Protected: NS Investment Conference, 11 January 2022
NS Partners joins the Wecan Comply compliance platform
NS Partners joins the Wecan Comply compliance platform
NS Partners joins the Swiss banking compliance platform, Wecan Comply. The solution developed by Swiss fintech Wecan Group uses blockchain technology to facilitate administrative integration with custodian banks.
Ultra-secure thanks to its blockchain-based technology, the platform simplifies data access for custodian banks to access data, thereby accelerating various bank transactions subject to control. Built to work like a smart data vault, the Wecan Comply system enables NS Partners to store required information and legal documents, which custodian banks can access at any time when conducting compliance checks.
Regulatory requirements are continually increasing in our industry, and the ability to meet them efficiently has become a critical factor for success. Based in Switzerland, this solution offers two major advantages: not only does it considerably reduce our administrative burden, but more importantly, it guarantees data integrity and security. But the technology is not the end purpose. It is merely a tool we can use to better serve our clients, said Maya Page-Feuz, who heads the group’s Legal & Compliance department.
Joining the Wecan Comply platform is a key step in our digital transformation process, which we initiated several years ago. Whether it’s in the area of data architecture, information security, business process automation, decision support, risk management or client interface, technological innovation is now critical to ensuring the future growth of an asset management company like ours, added Christophe Verbaere, Group Chief Operating Officer.
Wecan Comply brings banks and independent asset managers new opportunities and is rapidly emerging as a standard in Switzerland, said Vincent Pignon, founder and CEO of Wecan Group. Blockchain technology has the potential to transform the way compliance is managed, with simpler procedures, higher security and real-time auditability.
Their goal is to provide education and infrastructure for entrepreneurs, SMEs and corporations in the token economy and help reshape businesses through the blockchain.
Pierre Maudet and Etat de Geneve support the Blockchain Lab
“Geneva recognizes blockchain as an essential element of future applications including for public services. The State of Geneva has already initiated testing for blockchain technologies in the commercial register area and we are supportive of Fusion’s initiative to strengthen the capacity of the local blockchain community” says Geneva State Councillor, Pierre Maudet, who was present at the launching event.
The State of Geneva is already running a pilot project since this summer – by using blockchain for its registry of commerce, it could become possible to create a new company in just 24 hours!
Blockchain Lab
Set in Geneva, the Blockchain Lab by Fusion helps create new blockchain-enabled ventures & businesses and supports in tokenizing assets & raising funds.
Swiss Blockchain Association
The Swiss Blockchain Association is set up to further advance the Swiss ecosystem as a global hub for blockchain technologies and enable understanding of the implications of blockchain tech to the general public.
It brings together deep knowledge and communities around Blockchain, such as ICoChain, TradingClub, LegalChain and DevChain Conference.
At Notz Stucki we are excited to be a represented member of both initiatives and we encourage this effort to expand knowledge sharing across Switzerland. As Antonio Gambardella (Director of Fongit) mentionned, we need to join forces to all become experts!
Fireside Chat at Blockchain Lab presentation
Chart of the Month – Bitcoin
Bitcoin
Source: Bloomberg
The chart above shows the price of bitcoin, a so-called cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has been appreciating for several years, but it has exploded during the last 12 months with a performance of 1600%. During the last 5 years Bitcoin has gained a staggering 10900% versus the USD.
Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009. It follows the ideas set out in a white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto, whose true identity has yet to be verified. Bitcoin offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms and is operated by a decentralized authority, unlike government-issued currencies. Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency: balances are kept using public and private “keys”, which are long strings of numbers and letters linked through the mathematical encryption algorithm that was used to create them.
As of December 2017, there were 16.78 million bitcoins in circulation, so the total market value of bitcoins was $257 bn. (It is the same market cap of companies like Nestlé and AT&T.) US currency in circulation (coins and notes) was $1612 bn, the aggregate money supply known as M2 was $13800 bn, as of the end of 2017, and the Bloomberg World Market Cap was $83424 bn, to put a perspective on the bitcoin size.
On 11-Dec-17, the CBOE launched the first future contract on bitcoin (the CME did it also one week later), somehow recognizing the importance of this new “financial asset”. Daily volume of the two exchanges amounts to $58 million.
WHY DO PEOPLE BUY BITCOIN?
In a world where central banks are running a very expansive monetary policy and, so, trying to debase their currencies, some investors perceive that bitcoin will hold the value as there will be a maximum of 21 million bitcoins and every year only a small amount of bitcoin can be “mined”. Somehow bitcoin might be a “digital gold”.
