The Corona Crisis and the Mega Trends in Crypto Valley

We live in extraordinary times. The coronavirus caught us on the wrong foot. The pandemic is severely disrupting the global economy and the financial markets, paralyzing cities and countries and forcing us to keep a physical distance. Home office, long a hip lifestyle of digital nomads, has now become a compulsion. Whether we like it or not, we spend hours and days at home in front of the computer and on the phone, discussing, brainstorming and negotiating via video conferencing, working together on concepts, documents — and are surprised that a company that we have perhaps never heard of before is now worth $29 billion: Zoom, the video conferencing software that everyone seems to be using these days.

Changing habits because of corona crisis
The current corona lockdown already has two consequences for the future. Firstly, we will never work in the same way again as we did a month ago. And secondly, the digitalization of the world of work and everyday life is receiving an massive boost and will now penetrate our lives even faster. The way we network and communicate with each other will not simply disappear. The keywords are collaboration, gig economy, online business and decentralized work. These are some of the mega trends of the future.

At the same time, we are also realizing how much this digitized world is not yet perfect. Here are three current examples:

• When I buy bread at our bakery, it no longer accepts cash for hygienic reasons. For older people who cannot pay cashlessly with their credit card, my baker offers plastic cards for 50 or 100 francs, from which the small amounts would be deducted. How much easier would a wallet with a cryptocurrency be, since everyone has already a smartphone?
• Home office is currently the prime time for hackers of all kinds who penetrate systems, spy and steal data. How much do we want a truly secure and encrypted Internet where data and information can be moved safely?
• When we talk to people in video conferences and send confidential documents around — how do we know if the person we are communicating with is really the right person?

Cybersecurity, digital identity and authentication are three other mega trends. They require new technologies that are being developed at full speed, right here in the Crypto Valley. One of them is blockchain. All 27 companies in our portfolio are working on such solutions and new business models which not only make digital work and life safer and more reliable, but also offer completely new solutions and applications.

Crucial time for startups
It’s fascinating that the visionary entrepreneurs anticipated today’s mega trends years ago and would therefore be in the pole position for the future. You read that correctly, I speak in the subjunctive. Because raising capital has become much harder in times when the financial markets are experiencing historical losses. But startups need capital to further develop the technology and services, to work the market and to scale. The next few months will be crucial for many.

In Crypto Valley, everyone involved is working on solutions to ensure that as many companies as possible survive in the blockchain space. Because the future here has long since begun. The digital mega trends will come, one way or another, and the solutions to today’s problems are on the verge of breakthrough.