labour, roles and responsibilities couldbe a driving-force for change. Some-thing as simple as identity could bringfinancial inclusion to hiring and pay-ment for skills and contribute to reduc-ing gender poverty associated withwomen globally.The blockchain world is a continuum

dominated by men because it is ‘tech-nology’. The ability to make it gender-neutral lies with a complete overhaulof “the mobilisation of knowledge,skills attitudes and values through aprocess of reflection, anticipation andaction, in order to develop the inter re-lated competencies needed to engage

with the world’ says the OECD Learn-ing Framework.Blockchain is seen as possibly the

most disruptive force of modern times.It can be the force of change to disruptone of the greatest challenges of ourtime, inclusion and diversity.The words of Amir Dossal, Executive

Chair of the Blockchain Commissionfor Sustainable Development arepoignant and a call to action “It is notwomen who need to change, it is ourspecies and lip service is unacceptable”.What lip-service will you change

today?

Dr Maxine Room CBE, CEO of All of Us inconversation with James Bowaterhttp://linkedin.com/in/maxine-room-cbe-074b6744

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: THE VIEWSAND OPINIONS PROVIDED BY CITY A.M.'SCRYPTO INSIDER AND IN THE CRYPTO A.M.SECTION SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN ASINVESTMENT OR FINANCIAL ADVICE.ALWAYS CONSULT WITH YOUR FINANCIAL ADVISOR.

Blockchain has been one of the mosttalked about technologies of the lastyear and it’s been said to be the

solution to a wide range of problems. Whilethe enthusiasm is impressive, thetechnology has struggled with real-worldproblems. Issues of cost, speed and levelof difficulty to build practical applicationshave stalled adoption by global business,commerce and governments.

Atlas City Global (ACG), a London-basedstartup is aiming to meet customers’ needsby taking practical, innovative approachesto provide more than just a ledger. TheCatalyst Network is a new distributedcomputing protocol, a full suite ofintegrated technologies, not forked, butwritten from scratch.

Designed as an open source, fast, light,secure and scalable network, that isaccessible to .Net developers, Catalyst islaunching in the second half of 2019,having received $4M in seed investmentfrom Robert A Hefner III, among other HNW

individuals. This funding will support thefinal stage of development of its CatalystNetwork.

Darren Oliveiro-Priestnall, ACG, CEO,said, “Catalyst, which is for global publicuse, is designed to support anyprogramming language or framework, tointegrate with today’s current systems, towork in the same way as businessesalready work. When we started, we talkedwith many companies across industrieslike utilities, energy, logistics and financialservices. We wanted to build applications

16 TUESDAY 2 JULY 2019FEATURE CITYAM.COM 17TUESDAY 2 JULY 2019 FEATURECITYAM.COM

funding for women-led business sits at0.5% in the UK!Over the past few months I’ve been

privileged to have conversations anddiscussions about the links betweenblockchain and equality that have thepower to disrupt through a call to ac-tion, or two or three! Reducing socialand gender gaps benefits are recog-nised but structural barriers still existthat mean women and girls cannotreach their full potential. Equally thiscan be applied to other marginalisedgroups across the globe. It’s not exclu-sive to gender.What does the UN say? The global

gender pay gap is 23%; 5% of Fortune500 CEO’s are women; 65% of womenhave experienced sexual harassmentin the UK and 96% of global homicidesare by men.IMF research shows that tackling

workplace sexism could boost eco-nomic productivity by 35% says IMFchief Christine Lagarde.Almost half of all female managers

say their workplace is sexist and insome cases shut women out of theworkplace altogether, says YoungWomen’s Trust.The relative ‘newness’ of blockchain

without legacies of demarcation of

Blockchain for good: UsingBlockchain has the ability to tackleinequality

Recently, I was in Westminster at theAll-Party-Parliamentary-Group forBlockchain on education, research,sport, charities and NGOs. It remindedme of a working trip to India in 2000as I was able to connect a lot ofblockchain dots.In India I was ‘selling’ British qualifi-

cations for a further education collegeand doing research on the transferabil-ity of qualifications. The relativepoverty I observed was overwhelming.I visited a school, a charity, who pro-vided hot meals everyday for 100 pri-mary-aged children for a total cost £5per-day. Returning home, I fundraised£150 to pay for 1 month’s meals. Themoney was sent however, never re-ceived or cashed as far as I know.Listening to the panel I reflected on

this and my interest in ‘Blockchain-for-good’. Had I known about blockchain,how could it have been applied, to ed-ucation, my research and this charity?The panel covered these various usesand challenges of blockchain conclud-ing “It’s not a magic pill, but certainlycan go a long-way to making currentbusiness and process more efficientand transparent.”Everyday a media reference is made

