part of the purchase price. The marketis still developing, but once a compre-hensive infrastructure is in place andawareness grows among issuers andinvestors, issue volume of security to-kens is likely to increase significantly.A win-win situation for companiesseeking financing and yield-orientedinvestors.What makes the tokens so appealing

compared to previous asset classes liesin the token structure. Issuers do nothave to authenticate them, whichmakes them independent of settle-ment agencies like Clearstream. Com-bine this with the design flexibility andthere are endless structures possible be-yond the Real Estate backed token fromBrickmark. Virtually any security, be itshares, bonds or certificates, can be is-sued as security tokens. This could bean equity token that not only repre-sents a share in the assets of the issuerbut also contains in-built voting rights.The smart contract of a token also al-lows the design of entirely new finan-cial instruments, like a token that linksthe characteristics of shares and bondstogether in a new form.The emerging new token revolution

is likely to have an increasing impacton the future financial industry. Notonly are traditional custodians navi-gating a changing environment, butinvestment banks are also facing newchallenges. While traditional banksare involved in stock and bond trans-actions, security tokens are likely toadd complexity to this lucrative busi-ness. Here, too, the blockchain is likelyto open out new avenues that lead tosignificant cost savings for issuers andinvestors.

Stephan Rind, Founder of BrickMark AG,in conversation with James Bowater. Forfurther information visithttps://brickmark.io

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 FINANCIALADVISOR.

For Indorse, it has always been aboutskills. While certificates certainly holdsome surface value, the real value lies

in the quality of the work produced. That’swhat the team at Indorse believes in. Webuild innovative tools for organisations toassess skills. More specifically, tech skills!

As an enterprise SaaS platform, Indorseattracts organizations like Dell & Rolls-Royce and helps them build great techteams, upskill their current workforce andenable innovation. Right from recruiting toupskilling, the platform touches uponmultiple use cases and addresses problemsfaced in the present-day workplace.

The majority of revenue comes from twomain product offerings - Onlinehackathons and Upskilling. The firstproduct, online hackathons, has beenreinvented by Indorse to help achieve twoobjectives relevant to businesses - hiringtechies and enabling innovation.Companies who want to achieve thesegoals use Indorse’s platform to conductthe hackathons, completely online.

Indorse recently helped Rolls-Royce andSingapore Airlines Group to conduct aturnkey innovation hackathon forimproving the maintenance process ofaircraft engines. Known to be at theforefront of R&D, Rolls-Royce isconsidering blockchain technology toremove these inefficiencies and expenses.In collaboration with the best participantsshortlisted by Indorse’s software, teamsfrom Rolls-Royce are now experimentingblockchain tech to build solutions

18 TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2020FEATURE CITYAM.COM 19TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2020 FEATURECITYAM.COM

world of accredited securities.The security features of these tokens

are also noticeable in terms of regula-tion. As security tokens, they are mon-itored by the regulatory authorities,which means that a securities prospec-tus must be submitted and approvedbefore a security token offering, or“STO”. This requires a great deal ofknow-how, not just on the part of theissuers, but also the accompanyinglawyers, supervisory authorities andeven PR agencies. This knowledge iscurrently still in development.An STO is the logical next step in this

type of financing. After all, what is the

seller of a property, for example, sup-posed to do with the tokens if they areimpossible to sell? The seller has therights from the tokens, but they needto be tradable before they can competewith classic securities. This raises notonly the question of where to trade thetoken but also how liquid it is. Ofcourse, the processing of the transac-tion and the fees incurred also play arole. Thus, stock exchange trading andthe professional management of thetokens play a key role. Only if these areoffered, as they are for conventionalsecurities, will institutional investorsconfidently accept security tokens as

Two years ago, everyone wastalking about cryptocurren-cies. Bitcoin leapt from peakto peak and countless newcoins were created. Then, the

soaring flight of the new crypto worldturned into a sudden nosedive. Manyof these new currencies have sinceeked out a shadowy existence or sim-ply disappeared. But after this firstwave receded, tokens have entered anemerging renaissance. No longer inthe form of pure currency tokens,often issued by start-ups, the growthof Asset-Backed Tokens has begun. Asthe name suggests, these tokens arelinked to an underlying asset, be it pre-cious metals or real estate. Dependingon their features, Asset-Backed Tokensbear more resemblance to classic secu-rities like shares or bonds than theirunfortunate counterparts.One such token is offered by Swiss

