#67 - How is blockchain evolving in TradFi?

03/15/23 • 31 min

In the seventh episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by David Creer, Global DLT and Crypto Lead at GFT Group who develop sustainable solutions across new technologies.

He is also a Course Instructor at the European Tech School.

Episode highlights:

What initially drew David’s interest into the space
How GFT has evolved into an innovation driven organisation
How product delivery and production differs within financial services
Why there used to be hesitation when putting products into production
How regulation has evolved within the financial sector
How David sees Crypto developing with banks
David’s advice for anyone uncertain about the application of blockchain
The UDPN network project that David has been involved in (The UDPN is a decentralised payments messaging backbone connecting the digital currency systems of the future to enable seamless, efficient payments of regulated stablecoins and CBDCs)
How David things blockchain will influence the way financial markets operate in the future

Key Takeaways:

The tier one banks and the tier two banks are really only working on things that they want to take into production at this point in time. So that's a completely different mindset from how things were when we started, where it was, we want to just see whether this is possible. - David
When cloud first came out banks didn't want to go down that route at all. The policy was non-public cloud. Now a lot of banks are going down that path, which makes sense because it saves them a lot of money and it's more efficient. - David
If you're thinking about using blockchain or distributed ledger technology for your project, you need to understand your use case really well. - David
It's quite exciting to be involved in that because potentially that could be a really important piece of infrastructure for the financial system of the future. - David
If smart cities develop the way that they are developing in countries such as China, I think that we will have a financial services system which is much more focused on micropayment. And therefore I think that blockchain technology or cryptographically based stablecoins or CBDCs will be used much more widely. - David

Connect with David on Twitter

Resources:

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He is also a Course Instructor at the European Tech School.

Episode highlights:

What initially drew David’s interest into the space
How GFT has evolved into an innovation driven organisation
How product delivery and production differs within financial services
Why there used to be hesitation when putting products into production
How regulation has evolved within the financial sector
How David sees Crypto developing with banks
David’s advice for anyone uncertain about the application of blockchain
The UDPN network project that David has been involved in (The UDPN is a decentralised payments messaging backbone connecting the digital currency systems of the future to enable seamless, efficient payments of regulated stablecoins and CBDCs)
How David things blockchain will influence the way financial markets operate in the future

Key Takeaways:

The tier one banks and the tier two banks are really only working on things that they want to take into production at this point in time. So that's a completely different mindset from how things were when we started, where it was, we want to just see whether this is possible. - David
When cloud first came out banks didn't want to go down that route at all. The policy was non-public cloud. Now a lot of banks are going down that path, which makes sense because it saves them a lot of money and it's more efficient. - David
If you're thinking about using blockchain or distributed ledger technology for your project, you need to understand your use case really well. - David
It's quite exciting to be involved in that because potentially that could be a really important piece of infrastructure for the financial system of the future. - David
If smart cities develop the way that they are developing in countries such as China, I think that we will have a financial services system which is much more focused on micropayment. And therefore I think that blockchain technology or cryptographically based stablecoins or CBDCs will be used much more widely. - David

Connect with David on Twitter

Resources:

Previous Episode

#66 - Will Artificial General Intelligence help to close the Web3 skills gap?

In the sixth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson has the tables turned on him and is interviewed by Joshua Lory, Head of Blockchain GTM at VMware, a multi-cloud service for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control.

These were follow up questions that Joshua wanted to ask Conor after he was interviewed on the podcast earlier this season, which you can listen to here.

Connect with Joshua on Twitter.

Episode highlights:

Who Conor believes are the three players that will capture 80% of the market in the next 10 years and why
How this differs from Joshua’s views
Other up and coming players in this space who it is worth keeping an eye on
Why the decentralised infrastructure projects have got a big part to play in the future
How we narrow the skills gap needed for these new ecosystems
The issue with smart contract development on public blockchain networks
The potential with AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) to help close the skills gap

Key Takeaways:

In every single technology space the top three players capture 80% of the market time and time again. And then you have a long tail of the 20%, where you have thousands of different options that capture one or 2%. - Joshua
Ethereum, I've always felt that it's like the Linux of this generation. - Conor
From a personal perspective, I think Polka Dot is building a strong ecosystem. They have some very strong technology in terms of what they've done. So they're model of having this layer zero blockchain and then these power chains, which are kind of permission chains spun up on top, seems to be viable. - Conor
We’ve got 10 million Java developers that could be writing to this new ecosystem, but are not. - Joshua
The real challenge with smart contract development is that it, especially on public blockchain networks, is that people can't afford to make mistakes with it. - Conor

Resources:

Next Episode

#68 - How is Web3 changing in person events?

In the eighth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Bo Brustkern, Co-Founder and CEO of Fintech Nexus, a niche media company covering innovation in financial services.

Episode highlights:

How one of Bo’s Co-Founders insisting he bought at least one Bitcoin initially got him interested in the space
The research he undertook to fully understand the role DeFi and DAOs were going to play in the evolution of financial services
How Fintech Nexus developing into a Web3 business benefits the community
Why Bo believes regulation is the biggest challenge the industry faces
The impact of the way different world governments interpret Web3 technologies will have on regulation
“Economic dissatisfaction breeds war”, Cordell Hull, US Secretary of State (1933- 1944)
The impact of accredited investor laws in the US
The technology advances Bo sees when attending Web3 conferences
How Bo sees blockchain and Web3 technology impacting events in the future
Fintech Nexus USA event in May 2023

Key Takeaways:

As a media company, we're so focused on developing. Doing our work for the benefit of the community. It's the perfect place to be to both consume and report on, to engage in, to discuss Web3 technologies and if we do our job really well then both sides benefit. - Bo
I don't think we're headed in the right direction. I think there really are sceptics are beyond sceptical. They are becoming really quite effective in trying to beat back the Web3 economy and blockchain technology and the various crypto tokens that are part of that. In the end, will those sceptics win? - Bo
We not only have to embrace the technologies, but we have to embrace the values behind those technologies. - Bo
The majority of the world's people have the freedom where they can choose to work with these technological innovations. Now, of course, the regulatory climate in the US does create some hurdles for people, but people can still hold cryptocurrencies and get involved in these projects. - Bo

Connect with Bo on Twitter
Resources: