leaders in the space. It can be argued thatthe UK, which developed early humanrights, the most commonly used rule oflaw and which has been a continuousdemocracy far longer than almost anyother country could be their naturalhome.We need to ensure people and leaders,

both governmental and business and per-haps even religious, get familiar withthese technologies now. We need toensure they are already thinking aboutthe future. Being a little frivolous but top-ical what kind of “party manifesto” do wewant Artificial Intelligence to follow? Is itLabour: where we strive for everything tobe free but mortgage or futures and relin-quish our freedom and control? Or is itthe Tories: where we have to work forwhat we have, have more personal free-dom but risk the more noticeablyunequal society?To try to help influence this the right

way, Eric van der Kleij (creator of theiconic Level 39 ecosystem) and I are build-ing a global ecosystem of connected hubs.Our project, dubbed Asymmetric, is tak-ing industry experts with great technolo-gies and converting them gradually andthoughtfully to AI versions while engag-ing with Government, technology compa-nies and both the wider public andeducators to ensure the solutions wedeliver are a positive for humanity andnot an undesirable one.As the Daoist philosopher Laozi said “a

journey of a thousand miles begins with asingle step”. Let us make sure we take theright first steps and that we are carefulwhat we wish for.

£Daniel Doll-Steinberg, Cofounder ofthe Asymmetric Project & Founder ofAtari Token, in conversation with JamesBowater. You can engage with Daniel viaTwitter: @dandoll

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: THE VIEWSAND OPINIONS PROVIDED BY CITY A.M.'SCRYPTO INSIDER AND IN THE CRYPTO A.M.SECTION SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN ASINVESTMENT OR FINANCIAL ADVICE.ALWAYS CONSULT WITH YOUR FINANCIALADVISOR.

Planning to trade cryptocurrencies in2020? There is a very serious risk thatmany have overlooked. There are

also solutions!Every week “Crypto Scam,” and "Bitcoin

Ransom” jump at you from headlines.Official statistics confirm that digital crimeis increasing. The Australian Competitionand Consumer Commission, for instance,reported a 190% increase in fraud this year.

Cryptocurrency is often incidental to acrime itself. Contrary to popular belief,most cryptographic transactions aretraceable to a degree and digital sleuthshave recently helped bring criminals tojustice. As more villains are caught, therisks of crime should outweigh therewards.

People working with cryptocurrenciesconsider the risk of theft, particularly byhackers, to be a serious concern. Internaltheft is another worry. Sincecryptocurrencies are effectively bearerinstruments where transactions are

irreversible, “fat-finger” operator errorscan also be catastrophic. For thesereasons and more, professional digitalasset custodians were created. Some areeven independently insurable to manyhundreds of millions of dollars, such asMetaVault’s solution.

There are other serious risks, which areeasily overlooked.

When digital assets are not being storedsafely in a custodial facility, they aremostly held at an exchange. There are

28 TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2019FEATURE CITYAM.COM 29TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2019 FEATURECITYAM.COM

Companies and individuals cannot affordto ignore efficiencies by taking advantageof technological improvements; eventhose that reduce all our employmentprospects. This will lead to huge structur-al changes. Every industry will be disrupt-ed – from housing, to transport, toworkspaces and locations, working prac-tices, business models, roles and com-mutes, and even the environment. Weneed to start considering these impactsand preparing now.Fortunately we still have time. This

technology is still at a very early stage andthere is still a scarcity of talent to buildthese technologies. There will likely alsobe considerable resistance to the disrup-

tion it creates. In addition, technologiesare usually subject to Amara’s law where-by we expect them to outperform in theshort term and then forget about them.However, the other side of the law, is thatthey outperform over the medium termand have impacts far greater than we canimagine. So now is the time to act; beforethey reach that stage.We also have to consider where we

want these cognitive technologies to belocated and which legal and moral sys-tems they adopt. My view is that a morediverse and multicultural location suchas Europe is a far better place than amore insular or autocratic one: and atthe moment the US and China are the

At the Malta AIBC (ArtificialIntelligence and Blockchain)Summit earlier this month Igave a keynote on “Ecosystemsfor Innovation and Disruption”.