to equality, diversity and inclusion butprogress is slow.. I’m keen to see howblockchain solutions for good can beintegrated, influence and drive changefor these areas particularly in theseturbulent political and economictimes.However, someone whispered in my

ear at a recent blockchain event ‘theyare all only interested in makingmoney.’Making buisnesses capitalise on the

use of blockchain more successfullyand profitably by embracing an equal-ity diversity and inclusion strategy isan attractive proposition whetherlinked to blockchain, crypto or not. It’seconomic good sense! Doing goodthrough the use of blockchain can giveyou a feel-good factor, a #metoo advan-tage in addition to making money!Equality, diversity and inclusion can

be seen as a minefield to be navigatedcarefully. However, consider who ismaking these kinds of judgements inorganisations, who are the decisionmakers? Of the top 350 companies inthe UK only 24 have female Chairs. Al-though 700 women have been ap-pointed to Boards since the DaviesReport, and some Boards have over 50%representation, some have none andthe overall statistics hide the reality.Many businesses still don’t understandor recognise the value diverse teamsbring. It’s easier to recruit and managepeople from networks you know. Di-verse teams are challenging but bring

innovation.A FinTech article by Gemma Young,

of DiversiTech asked: Is there anyoneout there who doesn’t think that work-place diversity is a good thing? It re-ferred to blockchain having inbuiltdemocratisation transcending race,colour, religion, creed, age, gender, sex-ual orientation and protected charac-teristics. A recent One Loud Voice eventfocused on the need for male advocacy.Diversity data linked to gender profilesof blockchain companies and eventsisn’t easy to access. However, observeany blockchain event or company anddo the maths! One figure is glaring, VC

Designed byPhill Snelling, Bowater Media

In association with

CITY A.M.’SCRYPTO INSIDER

Crypto A.M. shines its Spotlight on Atlas City

@CityAm_CryptoE: CryptoInsider@cityam.com

JAMES BOWATER

PARTNER CONTENT

Our series on AI, Blockchain, Cryptoassets, DLT and Tokenisation

Crypto exchanges are a fundamentalpart of the decentralised financialecosystem, functioning as market-

places in which owners of cryptocurrencycan trade digital assets and trade cryp-tocurrency for fiat. It is one of the fastestgrowing sub sectors of the crypto industry–– this exponential growth means thatexchanges face increased attacks andmust constantly improve their securitymeasures. Without adequate security sys-tems, cryptocurrency exchanges can en-counter painful hacks, affecting theirbusiness and wider faith in the cryptos-phere.When investors choose to store value in

the close to 2,000 digital currencies avail-able today in a crypto exchange, theyshould ask; where does this exchangestore assets? Who can access and controlmy assets? What happens to my assets inthe event of a hack? If the exchange inquestion is secure, these questions willlead to clear answers.£WHERE?— Any assets stored online arevulnerable to security breaches. In a re-cent example of a major hack of one ofthe world’s largest cryptocurrency ex-changes, hackers stole 7,000 bitcoins. At-tacks such as these can be prevented byusing cold storage, where investors’ assetsare stored offline. This makes assets im-mune to unauthorized attacks or theft.£WHO? — Exchanges should use ‘multi-signature wallets’, ensuring that there aremultiple authorised access points to as-sets and that investors have control. Assetskept in cold storage are incredibly secure,so investors must be given control of anaccess key. In another recent case, a Cana-dian cryptocurrency exchange lost accessto its cold storage wallets when its CEO,the only one with access to the cold stor-age wallets of thousands of users, diedsuddenly. The exchange lost $190 millionof investor funds, which could have beenprevented by multi-signature wallets, incombination with cold storage.£ WHAT? — Cryptocurrency exchangesmust provide insurance for assets, ensur-ing that investors are protected and willnot lose funds permanently; trust be-tween investors and cryptofinance insti-tutions is crucial. This is the final step in

the promise that exchanges will protectinvestors’ interests, and in the cryptofi-nance space’s aim to build a legitimateecosystem.These necessary security measures must

be continuously assessed for effectivenessand updated in light of new potential vul-nerabilities. Post-security breach action isnot enough — a systematic proceduremust be in place from the establishmentof an exchange.Financial regulation can prevent finan-

cial crime and mismanagement, but it hasevolved slowly across the cryptofinancespace. A recent report by regtech companyCoinfirm found that only 14% of 216global cryptocurrency exchanges wereconfirmed as being licensed by regulators.As such, the majority of the world’s cryp-tocurrency exchanges are not being heldto any particular standards and may oper-ate without security practices. Certain jurisdictions, such as Switzer-