company BrickMark, who recently ac-quired a property in a top location inZurich for CHF 130 million. The seller,renowned real estate investor RFR, ac-cepted the BrickMark token for a sig-nificant proportion of the purchaseprice. Their Asset-Backed Token hasnot yet been traded on a stock ex-change but offers clearly-defined enti-tlements to token holders. Theseinclude regular payments from rentalincome and a share in any increase inthe value of the real estate portfolio.What makes this deal stand out is notonly the real estate - it represents theworld's largest transaction paid bytoken - but also the parties who aretrading. On the BrickMark side, CEOStephan Rind and other top-classmanagers from the international realestate industry have come together.The response to the transaction in themarket and among real estate expertswas appropriately substantial, notonly across Europe but also in the USAand Asia.Tokens like this are increasingly vi-

able as a future financing instrument,for both institutional and private in-vestors. They give private investors, inparticular, the opportunity to investrelatively small amounts in assets thatwould otherwise be out of reach. The

BrickMark token, for example, offersthe ability to invest in a top Zurichproperty that would otherwise be outof reach. In the future, such invest-ments will be just a few clicks away ona smartphone. Since identification iscritical for a “security” like this, theminimum investment to make itworthwhile after costs should be in therange of £5,000 to £10,000.The flexible design of these tokens re-

quires a detailed examination beforemaking an investment. They differ onthe type of rights they grant, the na-ture of token involved and the level oftransparency an issuer commits to. In

the future, there will be regular report-ing on the development of the com-pany, plus press releases on importantbusiness transactions. Besides the in-creased security afforded when com-bining the token with an asset, thistransparent communication about theunderlying asset and business develop-ment allows an investor to track invest-ment performance. This might soundbanal, but consider that the majorityof companies that raised funding in aninitial coin offering never publish fi-nancial figures. This new transparencyrepresents the clear change of heart re-quired for tokens to truly arrive in the

In association with

CITY A.M.’SCRYPTO INSIDER

Crypto A.M. shines its Spotlight on Indorse

@CityAm_CryptoE:CryptoInsider@cityam.com

JAMES BOWATER

PARTNER CONTENT

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

Last week, we celebrated a new dawnfor Bitcoin and blockchain as morethan 800 delegates filled the Old

Billingsgate in London for CoinGeek’sfifth conference, where I had the privi-lege of serving as MC. The 2-day businessevent centred on the future of blockchaintechnology, with a focus on the applica-tion and utility of the Bitcoin SV (BSV).The “SV” in BSV stands for Satoshi Vision,because it is the only blockchain adher-ing to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’soriginal protocol and design. After yearsof scaling battles, BSV is massively scalingto enable Bitcoin’s blockchain to serveboth as a peer-to-peer electronic system,and a global data ledger for enterprise.CoinGeek London was filled with proj-

ect announcements which leverage theunique capabilities of BSV – namely, su-perior data capacity and technical power.The most exciting news came from EHRData, a subsidiary of the National HealthCoalition, which was created to deployand operate a technology-based solutionto address the burgeoning opioid crisis inthe United States. EHR are in the processof developing a proof of concept in orderto test the feasibility of using the BSVblockchain to sustain a global electronichealth record (G-EHR) for patients, whichwill provide medical practitioners withreal-time access to a single source of pa-tient information to inform prescriptiondecisions and track opioid-based pharma-ceuticals. EHR Data selected BSV becausethe blockchain offers the massive scala-bility needed to handle millions of healthcare transactions every day, with thepower to establish a global ledger thatcan break down existing data silos in theindustry. EHR Data will work on the proj-ect in partnership with nChain, the lead-ing global blockchain research anddevelopment firm in London.Another exciting enterprise project

came from Norwegian company UNISOT,which unveiled Seafood Chain – a supplychain management system to trackseafood. It also announced its namesakeUNISOT enterprise blockchain platformfor supply chain management. Bothproducts are built on the BSV blockchain.The conference also enjoyed keynote

speeches from renowned Wall Street an-

alyst Thomas Lee, Managing Partner ofFundstrat Global Advisors. In addition toa cryptocurrency investment overviewfrom Lee, his colleague David Grider sum-marised their firm’s recent market re-search report about Bitcoin SV and its bigvision for an on-chain Internet. Another keynote speaker was famed

economist, best-selling author and tech-nology visionary George Gilder – whotalked about the power of blockchaintechnology to fix what he saw as the fun-damental flaws of our current financialsystem, based on his favoured informa-tion theory of economics. Investment and interest in BSV is grow-

ing; why?Produced by technology entrepreneur

Calvin Ayre, CoinGeek London was filledwith a palpable energy demonstrating whyBSV is attracting serious investor interest.£Institutional investors have largely

