Day 1: Opening Kickoff of Lendit

As many of our community knows, the Bridge team was excited to be a panel speaker at the 2018 Lendit Fintech event. Many great blockchain companies and “traditional” businesses were there. These range from lenders, investors and our friends at the NEO blockchain team.

The crowd in attendance was truly diverse; this wasn’t the traditional field we see at blockhain conferences. We really saw a unique interest from corporate professionals that do not know how blockchain can help them and an eagerness to learn. The education gap will be crucial to help businesses understand the cost savings we can apply by removing the need to re-certify each individual for similar use-cases. The primary purpose of blockchain is to provide trust. Bridge will be the source that business and consumers look to when they need to verify identity and see transactional records.

It was great to see Da Hongfei and Johnson from the NEO team and am happy to partake in the compliance driven conversation that NEO and Bridge are focused on creating within their ecosystems. NEO was built with a business oriented economic and regulatory framework, which is why we have been studying NEO since the early Antshares days.

Da takes stage at Lendit Fintech

Da explains why compliance is important for mainstream adoption

From Left: Da Hongfei (NEO), Stephen Hyduchak (Bridge) — Just saying “hi” as we return to our panels

Taking a step-back and listening to other businesses has been the most helpful insight to ensure we are ready for their needs. We spoke with some spectacular companies like Wanchain and SALT; they explained the cost/hardships that the KYC/AML process provides for their customer. Bridge will allow regulators to be happy, while serving the customers’ interest because they will have oversight and control of their data.

Panel Discussion: Day 3

Panel discussion of Regtech use-cases for blockchain

I was honored to be part of a panel that included some prominent thought leaders in the space like Shyft, Blockchain Intelligence Group and others. The resounding question from the audience was concern for compliant ICOs and how can we show regulators that this space can aid their goals for protecting citizens. I believe developers and founders have an obligation to make these platforms real. There are currently no businesses using the blockchain, public nor private at the moment for everyday purposes. The idea is to make your service functional and viable and focus on immediate need. We have seen many ICOs come up with solutions to problems that do not yet exist. In the identity space, we have all been hacked or have had our data compromised. Let’s focus our efforts on things that affect everyday users and bring the costs down for businesses.

We had a great time and learned a lot to help serve the community. Until next year!