator Stuart Haber were cited by Satoshi and because I speak Japanese.

But, no, I am not Satoshi Nakamoto. Although many names are bantered about as being candidates for Satoshi, both Stuart Haber and I have agreed, as a matter of principle, to not speculate on matters related to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. However, we are both happy that Satoshi had built upon our earlier work. By coupling the concept of an immutable record with money he was able to bring greater attention to our work. Although we did not agree with all of Satoshi’s engineering decisions, we have great respect for his coupling of our work with a financial system.

Looking back, did you ever think that your time-stamping invention would have had the impact that it has today?

Both Stuart and I always felt that our method was the proper way to assure the security of digital records. In fact, in 1990, I wrote, “the day may come when nearly every business document in the world will need to be time-stamped.” We assumed it was only a matter of time before all records were using this method.

Although we did envision a wide range of applications beyond business documents, we have been surprised by the great diversity and variety of applications.

What’s your say on the recent developments in the web3 space with the growth of industries such as DeFi, ReFi, GameFi, SciFi, etc...?

It has been interesting to see all the recent developments in the web3 space. Nonetheless, I think we are seeing a nascent industry that makes it easier to transfer value. And while now the use cases may seem trifling, they are a leading indicator of much more substantive uses going forward.

How do you think blockchains compare to DAGs (direct acyclic graphs) and other distributed ledger technologies?

I don’t think of DAGs (direct cyclic graphs) as being separate from blockchain. I consider them to be well within the blockchain universe, a variation on the same theme. DAGs are merely a question of trying to create more efficient ways of linking blocks.

What’s the future of AI and blockchain?

Not many people know that as a graduate student, I worked in AI and neural networks before Stuart and I wrote the papers that laid the foundation for blockchain. Needless to say, I have been following both AI and blockchain for decades.

Although we did not agree with all of Satoshi’s engineering decisions, we have great respect for his coupling of our work with a financial system.

I foresee both AI and blockchain continuing to thrive. Both will flourish. But these two areas do differ in the speed with which they will be fully integrated into our society. Blockchain requires a longer-term restructuring of current industries in order to make real gains in value creation. On the other hand, AI does not require restructuring within existing business structures to have an immediate impact. Over time I envision AI will also transform the industry by having a restructuring effect.

I know many people talk a lot about the overlap between AI and blockchain, because of AIs need for large amounts of data to analyse. But I don’t see that as much of a driver as others seem to think. Instead, blockchain uses small codes to register large amounts of data.

How do you think AIBC is contributing to the development of space?

Eman Pulis is a master at getting people to network. AIBC for several years has successfully brought together many different people involved in blockchain, AI, and other fields. I have enjoyed the opportunities to network with individuals from around the world and treasure the associations I have made.

Bitcoin to Business ADOPTING CRYPTO PAYMENTS

With a market of over 2.5 billion video game players existing today, the potential for growth and success within the blockchain gaming industry and crypto payments is incredibly promising.

In the last decade cryptocurrency has revolutionized the world of finance. Despite initial skepticism digital currencies have been widely adopted and are now accepted as payment in many industries. Businesses understand their potential - they offer secure, cost-effective and rapid transactions without needing intermediaries.

Crypto Payments for Businesses in the Gaming Industry

As the cryptocurrency market continues to develop and gain maturity, an increasing number of businesses are beginning to recognize the advantages that come with accepting payments in digital currencies. The gaming industry is one such sector that has been a critical driving force behind this trend, offering gamers the security, convenience, and reliability they need when making crypto-based transactions. For many players already familiarized with cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin being a prime example, it has become second nature to use them for their online purchases.

The future of gaming is looking more and more like it will be an immersive experience as a result of the metaverse and virtual reality technology. Blockchain gaming was identified as being the most popular sector for Web3 in 2022, and the trend will carry on throughout 2023. Furthermore Polygon could become the leading platform for games by the end of this year. Immutable, Axie Infinity, Decentraland and The Sandbox are considered to be prime candidates.

Since gamers are already comfortable conducting many online transactions through digital currencies, they are prime potential participants in blockchain-based games. With a market of over 2.5 billion video game players existing today, the potential for growth and success within the blockchain gaming industry and crypto payments is incredibly promising.

Challenges Remain

The recent changes and trends in the crypto market have made it easier for businesses to adopt crypto payments. For example, the rise of stablecoins, such as USDC, Tether, and BUSD, has reduced the volatility associated with cryptocurrencies

In addition, the development of new payment gateways and merchant services has made it easier for businesses to accept and manage crypto payments.

However, despite the growing popularity of crypto payments, there are still some challenges that businesses need to overcome to

embrace this new technology fully. For example, many companies still need to familiarize themselves with cryptocurrencies and the associated risks and benefits. Additionally, some countries still need to establish clear regulations for cryptocurrencies, making it difficult for businesses to comply with the law and ensure that their transactions are secure.

To overcome these challenges, businesses must educate themselves about cryptocurrencies and their potential benefits. This may involve working with a cryptocurrency payment processor or engaging with the crypto community to understand the industry's latest developments and best practices.

B2BinPay - A Solution for Businesses

To fill the void between businesses and cryptocurrencies and to assist with adopting crypto payments, B2Broker created and launched B2BinPay. It is a payment platform that enables businesses to send, receive, store, exchange, and accept crypto payments with ease. B2BinPay covers all the necessary aspects of accepting cryptocurrency payments, such as secure wallets for storing coins; conversion services for exchanging fiat currencies into crypto; merchant services for handling payments; and a secure multi-signature wallet.

The platform also comes with a range of features that make it ideal for businesses, including support for more than 80 cryptocurrency coins and tokens, low fees and fast transaction times, an intuitive interface, and various currency pairs supported by the exchange. Additionally, B2BinPay has a dedicated team of customer support representatives who are available 24/7 to assist businesses with any questions or issues they may have.

B2Broker CEO Arthur Azizov saw the developing need for businesses to access secure and easy-to-use crypto payment solutions and knew B2BinPay could provide a comprehensive solution. Speaking with AIBC, he said "We created B2BinPay to make it easier for businesses to accept cryptocurrency payments. We understand the complexities of the crypto industry and strive to make it easier for businesses to navigate and benefit from this technology. We constantly monitor the latest developments and trends in the crypto market to ensure our platform keeps up with industry standards."

With an MBA from the Financial University and over a decade of experience in the fin-tech industry, Arthur Azizov has grown the B2Broker group of companies into one of the leading providers of cryptocurrency solutions and services. In addition to crypto payment solutions, B2Broker offers liquidity solutions, turnkey brokerage solutions, and a range of other fin-tech products.

Sheesha Finance is revolutionising the way new businesses are supported and nurtured. In this exclusive interview, Maria Debrincat sits down with Saeed Al Darmaki, Founder of the brand and game-changer in the world of Web3.

Tell us more about Sheesha Finance (statistics of investors, mentors, startups) you’ve worked with.

Sheesha Finance is a decentralised and tokenised incubator/ accelerator that supports web3 startups across various industries and blockchain networks. Our platform provides investors access to a diverse portfolio of early-stage projects, with a fully autonomous smart contract-based system that’s user-friendly for institutional and retail investors. Our team is composed of seasoned professionals in both traditional finance and blockchain and I personally have received recognition as Crypto Entrepreneur of the Year.

We currently have 75+ projects in our portfolio including investments and incubated/accelerated projects across 10 sectors. Our community is in excess of 50k, with close to 40,000 token holders who engage in staking our native tokens on our platform that provides up to 70% APY.

What makes Sheesha Finance different from other incubators?

At Sheesha Finance, we believe we stand out from the crowd with our innovative approach to startup financing and support. We’ve created a powerhouse network of industry leaders and strategic partners, unlocking a wealth of resources, expertise, and connections that early-stage projects desperately need.

Our incubation and acceleration program is like no other, with dedicated project coordinators that have diverse backgrounds, leading founders and teams through interactive, communicative, structured modules. Our high-touch approach ensures that our partners receive the support they need to succeed. With a well-structured program and a focus on constant feedback,

our partners are telling us that we continue to be the perfect partner for any entrepreneur or business looking to take their project to the next level.

Which most recurring challenges are Web3 Founders facing in 2023?

Web3 startups are facing a multitude of challenges in 2023, including technical complexity, scalability issues, limited user adoption, a rapidly evolving regulatory environment, rapid advancements in technology, a lack of standardisation, limited investment in research and development, limited network effects, and regulatory challenges. These obstacles can make it difficult for Web3 founders to build and maintain successful platforms and achieve their goals.

However, Sheesha is well equipped to help Web3 founders navigate these challenges. With a strong focus on providing technical expertise and support, we help Web3 startups overcome the technical complexities involved in developing decentralised applications and blockchain technologies. Additionally, we assist in helping startups overcome scalability issues and attract and retain a large user base by providing the guidance and expertise so that projects have user-friendly interfaces, enabling their customers to have seamless experiences.

We also help Web3 founders navigate the regulatory landscape, focusing on helping startups set up their businesses in the MENA region and we ensure that their platforms are compliant with applicable laws and regulations.

Another important thing to address for Web3 founders in 2023 is the lack of standardization. Our experience has led us to providing best practices, processes, and tools to our practitioners. With a focus on investing in research, development and training we help to fill the gap in knowledge and competence faced by Web3 practitioners. Additionally, we help to connect practitioners through our network

effects, sharing knowledge and information to support their success. By addressing these challenges, we aim help Web3 founders to build successful platforms and achieve their goals.

Can you expand on the most important criteria startups need to fill to benefit from your incubation?

To fully reap the benefits of our incubation program, startups must meet certain criteria that are crucial to the success of their projects. The first and foremost things we deep-dive into is to make sure projects have a strong and capable team. The founding team should possess a proven track record of success and possess the necessary skills and expertise to bring their blockchain or cryptorelated product/service to market. Additionally, the startup’s concept should be innovative, solve a real-world problem and have the potential for growth and scalability.

Another important aspect is having a solid business model. The startup should have a clear understanding of their target market and a sustainable business model that aligns with the broader blockchain or crypto ecosystem. A focus on DeFi, NFT, and GameFi is also desirable, as it shows that the startup is aware of and understands the current trends in the industry.

In terms of technical proficiency, the startup does not necessarily need to have a strong understanding of blockchain technology and the technical skills necessary to build and launch their solution as we can provide this for them. It’s also important for the startup to be open to mentorship and guidance from our network of industry experts and to be willing to work closely with our team. Finally, and something which has always been important to me since I founded Sheesha is that the startup must align with our mission to support the growth and development of the blockchain/crypto ecosystem, and demonstrate a strong commitment to making a positive impact in the space.

You focus quite heavily on DeFi, NFT and GameFi, why these 3 industries in particular?

We focus on DeFi, NFT and GameFi because these three use cases are at the forefront of innovation in the Web3 ecosystem. Coming from TradFi, DeFi always represented to me, a new and innovative way of conducting financial transactions, without the need for intermediaries such as banks. NFTs allow for the creation of unique digital assets that can be bought, sold and traded, and offer a new way of monetizing digital content, which I have always found fascinating. As a lifelong gamer myself, GameFi represents the convergence of gaming and blockchain, offering new and innovative ways for players, irrespective of their geographical location and financial situation to earn and trade virtual assets. By focusing on these three key industries, we are able to support startups that are creating the next generation of technology in the Web3 space.

Our high-touch approach ensures that our partners receive the support they need to succeed.

We’ve created a powerhouse network of industry leaders and strategic partners, unlocking a wealth of resources, expertise, and connections that earlystage projects desperately need.

Web3 vs Meta & Google

In this cover story Adir Buskila, Founder and CTO at Web3m discusses how Web 3 is taking on Big Tech giants Google and Meta.

I’d love to hear more about the founding of Web3m. What was your inspiration?

The vision for Web3m was sparked by my background in cybersecurity and (later) marketing. I was 12 years old when I started hacking. I loved the freedom of information available on the internet. I learned about privacy and data security by witnessing other hackers exploit and manipulate people online. Cybersecurity became my first career and I even managed the largest cybersecurity community in Israel.

One day, something occurred to me. Every black hat practice in hacking—fingerprinting, tracking, phishing, etc.—had a white hat equivalent practice in online advertising. Big tech companies made money using many of the same tools and techniques as nefarious hackers.

At first, my three best friends and I saw this as an opportunity to play big tech advertisers at their own game. Long story short, we used our hacking and data security chops to build a marketing company. It worked! We got to $100m in two years.

Soon, my inner 12-year-old hacker got the best of me. Rather than using data to make money, I was reinspired by the same vision that first drew me to the internet: decentralization. The Web3 community was hard at work building a better internet— and I wanted to be part of it. My partners and I pivoted to build a marketing platform that put users—not big tech companies—in charge of their own data.

In the end, that pivot resulted in Web3m, a decentralized multichannel ad network that allows advertisers to promote their projects across crypto.

Tell me more about launching multichannel campaigns in crypto. Why did you focus on that?

I should mention that Web3m is just the first tool in our ecosystem. There’s more on the way, like our innovations in the world of Inscriptions and Ordinals at digital-artifacts.io.

That said, Web3m is designed to help Web3 entrepreneurs advertise their businesses across crypto with the same ease as they advertise in Web2. The idea didn’t come out of nowhere. We consulted with dozens of marketers, entrepreneurs, agencies, influencers, and PR agencies. We inquired about the biggest challenges they faced when promoting their crypto projects.

Of course, many problems came up. Web3 is still fairly new. But there was one challenge that we heard about more than others: Multichannel advertising was highly inefficient.

The biggest online advertisers (like Meta and Google) were constantly changing their rules regarding which crypto ads were and were not acceptable. And if crypto marketers wanted to advertise on more niche websites, they had to manually negotiate each ad placement for every platform. Marketers needed a single platform to create, launch, and monitor all their advertising in one place. Web3m enables crypto marketers to do exactly that—and more.

Let’s return to the topic of data and advertising. What does the future of targeted advertising look like in Web3?

