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MALTATODAY 26 September 2018 Midweek

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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 26 SEPTEMBER 2018 11 BUSINESS www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way STEVE Jobs once said that "the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do". That's the motto an anonymous person took to heart as he shook up the finan- cial world by creating an unregulated tech-based currency in early 2009. That very currency was developed using another revolutionary technol- ogy which is now in the news for its uses beyond trading unregulated on- line money, and has become a hot topic amongst financial and business execu- tives recently. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat classi- fied Malta's efforts to become a crypto and Blockchain-friendly jurisdiction as a "calculated risk" and so far his work and that by authorities to turn Malta into a world leader for both industries looks to be paying off. You could say we are now an international hub. A variety of nations across the world have spent time investigating how they can control and manage the spread of Blockchain and cryptocurrency. Malta has been moving in an encouraging direction for a while now. A number of prominent exchanges, namely OKEx and Binance, have moved here. So what is Blockchain? It's true to say that Blockchain isn't a household buz- zword, like the cloud or the Internet of Things. It's not an in-your-face innova- tion you can see and touch as easily as a smartphone or a package from Ama- zon. But in a world where anyone can edit a Wikipedia entry, Blockchain is the answer to a question we've been asking since the dawn of the internet age: How can we collectively trust what happens online? Every year we run more of our lives more core functions of our govern- ments, economies, and societies on the internet. We do our banking online. We shop online. We log into apps and ser- vices that make up our digital selves and send information back and forth. Think of Blockchain as a historical fabric underneath recording every- thing that happens every digital trans- action; exchange of value, goods and services; or private data exactly as it oc- curs. Then the chain stitches that data into encrypted blocks that can never be modified and scatters the pieces across a worldwide network of distributed computers or "nodes." A Blockchain is made up of two pri- mary components: a decentralised net- work facilitating and verifying transac- tions, and the immutable ledger that network maintains. Everyone in the network can see this shared transaction ledger, but there is no single point of failure from which records or digital as- sets can be hacked or corrupted. Because of that decentralised trust, there's also no one organisation control- ling that data, be it a big bank or a tech giant like Facebook or Google. No third- parties serving as the gatekeepers of the internet. The power of Blockchain's dis- tributed ledger technology has applica- tions across every kind of digital record and transaction, and we're already begin- ning to see major in- dustries leaning into the shift. First up are the big banks and tech giants. Big business will always drive in- novation, and the rise of Blockchain-based smart contracts turns Block- chain into a middleman to execute all manner of complex business deals, legal agreements, and automated exchanges of data. Compa- nies such as Microsoft and IBM are us- ing their cloud infrastructure to build custom Blockchains for customers and experiment with their own use cases, like building a worldwide food safety network of manufacturers and retailers. On the academic side, researchers are exploring Blockchain applications for projects ranging from digital identity to medical and insurance records. At the same time, dozens of startups are us- ing the technology for everything from global payments to music sharing, from tracking diamond sales to the legal marijuana industry. That's why Blockchain's potential is so vast: When it comes to digital assets and transactions, you can put absolutely anything on a Blockchain. A host of eco- nomic, legal, regulatory, and technologi- cal hurdles must be scaled before we see widespread adoption of Blockchain technol- ogy, but first movers are making incred- ible strides. Within the next handful of years, large swaths of your digital life may begin to run atop a Blockchain foundation and you may not even realise it. Within the European Union, Malta is ahead of the curve in establishing a legislative framework for Blockchain, though it's not the first European nation to embrace it. Lithu- ania is also becoming a cryptocurrency hub, and Estonia was close to introduc- ing a national digital currency called Estcoin. Outside of the EU, Switzerland has designated its canton of Zug as a "Crypto Valley." Plans are currently underway for Mal- ta to be the home of the world's first de- centralised bank. Founders Bank won't have any central authority. Instead, it will be community-owned by all its cus- tomers. Binance is backing the bank, serving as one of its first investors. So as Malta gears up for the Delta Summit, Malta-based tokenisation platform STASIS will host an event at Twenty Two on the 3rd October which will be attended by prominent figures from the crypto field both at home and abroad. Malta's head is on the 'block' Journalist and Exante's Communication Director Patrick J O Brien will soon host a one- hour television documentary for US television on why Malta has become the Blockchain Island and cryptocurrency hub Junior Minister Silvio Schembri at the press conference for Delta Summit Patrick J O Brien who has been chosen to host a documentary to air on US television

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