Metaverse European Dialogue
Hi Metaverse Community,
Representatives from the Metaverse Foundation, including founder and CEO Eric Gu, recently went on a European tour to meet with traditional finance and blockchain leaders. Covering a span of 2 weeks and 5 cities, this trip promoted a cross border exchange of ideas and knowledge between international blockchain projects and exchanges based in multiple continents. Led by ZB Group’s Aurora Wong, the delegation from China included members of ZB.com, ChainX, TokenMania, Ant Node Alliance, and Metaverse team members. From Hamburg’s “Dialogue of Continents” to the Malta A.I. and Blockchain Summit, and Switzerland in between, leaders from these organizations learned tremendously from each other and came away with the consensus that blockchain is here to stay on a global scale.
Stop 1: Hamburg, Germany
The first stop in the Europe tour was in Hamburg, where the “Dialogue of Continents” took place from October 29 to 30. With a gathering of key policy makers, central bankers, and professors from around the world, this event provided enthralling conversations between the traditional financial world and the emerging technology world. A bevy of key industry leaders such as Jacob Frenkel, Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, Chairman of Societe Generale, Catherine Mann, Global Chief Economist of Citigroup, and Marc Uzan, Executive Director of the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee, all shared their insights into the state of the global economy on the first day.
On day 2, with the theme turning to the digital economy, speakers such as Aurora Wong from ZB Group, Eric Gu from the Metaverse Foundation, and Ching Zhu from Chain Board Inc. took part in engaging panels and heated debates about the digital future. Eric shared his thoughts around data privacy and digital identity in the discussion titled, “The Rise of the Digital Platform Economy: Social and Economic Consequences.” With data sovereignty in the hands of technology giants like Facebook, Google, and Apple, current users do not own their data. This means these large corporations are then able to use this data to profit off targeted ads or in the case of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, even sell users’ data to profit. Eric stated that blockchain is the solution to this data sovereignty issue, as blockchain can allow users to retain control of their own data. Specific private keys are bound to specific individuals, thus only the individuals can access their own data and have the right to then sell this data if they choose to.
In the Q&A section, it was interesting to note that Eric received the most questions from the floor, with audience members keen to know the current situation in China with regards to blockchain technology and plans for a digital currency. China is very positive on the technology layer and its potential applications in various industries like healthcare, logistics, education, and food production. Along with the Bank of England, the PBoC was one of the first central banks to research digital money back in 2014. With recent developments emphasizing blockchain technology and the roll out of a digital RMB, China is poised to be a leader in this field in the coming years.
Afterwards, our very own developer Sven and Eric filmed a quick tutorial on Bitident, a decentralized digital identity authenticator using Metaverse Avatar technology. The full video is below:
Stop 2: Berlin
The delegation traveled east to Berlin by car along the Autobahn Highway. Roughly a 3 hour drive, this stretch of road was pretty to see as the Hamburg suburbs turned to vast open fields, then to forests basking in their autumn glow, and finally to the Berlin industrial outskirts. By afternoon, we visited the offices of Long Hash, Machine Xchange Coin (MXC), and MatchX. Rather than macro-outlook conversations like in Hamburg, this time information sharing was on a technical level and more specific to blockchain. Hearing about the upcoming DATA Network and LPWAN communication was very informative and educational for the entire group.
Sven, a core Metaverse developer, asked some insightful questions to the MXC and Long Hash teams, and collectively we shared information about Metaverse and our technical capabilities like digital identities and MST’s/MIT’s. We also talked about the current blockchain setting in both Europe and China, mentioning similarities and differences between the two regions.
The next morning, we visited an up and coming project called Kilt Protocol, which aims to become a protocol layer blockchain for users, claimers, and attesters to solve the data sovereignty problem. Similarly to Metaverse, Kilt has designed an interesting token economic model to incentivize attesters and bring in the whole Kilt community. Kilt Protocol has a few use cases that are coming, and this is all before they have officially launched their mainnet. They are certainly a project to look out for!
In the afternoon, our delegation met with Fractal, a KYC/AML service provider that is already working with multiple enterprises to solve their pressing KYC/AML systems’ needs. Normally, when customers have to fill out pages of forms to sign up for a platform, for example, companies lose a large share of leads as a result of this hassle for the end users. Fractal aims to solve this issue by providing a simple solution for a single KYC check, and once done this KYC can be applied to multiple platforms in a decentralized manner. The process as demo’ed to us was extremely easy to go through.
