Meet the Managers: Madrid

Jure Sutar
ICONOMI
Published in
6 min readApr 10, 2018

When organizing our events, we always try to think strategically, and this time was no different. On April 5, we organized the third event in our Meet The Managers series, this time in Spain, a country that has showed a lot of interest in our platform and, together with the Netherlands, is leading the “DAA game” with three great-performing DAAs.

As expected, there was huge interest in our event, and the seats filled up very quickly. After the article written by Javier Molina of Coinbest group was posted in Spanish media, we even had to put some extra chairs in the conference room in order to meet the demand.

This time we met in WareHouse, The Haciendas’ Club, which is a hidden gem located in the heart of Madrid. Just like in London, we were joined by four speakers: Javier Molina, the managing director of Coinbest Group and co-author of top-selling Spanish book “Blockchain, la revolución industrial de internet”; Gregor Zupanc, a Slovenian entrepreneur with over 17 years of experience in the financial industry and the CEO of Solidum Capital; Jesús Pérez, an internet entrepreneur, professor, and ex-president of the Spanish Fintech Association; and Steve Nabil Lauritsen, a co-founder of Blockchain Nordic, the company that spearheaded the first digital asset index in Denmark. Our speakers were joined by ICONOMI supporters, investors, and potential DAA managers for a day of keynote talks, interactive panel discussions focused on blockchain mainstream adoption, and great networking opportunities.

The event began with an opening speech by Matej Tomazin, ICONOMI COO, who welcomed the attendees and touched on the direction in which ICONOMI is heading.

Javier Molina, Coinbest Group

The first presentation was by Javier Molina of Coinbest Group, who explained why a DAA is the best vehicle for investing in crypto-assets and revealed the approach Coinbest uses when constructing its own Digital Asset Array. He showed the attendees the different statistical indicators Coinbest uses when evaluating projects and entertained them with his charismatic speech and great sense of humor.

Gregor Zupanc, Solidum Capital

Next up was Gregor Zupanc of Solidum Prime, who started his presentation by talking about crypto market dynamics. He presented some very interesting data as well as an illustrative example of bitcoin volatility and the effect this volatility has on portfolio value over time. Gregor argued that there is a massive bull run after every bear market and even those who bought BTC at ATH should not be worried.

This slide from Gregor Zupanc’s presentation visualizes bitcoin volatility and its effect on portfolio value.

Furthermore, he talked about how Solidum Capital evaluates projects and the company’s investment strategy.

This slide shows Solidum Capital’s investment process, breaking down the research they do on projects before buying into them.

Finally, he pointed out that the crypto market is still very small and has a lot of potential for future growth. Again he used an illustrative example, comparing the market cap of all cryptocurrencies with the value of tech giant Apple, the global gold market, the global stock market, etc.

Jesús Pérez, Tokenomics

Jesús Pérez talked about the emerging trend of tokenization that will spread across different asset classes and pointed out that cryptocurrencies as well as digital assets in general have a bright future.

The second part of his presentation focused on the valuation of crypto projects, using a comparison between TenX and Visa to explain how he views this important procedure. Lastly, he announced that he will be launching an executive program focused on digital asset valuation.

Steve Nabil Lauritsen, Blockchain Nordic

Steve Nabil Lauritsen talked about Blockchain Nordic and its BNX Index, which is comprised of two equally weighted pools with a focus on development platforms, and the actively managed BNF array, which is designed for achieving the highest possible returns. He also revealed the company’s marketing strategy and plans for market expansion and discussed collaborations with business partners as well as with ICONOMI.

Panel Discussion

Achieving blockchain mass adoption: What will it take?

From left: Matej Tomazin of ICONOMI, Steve Nabil Lauritsen of Blockchain Nordic, Javier Molina of Coinbest Group, Gregor Zupanc of Solidum Prime, Jesús Pérez of Tokenomics and Jure Sutar of ICONOMI.

Followed by a short introduction, each speaker explained his views on the current state of blockchain adoption. We discussed institutional money, which the speakers expect to begin entering the crypto market, government-issued cryptocurrencies, regulations and recent news in the regulatory world, adoption rates in different parts of the world, and the role miners will play in the future of this industry. After the panel discussion, the debate moved to the outside terrace, where we enjoyed great Spanish food and wine into the late-night hours.

Although the question in the title of our panel discussion doesn’t have a black or white answer, I will do my best to answer it in one simple sentence with which I believe most of the attendees would agree:

“What we need in order to achieve blockchain mass adoption is not a scaling solution nor a privacy protocol, but more events where people are able to exchange their ideas and discuss these topics with industry experts.”

All in all, the event was a huge success, and we are already looking forward to the next one. The feedback we got from attendees was incredible and will drive us to make our events even better. We will be hosting the next Meet the Managers event in Amsterdam on April 24. Visit our events page for full details. Join the event, become part of the conversation, and help us build the bridge between old and new economy.

Hope to see you there!

Photography by: BERNABÉ CORDÓN

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