There’s no way around it: Advertising performs best for everyone (the advertiser, the consumer, and the network) with data. The biggest problem with small ad networks is their lack of data. Imagine selling banner ads on a casino website. If all the ad network knows about its users is that the visitor enjoys casinos and gambling, then the only targeted ads they’ll place are direct competitors to the website: other casinos.

On the other hand, a larger ad network can access more data. For example, if we know that the visitor just had a baby, and he is looking for a new stroller, we can sell the ad space on the casino website to a baby stroller company. The site visitor, the host website, and the advertiser all benefit from better information.

That’s where standard digital advertising ends. But Web3m takes the benefits two steps further. First, the data is much more detailed while remaining fully anonymous, giving advertisers better insights for every campaign. Second, we pay the site visitor (consumer) and the website for letting us use their data. It’s a data-forward advertising approach that rewards everyone.

Are you saying that Web3m users get paid when companies use their data in ads?

In Web2, effectively every website owner collects data about their site visitors. That data is sent to third-party companies essentially for free to be used in future ads.

Here’s where we flip the old model on its head. In Web3, websites still track data. But instead of sending that data to a centralized and walled garden (i.e. Big Tech), Web3m instead pays websites to send that anonymous web traffic data directly to the blockchain. We also pay the person whose data was collected.

This method decentralizes data collection and rewards both website owners and website visitors. Everyone gets compensated for their data. And their data remains anonymous.

How does Web3m adapt to changes in the digital marketing landscape?

Our goal is to put data back into the hands of internet users. The old model essentially locked up user data in a handful of major tech conglomerates. This meant that data power was centralized, offering almost no benefit to ad-hosting websites or consumers. It also meant that data became a walled garden whose dimensions (pricing and rules) could change at any moment. How many companies have gone out of business simply because Meta, Apple, or Google decided to tweak their ad platforms or change internal data policies on a whim?

Our model decentralizes that data by sending all data back to the blockchain, giving power to each user—and every advertiser—in equal measure.

In other words, we’re not adapting to the changing marketing landscape. It’s more accurate to say that we’re the ones who are changing it.

How does the Web3m protocol balance the decentralized monetization of data while protecting consumer privacy?

Without getting too technical, we have developed a non-intrusive way to fingerprint a device without sharing personal details (like name or email). All users are completely anonymous.

Think of it this way: Everyone can create a wallet that acts as their fingerprint on the blockchain. Content on the blockchain is transparent but you can’t tell who owns which wallet, keeping the anonymous owner in constant control of their privacy. From the anonymous wallet, we can gather information from each

website visitor—their past shopping tendencies, for example— while ensuring that each user remains in control of their privacy.

What sort of data and analytics can advertisers expect to leverage in Web3?

One of our biggest innovations at Web3m is wallet-specific marketing. We launched Web3m Analytics to give marketers access to on-chain metrics of the visitors to your website. I know that’s a little technical. Here are a few examples of the types of data website owners can leverage in their ads: When was this visitor’s first transaction (How long they’ve been in the crypto space)?

What is their average investment size?

What is their preferred token?

What are their current token holdings (and sub-niches of interest)?

As I’ve iterated above, all of this information is completely anonymous. It is presented on the Web3m Analytics tool alongside the standard traffic analytics that we are all familiar with.

Web3m has fostered a large community of marketers. How important has this community been in the success of Web3m?

Communities are a beautiful thing that got a lot of attention with the rise of Web3. We believe that the secret to fostering a successful community is to never confuse community members with customers.

Strong communities are based on two principles: Sharing and building. The Web3m community is made up of marketers and entrepreneurs who love to share their experiences and knowledge. We’re all growing and learning together.

The community is also critical to what we’re creating at Web3m. The community believes—like I do—that Web3m is the future of marketing. They are contributing to that cause, supporting us, and guiding us to build useful tools for the industry. Web3m’s success is the community’s success. It’s a direct correlation.

A TECHNOLOGY-FIRST

Can you tell us about your investment strategy and your experience as an Angel Investor at Startup Studio and what sets it apart from other incubator funds?

I have a very different strategy of investing, I have a very high risk appetite. I mostly go in the very early seed stage, pre seed - and I look at how I can add value to these companies aside from money. The first question has always been - do I like it or not, can it create an impact? Money is a byproduct of creating value for others - once we know it can generate value then we know it’s going to do great.

The combined market cap of the 400+ companies that I have built and invested in via my Incubator Fund Startup Studio is in excess of $100B+ USD and we have tens of millions of users across dozens of countries.

What inspired you to start the fund?

After exiting my startup at 17 and making a few million dollars early in my life, the thing I understood best was technology.

A lot of people were already reaching out to me with their ideas as I had gained a lot of media attention.

(I have been the focus of 7+ TV shows and have spoken at hundreds of events live, including but not limited to, TEDx talks, over 100+ blockchain specific events, United Nations Google, Nielsen and have done guest lectures at Delhi University, Washington State University, San Francisco State University and many more.)

A lot of the people who reached out with investment opportunities were idea stage and needed help with technology, which is why I started Startup Studio to help non-tech entrepreneurs!

Evan Luthra, an Angel investor and parallel entrepreneur has invested in, helped build and advised several fast-growing technology companies in a variety of industries with a primary focus on DLT. In this exclusive interview with Matthew Calleja he explains how Startup Studio is bringing visionary ideas to life.

Unlike other sectors where people compete for market share, here we focus on building new markets together with innovative ideas.

Can you discuss some of the most successful companies that Startup Studio has built and invested in, and what made them stand out?

Since 2021, I have invested in 300+ private sales and advised 20+ projects pre listing. Some of our leading projects are $OMI(Ecomi), $CPD (CoinsPaid), $NAKA (Nakamoto Games), $HBAR (Hedera), $XP (PolkaFantasy), and $GAINS (Gains VC).

What role does technology play in the companies that Startup Studio invests in and how does the fund support the growth of these companies?

Everything we do is technology first. Startup Studio looks to back those entrepreneurs who have an idea that uses technology to disrupt existing industries. For the right idea and the right entrepreneur we don’t just stop at giving them money, but we support them with our 120+ strong in - house marketing and technical team who can help bring visionary ideas to a reality.

For a select few companies I also advise them personally and open up my network of friends and family who can help accelerate the progress of any company.

Can you share your thoughts on the current state of entrepreneurship and how it has been impacted by advancements in technology?

Technology, unlike most other industries, grows exponentially. Once you find product-market fit and reach the “J curve”, growth is extremely fast. I personally chose to work with companies in the AI and cryptocurrency space simply because it’s the smartest people in the world coming together to work on amazing ideas.

Entrepreneurship in technology is also a very collaborative environment. Unlike other sectors where people compete for market share, here we focus on building new markets together with innovative ideas.

I don’t work for money anymore, so being able to work for my passion to make the world a better place is amazing, thanks to entrepreneurship in technology.

ديزلما انبرخت لاه

؟زيمتت اهلعج يذلا امو ،ويدتسأ بأ تراتس اهيف

عيب ةيلمع 300 نم ثركأ في ترمثتسا ،2021 ماع ذنم

في اعوشرم 20

تلامعلاو يعانطصلاا ءاكذلا لاجم في ةصصختلما تاكشرلا عم لمعلا ايصخش تترخا

راكفأ لىع اعم نولمعي لماعلا في شرب كىذأ لىع يوتحي ةطاسبب

سفانتي ثيح ،ىرخلأا تاعاطقلا سكع لىعو .ةيسفانتلا ةديدش ينقتلا لاجلما في لماعلأا

Money is a byproduct of creating value for others - once we know it can generate value then we know it’s going to do great.

The Crypto Wunderkid

For this interview, Maria Debrincat met with Emre Bilgutay, a young visionary making waves in the crypto arena. From visionary to reality, this rising star has carved a path to success, armed with a deep understanding of the crypto market and a drive for innovation.

Can you tell us about your background and how you became involved in the crypto industry at such a young age?

I was first introduced to Bitcoin in mid-2019, when I was just 13 years old. I eventually started investing in cryptocurrencies using my father’s information to set up an account on Binance.

During the 2021 bull market, I grew curious about what I was trading besides just token tickers and candles, and I slowly began to learn more about the industry. This led me to delve deeper into the world of web3 and I realised that I wanted to play a role in the growth and adoption of the industry. I started attending crypto-related events, trying desperately to find someone in the industry to mentor me, but without much success.

That changed when I met Faraj Abutalibov, who brought me into the industry and, after a few weeks of dialogue and intensive learning, we co-founded Crypto Executives and DaoFund. This was my entry into the industry in late 2021, at the age of 16.

Tell us more about Crypto Executives as a community. What types of discussions or topics are commonly discussed in the group? (members profile, selection process).

What are the advantages of being part of this community? Can you talk about any notable events, meetups, or projects that have been organized by the community members?

Being part of the network has a multitude of benefits. To start, there is no fee for entry. The community comprises over 1,200 crypto companies, including VCs, startups, exchanges, service providers, and more. The network provides its members with access to all these elements for communication and networking/business opportunities.

We’ve also hosted a few events in Dubai exclusively for our network with many more to come, and have conducted multiple online events such as demo days and expert workshops for education and promoting awareness for some companies.

Tell us more about DAOFund, what’s the vision behind this VC?

DaoFund will be the venture arm of Crypto Executives. Simply put, the idea behind DaoFund is to be an early-stage, venture capital firm focused on investments across all segments, but with a preference for projects that will have a positive impact on the industry. Our main mission encompasses two areas. First, we aim to invest wisely and patiently, avoiding a “spray and pray” mentality. Second, we aim to provide immense value to our portfolio projects by assisting in multiple areas such as product development, tokenomics, exposure to funds and investors, and most importantly, connecting them to practically anyone within our network. This is all in the pursuit of improving the industry.

Can you discuss any notable partnerships or collaborations you have established within the crypto industry?

As of now, we have established collaborations with over 300 crypto-focused funds, 30 exchanges, 30 launchpads, and dozens of companies in marketing, market making, auditing, and development. We’ve also partnered with about a dozen projects in an advisory capacity and have mutual value-add collaborations with over 400 additional companies in the crypto space within our network.

We recently started building our event partnerships to provide high-quality, exclusive events for those in our network. Our ideology is to always identify what someone needs and what someone can provide in order to tie up loose ends. We view every person we meet and talk to as a new opportunity for ourselves or someone else in our network.

What are your main goals and aspirations?

My main goal and aspiration is to help the industry as a whole and stay true to the reason I was motivated to join this space in the first place. A single connection can make a big difference and accomplish great things, but the challenge is finding that one connection. Connectivity and engagement in the crypto industry are essential for everyone’s success. My main target is to grow the network and provide help and value to projects, individuals, and companies in multiple ways, with the aim of accelerating the growth of the industry.

My main goal and aspiration is to help the industry as a whole and stay true to the reason I was motivated to join this space in the first place.

“The idea for Crypto Executives emerged when Faraj and I realized how difficult it was to network efficiently and in a fully trusted manner.

Blockchain technology, monetized assets, and decentralised gaming platforms are set to revolutionise the gaming industry, promising innovative gameplay experiences. Laurin Bylica, Director of Partnerships at Illuvium.io discusses the revolutionary Web3 gaming phenomenon with Matthew Calleja.

What’s your experience with both blockchain gaming and traditional gaming? How does it help you as a Director of Partnerships?

As a Director of Partnerships, my experience with traditional gaming has helped me understand the importance of creating a valuable gaming experience for players. With blockchain gaming, I see an opportunity to provide an engaging gaming experience and allow players to own and monetise their in-game assets. This creates a new ecosystem where players can earn value in a virtual economy that can even be considered part of the GDP calculation in the future.

I used to be a traditional gamer, but the time and money I invested in those games didn’t have much return since I couldn’t extract any value from my accumulated assets or achievements.

However, with Web3 gaming, I can now participate in a virtual economy where I own and can extract value from my acquired assets. This shift towards a decentralised and more open gaming economy can create new opportunities for gaming companies to work with partners to enhance their offerings and provide more value to their customers.

How do you see blockchain gaming evolving in the next few years?

Looking ahead, blockchain gaming will continue to evolve and become a more established part of the gaming industry. In the next few years, I anticipate a shift from play-to-earn games to simply enjoyable games which have a play to earn component. As game developers integrate blockchain technology into their game design, the gaming experience will become more comparable to Web2 gaming, if not better.

Another exciting aspect of blockchain gaming is the ownership and tradability of virtual assets. As ownership becomes more prominent, new and exciting use cases emerge. The ability for assets to be moved between games either in the same universe and perhaps even between the different game worlds of various properties enhances and creates a more unique experience to how games are experienced.

What challenges do you anticipate with implementing the upgrades to traditional gaming?

The challenges are varied, from a technical standpoint implementing blockchain technology and infrastructure in games is something which is both immense and complicated. The technical aspects aside however, another challenge is the poor reputation of various blockchain games, how they’ve been marketed and more importantly how they’ve been designed. Finally, traditional gaming is well established and a huge market with established IP and fiercely loyal audiences. The potential benefits of overcoming

these challenges however make it an exciting prospect for the future of gaming.

As Web3 gaming advances and offers comparable gameplay to Web2 games, gamers will see the benefits of blockchain gaming and asset ownership.

Do you believe that players who are not interested in financial rewards or tokens may benefit from blockchain gaming, or do you think they might be alienated by it? How do you anticipate blockchain gaming will impact these players?

Blockchain gaming has the potential to benefit players beyond financial rewards or tokens, but there is a risk of alienating them if the focus is solely on play-to-earn. To

appeal to traditional gamers, Web3 gaming must prioritise creating unique, engaging games, immersive story worlds and IP that is on par with traditional gaming. These fundamentals create sustainable economies and natural demand for assets beyond just play-toearn and create an intrinsic value that compliments play to earn. The ownership of assets and interoperability really isn’t just about the financial gains, it has the potential to revolutionise the gaming industry and build bridges between games in a single universe or between games set in other worlds with their own IP. A pure play-toearn model is unsustainable without broad player engagement.

