NCFA Blockchain Fintech CONFIDENTIAL (Vol 1, Issue 1)

INSIDER VIEWS, INNOVATION AND BEST PRACTICES 

VOL. 1, ISSUE 1 | JANUARY 7 2019 

The 5 Missing 

Necessities to 

Move Blockchain 

from 0.2% Global 

Penetration to the 

Remaining 99.8% 

Amazon, Alibaba, 

Walmart & Tencent 

in India: Turning 

Payments into 

Lifestyle Companies 

How we raised 

$220 million in 4 years 

(art or science?) 

SPECIAL VANFUNDING 2018 NEW YEAR’S EDITION 

Issues and 

Characteristics by: 

Tokenizing Asset Classes 

Using Artificial Intelligence 

to Enrich the Customer 

Experience 

Anatomy of a Deal: 

How to Beat the 

Crowdfunding Odds 

Reclaim Control 

of Your Data, Money 

and Identity 

10 % of All Money 

in Digital Wallets 

Is Stolen 

How REITIUM is Changing 

the Face of Traditional Real 

Estate Investing

Dear Global Blockchain and Fintech Communities: 

The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA) and TODA Network, the 

exclusive Title Partner of the 4 th VanFUNDING 2018 conference held in downtown Vancouver 

on Nov 29-30, 2018, are proud to present select content in an inaugural pop-up digital magazine 

format. 

This year’s theme, CONVERGE, immerses participants and builds bridges across the most disruptive 

emerging technologies, capital market innovations and key stakeholders that are powering new 

global markets, new decentralized models, new forms of computer intelligence, new IP, new 

infrastructure and new alternative investment opportunities toward the vision of a Web 3.0. 

The world is undergoing unprecedented change that is already affecting our daily lives — how 

we interact with financial services, generate digital wealth, invest, evaluate, consume, vote, 

store, transfer, and purchase anything of value. 

Blockchain’s momentum is not slowing down anytime soon and its capabilities for revolutionizing 

the financial industry go beyond merely eliminating the “middleman” to harnessing the power 

to improve fraud detection, transparency and trust, and enhance financial management, 

change the nature of money and encourage financial inclusivity. The potential is limitless. 

While blockchain technology has shown immense potential to push us closer towards a 

utopian financial world, the global penetration of [this technology] is less than 0.2 per cent. 

While individuals should remain cautious about fraudulent businesses that have arisen from 

people looking to cash in on the hype, the next wave of blockchain adoption and utilization will 

be like a tsunami, [where] you can partake in what’s yet to be the most disruptive technology 

in human history or ignore it and get disrupted. 

We’d like to thank all the partners, speakers, attendees, volunteers and the entire organizing 

team for coming together to make VF2018 an incredible experience. Congratulations to 

Symend, Very Good Butchers and MOCA Estimator and for winning the pitching competition. 

We wish you all great success! 

The commercialization of emerging technologies is a journey, not a sprint. With this in mind, we 

encourage you to converge with us in volume 1, issue 1 of ‘Blockchain Fintech CONFIDENTIAL’ 

and step inside the future of blockchain, fintech, AI and alternative investing. 

Sincerely, 

Sincerely, 

Craig Asano 

Founder and CEO 

NCFA 

Toufi Saliba 

CEO 

TODA.Network 

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

FEATURED 

01 03 05 

INSIDER VIEWS 

11 

18 

CAPITALISM 3.0: 

THE ‘TOKENISM’ 

RELEASE 

ISSUES AND 

CHARACTERISTICS BY 

TOKENIZING ASSET CLASSES 

42 

44 

STAY AHEAD OF THE 

NEXT REVOLUTION IN 

BLOCKCHAIN: THE STO 

OPEN BANKING: 

WHAT’S REALLY AT STAKE 

21 

10% OF ALL MONEY 

IN DIGITAL WALLETS 

IS STOLEN 

46 

THE FUTURE OF 

BLOCKCHAIN 

BEST PRACTICE 

14 

ANATOMY OF A DEAL: 

HOW TO BEAT THE 

CROWDFUNDING ODDS 

22 

LAUNCHING A TOKEN? 

BEST PRACTICES AND 

RESOURCES 

27 

HOW BEST TO 

APPROACH DIGITAL 

OFFERINGS? 

IN FOCUS 

29 

32 

35 

HOW REITIUM IS CHANGING 

THE FACE OF TRADITIONAL 

REAL ESTATE INVESTING 

THE BUBBLY WORLD 

OF MASTERNODES 

THE VALUE OF 

ESL COIN 

TRENDING 

USING ARTIFICIAL 

09 38 

INTELLIGENCE TO 

ENRICH THE CUSTOMER 

EXPERIENCE 

RECLAIM CONTROL 

16 40 

OF YOUR DATA, MONEY 

AND IDENTITY 

THE ART OF 

COLLABORATION: 

HOW CAN I HELP 

YOU 

5 TRENDS IN 

BLOCKCHAIN TO BE 

EXCITED ABOUT IN 

THE NEW YEAR 

iii

T 

The TODA Protocol is a network-packet 

layer enabling value management without 

dependency on a ledger or any third party, 

using deterministic distributed computing 

as its Proof of Work 

SECURITY 

EFFICIENCY 

CONFIDENTIALITY 

SCALABILITY 

INTEROPERABILITY 

www.toda.network 

iv 

415-263-9823

Despite the skeptics, those that have noticed 

the hype surrounding current blockchains 

have in fact only seen less than 0.2% global 

penetration. If that is a revolution - it’s a failure. 

However, what’s yet to come is what will get 

this technology to the remaining 99.8%; and 

that will not be ledger-based - but will still be 

a blockchain at the network level that will be 

unstoppable. No government, no agency, no 

company, in fact, nothing can stop it. Think of 

a Tsunami that has already started - can’t stop 

it. 

Decentralized Governance is a 

Security Model 

True decentralization cannot be stopped by 

any central power, however, in order to take 

off, decentralization must be self-regulated, 

a living example of that, Bitcoin for 10 years 

now, owns itself, defends itself and continues 

to evolve by incentivizing people around it 

with the only language they both speak: the 

money language. 

Nature has it, what occurs during the exchange 

of oxygen with carbon dioxide in your lungs, 

which uses a decentralized protocol called 

the Alveolus Capillary Protocol. It is doing 

billions of exchanges per second in your 

lungs as you read this, without interference 

from your brain on its functioning. No matter 

how powerful your brain is, it can neither 

stop it nor interfere with it. In fact, the more 

effective it is the more powerful your brain 

is and vice versa. Think of the brain here as 

the government. A government that wants 

to be effective at servicing people must let 

decentralized governance take over without 

a centralized point, aka a weak point that 

could be attacked from within. Governments 

who care about the people would care to 

ensure they are operating with the least 

friction and most efficacy as they exchange 

value between each other and even between 

them and their government, for things such 

as health records, money, real estate or other 

value-based digital assets. 

There are five technical necessities that 

are still missing or incomplete. They must 

be achieved for blockchain to get to the 

remaining 99.8%, these are: 

Security: Decentralized governance is 

actually a security model to prevent an attack 

from within. Security without decentralization 

can be achieved using traditional databases 

that are fairly secure from outside attack and 

have been around for decades, but that won’t 

help because they don’t prevent an attack 

from within. Decentralization must be equal 

to the number of actual users, in fact, every 

user must be the node participating in the 

global consensus. (Yes it can be done) 

Efficiency: your users/customers will not 

use a system that is not efficient - at least not 

for long. The cost of any system must make 

relative sense to what we are using it for. 

You would not purchase a two dollar coffee 

using a system with a transaction cost that 

is higher than that. We aren’t talking about 

fees, don’t let that fool you into believing that 

this is the overall cost. Current blockchains 

don’t reflect the true cost. In fact the cost is 

hidden from the user by adding a tiny layer 

of fees, but effectively it takes the cost from 

the users. 

Confidentiality: A public ledger that is 

replicated is generally not confidential. An 

open and public system will go mainstream 

but not a ledger. Perhaps a hash of the block is 

all you need especially if it can be built in a way 

that all users no exception can contribute but 

hey don’t have to. Think of some replication 

but not full replication. 

FEATURED 

1

Scalability: This is one of the most publicized 

problems, in order for any system to achieve 

mass adoption - it must scale. (Not by reducing 

any of the points above. In fact we expect the 

deterministic distributed computing to achieve 

such a result. 

Interoperability: Over 50 projects claim 

that they have figured this out by building 

decentralized exchanges that must be relied 

upon. For P2P interoperability, it is necessary 

not to have anyone in the middle because 

they can impact any, if not all of the 4 previous 

necessities and collapse the system on itself. 

In security, there is a saying: “you are as 

good as your weakest link” and by having 

decentralized exchanges to depend on, they 

at best become one of the weakest links if not 

the absolute weakest 

What’s Holding Humanity Back? 

The most popular blockchains intended to 

achieve this, however, an exploitation of the 

Bitcoin protocol that started almost 7 years ago, 

precisely on Hashcash, the core component 

of PoW got us to the point where only certain 

classes of machines can be miners. The 

incentives of those machines diverged from 

the incentive of users and contributed largely 

to the regressive evolution of this revolutionary 

technology at its infancy stage. 

Leakage of Value 

This leakage of value is a major cost to 

everyone, despite the fact that people claim 

that the current Ethereum implementation is 

free for people to use. The majority actually 

think that the cost is what they pay in fees 

using the Ethereum Gas model, in fact, the 

fees are low when compared to the overall 

cost of mining that leaks out from users into a 

different class called miners. Those miners in 

Ethereum alone extracted directly over $3.4B 

from the community YTD which led to the 

collapse of the ETH price as supply outpaced 

demand. Some criticize Ethereum to be a Ponzi 

scheme because of that, while we reserve no 

judgment; instead, we work with many on a 

solution that will return this technology to its 

original promises and make it more disruptive 

than anyone thought before. The remaining 

99.8% of the people on this planet will all be on 

chain one way or another, but definitely not on 

a ledger based chain. This can truly be the next 

biggest revolutionary technology the world 

has yet to witness. 

Solving By Design 

There are over 5000 people working on these 

issues globally - so why has the situation not 

advanced? Because most researchers are 

not liberated, in fact, they are constrained but 

often find it hard to admit to. 

Mass adoption can only be achieved if these 

issues are solved by design. This means that 

the blockchain in question must have all 5 of 

the key elements described - not 3, not even 4 

is enough. Without these necessities, entities 

using the technology cannot succeed, but 

having them also does not guarantee success. 

From the Bottom Up 

To achieve these necessities, blockchain 

needs the right foundation. TCP/IP is the 

current foundation (protocol) that allows the 

internet to exist and enables packets of data 

to be transmitted. However, these packets 

cannot effectively hold nor transmit value: the 

ownership of your home, for example. 

Why does this matter? This matters because 

without solving these problems, we would 

not even want to strive for mass adoption. A 

system that does not offer security, efficiency, 

confidentiality, scalability and interoperability 

(in that order of importance) all must be met 

or else, what we have to show will never be 

revolutionary. 

About: 

Toufi Saliba 

CEO 

TODA.Network 

Toda.Network launched in 2018 to enable projects to deliver 

on the promises of Blockchain. The company has formed and 

continues to form and onboard alliances, startups and joint 

ventures which are building on the Toda.Network. The TODA 

Protocol is a network protocol, a modification of TCP/IP, (not 

replacing it/ that enables value transmission over the packet 

layer and below the operating system in a fully decentralized 

setting, without reliance on a ledger. Learn more: Toda.Network. 

2

FEATURED 

Alibaba has unbeatable infrastructure and is neck in neck with Amazon in financial 

services, cloud, payments, food and e-commerce. But Alibaba surpasses in 

browsing, lifestyle, SME lending, public apps & its awesome integrated PRC 

apps which it is simply inserting into Paytm. 

Amazon is creating a world class ‘farm to 

market’ infrastructure which is a blueprint 

for 100 countries. The world has never seen 

such a thing. Walmart comes in third. And the 

incumbents Commonwealth banks like HSBC 

and Stan C are rapidly being left in the dust. 

