Just as it is necessary for any professional to continuously update their expertise to stay on top of the latest developments in their fields, for a security token issuing platform networking is a vital aspect of business. Regulators put out new regulations, governments announce new rules, and the game as a whole continually changes.



Meetups are a perfect format for us to connect with our guildmates to pick their brain, let them pick ours and in the end, come out enriched and wholly inspired. One such event organized by our great friends and partners at CMS in their London office we’ve had the privilege to attend on Feb 4.



The discussion revolved around the technological aspect of the rapidly changing financial markets and the role blockchain is inevitably going to play in the process. One couldn’t think of the higher authority on the subject than Charles Kerrigan and Christopher Luck – both partners at CMS specializing in digital money. Charles Kerrigan also sits on the Bank of England Financial Markets Law Committee on Virtual Currencies – a body which, despite its clunky name, is extremely agile as a point of reference not only to all things crypto in Britain, but to the entire spectrum of the uneasy UK/EU financial relationship in the period of political and legal uncertainty.



As the leading member of the Funds and Indirect Real Estate (FIRA) team at CMS, at the meetup, Christopher Luck spoke on the firm’s Funds Sector focusing on the value in real assets and financial sectors for UK and Internationally as well as M&A and listing REITs.



Another extremely fulfilling engagement at the meetup was with Phil Thompson, co-founder and COO of autoXchange. Phil revealed to us how Blockchain is to be used by car manufactures, rental firms and leasing companies. Today autoXchange is working on creating a single and open blockchain-based network for car buying and selling enabling near instantaneous transactions and eliminating the need for expensive intermediaries. Dealers will advertise for free and be able to trade, transact, and source cars from anywhere on the blockchain.



Steve Cygnetse, CEO Cygnetise, talked about how enterprises and their adoption of blockchain-based applications. Steve has spent the majority of his career working within operational change within large banks and brokers, including Credit Suisse, UBS, Instinet, and Deutsche Bank and today as the CEO of Cygnetise offers firms an online application to create, maintain and distribute Authorised Signatory Lists using a decentralized database. This includes bank mandate management, delegated authorities, incumbency, and authorized trader lists.



Nicola Dante from Sirin Labs presented a new mobile phone his company had developed, which is a blockchain-enabled smartphone with an embedded cold storage wallet. Sirin Labs is aiming to improve the user experience for owners of Digital Assets while not compromising on security as these are seen as significant barriers for mass adoption of digital assets.



Ryan Hanley, Managing Director Token Market Technologies, passionately spoke about digital advertising, big data in media, commercial strategy, and building partnerships for the digital future. He brushed over his most recent work with Experian – the sinister-sounding “project ‘Ultra’,” which in reality is a more secure, innovative and scalable way to provide data for advertisers, but then extensively discussed the major issues for companies raising growth stage capital, the changing market environment and how Security token offerings could be set to revolutionize this space.