Web3 game developers must create games that appeal to a wide range of players. By focusing on quality game design, sustainable economies, and asset ownership, Web3 gaming has the potential to transform the gaming industry and offer benefits to players beyond just financial rewards.

Can you provide some promising use case examples of this revolution?

Interoperable blockchain gaming is an innovative concept that has the potential to revolutionise the gaming industry, and several promising use case examples showcase its potential.

Illuvium is an excellent example of this concept, offering three unique gaming titles across different genres that form an interoperable subgenre. Players can trade in-game assets obtained from one game in the other Illuvium games, creating an actual virtual economy across the games’ ecosystems. This approach offers players diverse gaming experiences while enabling them to participate in a unified virtual economy, leading to increased engagement and a more vibrant gaming community.

How do game developers benefit from working on blockchain and Web3 games?

Game developers stand to benefit greatly from working on blockchain and Web3 games, working on these cutting-edge technologies allows developers to be at the forefront of innovation and drive the creation of the next generation of games. This presents an exciting challenge for developers passionate about building unique and engaging experiences for players.

The growing popularity of blockchain and Web3 games means a growing demand for developers with expertise in these areas. This presents a significant opportunity for developers to advance their careers and work on innovative projects with talented teams.

What regulatory challenges does the blockchain gaming industry face?

The regulatory frameworks that govern the gaming industry were not built to accommodate the new technologies that underpin blockchain and Web3 gaming.

To advance innovation in Web2 gaming, it is crucial that the industry collaborates with regulators to develop regulatory frameworks that support innovation while protecting consumers. This will require a dialogue between the industry and regulators.

Meet Jay, aka DustyBC, a crypto influencer, entrepreneur, and content creator who provides daily insights into finance, entrepreneurship, and the everchanging world of cryptocurrencies. Discover how he got started and his predictions for the future of crypto in this exclusive interview with Matthew Calleja.

What has your crypto journey been like? What inspires your content and makes your YouTube channel unique?

My crypto journey began in 2013 when I was 13 years old, and I discovered cryptocurrency as a way to accept payments. It’s been a bumpy ride, I’ve made many mistakes, and I’m okay with that. The most important thing is to learn from your mistakes, and to not keep making them over and over again. The most important rule I stand by though, after investing in hundreds of different projects is, I’d rather lose some money trying, than regretting forever that I didn’t try.

I’ve been creating YouTube content since 2010 and switched from gaming content to daily videos about my investments in 2016. My goal was to inspire others to explore the financial space. In 2022, when I reached 130,000 subscribers, I started showing my face in videos. I’ve never sold my followers anything, never sold a course, never asked for handouts, all I did was share my investment journey, and try to help others to get to the place where I am today. I worked my way up from $0 to where I am today, and I believe I can teach you how to do the same.

What is your outlook on the crypto market? How do you see it evolving in the next 5 to 10 years?

I believe the crypto market is only a tiny fraction of what it’s about to become. I manage a crypto-oriented fund, and our primary investment focus lies in the Game-Fi and DeFi sectors due to their high risk-to-reward ratio. I believe the next big trend in crypto could be Game-Fi or AI-oriented.

Over the next decade, the Web3 and blockchain space mixed with AI will be the backbone of our new society. The top list of cryptocurrencies will be drastically different as more mainstream companies adopt this technology and dabble in creating their own. This will also lead into a shift in current market leaders. Despite the current uncertainty, I stand by the idea that a shift into cryptocurrencies and CBDCs is inevitable and will soon be used in most people’s day-to-day lives, even though many are calling for their downfall.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenges facing investors in the crypto space?

As of this point it’s still difficult to get accustomed to Web3, the barriers of entry are still relatively high. Part of the reason I make daily content on Youtube, is to educate people about crypto in the form of news updates, but also simple explanations about how the technology works, can be used, and how to get started with it. The crypto space advances by wide margins every month. And to make proper investment choices, I think one has to be on top of the latest advancements and trends. For that reason, I am always on top of the latest developments, and try to share them with my hundreds of thousands of followers, every single day.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting to invest in cryptocurrency?

My personal suggestion to anybody looking to get into crypto is, just plunge in, and figure things out later, as long as it’s funds you can easily afford to lose. Looking back, I’ve had the most fun investing into crypto, when I knew little about it. Every new cryptocurrency and use case was like an entire new world opening up. Do you have any other goals or interests that you cover on social media?

There are many different social media networks that I’m involved in. I have equity in many instagram pages, with a combined following of over 94 million followers. And I’m now also working on many different content platforms to help people learn about money, entrepreneurship and motivation. An example is my second brand called “TheBusinessRealm”, where I teach people about finance every day.

The crypto space advances by wide margins every month. To make proper investment choices, one has to be on top of the latest advancements and trends.

RELIVE THE MOMENTS

We’re known for pulling off great networking evenings and 2022 held some of our most memorable events.

From intimate dinners to relaxed get-togethers, this year stands out as one of our busiest, with global events lighting up the night sky throughout the year. Take a look back at some of the highlight gallery moments from a year of milestone moments.

PREMIER NETWORKING

24 percent of the world’s population are Muslims. That’s almost 1.8 billion people at the last count. Indonesia has the greatest number of Muslims at 231 million, followed by Pakistan and India, each with over 200 million. Africa represents 16 percent of the world’s Muslim population, with Egypt at 85 million, Nigeria at 75 million followed by Senegal and Kenya.

SiGMA examines why the launch of Islamic Digital Currency is a significant milestone.

Countries with large Muslim populations are vying to take advantage of the growing Islamic banking and finance sector, which is on track to reach US $4 trillion by 2026. Iran represents a quarter of the volume, followed by Saudi Arabia. Malaysia, at US $250 billion ranks third. Keen not to miss out, the governments of several Asian countries are actively promoting the development of Islamic financial markets and digital currency. With Indonesia Islamic banking realising US $5 billion a month, it is clear why.

While Africa lags far behind at just 2 percent of the Islamic finance market, its growing population which is 40 percent Muslim, is also attracting the attention of bankers and investment funds. In a recent report Moody’s stated that Islamic banking assets in Africa are expected to increase noticeably over the next ten years.

Put simply, Islamic banking provides financial services based on the ethical principles of Shariah law that governs social, political and economic relationships and actions. However, investment in illicit (Haram) activities, such as alcohol and gambling, is forbidden. In Arabic, Maisir (or Maysir) or Qimar describes speculation or gambling, prohibited in Islamic finance because it creates wealth from chance.

What is unclear is if the definition of creating wealth from chance also covers rewards for iGaming skills. Until recently, Islamic banking generally resulted in the Islamic financial service provider becoming a co-owner of the underlying assets, thereby assuming some risks and sharing losses and profits (Sukuk). But several new avenues have opened within Islamic investment, such as charitable trusts, private equity, exchange-traded sukuk funds, Shariah-compliant

mortgage investment funds and halal mutual funds. With new applications within AI, blockchain and IoT being explored, new digital solutions are likely to enhance the market attractiveness of the sector. Digitisation is disrupting business models across the industry with services such as digital payment platforms and wallets to robo-advisory services, insurance (takaful) and Shariahcompliant crypto, which is a fast-emerging financial product that is expected to attract investors from within and out of the Islamic world.

A leader in the field is ‘Islamic Coin’. Co-founder Hussein Al Meeza has over 40 years of experience spanning the Islamic banking, finance and insurance sectors and was involved in establishing the world’s first Islamic Bank ‘Dubai Islamic’. Sheikh Dr Nizam Mohammed Saleh Yaqub chairs Islamic Coin’s board. The Sheikh sits on the Shariah boards of HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Citigroup and is recognized by Bloomberg as ‘The Gatekeeper’ of a US $2 trillion market for Islamic financial products.

Sheikh Juma bin Maktoum Al Maktoum, member of the UAE royal family, says, “I feel that Islamic Coin will truly benefit the Muslim world and society as a whole. It is the world’s first digital money that gives back to the world.”

The Islamic Coin mobile wallet is Master Card-enabled. Backers believe this gives anyone a means to make daily transactions and payments without being crypto experts. Also in progress is the introduction of a halal Shariah-compliant exchange, ‘Stable Coin© and listings on major global exchanges this year. However, a red flag for iGaming is the Islamic Coin’s rule never to back projects with ‘’a negative impact on the community, such as gambling’’.

Mohammed AlKaff AlHashmi and Hussein Mohammed Al Meeza of the competing Islamic coin ‘Haqq’ believe the Haqq coin will ‘’help the Islamic community make their day-to-day online monetary transactions ethical. It uses ‘Point of Sale’ which is more eco-friendly and is also Ethereum-compatible.

Indonesia has emerged as an early crypto adopter with online speculative trading driving use. The government was due to launch a crypto stock exchange in 2021 but postponed it to 2022 and again to sometime in 2023. It is unclear if the Indonesian Ulema Council, the body of Islamic scholars, declaring that cryptocurrency as a means of payment and a commodity to trade is ‘Haram’ [unlawful for Muslims] is the cause of the delay.

Closer to home, in a recent interview with AIBC News, Malta-based Islamic financial expert Reuben Buttigieg stated that, ‘’Islamic Coin has a huge potential in Malta. The main thing is that the mechanisms of how crypto functions are very much in line with the principles of Islamic finance provided that no speculation is done on the particular gain.” Going on to speculate that the crowdfunding element ‘’could be a huge boost for the Islamic finance world."

Central to Islamic finance is that money itself has no intrinsic value. Investment manager at Sparrows Capital, Mark Northway, believes Crypto Currency complies with the central tenant of Islamic finance as Crypto coin is not underpinned by any intrinsic value; instead, it is determined by one thing: confidence’’.

If this interpretation is accepted, the door to using Islamic Coin for online games of skills could be wide open. There are similarities between this approach and the one taken by Gaming companies in Japan where gambling is illegal. Pachinko (pinball) is regarded as an exception and treated as an amusement activity.

The Malta Financial Services Association (MFSA) was the first EU regulator to issue guidelines on Islamic finance, believing Malta to be an ideal platform for Islamic Banks and establishing Shariacompliant funds: Malta’s robust regulatory framework, techsavvy skills pool, and location provide a strategic but perishable competitive edge.

In 2016 the Malta Stock Exchange launched an Islamic Equity Index. Subsequently, it certified the stocks of listed SME companies whose activities are Sharia-compliant. Since then, however, Malta appears to have lost its early adopter advantage. London has become the hub for Sharia-compliant finance in the Western world, with 5 licensed Islamic banks and over 20 conventional banks offering Islamic financial products.

Malta has also lost ground to other EU countries: Luxembourg was the first in the EU to issue a sovereign sukuk, and 49 shariacompliant funds are domiciled there. Germany, Switzerland, and France are also pushing hard to gain market share.

Why has Malta not gained a stronger foothold? There is speculation that as a 95% catholic nation, association with Islam may have a negative effect on business and reputation. However, as perceived higher levels of ethical credibility and rapid adoption of digital solutions contribute to Islamic finances, accelerated growth, Malta has an opportunity to leverage its digital strengths to share in this market.

Malta ranks 5th out of 28 EU Member States and performs above the EU average in all five dimensions of the 2020 Digital Economy and Society Index. With Malta, one of the world’s leading iGaming hubs and an incubator of iGaming innovation, companies active in the sector are well placed to benefit from the digital transition and support the growth of Islamic Coin adoption as payment.

Words by Aideen Shortt, CEO at Lilywhite

THE REALITY HOWEVER IS THAT THE DOMINANT METAVERSES OF TODAY ARE 3D WORLDS BUILT ON TOP OF A 2D ENVIRONMENT.

There is a long-standing adage that it takes 10 years to become an overnight success. And while the metaverse and its varying individual buzzwords including NFTs, AI, augmented or virtual reality, are all the darlings of today’s media, thereby creating an unprecedented hype, the concept itself has been around for decades.

While Forbes named the metaverse as one of the top trends of 2023, the term itself was first coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash”. It referred to a virtual reality shared by millions of users, where they could interact with each other, conduct business, and participate in various activities. The metaverse was seen as a kind of successor to the internet, offering a more immersive and interactive experience.

Over the years, the metaverse has evolved from a sci-fi idea to a real-world concept that is gradually taking shape. That being said, the entire concept is both enormous and fluid.

Mark Zuckerberg’s “Meta” vision is a 3D social media channel with AI-driven messaging tailored to each user. This fits with a widespread misconception that metaverse requires physical VR headwear to be realised – a notion completely reinforced by Ernest Cline’s book/movie Ready Player One.

The reality however is that the dominant metaverses of today are 3D worlds built on top of a 2D environment. Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite are probably the most familiar names. Roblox statistics confirm over 58.8 million daily active users were logging into games by Q3 of 2022. Minecraft has 165 million registered users, and although Fortnite has smaller user numbers (~85 million) a massive 45.8 million people saw Travis Scott’s “Astronomical” show.

Decentraland is fast becoming a household name and while there are obvious commonalities with Roblox et al, highlighting the differences between Decentraland and Roblox demonstrate the technological and conceptual expanse of what the metaverse actually is.

1. Ownership: Decentraland is built on blockchain technology, which means that users own the virtual land and assets they create and can trade them

THE METAVERSE COULD BECOME A KIND OF DIGITAL TWIN OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD, OFFERING A MIRROR IMAGE OF REALITY THAT IS MORE ENGAGING AND IMMERSIVE.

with others. In contrast, Roblox is a centralized platform where users do not own the content they create.

2. Economy: Decentraland has its own cryptocurrency, MANA, which is used to buy and sell virtual land and assets. Roblox, on the other hand, has its own virtual currency called Robux, which can be used to buy in-game items and access premium features.

3. Purpose: Decentraland is primarily designed as a platform for creating and experiencing virtual reality content, while Roblox is more focused on gaming and social experiences.

4. Development: Decentraland is more geared towards developers who want to create 3D content using their own tools and programming languages. Roblox, on the other hand, has a simpler development process that allows anyone to create games and experiences without prior coding experience.

