IoDF SHIT U SHOULD KNOW: ‘LIVE INSIGHTS’ FROM Citi 10th Annual Digital Money Symposium #CitiDigiMoney

#01 IoDF SHIT U SHOULD KNOW

‘LIVE INSIGHTS’ FROM 花旗 10th Annual Digital Money Symposium #CitiDigiMoney

Last week, a contingent from the IoDF team were invited to attend the illusive Citibank’s annual Digital Money Symposium, below are the insights, unfathomable dichotomies, pain points, and arguments and contradictions that plague the the leaders of this new arena, professionals that are working in the financial services industry and are the stakeholders of our future.?

From global government legislation to founders of DeFi ecosystems and global payment structures, it was one not to miss for any one considering DeFi or blockchain narratives within their business today! Also to hear how EVERYONE IS STRUGGLING!?

The topics were ranging from the obvious, ie integration of blockchain into the financial services to tokenization ( big deep breath here ) to the current state of and attitudes towards DeFi in government; questions concerning cryptocurrency regulations, FTX? came up again and again? and we heard of the arguments on Bitcoin USA classification, ‘being? a commodity not a security’? but more interestingly: who will win the battle between SES or CMTC for lawmaking?

The big ‘how’ surrounded the way that these centralised banking systems are implementing decentralised financial ideologies and services.? And the big WHY, was how a man was sleeping through the whole thing! IoDF were on the edge of our seats!

It’s also safe to say that the suits didn’t know what to think about the punk, web3, all-in-black fashion visionaries they had in their midst, or what to do with the decentralisation of the banking System!?These people have, traditionally, made the rules. Now, we’re asking them to break them… and they’re running into a lot of problems (just as we all are).

For context; Recently, the Treasury has funded 5million for CFIT to take forward the most difficult challenges in the UK, yet they hit the same struggles most SME’s face they couldn't even open a bank account. ?- so bare with the struggle, it’s REAL!

That said, here are some important takeaways we have been gaggin’ to bring to you, we had a candid toilet conversation with a key speaker and are excited to bring you news of how that meeting goes without the rustle of the hand dryer.

1. “Disruptive technologies and businesses come from the margins” – Ronit Ghose , Global Head, Future of Finance & Digital, 花旗 Global Insights, Citi.

Of course, unbeknown to Ghose, his introductory message within his panel was a massive nod to the power of IoDF.? We’re all about bringing the margins into the spotlight, the center.?

2. “It’s not about being the tool, but using the tools, and being able to use different tools” - Antony Jenkins CBE 10x Banking ?

We’re too mono-technology driven, whether we’re talking about banking or fashion. Anthony Jenkins hammered in how we need to use the tools we already have, rather than constantly re-inventing these tools. Why waste time reinventing the wheel when we can be truly innovating with what we already have?!?

We need, and can, reinvent business models to be COMPONENT-BASED - swapping out parts, rather than always upgrading the whole.?

Only THEN can we be flexible, agile with what we’re doing. We can avoid creating the next legacy product and create something which keeps evolving with, and into, the future.

At IoDF, we are bombarded with emails and linkedin DM’s sharing new technologies, and infrastructures and find we spend a lot of time weeding through. But, we always ask the WHY, what is this solving ? What is this bringing to the table? WHY do we need this? What is the value proposition for our community, the brands we work with and our audience. We loved to hear this as a headline!

3. ‘It’s not nascent [crypto] It’s been ignored as they thought it would go away! It needed to be regulated!’ - Nicole Sandler , Head of Digital Policy at Barclays

Regulation is always a real pain point, but it’s causing MASSIVE problems in the fintech industry at the moment, FTX is an obvious example of this!?

For over a decade, those ‘at the top’ assumed crypto was a hype, ignoring it in the hopes it would disappear. But, of course, it’s still here – still loved and treasured by everyone who understands that our future is Web3. So, now, the regulation can’t catch up with the technology. Governments moving well behind the times… sounds all too familiar…

“We don’t even have a global taxonomy where a singular definition of a ‘stablecoin’ or a ‘security’ is accepted by all” as Dr. Monica Sah ( Clifford Chance ) pointed out. The value of crypto is far too volatile: the price of BitCoin has fluctuated between $17,744 and $67,567 because the infrastructure is so underdeveloped.?

This is massively impacting what we can do, where and how we can do it. These conversations made it so clear that we are at the very beginning here, we’ve got lots of decisions to make BUT this means WE can be the ones making them.

We all need to be asking what does regulation mean in this supposedly decentralised space? Who is doing the regulating and how aligned are they really with the Web3 ideology? Do we need to push back against the very possible centralisation of this decentralised space??

4. “In the UK where we are now is really far, yet we are at starting blocks. We only have in force a registration regime, it’s limited in terms of who needs to be registered.? Where we are going is the interesting question.” – Dr. Monica Sah , Partner at Clifford Chance .

We are all too aware of this at IoDF, the regulation doesn’t match up with what’s actually happening within the industry. Unlike in some other countries, crypto assets aren't banned in the UK. Yet, we still haven’t gotten past the FCA’s regulatory assumption that the main danger with crypto transactions is that they’re being used for money laundering.?

