The last three month from May through July were quite busy. We lead panel discussions around crypto investing, conducted workshops in Germany, Switzerland and France and spoke at several events. More about our activities, upcoming plans and engagements below.
May 2018
Tokenizing air, real estate and the role of lawyers — Interview with Sven Laepple
In his recent interview with Brickblock, Sven talked about the opportunities and challenges of real estate tokenization, tokenizing air, and why lawyers will always be part of the tokenization process.
Read the full interview here.
Token Summit III in New York
Token Summit III in New York has been a blast. May is perfect for a trip to New York. On a sunny day, it is just exciting to eat awesome sandwiches from Dean & Deluca on some doorsteps of SOHO while drinking refreshing apple cider rosé.. all while talking crypto and watching people passing by.
Last year, we attended as invitee from EOS the Consensus conference, and the first ever Token Summit I together with Alexander Lange from Earlybird. Back in Berlin, we gave together at the Blockchain Expo a joint debrief of the awesome Token Summit I 2017.
Sven also attended the Fireside Chat: Cryptoassets with Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar co-authors of the bestselling book Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor’s Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond, for a conversation and Q&A about the opportunities presented by this exciting new asset class. Great insightful discussions about the future of crypto as an asset class from lifelong investment experts and one of the first investors in Bitcoin.
BlockchainHUB, Kiev
In May, Gleb went to Kiev in Ukraine to get in touch with Ukrainian crypto ecosystem. Most of it is centered around the BlockchainHUB Kiev, which houses several startups from the space. We had a great chat with the CEO of Ukraine’s largest crypto-exchange Kuna about the future of the crypto market and crypto regulatory status quo in Ukraine.
Our Blockchain Dine & Talk, Berlin
We once again held one of our regular private “Blockchain Dine & Talks” in Berlin, which we organize since 2016 in collaboration with the innovation unit of one of Germany’s leading financial groups. The core concept aims to close the gap between the nascent blockchain space and executives from banking, insurance, real estate, investment and more. This is achieved by creating a framework, which enables an open dialogue between incumbents and the blockchain start-up ecosystem.
There is a constant rise of awareness from the banking sector for the disruptive power of blockchain technology. The discussions are shifting from a general understanding of the technology and sometimes doubts about its validity towards a more specific and use-case oriented discussions. It’s no longer a question, if blockchain technology has any value to offer to the finance industry. It is more about which use-cases can we engage in right now.
CMS Francis Lefebvre — DLT, Crypto Assets and ICO’s, Paris. 24 May 2018
On May 24, the french office of CMS law, which is currently writing the blockchain laws for the French government, hosted a crypto-assets and ICO conference. Sven spoke at a panel about the eco-system, tokens ICO’s. ASTRATUM and Consensys represented the developer studios, discussing with experts from the financial markes the current ICO climate.
Alongside Sven Laepple (ASTRATUM), the panel included Thibaud de Maintenant(CEO of LiquidShare), Alain Rocher (Senior Advisor, Société Générale Securities Services), Ken Timsit (Consensys France) and Yves Choueifaty (Tobam Bitcoin Fund).
We are closely following the development of French regulatory framework around ICOs, which is expected to come out in September and we believe France could rival Switzerland in its for the most part very clear ICO framework and could further lead to decrease in regulatory hurdles towards ICOs within the EU.
June 2018
ASTRATUM in Cryptovalley, Zug, Switzerland
Beginning of June, ASTRATUM went to Zug (aka Cryptovalley), Switzerland, where we spent time working with our friends at Elea Labs and meeting other stakeholders from the crypto community.
Elea is using data and Bitcoin Lightning technology to build the world’s first Property DNA — and lay the foundation of a new and living world of real estate. Based on blockchain technology and IDs, it eliminates the overwhelming complexity and costs associated with acquiring, operating and selling real estate property.
We have had a great time and enjoyed great views from the Gubel mountain, reflecting on the current crypto market and weighing in on the opportunities.
Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin) mid-term presentations
ASTRATUM is the industry partner of the Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin). We support the master students class of the Sustainable Mobility, Energy and Construction programs in developing their projects in blockchain and mobility space. We were present as judges for the mid-term project presentation and advised a group of MBA students on their aerial mobility project for parcel delivery between German ministries powered by blockchain. There are still some challenges for the team to work out, however we are glad that they are on the right track.
World Blockchain Summit 2018, Frankfurt
Sven moderated at Trescon’s World Blockchain Summit in Frankfurt the panel “Blockchain — A Tool for Freedom.” Afterwards, we went to the Frankfurt School of Management, attending a crypto investor event with DLT Capital.
Elastos Meetup, Berlin
At the Elastos Europe tours’s Berlin stop, we met together with Elastos chairman, Rong Chen. Formerly a senior developer at Microsoft, one of the owners of the .NET project, he founded Elastos 18 years ago after quitting Microsoft with an own vision of how a P2P network should look like.
Elastos is an interesting and ambitious project with its own view on blockchain and which of its components need to be decentralized and which don’t. The team has developed a new safer internet infrastructure, which is not relying on http protocol. It is currently compatible with existing OS such as iOS and Android and able to run any app or dApp on a flexible sidechain infrastructure.
July 2018
Binance meetup, Berlin
Binance is by global volume the largest crypto exchange. It has achieved its status in less than a year. Many contribute its meteoric rise the outstanding CEO, CZ, but one can see the community and so-called Binance Angels have been the ones doing the groundwork in the community. On July 7th, Binance Angels Germany have conducted the first Binance meetup in Europe.