(India is one of Stan C’s biggest market by 

revenue). These two banks will not BECOME the 

pipes for financial services – THEY ALREADY 

ARE. Firms like Bank of Baroda and Yes Bank 

got onboard with Amazon and Alibaba. HSBC 

and Stan C should have done the same – is it 

too late? Bank regulators prevent two things: 

collaboration and open systems. Without these 

two vital links, regulated banking entities can 

not be transformed. We can blame the board 

of directors of these two banks, but is the fault 

with the bank regulators? 

Amazon: stealth-like buildout of financial 

infrastructure in India in 18 months – food, 

finance, fun, film, FX, Cloud and more. 

There is one word for competition in the Indian 

online space: fierce. Amazon is pushing the 

envelope into uncharted waters faster than 

anyone. The online world is growing at 23% 

CAGR and 98% of India is offline. 

The extent of Amazon’s penetration 

into all parts of Indian life: it is truly 

a life style company… and a bank, 

insurance company, entertainment 

firm, publishing house and an 

agricultural conglomerate. 

In a short period of time, Amazon can now 

challenge and beat Standard Chartered or 

HSBC in their Commonwealth backyard. AMZN 

is now far deeper and wider in the scope of 

products which it offers. It has Amazon Pay 

(wallet), Red Bus (transport), Faasos (food 

delivery), Niki (utilities), Book My Show (theater), 

Tone Tag (payments), Qwikcilver (gift cards), 

Emvantage (payments), Lending (corporate 

loans), Capital Float (SME loans), Prime (cards), 

Protect (insurance), Acko (insurance). 

Retail, entertainment, cloud, logistics: this is a 

company that can’t stop. Retail development: 

Future (hypermarkets), Easy Day (local 

stores), Ezone (electronics), Shoppers Stop 

(department store), More (supermarkets), 

Pantry (delivery), Prime Now (fresh produce). 

3

Amazon Prime is new and has a 5% market 

share. Prime Video is also less than 1 year 

old. In the Cloud market, AWS is new but 

already has 5 centers with $100 mn in 

revenue. Amazon in logistics is probably the 

most interesting in that it touches all parts 

of Indian life throughout the country. This 

includes Fulfillment (delivery and warehouse 

management), Flex (warehousing), Easy Ship 

(local delivery), ATSPL (last mile delivery), IHS 

(crowd sourced delivery), Prime Now (ultrafast 

delivery). And it is investing $700 million 

into a national infrastructure program for farm 

to market delivery of food. This is something 

that will offer tremendous productivity 

improvements, since 30% of food in India is 

wasted on the trip to the market. 

Alibaba: also on a hyperactive expansion 

binge in India with equally impressive arsenal 

of tools with Paytm. 

Paytm is for all intents and purposes Alibaba. 

It is migrating onto the Alibaba 5.0 network 

in all services. In return, it offers Alibaba 300 

million subscribers. Digital transactions are 

growing at more than 20% CAGR. Currently, 

Paytm dominates with 50% market share. 

The multiple offerings of Paytm are a mirror 

image of Alibaba in China – virtually identical. 

These include banking, tickets, utilities, FX, 

investing, insurance, taxes, tracking finances, 

Indian Unified Payments, e-commerce, QR 

payments, gifts, charities, travel, streaming, 

gold trading, credit cards, prayer, tolls, credit 

cards…and more. This platform has 300 

million users and the grocery part is only 

two years old. There are dozens of offerings 

which bring together an entire lifestyle in 

one page – finance, investing, insurance, 

entertainment, leisure, education, prayer. 

Alibaba is new to the E-mall space but is 

morphing Tao Bao to Paytm Mall. It is behind 

Walmart and Amazon. It also has a 20% stake 

in Big Basket, which itself has a 40% market 

share for groceries in India. Online grocery 

business (versus the overall grocery/retail 

spend) is a tiny fraction – less than 0.05%! 

The sky’s the limit here. 

The last interesting part of the Alibaba arsenal 

is UC Web. Alibaba has a 50% market share 

in India for mobile browsing. (It also has a 41% 

market share in Indonesia!). This is almost 25% 

of the global MAU for UC Browser. Google is 

number 2 with 30%. 

Paul Schulte 

Founder and Managing Editor, 

Shulte Research 

Amazon’s Key Acquisitions in India 

Online Payment 

Finance 

May 

2018 

2015 

E-Commerce 

2015 

2016 

May 

2018 

Sept 

2017 

Lending 

Schulte Research 

Apr 

2018 

Insurance 

May 

2018 

Publishing 

2016 

Home Services 

2015 

1 

4

FEATURED 

The 7 P’s For Crowdfunding Success 

The idea of crowdfunding has been around for 

a while. However, crowdfunding as we know 

it today, via platforms such as IndieGoGo 

(started in 2008) and Kickstarter (started in 

2009), is quite new. 

And yes, the idea of participating in something 

so cutting-edge and exciting makes the 

thought of creating a crowdfunded project 

very appealing. However, no matter how 

gifted you are as an entrepreneur, there are 

certain elements you need to consider and 

incorporate to get your project funded and off 

the ground. 

For all our projects we strive to achieve 

statistical significance. We let the data speak 

to how capable a project is of achieving a 

positive ROI and continuing to raise money. In 

short, we know what works and what doesn’t 

work. We’ve learned to apply numerous 

techniques and elements, including the 7 P’s, 

to all our projects in order to maximize the 

potential for success. 

1. Product 

Every crowdfunding project begins with, of 

course, the product. Your product has to be 

good -.even the greatest campaign in the 

world won’t salvage a bad product. Promoting 

a product that the market simply does not 

want, robs you of money. 

So, how then do you know if your product is 

“good?” Begin by asking yourself these questions: 

“Why is this product different/special/ 

unique?” 

Can you buy a very similar product in a 

store? Your product must be a product that 

consumers can’t buy at Bed, Bath and Beyond, 

or Target, or Amazon, or Wal-Mart. It has to be 

unique. 

Is there something about your product, 

some benefit, that makes it wholly special? 

Ideally a product should give us some benefit 

that no other product offers. Even if there are 

many similar items, what is it about yours that 

no one else offers? Does your product offer a 

solution or a prevention? How does it do this 

better than other products on the market? 

5

Would you buy this product? Will your family 

and friends actually give you cash for it? 

This is that step beyond, “hey, that’s a great 

idea.” This is the, “Here’ s my checkbook, 

I want in”, step.Part of your research on 

this needs to include other crowdfunding 

campaigns to see if other people have 

sold a similar product. And, if so, how much 

did those similar campaigns raise? What 

do the Kickstarter comments say about 

this product and what do the facebook 

ads comments say about this product? 

Is your product “techy” or cool? 

Certainly your product does not need to be 

techy or cool for you to make money. But no 

one can deny that tech products or those 

with a coolness factor do sell well. Some 

examples include: 

• Watch + Tech = Pebble Time ($20 million 

raised) 

• Cooler + Tech = Coolest Cooler ($13 million 

raised) 

• Luggage + Tech = Trunkster ($1.4 million 

raised) 

• Meat Thermometer + Tech = Meater ($1.2 

million raised) 

• Wallet + Tech = Woolet ($332 thousand 

raised) 

Will a lot of people need or want this 

product and/or its benefits? 

How big is the market for your product? Is your 

product dependent on other products? (For 

example the pebble watch band depends 

on owning a pebble, and OrbiPrime depends 

on owning a VR headset). If your product 

is dependent on the consumer owning 

something else, you need to understand how 

this will affect your potential market. 

2. Platform 

You have to be on the right platform for your 

product. And not only that, you’ve got to 

consider whether crowdfunding is even the 

right platform to launch your new business 

or idea. If you want to start a landscaping 

company, that might very well be a great 

idea, but, it will NOT be a good idea for 

crowdfunding. 

Therefore, for this P, let’s focus specifically 

on if you’re invention is a good fit for a 

crowdfunding platform. In this case, there 

are many crowdfunding platforms to choose 

from but the two top-players are Kickstarter 

and IndieGoGo. The first thing you need to 

determine is whether your product is suited 

at all, for crowdfunding on Kickstarter or 

IndieGoGo. So, as you set out to determine 

which crowdfunding site is the best one for 

you, do thorough research. Find out which 

platform similar projects do best on. You can 

leverage our free Kickstarter vs. IndieGoGo 

comparison tool here Apps really don’t do 

so well, for example. A lawn care or window 

washing business, while great businesses/ 

ideas, likely would NOT do well on the 

crowdfunding “platform” that is Kickstarter or 

IndieGoGo. 

3. Presentation 

When we talk about presentation we are 

including the video and the page design. To 

create an effective presentation you need to 

consider these factors among others: 

• How is the video? 

• How is the page? 

• Is everything visually appealing? 

• Does your presentation sell the product 

well? 

• Does it show use cases of the primary 

demographics/users who would use the 

product? 

• Does it show use cases of all the different 

scenarios someone might use the 

product? 

• Does it focus on product benefits and not 

features? 

• Are your video and page emotionally 

compelling? 

• Are your reward levels clear and not 

confusing? 

• Does it show use cases of all the different 

scenarios someone might use the 

product? 

• Does it focus on product benefits and not 

features? 

6

• Are your video and page emotionally 

compelling? 

• Are your reward levels clear and not 

confusing? 

Presentation comes down to this: 

Does just looking at the page, and reading the 

sales page/landing page, and watching the 

video make you want to buy? 

4. Promotion 

Your promotion needs to take into account 

what the marketing has been up to this 

point. So, what do you need to include in 

your campaign to create a phenomenal 

crowdfunding promotion? 

Our special promotion sub “P’s”, paid 

media, press and partnerships. 

Paid Media 

For Funded Today this comes down to – 

spend money anywhere you can make 

money. The best paid media is what 

works. From this you can build an email 

list. If this doesn’t work don’t bother with 

Press or Partnerships. To do well you need 

to know how different demographics 

are converting on paid media. 

Press 

Working with Press is simple, but hard. You need 

to create the angle and the story, and be able to 

tell the Press (in a non salesy way) why should 

they write about you/your product. Consistency 

is key here with the goal of getting an article 

syndicated to generate massive publicity. 

Partnerships 

Partnering with others who are excited about, and 

want to help promote your crowdfunding project, 

gives you access to a massive email list. You need 

to offer partners great incentive. Partnerships 

can be with anybody. It’s about building 

relationships and leveraging connections. 

We aim to see an average between all the many 

ad and audience combos, to make sure that we 

have a minimum ratio of 1: 3 - meaning spend 

$1 and make $3 or more. This alongside the 

EPV*, which shows how much is made for each 

person that comes in to the page (the value of 

these people), and additional metrics, we are 

able to determine a verdict on what’s working 

and what’s not. 

5. Price 

How do you know if your price is too high 

or too low? Are your pledge levels set up 

properly? Are there early bird pledge levels? 

Do you have different pledge levels for people 

who want to buy more than 1? Are the pledge 

levels easily clear and understandable? 

If you “price yourself out of the game” before 

you even begin, you run the risk of offending 

Prospective Backers, even before you price drop. 

For example, let’s suppose that you have a 

product, XYZ, which has minor modifications 

to it. So granted, it’s not exactly the same as 

other XYZ products on the market. You decide 

to offer a crowdfunding early bird special for 

$100. However, a quick Google search turns 

up many similar products priced at $99 or 

below. 

You have a problem. Your price at $100 is 

going to feel too expensive, particularly if 

your presentation does not convey that this 

is a $100 XYZ. If a potential backer is going to 

look at your XYZ and think, “Hey, that’s a $25- 

7

$30 gizmo, max,” and then they scroll down 

to view your rewards and the least expensive 

option is $100, your project is going to fail. 

So, if manufacturing costs dictate that you 

price your XYZgizmo at $100 then your 

presentation and stand-out benefits HAVE 

to convey, “This is a $100 product.” 

What if you find out that you simply can’t 

competitively price your product? (Clearly, 

your initial research had some holes in it). You 

can disband and invent something new, or 

move on to your next adventure. Remember, 

this is business, not personal. A failed project 

does not represent you in any facet of the 

world. Mistakes are key to our growth. If you’ve 

had a failed crowdfunding campaign, please 

read Your Crowdfunding Campaign Might Fail. 

