Becoming The New World at Malta AIBC Summit 2019, Game of Thrones, Bitcoin and Mass Adoption – What’s Next?

“Why are you here? Why are we here? You don’t do things because you can, you do things because you should” are the opening words by Brock Pierce for “The Future is Now” documentary film series Episode 08 “Becoming The New World” at Malta A.I. & Blockchain Summit 2019.

Miguel Francis-Santiago joins Eman Pulis of SiGMA and takes us for a ride into the ever changing world of blockchain but this time with a twist of A.I. and IoT as Malta introduces the 4th bill during late May 2019, reassuring the community of new prospects for growth, regulation and market making for disruptive tech within the E.U. confines of Malta.

“Two weeks ago, the Malta Financial Services authority approved and listed the first Virtual Financial Assets Agents, insuring due diligence and assurances on virtual financial assets operations.” – Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat

The biggest question discussed throughout the episode is of course the future of the industry and the market, picking up the pace as the AIBC Summit rolled around just in time for the end of the crypto winter.

“Тhe winter is over. And by the way the fact that it was so perfectly timed with the season finale of the Game of Thrones.. Do you know how hard that was to orchestrate?” – Brock Pierce, Chairman of Bitcoin Foundation

Now looking into a more strategic reason why Bitcoins price went from $3500 to $8000 within 4 weeks leading up the Malta gathering may be something that Miko Matsumura proposed where the institutional money managers are looking at Bitcoin as a safe heaven. In the foothills of impending global recession, institutional money does not trust Bitcoin, but it doesn’t trust governments even more.

“They are measuring the trust in Bitcoin. The fact that its rising means they don’t trust governments more than Bitcoin. A fear driven aspect where the professionals are trying to find a safe harbor. They are looking at digital gold as a maybe just one sort of sharp ratio based asset exposure. A small chunk. But when you look at the global fortunes of the world a small chunk of that can actually move the needle in a market cap that’s around 150 billion dollars.” – Miko Matsumura, Founder Evercoin Exchange

Brock Pierce also brings up an important driver for the recent new market high of an average price of BTC hovering around $10,000 – and that is Cambridge Associates, not to be confused with Cambridge Analytica. Camgridge Associcates is the go-to group for major institutional investors.

“Cambridge Associates is the authority, kinda like the closest thing to the word of God, that if you are a pension, endowment, insurance company, I’m talking about the biggest money managers in the world, and when you work for one of those firms and you don’t do what Cambridge Associates says – you’re fired. They just said to put 30 points into Bitcoin, that should bring around 300 billion into the market, and on that basis the price went up from three to eight thousand dollars. Now there were many contributing factors – obviously that whole Game of Thrones ending, we had to time that.” – Brock Pierce, Chairman Bitcoin Foundation

Could this institutional capital pouring in ruin the technology and the vision that Satoshi Nakamoto once had with his Bitcoin whitepaper – to be a counterweight to the powers that be? Time will tell, nevertheless this institutional capital is being welcomed by blockchain companies like BELEGA, operating under the VFA framework in Malta, bridging the world of traditional investors and traditional as well as innovative companies looking for investment, allowing the smart contracts to do the rest.

“We are a regulated entity, the layer in the middle. We bring the investor together with the business in the most secure and efficient way. Our job is to make sure the STO market will be much more stable with less blood on the streets for all parties involved.” – David Wainwright, CEO BELEGA

“A smart contract doesn’t judge you by the color of skin or your gender or your age. It’s a smart contract, it’s just the rules, the rules are the rules and it’s fair. And it’s what people want, they want transparency, they want fairness, equality, justice and of course freedom. I believe these are the qualities we are circulating around. In a way society is pulling away from these failed systems of centralized power, with people thinking we want an alternate system of governance that will help us move into a more equitable age.” – Miko Matsumura of Evercoin Exchange.

Currently the global rate of adoption behind the blockchain space is less than 0.2% according to Toufi Saliba of TODA.Network, a network layer asset management protocol that promises to reinvent the blockchain space, by allowing people to build user-centric platforms for value management such as smart-contracts in a peer to peer decentralized setting, removing any dependency on third parties such as ledgers or centralized network carriers.

“A centralized entity managing a ledger means no decentralization. The same way e-mail came to the post-man and said I am 99% more efficient, it never asked for permissions to act, it just came and began working better, faster, cheaper. We are monetizing what we know and the rest of the world doesn’t know, instead of putting a layer in the middle and sucking the blood out of everyone” – Toufi Saliba, CEO TODA.Network

In the meantime, Roger Ver the CEO of Bitcoin Cash and Tone Vays a Bitcoin Maximalist and founder of Unconfiscatable conference, make a bet if the Bitcoin blockchain can outdo the BCH blockchain by delivering a transaction faster and cheaper. Roger loses the bet – the $7,00 transaction got included in the block the same day for a one cent fee. Roger lived up to his bet, giving Tone $10,000 USD to be donated to a charity of his choice.

Carla Maree Vella, another spearheading female in the blockchain space, the founder of My Blockchain Island and ConsultXD, believes that the key to mass adoption is nothing but pure marketing, and it’s important to back this marketing up with real actions and real tangible projects.

