Building the Operating System of Capital Markets [Interview with BANKEX founder and CEO Igor Khmel]

BANKEX is a blockchain innovator working to build what can be described as the Operating System of capital markets. In this interview with Mahesh Sashital of Smartereum TV, Igor Khmel, founder and CEO of explains his firm’s multi-dimensional solution and how it is going about its audacious goal.

During a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 46 percent of blockchain-savvy executives agreed that the financial services sector is the most advanced in adopting blockchain technology. Industry leaders as a well as blockchain startups are leveraging blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) to develop systems that improve transaction and settlement speeds, security, cost efficiency and other wide-ranging areas.

Securitization 2.0.

Khmel described BANKEX as a blockchain protocol for securities. The team is developing a tokenization ecosystem, providing technology and services at every stage. Its protocol combines banking-as-a-service and blockchain technology to enable the creation of smart asset classes across various sectors.

For instance, its MediaToken allows Instagram users to monetize their accounts and post engagements by issuing tokens which can be purchased by investors. Similarly, AppToken allows developers to raise funds by tokenizing their mobile applications. According to Khmel, similar tokenized assets can be created in sectors like fintech, charity, real estate, social media, and more.

Khmel clarified that its services were not directed towards replacing conventional banks rather towards improving their services through its blockchain API. It creates an open platform that banks can easily connect through a standardized blockchain API—more like the Uber of banks, providing them with enterprises products and services. This is beneficial because it reduces the cost of regulations and works with many decentralized assets.

BANKEX Team, Technology and Token Sale

Stanford-trained Khmel brings to the BANKEX team a wealth of experience from his time working with top organizations including Sberbank, McKinsey, and Plazius. Other core team members include Mikhaylenko Maria, former risk expert at Sberbank and the Bank of Moscow, Dmitry Dolgov (CIO), Syed Hussain (CCO), and more.

BANKEX protocol is built on ethereum which Khmel rightly points out is the most adopted by enterprises. He said the team is in touch with ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin towards implementing scaling solutions, notably the plasma protocol which can increase transaction speed to 100,000 per second with almost zero transaction cost. He said that BANKEX is not in danger of scalability issues as it does not conduct retail payment which requires thousands of transactions per second.

The startup conducted an ICO last year in which it received cryptocurrency worth $70 million; Khmel estimates this value stands around $40 in considering changes in cryptocurrency rates.

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