#Permissionless, permissioned. #Cashless, cash-filled—two of the larger discussions currently underway in the #fintech world. However, a recent paper by Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh suggests that the most beneficial way forward may be to merge the two. The paper, which can be viewed here, postulates that #blockchain is ideally suited toRead More
Bank Innovation
With the world’s largest financial services sector and a booming tech sector, #London is undoubtedly the capital for any #fintech startup in Europe, combining the key ingredients for success: capital, talent, regulatory and government support and demographic diversity.
In 2015, investment in fintech companies around the world rocketed by 106% to US$ 13.8 billion through 653 deals, according to the Pulse of Fintech report by KPMG and CB Insights. London alone accounted for US$ 743.7 million through 50 deals.
Image: Tower Bridge, London, via Pixabay
The strength of London’s policy environment is coming from the supportiveness and accessibility of Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Recent initiatives have allowed businesses to test out financial products and services in a proposed environment that is exempt from standard regulations.
Notably, the FCA launched over the summer the regulatory sandbox, which is designed to foster fintech innovation while remaining under the supervision of the UK&8217;s financial regulator.
In November, the authority unveiled the 18 fintech companies constituting the sandbox&8217;s first batch.
Among the companies selected, Billon, Otonomos, Nivaura, Epiphyte, Govcoin, SETL and BitX are three ventures applying #blockchain #technology to varied areas in financial services.
Billon is an e-money platform based on blockchain technology that facilitates the secure transfer and holding of funds using a mobile app. BitX and Epiphyte provide cross-border money transfer services powered by blockchain technology. Govcoin, a technology provider that has partnered with the Department of Work and Pensions, is exploring the feasibility of making mobile emergency payments using blockchain technology. Otonomos offers a platform that represents private companies’ shares electronically on the blockchain, enabling them to manage shareholdings, conduct bookbuilding online and facilitate transfers. And Nivaura uses automation and blockchain for issuance and lifecycle management of private placement securities.
SETL provides a smart-card enabled retail payment system based on its OpenCSD distributed ledger technology. The company has recently raised US$ 39.5 million from angel investors, according to Bloomberg.
In November, SETL, Deloitte and Metro Bank successfully tested a new contactless payment card that enables retail payments to be processed and settled almost instantly by using blockchain technology. The car is expected to go into commercial product by the end of 2017.
Blockchain ventures are thriving in the UK, thanks to its financial regulator. “London is a financial center for fintech, and regulators get enormous credit for that,” Peter Randall, CEO at SETL, told Bloomberg.
Epiphyte, which moved from San Francisco to London, said the decision was influenced by the FCA&8217;s welcoming approach toward fintech.
According to Edan Yago, CEO of Epiphyte, the FCA has &8220;a better understanding of how to drive innovation than other regulators. Sandbox or no, the regulation in the UK was superior.&8221;
Similarly to Epiphyte, Italian startup Euklid plans to move its headquarters to London, naming the &8220;lighter regulatory environment&8221; and large pool of investors.
Originally founded in July 2015, Euklid&8217;s goal is to create a completely autonomous and transparent investment bank run by artificial intelligence and that does not charge clients management or entry fees of any kind.
The startup selected London&8217;s Level39 as its new center of operations where it will implement its international strategies.
Last month, British state-owned Royal Mint announced a new partnership with Chicago-based CME Group to build a gold bullion trading market using blockchain technology. The platform, set to launch in 2017, will see the Royal Mint issue Royal Mint Gold (RMG), a digital record of ownership for gold stored at a bullion vault storage facility. It intends to disrupt the way traders and investors trade, execute and settle gold, providing greater efficiency, speed and lower operational costs.
London Blockchain Week in January 2017 will dedicate an entire week to blockchain and distributed ledger technology. On January 20, the Blockchain Week will kick off with the Hack-The-Block Blockchain Hackathon which will run until January 22. The challenge will focus on using blockchain technology in practical solutions.
On January 23 and 24, the Blockchain Conference will cover the latest trends and will feature presentations from top industry experts. Topics will include smart contracts, Ethereum and BigchainDB. Blockchain Week will finish on January 25 and 26 with two workshops. (Fintechnews Readers will get 20% Discount with Code &8220;FTSW&8221;)
Featured image via Pixabay.