And That’s Okay. Here’s Why. 

6. Probability 

The previous Ps, for the most part, are 

relatively concrete. When we talk about the 

6th P, Probability, though perhaps harder to 

quantify, can have just as much impact on the 

success of your project as any of the other Ps. 

• Will people think that your product can 

really happen? 

• Is your creation a product with a lofty 

undertaking and, if so, will consumers still 

believe in your product? 

For example people struggle with the idea of 

this project: 

ORBI Prime: The First 360 Video Recording 

Eyewear 

Effortless, intuitive, and durable, ORBI Prime lets 

anyone create incredible 360° videos and images. 

Why do people struggle with this product? 

They think ORBI Prime is just NOT realistic. In 

other words, they don’t think the probability 

of creating something like this is high enough 

to justify backing OrbiPrime. Certainly, that 

doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, just that 

people perceive that it can’t. 

When consumers are predisposed to not 

believe in your product even if it’s a great 

product and you can deliver, that clearly 

makes it much harder to get the funding you 

need and require. 

7. People 

Even if you’ve gone through all the steps 

above, and believe you have all your Ps and 

Ps in a row, there is still one last P for you to 

understand and examine: the people behind 

your product. Talk about perception a bit 

here (Does your team exude confidence and 

capability). 

You need to take an honest look at your team. 

Do the people you have behind the product 

lend credibility to their potential on delivering? 

In other words, knowing the strengths and 

weaknesses of your team, can you deliver 

what you say you are going to deliver, and are 

consumers going to believe that? 

Summing up the 7 P’s 

So your Crowdfunding Success equation 

looks something like this: 

Potential + 7Ps = Profit 

When you are strong on all your P’s, you 

are going to have a successful campaign. In 

other words, you are going to profit. As are 

your backers and buyers who get all those 

awesome benefits. 

As you can tell by this article, at Funded Today 

we do not simply throw great content out 

there to support your product. We use our 

vast base of knowledge to test and refine all 

aspects of your project, so that together we 

can make your crowdfunding project wildly 

successful. 

Zach Smith 

CEO and Co-founder 

Funded Today 

8

TRENDING 

USING AI TO ENRICH 

THE CUSTOMER 

EXPERIENCE 

“Is AI going to replace us?” 

This is a concern we hear most often – that 

service providers, like the financial institutions 

we work with, will end up being replaced by 

algorithms. 

As I noted in the discussion “Pioneering 

Markets: Game Changing Tech Innovations 

Impacting Finance and Society” AI isn’t seeking 

to replace financial advisors whose guidance 

customers value. Rather, AI will augment and 

improve the overall value that the financial 

service provider is able to present. 

The threat of tech giants like Amazon and 

Google and consumer focussed fintechs that 

are seeking to cut out financial institutions 

altogether means traditional banks will need 

to do more than offer marginal savings on 

fees to win the long-game. 

Their key differentiator will be a brand that 

people trust, and customer experience. 

The benefits of AI applied to the banking 

experience don’t just apply to those 

customers on their mobile phones, but can 

provide greater insight to advisors in branch 

for a more effective banking relationship. 

AI is improving the customer experience by 

providing an overall more consistent, hyperpersonalized 

omnichannel experience for 

every customer. 

The challenge 

Financial institutions are well aware that 

different customer segments prefer 

different types of access and service – 

self-serve, in branch, on mobile, at home, 

one-to-one. 

9

Irregardless of how they prefer to consume 

service whether it’s on mobile or on their 

laptop at home, 87% of banking customers 

still want advice and guidance from their 

bank. 

Unfortunately, the industry is currently 

falling short of meeting those expectations. 

As digital adoption increases, customer 

satisfaction is dropping, and customer 

satisfaction is lowest among digital only 

segments. Today’s consumers want it 

all: digital self-service convenience and 

personal relationships. 

Why it matters 

In a recent report released by Kantar, customer 

experience leaders earned 1.9x greater wallet 

share than others and 1.9x greater level of 

recommendation. Additionally, customer 

experience leaders’ customers are 2.1x more 

willing to take up new products. 

Improving customer experience isn’t just 

strategic lip service - it’s imperative for 

traditional banks to remain competitive. So how 

do financial institutions meet the challenge of 

human personalization in increasingly device 

and digital-driven services? 

Enter big data 

The intersection of AI and financial technology 

is inevitable because it’s one of the areas AI 

can add the most value. Financial data, with 

everyone in Canada utilizing banking services 

in some way, presents a hugely detailed data 

set for learning. Afterall, without data sets and 

application that solves tangible problems, AI 

isn’t really doing much for anyone. 

The opportunity we have here to make a 

material impact on people’s lives is significant. 

Aggregating and analyzing financial data 

means a service provider could give informed, 

real-time advice based off more information 

gleaned in 5 seconds than they could learn 

in a decade of face to face meetings. That 

advice could be delivered in person or 

through a mobile phone depending on the 

customer’s preference. 

Ultimately it’ll be the technology whose 

incentives aligns with the end user that will 

win out. By aligning with end users desire 

for success and need for guidance, banks 

and credit unions will retain the servicedriven 

edge that many consumers expect 

and actually far exceed these expectations 

as their insights become smarter and more 

valuable. 

Banking customers will get the most out of 

their financial service providers, as opposed 

to more products. 

Enter open banking? 

Given how quickly tech giants and consumer 

fintechs are moving in an effort to eat up 

market share, open banking could help 

level the playing field by enabling financial 

institutions to take advantage of productfocused 

fintechs who can offer immediate 

solutions and improve customer experience 

faster than they could do themselves. 

While banks and credit unions have the 

benefits of deep industry knowledge, trust 

and customer-centric services, taking 

advantage of the agility and niche skills of 

fintechs building AI applications will do more 

to ensure they not only survive, but flourish, 

as the financial landscape continues to 

evolve. 

Analysis and the AI insights driven by financial 

data can help answer questions like “Should I 

go back to school?” or “Would I be better off if 

I moved to Calgary?” 

These are huge life decisions where the 

information that supports different choices are 

from disparate or unreliable, anecdotal sources. 

Jesse Penner 

VP Product 

Grow Technologies 

10

An era of unprecedented technological change is changing finance, and 

capitalism more fundamentally. As a society we now expect a regular release 

of innovative new products – new versions and upgrades fix the issues of the 

past, and leaps in functionality challenge the status quo to provide exciting new 

business model opportunities. 

INSIDER VIEW 

Following the 2008-09 global financial crisis 

that eroded public confidence in existing 

institutions, thousands of fintech companies 

with financial oligopolies in their crosshairs 

offer innovative upgrades to open up 

and improve financial services for the next 

generation. 

Recently, open source blockchain 

technologies that cryptographically secure 

global transactions of cryptocurrencies such 

as bitcoin have delivered an effective parallel 

monetary system. Hundreds of potentially 

viable cryptocurrencies could be alternative 

forms of money. The programmability of 

smart contracts and tokens on Ethereum’s 

world computer public blockchain drives a 

vision of unstoppable, censorship-resistant 

applications on “Web 3.0” the successor to 

today’s centralized Web 2.0 – with secure 

value transfer built in. Web 3.0 has become a 

movement to decentralize ownership of the 

web as it was initially envisioned. 

Has blockchain impacted the important 

capital markets sector? 2017 saw the 

explosion of blockchain-based initial 

coin offerings to fund innovative projects 

seamlessly across borders, and venture 

capitalists became concerned their role as 

at risk. Investors around the world felt free 

to invest their cryptocurrency anywhere, 

essentially without restrictions. 2018 

brought regulatory scrutiny to a global 

tokenization movement and the industry 

responded with early regulatory-compliant 

token offerings but most served accredited 

investors. Regardless of the early size of 

the blockchain market, well-known issues 

with many fraudulent projects that skirted 

securities regulations, the potential changes 

at a macro level (see IMF Winds of Change) 

brought about by decentralized tokenization 

are so profoundly disruptive (Wikipedia) that 

they’re signalling a new form of capitalism -- 

call it Capitalism 3.0. 

Will Capitalism 3.0 be accepted as a 

successful upgrade that can address the 

uncertainty and risks in today’s capital 

markets? Undoubtedly, entrenched 

interests, current processes, and regulations 

exist to preserve the status quo. To consider 

how transformative Capitalism 3.0 will be 

in the coming years, it can be useful to see 

the future through the lens of a software 

release that must deliver value to investors, 

governments, regulators and investors. 

11

Introducing Capitalism 3.0 (the 

“Tokenism” Release). Availability: 

2017 – 2025+ 

Capitalism 3.0 (the “Tokenism” release) is 

a transformative global upgrade of the 

economic and social operating system 

that underpins western and developed 

civilizations. Capitalism 3.0 incorporates the 

latest secure, private exchange of value 

now made possible by Web 3.0 blockchain 

technologies, decentralization, tokenization 

and token economics. 

Capitalism (Wikipedia: Capitalism) very 

broadly is an economic and social operating 

system based on the private ownership of 

the means of production, their operation for 

profit, investment and competitive markets. 

Financial institutions, the nation-state 

governments who licence and regulate them, 

and stock exchanges support and maintain 

the current version of capitalism by providing 

valuable financial services to connect 

investors to business. Yet, capitalism is often 

blamed for increased inequality around 

the world, concentrating wealth and power 

amongst a very small number of companies 

and individuals, resulting in opaque financial 

instruments such as CDOs that caused the 

recent global financial crisis. 

Capitalism 3.0 follows the evolution of the 

Internet (i.e. the Web) which, at Web 1.0, was 

designed for the free flow of information. 

Capitalism 3.0 is designed to give all 

investors the kind of access normally 

afforded the wealthy investors with 

privileged access to early stage 

investment opportunities. Imagine 

retail investors with the freedom to 

buy and sell a share of any public or 

private company, from anywhere, and 

at virtually no cost. 

Web 2.0 architects then built advertisingbased 

business models for search, 

information sharing and commerce that 

centralized power and wealth in the hands 

of a few companies – including Google, 

Facebook, Amazon, Apple. 

Blockchain innovators are building Web 

3.0 infrastructure as a catalyst for the 

widespread adoption of Capitalism 3.0, 

challenging centralized power by permitting 

the free flow of capital, wealth and value 

without centralized intermediaries. With tens 

of thousands of developers globally, it’s no 

longer possible to dismiss the architects 

of Web 3.0 as cypherpunks and cryptoanarchists. 

Addressing capital markets, Capitalism 

3.0 not only has the potential to digitize 

and tokenize the market cap of the 

world’s publicly listed companies, valued 

at over 80T $USD (World Bank, 2017). 

Conservative estimates indicate hundreds 

of billions of dollars of financial services 

fees currently charged by intermediaries 

could be impacted. But as we’ve seen with 

ICOs, the wide-ranging impact extends 

to democratization of private company 

innovators who seek capital for startups and 

scaleups. 

What’s New in Capitalism 3.0: 

1. Tokenization: Tokenization is the 

digitization of any physical or digital asset 

into a cryptographic smart contract (a 

native blockchain program) referred to as 

a “token” or cryptoasset. Tokens can be 

programmed to behave as equity, debt, or 

payment tokens and are easily subdivided, 

resulting in fractional ownership out of 

the box. Cryptoassets are designed to be 

inherently transferable wallet-to-wallet, 

with immediate settlement using smart 

contracts with trustless atomic swaps 

that can behave as decentralized stock 

exchanges. 

2. Token Economics: Token economics are a 

combination of game theory and incentive 

mechanics designed to distribute value 

to the market participants who produce 

12

it. Incentives include blockchain mining 

and rewards for participating in these 

new decentralized network protocols (e.g. 

computing and file storage) 

Alan Wunsche 

MBA, CPA, CA, BSc., CBP 

CEO & Founder of TokenFunder 

Chair & Co-Founder of Blockchain 

Canada and Canadian Chair of ISO TC307 

(Blockchain Standards) Committee. 

