The Future Is Now: Miles Parry On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Always remember that everyone is just as important as one another. We just have different roles and responsibilities. Everyone on the team has the same objective to succeed, no one is too senior to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.
As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Miles Parry.
Miles Parry, Co-Founder and CEO of MPCH Labs, has extensive experience building highly secure solutions to protect sensitive data and assets. Miles has worked as a trusted consultant for a variety of government organizations, such as the Ministry of Defense, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Foreign Commonwealth Officer. Before MPCH, Miles founded and built Vo1t (now Genesis), a high-security service that safeguards valuable digital assets trusted by some of the world’s largest companies. At MPCH, Miles is focused on delivering military-grade security infrastructure and cryptographically approved business process management across economic sectors.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My background began in consulting for governments specializing in physical and cyber intelligence and security. I have an affinity for new technologies and I like to think outside of the box. When I discovered Bitcoin in 2011, I began mining Bitcoin in my mother’s basement- which is an electricity bill I still haven’t paid her back for. I entered the space very early and since then have been an angel investor and advisor for layer 1s and 2s. From 2015–2020 I founded and ran Vo1t, a secure cold storage custodian that was acquired by DCG. It eventually became Genesis Custody, which is one of the largest crypto custodians in the world. I became the global Managing Director of Custody at Genesis.
All accounted for, I have gone from shaking the tin for change for a small start-up, to be a well-regarded start-up company, to one of the most dominant crypto custodians in the world. During this process, I witnessed the maturity of our industry and developed an understanding of new-world technological advancements. I saw a lot of start-ups devoting energy and resources to fixing individual bits and pieces of the industry, but there was a problem: they weren’t thinking outside the box to address the underlying problem of how to actually harness the benefits of MPC. And this is the origin of MPCH Labs. MPC is not actually a technology, it’s a concept. People have taken this concept and made their own iterations of technology. Essentially, I witnessed other companies shoe-horn MPC tech into crypto wallets, cutting corners to enable speed to market, to subsequently capitalise on market hype. This application is cryptographically centered around a private key which means these developers have to change iterations to support new assets, which results in a continuous change of their production environment. This creates massive problems at scale. MPCH Labs applies a singular method of authentication on wallet approval which enables the largest institutions to utilize our service at scale. The MPC6 engine enables authentication and authorization capabilities cryptographically bound by 6 layers, allowing us to be adopted by multiple industries with different use cases. Our first product is Fraction, a secure wallet not just for crypto, but all digital assets as a whole. We listened to the market and digested all the lessons learned. We know what the traditional markets want, we know what the new age markets want, and we have built functionalities for both. We are using recognised and certified technologies and hardware such as HSMs to ensure the likes of governments, financial institutions, military, etc. can utilise the MPC6 engine for multiple applications.
We also recognise the importance of compliance and are therefore in process of being properly audited so that the MPC6 engine can scale and support institutional adoption.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Technically you want these moments to be rooted in success stories, but this one meeting was a bit of a disaster. There was one event where I was sitting with a top-tier bank in front of their senior department heads. Despite how intimidating the environment was, I found it really enjoyable because this particular meeting came with a eureka moment. My co-founder and I were going back and forth explaining variable tools and answering questions when the meeting turned a little sideways. Everyone we were presenting to started speaking over each other and arguing with one another. You had a security manager interrupting an operations manager who had just cut off someone from the innovations team. They were each insisting how our technology could resolve problems they had for years. They were so busy describing how our technology could help their business, my co-founder and I ended up leaving that meeting without achieving the goal of educating the attendees of our product. This was a breakthrough moment for us because it made us realise that the problem space exceeds the financial services industry and expands into multiple problems that can be solved by our engine, hence where MPC6 engine became modular to access multiple industries.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
We have built our company to be considerate of the product and issues in front of us to ensure we build our solution correctly. The MPC6 engine has 6 layers all built to be modular and cryptographically work together agnostic to an industry. As such, the breakthroughs we experience occur on a weekly basis, and it’s not just one; it’s multiple. We are witnessing new functionalities and capabilities we didn’t even expect where possible. Our eyes continue to be opened to new problems we can resolve across different industries.
How do you think this might change the world?
