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Creating APAC as the hub of web3 innovation
On 28 February, many of the BlockchainNZ team attended the FinTech Hui Taumata, hosted by FinTechNZ, our sister association under the NZTech Group. It was a pleasure to moderate a fireside chat with Sorel Carr, BCNZ executive council member and head of fintech business at BNZ, and Jerome Faury, CEO and co-founder of Immersve, on the future of money forms. It was an exciting conversation that dove into Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs), stablecoins, the golden age of finance in New Zealand during the 1980’s, and debating how New Zealand can become leaders of innovation in the fintech space today. In case you missed it, you can watch the fireside chat here.
Well done to the team for putting on such an insightful and timely conference, and to my colleague Jason Roberts, executive director of FinTechNZ, for launching the FinTech Findr. It’s been such a joy to watch the FinTech Findr start off as an idea, brainstormed around the table at NZTech, and come to life.
In case you haven’t heard, the FinTech Findr is an online interactive directory that showcases every financial company in New Zealand – check it out as you may already be on there! We have hopes to follow suit and roll out our very own for all blockchain and Web3 based companies in the near future. We’ll be putting out a bid to our members to sponsor the BCNZ Findr, so if you are interested, please reach out to our team.
This week, our friend from across the ditch, Steve Vallas, the managing director of Blockchain APAC, is touring Auckland. It’s a week of roundtables, events, and possibly far too many coffees, to help build better relationships and come to a consensus about the challenges we all face and how we can work together to ensure we can create APAC as the hub of Web3 innovation.
Make sure you come along to our event tonight, hosted by our friends at Lane Neave. We’ll be starting off with a Q&A with myself and Steve, and of course be spending a fair amount of time networking amongst our peers with some drinks and nibbles. If you haven’t yet, register here and I’ll see you tonight!
If you can’t make it tonight, we’ll be hosting a webinar on Tuesday, 28 March from 12-1pm on the future of money, which will cover our response to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and their issues paper on private innovation. Register here.
On a final note, in February, Easy Crypto joined with Binance and other crypto focused businesses in New Zealand to enable and support crypto donations to BBM, a New Zealand based local charity, in order to help the many Kiwis impacted by the recent climate events across the North Island. The crypto donations have been rapidly used to get support and goods supplied to those most in need.
The rebuild will take a long time as well all know. If you want to make a crypto donation your support is still very much appreciated. Click here for more information.
Read more here: BlockchainNZ March 2023 Newsletter