Conclusion 

The current financial system is under 

stress and may soon see another crisis. 

The technologies underpinning Web 3.0/ 

Capitalism 3.0 are young but rapidly maturing. 

Recent and planned upgrades by a global 

movement of technologists, defined by 

decentralization, disintermediation. 

About: 

Alan is a finance and blockchain technology expert focused on 

the disruptive impacts of blockchain and cryptocurrencies on 

capital markets and global wealth distribution. He recently led 

TokenFunder’s launch of Canada’s first regulatory-compliant 

security token offering on the Ethereum public blockchain. 

Alan is a Chartered Professional Accountant with hands-on 

technology experience leading finance and risk transformation 

programs as an executive at a global bank (Scotiabank), 

management consulting (Deloitte, PwC), incubators and 

startups 

13

BEST PRACTICE 

Entrepreneurs approach crowdfunding with the optimism and overconfidence 

of a novice stock trader out to beat the market — yet, at the end of the day the 

underlying assumption of easy money, if not actually rocked to its foundations, 

is certainly called into question. Low success rates have historically plagued 

crowdfunding campaigns: in the U.S., U.K., and Canada about 60 percent fails to 

reach its target. 

At the VanFUNDING Conference, crowd-funding 

veterans Daryl Hatton (FundRazr), Victoria 

Bennett (FrontFundr), and Jasper Dikmans 

(FrontFundr) hosted the workshop “Anatomy of a 

Deal” to tell you everything you need to know to 

not be exiled to crowdfunding Siberia. 

We analyzed two companies that raised on 

FrontFundr: ski resort RED Mountain that raised 

$2.5 million from 744 investors and vegan 

butcher The Very Good Butchers that raised 

$446,000 from 171 investors to date. Here are the 

five key strategies these companies employed 

to successfully execute their investment 

crowdfunding campaigns: 

1. Drive high volumes of traffic 

The dictum “more is better” certainly applies 

to the number of unique visitors to your 

campaign page. 171 people invested in 

The Very Good Butchers — yet over 14,000 

people visited their campaign page. If you 

do the math, you’ll find that only 1 in about 

86 visitors to the campaign page made an 

investment. Let’s add one more variable: the 

click-through rate of emails that were sent 

out to promote the Very Good Butcher’s 

campaign averaged 19%. If the campaign 

would have been solely promoted via 

emails, the company would have needed to 

reach an astonishing 77,000 email recipients 

to drive 14,772 visitors to the campaign 

page. In reality, the company reached out to 

potential investors through different online 

channels — yet emails have the highest 

conversion rate of them all. For example, 

The Very Good Butcher’s Facebook posts 

had an average click through rate of just 7%. 

2. Build an engaged community of 

supporters who surround the business 

FrontFundr has an investor community of 

over 11,000 investors and promotes every 

campaign to this community. However, 

by now it should be clear that you’ll need 

to reach more than 11,000 people to pull 

off a successful investment crowdfunding 

campaign — that’s why the company will 

have to drive traffic to its campaign, too. 

RED Mountain started to build email lists 

and a following on social media long before 

its campaign began. Access to a large, 

engaged community of supporters who 

surround the business is what set RED up 

for investment crowdfunding success. 

3. Provide social proof and investor perks 

What is crowdfunding social proof? It’s 

the phenomenon where people are more 

prone to invest in a campaign already 

invested in by others. The dollars raised and 

the number of investors are a measurement 

of company’s risk or credibility, and provide 

a mental checkbox that potential investors 

check off before they invest their hardearned 

money in your company. A progress 

bar on the campaign page that displays 100% 

or more is the crowdfunding equivalent of a 

pub with a long line out the door is. While 

seeking $500,000, The Very Good Butchers 

14

set its minimum at just $100,000 — and that 

enabled the company to achieve 100% 

quickly. The campaign skyrocketed soon 

after, and currently the campaign is at 446%. 

Now, there is an issue here: to gain 

momentum you need investors in the early 

days of your campaign – but in this period 

potential investors are not in a hurry to get 

on board yet, as the typically campaign 

runs for 45 days. That’s why the creation 

of a sense of urgency for investors is key 

to a successful campaign. To incentivize 

potential investors to get in early, RED 

offered investor perks in addition to equity: 

early investors could receive season passes, 

custom made skis and snowboards, and 

on-mountain overnight stays. 

4. Appeal to different investor motivations 

At the end of the raise, a company will 

have a hybrid investor pool of sophisticated 

investors (“accredited investors”) and 

the general public. On FrontFundr, the 

average campaign receives 66% of its 

raise from accredited investors and 

33% from the general public. 

Everyday Canadians and the suits and ties 

may have different motivations to invest. 

To appeal to different investor types, the 

Very Good Butchers did not just position 

itself as an opportunity realize capital gains. 

The company focused on the positive 

environmental impact its vegan meat has 

and presented itself as a company that 

supports local communities, too. By setting 

a low investment minimum of just $250, 

the company enabled different investor 

types with a variety of motivations to 

invest alongside each other. 

5. Think of it as a way to promote the 

company, not just a capital raise 

The resources spent on your investment 

crowdfunding campaign don’t just bring 

in investments. At the end of the day, an 

investment crowdfunding campaign is as 

much a marketing exercise as a fundraising 

exercise. Your shareholders become your 

brand ambassadors who help you spread 

the word about your business. Consider 

these statistics: RED raised $2.5 million to 

grow the business, and on top of that its 

revenue increased by almost 50% that year, 

likely a result of the noise made by the 

company and its 744 new shareholders. 

With these tips in hand, you’re already ahead 

of the curve when it comes to your investment 

crowdfunding campaign. If you have any 

questions, comments, or would like to learn 

more, please feel free to reach out to Jasper@ 

FrontFundr.com. 

Jasper Dikmans 

FrontFundr 

15

TRENDING 

For centuries we have trusted central parties to structure our society. We’ve 

placed our trust in governments for governance, decisions, and personal identity. 

Trusted banks and financial institutions to be custodians of our wealth. 

And we now trust corporations to be are 

custodians of our data – we live in the data 

economy and voluntarily pay in personal 

data and privacy instead of money for 

online services. However, our trust in 

central parties continues to diminish 

with every recurring case of a corrupt 

government, personal asset seizure (bank 

haircuts in Cyprus), and hack company that 

mismanages data. 

Momentum is building for alternative 

structures. A shift towards the decentralization 

of data, identity and trust is an 

appealing proposition. Instead of placing 

trust with a central party, we can democratize 

trust across system of people participating 

in a network – where we trust in the rules of 

the system, the economic incentives built 

in and that enough participants follow the 

rules and act rationally. 

We also seek to regain control – we are 

building a world where we can control the 

keys to our own money, our identity, our 

data. For a long time in our history we would 

reach into our pocket and give our coins to 

someone. Citizens can again own the keys 

to their own money, limiting the ability of 

governments and banks to seize assets or 

limit the participation of the unbanked in 

the global financial economy. 

Despite our transition to a digital economy, 

we continue to rely on physical documents 

to prove our identity or a specific attribute 

like age. From a privacy standpoint, it is 

unnecessary to show more information 

than is necessary – the bouncer just needs 

to know your age, not your address. In 

the future, we will be able to control the 

attributes that are released in a secure and 

privacy preserving way. 

A world where we can we leverage 

technology to take back control of our data 

and privacy, also shifting the economics 

of data – whether its paying directly for 

services or monetizing our data. 

As we embrace digital technologies, we 

concurrently open ourselves up to new 

threats and attack vectors. A new world 

where bad actors seek new ways to access 

to our personal, financial or corporate 

information, or our bank accounts, or try 

to disrupt our digital infrastructure. While 

individual and decentralized control has 

16

the advantage of the ‘honeypot’ (data, 

assets, etc.) being spread across many 

individual participants, the responsibility 

for security is shifted and personal opsec 

can be challenging for segments of the 

population. You regain control but you also 

take on the full responsibility of your own 

digital safe and key – and in the case of 

cryptocurrencies, most transactions are 

irreversible and misplaced ‘keys’ remain 

lost forever. 

Decentralized technologies and applications 

are not yet intuitive. Usability remains 

a barrier to widespread adoption. The value 

and incentives for early adoption prevails in 

corrupt, destabilized or war-torn countries, 

where citizens face runaway inflation, 

persecution or asset seizure. 

Citizens recognize the enormous value of 

being able to flee with their digital assets or 

identity represented as a seed phrase in their 

head – one that cannot be forcibly taken 

at the border like gold. Good design and 

usability and scalability improvements will 

attract broader global consumer adoption. 

We are creating new systems for the digital 

economy – as developers and builders 

and dreamers, we need to understand the 

limitations of both technology and users to 

get it right for the next generation. 

Magdalena Gronowska 

LinkedIn 

17

INSIDER VIEW 

One of the best aspects of speaking at conferences, such as Vanfunding 2018 - 

Converge is the rich conversations that result. Our topic this year “Why Tokenize 

Your Real World Assets” sparked a series of interesting conversations related 

to the different implications and issues related to tokenizing a variety of asset 

classes. 

The large real estate project raising money via 

tokenization will certainly face very different 

issues and exhibit different characteristics 

than a corporate equity issue. The purpose 

of this short discussion is to highlight some of 

the outcomes from these discussions which 

nicely summarize the questions on our mind 

in these early days of asset securitization via 

blockchain tokens. 

As with almost any area of discussion in 

the quickly evolving blockchain space an 

exploration of the impact of tokenization on 

different asset classes is potentially endless. 

To keep this discussion short we’ll have a look 

at a small number of archetypical asset classes 

and look at the considerations associated with 

issuing tokens for that asset. This is meant as 

a general high level introduction and is not 

intended either as management, investment 

or legal advice, nor should it be considered 

exhaustive. Instead this short overview should 

stimulate thought around the potential that 

tokenization could bring to securitizing a 

variety of assets, as well as the challenges to 

be expected. 

Real Estate - No area of potential tokenization 

has gained more early traction that the real 

estate space, with numerous subscriptionbased 

services competing to offer developers 

access to tokenized fundraising platforms. 

Investors are equally offered stakes in 

otherwise inaccessible international projects. 

While in vogue and attractive as a tokenization 

candidate, real estate is a highly regulated 

space with wide variations in international 

laws and licenses. Obtaining legal title also 

requires interaction with numerous regional 

land title regimes. As a result most current 

platforms do not promise legal title, but 

offer token holders stakes in real-estate 

funds or trusts. Benefits delivered with token 

ownership range from bragging rights, to a 

share of future revenues to, in a minority of 

cases actual legal property ownership. On the 

positive side regulation of real estate project 

fundraising is well established, understood 

and highly structured around the world. The 

higher (but not perfect) regulatory certainly 

in this area is obviously attractive to both 

project developers/token issuers and token 

investors. 

Corporate Lending - Most businesses at 

some point in their development will utilize 

debt financing to provide resources for 

growth, operations or special projects. This 

18

asset class is curious in that while securitized 

corporate debt is highly structured, rated 

and regulated, nothing stops any company 

from taking a loan from almost anyone in 

many jurisdictions around the world. This is 

indeed an area of buyer/investor beware. It 

remains to be seen to what degree regulators 

choose to treat tokenized corporate debt 

as equivalent to a regulated bond, versus a 

simple loan documented on a blockchain. 

The degree and nature of future regulation 

hangs in the balance. Regulators around 

the world have often retroactively applied 

future rulings to past investments, which can 

cause both issuers and investors significant 

heartburn. That said, corporate lending has 

a long history of standardization in structure 

and information flow, that makes tokenization 

of this asset class attractive for both issuers 

and investors. 

Futures & Commodities - This asset class 

includes the securitization of both current 

hard-assets such as oil & gas, mineral claims, 

mining production etc., as well as synthetic/ 

derivative instruments such as futures 

for resources yet to be produced such as 

unharvested or even un-sown agricultural 

commodities. As a result this asset class 

is both highly structured and regulated 

especially in the area of derivatives and 

futures. There is also a tradition of highfrequency 

secondary trading of many 

of these assets. This last characteristic 

makes issuance and documentation via 

blockchain particularly attractive for both 

the owners of the underlying assets and 

the investors they attract. The higher the 

volume or frequency of trading, the higher 

the potential reduction in administrative 

costs promised by a robust blockchain 

implementation. 

