Getting to Know the Team: Peter Gregory
Our last interview with John Cooper, COO of Abelian, was a great success! Getting to know the team members gives everyone a better idea of what’s happening behind the scenes of an emerging company.
Our next interviewee provides a vital role in the Abelian project — a role that often gets overlooked. Being an advisor to a company, especially in new and complicated fields like blockchain, is an essential piece of the puzzle. Advisors not only bring in years of expertise, but they also provide young companies with the appropriate networks. These networks will ultimately increase overall exposure and probability for success. Peter Gregory brings a strong skill set linked to financial specifics including, but not limited to digital assets, deal flow, and wealth management. Peter has played a large role in securing over $80M in assets over the past 2 years. He is now passionate about bringing new and innovative investment ideas to the market and finding creative ways to help everybody understand even the most intricate projects and strategies. Simplification is something most individuals can respect when entering a complicated field such as blockchain.
Now let’s begin. As always, thank you, Peter, for taking the time to chat. I think a good starting point is to talk about your past experiences and how that has motivated you to become involved in the crypto-space.
Can you tell us a bit about your background working for Sun Life?
My role at Sun Life was a perfect foray between my education and my professional strengths and goals. I worked with portfolio managers and investment advisors in downtown Toronto, implementing various investment strategies ranging from international equity to global debt, and alternative investments. As an untapped market for our company, we were able to bring in over $80M in net new assets in two years.
I am also aware that you are now a Director at Coinsquare Wealth! Has that position modified your opinion on cryptocurrencies at all?
No modifications, just solidification of what I already believed. We have our finger on the pulse, and it’s exciting to be a part of as we continue to propel crypto into a state parallel with the current financial systems.
Now that we understand the basics, lets jump right to it — what made you interested in blockchain technology?
In my last role, I developed a niche for fixed income and was fascinated when studying monetary policy across the world, how policy changes affected markets, how they set benchmarks, and how often those benchmarks are missed. The more you learn about monetary policy and how traditional economies work (or don’t work), the more Bitcoin becomes an interesting topic to dive into — that was my first exposure to blockchain.
It is interesting to see someone like yourself entering blockchain in a more practical sense. Now to something that is more Abelian specific! What are your thoughts on the current state of mining in the crypto space?
As a person who is not technically savvy, it isn’t the easiest to get your bearings, figure out how to set up your machines, ensure you’re running at max efficiency, forecasting your ROI, etc. There are a lot of operational inefficiencies and a lot of places you can go wrong and hinder your operation.
That is fair, it definitely is not something that is as intuitive as one would expect. What do you think makes Abelian unique from all the other mining platforms?
I see Abelian as a user-friendly, easy-to-use platform that is breaking down the barriers to entry for crypto mining and aiding in the further decentralization of cryptocurrencies.
What will be some of the major hurdles Abelian will need to overcome in order to be successful in the mining sphere and as an exchange platform?
Like any new service or company, we need to keep spreading the word about Abelian and the number of miners from across the globe operating on the platform. The crypto mining community is still small enough that good news will travel quickly as miners see the benefit of mining on Abelian.
What skills and “know how” do you bring to the table for Abelian?
I’m in a unique position where I’m in contact with a lot of miners (big and small) at the same time. Hearing more about their operations, successes, challenges, pain points etc. and sharing it with the team can help them build Abelian as strongly as possible. I’m a finance and relationship guy, you’ll never see me trying to fake the technical aspect!
In my mind, that is what the best advisors provide — networks and relationships! Since you are located in Toronto, do you think that Canada is becoming an epicenter in the world of DLT technology? What is the overall vibe out in Toronto?
I know Vancouver has a great hub going too, but the vibe in Toronto is incredible. The number of fantastic projects I speak to on a weekly basis, the number of intelligent community members I chat with at meetups, the number of incredible use cases and projects being built… I’m truly lucky to be in Toronto during this boom.
As you probably already know, everyone is always interested in what cryptocurrencies they should look out for. Which cryptocurrencies are your favorite and which ones are you most optimistic about?
Bitcoin is my favorite; also loving the developments of ICON and AION (Toronto based!), but definitely do your own research!
Great advice Peter and thank you for sitting down with me to answers these questions! It is always useful for onlookers to see who is involved in the projects they stumble upon — especially ones like Abelian whom are trying to solve a major problem with centralized mining pools.
As always, you can learn more about the Abelian initiative by checking out their website abelian.tech and joining their Telegram at https://t.me/abeliansolution.