In essence, it’s important to understand that there will be no “one” single metaverse. It is being shaped by a combination of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, blockchain, and the internet of things. It is a network of interconnected virtual worlds and spaces that users can access and interact with via their devices. The metaverse includes social media platforms, online games, virtual marketplaces, and other virtual environments that are used for various purposes.

Matthew Ball, a prominent media analyst who has written extensively on the topic of the metaverse, defines it as "a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced by millions of simultaneous users."

Ball believes that the metaverse will be a transformative technology that will have a profound impact on society, business, and culture in the coming decades. Already the use cases for the metaverse are broad in scope – here are few of the myriad examples of commercial brands getting involved:

· Nike has already filed four patent and trademark applications for downloadable virtual goods operational in the metaverse.

· Disney is developing a metaverse theme park. In December, the company filed for a patent for a "virtual-world simulator."

· Coca-Cola auctioned its first NFT, a prize package on OpenSea that reaped $575,000.

· Gucci opened Vault, a store selling "Supergucci" NFTs. In fact a digital Gucci bag was sold for more than $4,100 – outbidding the physical item’s actual real-life price.

As well as commerce and gaming, the future of the metaverse has life-altering potential in every conceivable sector. For example in healthcare it could assist people to overcome physical and mental disabilities and enable breakthroughs in medical research and

procedures. Business operations will be changed forever with the ability of 3D meetings and conferences bringing people together in a way that is not available in today’s remote working toolkit. Socially it will allow attendance and viewing of concerts and sporting events – for example 33 million people watched Lil Nax X’s concert inside the Roblox world; something inconceivable and impossible in physical reality.

Essentially the metaverse could become a kind of digital twin of the physical world, offering a mirror image of reality that is more engaging and immersive. However, there are many challenges that need to be overcome before it can fully realize its potential.

One of the most significant implications of the metaverse is its potential to democratise access to resources and opportunities. In the physical world, access to resources and opportunities is often limited by geography, social status, and other factors. In the metaverse, however, anyone can access virtual spaces and resources regardless of their physical location or background.

Technology is rapidly transforming the way we live and work, and it is becoming increasingly clear that education must evolve to meet these new demands. The traditional model of lecture-based instruction and rote memorisation no longer suffices in preparing students for a rapidly changing job market. At the same time, the need for a more engaging and dynamic approach to education has never been greater, one that motivates students to take an active role in their own learning and equips them with the skills necessary to succeed in the digital age.

Crypsense Digital Group is gamifying the education process, with a focus on making it more interesting and fun for students. The company believes that the traditional method of education, with its numerous notes and monotonous lectures, is pushing students away from caring about their education. With Crypsense Digital Group’s approach, students are incentivised to pay attention and learn faster by the reward systems in place. These rewards can come in many forms, such as NFT-based, token drops, scholarships, paid subscriptions and placement.

Mutonya explains “ideally, we reduce the number of notes and boring lectures that are pushing students from caring about their education. We want to make our methods of education more interesting and fun. It’s easier to incentivize students to pay attention once you have engaged them in this way.”

Besides their gamification project, Crypsense Digital Group is a capacity building and accelerator program. Last January, the team was crowned the winner of the AIBC Africa Pitch competition. The competition brought together some of the most innovative and promising startups in the tech industry.

The capacity building and accelerator program is a game changer in the Web3 space, with a unique approach to education. The company aims to reduce the number of boring lectures and make education more engaging through the process of gamification. Students will be incentivized to pay attention by being rewarded for learning quickly and efficiently, with rewards ranging from NFT-based incentives to scholarships and paid subscriptions.

The Crypsense team believes that the gamification of education is not a threat to educators, but instead a tool that helps them become more effective. The company is in the process of launching their DApp for the virtual trading platform and is expected to be ready for testing in the next quarter.

Crypsense Digital Group has established partnerships with some of the top tier global blockchain companies. In as far as infrastructure development partners, the Africa Blockchain Center provides infrastructure development support, with more than 100 blockchain developers in Africa. Fireblocks is also a close partner in as far as highly secured custodial infrastructure with MPC technology. In as far as education is concerned, Crypsense strategic partners include PLP and Prodigy Schools. Crypsense also has partnerships with the major global African-focused exchanges such as Yellowcard and LBank

The team has received a significant boost in networking opportunities, “thanks to the SiGMA Africa Summit and its partnerships with top-tier and strategic partners.” The support they have received from organisations such as the African Blockchain

Center, VeChain Foundation, Draper University- the leading Web 3 accelerator in Silicon Valley and being invited to the World Economic Forum has been a significant part of their journey.

The inaugural Africa Pitch competition was a resounding success, showcasing some of the brightest and most innovative startups in the African tech ecosystem. The competition provided a platform for these startups to showcase their ideas, network with investors and other industry players, and receive valuable feedback from the judges. It is clear that Africa is home to a vibrant and rapidly growing tech ecosystem, and events like Africa Pitch will undoubtedly play a key role in driving its continued growth and development in the years to come.

NEW KIDS ON THE

You’ve mentioned that you’re branching out into crypto - tell me a little more about how you’re approaching the changing nature of HR in a Web3 and crypto environment.

I think one of the things being mentioned right now is Generation Z. We’ve come into a new generation, where these children coming of age now will be the future of today. Looking at the information that they have at their hands, it’s so different from when I was young. I had no access to technology. We’re now living in a world where the expectations this generation has for the workforce are just totally different. For me, looking at how you can engage and retain these types of people is something which is just fascinating.

I think we are moving into a new era of work. And I think to be able to look at the trends of what is going to happen and what might happen is just so exciting.

Cordelia Morgan Cooper, the founder of boutique Executive Search and HR Advisory Consultancy, CMC Consulting discusses how the workplace is changing - especially as new generations and tech come into play.

Do you find the nature of work changing? In a Web3 environment, not only do you not necessarily have so much hierarchy, you also don’t have any physical environment. I’m guessing that has a lot of effect on how you build the roadmap for HR and also how you manage teams.

When I was in Dubai for AIBC in March, the panel that I spoke on there was about remote working and its impact on culture. I think that businesses that aren’t willing to move into this new era of hybrid flexibility are just going to end up losing their staff.

I think it’s so important that businesses can be flexible because we’ve moved away from the five-days-a-week work centric model where people are expected to be in the office. I think that now we’re moving to a world where life has to fit around work and work fits around life.

I think that it’s different nowadays, particularly for the coming generations. They want to have that flexibility, they want to be able to work the hours that they want to, and for businesses to be productivity-led as opposed to a 40-hour model that requires you to be tied to your desk.

From an HR perspective it is just so exciting to be able to move to a workforce that is empowered and feel trusted to be able to do the work that they need to do.

I can’t help but wonder if this is very similar to the way developers work when you commit on Github, where it’s about contributions versus hours. How does that change from an HR point of view in terms of understanding and managing the human resources for the company, not just from management, but from a performance point of view.

I think this is such a current topic and I’m not sure that we’re even going to be able to really know the answers over the next 5 to 10 years. We’re almost all in this guinea pig phase of testing. What I always say to my clients who are looking at possibly moving from office-based to more remote or hybrid, is: you’ve got to give that level of accountability and trust.

For some owners, it’s really difficult. If they can’t see you sitting at your desk, then they wonder whether you are doing what you need to do. But by putting in OKRs, by setting up performance reviews, and managers leading by example - it can work.

I think sometimes working from an office can also be lazy management, because yes, you can see them, you know that they’re there. Does that mean that they’re delivering? No.

WHAT I ALWAYS SAY TO MY CLIENTS WHO ARE LOOKING AT POSSIBLY MOVING FROM OFFICE-BASED TO MORE REMOTE OR HYBRID, IS: YOU’VE GOT TO GIVE THAT LEVEL OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRUST.

FOR THE SHORT TERM WE ARE FOCUSED ON DEVELOPING STATE-OF-THEART GAMING - WHERE WE CREATED A FRICTIONLESS WEB3 GAMING EXPERIENCE

HYBRID COMPUTE

Chiranjiv Anand, Business Development MENA for Boba Network sits down with BLOCK magazine to discuss their strategy to bring Web3 to the masses - including plans to bring an unparalleled Web3 gaming experience via hybrid compute.

For those not in the know, can you walk us through what Boba Network has to offer as an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution?

With Boba Network, owning digital assets, creating smart contracts, playing games or exploring applications has never been so easy. With the help of Hybrid Compute, users can truly experience the power of Web3.

Reduced fees: Up to 100x cheaper than L1

High throughput: Improved transaction scalability

Hybrid Compute: Build smarter dApps by connecting to off-chain APIs

Multichain: Interact with Boba on your favorite settlement layer

Dual fee token: Pay network fees in BOBA or ETH

Secured: Boba is secured by Ethereum

How did you get into this space initially?

Founded by a team of Stanford faculty and alumni, Enya Labs partnered with OMG Network in February 2021, to enable nextgeneration decentralised applications that are fast, cost-effective, and private. Ultimately in September of 2022, the Boba Network was launched on its own as a Layer 2 scaling solution backed by the Boba Foundation and core contributor, Enya Labs.

Enya is a pioneer of software frameworks that simplify the construction of decentralised apps, prioritising privacy from first principles. We believe next generation L2’s will allow smart contracts to interact with outside computers and act on their responses with one transaction. We have achieved this with the creation of Hybrid Compute which allows you to build smarter dApps by connecting to off-chain APIs.

What does the road ahead look like for Boba Network - in both the short and long term?

For the short term we are focused on developing state-of-the-art gaming - where we created a frictionless Web3 gaming experience via hybrid compute. We are also looking into the development of Boba Network exclusive dApps and infrastructure solutions.

Can you tell us more about your liquidity mining program, WAGMI?

The WAGMI incentives program is Boba Network’s take on liquidity mining 2.0. Users can earn WAGMI options using their favorite dApps on Boba Network. WAGMI options are KPI (key performance indicators) options redeemable for $BOBA tokens based on metrics relating to Boba Network, such as monthly active wallets or project specific TVL.

Are there any plans to add more use cases to the BOBA token?

The only uses for the Boba Token are for gas fees, staking and governance and the Boba Foundation has no plans at the moment to add any additional use cases.

Is a multichain future the answer to scalability?

The growth of the cryptocurrency sector suggests that the future of blockchain may be multi-chain. This is why Boba has deployed to 4 Layer 1’s and is the only L2 to offer a multi chain solution to date. Departmentalization, the idea of collaborating with specialized entities for greater efficiency, has a proven track record since the industrial revolution and the same will hold true for blockchain.

You recently announced the launch of BobaBNB, tell us why this was such a big deal.

BNB Chain is one of the most successful chains outside of Ethereum, cementing a rich and innovative DeFi and NFT ecosystem. It is also a key partner for our vision, as it focuses on the average user and aligns with our goals of bringing 1 billion people to Web3 and growing the multi-chain experience.

Boba Network is quite an unusual name - is there a story behind it?

Everyone has a smile when they drink boba tea. That’s how we want our users to feel when they use Boba Network. It evokes happiness.

BNB CHAIN IS A KEY PARTNER FOR OUR VISION, AS IT ALIGNS WITH OUR GOALS OF BRINGING 1 BILLION OF PEOPLE TO WEB3 AND GROWING THE MULTI-CHAIN EXPERIENCE.

THE GROWTH OF THE CRYPTOCURRENCY SECTOR SUGGESTS THAT THE FUTURE OF BLOCKCHAIN MAY BE MULTI-CHAIN.

THE CURRENCY OF PERSONAL DATA

How does Encore plan to personalise the relationship between fans and creators?

Zero/first-party data makes every experience more authentic because you know who they are as a fan, and what motivates them.

For example, I’m a Bay Area sports fan but haven’t lived in the bay for over 10 years. When those clubs reach out to me and ask me to buy season tickets it’s obvious they don’t know me as a fan. Why would I buy season tickets when I lived in New York?

If the 49ers knew that every Sunday I would watch the game at Finnerty’s, the local Bay Area sports bar in NYC, the 49ers could reward me as a fan and buy my first round of Bud Light’s (a brand partner of the 49ers).

How does Encore envision the future of fan engagement, and how does the company’s approach to turning a fan’s identity into an asset fit into that vision?

Fan engagement will only continue to evolve with new technology which is why we designed Encore to be the identity layer that any fan engagement tool can build on top of. We believe that there is no wrong way to be a fan, and that fans should be rewarded for however they choose to engage with creators they love. That’s why we focus on the identity layer, being able to verify and prove that a user is a fan - across any, and eventually, all platforms.

Can you provide examples of how Encore will reward fans for sharing their data with creators?

Absolutely. Tennis players will soon be able to build their FAN ID by adding data - such as which tournaments they play in, leagues they’re involved in, gear they use, players they engage with on social media, and so on. That FAN ID will unlock assets such as unique experiences across Tennis (e.g. reduced fees, free coaching, early access, etc.) and supporting brand partners.

Mike Sorgenfrei, CEO and Co-founder of AIBC Malta Startup Pitch winners Encore speaks to Matthew Calleja about their mission to help users turn their data and identity into assets.

The biggest blocker to enabling fans to truly own their data, and participate in the value of their data, is perception.

How does Encore plan to work with creators to turn a fan's identity into an asset?

The current approach to collecting fan data is not only fundamentally flawed and exorbitantly expensive, but it’s also subject to rapidly changing consumer and regulatory demands. Today, if a club wants fan data they ask everyone but their fans—Fanatics, Ticketmaster, Instagram, Nielsen, dozens of other platforms, and Big Four consultants.

Encore works with pioneers in sport to collect zero- and first-party data by partnering directly with their fans.

Are there other companies that are making an asset out of fan identity in a way similar to Encore? If yes, what makes Encore unique? If not, what's the closest thing to competition that you have?

We’re the only self-sovereign data provider for fans to date. This is certainly a challenge for us because there are so many companies focused on sports, music and the broader creator economy. There are data aggregation companies that help creators connect 3rd party data sets, there are Web3 companies providing ownership opportunities via tokens and there are traditional loyalty/ membership programs. Our approach is to create the identity protocol so that fans can participate in their data ownership, and choose to engage with any of these platforms.

Obviously, there are a lot of security concerns revolving around data. Have these concerns affected your methods and progress? How will Encore Fans ensure that fan data is handled responsibly and ethically?

Data security is a core element of Encore. Members of our founding team are experts in this space who have worked with the biggest organisations, and numerous three letter agencies to implement best practices for cyber security and data protection. To us, this is not an “implemented and done” scenario - privacy and security needs to evolve with the technology and demands of the user. We will always strive to be at the forefront of that change.

Are there or has there been any other potential challenges or roadblocks that Encore anticipates or has had to overcome when turning a fan's identity into an asset?

There is a new challenge every day, that’s why it’s fun! The biggest blocker to enabling fans to truly own their data, and participate in the value of their data, is perception. Some users don’t yet perceive data ownership as important, some platforms have the perception that they should own all data, for some the perceived value of data is low. We’re confident that this will change over time.

Where does the platform stand in terms of development and funding?

Our product is built, customers are actively leveraging Encore and fans are creating their own FAN ID! We raised the first half of our pre-seed funds late last year then paused to launch a few large customers, and have now opened that round back up. Our focus right now is to work with as many sports teams and leagues as possible to help show them the value of enabling fans to participate in their data ownership.

MiCA: FINDING BALANCE

Zonda CEO Przemyslaw Kral shares his thoughts on the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill put forward by the EU Parliament, a new regulatory bill that could shake up the digital assets industry.

MiCA will further legitimize the industry and undoubtedly attract much-needed institutional investment into digital assets and blockchain technology.

Zonda is a European-based cryptocurrency exchange that serves over 1 million registered users across several regions in both the EU and abroad. Founded in 2014, it’s one of the largest and longest-running cryptocurrency exchanges in Europe, and has recently gone through a significant upgrade and rebranding. The company now has its sights set on expanding even further into the global market and is enthusiastically working towards obtaining the necessary licenses to do so.

Currently, the exchange operates under full licensing and regulatory oversight by the FIU in Estonia and the OAM in Italy, allowing it to provide secure digital asset trading services to its customers.

MiCA is a proposal put forward by the EU Parliament to provide clear definitions and regulations for the use of crypto assets. The framework separates crypto assets into three distinct classes: asset-backed stablecoins, defined as “asset-referenced tokens” (ART), fiat-backed stablecoins, defined as “electronic money tokens” (EMT), and other crypto-assets, which are defined as “a digital representation of value that is not fiat money but is accepted as a means of exchange”.

One purpose of MiCA is to give consumers some level of protection against losses incurred when dealing with businesses that issue or provide crypto assets. Currently, consumers have very little recourse in the event of mismanagement by crypto providers but under MiCA, these providers will be held responsible for protecting consumer funds and liable in the event of losses.

In light of recent events in the crypto market, we can’t see how anyone would disagree that this is necessary and beneficial for the industry. It also provides additional protection against market manipulation and insider trading, and requires businesses to provide proof of reserves in the form of a 1/1 ratio of deposits. Overall, this will further legitimize the industry and undoubtedly attract muchneeded institutional investment into digital assets and blockchain technology.

What does this mean for crypto-asset issuers?

Any business that issues crypto-assets and falls under the scope of MiCA will likely be subject to all or more of the following obligations:

Authorisation to issue crypto-assets.

The publication of a whitepaper, similar to a traditional prospectus.

Compliance with certain rules when marketing crypto-assets.

To act honestly, fairly, and professionally in business dealings. Maintaining adequate security access protocols.

Zonda has always worked closely with regulators and is optimistic that should the new MiCA proposal be passed, it will help to improve the financial environment for consumers in the crypto assets sector. While some crypto service providers fight against stricter regulations, we prefer to find a careful balance between consumer safety and productive technological development.

ENTER THE ARENA A NEW ERA IN WEB3 GAMING

Interview with Marie Giorgobiani & Mikheil Didebulidze

Words by Matthew Calleja

Arena Games are revolutionising the gaming experience of millions, converging cutting-edge Web3 technology with traditional Web2 games. The platform is bridging the gap between the two, fixing pertinent issues with modern solutions.

The traditional gaming industry is a massive, diverse conglomerate of different types of games, design styles, and platforms, appealing to millions across a wide range of ages and cultural groups. The industry has also proven to be remarkably resilient to external factors, growing its global annual revenue by 9.3% during 2020, to more than $159 billion.

Despite its success, the industry is not without problems. Traditional games are plagued by issues like broken economies, unfair pay-towin models, and low discoverability for small and medium-sized game studios. These problems impact both gamers and developers alike.

“Transitioning from Web2 gaming to Web3 holds many of the solutions to these issues,” explained Marie Giorgobiani, COO at Arena Games. “At Arena Games, we’re focusing on making this very transition as seamless as possible. The platform aims to bring the world of Web2 multiplayer games into the era of Web3.”

Marie Giorgobiani represented Arena Games during Malta Week’s AIBC Gamefi Pitch last November. Following a riveting competition, she took the trophy home after wooing the judges with an engaging presentation.

The advent of Web3 technologies has great potential to transform the gaming industry, addressing these long-standing issues. Through GameFi platforms, these technologies can offer numerous solutions, such as the creation of a circular economy, “no-ads” policies, fair competition across the blockchain, and a decentralised approach to gaming.

For players, Arena Games is a library system of games, where, by opening one account, they have access to dozens of blockchain games that use a single token system, so they do not need to constantly buy or exchange different on-chain tokens, losing money on network fees. Furthermore, in a decentralised gaming ecosystem such as this, players have the ability to own their in-game digital assets, allowing for the transfer of rewards and items across different projects and providing a more equitable gaming experience.

تاشرع لىإ

بعللا ماظن في ،كلذ لىع ةولاع .ةكبشلا مادختسلا موسر لمحت وأ ،مدختسلما ينشتكولبلا جراخ

لقنب حمسي مام ،ةبعللا

THE ARENA GAMES PLATFORM AIMS TO BRING THE WORLD OF WEB2 MULTIPLAYER GAMES INTO THE ERA OF WEB3.

“We envision the platform facilitating the onboarding of new developers to this fresh market. It will provide a full-stack solution with a wide array of blockchain gaming technologies for both existing and new games on Web2,” remarked Giorgobiani. The platform will launch on the Binance BNB Chain with plans to expand to other networks in the future. “Developers will be able to integrate the platform quickly and easily through an SDK-based solution, without having to worry about tokenomics or blockchain development resources.”

The team boasts a significant background in game development. They founded a mobile game development company called Sambrela and have produced over 25 traditional games. The first game released on Arena Games was developed by Sambrela and is available for free on both iOS and Android.

When it comes to collaborations, the team meticulously chooses partner companies whose vision aligns with the platform’s. They constantly keep track of market developments and advancements in technology to identify growth and improvement opportunities.

Game jams are a particularly good outlet by which the team extends its reach to promising developers after experiencing their games firsthand. Through a scholarship program, the team also funds the development of game prototypes that will eventually be boarded onto the platform. To continue cultivating the player community, they form partnerships with other Gamefi projects.

The development of Arena Games has been in full swing for the last four months. The team has successfully deployed an MVP version of the platform on the testnet, including authentication, user profiles, token swap, Binance Pay implementation, and a connection to their first game, Arena Master. Users can now register, download the game, and participate in the Beta Test campaign. The team is now moving on to the NFT aspect of the platform, including building the marketplace, NFT tracking, and releasing the first collection.

NFTs are the primary source of revenue for the project, with a fully-supported marketplace working hand-in-hand with P2E video games. The assets are all usable within the games on the platform. After a successful first round of fundraising, the team is planning a second round post-launch of the platform, following a demonstration of traction and favourable statistics. Ultimately, the team’s long-term goal is to become a community-driven portal that offers quality gaming experiences alongside opportunities for learning, sharing, co-creation, and co-building. Step-bystep, the variety of games on the platform will be built up into the conglomerate from before, including educational games, VR gaming, and AI tools. Integration within the looming Metaverse is also in the picture.

DEVELOPERS WILL BE ABLE TO INTEGRATE THE PLATFORM QUICKLY AND EASILY THROUGH AN SDKBASED SOLUTION, WITHOUT HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT TOKENOMICS OR BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES.

DECENTRALIZED AI DECENTRALIZED AI

THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS

What role will decentralized AI play in the Web3 ecosystem, and how might this differ from the centralized AI models that are currently prevalent in many Web 2.0 platforms?

Decentralized AI is the future of intelligent systems, and it’s set to shake up the status quo in the Web3 ecosystem. Unlike centralized AI models that concentrate data control in the hands of a single entity, decentralized AI leverages blockchain technology to distribute data control across a network of nodes, making it a more secure and accountable option. This new era of AI will empower users to take control of their data and will lead to exciting new possibilities, including privacy-focused applications, trust-based supply chain management, and collaborative data sharing. Get ready for a smarter, more equitable future powered by decentralized AI in the Web3 world!

Which industry trends for 2023 do you predict will have the most impact on the emerging tech space? Which areas are likely to see the most growth, and which ones are likely to face challenges?

Undoubtedly, the field of zero-knowledge (ZK), data science, optimism, and infrastructure will play a significant role in the future. While these areas may not be considered emerging, they serve as the backbone of our networks and are increasingly gaining recognition for their fundamental importance. As more people become aware of what goes on “under the hood,” the significance of these areas will become more widely understood.

ZK, rollups, and Starkware are gaining a lot of attention in the blockchain space. Looking beyond the hype, what are some practical use cases for these technologies, and how do they differ from each other in terms of performance and security?

I could list countless applications, but I’ll focus on my area of expertise. In the banking sector, decentralized AI can help to solve and streamline complex intra-bank transactions such as repurchase agreements or swaps. I believe that finance is a crucial aspect of the next evolution of our society, and I’d like to give it a special mention. By utilising zero-knowledge technology, we can reduce or even eliminate fees in the Ethereum network, which will significantly increase the speed and usage of blockchain technology.

CEO and Founder of Masterblox, Carlos Prada, believes decentralized AI is the future of intelligent systemsin this interview with Katy Micallef he discusses how it’s set to shake up the status quo in the Web3 ecosystem.

What are the biggest challenges businesses in the blockchain space face when it comes to scaling their projects?

Undoubtedly, effective cash flow generation and smart spending during fundraising are key to success. However, it’s important to note that having the right team in place is also critical. The team is the heart and soul of a project, and having the right people with the right skills and experience can make all the difference in achieving success.

How do you evaluate the fundraising and treasury management strategies of different projects? What metrics do you look at, and what red flags do you avoid?

I mainly look for red flags such as lack of transparency or unclear strategies. Key metrics I analyze include burn rate, cash balance, and funding sources, while keeping in mind the project’s goals and market conditions. Sometimes you can also do a quick analysis on the backbone of the project judging their capable and advisors.

Growth hacking is a popular term in the startup world, but how does it apply to the blockchain space? In what ways can growth hacking through organic methods be more sustainable and effective in the long-term, compared to relying on bots for short-term gains?

The term “growth hacking” is broad and can be applied in any industry. In the Web3 space, it involves the constant effort to counteract the use of bots or lazy human effort. To be effective in this context, it’s important to have a sectorneutral understanding of the blockchain sphere and a basic understanding of Web2 marketing approaches.

Bots are not necessarily the enemy, as they can serve a valuable purpose in protection. However, relying solely on bots for growth does not guarantee long-term growth or retention. It’s important to consider a more holistic approach that encompasses genuine engagement and commitment from users for sustainable growth in the Web3 space.

Masterblox offers its own in-house growth hacking solution - tell me more about this.

We have been researching and developing our growth hacking strategies for years now. It takes the efforts of several analysts and 24/7 monitoring to refine our approach. Our track record is something we take great pride in, with successful partnerships with industry giants such as BNB, Chainlin among others. Our techniques have been proven to boost engagement and enhance user acquisition. Our growth hacking strategies have the potential to take a new project from start to finish with ultimate success, or to bring about the resurgence of an industry giant.

Decentralized AI is the future of intelligent systems, and it’s set to shake up the status quo in the Web3 ecosystem.

I believe that finance is a crucial aspect of the next evolution of our society.

Relying solely on bots for growth does not guarantee long-term growth or retention.

the chemical and health industry, we see no other way than pushing for more sustainable and digital solutions THROUGH STARTUP SUCCESS ةئشانلا ةكشرلا حاجن للاخ نم ةيمقرلا ةحصلا وحن هجوتلا

“ Q&A - ةبوجأ و ةلئسأ ISSUE 12 - 12 رادصإلا - 103

Lisa Tschalenko is leading the digital health ecosystem at 5-HT Digital Hub - Europe’s fastest growing ecosystem for chemistry & health. In this interview with Matthew Calleja she discusses their role in fostering growth within the startup ecosystem.

Can you give an overview of the digital innovation landscape in the health and chemistry industries in Germany?

One of the biggest German-wide initiatives is the Digital Hub Initiative (de:hub) which was founded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). It includes 12 digital hubs, each with a specific focus area and structure. 5-HT is the only hub for chemistry and health. The aim is to be located close to the industry and therefore enable faster innovation through startups. Together with the Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) the Digital Hub Initiative represents itself internationally during various big conferences like WebSummit in Lisbon, VivaTech in Paris and Slush in Helsinki.

Can you talk about the impact 5-HT Digital Hub has had in promoting and fostering digital innovation in these industries?

We were founded almost 5 years ago and have since established a global network of 350+ startups in 50+ countries, as well as numerous industry partners, investors, academia and partner hubs. We support established companies in their entire innovation process and bring companies and innovative startups together in a perfect fit. Our impact is huge with 200+ matches having initiated projects within our growing open ecosystem.

How does the company introduce established companies to the startup ecosystem, and what benefits does this provide for both parties?