Corporate Equity - No area of tokenization 

causes asset issuers, investors and 

regulators more pain and uncertainty than 

the area of corporate equity issuance via 

blockchain. No area of asset securitization 

has been more rife with scams and hustles 

than the issuance of stock in companies, 

attracting the justifiable attention of 

regulators as a result. While technically 

extremely well suited to blockchain-based 

tokenization, corporate equity issuance 

laws, categorization and restrictions vary 

incredibly across international jurisdictions. 

Who can invest in what, when and where 

is in no way standardized. Reporting and 

registration requirements such as KYC/ 

AML as well as investor accreditation rules 

add another layer of complexity. While 

certainly possible in-jurisdiction now, true 

international equity issuance and investment 

via efficient technology enabled tokenization 

seems a more distant goal. The ability of 

regulators to truly cooperate internationally 

beyond superficial letters of understanding 

will deeply influence the pace at which 

international corporate equity tokenization 

becomes practical. 

Obviously this is a limited and high-level 

survey of some characteristic asset classes 

only. Although the challenges to practical, 

economical and regulation-compliant token 

issuance are significant, the benefits in the 

form of increases asset values, investor 

flexibility and reduced fees for all actors are 

compelling. 

Where there is a financial benefit a way is 

usually found. It will be profoundly interesting 

to see the concept of asset tokenization go 

from a rarity to the norm, very possibly faster 

than we could have imagined. At Northmark 

Ventures we fully expect to see examples 

of successful tokenization projects in all the 

asset classes discussed here in 2019. 

Routine tokenization of these issues with 

multiple credible platform options for 

asset owners is likely to take longer. Asset 

issuers are unlikely to say no to higher asset 

valuations, lower fees and a broader investor 

base. The key wildcards remain on one 

hand regulator behaviour, and on the other 

acceptance of tokenized securities by the 

ultimate driver of blockchain token adoption, 

the retail investor. 

Bernd Petak 

Investment Partner 

Northmark Ventures 

19

THE FUTURE MAY BE 

SHOCKING, BREATHTAKING 

AND REVOLUTIONARY. 

BUT IT SHOULD NEVER 

COME AS A SURPRISE. 

When change is the only constant, you need a lawfirm that sees what’s 

on the horizon. With more than 1,400 legal professionals in key industry 

sectors and regions around the globe, Gowling WLG has the legal insight 

and foresight you need to prepare for any eventuality — and rise to 

tomorrow’s challenges today. Find out more at gowlingwlg.com 

TM 

Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP is a member of Gowling WLG, an international law firm which consists of independent and autonomous entities providing services 

around the world. Our structure is explained in more detail at gowlingwlg.com/legal 

20

Cryptocurrency phishing campaigns have spread to epidemic proportions, 

alongside the unprecedented rise of digital assets driven by the boom of 

cryptocurrency and the subsequent development of blockchain technology. 

INSIDER VIEW 

Although cryptocurrency provides users the 

capacity to “be their own banker” this approach 

ultimately pits responsibility for securing 

the vault on the user, or custodial service 

managing the wallet address. As a result of 

poor security practices a multibillion dollar 

marketplace is fraught with fraud as scammers 

vie for a portion of the pie in the sky. Fraudsters 

have come out of the woodwork, touting false 

opportunities with offers that are too good to 

be true, in an effort to skim a bit of crypto from 

someone foolish enough to simply send some 

to a phishing wallet address, or worse, given a 

prompt to log in to a phishing site mimicking 

a cryptocurrency exchange, or wallet service. 

It is because users cannot identify legitimate 

resources from those of phishing scams that 

10% of all money in digital wallets is stolen. 

As the webscape has never been more hostile, 

MetaCert has decided to fight back with a 

verification system designed to augment with 

current security tools as a last line of defense 

against malicious resources. MetaCert’s green, 

grey, and red shields provide users a measure 

of whether a resource is green and safe, or 

red and unsafe, and if a known to be verified 

link shows up as grey, you know it might be 

a phishing link. Since 90% of phishing scams 

start malicious links in email, MetaCert has 

modified our solution to work natively in email 

applications, and we are currently beta testing 

that technology. 

This means that when a person using this 

technology receives and email from a 

phishing scammer claiming to be a popular 

cryptocurrency exchange, wallet service, or 

other payment portal, they’re going to see a 

grey shield next to the fake link and know right 

away that it might be a scam. 

This is the same concept that powers Cryptonite, 

the popular browser add-on for Chrome, Firefox, 

Opera, and Brave browser that blocks phishing 

scams and uses the shield system to indicate 

the verified status of a web resource known to 

be associated with cryptocurrencies. 

MetaCert sees a world where you don’t have 

to worry about clicking on a link, and our tools 

will go a long way towards keeping digital 

assets out of the hands of thieves, and in the 

possession of its rightful owners. Visit us today 

at https://MetaCertProtocol.com to find out 

how we can help protect you. 

Paul Walsh 

Founder & CEO 

MetaCert 

21

The information in this article is for informational purposes 

and does not constitute legal, tax or investing advice or 

instruction. 

FUNDAMENTALS 

Should you consider the token model? 

References: 

ICO-Summit 2017–10- ICO best practice 

How to Raise Money on a Blockchain with a Token 

Against Tokens: Part II 

All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization 

Mapping the blockchain project ecosystem 

BUSINESS FORMATION 

References: 

Best Practices for Token Sales 

Discussing Cryptotoken Best Practices 

What I Look for as an ICO Advisor 

WHITEPAPER 

Does your whitepaper contain the following? 

— Investor Summary 

— Team 

— Product 

— Audience 

— Market 

— Risk Factors 

— Warranties 

— Metrics 

— Budget 

— Reporting 

— Compliance Requirements 

— Governance 

— Blockchain History (if applicable) 

22

White Paper Examples: 

— Monetha 

— Filecoin 

— Aeternity 

References: 

How to structure an ICO white paper 

How to write a cryptocurrency white paper 

How to Develop White Paper for ICO: Do’s 

and Don’ts 

DESIGN THE TOKEN 

Determine the following: 

— Purpose of the token 

— Functionality or utility of the token 

— Distribution and allocation of the token 

— Budget forecast for five (5) years 

— Spend distribution: Development 

& operations, legal & compliance, 

marketing and community outreach 

— Lockup period for company and insiders 

— Cap, if any 

— Pre-registration, if any 

— Time period 

— Geo-fencing, if any 

— Types of investors (individual or 

institutional investors) 

Would your token pass the CrapCoin 

Checklist? 

References: 

The ICO Handbook 

The Pre-ICO Checklist, with William 

Mougayar and Ty Danco 

10 keys for evaluating Initial Coin Offering 

(ICO) investments 

SMART CONTRACT CREATION AND 

TECHNOLOGY 

The following is a list of smart contract and 

token issuance platforms. The most popular 

platform is Ethereum ERC20 Tokens. 

— Ethereum ERC20 Tokens 

— Ethereum Classic ERC20 Tokens 

— Counterparty 

— OpenZeppelin 

— NEO 

— Waves 

— Stellar 

— COMSA platform for Token Sale & 

Exchange Listing 

References: 

ICO smart contracts Documentation 

Analyzing Token Sale Models 

How To Create Token and Initial Coin Offering 

Contracts Using Truffle + OpenZeppelin 

Your Guide To Running An Initial Coin 

Offering, For Better Or Worse 

Using Stellar for ICOs 

SMART CONTRACT SECURITY 

Here are a few known attacks: 

— Attacker execute malicious code within a 

transaction 

— Order of transactions is manipulated 

— Timestamp of a block is manipulated 

— Gas limit in a block occurs because you 

are paying out to everyone at once 

Here are a few things you could do: 

— Upgrade broken contracts 

— Pause the functionality of a contract 

— Delay an action of a contract 

References: 

Ethereum Smart Contract Security Best 

Practices 

Known Attacks 

Security Tools 

Software Engineering Techniques 

MARKETING 

If you are issuing an utility token, promote the 

token based on its functionality. Consider the 

following: 

— Your main token buyers may be 

underwriters, investors, traders and 

organic users and consumers of your 

product 

— Translate your content in different 

languages 

— Attend and speak at Conferences for 4–6 

months in North America, Asia and Europe 

— Build community 

— Make ICO website 

— Draft an explainer video 

— Update Github repository 

— Place your event on Exchange Listing 

Assistance 

— Consider bounty campaigns 

— Set up social media including Twitter, 

LinkedIn and YouTube 

23

— Send out a newsletter 

— Be on BitcoinTalk and Reddit 

— Write a blog 

— Communicate via Slack 

— Pay for advertising 

— Be mindful of privacy notices in the EU 

and UK including direct marketing best 

practices. 

— Hire a PR Firm 

- Interviews 

- Events 

- Podcasts 

References: 

Anatomy of ICO For Blockchain Investors and 

Entrepreneurs 

Your Guide To Running An Initial Coin 

Offering, For Better Or Worse 

Guide to launching an Initial Coin Offering 

(ICO) 

LAWS AND REGULATIONS 

Is your token a security or utility? 

Lawyers will help you determine using the 

Howey Test. According to the Howey Test, 

a transaction is an “investment contract” or a 

security if all the four (4) elements are met: 

— Money is vested 

— In a common enterprise or company 

— The investor expects profits from the 

investment 

— The profit comes from the efforts of 

others other than the investor 

References: 

What is the Howey Test? 

Tokens Can Be Securities? Even ICO Advisors 

Agree with the SEC 

Tokenomics — A Business Guide to Token 

Usage, Utility and Value 

A Securities Law Framework for Blockchain 

Tokens 

Appcoin Law: ICOs the Right Way 

ICO Offering a New Paradigm 

Food for Thought: SEC Turns Up the Heat on 

Utility Token Sales 

SEC Statement on Cryptocurrencies and 

ICOs 

Recent SEC Enforcement Actions and Public 

Statement in the Blockchain Space 

LabCFTC Releases Primer on Virtual 

Currencies without Broadly Addressing 

Blockchain Tokens 

Video: Blockchaingers Legal Deep Dive: 

Keynote Address by Lee Schneider at Dutch 

Authority for the Financial Markets 

Debevoise update on the SEC’s DAO Tokens 

report 

Debevoise update on pre-functional tokens 

Zug Crypto Valley event and video (1 of 18) 

Cardozo Tech Talks panel discussion, 

“Structuring Legally Compliant Token Sales” 

featuring Lilya Tessler 

ACCOUNTING AND TAXES 

What are your tax options? Here a few best 

practices: 

— Keep in mind how token issuance is 

taxed. Income from the token issuance is 

considered operating income. 

— Consider place of incorporation. For 

example, corporate income tax is 

approximately 14% in Zug, Switzerland. 

— Plan the timing of your token issuance. 

The earlier you conduct token issuance, 

the longer you will have to spend them in 

the first critical year before having to pay 

taxes. 

— Diversify your cryptocurrencies. 

References: 

The ICO Handbook 

Best Practices for ICO Accounting and 

Token Management 

COMPLIANCE 

Are you in compliance with KYC and AML? 

— Know Your Customer (KYC): Verify your 

investor’s identity 

— Anti Money Laundering (AML): Do you 

have a red flags checklist? 

— Is your investor on the denied person list 

or embargoed country list? 

— Is your investor located in a country that 

bans ICO? 

