Encrypted

This episode was a real heart to heart. Ahmed and Faisal reflect over their experience of running the Encrypted podcast covering what they learned when creating a podcast, their favourite episodes, the challenges they faced, revisiting why they are doing a podcast and sharing future plans of Encrypted. Not your typical episode this time, but a good break and pause from the usual. Reflecting out loud has definitely renewed our purpose for delivering valuable content and making Encrypted what it Is today. We hope you enjoy!!! If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Episode 29 is here! Ahmed sits down with Walid Daniel Dib from Addenda and Vivek Bhalla from Takaful Emarat. What is insurance and what challenges does the industry face? Ahmed starts off by questioning the two guests about what we mean by insurance and the challenges that the industry faces. Vivek touches on the concept of how sharing should be closely related to this industry and how it is a social responsibility to share risk, a principle held at Takaful Emarat. Being described as an industry still with a stone age mentality, main challenges include: very low digital processes, engagement with customers is low, and fundamentally it’s all manual process orientated. Collaboration is also a key challenge that Walid pointed citing that insurance companies find It harder to come together and would rather sit on their heaps of data and not doing anything with it. Can blockchain help? And if so, how? Well of course blockchain would be able to help, and Walid and Vivek cite many examples, both theoretical and p

In our next instalment of Encrypted, episode 28 brings you an inspiring discussion with Maja Vujinovic, the CEO of OGroup and the former CIO of Emerging Technology at GE. Maja first talks about the spark that caused her to go full time in blockchain after GE. The topics around deciphering data, what incentivizes behaviours, token economies, to name a few, were the topics that stimulated her interest and has ultimately led her to speak to global corporates about different ways you can incentivize behaviour for better business models. Data, behavioural science and hype Ahmed and Faisal start off the discussion with Maja about data to see what role it plays with blockchain networks and how that interacts with behavioural economics and science that is typically embedded in these networks. Maja explains her story at GE in how she managed to convince upper management about the opportunities that well-built incentive models backed by the right data will help drive business growth and newer business models for the

Ahmed is at the World Government Summit recording from a beautiful room that overlooks the beautiful Jumeirah Beach and the Madinah Jumeirah in all its glory. And what an amazing line-up he have for this episode with two amazing guests, Lawrence Wintermeyer from Global Digital Finance and Martin Bartlam from DLA Piper. Adult supervision After initial introductions, Ahmed recalls with Lawrence the crypto panel that took place at the World Government Summit this time last year which comprised mostly of bitcoin maximalists. This is in complete contrast to this year’s crypto panel at the World Government Summit where panel members all comprised of regulators and lawyers. Interesting how much changes in one year! Lawrence and Martin emphasise the aspect that the crypto market is reforming and it is a time of consolidation and building before another round of excitement will come to the market again. Why reinvent the wheel? Most commentators would ascertain that new regulation would need to be implemented before

Ahmed and Faisal host Khalifa Alsuwaidi, CEO of Emirates Real Estate Solutions (ERES). The episode starts with Khalifa introducing himself and his experiecne in the real estate sector and how ERES was founded and how it relates to the Dubai Land Department (DLD). He touches upon the strategic objectives of ERES and the engagement model with DLD. History of blockchain in real estate Khalifa then elaborates on how DLD and ERES began their exploration in blockchain and understanding how it could potnetially transform the real estate sector in Dubai. How they began their benchmarking process and worked closely with Smart Dubai and other government entities to put a clear roadmap for blockchain implementations. The ecosystem & current implementations Ahmed asks the guest to explain in more details the ecosystem of real estate. Khalifa explains all stakeholders involved in the ecosystem and how transactions are flowing; from developers to buyers to brokers to sellers and so on. He then explains how ERES develope

Ahmed and Faisal are joined by Aly Madhavji, a Managing Partner at the Blockchain Founders Fund. The episode starts off with Ahmed describing his experience at the Binance Fair in Singapore where he gives a few highlights and takeaways as well as a general landscape of the region. Use cases and investments The show then dives deep into Aly’s background and what the Blockchain Founders Fund actually is and what it does in the industry. Having an investment arm, incubation arm as well as a consulting arm, Aly reminds us all as to why blockchain is beneficial and cites many cross-border use cases. Ahmed asks what type of companies the fund has already invested in and what are they looking to invest in going forward. With an interesting and diverse portfolio, this episode brings to light the unsung no-hype projects that are solving real problems and making real use cases. 2019 focus: Finding transformative solutions and UN Impact report Aly also delves into their different focus points for 2019; one of which i

In the 24th episode of Encrypted, Ahmed and Faisal were joined by a very special guest from the Middle Eastern bitcoin and blockchain community, Ola Doudin, CEO of Bitoasis. Being the only exchange in the MENA region with on-ramp and off-ramp (i.e. exchange fiat for crypto and vice versa), Ola shares her background and past experiences before launching Bitoasis. We were impressed by it and we’re sure you will too! First, we wanted to clear misconceptions and confusion around the ‘Virtual Currency’ ban in a policy paper that was issued by the UAE Central Bank in early 2017. With Bitoasis already being an established digital assets exchange, Ola explains how they reacted to this piece of news and how they made a clear path forward. How can you get a crypto exchange license in the UAE? This led the discussion to the subject of obtaining a crypto exchange license here in the UAE when there was no clear guidance or laws on running crypto asset exchanges. Ola explains their approach with licensing in the UAE, thei