“It’s marketing, it’s pure and truly marketing. Reach the people and there will be mass adoption. I come from the gambling space, and one thing we are really good at is selling you dreams, vision, selling you opportunity. I think that if gambling has a kind of dream to it, then I believe crypto and currency has an even further dream, a further enablement for many many more people.” – Carla Maree Vella, Founder ConsultXD

At Malta AI&BC Summit a mass-adoption trend seemed to be emerging. Platforms that can take the crowdfunding aspect and tokenization of the blockchain industry into a more secure and regulated way to make sure the future of STO’s is much more stable and less damaging to a potential investor than the past of the ICO’s. TaoDust, an equity crowdfunding platform that is pairing the investor with fast growing start-ups, aiming for high gains and stable scaling for its partners on both sides, is another player from the industry that helps to attract more interest towards the blockchain space.

“In the traditional equity crowdfunding world we have three specific limits – geographical, meaning the investor can only invest in a start-up from his own country, we have high fees up to 15 percent, and usually an investor cannot exit his investment because he has to wait for an exit that may never come. We give the chance for an investor to enter an investment they missed or exit an investment they want, whenever they want. Think about kickstarter, layout is almost the same, but instead of purchasing product you purchase equity.” – Alan Tonetti, CEO TaoDust

Malta has become a jewel in the making for the world of disruptive tech. This Summit is a testament that the Maltese Government is ready to support and innovate together with the community.

Eman Pulis, the founder of Malta AIBC Summit gives us a glimpse of what to expect this November 2019 for the Malta week.

“The Government is also launching a set of incentives to entice the Medical Cannabis industry to come over, so we decided in November coming to do two shows within the same week and we’re calling it the Malta Week with Medical Cannabis and Blockchain marrying each other. There is a big demand from the blockchain industry to store medical cannabis from seed to patient, on the blockchain, and also there is a lot of investors in blockchain who have been smitten in the past by ICOs, so we’re telling them come to Malta for a week and we’ll show you what a sound investment can look like in Medical Cannabis.” – Eman Pulis, Founder AIBC Summit

Women in Blockchain has been a prevalent theme that Miguel Francis-Santiago has been pushing in most of The Future is Now film episodes. This time Miguel speaks to Anna Frankowska, a European Forbes 30 under 30 female who is currently the CEO of Nightset and an avid speaker in the industry traveling the decentralized world.

“There are some many angles to helping women take firmer ground in the blockchain industry. Free passes, encouraging speakers, role models, in the end you just want to educate further. And this change needs to be happening in multiple sectors not only the blockchain space.” – Anna Frankowska, CEO Nightest

The episode finishes off with Miko Matsumura, Toufi Saliba, David Wainwright, Carlee Maree Vella, Tone Vays and Brock Pierce sharing their thoughts on the future of the industry. The films delivers this ending punch in an inspiring way with so many different players giving almost what felt like sacred advice.

“When you buy someone a coffee, pay attention, how are they behaving? Are they grateful? Are they offering to pay or not? Why does this matter? Pay attention to the small things. They are clues. If you’re an investor, just watch people. They’ll tell you who they are.” – Miko Matsumura

“Think about Microsoft, Microsoft went public when its revenue was 100 million. This industry wants to go public day two. Let’s not do that again, we got one chance. Let’s not f*** it up again.” – David Wainwright

“I have a daughter, she is one years old and she already has her own bitcoin. I want her to use just bitcoin and not fiat when she will have her own bank account.” – Alan Tonetti

“More push towards actual technologies and building shit, getting shit done. There is a lot more value if you’re an expert, putting your time and energy into these companies rather than running around and saying the same stuff place after place after place..” – Carla Maree Vella

“Know what your bluechip is, play around with the rest, but understand why Bitcoin is not just another altcoin.” – Tone Vays

“If I was to have a prediction on the future, will we get to the point where we can have one Satoshi equal one US dollar, the answer is yes.” – Toufi Saliba

“Why are you here? Why are we here? Always ask yourself why. You don’t do things just because you can, you do things because you should. Why do you play the game? Because to some degree it is choose your own adventure. I choose positive impact, and I measure my success in this life based upon the positive impact I’m having in the world. But we are all free to choose, why we play the game.” – Brock Pierce

Most of these crypto stars will return to Malta this November 2019 for the Malta Week which runs from the 3rd to the 9th of November, having both the Malta AIBC Summit and Medical Cannabiz World Summit explore the opportunities that these two industries create when mixed together! Already scoring new additions like Akon the musician turned crypto-entrepreneur, including more high profile guests already confirmed for the exquisite gathering. The Future is Now will be there creating more moving content for the ever growing and always evolving disruptive tech space during the whole month of Malta, creating a documentary for the SiGMA iGaming Village Summit as well. Will see you all there and don’t forget to get your tickets now using this sassy 25% off discount code for all three gatherings! – FUTUREISNOW.
Stay tuned to the future, the future is now!

– Editor-in-Chief Miguel Francis-Santiago