The post Blockchain In London: An Overview appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
With the end of the year approaching, the amount of predictions for #2017 is steadily increasing. How will the industry develop and what will be the next big thing? Although A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), #Blockchain, RegTech are buzzwords everyone is talking about, one can foresee the next #Fintech #trends more realistically by looking at the current developments. Exactly they will determine the course for the next year. Three areas are of special interest
More SME #banking: Many Fintechs focused in 2016 solely on two customer groups: either the biggest banks or the private end customers. Many SMEs, however, had respectable profits. The issue is that digital financial products from payment providers and company credits to goods financing are missing.
These companies are too big for peer-to-peer lending and a traditional banking credit is costly and lengthy. More and more Fintechs are detecting the needs of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and are beginning to offer them solutions. The startup Valendo f.e., originally intended as digital pawn shop, is now offering an additional service of merchandise financing for online-retailers – an intelligent step for both the merchants and the company. Another example is the Fintech iwoca from the UK that offers tailormade loans for SME businesses (in the UK 20% of all SME loans are mediated by online-suppliers). In 2017, we will see a significant expansion of these services for SMEs through innovative Fintechs.
More B2B-solutions: In 2016, Fintechs grew up. In 2015, it was still difficult for Fintechs to find any open door within a bank. Today, more and more financial institutions are cooperating with Fintech companies that are faster and more efficient than the company-owned IT-departments. There is hardly any bank that has no digital lab to emulate fintechs. The consequence: The Fintech companies are continually improving their business models to meet the higher requirements. One example is the Berlin-based Fintech company FinReach: With its fully-digital account switching kit, it has already more than 100 German bank customers and is now starting its internationalization.
The big number of partner banks is a clear vote of confidence. This kind of trust is necessary if one wants to be successful in the B2B-industry. Not only that, but the industry requires professional employees. Ex-bankers with longstanding experience in the financial industry, including former board members, are now working for established Fintechs. The cool students may be the ones that invent a new pocketmoney app, but successful Fintechs have grown up. This growth will continue with even more strength in 2017, especially through the demands of complex B2B models.
More complex business models: Not only employees have become more professional, but also the setting of Fintechs itself. While the first ones started as hyped business models without a real business case, dependent on user’s goodwill, nowadays no Fintech starts without having applied for the necessary licenses from authorities and conducting extensive tests before launching. Instead of a “lean startup”, it is now from zero to a hundred. solarisBank, a tech platform with a full banking license, got its banking license before launching &8211; in the record time of only 9 months from the German Bafin.
Elinvar on the other hand has a B2B2C approach and offers private asset managers all the necessary modules to manage their portfolio digitally. With the help of an algorithm that can be fed with individual data, the asset manager is able to take care of a customer’s portfolio faster and in a more efficient way. B2B2C is not easy, because it requires on one hand the supplier’s trust and on the other hand must be well received by consumers. Moreover, it requires a thorough preparation of the product. 2017 will surprise us with more complex and high-quality Fintech models.
At least one thing was demonstrated in 2016: Fintech was and is not only a hype, but a development that needs to be taken seriously and drives the digitization and transformation of the entire financial industry. With new customer groups and new business models, 2017 has the chance to make Fintech accessible to even more professional fields. The course is set, now it is all dependent on the right drivers.
The post The Fintech Trends for 2017: SME Banking and More appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
During this week’s #Smart #Contracts Symposium in NYC, 250 attendees—including members of the #blockchain-trading group the Chamber of Digital Commerce—listened as the potential benefits of the #technology were laid out, from securing property titles, to gold ownership. Symposium speakers, presenters, and panelists demonstrated and debated all of the possible useRead More
Bank Innovation
It is this time of #year again where most of us willingly and willfully make fools out of ourselves trying to predict the future of our industry. The momentous electoral events we have witnessed and those coming up in #2017 remind me that, even more so for the next 12 months, #macro #risks will rule and influence the state of financial services and #fintech. I will limit myself to comments pertaining to the US and Europe.