Though there is no regulation of cryptocurrencies, crypto businesses providing services with digital tokens must be approved and registered with the FCA for anti-money laundering regulations. It says a lot, and very little, that, since 10th January 2020, the FCA has only supervised UK cryptoasset businesses in case of money laundering and counter-terrorist financing with the AML/CTF Cryptoasset Registration regime. In reality, the possibilities for financial crime and corruption are much wider than this.?

We have already been speaking with the UK and European Trade Union re these issues at a government level, particularly as so many companies are leaving the UK system in favour of offshore banking to avoid the above program. The current legislation is literally sending money and business outside of the UK!?

5. There are lots of very interesting questions, but very few real answers.?

The double-edged sword is a true dichotomy.

On the one hand, this is an exciting prospect: there are no parameters that have yet been defined by creators nor by finance professionals or lawyers which have traditionally set the (conventional) standards for financial innovation. This means we can be more creative with how we proceed, the options are far more open

On the other hand, this also signals that we have a long way to go and many pain points (both known and unknown) to solve. Though everyone seemed to agree that this is the start of a revolution in the corporate world of finance, tech, law with industries like fashion, art and gaming presenting the first use cases, this revolution will not be quick. The adoption of blockchain technologies, smart legal contracts, cryptocurrencies, and everything that goes along with them, will be slow: a trickle down effect.?

A huge thank you to Citibank for organising this event, and to all of the speakers who shared their perspectives. As innovators at the intersection of fashion and tech, these conversations around the wider implementation of tech in the corporate sphere forced a larger consideration of how our industries will fit together in the future.?

How should the IoDF platform evolve in conjunction with the future of finance and technology and what will the corporate implications for IoDF as a whole be?

Ultimately, there is a wealth of possibilities available to IoDF, as well as the fashion, gaming, tech and finance industries at large, AND WE HAVE TO BE AGILE TO REALLY BUILD THIS INTO A REALITY!?

Any thoughts? Let’s discuss in the comments! And was that you snoring on the front row?

Thanks again to all the other fascinating panellists who contributed to these forward-thinking discussions:

Jane Fraser , CEO, 花旗 ; Dara Tarkowski , CEO, Actuate Law ; Stuart Riley , 花旗 ; Vishal Marria , Quantexa ; Nimrod Barak , 花旗 ; Aaron Powers , Hunit ; Becks Perfect , Nifty World ; Ronit Ghose , 花旗 ; Dr. Ruth Wandh?fer , Gauss Ventures ; Jelena Zec , 花旗 ; Shahmir Khaliq , 花旗 ; Antony Jenkins CBE , 10x Banking ; Jonathan Larsen , 中国平安 ; Emily Turner , 花旗 ; Adrien Treccani , Metaco ; Jens Hachmeister , Deutsche B?rse ; Isabella Chase , TRM Labs ; Tongtong Gong , Amberdata ; Puneet Singhvi , 花旗 ; Dave Starling , 花旗 ; Jacob Loewenstein , Spatial ; Nisha Surendran , 花旗 ; Morgan Krupetsky , Ava Labs ; Lukas Vogelsang , Centrifuge ; Morgan McKenney , Provenance Blockchain Foundation ; David E Rutter , R3 ; Steve Pannifer , Consult Hyperion ; Arjun Kharpal , CNBC ; Dr. Fabienne Babinsky , UN World Food Programme WFP ; Sharmila Hardi , IFC - International Finance Corporation ; Esther Chibesa , 花旗 ; Adam Jackson , Innovate Finance ; Charlotte Crosswell OBE , Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) ; Charlotte Hill , Taylor Wessing ; Deniz Güven 顧海 , Further Ventures ; David Cunningham , 花旗 ; Samina Hussain-Letch , Square ; Lynne Lagan , Clearpay (Afterpay) ; Ornit Shinar , 花旗 ; Ijeoma Okoli , The Digital Economy Initiative ; Lawrence Deju-Wiseman , 普华永道 ; Dr. Monica Sah , Clifford Chance ; Nicole Sandler , Barclays ; Sophia Bantanidis , 花旗 ; Daniel Doll-Steinberg , EdenBase ; Mike Keymer , Quantum Computing, Inc. ; Pavle Avramovi? , Financial Conduct Authority ; Ruti Ben-Shlomi , LightSolver ; Jason E. , 花旗 ; Alla Gancz , 安永 ; Martin Etheridge , 萬事達卡 ; Nick Kerigan , Swift ; Tony McLaughlin , 花旗 ; Ryan Rugg , 花旗 ; Jeff Tijssen , 贝恩公司 ; Leda Glyptis PhD , 10x Banking ; Gulru Atak , 花旗 ; Nathalie Oestmann , Outlier Ventures ; Teana Baker-Taylor , Circle ; Ioana S. CryptoUK & Swash .

**IoDF have been aligned with Citi since Citi’s 9th Annual Digital Money Symposium last year, at Unit Gallery London where LEANNE ELLIOTT-YOUNG spoke on a panel with Robby Yung from Animoca Brands , hosted by Sophia Bantanidis .**