Protection from payment fraud, as the payments must be confirmed by many.
Direct transfers for immediate settlement. Bitcoin contracts can be designed and enforced to eliminate or add third party approvals.
Access to historically inaccessible markets: There are approximately 2 billion people with access to the internet who do not currently have access to traditional exchange systems.
Lower transaction fees, as bitcoin miners are compensated by the network with newly created bitcoins.
WHY DO PEOPLE THINK BITCOIN IS VERY RISKY?
Bitcoin can never be a currency or means of payment with this level of high volatility (86% volatility with daily observations last year), meaning that bitcoin price changes 5.3% on a daily basis.
The cost (mainly electricity) to “mine” a bitcoin is around $3000 to $4000. Bitcoin price at $15334 is very far from “marginal cost of production” if we were to use a well-known valuation methodology for other assets.
Some believe the appeal of bitcoin is that it can be used anonymously for illegal acts.
It is not a well-regulated asset, so some questions may arise in terms of applications, security, etc.
Many people (including this humble writer) do not understand how to value a bitcoin, as there is no yield (bonds, equities, real estate) nor comparable purchasing power (currencies).
In September, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said: “it is worse than tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed”; “it is a fraud”; “it is just a real thing, eventually it will be closed”… When he said this on Sep 12th, bitcoin was trading at $4200.
In January 2018, Merrill Lynch banned its clients, advisors from trading bitcoin related investments. (CNBC).
It is difficult to have an opinion on bitcoin, as apparently less well-informed investors or/and speculators are piling up on bitcoin, whereas “savvy investors” are staying away from it and even calling it a fraud.
Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, is well accepted by everybody and it is here to stay and to be used in many other areas.
OUR ADVICE
There are thousands of bonds, shares, currencies and commodities in the market that we can understand and value reasonably well, whereas this writer is unable to give a value to bitcoin (neither positive nor negative), so DO NOT TOUCH the assets that you do not understand.
7 questions to a start-up: SMEx
Fusion – the first-ever FinTech business incubator in Switzerland – exists to shape innovation in financial services by combining up-and-coming tech talent with Swiss state-of-the-art financial know-how. As a Fusion member, Notz Stucki is actively involved in the incubation process.(more…)
The art market on the brink of a revolution: DXMarkets launches blockchain platform Maecenas
With its blockchain platform Maecenas, DXMarkets puts the art market on the brink of a revolution.
DXMarkets was one the start-ups which participated in Fusion’s first acceleration program back in early 2016. Its COO, Miguel Neumann, had explained how blockchain would facilitate illiquid portfolio management during Notz Stucki’s January 2016 investment conference… Well, little more than a year after, here we are!
After months of hard work, DXMarkets has created Maecenas, a blockchain-driven platform where shares of fine art are bought and sold.
On the platform, Maecenas divides great artworks into fragments, bought or sold by investors – just as they would buy or sell a share of a listed company. Which means investors can own a fragment of an artwork they could otherwise have never afforded.
On the other side, galleries can auction their masterpiece through Maecenas, selling fragments of the artwork – paying much lower fees than with traditional auction houses and getting immediate access to investors.
How does this work?
Here is the explanation of Marcela Garcia Casil, co-founder and CEO of Maecenas:
Maecenas platform
“The gallery, for example, puts the art ownership in a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and owns 100 percent of that vehicle. And then the gallery sells 49 percent of the SPV on the Maecenas platform. The crowd buys shares in this SPV. The beauty of this is that the gallery raises money and still gets to hang the masterpiece in an exhibition. And as the value of the art increases, the gallery and the Maecenas investors see the value of what they own rise. Plus, there will be a leasing fee so that the investors are paid for use of the artwork in the gallery.
Maecenas will issue a token in its crowdsale that will be the token used for all settlements on the platform. We are calling the token: ART. Now, don’t confuse the ART token with the fragmentisation of the artworks. The ART token is a utility token that is used to settle transactions on the platform.”
In other words, Maecenas creates a liquid market for fine art investments by splitting the masterpieces into fractions. This is one of the concrete applications of blockchain. And when we think about it, not only any kind of art can be auctioned on such a platform but in fact, all kinds of valuable and tangible assets such as collectible cars, vintage wine, etc.
Welcome to the digital world!
To learn more on Maecenas and blockchain applications, you may contact Marcelo Garcia Casil Twitter: @maecenasart Website: https://www.maecenas.co/
7 questions to a start-up: DXMarkets
Fusion – the first-ever FinTech business incubator in Switzerland – exists to shape innovation in financial services by combining up-and-coming tech talent with Swiss state-of-the-art financial know-how. As a Fusion member, Notz Stucki is actively involved in the incubation process.