A lot of crypto discussions, grilled meat, cold beer and some binance goodies, all amidst other Berliners at the Tempelhofer Field. A great way to spend a hot summer afternoon.
Dappcon Berlin — Developer Conference for Ethereum Dapps and Infrastructure
Berlin once again has shown that it is an epicentre of crypto events with the Developer Conference for Ethereum Dapps and Infrastructure — Dappcon. During a two-day marathon, an impressive array of speakers discussed cutting-edge topics in crypto such as NFTs, bonding curves, decentralised governance and scaling at two different stages at Berlin’s Postbahnhof.
One of the exciting parts to the conference was the BUIDL room, where developers could get their hands on some practical and hands-on exercise such as designing tokens and interacting with various newer protocols and developer tools.
One of the take-aways we found interesting was Mona El Isa from Melonport addressing the velocity problem: Most of the projects want to design their token as deflationary instrument, or set up mechanisms for its price appreciation. In case of utility tokens, there should be little to no incentives for a user to hold the token, since if he expects it to appreciate, why would he be using it for the dapp, thus decreasing velocity. The velocity aspect of tokens has been recently started to be addressed in the field of cryptoeconomics and needs to be solved using the mechanism design approach.
ASTRATUM x ADG Blockchain Summer School 2018 (BSS18)
At the end of July, when most of the people are preparing for their vacations, ASTRATUM team together with ADG were organising the 3-day Blockchain Summer School 2018 - educational and training crash-course into blockchain for select banking and institutional employees, as well as for other professionals interested in the past, present and future of this exciting technology. The invited experts and working group coaches for the 3 days were well-known blockchain experts working in Germany and Switzerland.
Day 1 served as the introduction to the basic concepts of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. We introduced the various blockchains, which also hosts smart contracts and presented their features and limitations.
Day 2 continued in the format of serving more advanced theoretical knowledge by our guest speakers and introducing new workshop concepts that kept everyone fully engaged with the subject matter like token conception, cryptoeconomics and business models, technology conversion between blockchain and AI, 3D printing, IoT, big data, VR/AR. On Day 2 the participants started with working in groups on developing a concept and strategy.
Day 3 was dedicated to the hands-on collaboration in the working groups with coaches and experts who provided input to legal, taxation, token design and whitepaper writing among others. This allowed teams to further develop the concepts to go out an start implementing these after the summer school.
You can read the detailed full report about the BSS18 here.
What to look forward
OWiCon Blockchain 2018 - IHK Ostwestfalen. 27 August 2018
The chamber of commerce IHK Ostwestfalen is organizing their 10th congress “Ostwestfälischer Innovationskongress: Internet of Values - Anwendungen und Potenziale der Blockchain-Technologie”.
Sven will present new business models, based on distributed systems and tokens. Ostwestfalen is home of large international players like Bertelsmann or Miele. We are very much looking forward to speak in Bielefeld.
OECD Blockchain Policy Forum in Paris on 4–6 September 2018, Paris
ASTRATUM is once again present at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), at their Blockchain Policy Forum. Like in January, we will leading together with HUGO BOSS a OECD-backed workgroup on “Sustainable Supply Chain for Textile.”
The Forum will address the benefits and risks of blockchain for economies and societies, begin to identify good policy and regulatory approaches, and investigate uses in specific policy areas. The OECD welcomes over 400 senior decision-makers from the public and private sectors, experts, academics and other stakeholders for these landmark discussions.
On the 6th of September, there will be a special session dedicated to the fashion industry, where we will discuss with our workgroup potential models for governance, roadmap and use cases on “Responsible Supply Chains.”
The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The OECD was established in 1961 in Paris and has 35 member countries.
Using blockchain, smart contracts and tokens can support sustainability in the fashion sector and fight bad actors. Having sustainability in the focus, blockchain technology is not only able to decrease frictions along the supply chain, but can also track the provenance and certify the authenticity of goods. It also provides a new way of financing, potentially turning a cost center into a profit center. We will soon write a separate post, how this can be potentially achieved.
Zukunftsforum großer Banken. 10 October 2018
ASTRATUM will present new business models and be on a panel at this forum, organized by one of our clients, one of the largest German financial institutions.
Much going on. Hasta pronto and don’t forget to enjoy this incredible summer.
ASTRATUM
ASTRATUM is a blockchain venture studio, developing value in the Distributed Economy.
We develop innovative next generation solutions, blockchain strategies, help investors with investment in crypto assets and educate with “blockchain dine&talks” the world and mechanics of cryptocurrencies and blockchain to executives and managers.
Our team rely on experts with outstanding professional experience and the necessary skillset to address the interdisciplinary challenges, coming with the cryptoeconomy. We believe that decentralized tech like blockchain is a game changer, and that a blue ocean strategy is the best approach to develop meaningful innovation. We also believe that Distributed Business is the future.
Besides corporate innovation in e.g. mobility, fintech 2.0 and real estate, we develop together with partners our own ventures. For our ventures, we are collaborating with investors and team up with exceptional individuals or teams.
We are proud to be founding member of the Blockchain Association Germany (Bundesverband Blockchain) and of the Distributed Sky Alliance. ASTRATUM is also Industry Partner of the Technical University TU Berlin.