I have already attempted to decipher a Trump presidency in a previous post, see here. Suffice it to say there will be winners and losers in the five sectors of the industry – lending, capital markets, asset management, payments and insurance. Regtech may be impacted the most if the US experiences a wave of deregulation. Although I still ascribe to a secular and long term trend towards regulatory harmonization, we may see deviations at the margin, especially within sectors that are more domestic than international by the nature of their activity. I would not be surprised if US domestic lending regulation, compliance and enforcement be loosened while European consumer protection remain tight for example. Another area where one may see changes at the margin would be domestic payments. Still, when it comes to such sectors as capital markets, cross border payments, interbanking activities I do not expect much deviation from one jurisdiction to another and certainly no loosening up when it comes to clamping down on illegal activities, fraud. Hence cybersecurity, AML/KYC and reg/compliance thereof should be interested ecosystems with plenty of investment and operational activity. On another regulatory note ,2016 was the year of the FCA with it’s sandbox. The FCA&8217;s initiative was so popular we ended with more than 8 regulators launching their copycat initiatives. I will make three #predictions in the sandbox space for 2017. First, regulatory sandboxes will be renamed &8211; sandbox is just a poor name everybody dislikes. Second, the US and the EU will see their own “sandbox” initiatives launched (where in the EU is a mystery) as hybrid collaborative efforts between regulators, technologists and incumbents. Third, there will be more collaboration at the &8220;sandbox&8221; level between regulators. Be that as it may I also expect the FCA to go from strength to strength given its clear leadership and first mover advantage (same for MAS, the Singapore regulator).
I continue to worry about alt-lending or marketplace lending as rising interest rates will benefit #banks first and while there is some room to increase the cost of lending, in a competitive market with regulatory oversight there is a limit to how high the cost of borrowing can go. On the other hand banks cost of capital will not rise as fast as those of alt-lenders. Therefore the next 12 months will prove delicate for this industry. I expect banks flexing their muscles and acquiring some platforms as well as mergers between alt lenders while the weakest competitors close shop. Whether this pattern will evolve in sync across the US and Europe I do not know. It depends on how US, UK and EU yield curves will behave. I certainly expect this pattern to occur in the US. On the other hand, infrastructure spending, if it is on a massive scale in the US, will have a positive impact on lending and fintech lending actors will benefit. One might even see fintech startups funded on the basis of infrastructure services for example.
In the retail asset management sector we have witnessed a wave of consolidation in the US, notably with roboadvisors. Most incumbents have placed their bets and the few remaining independent startups have survived, so far. We have yet to see consolidation in Europe. Arguably, there are fewer roboadvisors in Europe than in the US and most are younger so we might not see full consolidation yet. I would not be surprised if a European incumbent or two makes an acquisition though. I remain interested in roboadvisor models, especially those that will make effective use of ETFs, micro investing or micro saving and build a social layer that enables high engagement. I think there is still space for these types of models. Additionally, there is still much to be done to modernize incumbents and to date few fintech startups with a b2b model have emerged in asset management. Some are due to pop up.
In the payments sector I will go out on a limb and call for the rise of micro payments platforms in 2017, most probably powered by a distributed ledger #technology. Most startups addressing micro payments have failed so far but it is only a matter of time before a startup or an incumbent hits the right note. Given the rise of m2m, p2m transactions with IoT and the continued growth of p2p as well as the explosive growth of other types of activities (esports, different models of media consumption from a la carte to subscription) it is only a matter of time before micro payments make it big. My bet is on both platform plays that provide backbone and infrastructure and front end models. Other than micro payments, I continue to be interested in b2b payments and services to SMEs. We have barely scratched the surface and financial services to SMEs are still antiquated. The prospects of a global trade war will not play well with trade finance and supply chain finance activity though.
As for the #blockchain ecosystem, 2016 was a fascinating year. We now have a pretty good picture of the landscape with up to 10 companies being the potential winners. Most of these winning companies have opted to open sourcing their code, collaborating with standards setting bodies, or working as a consortium with many incumbents. Other than a few financing rounds for some of these leaders, I do not expect much investment activity. Indeed I expect many casualties, acquihires or outright failures for the other weaker competitors. 2017 will be a year of consolidation in the DLT space while the winners go about their deployment business quietly. I expect further standardization efforts to bear their fruit &8211; &8220;yesterday and today&8221; in the capital markets arena, &8220;tomorrow&8221; in the insurance space. Finally I expect the start of the patent wars in the space. Most serious contenders have filed patents &8211; incumbents and startups alike &8211; and it is only a matter of time before some try to enforce these patents. Sooner rather than later is my bet.
In the insurance industry, I expect more of the same, both in terms of level of activity and types of insurtech startups. I also expect emphasis on cyber risk coverage and on climate change given both are top of mind and material risks going forward. Cyber risk coverage is particularly interesting to me, given the rise of IoT and the security risks associated with both hardware and software in the space.