Focussing on the fastest ways of achievingadoption with these disruptive technolo-gies, the merging of venture capital fund-ing, technical service delivery andcollaborative working ecosystems may beone of the most effective. This wouldenable great teams with innovative prod-ucts, and deep industry knowledge, to dis-rupt their industries without disruptingtheir and their customers’ businesses.It is only through the mass adoption of

any technology that we see it bringinghuge efficiencies and benefits. WithArtificial Intelligence the impacts onhumanity could be enormous. It shouldbe a cautionary tale that the huge SocialMedia companies were originally held upas likely channels to improve the worldand put the power back in people’s handsyet, less than a decade later, they haveseemingly damaged our society andresulted in dangerous fake news, echochamber mentality and possibly influ-enced elections. Partly because of Section230 of the USA’s CommunicationsDecency Act.However Artificial Intelligence has the

potential to do so much more: transform-ing our Future of Work, society and every-thing around it. I have, for many years,been fascinated by the question of theFuture of Work, starting as an advisor tothe European Commission looking atinnovation, growth and jobs, from thechanges brought about by the relativelymore primitive technologies that werebeing delivered 15 years ago. Our nextgeneration technologies are potentially amuch more serious matter for us all, asthey start to mimic our intellectual skills.So they now deserve much more of ourcollective attention. For instance theEconomic Singularity Club considers theimpact of Artificial Intelligence on ourjobs’ market and society and how weshould be influencing that now, in orderto avoid the same type of mistakes madewith Social Media.History is usually an invaluable guide:

the Industrial Revolution, which merelyimproved on our physical skills, saw the

number of agriculture workers in theUSA decline from 70% in 1840 to less than2% today. More terminally, the numberof horses declined some 95% from over 20million then to around 1 million today.Humans didn’t suffer as badly, as we wereable to find new jobs because of our abili-ty to take on intellectual jobs; horses werenot so lucky. More recently the comput-erisation of the Financial Services indus-try - and derivatives technologies -radically changed finance jobs and led tothe closing of the legendary tradingfloors and stock exchange pits and mosthigh street bank branches, requiring therepurposing of all that real estate.We are now entering the next great

human revolution: one which we couldcall the Cognitive Revolution, as technolo-gy improves on our intellectual skills. It’sthe merging of Artificial Intelligence,Blockchain, the Internet of Things andDecentralisation, which are the buildingblocks, that will likely make this possible.As we do not yet know what humans canoffer apart from their physical and mentalskills, these technologies may well trendtowards steadily replacing every area ofemployment that we are currently able toparticipate in. Whilst this is clearly a concern, the

inevitability of competition makes theadoption of Cognitive Revolutionsolutions probable or even unavoidable.

In association with

CITY A.M.’SCRYPTO INSIDER

Crypto A.M. shines its Spotlight on MetaVault

@CityAm_CryptoE:CryptoInsider@cityam.com

JAMES BOWATER

PARTNER CONTENT

Our series on AI, Blockchain, Cryptoassets, DLT and Tokenisation

Mainstream adoption of bitcoinand other digital assets is goingto be slower than many of us

would like. This is in part down to dis-trust of the space as most times bitcoinor crypto gets mentioned in the main-stream press it is in relation to hacks,blackmails, drugs, and in particularscams.Scams like OneCoin have been able to

infiltrate the minds and wallets of thenon-technically or financially literatethrough something known as networkmarketing or multi-level marketing.MLM has been shown to be a highlyeffective way of spreading the word ofan ‘investment opportunity’, particu-larly when the investment is sold as arevolution and destined to succeed.This is particularly true when thesescams enter tightly knit communitiessuch as churches or mosques. Timeand time again, we have seen thesescams ravage parts of Africa and SouthEast Asia via religious groups who havestrong bonds and trust each otherimplicitly – only faith is required,right? Due diligence flies out of thewindow, and relying on implicit trustof others is everything.The scammers always use the façade

of highly complex industries that veryfew people understand through andthrough. Over the past eight years or sothat I’ve been helping to expose thesescams, I have witnessed cover storiesthat include investment opportunitiesin carbon credits, waste recycling,online advertising and VOIP. It’s no sur-prise that with the rise of Bitcoin, cryp-tocurrency was the perfect pretence forthe next wave of scams.OneCoin pretended to be a new cryp-

to that would be a bitcoin killer, whenin reality there wasn’t even aBlockchain. Other scams in this spacehave used crypto mining and cryptotrading as the lie that covers theirPonzi scheme. However, whatever thepretext is, you can be sure that behindthe scenes there is nothing going onbut a money shuffle in true CharlesPonzi style.