References: 

The 3 Most Important Things When 

Launching an ICO 

Considering an ICO? Consider AML/KYC 

Compliance 

24

AFTER THE TOKEN ISSUANCE 

Here are a few best practices after the token 

issuance: 

— Convert cryptocurrency into fiat in order 

to have runway for at least two years 

— Keep some of your cryptocurrency 

— Update your token holders regularly 

— Recruit new advisors if appropriate to 

achieve product market fit 

References: 

The Post-ICO Checklist: Replace Your 

Advisors 

Insider Reflections on the ICO Bubble, Part II: 

What it takes to ICO 

Michelle Tsing 

Founder, Elevate the Blockchain 

Advisor, Kambria 

BEST PRACTICE 

25

26

BEST PRACTICE 

Regarding the definition of a security: “Am I giving you my money to go off in a 

venture and relying on you and the efforts of your colleagues?” – Jay Clayton, 

Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, interview with Bob 

Pisani on June 6, 2018 

The first and best practice approach for 

conducting an ICO or STO (collectively 

“digital offerings”) in the United States is 

the same regardless of which offering you 

or your attorney decide to use. First and 

foremost, you must Google the absolute 

hell out of the ICO and STO craze that has 

become an international phenomenon. You 

will read how some believe all ICOs were 

illegal (most were) and how others believe 

that all STOs are going to fail (most will). 

Then you will read libertarian and contrarian 

views on how ICOs and STOs shouldn’t 

be regulated or should be regulated 

completely. This is the first approach you 

should take to anything: your own initial 

research. 

Now, some would question the legitimacy 

of this approach, but the fact of the matter is 

everyone (and I literally mean everyone) will 

question your decision to conduct a digital 

offering, if you choose that path. Why, you 

may ask? Simple, because of your choice 

to conduct a digital offering is like the first 

person walking on Moon. It took a hell of a 

lot of people to get Neil Armstrong up there, 

and no one remembers the rest of the guys 

who came afterward. Similarly, it is going to 

take a relatively substantial amount of work 

to make this digital offering successful. 

The days of being able to put up a fancy 

website and decently written white paper 

and be successful are over. You are going 

to have to develop a team and, depending 

on the venture, you are going to need 

something from a bootstrapped minimum 

viable product (MVP) to an actual alpha 

ready. The ratio you’re looking for here 

27

is team development versus business/ 

product development. If you have an 

outstanding group of talented individuals 

who have decided to follow you as their 

leader, then your product development may 

be a bit behind the MVP level. Alternately, if 

you have a functioning alpha product with 

users/subscribers but your team looks like 

the GarageBand equivalent of Avengers, 

then you do not have worry about the 

pedigrees of your team as long as your 

numbers (users/subscribers) make “cents.” 

This is an important comparison because 

these teammates of yours, or anyone who 

wants to join your team before conducting 

this digital offering, is going to be the first 

naysayers who question your sanity. They 

are going to want to quiz you on why issuing 

this type of offering makes sense for this 

type of product or service. They are going 

to want to make sure you know enough 

of what this blockchain/cryptocurrency 

industry is to feel comfortable in explaining 

to their friends and family when they ask 

about why you decided to use blockchain 

(and they will). 

These are serious documents and will 

affect the fate of your venture and the team 

mentioned above. So, after you’ve Googled 

your way to elementary comprehension, 

consult a professional to see if this digital 

offering is truly a good approach. 

The third and final best practical approach 

for conducting a digital offering is very 

simple: you must believe in what you 

are doing. You cannot waive. You cannot 

hide and, God forbid, the state or federal 

regulators call and ask you what you are 

doing, you must answer. If you are serious 

about conducting a digital offering then 

you must be able to withstand the storm of 

questions, concerns, and comments from 

your spouse or loved one, to your team, to 

possibly even regulators in your jurisdiction. 

The second best practical approach for 

issuing a digital offering is making damn sure 

you know when you’ve gone outside your 

comfort zone. I once was able to replace a 

brake light in my Explorer after an incident 

where a kid decided it would be a good place 

to park his bicycle after flying down a hill (the 

kid was ok; always wear a helmet). 

This was an easy fix thanks to YouTube and 

eBay. I was not, however, able to fix another 

vehicle when a drunk driver took out a 

light pole which happened to cross both 

lanes of traffic just outside of Rochester, 

New York. I had the pleasure of running 

over at midnight at around 60 miles per 

hour. Needless to say, running over a light 

pole wasn’t a simple fix and required a 

professional. The anecdote here is you can 

bootstrap your operation up to a certain 

point. You can figure out basic limited 

liability company and corporate formations 

very easily online. You should not, however, 

draft your operating agreement or conduct 

a digital offering without consulting with a 

professional. 

As noted above, the SEC believes most 

of these offerings are securities so, after 

you’ve consulted with your professional, 

you must firmly believe this is still the best 

approach for you and your company. If 

you take this approach on this incredible 

journey, then you may just be able to walk 

on the Moon. 

Jonathan C. Dunsmoor, Esq. 

Founder/Principal 

Dunsmoor Law, P.C. 

28

IN FOCUS 

For most of the younger generations, housing in major urban areas is financially 

out of reach. It’s no longer just a matter of saving more or working harder. With 

globalization and the shifting economy, even with a stable job and enough 

money for a downpayment, the mortgage fees over the next 25 years in the 

world’s most desired cities will eat the average paycheck, without remorse. 

Buying power has decreased and the way 

people operate in the world has shifted. From 

the advent of tech companies, to a more 

educated society, to the fact we are now 

globally connected from a handheld device - 

millennials and their counterpart, Gen Z (who 

are incidentally larger than their predecessors 

or boomers) have not known life before the 

internet and accessibility. 

So what happens when new ways of operating 

collide with the archaic systems we still have 

in place for many industries? We’ve seen 

companies shift, travel skyrocket and the 

world as a whole become far more educated, 

not to mention connected. So the question 

begs, what are the oldest industries doing to 

keep up with this change? 

The emergence of blockchain technology 

over the last few years has now evolved to 

spreading beyond just cryptocurrencies. So 

what real world applications are we seeing 

this emerging technology be used for? 

One such “real world” use case is real estate. 

When REITIUM CEO, Thomas Park began 

researching blockchain technology, he 

knew he needed to adapt. “When I saw real 

estate on a list of ‘industries that blockchain 

would make obsolete’, I knew I needed to 

get creative. Tapping into my experience 

as a realtor, REITIUM was created to offer a 

new way of entering the real estate market, 

making it accessible to the masses.” Part of 

his fuel for creating REITIUM was the fact that 

even his own mother had been priced out of 

the current market. 

Millennials and Gen Z are now of age to 

be homeowners but don’t have the same 

purchasing power as their parents and have 

29

thus retired the idea of being able to afford 

real estate. Due to cause and effect, money 

is being spent in new ways from the daily 

latte, to owning expensive tech devices, to 

many more students enrolling in university 

and paying the sky-high fees associated. As a 

result, they’ve arguably felt forced to at least 

seek an enjoyable lifestyle, opting to travel 

the world, rent a nice apartment and become 

Amazon’s biggest clients. 

worth of real estate assets that will be listed 

on the platform in 2019. A real estate investing 

platform built for any investor, 

Even though they see houses as unaffordable, 

most of the younger generation still see 

homeownership as a desirable good 

investment. In 2017, REITIUM was born and 

CEO, Thomas Park, along with his Co-Founders, 

Michael Moll and Laura Fortey have dedicated 

themselves to being a solution to this problem. 

What started as an idea, which was presented 

and flushed out at the VanFunding Hackathon 

in 2017, has now grown to a company of 11 

employees and 18 advisors. REITIUM has 

raised $650,000 to date and is currently in a 

seed round seeking $3 million dollars which 

will allow them to achieve their next milestones. 

The platform allows anyone across the globe 

to fractionally purchase real estate for as little 

as $100. Collectively the younger generation 

have over $1 trillion dollars in savings, but 

individually they don’t have enough money, 

time or experience to put their money to work 

and grow their wealth sustainably. 

Through the use of crowdfunding, REITIUM 

is opening a global pool of capital that was 

otherwise inaccessible, allowing anyone to 

invest in real estate. 

REITIUM is a Global Real Estate Investment 

Marketplace, Protocol and Exchange 

that allows anyone to invest in income 

generating properties, earning a percentage 

of rental income (dividends) and fair market 

appreciation when selling property shares. 

Partnered with IBM, REITIUM is built on 

Hyperledger Fabric. Using smart contracts 

and blockchain technology REITIUM enables 

compliant, fractional ownership of real estate 

investing. In 2018 the REITIUM Co-Founders 

attended 22 conferences across 9 countries, 

resulting in incredible partnerships and letters 

of intent in excess of $830 million dollars 

REITIUM is excited to begin onboarding onto 

their platform. From retail investors, to family 

offices to REITs, REITIUM has an array of 

clients that span investment pools and the 

globe. Society is shifting, density is increasing 

in cities and the UN predicts 68% of the 

world’s population will live in urban centres 

by 2050. This also means urban areas will 

continue to build, expand and grow wealth. 

At REITIUM, we are building the future of 

real estate investing so we can support those 

looking to grow their wealth while continuing 

to live their desired lifestyle. 

Laura Fortey 

CMO + Co-founder 

Reitium Blockchain Technologies 

30

The Vanbex Group was established in 2013 as a 

strategic communications organization to better tell 

the story of companies in the blockchain industry. 

We have since evolved into a professional services firm 

that specializes in all aspects of the blockchain industry. 

From grassroots marketing, application development, 

communications, strategy, public relations and operations 

consulting, we can assist at any stage of growth. 

Interested in finding out more about our services? 

We offer an initial consultation 100% free of charge. 

Learn more at vanbex.com 

31

IN FOCUS 

“The VanFUNDING 2018 conference was a great opportunity to foster knowledge 

on masternode investing to the North American crypto-investors. Here’s what 

we learned from it.” 

Just as the blockchain took the world by 

surprise, so did masternodes jolt the cryptoworld. 

Gradually, masternodes gained more 

and more popularity, more fans, more projects. 

Lately, blockchain technology that relies on 

masternodes has started to pan out, making 

room for an investment opportunity in this 

sector. And not a small one, but a $3.5 bn 

(April 2018) market niche, that’s currently going 

unnoticed. All the more reason to join. Cryptoenthusiasts 

and crypto-investment funds 

altogether caught a glimpse of the blockchain- 

supported future, in which masternodes play 

the role of pillars. And they saw that it was 

good. 

Masternodes are actually servers (computers) 

on a decentralized network, through which 

transactions are being run. They fulfill various 

services for the network, for which they receive 

rewards on a regular basis. These rewards are 

the source of passive income. In a nutshell, 

masternodes produce money for their owner, 

without the owner doing anything at all. Except 

32

uild the masternode, of course. And with the 

GIN Platform, that’s as easy as ABC. 

Running a masternode on the GIN Platform 

requires only two things: the desired coin 

collateral (e.g. 1,000 GIN) and about 5-10 

minutes of one’s time. The rest is an automated 

process, built and constantly perfected by 

the hard-working GIN team. The GIN project 

removed all obstacles between masternodes 

and masternode enthusiasts. Complicated 

tech procedures, third parties, anonymous 

devs – GIN platform made them obsolete. 

Another thing that GIN offers is blockchain 

infrastructure, with the purpose of supporting 

a fast and healthy development of the global 

masternode ecosystem. It started with the 

launch of GIN API. Then came the first .NET 

native implementation of Lyra2Z, enabling 

other coins using this algorithm to build 

support. The GIN Platform aims to become 

the main blockchain infrastructure partner for 

the new wave of blockchain solutions using 

masternodes. 

With close to 120 coins, and over 6,100 hosted 

masternodes totalling more than $8.0M in 

value (all data valid at the moment of writing), 

the GIN Platform is the first and biggest node 

management service. Moreover, in an everchanging 

regulatory setting, GIN Platform LTD 

has succeeded in maintaining a fully legal 

compliance. Completely self-funded and with 

a fully functional product from the beginning, 

the GIN project relies on consistent delivery of 

new features. 

The VanFUNDING experience cemented a 

feeling that was long felt throughout the cryptosphere: 

that the crypto market has slowly, 

but surely, reached a higher level of maturity, 

in the sense that it is no longer taken lightly. 

People are now more willing to learn about the 

blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and to take 

the time to make the proper research in the 

projects that interest them. And when the time 

comes for investments or development, GIN 

will be there as their personal guide. 

Alexandru Stanescu 

Chief Legal Officer & Strategic Partnerships 

GIN Platform 

Give Credit Where Debt Is Due 

Boost customer value by unlocking true credit worthiness with next generation credit and scoring 

solutions for Canadians with traditionally non-prime credit scores. The Progressa solutions suite 

is built for enterprise, collection agencies, point-of-sale platforms and originators. 