On a more general level, I expect five themes to pick up steam in 2017. First, all the business models we have seen created and funded in fintech over the past 8 years will be revisited with an AI component &8211; be it machine learning, deep learning or other. This is bound to happen as AI is sweeping the business world. If mobile is eating the world, AI is the chef that is orchestrating the menu. Whether in lending, asset management or any other sector, I expect to see much activity in this domain and this includes new fintech startups getting funding, especially in b2b. An inevitable trend towards the cognitive financial services firm. Second, the convergence of software robotics, AI and automation will be applied at scale in what is called robotics process automation for banks and insurance companies alike. This is a pure b2b play for sure and I expect this sector to be a fertile ground investment wise. Third, platforms and ecosystems will continue to take shape as various banks further build their API strategies, their marketplace strategies, or even their bank as a service strategies. Whereas 2016 was the year industry thought leaders spoke about platforms, 2017 will be the creative phase for these types of business models. Some startups are already picking up funding. Expect more over the coming 12 months. One should note that platform business models require standards and interoperability. As such, I expect the beginning of standardization and open source in the field of bank as a platform or bank as a service, in a similar vein to the movement we have seen in the DLT/blockchain space. Fourth, the messaging platforms wars will be in full swing as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft vie for dominance and expand their respective ecosystems. I expect more financial services incumbents to jump on the bandwagon and more startups to build their own apps. The lure of reaching millions of users &8211; customers and potential customers &8211; is strong. To me AI powered chatbots fall in this fourth category as few will be successful on their own and most will want to align with at least one messaging platform. In as much as PFM startups were not particularly successful and neither were account aggregation models, the messaging platform wars with their myriads of skills or applets or bots (voice or text or voice+text) present both an opportunity and a threat to the financial services industry. The threat is well known and lies with being further disintermediated and removed from the end customer. The opportunity is less obvious. Indeed, most fintech startups focused on retail use cases have failed to make any significant traction because either the service did not generate excitement and engagement (simple aggregation of data or accounts), or was too obtuse (too complex) or was too superficial (giving you options to consider) whereas what works usually hits on at least one of three dimensions: enhance an experience, accelerate a process, simplify a process. You can bet that the bots within the messaging platforms that will win the day will enhance, accelerate and simplify. It is up to fintech startups and incumbents to emulate best of breed as they will coexist within the same ecosystems. Else, fintech AI chatbots will fail to impress much like PFM models did before. I should add that the messaging platform wars will be a wedge for GAFA to further encroach in the payments sector. Fifth, 2017 will be the year of digital identities. By that I mean most of the investment activity will be focused on identity business models. Some may consider this field not part of fintech. They will be wrong. there is no identity without trust and vice versa. Further identity and trust impact and influence payment methods and enable or disable currencies. I view digital identities as the corner stone of the future of financial services industry. I expect the investment pace to pick up in the identity space.
A few random thoughts in closing. Should a Trump presidency usher an era of instability and trade wars, we will undoubtedly encounter currency wars. Should the EU further weaken in 2017, currency turbulences will be exacerbated. Should the renminbi further weaken, capital flows leaving China will accelerate. Thusly, it is not inconceivable that cryptocurrencies will benefit, notably #bitcoin, along with its ecosystem. In this macro case figure, and assuming legal and regulatory house sorted out with the SEC, I expect much activity with Initial Coin Offerings in 2017 (ICO).
Finally, I expect subdued venture investment activity in Europe and the US in aggregate, especially in the first year of a new US administration which is still an unknown for many.
The #European #Commission’s Start-up and Scale-up Initiative aims to give #Europe&8217;s many innovative entrepreneurs every opportunity to become world leading companies. It pulls together all the possibilities that the EU already offers and adds a new focus on venture capital investment,insolvency law and taxation
There is no lack of innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit in Europe. But many new firms don&8217;t make it beyond the critical first few years, or they try their luck in a third country instead of tapping intothe EU&8217;s potential 500 million customer base. The European Commission is determined to change that and help start-ups deliver their full innovation and job creation potential.
Via Pixabay
Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: “Today&8217;s local start-ups could become tomorrow&8217;s global success stories. We want to help start-ups stay and grow in Europe. By helping them navigate the – often perceived – regulatory barriers to fully benefiting from the Single Market. By making it easier for them to have a second chance, without being stigmatised if their idea doesn&8217;t succeed the first time around. And by improving access to funding by boosting private venture capital investment.”
Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said: “Today start-ups do not fully take advantage of the opportunities of the Single Market. Starting and scaling up a company across Europe has to become simpler. Europe needs to become the first choice place for great business ideas to grow into successful companies. This is about new jobs, innovation and competitiveness for Europe.&8221;
The Initiative brings together a range of existing and new actions to create a more coherent framework to allow start-ups to grow and do business across Europe, in particular:
Improved access to finance: The Commission and the European Investment Bank Group are launching a Pan-European Venture Capital Fund of Funds. The EU will provide cornerstone investments of up to a maximum budget of €400 million and the fund manager(s) must raise at least three times as much from private sources, triggering a minimum of €1.6bn in venture capital funding. It will be managed by one or more professional and experienced fund managers ensuring a real market approach. This complements existing EU funding instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), Europe&8217;s programme for small and medium-sized enterprises COSME and the EU&8217;s research and innovation funding programme Horizon 2020.
Second chance for entrepreneurs: The Commission has tabled a legislative proposal on insolvency law. It will allow companies in financial difficulties to restructure early on so as to prevent bankruptcy and avoid laying off staff. It will also make it easier for honest entrepreneurs to benefit from a second chance without being penalised for not succeeding in previous business ventures, as they will be fully discharged of their debt after a maximum period of 3 years.
Simpler tax filings: The Commission is also working on a range of taxation simplifications including the recent proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB), which proposes to support small and innovative companies that want to expand their business across borders. Other initiatives include plans for a simplification of the EU VAT system and broadening the forthcoming guidance on best practice in Member States tax regimes for venture capital.
The Initiative also puts emphasis on helping navigate regulatory requirements, improving innovation support through reforms to Horizon 2020, and fostering ecosystems where start-ups can connect with potential partners such as investors, business partners, universities and research centres. Changes to Horizon 2020 will pave the way towards a European Innovation Council and include using €1.6bn over 2018-2020 to provide bottom-up support for breakthrough innovation projects by start-ups with potential to grow. The Startup Europe network will be reinforced to connect clusters and ecosystems across Europe.
In 2017, the European Commission will put forward proposals for a Single Digital Gateway that provides easy online access to Single Market information, procedures, assistance and advice for citizens and businesses. The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) provide specific advisory services – through scale-up advisors &8211; for #startups including on funding opportunities, partnering and how to access cross-border public procurement. The Commission will adopt a set of measures to support the use of Intellectual Property Rights by SMEs and take action to support access by start-ups to the €2 trillion European public procurement market.
Over recent years, the European Commission has proposed a number of policies, such as the Capital Markets Union, the Single Market Strategy, and the Digital Single Market to benefit start-ups in Europe. Together with Member States&8217; actions, this has led to the creation of a number of market leaders, such as Spotify, Klarna, Adyen, #Blockchain, Jobandtalent, N26, Algolia, Intercom, Cabify or Deliveroo.
The Initiative addresses three main obstacles to starting up and scaling up in Europe identified in a recent public consultation:
&8211; Access to finance is the biggest problem for entrepreneurs whether starting up or scaling up;
&8211; Complying with regulatory and administrative requirements diverts too much energy from growing the business &8211; particularly cross border;
&8211; Connecting to right business partners, markets and skilled workers, despite the availability of 500 million people European Single Market is still too difficult.
Featured Image: via Pixabay
Original Press-Release here
The post European Commission Gives Boost To Startups In Europe appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Breit abgestütztes Bedürfnis von Hochschulen und Privatwirtschaft zur Zusammenarbeit an einem inspirierenden Ort.
Im Sommer 2017 wird der #Innovationspark Zürich seine Tore auf dem Areal des Flugplatzes Dübendorf öffnen. Der Park schafft eine neue Plattform für Forschung, Entwicklung und Innovation mit dem Ziel, wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse mit der Praxis- und Markterfahrung führender Grossunternehmen, KMUs und Startups zu verbinden. Ein Pavillon am Eingang des künftigen Innovationsparks markiert den sichtbaren Startpunkt.
Innovationspark Zürich
Er umfasst eine Ausstellung, ein öffentlich zugängliches Café als zentraler Treffpunkt sowie die Geschäftsräume der Parkbetreiberin. Gleichzeitig sollen erste Forschungs- und Entwicklungsteams in den Hangar 3 und einzelne Nebengebäude einziehen. Die ersten anzusiedelnden Projekte stammen aus den Bereichen Robotik und Mobilität, Raumfahrt, Advanced Manufacturing und Finanztechnologie.
Der Innovationspark Zürich ist als verbindender Ort konzipiert, der Potenziale entlang der Wertschöpfungsketten von Unternehmen erschliessen soll. Damit soll die raschere Umsetzung von Forschungsergebnissen in marktfähige Produkte und Dienstleistungen gefördert werden.