If you want to spot a scam just lookout for the obvious warning signs, andin all of these there’s more red flagsthan you’ll find on a communistmarch. Any investment offering that isbeing promoted via social media is apretty big sign that it lacks legitimacyto begin with, that and the lack ofFCA/SEC registration – just because aninvestment is using a different curren-cy to GBP or USD, it doesn’t mean itdoesn’t fall under securities regula-tion.Regulators and law enforcement

must look to be far more proactive onthese scams. The FCA did pout out awarning in regards to OneCoin in 2016,and then withdrew in 2017 with noreal explanation. This allowed thosewho’d been duped to continue on intheir Ponzi stupa as it was explainedaway that OneCoin must surely belegitimate if there’s no more warning.In mine and others' opinions, the FCAfailed in their responsibility to UK con-sumers who have lost money to theOneCoin scammers.Last Thursday we saw the first convic-

tion in the OneCoin saga with MarkScott, a former partner of respectedlaw firm Locke Lord, now awaiting sen-tencing for his part in laundering inexcess of $400 million of stoleninvestor funds. This should be a shotacross the bow of all scammers hopingthey can ride away into the sunset withtheir ill-gotten gains.We need to close the scammers down

faster, even when we know that anoth-er one will pop up to replace it fiveminutes later. If you care about thisspace and you see scammers, reportthem to the FCA and City of LondonPolice, write blogs, contact the press,do something, whatever it is - justdon’t sit idly by and complain aboutbitcoin not being mainstream yet asthough it’s someone else’s responsibili-ty.

Jon Walsh, Blockchain, Digital Assets andAdtech professional and amateur sleuth. Getin touch via Twitter @walshjonwalsh.

CryptoCompare announced last weeka major update to its cryptocurrencyExchange Benchmark.

Launched in June 2019, the benchmarkwas created in response to growingconcerns over crypto exchanges engaging inwash trading and incentivised tradingschemes to inflate volumes. The new reportnow ranks over 160 active spot exchangesglobally, using eight key metrics. USexchanges top the rankings - with Gemini,itBit, Coinbase and Kraken taking the top 4spots.

It has been a bruising week for bitcoin andother top cryptoassets with major lossesseen over the weekend. Bitcoin began theweek poorly by dropping below the $8,000mark, before continuing its slide to dropbelow the $7,000 mark for the first timesince May, recording weekly losses of over20% to trade at the time of writing at $6,777.Altcoins also suffered, with ethereum (ETH)dropping nearly 25% over the week to tradeat $138.

In more positive news, digital asset futuresplatform Bakkt saw record volumes for itsbitcoin futures product. According to datafrom Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) -Bakkt’s parent company - daily volumes onthe platform hit a new all-time-high onFriday to reach over $20 million. The newrecord represents a 30% increase over theprevious all-time-high seen on November8th. After a slow start in September, Bakktvolumes have been growing consistentlyahead of the launch of Bitcoin options onthe platform in December.

Fidelity Digital Assets, the cryptocurrencyarm of Fidelity Investments, last weekobtained a trust company charter from theNew York Department of Financial Services(NYDFS), allowing it to offer cryptocurrencytrading and custody services to institutionsin the state. Fidelity now joins 22 othercompanies that have been approved for acharter or license by the regulator to engagein cryptocurrency-related business in theregion.

CRYPTOCOMPARE MARKET VIEW

Crypto and scams

CryptoCompare’s Exchange BenchmarkReveals U.S. Venues Score Highest

Serious security leaks in digital assetworkflows could netattackers millions

of dollars

Earlier this month MeltemDemiorors, chief investmentofficer of CoinShares group

declared “Blockchain is dead”.Conversely, other people claim that thenext wave of multi-billion dollarcompanies will come from blockchain.

If we look at investment in blockchaincompanies, the investment issignificantly less than the heady daysof crypt-frenzy in 2017 and early 2018.People were emotionally investing toensure that they didn’t miss out on thenext gold rush, Internet bubble, Dutchtulip craze. But most people had noidea what they were investing in, andfewer still looked at the challenges ofthe underlying business models.

Blockchain is growing slow and

steady and gaining adoption withinmultiple industries. Blockchain isbenefitting not just finance, but alsosupply chain and identity.

Many enterprises have experimentedwith blockchain enough that they canconfidently tell their customers andshareholders that they are on top ofthe technology and watching themarket. Others fully grasp the value ofblockchain as a new form of glue thatcan safely and securely connectmultiple companies to allow for newbusiness models, products andservices. And yes, some enterpriseshave recognised that blockchain posesa material threat to their currentbusiness models.

Blockchain networks can generate

billions in value. But this value does notand will not go to a single company.The value will not go to the Facebookor Google of blockchain (and yes - thatincludes Libra). The value of ablockchain network is contributed by,and returned to, the participants of thenetwork. Ledger data and theapplications built on top of this data iswhere the real value lies.

Blockchain is far from dead.Blockchain is growing slowly andquietly in the background. Equally, nosingle startup or firm is going to makebillions on some blockchain idea.