33 

progressa.io

34

IN FOCUS 

“The English as a Second Language (ESL) industry is a complex network with 

many” “interdependent parties seeking stronger, more fluid relationships. But 

before getting into the exact pain points that ESL Coin plans to ease within the 

industry, the value of the industry itself should be examined.” 

Many unfamiliar with the ESL business have 

the misconception of it as a niche market, 

even within the education industry. On top of 

English’s use as a tool for business negotiation 

and cooperation, some of the most expensive 

private high schools have been English bilingual 

ones, producing powerful English-speaking 

world leaders in their respective fields. 

However, English is no longer exclusive to the 

upper economic classes. Many governments 

have recently passed legislation prioritizing 

English education for all citizens, creating vast 

new opportunities in markets that could reach 2 

billion learners by 2020. This untapped middle 

class is where much of ESL Coin’s value lies. 

Even with English being such a desired and 

prioritized skill, if a learner doesn’t have a 

quality local teacher or access to worthwhile 

educational resources, they start their 

education at a disadvantage. Most of these 

hurdles result from the three issues ESL Coin 

specializes in resolving: 

• ●Money 

• ●Time 

• ●Trust 

These are three broad aspects that we hope 

to take on through three specific innovations 

provided by emerging blockchain technology: 

• ●Cross-border transaction fees 

• ●Micropayments and microcontracts 

• ●Automatic and transparent verification 

Let’s start with one of blockchain technology’s 

principle calling cards, the ability to 

significantly reduce the cost of and expedite 

35

cross-border transactions. The ESL industry 

is greatly hindered by the inefficiency of the 

current international banking system, where 

money must move from bank to bank to bank, 

incurring small, unnecessary costs along the 

way. 

Cryptocurrency payments are relatively 

instant and costless by comparison, regardless 

of how many boundaries they have to cross, 

and can be easily converted to local currency. 

This makes it an ideal payment system for 

students, teachers and schools distributed all 

over the world. 

With processing fees reduced to trivial 

amounts, it opens up the door for 

microservices. Leveraging the blockchain’s 

smart contract functionality, ESL Coin can 

automatically trigger transaction following 

agreed-upon rules. These contracts aid 

ESL students who find it difficult to fit 

a long-term English program into their 

schedule, or are hesitant about committing 

a large sum of money to an instructor or 

program of which they’re unsure. Using 

a microcontract gives them the flexibility 

to integrate English learning into their 

schedule and budget. 

Small free pockets of time can now be filled 

with mobile app-hosted conversations 

that range from sharing of culture to 

explanations of grammar, priced from lowcost 

informal native speakers to pricier 

qualified ESL instructors. For institutes, 

micropayments in ESL Coin could be a 

way to provide bonuses to instructors who 

work extra or students who achieve certain 

benchmarks, gamifying the academic 

experience. Editing and translating 

individual content would also fall under the 

microservice umbrella. 

Administrative costs are a drain on 

any industry, but especially one so 

international, academic and dynamic as 

ESL. Identifications, payments, paperwork 

processing, certifications, and exam scoring 

are just a handful of the duties that ESL 

Coin plans to automate through our own 

blockchain and partnering chains, both 

private and public. Institutions, employees 

and clients all benefit from a transparent 

relationship where data is shared in a 

responsible and flexible way. 

Blockchain technology develops what is 

called a trustless network, meaning trust 

is unnecessary. Government documents, 

banking information and prior paperwork can 

now be attached to a secure identity. ESL 

Coin instructors, institutional networks and 

content publishers will be able to funnel their 

resources elsewhere to enhance their quality 

of service or product. 

ESL Coin is what’s known as a utility token, 

meaning they will be redeemable for services 

in a trustless and automated manner. 

Having a finite supply, their value generally 

tends to correlate to the number who 

use ESL Coin services, such as for listing a 

school on the network, publishing educational 

content or uploading test scores. If a 

distributed-enough community of producers 

and consumers join the network, it becomes 

a consumable commodity not unlike oil or 

gas, although nobody can predict if or when 

that will occur. 

ESL Coin is accessible for any interested enterprise 

to implement, but we are developing 

a partner mobile app, TryEnglish, which 

will serve a multifunctional utility highlighted 

by conversation partnering, content publishing 

and trustless networking. It was originally 

conceived to meet the demands of the Conversational 

English community, an ESL Coin 

partner with around 22K organic Facebook 

followers. 

The ESL Coin team has a diverse background 

that has combined blockchain experts, 

industry professionals and English learners. 

Together we see the big picture and agree 

that the ESL industry will be one of the first to 

implement blockchain technology to expand 

and improve. 

Andrew Wagner 

Founder and CEO 

ESL Coin 

36

37

TRENDING 

From the computer of Hussein Hallak 

At the start of an event, it’s always cool to see the 

anticipation. Some familiar and some new faces. 

And to be in the presence of so many smart 

entrepreneurs. 

The challenge is how to overcome the typical 

drawbacks of a gathering. You know, like it’s really 

tough to network for a lot of people. 

It’s difficult to ask for what you need from a bunch 

of strangers. But as it turns out it can be easy to 

help people if you know what they want. 

So what do you do? How do you bridge the gap 

between the ability to help someone and get 

what you need as well? 

You start by identifying what you need. Then you 

focus on what you can do for others. The sense 

of altruism in focusing on helping others makes 

it much easier to engage in a conversation. It 

makes it easier to network. And it makes you 

feel good about what you are doing. Instead of 

WIFM (What’s in it for me) your experience is 

transformed into: how can I help you. 

Even people starting out have knowledge and 

skills they can use to help someone else. A 

connection. Some advice. An idea. All they need 

to do is be open to helping someone else with 

their problem. 

38

This is how I live my life. So I know it works. Ok, 

so the workshop took these principles and put 

them into action. 

Everyone wrote down what they needed on 

pieces of paper. Each need represented by a 

post-it note. 

The idea was to take those needs and instead 

of finding people who can help you, you then 

go around and see if there are people you can 

help with their needs. The person who collects 

the most post-it notes: who was able to help 

with the greatest number of needs, received 

a prize. 

Which turned out to be two people… 

So the lesson here is that while you may have a 

problem you can’t solve, require some advice, 

a contact or something else. And while this 

need may be pressing, finding the solution can 

be daunting. It can add pressure and distress. 

But by thinking of others. Finding ways to help 

other people solve their problems you open 

your mind to other possibilities. You are able 

to meet many more people who will be open 

to meeting you and appreciative that you are 

focused on helping them, and in turn, they will 

want to help you. Which consequently, helps 

you find ways of solving the problems you 

have, get the help you need, and achieve your 

goals. 

So go ahead, write down what you need, 

get clear and focused. But in the meantime, 

continue to be curious about what others need 

and find out how you can help them. 

For it has always been the ability of sapiens 

to organize and collaborate that helped us 

master an entire planet. 

Hussein Hallak 

Co-founder and CEO 

Next Decentrum 

39

TRENDING 

In the past year, we have seen a lot 

of interest and careful, calculated 

advances being made in blockchain 

applications across industries. 

Blockchain today is proving to 

be a viable technology aimed 

at decentralizing every industry 

resulting in better efficiency and 

security. 

Blockchain was born as the digital 

framework for cryptocurrency 

transactions, but many fintech 

enthusiasts prioritized the speculation 

of trading cryptocurrencies versus 

the technology that powered it. 

With the markets experiencing a 

downturn, we have the opportunity 

to shift our focus to innovative use 

cases of the technology. 

What is Blockchain? 

Blockchain technology is a digital database 

where its information is stored across 

computers linked to one another. It is 

decentralized and distributed which makes it 

nearly impossible to alter without detection. 

An example of distributed ledger technology, 

blockchain technology ensures transparency 

and security of data, empowering peer-topeer 

transactions. 

According to a recent Forrester research 

article, there is a real risk of experiencing 

a ‘blockchain winter’ in 2019 as many 

promised and groundbreaking applications of 

blockchain technology have not yet reached 

the masses. In addition, the bear market has 

always caused many retail investors to lose 

faith in the technology as a whole. However, 

cryptocurrency is only part of the picture, and 

in my opinion, a considerably small part of the 

equation. 

The technology is powerful. There is a lot of 

push towards using this ubiquitous technology 

to develop sustainable and scalable solutions 

across industries which will surely be worth 

the wait. 

5 Trends in 2019 

1. Payments: Cross border payments using 

blockchain is an innovation that is bound 

to change the way we carry out financial 

transactions across the globe. The current 

process of initiating and setting up 

international payments involve multiple 

steps, intermediaries, multiple currencies 

and is subject to high transaction fees 

and regulatory constraints. Blockchain 

technology speeds up and simplifies this 

process, cutting out many of the traditional 

middlemen and at the same time, making 

payment transfers more affordable. 

Companies like Ripple are working with 

Japanese banks on an application based 

on blockchain to create efficient, instant 

cash transfers around the clock. Payment 

innovations using blockchain are also 

being taken up by credit card companies 

40

like Mastercard, Visa and American 

Express and financial institutions like the 

Bank of America which has taken out 43 

patents on blockchain technology. 

2. Unlocking Liquidity: Decentralized 

lending based on the blockchain have 

opened an alternative financing mode for 

both individuals and small and medium 

enterprises. With limited access to credit 

and credit scores, blockchain based 

lending can make the whole process 

seamless and efficient. Borrowers can 

access competitive financing from any 

part of the globe, while lenders can use 

smart contracts to validate transactions. 

This model of financing though, is still in 

its infancy, and one must be cautious of 

scrupulous organizations that are acting 

as rogue banks. FintruX Network is 

currently building a transparent financing 

ecosystem where transparency, risk 

reduction, and efficiency is maximized, 

and all participants win. According to a 

Transparency Market Research report, the 

global peer to peer lending market will aim 

to cater to not just small business loans but 

also consumer credit loans, student loans 

and real estate loans in the near future. 

3. Privacy: With the growing prevalence 

of data breaches and in the massively 

interconnected world we live in, blockchain 

technology will be a game changer as 

it provides a robust, incorruptible and 

encrypted recordkeeping that can be 

easily verified. The hashing feature of 

blockchain technology is one of the 

underlying qualities that make it suitable 

for privacy and security. Public ledgers 

and smart contracts can help iron out 

security and privacy issues in industries 

ranging from healthcare to education 

and can also be effectively utilized by the 

government. Estonia is a country that has 

initiated e-residency allowing their citizens 

to record data on the blockchain. 

4. Artificial Intelligence: The trustworthiness 

and security of blockchains infinitely 

increases the effectiveness of AI as it 

is granted more accurate data, models 

and actions. There is also an increase in 

accessibility to data as the information is 

available in public domain. The powerful 

trifecta of Big Data, AI and Blockchain 

technology will help in building better 

AI models which can then be effectively 

utilized for applications in industries like 

retail, healthcare and pharma, gaming, 

manufacturing, customer service, 

automotive and even agriculture. 

5. Internet of Things: Blockchain provides 

a secure and scalable framework for 

communication between the growing 

number of connected devices in our 

homes and offices. Due to its distributed 

nature, blockchain can also allow smart 

devices to make automated microtransactions 

with cryptocurrency or token 

technology by leveraging smart contracts. 

Some companies working on this 

technology include SatoshiPay and IOTA. 

Blockchain adoption and use cases are 

growing daily, and possibilities for innovation 

are endless. This technology will stimulate 

new solutions, enabling businesses to rethink 

their processes to maximize the benefits of 

utilizing distributed ledgers. I look forward to 

successful implementation of the technology 

in the year to come. 

About: 

Conrad Lin 

Co-Founder 

FintruX Network 

Conrad Lin is a young and dynamic entrepreneur, public 

speaker, and influencer with a background in Neuroscience and 

Psychology from the University of Toronto. He is a proven expert 

in business analysis, social media growth, global marketing 

strategy, project management, and product development with 

a specialty in DLT (distributed ledger technologies). 