Overall, these meetings in Berlin were valuable for us to connect to the blockchain ecosystem in a central technology hub. We shared thoughts and ideas around technology, regulation, and specific applications to relevant industries. We were happy to talk about Metaverse to these key leaders in the Berlin blockchain space, and we hope to be back some time!
Stop 3: Switzerland
On the following Monday, the entourage made its way to Zug, Switzerland. Zug, also known as “Crypto Valley,” contains a hub of blockchain and crypto start ups located around a 30 minute drive from Zurich. Inside the Crypto Valley Center, we saw the first ever Bitcoin ATM machine that was installed in Europe. The way these blockchain incubation spaces are set up in Switzerland is very conducive to idea sharing and collaboration. In CVC, for example, we visited floors of blockchain related start ups, and even saw a few presentations from stand out projects such as Zulu Republic, Utopia Music, and Transfero. Afterwards, the organizers at Nortide Capital graciously hosted a cocktail reception for all the key blockchain players, and we were able to share stories and conversations in a more intimate setting. Thank you to all the wonderful projects who hosted us in Zug!
After Zug, we visited Zurich, which by its own right is a key center for blockchain research and technology. Located right across the street from the Swiss National Bank lies the Trust Square building, which houses an array of crypto and blockchain projects from around the world. Many established players like Cardano and Ledger have an office space here, and similarly to Zug, this whole building is a hub of innovation that promotes collaboration and education between start ups.
At Trust Square, our delegation met with representatives from the Cardano Foundation, Blockchain Valley Ventures, and PwC. We also toured the building and came upon interesting designs relating to blockchain, such as the satellite above that uses the Ethereum network to relay information. To see exciting technology based projects and the promotion of education in the blockchain field was an inspiration to us.
As we wrapped up our Switzerland leg, we could feel the sense of excitement towards blockchain in Zurich and Zug. With somewhat defined regulation governing what is legal and illegal in Switzerland, my takeaway is that pretty soon we will see some fascinating and legitimate use cases regarding blockchain technology coming out from Switzerland, especially within the financial industry.
Stop 4: Malta
From Zurich, the delegation flew south to Malta to participate in the Malta AI and Blockchain Summit. The day before the summit began, we had the honor of meeting with the Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MDIA) to talk about Malta’s regulatory landscape specifically regarding blockchain and crypto companies. Key representatives from the MDIA like CEO Stephen McCarthy shared with us the current and future roadmap for handing out licenses to blockchain and tech companies in Malta. In terms of the transparency in the process of receiving official certification, Malta is one of the best, as clear guidelines are available to the public.
That evening we were all invited by ZBX, a leading European crypto exchange under the umbrella of ZB Group, to take part in the pre-summit festivities. Zeng Hao, the founder of the Ant Node Alliance, gave a memorable presentation in the cocktail reception when he sang a song in the native Hokkien dialect to express his appreciation at being able to have a cross border dialogue between Europe and China. After his keynote, I had the pleasure to share information about Metaverse technology and talk about our hybrid consensus public blockchain as well as future plans for Metaverse DNA. We received many questions and interest from the audience, who wanted to find out more about what is happening on the ground within China specifically in blockchain.
Over 6,000 delegates were at the Malta AI and Blockchain Summit, and Metaverse had the pleasure of working with the ZB Group to have a small stand next to their booth. Throughout the two days, many visitors stopped by our Metaverse stand to inquire more about our technology. I had the pleasure of showing our digital identity functions as well as our MST/MIT capabilities in the Metaverse lightwallet. The content on display at the various workshops and main stage was informative and educational, as key players within blockchain all converged at this event before heading out to CMC’s The Capital. A huge thank you to Eman Pulis and the SiGMA Group for organizing such a fun and insightful summit!
After two weeks on the road, the members of the delegation all headed our separate ways at the conclusion of the summit. Throughout these two weeks, we as a group learned a tremendous amount from our peers in Europe. The technologies and concepts that are originating in these important hubs will impact not only regional spheres but global ones in the years to come. We hope that there will be many more cross border collaborations between Metaverse and our European counterparts to drive the industry forward. This European road tour is a promising start.
A special thanks to Aurora, Jessica, and Kaice from the ZB Group, Ailin from ChainX for organizing the meetings, main photographer Yue and ever smiling Bonnie who accompanied us on this trip, the rock stars from the Ant Node Alliance, Mr. Zeng, Mr. Yang, and Mr. Zhang for their insights, and finally to Eric, who continues to lead the way in bringing blockchain into the mainstream.
