Last week key members of the team attended the CryptoInvest Summit in Los Angeles. The summit featured more than 100 speakers, educational panels, fireside chats, ICO pitch stages and 70 technology companies on the expo floor. There were 4,500+ attendees, including entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, ICO Advisories and blockchain enthusiasts.

Ivy Advisor, Tom Marchesello, was also on hand for some valuable face-to-face time and making introductions to potential partners also in attendance at CryptoInvest.

Whilst the summit was definitely geared towards startups in the pre-ICO phase, there were very interesting and heated debates on some of the panels. Particularly those focused around regulation & marketing in an environment where blockchain & cryptocurrencies are unable to market or advertise on many mainstream ad networks and social platforms. We feel this has been an over-reaction and have been trying to change this perception in the market in our own small way through existing relationships.

In the US especially, regulation is on the tip of everyone’s tongue as the SEC and many other regulatory bodies start to dig into blockchain & altcoins. We had some really interesting discussions with a startup called VRBex — An exchange positioning itself as the first fully compliant exchange in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how their exchange develops and we look forward to catching up with them in the coming months.

What was refreshing to see was the growing interest in the importance of KYC and the KYC related projects. Financial institutions, banks and exchanges are seeing the everincreasing importance of being able to meet regulatory requirements and are turning to companies like us to bring a solution to the table.

This was confirmed by a bank executive that Gary met with recently who said many banks including theirs are cautiously evaluating potential blockchain solutions as cryptocurrency becomes mainstream. Banks see the potential for a very lucrative new revenue stream but have concerns around KYC & BSA / AML requirements not being met by existing technologies… that’s where we come in ;-)

Upcoming conferences we will be attending:

May 14th — Consensus 2018 in New York, NY

June 11th — Bank Audit & Risk Committees Conference in Chicago, IL

June 19th — Future of Fintech in New York, NY