land, Liechtenstein, and Gibraltar, areleading the way in providing comprehen-sive regulation to cryptofinance institu-tions; investors should look to exchangesin these jurisdictions as examples of bestpractice. The Gibraltar Financial ServicesCommission’s DLT License Frameworkpassed in January 2018, providing nineprinciples to follow for regulated firms,centred around investor protection. Liecht-enstein recently passed blockchain regu-lation to improve investor protection. For the cryptocurrency industry to

progress, it must adopt the same stan-dards of regulation, security, and protec-tion as traditional financial services.Procedures from the traditional financialsector cannot be ignored as we recreatethis industry with emerging technology.This should be a basic principle for cryp-tocurrency exchanges, as we develop as anestablished division of the wider financialspace. Combining traditional and digitalspaces can result in vast benefits, and wemust commit to establishing trusted cryp-tocurrency exchanges that protect in-vestors assets, whilst doing justice to thethriving, global cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Nick Cowan, CEO of the Gibraltar StockExchange

Last week saw bitcoin surge to freshyearly highs - cruising all the way up to$13,813 on Wednesday evening (Jun

26) before a substantial drop back downbelow the $11,000 level on Thursday. Thelast time the leading cryptoasset hit theselevels was in January 2018, during the peakof the last bull run. These new highs meanthat many who bought bitcoin in late 2017and early 2018 are now back in profitableterritory.

In contrast to the last bull run, wherealtcoin gains often far outrsripped that ofbitcoin, other cryptocurrencies did not seethe enormous gains they experienced inlate 2017. While ethereum (ETH) hit newyearly highs around the $350 mark lastweek, many altcoins saw less dramaticgains. Litecoin - the fourth largestcryptoasset by market cap, saw very littleupward movement as bitcoin was soaring,remaining around the $135 mark beforedropping following bitcoin’s retrace, whileRipple’s XRP posted only very modest

gains. In other positive news for Bitcoin markets,

last week saw TD Ameritrade, one of thelargest brokerage firms in the US, openmargin trading on Bitcoin. Seen as one ofthe ‘Big Four’ brokers, the digital tradingplatform manages around $1.3 trillion ofclient funds. To trade Bitcoin on theplatform, users must have a minimumaccount balance of $25,000.

Last week also saw another developmentin the drama surrounding controversial self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator, Craig Wright. Inthe ongoing lawsuit, where he deniesallegations that he stole bitcoin andintellectual property from his ex-businesspartner, Wright told a Florida judge that heis unable to produce addresses for the $10billion he supposedly mined duringBitcoin’s infancy. Wright also claimed thathe stopped working on Bitcoin in 2010 afterfeeling regret that the asset was being usedfor nefarious purposes such as the now-defunct Silk Road.

CRYPTOCOMPARE MARKET VIEW

Security Standards, Regulation, and Best Practices

Bitcoin Soars to Test $14k Before Retrace

We can modify anddeploy privatenetworks to fit

the exact needs of the customer

Whether we are usingcryptocurrency as anapplication built on top of

blockchain technology or usingblockchain as an industry applicationsupporting supply chain transparency,we always need to have a wallet. Butexactly what is a blockchain wallet? Andwhat do you keep in it?

A blockchain wallet is a collection of thekeys necessary to access information on ablockchain. Keys are always in matchedpairs – a public key and its matchingprivate key. This is like your accountnumber (public key) and pin code (privatekey)

Considering that a wallet is a place tosafely store the information necessary to

authorise all your transactions, it isimportant to keep your wallet safe.Blockchain wallets can take differentformats from paper wallets, cold storagehardware wallets, mobile wallets, non-custodial and custodial wallets, webwallets and more. Each of these have prosand cons and varying degrees of security.

Unlike with your regular wallet, if youlose your private keys or they are stolen,there is no one to call to get new privatekeys. Any transactions made with yourstolen keys are not reversible.

A common misunderstanding is that awallet holds the cryptocurrency you own.A blockchain wallet is comparable to yourtraditional wallet which holds debit andcredit cards. The cards are

representations of your cash or credit, butthe value resides in a database at thebank. In a similar fashion, your blockchainwallet holds your public and private keysbut does not actually hold anycryptocurrency. For supply chainblockchains, the wallets hold the keysgiving you authority to sign transactionsfor the transfer or transformation ofgoods.

Blockchain wallets are a critical part ofany blockchain deployment and are anespecially critical part of owningcryptocurrency.

Get in touch with usinfo@blockchainrookies.com / Twitter @igetblockchain

CRYPTO A.M. INDUSTRY VOICES

Of the top 350companies in the UK only 24 have

female chairs

Troy Norcross, Co-Founder Blockchain Rookies

WHAT ARE BLOCKCHAINWALLETS?