Conrad excels at managing teams and delivering phenomenal 

results in a short amount of time, often fulfilling multiple 

roles in an organization. Conrad dedicates his efforts towards 

initiatives that impact the world positively and benefits the global 

community. He is often invited to speak at key fintech events 

around the world to share his innovative ideas and achievements 

with industry professionals. 

Official Twitter: @cryptolin 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradlin 

41

INSIDER VIEW 

The history of blockchain has played 

out in discreet chapters. First, there 

was the era of easy private investment 

and sky-high promises for worldchanging 

products. Then came 

the era of the ICO, which focused 

the promise of decentralization on 

pure financial returns, and turned 

blockchain startups into monetary 

behemoths. 

The history of blockchain has played out in 

discreet chapters. First, there was the era 

of easy private investment and sky-high 

promises for world-changing products. Then 

came the era of the ICO, which focused the 

promise of decentralization on pure financial 

returns, and turned blockchain startups into 

monetary behemoths. Now, as even hardcore 

crypto-investors begin to lose faith in the 

limitless potential of the ICO, blockchain has 

yet another stage to enter, one that could 

finally cement its place in the traditional 

economy: the security token offering, or STO. 

STOs are much like ICOs in that they represent 

the first chance for buyers to get access to 

a new financial instrument -- but the tokens 

being distributed in an STO fall into the 

specific legal category of securities. Securities 

are, essentially, financial instruments that pay 

ongoing dividends to owners, and security 

tokens are no different. When you hold a 

security token, you are entitled to payouts 

from a company or service’s profits, so the 

blockchain’s security and transparency makes 

it the perfect platform. 

The cryptocurrency revolution looked to 

take over the role of currency itself -- but 

investment in currency isn’t what drives the 

world economy; investment in products, 

services, and companies is. Blockchain 

security tokens could represent traditional 

partial ownership of a company, as securities 

already do, or it could represent partial 

entitlement to profits from a piece of 

commercial real-estate. Security tokens could 

totally replace the current securities market, 

or it could revolutionize that market by adding 

a host of all-new securitized assets that have 

never been considered before. Or, they could 

do both. 

There’s a problem, though: while currency 

is a highly regulated space, the legal 

morass associated with launching a new 

cryptocurrency is nothing compared to 

the hassle that comes with launching a 

brand new security. It’s not even really the 

unprecedented nature of the technology 

that’s causing the hold-ups, since the only 

rules that apply are the ones that have always 

applied to launching securities. The uncharted 

nature of the space certainly doesn’t help, but 

the reality is that breaking into securities is a 

daunting task at the best of times. 

42

So, we get the current STO market in Canada, 

the US, and the world at large: a collection 

of securities-related projects that seem to all 

be equally teetering on the edge of actual 

launch. In parlance, the problem of ticking off 

the hundreds of boxes required to legally sell 

securities is called “compliance,” and literally 

every potential STO is running into difficulty 

meeting all of these many the requirements. 

In Canada, the STO market is still very much 

in the process of forming, and even would-be 

STO service providers are still racing to be the 

first to fully solve the problems of compliance, 

both with Canadian regulation and all relevant 

oversight around the world. Even companies 

that have carried out an STO have yet to 

actually begin handing out dividends. 

Etherparty is now developing the next 

evolution of our ICO launch platform, Rocket, 

adding the ability to quickly easily launch a 

sale of fully compliant security tokens -- an 

STO. With our new and improved version of 

Rocket, startups and established companies 

alike will find that they can launch a new 

securitized asset as easily as the current 

version of Rocket allows them to launch an 

ICO! Rocket has been a big part of pushing 

ICOs forward in terms of usability, helping to 

expand the number of people and entities that 

can take advantage of this incredibly lucrative 

fundraising option. 

So keep an eye out for how this space evolves 

over the next year, and make sure to keep 

an eye out for updates to Rocket. When our 

middleware solution is up and running, you’ll 

see an explosion of new STO products in the 

market -- and from there, the possibilities 

for new, securitized investments are nearly 

endless. 

Lisa Cheng 

Founder 

Vanbex Group 

43

INSIDER VIEW 

A National Project 

Open banking has many definitions and 

multiple characteristics. At its core though 

is the concept of empowerment – the 

empowerment of financial consumers, 

individuals and businesses alike, that comes 

from transferring control over financial 

information to clients away from established 

financial institutions. 

Because of this potential which promises to 

democratize financial transactions, much has 

been said about open banking in recent years. 

And, insofar as Canada is concerned, all that 

talk misses the point. 

Properly considered, open banking is the 

national project for the 21st century digital, 

mobile, connected economy. 

The only real question is: can Canada build 

such a national project when it is having such 

difficulty getting national projects for the 20th 

century economy off the ground, out of the 

ground and out to market? 

Think pipelines. 

Causes for Concern 

Already, there are worrisome signs. 

First, we are behind other jurisdictions such 

as Great Britain and Australia and there are 

indications that other countries will soon 

follow suit. Just as the US has moved smartly 

to develop and sell its vast reserves of shale oil 

while Canada’s product remains landlocked 

so too we risk being leapfrogged by the likes 

of an Estonia on the open banking side. 

Second, governments are engaged in 

full consultation mode and the policy 

commentariat ranging from the CD Howe 

Institute to Canada 2020 have been cranking 

44

out papers and hosting events on open 

banking at a rapid rate. The federal government 

has set up an advisory council following the 

2018 budget while other federal departments 

and agencies from the Bank of Canada to 

the Competition Bureau have already been 

pondering the issue. However, the general 

public remains outside the discourse which 

to-date has been confined to the chattering 

classes. 

Third, one key interest group is claiming 

territorial jurisdiction, namely established 

financial institutions. Just as First Nations 

have demanded that they be fully brought 

in to the pipeline approval process, so too 

have the chartered banks weighed in with 

admonitions to proceed with all due haste – 

but, slowly, very slowly. Not wanting to be 

seen as anti-innovation and anti-consumer 

choice but also wanting to protect their fat 

margins that are derived from maintaining 

the status quo. 

Fourth, Canada’s record on financial innovation 

is not stellar. Capital has been flowing into 

fintech startups but there is nothing to 

suggest that Canada is at the global forefront 

of financial innovation adoption. These days, 

observers point to countries as diverse as 

Kenya and Singapore when looking to fintech 

leadership. And, then there’s China and the US 

each with a host of flagship firms and fintechs, 

often bundled together in novel ways. 

Fifth, part of the problem with pipelines as with 

open banking is the never ending federalprovincial 

jurisdictional turf battle. We can’t 

seem to get a national securities commission 

(another pipeline project that’s thoroughly 

gummed up) which does not appear to be a 

priority for anyone any more. For open banking 

to be truly comprehensive would likely require 

a level of federal-provincial cooperation that 

has not been much in evidence lately. 

A 2019 fearless forecast: no open banking, 

any time soon and certainly not in 2019. 

For Canada to participate in this financial 

innovation bold leadership will be required 

from committed participants unafraid to 

shake up the established order to bring 

about the birth of a new way of doing 

things. 

Creating the Winning Conditions 

Left to its own devices, the policy process 

today would likely grind out a classic 

Canadian compromise of the kind that we 

excel in producing, much like promoting both 

environmental protection and a resourcesbased 

economy. However, in the realm of 

open banking, allowing things to unfold as they 

usually do will probably lead to a middle-ofthe-road 

that really doesn’t position Canada 

for leadership in financial services innovation. 

The main challenge facing proponents of 

open banking today is to identify and then 

proceed to implement the winning conditions 

that will be necessary to overcome regulatory 

and bureaucratic inertia. 

Some of those winning conditions would 

include: 

• Developing a public engagement 

strategy in order to build the necessary 

bodyguard of support in key segments of 

society, including interest groups, elected 

officials and the general population; 

• Focusing on a limited number of key 

communications messages that would 

address the tangible benefits of open 

banking, as well as the opportunity 

costs of not proceeding down this 

path, to individuals and businesses; 

these messages would likely centre on 

control, choice, trust and security; 

• Taking advantage of the plethora of media 

opportunities that exist today to keep 

broadcasting out easily communicable 

messages and to respond to the no 

go/go slow squadrons that are now 

mobilizing. 

Richard Remillard 

President, Remillard Consulting Group 

NCFA Board Member 

45

INSIDER VIEW 

NCFA’s VanFUNDING Conference is perfectly timed and held in Vancouver 

annually. Each year, it is set for the late autumn for a microscopic review of 

the current year and a sneak peek of what’s coming for next year’s innovative 

technologies. 

To analyze what might be we need to 

reconcile what is. 

Many people correlate blockchain with 

digital currencies. Yet, blockchain is not just 

a financial application. It has many functions 

including as a data verification system. A 

much broader approach to the technology 

is needed for the analysis of its future value 

and potential. 

Where are we? 

Blockchain is a great technology with its 

promises too good to pass on. It is disruptive 

and revolutionary. It is an independent, 

open system with the live traceable audit 

and its verifiable time stamp bringing trust, 

safety, and integrity to our transactions. It 

is a remarkable platform for decentralized 

crowdsourcing, supply chain, healthcare 

system, tokenization. The technology has 

great potential. It can improve the quality 

of work and effectively reduce the costs of 

operations. 

What do we need to do? 

So far though, the adoption represents less 

than one percent of the global application. 

There are many controversies surrounding the 

technology including unresolved scalability 

and usability issues. 

There are five technical necessities to achieve 

massive blockchain adoption. There is not 

enough security, efficiency, and confidentiality. 

When these three factors are addressed and 

resolved simultaneously then two additional 

ones, such as scalability and interoperability 

will follow for effective operations and mass 

adoption. 

Once the technical issues are resolved then 

the usability will follow. 

Considering that blockchain is based on 

peer-to-peer transactions, it is necessary to 

create an ecosystem, an environment for the 

majority of people to understand the concept 

of blockchain and its application. Education 

represents the foundation of this change. 

46

For scalability, we need to build a network 

of developers, hackers and programmers 

who can work on improving the system and 

creating a user-friendly product. 

For usability, we need to educate the private 

and public sector as well as individuals to 

create an efficient network of fluent blockchain 

users. 

It is about developing a blockchain community 

for the future secure use and application of 

the technology exploring its possibilities in 

cross-border trade and finance transactions. 

Yet, nothing will happen without regulatory 

acceptance and approval of the technology. 

It is crucial to work with the regulators to set a 

transparent framework. 

Which region has the most potential? 

Asian countries prioritize blockchain adoption 

with China being at the forefront. Japan, South 

Korea, and Singapore view the technology 

as one of the most important components 

in future development and have already 

taken steps towards a legal and regulatory 

framework. Asian Pacific region excels in 

active pursuit of blockchain related projects 

easily superseding the US and Europe in the 

near future. 

It is much easier to create and envision yet 

much more difficult to make a dream to 

become a reality. That takes time and effort. 

Rome wasn’t built in one day. Patience is a 

virtue. Blockchain is a new technology and 

still, a lot needs to be done. We are all in a 

process of learning about it, the users and the 

developers. Yet, global adoption is at our door 

and the best way to progress is to follow Asian 

examples and courageously dive-in to make 

a sustainable progress for the blockchain 

“wave” to become a “tsunami”. 

Anna Niemira 

Managing Director 

BGX Capital Corp 

47

“VanFUNDING is a not to be missed 

annual Blockchain, Fintech & 

Funding Innovation and Alternative 

Investing conference that brings 

together high growth start-ups 

and scale-ups, investors and key 

stakeholders who have a vision for 

the future of finance.” 

PARTICIATION 

COLLABORATION & IMPACT 

LINKS 

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300 attendees 

50+ speakers 

15 exhibitors 

10 pitching companies 

Industry, Investors, Regulators, Media 

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o 

17 sponsors 

40+ partners 

Partnerships + Investment 

Diversity + Inclusiveness 

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Highlight reel 

Program | Speakers 

Decks and Presentations 

Select Interviews 

“You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to 

lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide 

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VANFUNDING 2018 PARTNERS AND IMPACT 

49

NCFA Blockchain Fintech CONFIDENTIAL (Vol 1, Issue 1)

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