At Cofound.it we have decided from day one to be a platform with a global presence. While David Sabo is working on building our international presence, I’m engaging with the established communities around the world. September was eventful. First up was the ICO Summit on the 15th in Zurich. It brought together the main players in the Swiss blockchain ecosystem, as well as many people from the Swiss and European financial and international blockchain sector. Interestingly, I talked to several projects (none publicly announced yet) that in different ways are directly talking to and interacting with the regulators in their home countries. The event showed us that the space is maturing at an astounding pace.

MME, Lakeside Partners and Smart Valor are among the many companies in Switzerland that are driving the regulatory change and pushing the ecosystem forward, closer to a regulated and more stable framework. The Swiss government is an active stakeholder in this process, and its agencies are becoming more and more educated and experienced with blockchain projects. The banks are making their moves as well and are not just confined in their sandboxes. They’re showing a keen interest in the opportunities blockchain technology is bringing.

Even though the event took place at a time when bad news was pouring out of China, the overall sentiment was very positive about the future of blockchain. Switzerland already recognized the great potential in this space and is looking for ways to leverage its current banking system and knowledge.

One of our projects, Etherisc, a platform for decentralized insurance applications, won an award at the ICO Summit (image credit: ICO Summit/Smart Valor)

Going for the gold

The city of Zug and its Crypto Valley are the most prominent Swiss examples of trying to establish a Silicon Valley of the crypto world. I would say they’re on a good path. The business community there is all about the blockchain, it’s on everybody’s lips. You go to a cafe, you overhear people talking about it, and not just people from this community. You attend a business meeting, and almost surely bump into someone from this space. It’s really exciting!

Two days later, when I left for Shanghai, I was wondering what was waiting for me in China, given the recent news. I was in for a pleasant surprise — the general sentiment was very positive, and the people mainly saw the ICO ban as sort of a cleaning operation to weed out the many scams that have been plaguing China’s ICO landscape. The impact of shutting down the crypto exchanges remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain: the crypto movement is alive and kicking, and it will be exceedingly difficult to stop.

Double bets

China is therefore taking a very active approach that can be seen in two ways. The Chinese government will not give an unregulated and uncontrollable system the chance to sprout. On the other hand, it’s been one of the most active governments when it comes to exploring and learning about the possibilities in crypto. China’s IT ministry is backing a blockchain lab, and the People’s Bank of China has its own digital currency research institute.

Blockchain development for China is probably a very strategic sector, in which the Chinese government wants to be a leader and exercise control. I’ll allow myself a bit of speculation and say that China could very likely be the first country to launch a government-backed crypto token or cryptocurrency.

Next week I’m heading to Linz, Austria to another event that will be focused on new ventures in the blockchain space, and specifically the progress of establishing Linz as the main Austrian blockchain hub. So keep following us on Twitter, Medium and Facebook to see what we’ve been up to and what is going on in the thriving blockchain community around the world.