Selangor Journal

Bloconomic Malaysia 2018 Smashing Success

KUALA LUMPUR – The inaugural Blockchain Economic Summit 2018 concluded with a resounding success recently as participants and speakers from around the world congregated at what was hailed as a stimulating platform that brought together a thousand over people from the blockchain sphere.

The 2-day event on the 16th and 17th of August saw active networking between participants, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors which according to event organizer, Boey Kwa Jian “was a rare opportunity to meet so many international participants at an event in Malaysia.”

Over a thousand participants and seventy speakers packed the Connexion Conference and Event Centre where issues on regulations and ICOs were discussed, new projects pitched and most importantly insight into how blockchain is disrupting the world as we know it.

Boey, who is the Secretary of the Malaysian Blockchain Association and a Director at Alphacap Berhad started planning for the summit in April this year and travelled all over the world curating the top names in the industry to speak and exhibit at the summit.

“I wanted to organize a summit where people could see how blockchain technology can be applied to the economic ecosystem. I wanted to organize a summit here, at the heart of South East Asia to stimulate innovation and create possibilities in this part of the world.”

The summit drew active tech media participation from all over the world including China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, the United States of America and Europe as well as solutions-based companies and tech providers.

Partnerships and applications
Speaker and exhibitor, Anthony Davie, CEO of Invech Group, said blockchain technology can be a disruptive force across industries. According to Davie, Invech Group is the first blockchain solutions entity to be licensed by a government.

“We were awarded licenses in the blockchain and cryptocurrency framework by the Timor Leste government to assist the government in building a blockchain service consisting of Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Services and Decentralised Applications creating a digital government with digital infrastructure and secure digital identities.”

With licenses awarded in the banking system, export and import, civil engineering development, renewable energy development, raw material mining and detonation, hotels and casino industry, as well as solid backing from the government of Timor Leste, the country is poised to become the world’s first fully functioning blockchain nation.
“Clearly, all this is a lot for one company to handle and we are looking for partners and expertise to contribute towards this project,” he added.

 

Sankalp Shangari, founder and CEO of LaLa World, a fast-growing Asian technology company using blockchain to create a connected financial ecosystem for the unbanked, migrants and refugees around the world, said that “one of the opportunities in the next decade is with the two billion unbanked people around the world.” LaLa World wants to create a financial ecosystem that would cater to their needs and improve their lives.

Earlier this year, LaLa World announced a strategic partnership with blockchain-powered remittance company Rebit.ph (“Rebit”) to expand its payment networks. With the partnership, LaLa World will bring increased access to financial services for the unbanked in the Philippines, a major step towards its goal of global financial inclusion.

According to Shangari, Malaysia has the potential to earn millions if not billions in the short-term if it finds its niche in the blockchain sphere soon as how other countries in the region like Vietnam has done.

In a recent online article, Forbes predicts that Vietnam may very well be South East Asia’s blockchain innovation hub. With a projected growth rate of 6.7% as reported by the World Bank, Vietnam still has much room for improvement citing that only 31% of Vietnamese adults have bank accounts while smartphone ownership is on the rise with 40% of the population expected to own one by 2021 creating a sizeable opportunity for app-based blockchain financial services for the unbanked.

Time to regulate
A recent 242-page report “Tailoring Malaysian blockchain regulations for the new digital economy” by University Malaya urges the Malaysian government to provide a relaxed yet effective regulatory environment for blockchain technology to flourish. The report noted that adoption of blockchain technology is crucial to the country’s economic and technological development, and the legal issues concerned must be further explored and addressed.

Ironically, Kuala Lumpur is now home to international technology developer NEM Foundation which recently opened its new Southeast Asian HQ here, a 11,000-square-foot-facility that NEM claims is the biggest blockchain focused facility in Asia. It will serve as a learning centre, incubator and accelerator for blockchain related startups. However the legality of crypto-currency trading in Malaysia remains in a grey area as it isn’t declared illegal but remains unregulated.

Recently on July 4th, the Maltese Parliament passed 3 bills into law, establishing the first regulatory framework for blockchain, cryptocurrency and DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology).

This tiny island in the Mediterranean is now at the forefront of innovation in the blockchain sphere making it the first country to offer holistic regulatory framework for DLT operations. In a Forbes interview, Silvio Schembri, Malta’s Junior Minister for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, commented that the Maltese government is focused on the technology behind blockchain and what it can offer in the long-run.

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