Get in touch with us:info@blockchainrookies.com / Twitter@igetblockchain

CRYPTO A.M. INDUSTRY VOICES

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Troy Norcross, Co-Founder Blockchain Rookies

BLOCKCHAIN IS DEAD,LONG LIVE BLOCKCHAIN

brokers and custodians. You can't phoneyour fund's bank and ask them to wire thecash to your personal account! Crypto isdifferent: you send the coins to theexchange, you trade, and you send anyresidual coins back to your custodian orwallet. Crypto traders have a gravefiduciary responsibility they don’t havewhen working with any other financialinstrument. This is very dangerous.

This serious security leak in digital assetworkflows could net attackers millions ofdollars at a time if exploited. Alarmingly,almost every firm is at risk today. As digitalsecurity specialists, we created a solutionto this problem earlier this year.

If a crypto trader literally holds the key totens of millions of dollars there is only onesolution: take the key away! Even if notdirectly targeted by criminal gangsrunning a simple online search, a few badmonths - that kill a trader's chances ofearning a bonus that year - might temptthem to do something they shouldn’t beable to do in the first place.

MetaVault can protect you today with itsstand-alone, self-serve solution. A fewother companies also offer fiduciary riskshields. If you are planning to trade digitalassets I strongly recommend puttingsomething in place as soon as you can.Don't let the 2020 crime-wave claim you asa casualty.

For further information visithttps://metavault.com

hundreds of exchanges globally thatfacilitate the trading of thousands ofdifferent digital assets. Funds have sprungup to trade them in the last few years butthere are other users: businessesaccepting crypto payments; corporatetreasury functions; and so on. We are

seeing family offices hedge politicaluncertainty and fiat devaluation withbitcoin holdings.

Crypto exchanges are unlike theirinstitutional counterparts. Shares aretraded on a stock exchange, reconciled viaclearing-houses and transferred between

Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt. In the technologyscene this is the meaning of the acronym FUD,often used in conjunction with the word

‘noise’; “too much FUD and noise divertingattention and causing uncertainty!”

Last week there was no shortage of its use and is something that thenascent crypto and blockchain industries can do without as FUD is usedto attack or boost projects and services which can then have a directimpact on market pricing. When false rumours transcend into ‘fact’ viathe media becoming ‘Fake News’ the effects can be immediate.

By way of example, a Twitter row erupted when Changpeng ‘CZ’Zhao, founder of Binance - the world's largest crypto exchange, reactedto Frank Chaparro’s piece published by The Block last week claimingthat the Binance offices in Shanghai were recently raided by thepolice as part of China’s crackdown on bad actors. CZ claimed thatthis was inaccurate reporting and that the Binance office had longsince shut and not in response to a ‘police raid’. According to CZ TheBlock refuses to apologise so he’s now going to sue the publisher andhas set up a fund to counteract ’FUD’. He also contested that as aconsequence the Bitcoin Price has been negatively affected.

Certainly at the time of writing Bitcoin (BTC) was trading down atUS$7,247.16 / GB£5,601.85; Ethereum (ETH) is at US$148.83 /GB£115.60; Ripple (XRP) is at US$0.2220 / GB£0.1717; Binance (BNB)is at US$15.46 / GB£12.01 and Cardano (ADA) is at US$0.03668 /GB£0.02846 Overall Market Cap is at US$196.6bn / GB£152.40bn(data source: www.CryptoCompare.com)

Decentralised Finance (DeFi), according to DeFi Prime, is themovement that leverages decentralized networks to transform oldfinancial products into trustless and transparent protocols that runwithout intermediaries. London based Plutus DeFi is the first cryptolending aggregator company focused on the development of privacyand self-sovereignty within smart contract protocols, protectingusers with private transactions throughout their lending & borrowingexperiences. Backed by well-known VC firms such as Neo GlobalCapital & Obsidian Capital, the company has set sights on becomingthe leading DeFi lending solution in Europe.

I caught up yesterday with Malcolm Palle of Coinsilium Group, the NEXlisted blockchain focused venture builder. He shared the news that itis looking to launch a blockchain software and smart contractdevelopment studio in Gibraltar and has signed an MoU withGibraltar based technology management company Devmons underthe name TerraStream Blockchain Solutions.

He believes that the global blockchain market is expected to be worthUS$57billion by 2025, with major growth drivers coming from financialservices, gaming, media, healthcare, consumer and industrial products,transportation, retail and the public sector. Naturally Malcolm expectsTerraStream to be well positioned to compete effectively in this fast-growing global market with the aim of commencing commercialactivities in Q1 2020.

Justin Short, CEO& Co-Founder ofMetaVault

FUTURE OF WORK?IT’S THE COGNITIVEREVOLUTION

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