been on the sidelines, waiting for aproven blockchain that meets enterpriseneeds and also supports a regulation-friendly ecosystem.£Institutional money invests in busi-

nesses they hope will scale globally, withsustainable margins; in big business, youscale, or you die.£The various enhancements available

only on BSV, which are predicated on theability to massively scale, have started toattract enterprises big and small, with in-vestment following fast.Bitcoin SV’s ecosystem has rapidly

grown to over 400 ventures and projectsworldwide. These include:£BSV applications that generate high

volumes of micropayment & data trans-actions. £Ventures that advance the Metanet

on BSV.£B2B infrastructure for other BSV ap-

plications, with technology that allowslegacy businesses to easily integrate withBSV applications.If you missed CoinGeek London, join us

in October for CoinGeek New York. We’llsee even more of what the new dawnbrings for Bitcoin.

Jimmy Nguyen is the Founding President ofthe Bitcoin Association(www.bitcoinassociation.net).

CRYPTOCOMPARE MARKET VIEW

A NEW DAWN FOR BLOCKCHAIN

AdTech’s seeming endless flow ofcash is being disrupted. BetweenGDPR across the EU and CCPA in

California, regulators are increasingconsumer control over their data. Onboth mobile and web, 3rd party cookies(small data files upon which much ofwhich programmatic advertising relies)are under threat. Both Safari and Chromewill soon block these files by default.

Advertisers are growing tired of notknowing where their ads appear andwhere their budgets go. The amount ofrevenue winding up with the publisherdecreases with every intermediaryoffering better targeting, bidding andinsights.

Many pundits believe that blockchain

will be crucial to the disruption of theindustry. But will it?

Wayne Tassie from DoubleVerify states,“With cookie depletion on the horizonand a lack of trackable cross-device,omnichannel data signals, we need tocome together as an industry to solve theunderlying issues. Blockchain is apotential long term solution but due to alack of infrastructure, not the quick fixthat the industry is going to require in thenext two years if the status quo is not tobe challenged.”

Blockchain can provide a platform forrecording information about orders tobuy and sell media. It can provideinformation regarding budgetdistribution throughout the value chain.

Blockchain can even provide a basis fortrusted and permissioned access toconsumers as an alternative to cookies.However, today blockchain technology isnot capable of handling billions of dailyad impressions, billions of users andmillions of orders.

More importantly, the industry isn’tgoing to embrace blockchain willingly.Transparency isn’t always profitable.Neither is giving consumers completecontrol over their data. The AdTechindustry is due for disruption, but the juryis still out on whether or not blockchainwill play a part in the new world order.

info@blockchainrookies.com / Twitter@igetblockchain

CRYPTO A.M. INDUSTRY VOICES

Troy Norcross, Co-Founder Blockchain Rookies

digital transformation. That is the reasonwhy Upskilling has become Indorse’sflagship product.

One illustrative example is the upskillingprogram run by Indorse for one of thelargest banks in Asia. The bank uses thetools and expertise offered by Indorse toupskill hundreds of employees andtransform them into data scientists andanalysts over the next two years.

Thanks to these innovative products,Indorse has been making giant strides intech, especially the HR Tech marketsacross continents. 2019 was a highlysuccessful year for Indorse. Not only didthey cross a major milestone in terms ofrevenue, but they also succeeded ingetting big organizations onboard. In2020, they plan to expand into the UKmarket for business growth whilecontinuing the growth in the SEA andIndian markets.

Talking about the expansion in the UKand growth, Gaurang Torvekar, CEO ofIndorse said, “We want to create a futurewhere the skills of any person can betaken across borders. After our launch inSingapore and our subsequent expansionin India, the time has come for us toconquer the UK market. The ease withwhich the platform is able to audit techskills makes it a suitable solution fororganisations across the globe.”

For more information visit https://indorse.io

enabling more effective processes.Upskilling is another major product line,

focused on employees within anorganisation. Organisations use theplatform to understand where theirworkforce stands in terms of tech

capabilities and how they can develop therequired tech skills. Terms like ‘Skillsdevelopment’, ‘skills gaps’, are oneveryone's lips, especially in the techindustry, at a time where severalorganizations are going through a massive

As part of my community network, I havea number of Crypto AM WhatsAppgroups which act as a forum to

interact about work and sharing ideas. It isno surprise therefore that over the pastmonth or so, Coronavirus / COVID-19 startedto dominate conversations, so much so that Icreated the Crypto AM COVID-19 Alerts channelwhich itself has become a reliable informationgathering source. Pretty early on it became very clear that this was noordinary virus outbreak and over the last month there have beennegative impacts on most global markets not least of all yesterdaygiven the news of the major outbreak in northern Italy where at thetime of writing the sixth death had been announced and the DowJones dropped nearly 1,000 points on opening. It adds more weightto the notion that the Crypto market is currently a safer bet despite itsvolatility.