Left to right; Joseph Christopherson CMO, PaulineBernat R&D Manager, Chris Justice President &COO, Darren Oliveiro-Priestnall CEO & CTO

BLOCKCHAINEQUALITY,DIVERSITY ANDINCLUSION

projects on the Catalyst Network in thefields of supply chain, utilities, foodprovenance, energy, and plastics recycling.One example is in a plastics recyclingdeposit return program – being developedwith partners. ACG’s Catalyst Network willtrack the life-cycle of plastic drinks bottlesfrom production to return to NFC IoT-enabled low-cost recycling bins and thenreturn the deposit value into consumers’digital wallet app.

Catalyst was chosen for this because ofits ability to scale and track millions ofplastic bottles and provide the consumer-facing application to produce a fullcircular-economy benefit by encouragingconsumer behaviour and reducing plasticwaste and the environmental impact ofplastic.

Darren says, “In the future I can seeCatalyst scaling alongside the applicationsand businesses that run on it. From startupsleveraging Catalyst’s infrastructure andusing the resources available on thenetwork, to established organisations thatwant to protect and manage their data andeven easily distribute their cloud-basedapplications across multiple cloudproviders. Catalyst will enable a host of newweb services and enable the nextgeneration of developers to build softwarethat has privacy, security and performancebuilt-in, in ways that haven’t been achievedbefore.”

For further information visithttps://atlascity.io

to solve their business problems using theefficiencies, traceability, data security andsavings that working with single, trustedrecords of transactions can provide, but wefound that we couldn’t meet ourcustomers expectations building on theplatforms in the market at the time.

“Fundamentally, we don’t set out tomake businesses or people change how

they work, we need to make thetechnology work in the same way they do.Many businesses have specific ways ofworking which even the most flexible ofpublic ledgers can’t fit perfectly. So we’vebuilt Catalyst to be modular: we canmodify and deploy private networks to fitthe exact needs of the customer.”

ACG is running proof-of-concept and pilot

Since last week’s Crypto AM, the markets havebeen extremely volatile with Bitcoin (BTC)testing and breaching the $13,000

resistance mark. However, at the time ofwriting, it has lost all gains and more trading atUS$10,085.10. ETH is at US$281.12; Ripple (XRP)is at US$0.3883; Binance (BNB) is at US$31.54 andCardano (ADA) is at US$0.07972. Overall Market Cap is down circa9% 298.02 US$325.52bn (data source: www.CryptoCompare.com)

Interesting news from Finboot today. The Barcelona / Londonbased blockchain start-up, whose co-founder and Chairman NishKotecha I met recently, has received a double endorsement fromRepsol. The energy giant has bought a stake in the company andagreed a commercial contract for its blockchain technology solution.Finboot’s proprietary software MARCO facilitates the adoption ofblockchain technologies into daily business operations, focusing onindustrial supply chains, and making them more efficient. Repsolreckons it will save about €400,000 per annum, even with a limitedrollout. Kotecha is confident in Finboot’s future growth ambitions,highlighting the fact that Finboot’s software is blockchain agnosticand capable of verifying products’ sustainability credentials – an areaof growing concern for executives.

This week I moderated a fireside chat at Tokenize It! with Brady Luo,the Co-Founder & CEO of everiToken (EVT), and Soups Ranjan, theHead of Fincrime Risks for Revolut. everiToken technology was usedto tokenize the service data of over 71 million users and to provide thetechnical infrastructure for a $500MM stablecoin in Malaysia. Revolut,which is currently valued at about $2.7 billion, is the first Europeandigital bank unicorn.

everiToken CEO Brady Luo gave a keynote presentation during theevent, in which he mentioned that 20 new asset-backed stablecoinsare set to be issued on everiToken's public chain.

KuCoin ambassador Mik Mironov, who is also a partner at SMCCapital, gave a keynote presentation at the event in which heannounced that KuCoin is expanding very rapidly in Europe. KuCoinboasts a global network of over 5 million registered users and 320million dollars peak 24-hour trading volume. Top blockchainanalytical companies have consistently awarded KuCoin with A-leveltrust ratings. KuCoin has established itself as a market leader in altcoinliquidity. Also, I was surprised to learn that a significant part ofKuCoin's audience is located in the US and UK.

Yesterday Crypto A.M. contributor Arnie Hill (aka ‘Crypto Arnie’)launched the CryptoArnie Platform which is a newly developedsolution for ICO participants, enabling individuals from allbackgrounds and experiences to participate in high-demandallocations for the latest projects in Blockchain and Crypto. Unlikealmost every other platform, his business model is not aligned to theprojects, but to the investor.

If you’d like beta testing access simply fill in the typeform here:https://cryptoarnie.typeform.com/to/BHpFVt