Daniel Skowronski: Fabriik Exchange will bridge the gap between the old world and a new one

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Legacy financial services are making a mistake not offering digital currency, according to Daniel Skowronski, General Manager of Fabriik Exchange.

Daniel’s extensive experience working in finance, including stints in senior management at HSBC Hong Kong and Bank of America, has left him concerned about the lack of agility in the banking world.

He warns that banks and stock markets will be left behind if they continue to ignore digital currencies. He believes that their reluctance is down to a concern with wealth preservation, saying, “I think they are sort of a victim of their own self… they sort of became cocky, they sort of became arrogant.”

Daniel explains to Charles Miller on this week’s episode of CoinGeek Conversations that this is one of the reasons why he has turned his back on the industry and is now working on Fabriik Exchange.

Fabriik Exchange is a digital marketplace, launching in June, which will allow customers to exchange directly between digital currencies. It will also include a portfolio manager where “newbies” can easily pick and choose which assets they want.

Daniel is hopeful that the service will “bridge the gap between the old world and the new world, but more importantly, create wider access to everybody.”

Access is one of the core values that underpins Fabriik and all of its products. Daniel believes that access is also the USP for digital currencies, praising their ability to give “access across a number of different categories whether it’s the rich, it’s the poor.”

Fabriik Exchange will facilitate that access by allowing users to directly exchange coins, saving transaction fees, and through the company’s ‘everything digital’ mindset.

Fabriik aims to disrupt the status quo by creating a safe and open financial ecosystem that will allow people across the globe to thrive. The firm believes that our financial system is broken, as one quarter of the world’s population (1.7 billion people) cannot access it.

Regulation will be essential for this plan. Daniel says that Fabriik has been “built first and foremost around regulation because we’re starting to see bigger players, institutions, real money starting to flow in this industry.”

The company is also keen to focus on a younger market. Daniel tells Charles a story about a 25-year-old investor who, when creating a portfolio, shunned traditional stocks and bonds and invested in five cryptocurrencies instead. Daniel explained that this experience showed him that there “is a new way of thinking, a new way of investing.” It is this millennial mindset that Fabriik intends to capitalize on.

The Exchange will be launching from the U.S. first and then rolling out to the European Union. After that, they plan to slowly move out into Asia, but Daniel stresses that no customer will be left out, saying “we don’t have to actually be there to be able to accept them.”

Daniel also talked about his interest in AI technology and the firm he founded in 2015: Yipo Technologies, which creates mobile apps focusing on imaging and video recognition. Daniel explains that his work for both companies is driven by “the idea of this open access to billions of people around the planet that was unavailable before.”

With promising signs that big U.S. banks like Morgan Stanley will be following in Fabriik’s footsteps and allowing customers to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin, the Exchange will set an example for legacy systems around the world. For Daniel, a man who credits himself with coining the phrase “trade the untradable,” this is a challenge he is relishing.

Hear the whole of Daniel Skowronski’s interview in this week’s CoinGeek Conversations podcast or catch up with other recent episodes:

You can also watch the podcast video on YouTube.

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