Malta Blockchain Summit 2018 day 1 recap

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The inaugural Malta Blockchain Summit (MBS) kicked off with a BANG today at the Intercontinental hotel, an event attracting thousands of blockchain professionals from around the world. MBS created a buzz so big that all the hotels in the area are completely sold out and delegates are literally spilling into the Intercontinental lobby, outside on the street and all around the St. Julian’s area.

While the main purpose of this event is to raise awareness of Malta as a blockchain-friendly jurisdiction, the summit has also succeeded in attracting experts from Malta and beyond to talk on all things blockchain.

Malta native Angelo Dali, famous for his work in artificial intelligence (AI), iGaming and now blockchain, emerged for the first time as the CEO of Umnai, a company building ethical AI solutions. Just last night, Dali assisted in the sale of an AI-constructed painting at the Malta Blockchain Summit Awards for a whopping 17,500 Euros. Dali shared with CoinGeek.com how his world of AI and blockchain overlap, creating an exciting intersection of two ground-breaking technologies.

“AI and blockchain obviously have some applications together, for example in the art world, what we’re going to do is to put the artwork itself on the blockchain and make sure that we have a certificate of authenticity of the art”, explained Dali.

“For example, this artwork has been sold for 17,500 in Malta on 31st October. You can actually go online and anyone can check, this is the real price of this artwork and you can follow its history using the blockchain”, he said.

“And I think this will revolutionize also the way that auctions are done, the way that pricing is done, to bring transparency into the art world”, Dali added.

Today’s “government vs. blockchain” session featured Matthias Klees of Europe Coin, the company behind the “Finance Cloud” API. The Finance Cloud is a user device and a protocol that can be plugged into the home network as a smarthub into a cloud of financial services. The device connects the “internet of coins” with the internet of things and services, essentially connecting one blockchain to another and simplifying the entire process for all users of the system.

Klees is also an expert in European Union policies (and the politics behind them) and shared his opinion on how the EU views blockchain technology at present.

“You have to divide the European union into two parties because there is the government itself and there’s the central bank and they are in completely opposite opinions about this whole thing”, Klees explained.

“This makes the government often react, especially in terms of regulation, which I critique very much, react in an unpredictable and unclear way because they are afraid to say something wrong, which the central bank doesn’t like. They are much more open to crypto currencies than they can say”, he shared.

In addition to its limitless use cases and capabilities, Blockchain technology is brilliant because of its potential to open up the world to so many people, especially those who are based in developing countries and the underbanked. For example, the Founders of Reitium, a global equity crowd funding portal and secondary trading exchange, have developed a blockchain-based platform that simplifies real estate investment for all.

“So we allow people to compliantly invest in real estate for as little as 100 dollars, earn rental income on a monthly basis and sell their portion back to the global market in a compliant way in under a minute”, Michael Moll of Reitium exclusively shared with CoinGeek.com.

In terms of the role blockchain plays in this project, Moll explained how Reitium utilizes three ledgers:

“We use the blockchain to have a global property ledger, of all the properties, all the documents, that align with that. We have a ledger of all the investors, their accreditation, their identities and their anti-money laundering for processed money and the final thing is a register of all the shares, we call them security tokens, and all their ownerships and all the rights relate to that”, Moll explained.

“So those three things interplay in a way that we can actually reduce the cost of real estate investing by 90% by opening up the market to the next two billion people who are dying to get in and unlock a trillion dollars of sleeping capitol”, he said.

“This is seniors, millennials, people in developing world with 100 dollars, 5,000 dollars saved up, buying avocado toast, going on holiday because they don’t think they can get assets. Our platform is perfect for them and we’re so excited to be launching in about a month”, he added.

Everyone attending the Malta Blockchain Summit expresses excitement in the concept of “Blockchain Island” and commends the Maltese government for their open minds and forward thinking. Genesis Mining believes businesses in the blockchain space need certainty from the regulator and this is exactly what Malta is now able to offer.

“I think its remarkable to see Malta really stepping forward in a very progressive way. They want to make this the “Blockchain Island” and they are putting a lot of incentive and efforts into the regulatory framework to basically give the companies that are coming here more regulatory certainty which is an essential driver for that”, Genesis Mining CEO Marco Streng told CoinGeek.com.

“I think this is great and I think its also a great example for other countries and we will probably have other countries to follow that and that’s a whole new push on a global scale”, he added.