Greg Schvey, CEO of Axoni — Harnessing the Power of Private Blockchain
In today’s episode, I’m joined by Greg Schvey, CEO of Axoni. Axoni provides secure, multiparty infrastructure to automate synchronization of information and processes across entire markets. Greg previously co-founded TradeBlock and worked as a fixed income analyst at Citigroup.
Greg and I cover a range of topics, including:
His introduction to blockchain:
Greg was introduced to digital currencies through bitcoin in the early 2010s. His brother and co-founder Jeff was mining bitcoin at the time. Eventually, the two went down the digital currency rabbit hole and started blogging about cryptocurrencies. They published on the Genesis Block using pseudonyms and quickly reached over 500K hits per month. After the success of their blog posts, the two started writing quarterly reports and selling their data for bitcoin. As large enterprises became interested in their work, Greg and Jeff decided to build out additional products for institutional clients.
The benefits of blockchain technology:
Greg highlights a few of the key benefits of blockchain tech, including:
- Automated guaranteed accuracy of data — ledgers are no longer kept in offline copies
- An immutable audit trail of everything that happens — this is particularly helpful in accounting and regulatory reporting
- A shift towards standardization of infrastructure and data models — independent proprietary systems are becoming outdated
The Axoni platform allows clients to have provably accurate data that automatically syncs between them and their counterparties.
Public vs. private blockchains:
Greg is deeply experienced in both private and public blockchains and highlights the tradeoffs of both. He believes that private blockchains offer a level of comfort around security, privacy, compliance, and efficiency that is only possible when all parties are authorized into the network. However, despite these current differences, Greg believes that in the future the line between public and private blockchains will become increasingly blurry until the difference is barely discernable.
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Greg Schvey:
Greg is a repeat entrepreneur and drives Axoni’s strategic execution. He previously co-founded TradeBlock and worked as a fixed income analyst at Citigroup. Greg holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University where he studied finance.
Axoni:
Axoni was founded in 2013 with the goal of overhauling global capital markets infrastructure. That vision has become a reality through intensive technology development and deep collaboration with the world’s leading financial institutions.
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About the Author:
Anirudh Singh is a second-year MBA Candidate at The Wharton School, where he is part of the Wharton FinTech Podcast team. He has a passion for economic development, venture capital, financial services, and all things FinTech. Don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, comments, feedback, and opportunities at singhan@wharton.upenn.edu.
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