Friend Software at the World Economic Forum
Arne Peder Blix — CEO at Friend — presented at the World Economic Forum, January 23rd — 26th, 2018.
The Switzerland based gathering is held in Davos each year, where it attracts 2,500 plus of the world’s top business people and influencers. World leaders are also regular speakers at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Blix presented in the session Tech Tuesdays: Powering Relationships with the Tech Community during Davos. The blip talk format focused on concise presentations. Tech Tuesday was designed to give business leaders the opportunity to showcase their ideas amongst a like minded audience of technology entrepreneurs. Blix talks were all about how and why companies wanted to implement positive change in the world.
Blix Talk
Decentralised computing was married with decentralised networks in the presentation by Arne Peder Blix. The Friend Unifying Platform (FriendUP) was described as the operating environment for the internet. This was not a bold statement to make, given that the platform was immediately available for anyone to test for themselves.
The power of FriendUP was seen to be rooted in people and networks as agents of change. This was also reflected upon via The Five Pillars of Friend. These pillars -freedom, intelligence, empowerment, security and integration- share common goals to those outlined in strategy documents produced by the WEF. For example, the diagram below was taken from a WEF report. It outlines economic development in terms of the impact it can have on communities and networks of people.
The seven pillar approach adopted in the report commits to inclusion, as well as the growing of networks in a healthy and organic way. This is also the case for the five pillar approach used by Friend Software. For more information, see The Five Pillars of Friend blog post.
Initial Contribution Offerings in the Nordic Region
Best practices for safe and transparent initial contribution offerings (ICO) were also discussed at the WEF. Friend Software had become a leader in this area. Both in Norway and other Nordic countries. The Stavanger based company took the opportunity to attend ICO related events because it did not forget the responsibility that came with being a leader in its part of the world. Events included equality in technology sectors; building a better future through blockchain; CryptoHQ and knowing your customer for transparent transactions.
CryptoHQ and Blockchain
One of the most exciting things to come out of the world of cryptography and distributed computing is blockchain. It enables its users to make any form of information secure over a distributed network of exchange points — also known as nodes. Blockchain has grown in importance in recent years because it vastly improves the ways in which a transaction can take shape.
The CryptoHQ event, which was also part of the WEF in Davos, signaled that blockchain was more than media and technology spin selling. It had a long term future because the mathematics used to make it work was fundamentally secure. The role Friend Software was starting to fill in blockchain communities demonstrated why it was a notable presence at CryptoHQ, as well as the WEF in general.
Fluence
FriendUP is the operating environment for blockchain — providing a complete platform that does not compromise in terms of usability. It feeds into any workflow or preexisting end user requirement. The partnership with Fluence — a secure database built around blockchain based encryption — was a clear indicator of this as well. It was a development that literally took shape as the WEF was in session.
Summary
The partnership with Fluence highlighted that Friend Software was putting into practice everything discussed in Switzerland. It was leading the way in decentralised computing and, most importantly, was doing so in a fashion that was not media spin or business hype. Freedom, intelligence, empowerment, security and integration were truly the foundation stones upon which a new paradigm was being constructed at the WEF 2018.