We strongly believe in the pull approach, meaning we assess with our chemical and pharmaceutical industry partners what focus areas they want to target and based on that we enable exclusive matchmaking between the industry and the relevant startups. We enabled over 300 matches and more than 30 co-development projects between those parties.

Can you share some examples of successful collaborations between established companies and startups that have arisen through the hub’s efforts?

In the five years since our foundation we have succeeded to achieve more than two hundred matches between startups and industrial partners. Unfortunately, many of them are confidential. One of the latest is a project that we have initiated and conducted with pharmaceutical company Schwabe and the startup Pathmate. We have scouted globally to find suitable startups for Schwabe, and a mutual selection process along with scouting through 5-HT, Pathmate has developed an application as a digital add-on to Schwabe’s pharmaceutical product.

How does 5-HT Digital Hub prioritise sustainability in its efforts to drive digital innovation in health and chemistry industries?

Sustainability is our third key focus topic that we work strongly with. Particularly in the chemical industry we see no other way than pushing for more sustainable solutions. We have witnessed great collaborations with our founding member BASF and one of our startups Carbon Minds in shaping the roadmap for the Co2 footprint.

Can you discuss some of the challenges the company has faced in promoting digital innovation in these industries and how it has overcome them?

Chemistry and health are 2 industries that generally speaking are more conservative. Digital innovation is very interesting to the industries but takes a lot of time to get all players on board and be implemented. Sometimes we have to support the innovation of processes rather than pushing a digital solution onto an old expired process. We’ve overcome this problem partially.

Although we can’t change the rhythm of the industry in one night, still we can, and are, supporting them in taking faster decisions. With our well-known matchmaking program “The X-linker” - which we ran for the chemistry industry and separately also for the pharma industry - we have been able to introduce digital startup solutions from all around the world, very exclusively and efficiently to our corporate partners. The next one is in March for “Healthtech in Pharma”. Feel free to join the pitch session.

Can you give us a glimpse into the future of digital innovation in the health and chemistry industries, and the role you see 5-HT Digital Hub playing in shaping that future?

Digital innovation in chemistry and health in Germany is on its way to further shape the industries, but there is room to accelerate the speed of transformation. Especially in clinics, hospitals and other servicers we see a backlog of digitalisation that we want to address.

The German Krankenhauszukunftsgesetz enables clinics to get federal money for their digital transformation. We participate actively in both our focus industries to bring together suitable partners so that innovative digital solutions can be realised at an appropriate speed.

As the leading hub for digital chemistry and health, we have a vital role in shaping both industries, especially as our open ecosystem of relevant industry players continuously grows and enables collaboration between pharma and chemistry. The same is true for pharmaceutical companies.

Sometimes we have to support innovating processes rather than pushing a digital solution onto an old expired process.

In the wake of the 2020 pandemic, the MedTech landscape has shifted drastically for both recruiters and employees. Giovanni Lauricella, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Lifeblood Capital offers sage advice to those seeking to navigate this fast-paced sector.

What are the biggest challenges when it comes to recruiting within the MedTech sector right now?

Overall, the act of “recruiting” has been too democratised.The word is overused these days, especially in the healthcare industryhowever, LinkedIn and other employment websites can be powerful tools, if used correctly.

The advent and high volume use of LinkedIn “job postings,” and the ability to advertise that a company is hiring, has empowered hiring managers to create white noise in the candidate market.

This leads to exhausting hiring processes. Instead the interview process should be educational for both the hiring managers and candidates, it should be well-prepared for, concise, and respectful of the time that all of those are investing into the two-way-street process. The democratisation of recruiting has stripped the professionalism of the process and created white noise with frustrated hiring managers and candidates.

The second biggest challenge, in my opinion - and I can only speak from a MedTech startup perspective, is executives, hiring managers, and startups as a whole over-utilising “consultants” and waiting too long to internalise the function to add strength to their team.

In short, the MedTech industry is a highly regulated industry that takes a great deal of time and money for proper development. Taking shortcuts in a regulated industry has limited success stories.

How has the health tech industry shifted since the pandemic?

This is a big and dynamic question. My short answer is that the pandemic made the world aware, focused, and conscious of the healthcare industry - not only those who work in the industry or patients in need, but the entire world. It also brought significant attention to supply chains, access to materials and finished products, the fact that our modern world is still susceptible to mass viruses and there is a need for vaccines, and overall proactive healthcare has been increased given that those who suffered from comorbidities and the elderly were most affected. Clearly, there have been aspects of everyday-lifestyles that have been altered, of which many will be with us to stay and have changed our culture as humans.

What does the journey from startup to success look like?

Incredibly painful. I have spent the past two years capturing these stories from MedTech entrepreneurs and investors on my podcast MedTech Money. MedTech startups need to raise capital and build teams to hit their milestones. And, then they have to repeat this equation over and over until they succeed as a stand-alone

company, go public, or get acquired (or fail). Raising capital is painful, building and retaining teams and leading people is highly complex, and you have to do this all within a regulated industry. How do you define success? There are many success stories out there that do not end with a new technology making it to help improve healthcare. How has talent acquisition changed as new generations enter the workforce - what goes into attracting and retaining a great hire?

We live in a data-centric, social media world now, and talent acquisition has changed greatly when it comes to attracting strangers (non-connections to the hiring team), while not changing at all when it comes to building teams with human relationships. Talent acquisition is all about who can use the media-centric tools of today to tell and share the most optimal and engaging story. If you dissect that sentence, there is a tremendous amount of effort, communication, and organisation that goes into having the ability to share the most optimal and engaging story.

At the same time, talent acquisition as a service is often a tertiary line of ability to attract talent because it is seen as a high expense by most inexperienced hiring managers that do not have a grasp of the holistic or long-term value that a talent acquisition partner brings to a company as a support structure.

The first two lines of attracting talent these days are: (1) utilising the hiring company’s own network - which is often successful given the personal relationships and trust, and I, personally, support this avenue of attracting talent as the first line of building a team. And, (2) social media position postings, which are mainly on LinkedIn. These can work, and there are countless stories of proof. However, overall these postings are usually poorly written, unengaging, create more white noise than efficiency, and mostly end up creating a highly frustrated hiring company and candidate market.

What emerging tech trends and innovations do you predict will have the most profound effect on the healthcare industry over the next few years?

The boring stuff that not many people want to talk about. There are and will be profound technologies being developed that will affect the healthcare industry in the future. However, as long as we are a regulated industry of devices and biopharma, these technologies have a long time in the development, review, regulatory approval, and commercial phases before they touch patients. For example, transcatheter heart valve technologies.

While the industry is fairly well-communicated at this point, and TAVI (transcatheter aortic valve implants) is a mainstream business, there is still only one FDA approved transcatheter mitral valve technology in the

Incorporating networking and relationship management outside of your day-to-day tasks of the position will give you an insurance policy for your career and open up opportunities that you cannot imagine alone.

Innovation is outpacing healthcare economics and regulatory systems.

United States. And, that is MitraClip, which was approved in 2013. Meanwhile, there are seemingly hundreds of heart valve startups innovating in this space.

This market will take another decade or more, and these “profound” technologies that we hear about like braincomputer-interfaces (BCIs) fall into the same category. They are being developed now and we won’t get “used to them” as a society for a decade or more to come.

Think about surgical robotics and the amount of acquisitions that have taken place and the money thrown into this market. I could be wrong with this statistic by this point, however, robotic surgeries are still less than 10% of all surgeries that take place.

Yet, from an innovation perspective this space is exciting and hot. What will affect the healthcare industry the most is when we settle down and understand how we use data, positively impact clinical workflows, make efficiencies with how hospital and procedural payment systems function, and properly align our healthcare systems that are operational today with commercially available technologies and make them accessible to the masses.

In short, innovation is outpacing healthcare economics and regulatory systems. Once we do a better job with what we have, we will be able to incorporate the exciting and game-changing technologies faster.

What can professionals do to adjust and stay relevant in such a fast-paced landscape?

Network. Professionals must incorporate networking into their professional workflow. Relationships need to be nurtured or else they fade away and in an ever-changing world, networks need to be expanded.

I often hear about the person who was in a comfortable position for five, 10, 15, 20 years - in a period of their life that was on cruise control. Then something happened to shake that up - they were restructured or fired - and find themselves looking for a new position and chapter in their life in a fairly desperate manner. They did not manage historical relationships, go to networking events, or ask their employer to send them to conferences, and so they start scrambling when they come to need a network of professional friends, colleagues, and acquaintances.

Having networks is a powerful resource to have - in all facets of life. Incorporating networking and relationship management outside of the day-to-day tasks of your position will give you an insurance policy for your career and open up opportunities that you cannot imagine alone.

Your network will enable you to learn what is happening in the world and industry so that you can quickly adjust to the changing times and stay relevant when the time comes to be relevant.

Innovation without adoption in health care is like in so many industries – wasted innovation. Andy Bleaden, Communities Director at ECHAlliance shares his experience on using a network of Digital Health Ecosystems across the globe to connect, convene, and amplify change.

ECHAlliance has over the last 12 years built a network of over 1000 member organisations, 23,000 digital health experts and brought them together in a network of over 75 ecosystems from Argentina to Zimbabwe to Australia.

We use this network to connect, convene, amplify and accelerate innovation. It is both a research network (with over 300 Universities and research institutes); an implementation network targeting purchasers and providers in healthcare in over 120 hospitals and 150 government agencies; and also a network that is rooted in the grassroots of over 90 patient organisations alongside 150+ networks and associations.

These tackle common issues and match need and solution – leading with the need. Bringing all the stakeholders of health together helps to break down silos and transform healthcare as well as create economic opportunity by matching needs and solutions.

This is done topic-by-topic, on a permanent basis across our 75 Ecosystems, ensuring patients are at the centre.The goal of an ecosystem event is to bring together stakeholders from across the region or country - from the need and from the solution side on a specific topic: with a diversity of verticals ranging from wellbeing and diabetes to digital health solutions or mental health.

The agenda and format varies from ecosystem-to-ecosystem, but it usually leads with a need, showcases best practices, and includes some parts for collaborative workshops and/or pitching opportunities. It is here silos get broken down, connections take place, and collaboration can begin. As many of the stakeholders do not know each other, or their needs/solutions, these ecosystems literally connect them together to look for ways to scale up and work collaboratively or develop new projects.

As an example in Malta, if the topic was ‘diabetes’, we would ensure we have a gathering with input from patients on what they need in terms of information, services, and solutions following a diagnosis. We would hear from their carers or family members, as well as health and care professionals on what solutions and products they need.

Policy makers could detail what they need to know for modelling services and tenders and planning for future care needs. Researchers could outline what information and data they need access to - all leading with a need and many of whom have never met.

This is the first level of connection to take place - following which the format is flipped and we could look at what “good” looks like across Malta in this topic. The best in patient support, virtual care networks, primary care excellence, hospital programme, research and projects as well as what companies have to offer in this field. Again many of these groups have never met and are unaware of this best practice. We would then join “Need” and “Solution” and see where better collaboration could occur, alongside further uptake of solutions and innovation and potential joint working. Lastly, we could invite our international network expertise from Denmark or Romania into this field.

It is also an opportunity to bring in examples from across the wider network of ECHAlliance international ecosystems or members with similar challenges but successful innovation in other countries.

The ecosystems are responsible for taking the leadership to organise their own events that suit their priorities and agenda, but as part of our network, we can offer support and assistance where needed.

We have also developed Thematic Innovation Ecosystems (TIEs), which target cross-border topics using our well-established and successful multi-stakeholder approach that places the patient/ citizen at the centre of this initiative.

The purpose again is to match needs and solutions on specific topics affecting different countries. Each Thematic Innovation Ecosystem is led by one or two ECHAlliance members and/or ecosystems.

This ability of ECHAlliance to Connect, Convene, Accelerate and Amplify is how we have built our global community.

What happens at a TIE event?

The usual structure of a Thematic Innovation event is: What is the need? (for the patient,carer, policy and health providers).

What does good look like? (Best practices, research and policy).

How to match need and solution? (Discussion and planning for potential collaboration/projects)

Each part counts on 1 to 3 speakers that briefly present their needs, best practices or solutions to the topic covered.

What these have given us is a much greater platform for our members to work across borders and connect needs/solutions and collaborate in multiple locations. As an example - our Mental Health Thematic Innovation Ecosystem has led to input from patient groups, health care professionals, care organisations, researchers and policy makers around the area of substance misuse (as we would in normal geographical ecosystems), however this time, with input from Montreal in Canada; the Highlands and Islands in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Oulu in Finland, South Denmark and Rheinland/Bonn in Germany.

We could then match these to solutions in some of these countries whether they be digital health apps, user group support or elements of social prescribing. What was important to recognise was not just to connect and convene the need and solution but to link up and connect those from the first group and look for potential areas to further collaborate in future.

This could be amplifying learning exchanges or potential new projects to help collaboration using local, regional, national or even European Funding. An even bigger surprise was the ability for these ecosystems to actually connect up members from the same area who had never met before - as happened in Oulu and accelerate collaboration locally.

This ability of ECHAlliance to Connect, Convene, Accelerate and Amplify is how we have built our global community and remains as resonant now as it did when we started our first ecosystem.

OF GLAUCOMA CARE

Interview with Max G. Ostermeier

Words By Matthew Calleja

Implandata is a Med-Tech start-up entrepreneur with the groundbreaking mission to improve the life of millions of Glaucoma patients. The team behind this initiative is focusing on upgrading the management of the disease and patient care into the digital age.

Glaucoma is a progressive, chronic and incurable eye disease. Asymptomatic, elevated intraocular pressure causes the patient to lose their eyesight, potentially resulting in total blindness. Millions of patients suffer from the disease, despite there being a wealth of treatment options to lower eye pressure.

“No matter how revolutionary the treatment, we’ll remain limited by the logistics and costs of actually testing eye pressure,” explained Max Ostermeier, Co-founder and Managing Director at Implandata Ophthalmic Products. “The required tests occur three, maybe four times a year. In between office visits, neither the patient nor the specialist know if the treatment is successful, leading to a lack of information on the progression of the disease, any required countermeasures, and further damage to the optic nerve.”