Räumliche Nähe, offen gestaltete Büros, Werkstätten und Labors sowie gemeinsame Testanlagen und Informationsplattformen schaffen in einem einzigartigen Ensemble von alten und neuen Gebäuden einen idealen Rahmen für Inspiration, Ideenaustausch und Wissenstransfer. Der geplante Innovationspark setzt Wachstumsimpulse, schafft neue Arbeitsplätze und stärkt die bereits hohe Standortattraktivität und Lebensqualität in der Region Zürich.
Den sichtbaren Startpunkt markiert ab Sommer 2017 ein Pavillon am Eingang des künftigen Innovationsparks auf dem Areal des Flugplatzes. Er beinhaltet eine Ausstellung, ein öffentlich zugängliches Café als ersten zentralen Treffpunkt sowie die Geschäftsräume der Parkbetreiberin, der Stiftung Innovationspark Zürich. Gleichzeitig sollen erste Forschungs- und Entwicklungsteams in den Hangar 3 und einzelne Nebengebäude einziehen.
Innovationspark Zürich
Diese Fläche wird vom Bund vorzeitig bereitgestellt. In einer zweiten Phase werden die verfügbaren, denkmalgeschützten Hangare umgebaut und an die Nutzungskonzepte ihrer Mieter angepasst. Nach Abschluss der planungsrechtlichen Verfahren und dem Umzug der Luftwaffe in den nördlichen Teil des Flugplatzes können ab 2020 erste Neubauten auf den Baufeldern vor den Hangaren geplant werden. Das Raumangebot soll eine flexible Nutzung mit Forschungslabors, Werkstätten, Testflächen, Pilotanlagen wie auch Büros und Sitzungsräumen erlauben.
Erste Projekte in den Bereichen Robotik & Mobilität, Raumfahrt, Advanced Manufacturing und #FinTech
Die Nutzer des Parks definieren dessen Stossrichtung. Die möglichen Themen stammen aus den Bereichen Life Science & Lebensqualität, Engineering & Umwelt sowie Digitale Technologien & Kommunikation.
Sie entsprechen aktuellen Megatrends und basieren auf den übereinstimmenden Kompetenzen der Hoch- und Fachhochschulen sowie den Clusterinitiativen der Standortförderung. In diesen Gebieten besteht wissenschafts- und wirtschaftsseitig am Wirtschaftsstandort Zürich viel Potenzial.
Robotik- & Mobilität-Hub
Die ersten anzusiedelnden Projekte stammen aus den Bereichen Robotik und Mobilität, Raumfahrt und Finanztechnologie. Die ETH Zürich will in einem «Robotik- & Mobilität-Hub» die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Forschern der Hochschulen, Unternehmen und Start-ups in diesem für Zürich und die Schweiz wichtigen Bereich fördern.
Trust Square
Eine Raumfahrt-Initiative der Universität Zürich mit zahlreichen Innovationsprojekten kann die guten Rahmenbedingungen und die Infrastruktur des Parks nutzen. Unter dem Namen «Trust Square» sollen Aktivitäten im Bereich #Blockchain zusammengefasst und weiterentwickelt werden. Und mittelfristig werden Aktivitäten aus dem aktuellen Coating Compentence und Advanced Manufacturing Center der Empa mit industriellen Partnern auf dem Innovationspark hochskaliert.
Anlässlich einer Informationsveranstaltung stellen letzten Freitagabend an der Empa Akademie Regierungsrätin Carmen Walker Späh, Prof. Dr. Lino Guzzella, Präsident der ETH Zürich, Lothar Ziörjen, Stadtpräsident von Dübendorf, sowie René Kalt, Geschäftsführer des Innovationparks Zürich, das Projekt vor.
Carmen Walker Späh betont den standortpolitischen Nutzen: «Der Innovationspark leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag an die künftige Innovations- und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit des Wirtschafts- und Forschungsstandortes Zürich.» Prof. Dr. Lino Guzzella ergänzt: «Der Innovationspark investiert in die wichtigsten Ressourcen der Schweiz. Um Forschungsergebnisse in marktfähige Produkte und Dienstleistungen umzusetzen, braucht es einen Ort, an dem das Wissen der Hochschulen mit der Erfahrung erfolgreicher Unternehmen zusammentrifft.»