Let’s face it, Dubai has sent ripples across the blockchain ecosystem upon the launch of its Dubai Blockchain strategy which was launched by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al-Maktoum in October 2016. Ahmed sits down with Mohammed Al-Sharid, the Senior Project Manager for Business Development & Global Partnerships at the Smart Dubai Office, which is a government agency in the UAE tasked with making Dubai the happiest city on earth. Mohammed gives a deep dive into how Smart Dubai are using their role as an implementor and orchestrator within the blockchain ecosystem to ensure Dubai becomes the first blockchain powered city by 2020. Mohammed starts off the deep dive by talking about the 3 pillars that defines Dubai’s Blockchain strategy. The First Pillar: Government Efficiency Mohammed explains the 3 different elements (Use Cases, Blockchain Platform and Blockchain policy implementation) within the first pillar and how the three contribute to help the government of Dubai increase efficiency within their gover

Happy New Year all! Ahmed and Faisal sit together to open the 2019 year with 4 predictions and trends the duo expect to see in the new year. The first trend is of course the rise of Security Tokens/Digital Securities and Security Token Offerings/Digital Security offerings (yes the industry has yet to properly set key terms and definitions, and so they are being used interchangeably). They explain what they are, why they are important and what we expect to see in this space. The second trend is all about tech implementation. This revolves more around the simple fact that many big tech implementations such as Ethereum’s Casper, main nets of popular projects and the usability of layer 2 solutions are due to launch in 2019. This will showcase whether the complementary pieces that seeks to improve some of blockchain’s weaknesses will actually show some promise. It is a huge thing to look out for as the industry is depending on the tech advancements from these grand experiments. The third is all about education an

Ahmed is joined by two Partners from Simmons & Simmons law firm; George Morris a Partner in the London office and Raza Rizvi a Partner in the Dubai office. Ahmed starts off by asking about Simmons and Simmons’ journey in the blockchain and crypto space. George explains how they started their journey by working with projects to help them navigate through the grey area that still very much exists till today. He then discusses the risk-based approach when operating in a grey area and explains why having a lack of clear definitions makes the process more difficult. The talk moves onto the different regulatory jurisdictions and how they are different from one another when wanting to conduct an ICO or any other crypto related activity. George also does a deep dive into the difference between ICOs and STOs and lays out the process for how STOs from an equity standpoint should be conducted. Yes, lots of free advice from a lawyer! The conversation then moves onto regulatory arbitrage or World War Regulation as the t

Ahmed and Faisal sit down with Samson Williams, Partner from Axes and Eggs, in episode 20 of Encrypted. In this episode the trio do a 2018 recap looking at positives, negatives and lessons learnt from the industry. Ahmed starts off with the lessons learnt from this bear market and what a 75% decline in bitcoin actually means. Samson uses examples from his education courses citing that ICOs and STOs are not businesses and how people still fall for selling low and buying high. Samson and Faisal talks about their experiences dealing with banks and how cryptocurrencies should all be about seamless user experiences and a customer service battles. Samson argues that those launching cryptocurrencies, are in fact launching global payment systems. Ahmed questions what 2018 use cases we have seen in blockchain and cites the lack of killer apps not in production as being a factor stagnating the industry. The topic of who’s winning in this market and regulation being put in place is seen as a positive element in this ind

Faisal is finally back on this episode with Encrypted alongside Ahmed. They are joined by this week’s special guest; Chris Fernandez, CEO of Block Gemini, a blockchain focused developer shop based in the UAE. The show kicks off with Chris explaining his background and the history of Block Gemini and its growth trajectory. They go into speak about one of the major projects Block Gemini are working on, a supply chain solution that tracks the movement of goods in trucks across the UAE that is already in use and close to production stage. Chris explains their enterprise blockchain solution approach when it comes to B2B relationships and B2G (business to government) relationships. He the discusses the trends in enterprise blockchain and his outlook for 2019. The three then discuss what is needed for smart contracts and blockchain technology to fully realise its potential in enterprise level applications. The IP issue is also debated as it is seen as an impediment to adoption for when enterprises are collaboratin

On episode 18 of Encrypted, Ahmed and Aniket discuss recent developments that have been happening in the blockchain world! Ahmed first starts off by talking about his experience at the Sora Summit in Macau and explains his takeaways from the investment focused event. The two then go on to discuss the recent news of the week, starting off with the SEC going after ICOs that did not comply with SEC laws. The two projects in question, Airfox and Paragon, had to return millions to investors after the SEC managed to settle charges with these projects for not following security registrations laws. They talk about what this means for the future of ICOs, in particular the future of regulation in the states. They move onto the second article which sheds light on a more progressive regulator; Switzerland, who have approved the world’s first crypto exchange traded fund. The two talk about its background, which cryptos it will be covering and what this means for the industry. Finally, they move onto the last article whic