Introducing himself as both a veteran health care expert and entrepreneur, Max Ostermeier took home the Med-Tech World Pitch trophy last November at Malta Week, bringing his team that much closer to realising their full potential. He thoroughly explained the issues encountered by Glaucoma specialists and their patients and put forward EYEMATE, Implandata’s revolutionary self-monitoring system.

EYEMATE enables patients to self-monitor their disease, essentially nullifying the periods of uncertainty in between consultations and considerably improving therapy adherence. “More importantly,” Max continued “the system delivers critical disease information to doctors within real life conditions in realtime.” This enables the doctors to remotely monitor and manage their patients, allowing them to identify the most effective therapy early, titrate and escalate therapy before a patient’s vision deteriorates further.

In glaucoma treatment, circadian eye pressure variations and pressure spikes and peaks play a key role in order to understand if an applied therapy is effective or not. Patient response to a variety of eye drops varies, further muddying treatment. Furthermore, patient response evolves with time. At the same time, invasive procedures to improve the ocular outflow and lower eye pressure via ocular stents, shunts or valves have limited effectiveness, as tissue formation will sooner or later occlude these outflows, resulting in pressure elevating again.

“We are changing this with our breakthrough EYEMATE system.”

Ensuring the safety and security of the product was a costly yet necessary step to reach this stage of development.

No matter how revolutionary the treatment is for glaucoma, we’ll remain limited by the logistics and costs of actually testing eye pressure.

While the average patient goes to the doctor’s office for only three to four eye tests a year, due to the aforementioned reasons, the EYEMATE system gathers typically between 3,000 to 4,000 eye pressure measurements in the same period. This data can be integrated in existing EMR solutions and adds significant value to other in-office glaucoma diagnostic tools like visual field testing and optical coherence tomography, dramatically expanding access to data points crucial to the patient’s treatment. None of this procedure requires the patient to be present at the office for the consultation.

In other words, the EYEMATE system ensures more efficient and effective therapies. It will improve disease management through automated, digital alerts with brief yet comprehensive information. This innovation comes at an opportune time, with healthcare systems already performing at their limits. The number of glaucoma patients will grow significantly in the coming decades, while the number of ophthalmologists is not bound to increase by much. More effective solutions, like self and home monitoring, are therefore key to efficiently manage the surge of patients, and at the same time improve the quality of patient care.

With software capable of recording patient data of this magnitude, security concerns are bound to rise. “Implandata is meeting all relevant regulatory standards in respect to safety of its products,” remarked Max. EYEMATE is CE marked under the new European Medical Device Regulation and it also has obtained FDA Breakthrough Device Designation. The product is similarly meeting the most stringent requirements under HIPAA and GDPR.

The product is extensively validated in bench testing as well as pre-clinical and clinical studies. Meanwhile, Implandata has up to ten years of in-vivo data, demonstrating the safety and performance of the EYEMATE system. Their product pipeline for next generation products includes a combined Dx/Rx system where a bionsensor provides continuous eye pressure measurements and actuates the therapeutic action of a tiny implantable drug delivery system. For patients, this would eliminate the burden of applying eye drops, while ensuring improved precision for practitioners.

Working closely with medical KOLs from the very beginning, Implandata collects and implements feedback from the medical community and industry experts alike. Implandata is working with leading eye centres in Europe and the USA, like University Eye Department Mainz/Germany, Swiss Visio Montchoisi Eye Clinic/ Lausanne and University Eye Department UCSD San Diego/ USA. The team is also working closely with the World Glaucoma Association.

“Ensuring the safety and security of the product was a costly yet necessary step to reach this stage of development.“

3air brings connectivity and financial inclusion to the next billion. It delivers affordable, high-speed internet, digital TV, and IP telephony to users. Once connected, users are empowered to become financially independent with easy access to digital services, identity management, payments, creditline building and micro-loans.

www.3air.io

Founder

Arena Games is a WEB 3.0 multiplayer games platform creating a convenient way to turn traditional games into WEB 3.0 for developers, and easy access to GameFi for players. We also organize events in Georgiaunder Degamefi name and build a private club for investors and founders on top of this community.

www.arenavs.com

B2Broker is a liquidity and technology provider of solutions for the crypto and Forex industry. Сompany specializes in B2B services and products, catering to a wide range of clients, including large licensed brokers, crypto exchanges, crypto brokers, forex brokers, hedge and crypto funds, and professional managers.

www.b2broker.com

Afford.Capital is a global venture capital DAO fund that invests in earlystage high-tech startups. The fund›s team is focused on carefully vetted investments in Blockchain, AI, Web3, and hi-tech fields. We invest in promising projects in order to grow together.

afford.capital

DOMINIK SZOPA

CTO, co-founder, Pirates of the Arrland

The first game ever to combine Multiplayer Online Battle Arena with an economic and strategy game in a pirate world!

www.arrland.com

Bankera provides payment accounts, payment processing (fiat and crypto), card issuing, business loans and white-label solutions. It works closely with digital businesses, including crypto, emerging tech, affiliates, iGaming and similar companies. Bankera offers SEPA and SWIFT payments, multicurrency accounts, mass payouts and debit cards.

www.bankera.com

SANDI BITENC CEO, 3air

MIKHEIL DIDEBULIDZE

and CEO

ARTHUR AZIZOV Founder & CEO

SERGEI KOVALEV Founder

VYTAUTAS KARALEVIČIUS Co-Founder

Established in 2013 with a fully UK-based team, Bitcoin PR Buzz provide lightning fast, guaranteed press release, sponsored, and organic content in crypto & mainstream, plus social & community management, exchange listings, email marketing, and banners. Previous clients include Bit2me, Roger Ver, Sportsbet, OCEAN, UTRUST, ARK, and 1000 more.

www.bitcoinprbuzz.com

Artem and his team are engaged in consulting and development of blockchain solutions for the gaming industry. Their strength is the development of decentralized applications from scratch.

Team believes in the future of the multi-chain internet, process gamefication, and immersive technologies.

www.blockczech.io

Borderspace is a secure ecosystem where investors, traders and content creators can come together to build, trade and create in confidence.

From investment in unique properties to securely storing and leveraging high-value assets, to brands building communities and delivering global interactive experiences - We are creating a whole new world of possibility.

www.borderspace.io

BitForex is the world’s leading digital asset trading platform dedicated to providing users with safe, professional and convenient digital currency trading services. BitForex effectively operates taking into consideration its user’s best interests using its profound knowledge on the Blockchain industry to select high-quality currencies for global users, leading the trend of Blockchain technology.

www.bitforex.com

Boba Network is a Multichain Layer 2 Network which makes owning digital assets, creating smart contracts, playing games or exploring applications easy, cheap, fast and smart as possible.

With the help of Hybrid Compute, builders can truly experience the power of Web3 by making Web2 API Calls.

www.boba.network

The world’s first blockchain dedicated to Metaverse Development

Powered by decentralized edge-rendering. The Caduceus Metaverse Protocol is equipped with a metaverse sandbox-editor, XR technology and is EVM compatible. Metaverse developers and creators can build, deploy or migrate onto the Caduceus chain, which provides an easily adoptable-ecosystem with wide variety of SDK’s provided.

www.caduceus.foundation

ARTEM GRIBANOV Chief Metaverse Officer

CONOR BRITTAIN Founding Member

FERAS AL SADEK Head of Mena

MATT MCGUIRE CTO & Head of Technology

ALEX THURSTON CEO

JASON LUO CEO

CEO

CLS Global is an all-in-one consulting company which combines Marketing/PR and Market Making services. With 5+ years› experience, 350+ serviced clients, connections with TOP20 CEX, 60+ marketing campaigns and partnerships with TOP 10 launchpads and incubators, we know exactly what crypto projects need for an effective development and successful launch.

www.cls.global

YUN

Head of Business Development

COIN360 is a cryptocurrency and crypto exchange live data aggregator. Our goal is to deliver vital market data in a visually engaging manner. Whether you are a professional or novice trader, media outlet, or just crypto curious, COIN360 offers indispensable tools to stay updated on the slightest cryptocurrency market movements.

www.coin360.com

ON YAVIN

Global Head of Budiness Development

Coinstore.com is moving forward to being the global leading blockchain company with its 180 employees worldwide serving more than 1.1 million registered users in 175 countries. Coinstore.com holds compliance licenses in many countries around the world for providing global users with quick and smooth cryptocurrency trading services, derivatives business and OTC services.

www.coinstore.com

Founder and Managing Partner

Cointelligence Fund is an early stage venture capital crypto fund focused on the metaverse and blockchain based games.

www.cointelligence.com

Crowd Fund Junction is a Community DAO and Influencer Driven NFT Venture Capital.

CFJ is dedicated to seeking out early stage blockchain startups to help accelerate their growth whilst the projects get longterm support from strong community.

We connect good projects to our community. Join us to participate in Highly Vetted DeFi / Web3 / Gaming / Metaverse / NFT projects private sale.

www.crowdfundjunction.com

Crown Chaser is a free-to-play tower defense, real-time strategy game available for Windows, Android, and iOS. Designed as a mid-core PvP competitive yet social game to appeal to a universal audience. It is a unique combination of both fun game mechanics and the innovation of NFTs, with a sustainable token economy.

www.crownchaser.com

FILIPP VESELOV

JAMES TOH

KISHORE M CEO

CAI

ANTONIO RAMICELLO CEO

DeepMine is the first P&E social economic strategy where players unite their effort towards the common goal of saving humanity. DeepMine is community-driven game with open-market economy where each gaming role contributes its part to the overall success. DeepMine is the winner of AIBC Best GameFi Project of the Year 2022 award.

www.deepmine.world

Divvy.bet is a frictionless betting ecosystem that empowers anyone to be the house. We’re leveraging the power of the blockchain to building a revolutionary sportsbook that accelerates the onboarding time to matter of seconds with guaranteed payouts and instant settlements. Best of all, Divvy’s liquidity pool empowers anyone to BE THE HOUSE and share the profits generated by the ecosystem.

www.divvy.bet

Founded by web2 gaming veterans, G4AL is an easy-to-use permissioned layer 1 blockchain infrastructure platform that will encourage web2 game developers to build using blockchain technology. G4AL creates its own first-party content in the form of video games to showcase the underlying technology.

www.g4al.com

Revolutionary decentralized betting platform with guaranteed pool liquidity for millions of users. A DeFi betting that includes: sports betting, prediction market, P2P betting on cryptocurrency rates and NFT collecting. Integration with Web 3.0 wallets allows users to connect to the platform without KYC and registrations.

www.dexsport.io

FUNToken is the native token for the iGaming industry. It powers an ever-expanding decentralised ecosystem for funding and integrating to all iGaming verticals. Listed on major exchanges, it hosts the world’s largest crypto gaming community.

www.funtoken.io

A fully-fledged cybersecurity ecosystem founded in 2017 by industry experts, Big Four professionals, and ethical hackers. We’re focused on developing security infrastructure for the blockchain world and educating users on cybersecurity to make Web 3.0 a safer place.

Hacken has saved clients’ assets worth >$10B and built >90K community

www.hacken.io

EUGENE SHAKULA Head of Operations

CARLOS LIANG CEO

MANEL SORT CEO

ADRIAN BRINK CEO

NIKITA VASSEV CEO

YEVHENIIA BROSHEVAN Co-Founder

BRANDT PAGE

VP of Business Development

Hxro provides crypto  fully integrated games for operators with  a decentralized liquidity network built on the Solana blockchain.»

www.hxro.network

ADRIAN AU Founder

Infinite Digital is a leading crypto marketing advisory firm. Focusing on giving the most optimal go-to-market strategies and delivering cuttingedge growth services to drive long term success. See photo and logo attached.

www.infinitedigital.io

RAULLEN CHAI

CEO & Co-Founder

IoTeX is the leading decentralized network powering the Web3 future and machine economy (MachineFi) via dApps that reward people for realworld activities. The platform is built for developers to connect billions of devices and innovative products, including DeFi, NFT, DAO, Metaverse, and MachineFi applications. Founded in 2017 as open-source, L1, EVMcompatible multichain, IoTeX is a high-performance public blockchain with off-chain computing, cross-chain bridges, and wallet.

www.iotex.io

ALEXANDER MYTTON

Head of Web3 and Brand Partnerships.