Ende August 2016 genehmigte der Bundesrat den kantonalen Richtplan zum Innovationspark Zürich und erteilte damit grünes Licht für die Realisierung des Innovationsparks Zürich. Als nächster Schritt wurde der kantonale Gestaltungsplan für den Innovationspark Zürich zur Festsetzung bei der Baudirektion eingereicht. Der Kanton wird dabei einen ersten Teil des für den Innovationspark vorgesehenen Raums von 38 Hektaren Fläche im Baurecht vom Bund übernehmen.
Innovationspark Zürich
Vernetzte Transaktionsprozesse bilden das Herz eines jeden Finanzsystems. Dank ihres dezentralen Ansatzes ermöglicht die Blockchain, Transaktionen einfacher und sicherer abzuwickeln.
Ziel ist es im Innovationspark Zürich unter dem Namen ‚Trust Square: Blockchain Swiss made‘ ein gesamtschweizerisches Blockchain Research- und Innovationszentrum mit internationaler Ausstrahlungskraft aufzubauen. In einem ersten Schritt wird eine Machbarkeitsstudie ausgearbeitet.
Als Struktur für die Organisation und den Betrieb des Zentrums ist ein Public-Private-Partnership-Modell angedacht. Die nötigen Abklärungen sind Bestandteil der Machbarkeitsstudie. Operativ soll das Zentrum Plattformen für Forschungsteams aus den Sektoren Akademie, Privatwirtschaft, Öffentliche Institutionen und Start-ups anbieten sowie Kongresse und Fachtagungen organisieren.
Der Innovationspark Zürich eignet sich als Standort für das Zentrum insbesondere dank der guten Vernetzung aller relevanten Hochschulen, die in der Schweiz im Bereich Blockchain forschen (ETH, UZH, HSG, IFZ/Hochschule Luzern). Zudem liegt der Park in unmittelbarer Nähe zu global führenden Unternehmen im Finanz- und Technologiebereich.
Dieser Artikel erschien zuerst auf dem Blog des Innovationsparks Zürich
The post (Fintech) Innovationspark Zürich kommt appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
If your company has been trying to get ahead of the innovation curve and build #blockchain projects or capabilities, you probably believe that there just aren’t that many great blockchain developers out there. You’re wrong. You’re probably looking in the wrong places and or you don’t have a compelling enough value proposition to hire a great blockchain #developer. I’ll share a bit on what i’ve learned in what makes a great blockchain dev, where to find them and ultimately how to attract and hire a great blockchain developer.
1) Knowing what makes a great developer
Do you even know the differentiating factors between a good blockchain developer vs. a great blockchain developer? The first step in hiring this very niche skill is to know how to recognise a great blockchain dev vs. a developer who’s learned some blockchain coding skills. Both are valuable however most companies are just now starting to build a capability and it’s critical that you have great blockchain devs as part of your core team.
Generally speaking great blockchain developers tend to have the following characteristics:
Firstly, they are driven by strong ideological beliefs centered on decentralization. Some go as far to proudly self identify as crypto-anarchists[1] and many have strong ideological beliefs on decentralizing everything from corporations to governments and even whole societies. This is super scary for any corporation.
Secondly they have a deep fundamental understanding and mastery of game theory [2] and economic principles. These understandings and expertise applied to any decentralized #technology is the structural framework that accounts for most of the key blockchain breakthroughs.
They also have a true passion for the technology — it’s something they’ve sought to seek and learn about despite the seemingly embryonic nature of blockchains. Some of the underlying cryptography dates back decades. Many are self taught and many are PhD level and above. Most are deeply entrenched in the world of cryptography. [3]
3) They are intellectually curious by nature.
They are super naturally super curious personalities, they’re undeterred by the ambiguity of no known solutions. This actually excites them. When presented with obstacles they have deep seated self-beliefs that they can find multiple solutions for any set of problems. Being better then the next guy and being respected by their peers is of utmost importance.
You might think that sounds like a very rare kind of person — they are extremely rare in the traditional recruitment circles in which you’re accustomed. However they do exist in large numbers and are likely 10 steps ahead of you and what you want to accomplish in your projects.
4) Where to find great blockchain developers
Once you know what you should be looking for, you need to know where to find great blockchain devs. Generally your traditional modes of identifying, attracting and retaining talent won’t work. Your HR department will likely kill any chance you have in the rare case someone responds to an ad or posting and HR is the first point of contact. Unless of course your HR department is staffed with blockchain experts. Job postings don’t work. Recruiters don’t know where to look.
Generally speaking you won’t find the great candidates through LinkedIn and using Google. Be wary of the “experts” on LinkedIn.