Did you know the common denominator of all cyber hacks in the world is a breach/failure of the authentication layer? This breach/failure has led to a loss of client data, sensitive information, personal funds, you name it. It’s imperative we have this conversation because authentication is occurring on encrypted calls, logging on to a computer, swiping your pass at the office, and even unlocking a phone; it’s in just about everything in our everyday life. MPC technology can empower governments to have fair processes in voting, it can secure corporate operations, and it can even assist in the adoption of digital money. MPC technology can aid distressed countries that are in need of financial support, prevent large-scale data loss, reinforce cyber defense, and the list goes on. Authentication may be boring, but it’s relevant and important. At MPCH Labs, we seek to support multiple businesses across a variety of industries strategically with better systems.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
The common thread in each Black Mirror episode I’ve seen was about technologies governed, monopolized, and controlled by an authority responsible for these devices. We are trying to reinforce the control of the people. We want to mitigate situations where certain corporations, for example, may try to centralize their control. All entrepreneurs in the tech space should be asking themselves how they can steward their technology to the right hands in the right way.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
Through the rigorous process of being an early entrepreneur learning how to raise funds and finding the right tool sets, there were multiple points where I saw different issues within the industry. I’ve seen a lot of companies seek to monopolize and lose touch with their objective. I watched them use their community to increase their position while forgetting where they came from. My journey is replete with learning from the flaws in our industry and we listened to those stories where companies didn’t quite have the pulse on what their customers were looking for. In just having these discussions and explaining the thesis behind MPC6 and Fraction, we’ve had a large number of institutions wishing to become design partners to help us test our initial product. Despite a bear market and the recession, we’ve been fortunate to get endorsed with our most recent raise. Between the outsized interest in companies wanting to be design partners and our Series A raise, these are good indicators we are on the right track. MPCH Labs not only enables us to service other industries, but it also allows us to build out a community of champions that can churn out specialists to adopt our technology and fix flaws in other industries themselves.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
I’m a strong believer in practicing what you preach. We often offer our technology to potential clients and let them see for themselves if our tech can do what we say it can. We are fortunate to have a large pipeline who want to adopt our tech from a variety of disciplines, especially on the blockchain-based asset side. Our prerogative, above a marketing plan, is to show industry players the questions they should be asking themselves and the problems they will face. This all goes back to the foundation of the blockchain community: it’s about a community that looks after one another. We seek to empower other companies with more than just our capabilities. We want to primarily educate them. This is the cycle that leads to adoption.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We want to be publicized by recommendations; we want to be known for our reputation. We seek to make our marketing not simply about selling others on our tech, but by education. From there we can build and improve. We also try to practice what we preach by testing and utilising decentralized solutions, such as mastodon and mirror.xyz.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
First, my wife. Without her, I wouldn’t be able to fly around the world, work late, work early hours, go to data centers, drive across countries and multiple states, or any of it. I wouldn’t be able to achieve anything if I didn’t have my support network at home. She has done and sacrificed so much to enable me to do what I’m doing. She is the most important person in my life. Second, my co-founder Cat Le-Huy. We are yin and yang. He allows me to be like a mad scientist who can think outside the box and use my dyslexia to build these technologies and solutions. He is the one with the enterprise at scale mind. He’s able to bring to life my crazy experience into something that can be accepted and understood. Being a founder is very hard and very lonely, so having that person to keep you level-set when you are pulling your hair out is crucial. The next two are my investors, Emil Woods and Murtaza Akbar who saw promise in myself and Cat. So much more than the financing, they mentored us and shared their wealth of experience in building companies of their own. They supported us through very difficult times and ultimately were invaluable to how we built the structure of our business. I personally see them as my mentors. Without any of these four people/pillars, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I am lucky to be the representative of a very strong company of 70 talented individuals. Ultimately, I measure our success by the team’s success. With that being said, what I’m most proud of is the ability to offer these people opportunities. I was not an academically savvy student, given my severe dyslexia. I was told I wasn’t smart throughout the entirety of my schooling. It only took one person to see my promise, Harpreet Johal at the FCA. Harpreet offered me an opportunity to display what I knew and as I did, it changed my life. He nurtured and guided me through my early years, and I’m keen to pay that forward. The best people in our business have been those who just needed one shot to prove how capable they were. These people have changed their own lives; all I did was give them the opportunity to do so. Degrees and certifications are valuable, but it’s a person’s mentality and drive that’s most important.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
First is to look past the problem you are trying to solve and find the root issue to solve. The second is to choose your investors carefully. Money is important, but smart money is more valuable. Make your investors work for their next allocation. Third is to surround yourself with people better than you, not just “yes people”. Fourth is to build a strong culture and look after your people. You may be the captain of the ship, but a ship without a crew will inevitably crashes. Finally the fifth, always remember that everyone is just as important as one another. We just have different roles and responsibilities. Everyone on the team has the same objective to succeed, no one is too senior to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. Though these five phrases appear simple, they are quite difficult to practice/maintain, but will pay dividends in the long term.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would love to tell people that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been kicked out/haven’t done great at school. If you have a great idea and surround yourself with the right people, anything is possible. But be aware, if it were easy, everyone would do it. If you are given an opportunity, you are going to have to be persistent. Only then can you succeed. Lots of people are given opportunities and they shy away because they say they don’t have enough money, don’t know investors, or don’t have a team. I would tell that person to surround themselves with good people who can change that perspective. There’s no such thing as being too late or too early in this process, if you have the right idea and drive to make it happen, it will happen.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My quote is this: “Why the hell not?” A lot of people have great ideas and they ask themselves why they should follow through on them. I say, why the hell not? If there’s an opportunity, go for it. What if you shake the tree and apples fall? I tell my team this everyday and it’s enabled the mentality that we are the sum of all our parts, not just the Miles and Cat show. If someone has a great idea, why the hell not? Let’s do it.
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
MPCH Labs is an industry agnostic, game-changing cryptographic authentication infrastructure that has already revolutionized government, military, and now entering the financial services space. We are aware and have proven this technology has the ability to change all industries. The challenge we face is prioritizing which industry we want to change next. We don’t just want VCs with money, we want VCs who have access to different industries we can enter and resolve issues for. As said before, we like smart money.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