Discover our series “7 questions to a start-up” to get a feeling of who are the participants of the incubator!
7 questions to Marcelo García Casil, Miguel Neumann and Federico Cardoso, founders of DXMarkets
DXMarkets is a platform for investors to issue, manage and trade digital assets. The company additionally offers a range of blockchain-based services for financial institutions.
Marcelo García Casil, Miguel Neumann and Federico Cardoso, founders of DXMarkets
1/ Who are you?
Our founding team consists of Marcelo García Casil, Miguel Neumann and Federico Cardoso.
Marcelo is our CEO and brings 10+ years of experience in financial technology, having built cutting-edge solutions for tier-1 investment banks including Barclays and Credit Suisse. Marcelo’s understanding of capital markets combined with his technical expertise puts him in a unique position to drive change through technological innovation in a way that is compatible with the financial world. Marcelo is a frequent speaker in the Fintech circuit and is considered a thought leader in the field.
Miguel acts as our COO. His background in business and marketing operations, added to several years in the digital space complements the technical expertise of the team with a focus on strategy and product. As former J.P. Morgan employee, he was heavily involved in large-scale transactional platforms covering the whole investment lifecycle. Miguel’s academic credentials include studies in Marketing, Project Management and an MBA from Durham University. He is also a regular speaker in the European Fintech space.
Federico, as the company’s CTO, brings 20 years of experience building and running large-scale enterprise-grade systems. He is particularly knowledgeable in areas of security, scalability and distributed ledger technology.
2/ What does your company do?
DXMarkets activities are organised around two streams within Financial Technology Innovation: platforms and services.
The Platform stream focuses on bringing the efficiencies of vanilla-type financial instruments into investment-grade physical assets characterised from market opacity or fragmentation, lack of liquidity and outdated models. Our platforms leverage blockchain technology and smart contracts to improve transaction speeds and efficiency.
The Services stream engages in co-creation projects working alongside financial companies by developing and integrating blockchain technology into their transaction models. DXMarkets structured approach starts with a proof-of-concept to validate the business idea driving the project, allowing to then move into a fully-functional solution.
In addition to these two streams, the company is regularly involved in workshops, hackathons and conferences organised by clients and industry bodies to support and promote innovation.
3/ What’s the founding story behind DXMarkets?
DXMarkets started with DIY crypto-currency miners working in spare rooms of our founding members across three continents. The idea quickly evolved into a marketplace, then pivoting into a business solution based on the underlying technology architecture of cryptos: distributed ledgers.
Since its inception, the team has been geographically-distributed, perhaps coincidentally mirroring the technology’s architecture itself; it was evident for the founders that the potential of using blockchain to redefine the financial services industry was enormous – much more so than cryptocurrencies themselves.
4/ What was your proudest moment in your company’s history so far?
For most of us it has been extremely satisfying to participate in events alongside immensely respected and successful companies. In addition to Notz Stucki, we shared stage with SIX, Nasdaq, Deutsche Bank and many other prominent global investment institutions, in addition to extremely bright thought leaders in the fields of Economy, Finance and Technology.
It is a humbling experience and something we all are proud of.
5/ What’s the vision behind DXMarkets?
We believe in a financial world where transparency and fairness are leading principles. We see the distributed ledger technology behind blockchain as a disruptor powerful enough to be a game-changer and shift financial power and control away from the very few into a larger, healthier global market.
We envision this shift been driven by efficiency and openness, on a levelled play-field where participants can transact and invest without being subjected to prohibitive fees or unfair market manipulation.
At DXMarkets we believe in financial technology as an enabler for positive change both for existing incumbents and new players alike.
6/ What’s your biggest challenge right now?
Our biggest challenge is to be able to expand sufficiently fast to take advantage of the market opportunities, while remaining focused and efficient. Escalating a company quickly but orderly is a challenging task, but we’re determined to have the best people on board to ensure that our journey is successful.
7/ Is there any inspirational saying or words of encouragement you want to share with other creative/disruptive professionals?
Entrepreneurship is where passion and pro-activeness overlap. Perhaps the words of Nutmeg’s CEO are something we find alignment with. I will paraphrase his closing remarks from a recent event in London: “don’t sit around thinking or asking others. If you have an idea, and you think is good… just go ahead and do it. Spend more time making things happen”.