Since last the last edition Bitcoin (BTC) breached the US$10,000mark again before retreating back and at the time of writing, BTC istrading at US$9,714.67 / GB£7,526.21; Ethereum (ETH) is atUS$269.27 / GB£208.09; Ripple (XRP) is at US$0.2724 / GB£0.2108;Binance (BNB) is at US$22.39 / GB£17.35 and Cardano (ADA) is atUS$0.05973 / GB£0.04606. Overall Market Cap is at US$282.24 /GB£216.57 (data source: www.CryptoCompare.com)

I attended the tailend of the CoinGeek conference and saw anumber of old friends and familiar faces. I managed to catch up withsome of those close to the Bitcoin SV project and what was extremelyrefreshing was that their focus is much more on building than thedistractions of high profile spats between industry leaders,sometimes dubbed protocol wars which our nascent industry needslike a hiole in the head. Crypto AM remains agnostic and as such Iinvited Jimmy Nguyen of the Bitcoin Association who also hosted theCoinGeek Conference to write this weeks’ Industry Voices (opposite)

Turning my attention to the US, it was very good to see that myfriend Caitlin Long, a Blockchain and Crypto champion for the State ofWyoming, has announced that she building the US’s first Crypto Bankcalled Avanti Bank & Trust (Twitter @AvantiBT /www.avantibank.com) by applying for a bank charter in Wyomingwith a view to opening in 2021 which will be a major step forward.

The Crypto AM Awards are taking place next month and last weekthe shortlisted nominees in all twelve categories were announced inCity AM. I’d to take the opportunity to wish them all the best of luckand to also thank our Judging Panel:-Eric Van der Kleij, Steve Good ,Robert Gaskell , Maya Zehavi , Naeem Aslam, QFA , Daniel Doll-Steinberg , Emily Nicolle and On Yavin. I’d also like to thank all of oursponsors:- Electroneum, BrickMark AG, World Mobile Chain, RSK,Coinsilium, Mode Banking, Blockpass, TradingView, ISOLAS LLP,Indorse, Fintech Worldwide, CMS Law,Vizidox, Cudo and last but notleast City AM.

DOES THEDIGITALISATION OFASSETS PAVE THEWAY FOR TRULYFLEXIBLE REALESTATE FINANCING?

Designed byPhill Snelling, Bowater Media

Shopify Joins Libra Association AfterCoinbase Becomes Visa Principal Member

The price of Bitcoin has beenstruggling to remain above the$10,000 mark, pulling back from the

psychological barrier a number of timeslast week. Ethereum, the largest altcoin bymarket capitalization, is trading at $269and is up 22% in the past two weeks.

The Facebook-led LibraAssociationsecured another partnerdespite the growing regulatory pushback:Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify hasjoined it after it lost a total of eight of itsfounding members – including Visa,Mastercard, and PayPal.

While Visa left the Libra Association ithasn’t turned its back on the crypto space.San Francisco-based cryptocurrencyexchange Coinbase became the first “pure”crypto firm to become a Visa principalmember, allowing it to issue its own debitcards. This doesn’t just mean Coinbase candirectly issue its own Coinbase Visa card, italso means it can issue cards for other

firms and generate revenue through cardpayments.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issaid to have invited a number ofcryptocurrency startups to a summit that’sset to be held next month to discuss withthem how it can “balance taxpayer servicewith regulatory enforcement.” The summitwill include four panels on technology, taxreturn preparation, crypto exchange issues,and regulatory guidance and compliance.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionairebehind the Bloomberg Terminal and a U.S.Presidential Candidate, has proposed thecreation of a “clear” regulatory frameworkfor cryptocurrencies. The proposalrecommends clarifying which agencieswould oversee the crypto space. Sweden’scentral bank, on the other hand, is nowtesting its own central bank digitalcurrency, the “e-krona.” It’s set to circulatealongside cash and isn’t meant to replaceit. The test will run until 2021.

ADTECH’SCHALLENGES

Upskilling isanother majorproduct line,focused on

employees withinan organisation.

Gaurang Torvekar - Co-Founder and CEO