It is Spring and Markets have decided to offer Miss volatility a premier role and put on the central stage a slippery slide whose end is not visible to the audience. I actually, slipped the day after the Blockchain Leadership Summit (my takeaways) but couldn’t afford to miss the CryptoSummit 2018 despite my knee fracture. As Vinny Lingham, CEO of Civic, postulated “The future of the world is not about information but about the keys”.

The CryptoSummit2018 for me, was about keys to fresh insights!

Insight #1: The female entrepreneurial model by Smart Valor

Blockchain Bros are outnumbering Blockchain Girls, in numbers, in funding, and in wealth. It is easy to be a man launching a Blockchain startup, an event, or a fund.

Olga Feldmeier, CEO of Smart Valor and producer of the CryptoSummit, is a woman, a foreigner, launching an early stage startup focused on tokenizing alternative investments. The conventional way to operate would be to raise funding, go in radio-silence, and launch the platform. Then dare to think of investing in becoming a thought leader in the much-needed self-regulatory movement and allocating resources to contribute to the Crypto global ecosystem.

The female Blockchain way of Smart Valor = open-source self-regulatory crypto intelligence, earn (not pay) media, and build a global community with a smile!

Insight #2: No consensus on whether the future is big on “utility tokens” or on “security tokens”

The question has not been answered but it is a hot topic, especially for investors. Jon Matonis (of the Bitcoin Foundation) believes that the future is in favor of utility tokens, simply because the benefits of “security tokens” do not outweigh the frictions and costs involved. Alex Tapscott, on the other hand, implicitly favors “security tokens” as he sees the rich and large universe of existing financial securities becoming tokenized.

Insight #3: A glimpse into monetary and fiscal policy without Legal Tender

If we ever shift from the current illusion of State money to the next bottom-up illusion of crypto, what will the world look like? Jon Matonis, the Lithuanian I thought was of Greek origin, was mesmerizing as he juxtaposed the top-down illusion we live in with Legal Tender and the emerging bottom-up crypto illusion.

Can I tickle you?

• Think of Gold as analog bitcoin!
• Realize that Mt.Gox losses were not socialized.

In an era without any Legal tender, Monetary policy will mean No interest rate manipulation from central institutions and there will be No fractional reserve banking to manipulate credit, simply because there is No lender of last resort in this “bottom-up” illusion.

Can I tickle you all again (the Swiss are excluded from this)?

• The Vollgeld is the Swiss Monetary initiative against money creation from public, central institutions. The petition was signed in early 2016 and is now listed to appear in the June 10, 2018 referendum.
• Will the CryptoValley association take an official position on this?

On the fiscal policy side, there will be no deficit spending. In this currently futuristic world, spending will match revenues. Governments will not be able to borrow and fund their traditional activates (e.g. wars).

Spending will be 100% transparent and therefore, it would make sense to shift to a consumption tax framework rather than an income tax framework.

Insight #4: Keys to monitor

The Digital Identity subsector we all know is critical and will become the invisible key to unlock a lot of value in the 4^th industrial revolution.

We will be witnessed more attempts to usurp cryptos, as their political ramifications become evident. Alex Tapscott, sees powerful incumbents also in that mode.

Smart Tokens will be key for the next phase of the evolution. Richard Olsen, referred to one kind that could solve the cybersecurity issues around private keys. A smart token that allows you to cancel the token once your private key is stolen.

Efi Pylarinou is a Fintech thought-leader, consultant and investor. 

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