Photo & Text: Marcelo García Casil, Miguel Neumann and Federico Cardoso
7 questions to a start-up: DXMarkets
Fusion – the first-ever FinTech business incubator in Switzerland – exists to shape innovation in financial services by combining up-and-coming tech talent with Swiss state-of-the-art financial know-how. As a Fusion member, Notz Stucki is actively involved in the incubation process.
Discover our series “7 questions to a start-up” to get a feeling of who are the participants of the incubator!
7 questions to Marcelo García Casil, Miguel Neumann and Federico Cardoso, founders of DXMarkets
DXMarkets is a platform for investors to issue, manage and trade digital assets. The company additionally offers a range of blockchain-based services for financial institutions.
Marcelo García Casil, Miguel Neumann and Federico Cardoso, founders of DXMarkets
1/ Who are you?
Our founding team consists of Marcelo García Casil, Miguel Neumann and Federico Cardoso.
Marcelo is our CEO and brings 10+ years of experience in financial technology, having built cutting-edge solutions for tier-1 investment banks including Barclays and Credit Suisse. Marcelo’s understanding of capital markets combined with his technical expertise puts him in a unique position to drive change through technological innovation in a way that is compatible with the financial world. Marcelo is a frequent speaker in the Fintech circuit and is considered a thought leader in the field.
Miguel acts as our COO. His background in business and marketing operations, added to several years in the digital space complements the technical expertise of the team with a focus on strategy and product. As former J.P. Morgan employee, he was heavily involved in large-scale transactional platforms covering the whole investment lifecycle. Miguel’s academic credentials include studies in Marketing, Project Management and an MBA from Durham University. He is also a regular speaker in the European Fintech space.
Federico, as the company’s CTO, brings 20 years of experience building and running large-scale enterprise-grade systems. He is particularly knowledgeable in areas of security, scalability and distributed ledger technology.
2/ What does your company do?
DXMarkets activities are organised around two streams within Financial Technology Innovation: platforms and services.
The Platform stream focuses on bringing the efficiencies of vanilla-type financial instruments into investment-grade physical assets characterised from market opacity or fragmentation, lack of liquidity and outdated models. Our platforms leverage blockchain technology and smart contracts to improve transaction speeds and efficiency.
The Services stream engages in co-creation projects working alongside financial companies by developing and integrating blockchain technology into their transaction models. DXMarkets structured approach starts with a proof-of-concept to validate the business idea driving the project, allowing to then move into a fully-functional solution.
In addition to these two streams, the company is regularly involved in workshops, hackathons and conferences organised by clients and industry bodies to support and promote innovation.
3/ What’s the founding story behind DXMarkets?
DXMarkets started with DIY crypto-currency miners working in spare rooms of our founding members across three continents. The idea quickly evolved into a marketplace, then pivoting into a business solution based on the underlying technology architecture of cryptos: distributed ledgers.
Since its inception, the team has been geographically-distributed, perhaps coincidentally mirroring the technology’s architecture itself; it was evident for the founders that the potential of using blockchain to redefine the financial services industry was enormous – much more so than cryptocurrencies themselves.
4/ What was your proudest moment in your company’s history so far?
For most of us it has been extremely satisfying to participate in events alongside immensely respected and successful companies. In addition to Notz Stucki, we shared stage with SIX, Nasdaq, Deutsche Bank and many other prominent global investment institutions, in addition to extremely bright thought leaders in the fields of Economy, Finance and Technology.
It is a humbling experience and something we all are proud of.
5/ What’s the vision behind DXMarkets?
We believe in a financial world where transparency and fairness are leading principles. We see the distributed ledger technology behind blockchain as a disruptor powerful enough to be a game-changer and shift financial power and control away from the very few into a larger, healthier global market.
We envision this shift been driven by efficiency and openness, on a levelled play-field where participants can transact and invest without being subjected to prohibitive fees or unfair market manipulation.
At DXMarkets we believe in financial technology as an enabler for positive change both for existing incumbents and new players alike.
6/ What’s your biggest challenge right now?
Our biggest challenge is to be able to expand sufficiently fast to take advantage of the market opportunities, while remaining focused and efficient. Escalating a company quickly but orderly is a challenging task, but we’re determined to have the best people on board to ensure that our journey is successful.
7/ Is there any inspirational saying or words of encouragement you want to share with other creative/disruptive professionals?
Entrepreneurship is where passion and pro-activeness overlap. Perhaps the words of Nutmeg’s CEO are something we find alignment with. I will paraphrase his closing remarks from a recent event in London: “don’t sit around thinking or asking others. If you have an idea, and you think is good… just go ahead and do it. Spend more time making things happen”.
