A SMALL ISLAND’S JOURNEY ON BECOMING A BLOCKCHAIN HUB
Last week, we were at Malta for a private event with Brock Pierce who is an American entrepreneur known by his work in blockchain technology. MenaPay hosted a cocktail honored by Brock Pierce to appreciate his contribution to the ecosystem and discuss possible opportunities that could lead to powerful partnerships in the future.
First, Brock Pierce arrived in Istanbul and we welcomed him at the airport. With Brock, MenaPay team spent half a day at Bosphorus and had a lunch on the boat while talking about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Later that day, Brock and the team arrived to Malta. Our advisor Seyit Özgür and our board member Bora Çetinoğlu were with me in that trip.
It was my first time in Malta and after Istanbul, Malta is a small island with a small population. When we saw the crowd in the cocktail, we understood that this small island believes in blockchain technology and knows how this technology will change the entire world.
Malta is the first country which has passed the regulations because all the politicians saw the advantages and moved forward on becoming a hub for all the ecosystem. Lots of companies and big exchanges are coming to Malta because of these regulations and building their headquarters in Malta. The people attending the meetup that we organized all have the similar opinion that being the first in the world gives Malta a very big chance to seize the future. Almost everyone in the meetup knows blockchain will be successful and create a deep effect like internet did in 1989 all around the globe. Blockchain is the new wave after the internet and it will disrupt all the central authorities in the future.
MENA could seize the same advantages like Malta if the opinion leaders of the region works hard. That really motivated us in our mission.
As MenaPay, we believe that blockchain can change the lives of people in Middle East and Africa region. Starting with financial systems, the future of MENA will be shaped by this technology. We will be the mover shaker of the region.
Malta gives a very good example of the clamped population for a very good purpose and it is time for us to do the same thing here as MENA has a huge percentage of unbanked population and getting payments and making transactions are already too difficult in the area.
You can always ask me questions about blockchain and financial services. Feel free to contact me via Linkedin.
WeChat ID: TolgaOdoglu
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