You must engage with them in their own environments. Kind of like a Mutual of Omaha episode of going native.
You’ll find them sharing knowledge on public forums such as Gitter and Reddit. Or they can be discussing ideas at meetups and hackathons and other startup events, both on- and offline. Most times they are working on real world projects through platforms like HackerRank or GitHub. Many participate in podcasts.
When you do come across the right type of developer for you, chances are that they will be undertaking several different projects at the same time. This is how they work, contributing across a variety of missions, trying to achieve several different goals. Quite a few are likely running their own startups. Therefore, they won’t want to drop all their ongoing projects to come work for your company, so you’ll need to engage them in a way that resonates with their core belief systems as well as the needs of your project.
5) Engaging and hiring talent
Great blockchain devs don’t want to join your big company.
With great develpors seemingly being few and far in-between (or at least the ones you connect with), they are in extremely high demand. You’ll have massive competition from companies offering all sorts of work to them so you must ensure your company has the right corporate culture [4] to match the talent you’re seeking.
They want to work on and solve big problems — you’ve got to provide them a challenge that they can’t get elsewhere. To fully engage and motivate them, they need to believe your project is for a greater good, and it aligns with their own principles. Finally, compensation is always a major factor to be considered as these developers know what they are worth. They are expensive and well worth it. One great blockchain dev will outperform 5 good devs every day of the week.
Taking all this into account, your options may well be very limited. You’ll probably have to choose, do you hire full time, outsource to specialist blockchain startups/platforms, or train an internal team? Each of course has its own benefits and pitfalls — full time employees will be much more difficult to find and eventually hire, outsourcing leads to some loss of control on your part, and with very few training resources currently available hiring and paying suitable trainers before training your own devs would be extremely time consuming, costly and still potentially not producing the right quality talents.
Additionally, chances are the developers who are interested in your blockchain projects won’t be geographically located where you are. And they aren’t likely to want to uproot and come to you. This means you’ll have to have remote workers — which is just what these individuals tend to prefer.
Is “acqui-hiring” [5] an option? Well, as mentioned earlier, many devs will be at their own startups or elsewhere working on their own blockchain ideas. As we know, these devs are very principally driven, so simply buying them out will NOT make them want to work for your company. Only if there is a clear strategic link between your own blockchain projects and their motivations, and if they believe your company will allow them to take things further than they could alone, will you find devs open to being acquired. However, with most business goals not currently aligned to the developers’ individual goals, this again is a difficult path to tread.
6) Choosing a path forward.
So what do you do? A lot of times you’re going to need to go down multiple paths that include hiring a firm to develop some of your technology- Distributed Labs led by Dr. Pavel Kravchenko and Cardano-Labo are great places to start for the tech development for short term fill the gap measures. They can also be the long term extension of your dev team. They are that good!
Longer term you should be building a learning and training capability to move your high performing developers to becoming great blockchain devs. B9 Labs and Byte Academy are good places to start as external sources of learning and development.
As an aside there are quite a few more yet to be launched global training programs that we’ve seen that are poised to be amazing sources for you.
Conclusion
Make no mistake about it, finding and hiring great blockchain developers is not simple but it can be done.
Firstly become an expert yourself in the technology, understand appreciate the underlying belief systems and the cultures associated with decentralized technologists and you’ll be much farther along than your competitors.
Go to where the great blockchain devs hang out. Where they share, where they learn and contribute. Build a reputation for yourself in the ecosystem.
Engaging startups and developers in your specific ecosystem is critical. Join and contribute to local blockchain related Meetups. We run Blockchain Startups across most major innovation ecosystems around the world. There are many others. Join and Contribute!
Create a culture on your team/company that will support hard charging, highly intelligent, principled people that want to change the world.
Lastly, be open to creative solutions to engaging with some of the most in-demand talent on the planet.
Zach Piester is the Co-founder, and Partner of Intrepid Ventures. Intrepid Ventures invests in, designs, builds and scales blockchain powered companies.
Zach focuses on helping Fortune 500 companies leverage the innovation of startup disruptors in blockchain, #fintech, distributed ledger, & emerging technologies. Bringing together strategic, creative, & technical skills to help industry leaders understand how innovation, digital capabilities, & organizational design can help transform and sustain their positions at the forefront of their industries.
I’m always interested in meeting leaders who are creating transformational products and solutions, so please feel free to contact me by email at zach at intrepid dot ventures.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-anarchism
[3] http://news.mit.edu/2014/cryptographic-schemes-security-guarantees-1030
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