Jukebox have rapidly expanded in to the Web3 space in the last 2 years and were recently named one of the top 5 PR & Marketing agencies in Europe. They regularly work across NFT market places promoting NFT drops, helping to launch new metaverses and web3 projects as well as working closely with conferences on their comms, PR and sponsorship.

www.jukeboxpr.co.uk

PAVLOV ALEX

Founder & Visionary

K1 Core is a blockchain software developer that provides full-cycle IT-services to B2B clients and sells white labels of crypto exchanges, payment solutions, wallets etc, all of which are supported on a regular basis by K1 Core.

www.kauri.one

ALEX J Chief Product Officer

LetsExchange is an industry-leading solution for crypto-crypto and fiatto-crypto swaps, across the entire crypto market. It supports a wide range of cryptocurrencies with a competitive rate for each swap. Also, the company provides useful solutions for its Fintech Partners, such as crypto processing API, Exchange widget integration, Whitelabel solutions, etc.

www.letsexchange.io

ALEX AGLYAMOV CEO

Here, at Libernetix, we believe in a world with no borders. Our gateway solution enables you to start accepting online payments from your customers in both fiat and crypto. On top of that, we also offer industryleading client support and easy-to-use, powerful software products. It’s time for you to focus on your business, while we take care of your payments!

www.libernetix.com

JAMES CHENG Co-Founder

MAP Protocol is the omnichain layer for Web3 with fully secure crosschain communication built on Light-client and zk-SNARK technology. MAP provides cross-chain infrastructure to public chains and dApps by connecting both EVM with non-EVM chains. Developers can access a full suite of SDKs so their dApps can easily become omnichain applications.

www.maplabs.io

SERGEI KHITROV Founder

Listing.Help is the top agency for adding projects to cryptocurrency exchanges. The agency helps to get listing prices 2-3 times lower than the official for its clients and bonuses from exchanges like accounts without trading fees, additional marketing, listing out of turn, and supports further operating with exchanges after listing.

www.listing.help

CARLOS PRADA Founder & CEO

Masterblox is a leading European blockchain accelerator with a vast network of industry leaders that provides in-depth growth hacking solutions.

www.masterblox.io

TAL HAREL Senior Account Manager & Community Lead

MarketAcross is the leading PR & content marketing firm for fintech and blockchain companies. We proudly offer comprehensive marketing strategies, seasoned crypto-native employees, and guaranteed results. Our experience has led us to work with clients such as - Binance, Crypto. com, Polkadot, Solana Foundation and many others.

www.marketacross

MIHKEL KEREM

Co-Founder & CEO

MiBit is a fintech and blockchain consulting firm. We help companies with legal, financial and development strategies and execution.

www.mibit.ee

My Liquidity Partner is a liquidity pool partnership program that provides 2,25% return a week as a partnership fee on your deposited Ethereum, Bitcoin, USDC or SHIBA with NO LOCK-IN PERIOD. Liquidity partners are allowed to withdraw at anytime and can receive weekly payouts or choose “Hyper-Compounding” as an option.

www.liquiditypartner.io

Nethone is a machine learning-based fraud prevention Saas company that allows online merchants and financial institutions to holistically understand their end-users—also referred to as “Know Your Users (KYU)” in industry parlance. With its proprietary online user profiling and ML technologies, Nethone is able to detect and prevent payment fraud, account take-overs with unrivalled effectiveness.

www.nethone.com

Philcoin is the world’s largest philanthropic ecosystem with a global reach of over 250 million users. At the heart of Philcoin is PHILApp, a dApp designed to change the way giving happens. Users can learn, earn, donate, stake, play games, refer, listen to podcasts, chat, engage, and more, while giving back to causes and charities.

www.philcoin.io

Nagarro is a global digital engineering leader with a full-service offering, including digital product engineering, digital commerce, customer experience, AI and ML-based solutions, cloud, immersive technologies, IoT solutions, and consulting on next-generation ERP. We help our clients become innovative, digital-first companies through our entrepreneurial and agile mindset, and we deliver on our promise of thinking breakthroughs.

www.nagarro.com

Oz makes accessible privacy protection, regulatory cover and tax-free living through regulated staking agreements available in its wallet using the TOTOz token. Oz further leverages blockchain applications in DeFi, NFTs and the Metaverse in order to bring real-life application and benefit to a global network of Special Economic Zones.

www.oz.finance

The first game ever to combine Multiplayer Online Battle Arena with an economic and strategy game in a pirate world!

www.arrland.com

SOFYA PUZHAYKINA Operations Director

PATRICK DREXLER Head of Business Development

JERRY LOPEZ CEO

EDDIE TASBAS Director

EUGENIO GONZALEZ CEO

DOMINIK SZOPA CTO & Co-Founder

Prommus is a music promotion platform that leverages web3 to reach a broader audience within the web2 digital music platforms. Prommus is the first of its kind and rewards supporters for streaming music on digital platforms embedded to artists profiles within Prommus. The platform has a beta version that will be launched by the end of 2022 and has major artists and producers supporting its development.

www.promus.app

RealFevr is an NFT marketplace dedicated to officialy licensed sports video moments. These NFT moments become gamified digital collectibles by being integrated into RealFevr Play-to-Earn Games & digital collection challenges.

www.realfevr.com

Rubic, the One-Click Cross-Chain Aggregator that allows users to swap more than 15,500 assets between 17 major blockchains, with a simple and intuitive UI. Moreover, Rubic offers a cross-chain toolkit for crypto projects, enabling cross-chain swaps across 17 blockchains in one transaction, right on their page

www.rubic.exchange

Ratio Finance is a Quantitative Risk Assessment Protocol. Its first use case is allowing investors in the Solana ecosystem to extend the capabilities of their liquidity provisioning efforts by minting stablecoins (USDr), using their LP tokens as collateral. Ratio Finance’s mission is to unlock the liquidity of Solana’s assets and minimize the downside risk for liquidity providers in the DeFi ecosystem, with complete transparency.

www.arrland.com

Rome Blockchain Labs is a leading blockchain research firm behind several of the largest dApps in decentralized finance. Most well known for BENQI and Moonwell, they also initiated the launch of SAVAX liquid staking and the multi-network Rome Terminal. Their next project will bridge traditional finance institutions into Web3.

www.romeblockchain.com

Sal›Ad Labs is a blockchain Go-to-market agency focused on Hi-end Marketing technologies. Since 2017 we helped hundreds of startups, VCs and investment funds, exchanges and advisors. Our best competence is based on high level networking and experience in business development, marketing and fundraising. The winner of «Best Crypto Marketing Agency of the Year» - AIBC Awards 2022

www.sales-and-ads.com

CELIEL CASTILLO CEO

DELFIM CASCAIS

Head of Marketing

ALEXANDRA KORNEVA Co-Founder

DAVID LOLAEV Founder

SHIMON NEWMAN Co-Founder

ALEX SZUL CEO

ALEXANDER FIRSOV

The Sensorium Galaxy Metaverse is being built in partnership with top content and technology developers as well as entertainment legends. Once launched, users will be able to access unparalleled events in the metaverse, including exclusive music performances by chart-topping artists like David Guetta, Armin van Buuren, Eric Prydz, among many others.

www.sensoriumgalaxy.com

EGIN GOVERNDER

Founder

Trade Pro Labs is one of the top investment platforms, where we invest into new crypto projects. As well as providing educational courses, financial market signals and investment opportunities.

www.tradeprolabs.com

SHIRLY VALGE

COO

Velas is a Swiss-based technology company that operates its own open-sourced, permissionless EVM/eBPF (Solana) hybrid chain on layer 1, offering high security, scalability, and performance while keeping transaction finality down to just 1.2 seconds and carbon emissions down to a bare minimum, operating as a certified carbon neutral network.

www.velas.com

Symoco is a complete online payment solution aggregator operating globally - providing ultimate payment solutions for businesses of all sizes. From card acquiring to mass payouts. At Symoco, we deliver global online payments in a single API integration with low operational cost and integrations that can be easily activated. Symoco is safe, secure, and PCI DSS Compliant.

www.symoco.com

UniFarm brings together various Defi projects in a single space and helps in long-term holdings. It creates a collaborative space for wealth creation. This group-staking solution protects its 12000+ users from token price fluctuations and sell pressure. Partners include projects like Matic, MantraDao, Paid Network, Razor, Reef, TVK, etc.

www.unifarm.co

Co-Founder

Denis Lam is the Founder of Vera Labs, the firm behind Vera, a decentralized protocol that enables utilities for all NFTs, and Managing Director of Sync VC, an impact and emerging technology venture fund and studio for early stage startups.

www.vera.financial

DENIS LAM

MS. TARUSHA MITTAL

COO and Co-Founder

Chief WEB 3.0 Officer

ANNA ARUSTA

Key Account Manager

Worldspark is a game development startup building on the intersection of gaming and blockchain. Our main focus revolves around building an IP that›s fleshed out through an ecosystem of games, with each game being strategically connected with our hub world to share assets without breaking game design, maximize player value, and create an immersive world that makes our player’s lives better and brighter.

www.worldsparkstudios.gg

Relictum Pro is an advanced public and private blockchain platform, where every device is a node able to conduct instant and cheap transactions. Relictum Pro is interoperable advanced web3 ecosystem representing modern blockchain ideas

www.relictum.pro

Chief Executive Officer

ZBX is a regulation ready, end to end cryptocurrency & FIAT ecosystem. Registered in Europe, ZBX is a seamless platform that enables a full suite of Crypto and FIAT products, to assist Token projects, retail and Institutional Investors or corporate clientele.

www.zbx.one

XEROF is a regulated Swiss crypto financial intermediary that provides a range of services to facilitate the use of cryptocurrency for high-value on and off-ramp transactions and asset purchases directly with crypto.

www.xerof.com

YARD Hub is a Web3/NFT/P2E venture studio based in Dubai as a DIFC Innovation Hub resident. YARD Hub incubates projects from idea to initial fundraising and company setup, providing founders with turnkey product management, tech, marketing and business development support. YARD Hub core team members are frequent participants and speakers at blockchain, gaming and startup-related events.

www.yardhub.tech

Zonda is one of the largest and longest-running digital asset exchanges in EU, serving over 1 million registered users across the globe since 2014. We are fully compliant with EU regulations and we are keen on implementing the best practices to ensure that our users and their funds are safe and secure.

www.zondaglobal.com

PRZEMYSLAW KRAL CEO

MARC TAVERNER COO and Founder

CHANDLER THOMLISON CEO and Founder

DAVE PULIS

YASOSLAV SHAKULA CEO

ALEKSANDR STRIGIN CEO

MEDIA PARTNERS

AMBCrypto is an independent blockchain and cryptocurrency news publishing platform. AMBCrypto was conceptualised and brought to life in 2018. We take great pride in the fact that we are a non-funded organisation and have seen exponential growth since inception. We are among the top cryptocurrency media portals in the world.

ambcrypto.com

Asia Blockchain Review is the largest initiative for media and community building in Asia for blockchain technology. We aim to connect all blockchain enthusiasts on a regional scale and facilitate the technological foundation of blockchain through a range of group discussions, technical workshops, conferences, and consulting programs.

asiablockchainreview.com

Best Bitcoin Casino is the premier online hub for reviews, news, and updates, with a solid reputation in the crypto, fiat money, and blockchain gaming sectors since 2013. With more than five years in the business, the company delivers high-quality and relevant content about online casinos, dApps, games, bonuses, and iGaming events.

bestbitcoincasino.com

CoinNewsExtra is the fastest growing global blockchain, crypto and fintech media platform with its headquarters in Lagos State Nigeria, West Coast of Africa. CoinNewsExtra’s mission is to educate the African populace and the world about emerging technologies, and how they can leverage blockchain and crypto to create wealth and innovation.

www.coinnewsextra.com

Coinpedia is the leading independent digital media resource covering a wide range of news on blockchain technology, crypto assets, and emerging fintech trends. Every day our team delivers the most accurate and up-to-date news from both the decentralized and centralized worlds.

Our primary focus is to provide our readers with the latest unbiased, carefully researched cryptocurrency news stories.

coinpedia.org

Cryptoknowmics Is an innovative platform that is dedicated to providing intuitive prospects and the latest updates about the cryptocurrency market and blockchain technology. For many business enthusiasts that are aspiring to venture into the cryptocurrency business, Cryptoknowmics is the best resource to gain insightful knowledge about cryptocurrencies. Get all the latest news and updates related to the crypto-universe here.

cryptoknowmics.com

Cryptopolitan launched in 2017 as a neutral, industry media. While many have come and gone, Cryptopolitan has grown to a team of 35+, with year-on-year growth. Cryptopolitan serves up industry news, crypto & blockchain tech reviews, product launches, and now reaches over 3 million crypto industry readers every year, with 110,000+ on email and social.

cryptopolitan.com

Cointelegraph is the leading independent digital media resource covering a wide range of news on blockchain technology, crypto assets, and emerging fintech trends. Content aims to deliver unbiased news, in-depth analytics, cryptocurrency price charts, insightful opinion pieces, as well as regular reports on the social transformation that digital currencies bring.

cointelegraph.com

CryptoNewsZ is a news publication that brings the latest news on cryptocurrencies, blockchain, ICOs, crypto exchanges, DApps, price analysis of cryptocurrencies, interviews, and other prominent events. We aim to evolve the crypto world to understand each concept. Ours is a commercial website providing news with an extensive reach of users across the world.

cryptonewsz.com

The Cryptonomist is a magazine based in Switzerland. It provides free insightful articles about trading, blockchain tech, cryptocurrencies and fintech. It is published online, for free, in both Italian and English. Also,

The Cryptonomist provides blockchain startup and companies with marketing consultancy, translation, press agency services and much more.

cryptonomist.ch

The Cryptonomist is a magazine based in Switzerland. It provides free insightful articles about trading, blockchain tech, cryptocurrencies and fintech. It is published online, for free, in both Italian and English. Also, The Cryptonomist provides blockchain startup and companies with marketing consultancy, translation, press agency services and much more.

cryptonomist.ch

Established in 2016, The Fintech Times is a multimedia news outlet centred around the first and only dedicated fintech newspaper. Chronicling the latest developments in cutting-edge financial technologies including payments innovation, RegTech, Banking Transformation, AI, cryptocurrencies, WealthTech, cybersecurity, Insurtech and many more. Fintech needs an authoritative voice that gives our industry exposure and integrity.

thefintechtimes.com

BeInCrypto ranks among the largest independent cryptocurrency news websites offering the latest updates in an unbiased fashion with a primary focus on transparency. BIC also became a real pioneer in the industry by providing content in 10 languages and developing its educational platform aimed at beginners.

www.beincrypto.com

FortuneZ.com is a global digital media publication covering Markets, iGaming, Sports Betting, eSports, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency news. Founded in the year 2000, FORTUNEZ has over a million followers in total across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, a testament of recognition by the industry’s professionals, aficionados, and enthusiasts alike.

fortunez.com

CoinMarketCap is the world›s most-referenced price-tracking website for cryptoassets in the rapidly growing cryptocurrency space. Its mission is to make crypto discoverable and efficient globally by empowering retail users with unbiased, high quality and accurate information for drawing their own informed conclusions.

www.coinmarketcap.com

Luna PR is a full-stack digital marketing agency that empowers ambitious businesses spanning 5 continents. We are passionate about storytelling, virtual design, and technology. We collaborate with companies small and large across the world to help them engage with their audiences and build brand awareness.

lunapr.io

Whether you’re looking to host your next meeting, or a memorable incentive trip to a Mediterranean location, the Maltese Islands are your next destination!