The world is at the at the forefront of the token revolution. With the invention of non-fungible tokens, we have seen a lot of innovations and developments to find solutions to complex real-world problems. In the episode, Ahmed sits down with Aniket, and they discuss the current happenings in the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) world. The episode is centric towards explaining nonfungible tokens in a simple and easy to understand manner, highlighting the developments from the birth of NFTs till now. They covered the applications of NFTs in gaming and other industries as well as current developments in the space around nonfungible tokens. They also shared some future trends and why NFTs can possibly be valuable in the future. All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted! If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Ahmed is at the World Blockchain Summit where he records episode 16! He is joined by Loauy Al-Doory from Kambio Ventures and Saeed Al-Darmaki from Binary Financial to take a deep dive into the world of security tokens. The three distil the concept of security tokens; what they are, how they operate, the problems it can solve and also its difference with utility tokens. The taxonomy of security tokens is discussed as well as its similarity to traditional market offerings. Ahmed then starts the discussion regarding the customisation of security tokens and whether these will be breaking new ground compared to offerings from traditional markets. Current market players operating in the space are explored as well as thoughts on the challenges we must solve which will allow security tokens to flourish and be accepted. Louay also talks about the economics and multiplier effects and how they relate to security tokens. All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted! If you liked what you heard, p

Ahmed sits down with Kris Bennet, also known as the Blockchain Beard Guy, who is on the road non-stop to educate the masses on blockchain. Kris shares his experiences in educating people from different backgrounds about the technology, and his experiences in helping enterprises deploy blockchain solutions. Ahmed digs a bit deeper to understand the notion of open and closed blockchains and how this fits in with private and public implementations. For example; Does a public closed blockchain make sense? The two also talk about best approaches to identify a blockchain use case as well as dissecting the role blockchains will play as Kris argues its merely a tool that is analogous to the internet. All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted! If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word! Special Guest: Kris Bennett.

Paul Massara, CEO of Electron, joins Ahmed for the 14th episode of Encrypted. On today’s show, Ahmed explores an interesting application of blockchain technology: Energy! Paul first talks about the challenges and pain-points that currently face the energy industry, before moving on to how these challenges can be solved. Existing players in the blockchain market attempting to solve these challenges are explored as Paul explains the use cases within the energy sector in both the developed and developing markets. He also takes us into a deep dive (in layman terms) into how Electron are utilising blockchain for energy, particularly in the digitalisation of assets. All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted! If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word! Special Guest: Paul Massara.

In this episode, your hosts Ahmed and Faisal, discuss 3 interesting articles; first off is a thought leadership piece from USV around what is needed at this stage of the blockchain cycle and the overall tech cycle by looking at past trends: a killer app or well built infrastructure? The hosts have a couple of interesting points that goes inline with the article and other points which begs to differ. Then, the hosts discuss the recent Venezuelan government move which forces citizens who wish to obtain a passport to pay using the controversial Venezuelan cryptocurrency: Petro. They explain what the Petro cryptocurrency is and they discuss the impact of such a move and how it affects the country’s citizens. Finally, the hosts share and discuss the announcement of the UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) of regulating ICOs as securities. They exchange opinions on this direction and how it could foster or hinder the ecosystem’s advancement. All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode

Ahmed and Faisal sit down with the Tarik Mohammed, Chief Compliance Officer of OTC Supply. Firstly, Ahmed brings up the Wall Street Journal’s article of identifying that $90 million in suspected criminal proceeds that flowed through intermediaries such as Shapeshift over two years. The discussion goes into how Monero, and more specially how these private transactions work along with explaining concepts such as zero knowledge proofs and atomic swaps. Tarek lists the issues that the industry faces with these types of private cryptocurrencies and how these challenges can still remain with the rise of decentralised exchanges. The conversation delves into whether or not cryptocurrencies are actually used for criminal purposes and Tarek explains the ‘know your flow of funds’ concept which has become a rising theme in the regulatory space and how it impacts exchange and OTC businesses going forward. They also explain how the Journal categorised potential addresses that were associated with criminal purposes. Ahmed

Ahmed and Faisal sit down with Irina Heaver, a technology lawyer based in Dubai. First up they discuss XRP, a cryptocurrency created by Ripple, and its short ascension to number 2 in coinmarket cap and the conversation quickly goes into the concept of decentralisation as big question marks hang over Ripple’s centralised approach. The three go down the rabbit hole of historical references citing how there had to be incremental steps before real disruption took place. They also touch on whether the pump in the price of XRP was down to speculators increasing the price. Next, Ahmed delves into the blockchain uses cases that help to serve humanity! He talks about how Palestinians are using bitcoin to facilitate transactions cross border and how this serves as a pretty common use case for countries that do not have the required financial infrastructure that developed economies typically enjoy. Irina, very passionate about this subject, talks about how lucky they are of being able to participate in the internation