Find out how the ‘Little Red Dot’ is leading the way in blockchain innovation with Vinay Mohan, ConsenSys’ Director in the Asia-Pacific region.

As ConsenSys expands its presence in the wider Asia-Pacific region, we have keenly watched the blockchain ecosystem grow in far flung places like the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand. But of the whole region, it’s the city-state of Singapore that has assumed an emergent presence as interest and development in blockchain technology continues to grow dramatically. The “Little Red Dot” has long played an outsized role in world finance due to its historical position as a gateway for trade, but more recently it’s shown to be a unique and open meetingplace where government, finance, enterprise, and that X-factor of start-up energy converge, in turn propelling Singapore into a worldwide leadership role in blockchain via smart finance.

Still fresh from representing ConsenSys at the overwhelmingly successful Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2017, we spoke with Vinay Mohan — who leads ConsenSys’ operations in Singapore and the wider Asia-Pacific region — about what it is that makes Singapore such a remarkable hub for innovation, what that means for governments and central banks all over the world, and what’s next for ConsenSys in Asia-Pacific…

How has Singapore’s role as a hub of financial innovation facilitated the rise of blockchain?

We are seeing the emergence of a new Singapore. This is a nation built on strong fundamentals as a global financial services and technology operations centre, and views the future as one where innovation is a common denominator. Singapore is on a mission to reinvent itself as a Smart Financial Centre and this in turn has kickstarted a whole new way of thinking: take a global view, keep it open-source, and don’t be afraid to experiment.

The Singapore FinTech Festival 2017 is a good example of this new paradigm taking shape. This wildly successful event was, in fact, organized by the central bank and financial services regulator! That is quite profound, from where I see it. The energy is evident across government, finance, and tech, but particularly in the start-ups. Singapore already has a number of successful project launches and respected blockchain companies, and is going to see high-quality, explosive growth in the coming years.

What makes Singapore such a perfect environment for this sort of growth?

For over 30 years, this little nation worked hard to make a name for itself and punched well above its weight on the global stage. Singapore became a role model for corruption-free nation building, education, resource management and public infrastructure. This firm grounding in executing major capital projects, coupled with excellence in maritime trade, trade finance, and allied financial services gave Singapore an unbeatable edge: reputation.

You can conceive any blockchain ecosystem as resting on four major pillars: Government, private sector, start-ups and developer community, and academia. That’s true all over the world, in London, Dubai, Los Angeles, wherever. In the case of Singapore, what’s interesting (and of real value) is that all the four pillars are all developing at a very similar and steady pace and working hand in hand. These factors, coupled with access to new-age capital and a huge consumer market demanding diversified services makes for quite the growth environment.