Now the hype around A I seemingly overshadowed crypto at this place called Davos last week according to multiple reports, but perhaps Blockchain and A I could solve some very interesting problems for each other. That may be something that was discovered at Davos joining us. Now to discuss is particia Blockchain Foundation chief of Growth. Shirley Wge. Welcome, Shirley. Hi. Thanks for having me here. It’s a pleasure. Thank you for taking some time out for us. Uh Let’s just start with the fact that you were at Davos this year. Uh What was your takeaway at the intersection of crypto Blockchain? Yeah, like what was the sentiment at the end of Davos? So as our foundation and myself uh been based six years now in Su Crypto Valley of Switzerland. Uh Davos is actually quite close by. Uh that was my fifth time at Davos and I’ve always been in the, in the intersection of Blockchain and crypto there mostly. And of course, I I saw like a huge significance compared to years back when it was still not regulated. Uh There were huge inflows of money running into projects without having actual white paper or MVP. So I think now we saw much more serious landscape in terms of crypton Blockchain. Uh It was mainly dominated by Blockchain companies as well, like stable coin companies like uh uh circle that has been there for uh all the last years now. And uh it was also incorporated to the main conference with coin based presence. Um uh So the landscape is definitely more serious and it’s more mainstream. And I think the new kid on the block is definitely A I. So last year, uh the topic was all about the newly launched CHA TPT. And now this year we would see on the promenade, uh all these advertisements with A I companies, uh A I hubs. And uh I think that discussions were more uh surrounded around that topic. But uh if last year, it was about, if uh A I will replace and chai will replace our jobs and the whole humanity, then this year, it was more like uh discussing the regulatory side as I feel like A I is now in the spot where crypto was years ago when, when there was still no clear regula regulation. And uh also uh a lot of money because I mean, A I has been funded uh much better than crypto past two years. So, so you could, you could definitely see difference compared to last year’s. I’m gonna, I’m gonna actually come to the funding part in just a bit, but I think it’s an elephant in the room in the crypto space or in the ecosystem? Because whichever ecosystem you’re in, you think that’s the ecosystem, right? But one of the questions that one has to really ask is that yes, a I was spoken about at Davos a lot at the promenade and in forums, but was Blockchain actually spoken about or is it just the feeling of the Blockchain and crypto community that it was part of the hype cycle? Uh No, I think Blockchain was spoken about also at the, at the, at the traditional conference in the, in the, in the exhibition center. So not only at the crypto hub. So there, I think there were like 34 crypto hubs plus side events. Uh But I think now we’re past that educational uh side. I think it’s clear the values are clear uh for the real world businesses and governments. Uh So we’re now actually talking about concrete use cases and uh not so much about the technology itself and there was a I and Blockchain together. Was there a conversation about them using and helping each other? Um Not, not that much right now. I think we’re still to come to that point. But uh there was a lot of uh state interests like at our hub only. We met with uh El Salvador Liechtenstein who both showed interest in having actual concrete um use cases built. We, we announced like five different partnerships throughout the whole week with some UN initiatives and uh I’m going to come to that, I’m going to come to that. Let’s just go back to funding for a minute because recent crunch based data has noted that we three start up funding fell drastically in 2023 slump about 74% from year to year. However, the report does note as a rider that funding is still down across the board. So it’s not just about Web three in your opinion, going forward. What really needs to happen in the web three space this year to continue to perhaps or or get that funding that is perhaps lost. Uh Yeah, I think it was the toughest year, uh 2023 2022. Uh but I’m very positive about uh t this year uh with the hope of the lowering interest rates. Uh I think we’re pretty correlated now at this stage. So Bitcoin price will be driven by uh lower interest rates and uh and more capital inflow overall into the riskier aspects, uh riskier stocks and um and uh yeah, I think we’ll see a huge price surge and also funding towards the other start ups that are still that are only starting at that tree space. OK. So, so let’s now get back to what you were talking about your partnerships that you struck. But this year, which is a lay one Blockchain oriented around multiparty computation and Zero Knowledge Proofs introduced a custody product at Davos uh why release this now? And what are the use cases? So that was uh one of the products in-house products we announced among other partnerships. So, I mean part is offering multiparty computation uh which can be used for different general purpose um use cases. Uh Mainly it’s known right now for the secret uh key uh private key distribution. But uh we have introduced it to different use cases and it’s a step forward from serial knowledge proofs, uh which is, which is a great first step towards privacy because blockchains are completely public uh transparent and this doesn’t uh protect the actual um confidential data if we have, if we are to deal with the verifiable credentials, which is a hot topic. Now, uh self sober identity, uh then we need to have some kind of uh privacy features uh in place which Betis is uh offering in a regulatory friendly and compliant way. Can you talk more about how it’s regulatory friendly? Uh So the priva uh I mean for is offering technology which enables to share secrets and share confidential data and put it into work and process it without revealing and exposing it. So you could uh get new insights from that data. Uh Competitors can work together research companies and uh and uh universities and it opens so much wide variety of use cases. But at the same time, the, so for example, we’re working with the Swiss government initiative together with two universities where Swiss digital identity is being decentralized and it’s also uh exclusively built on part chain. Um So that empowers the individuals again, giving back the control and governance uh over the use of their private data. And I think it is Switzerland overall is uh is um benchmark and role model and for and adopting new technologies and uh also the government stable coins. Uh We’re going to see soon uh live. So I think they’re true leaders in that space. Yeah. No, we’re coming to uh Switzerland. Uh We’d also like to uh just mention to our viewers that you’re originally from Estonia. Um And, but currently live in Zoo, you mentioned that Switzerland uh which is the birthplace of Ethereum and was the number one spot actually on coin de crypto hubs 2023 ranking. Uh So you talked a little bit about how Switzerland is, is just a leader in this space. But if you had to think about Europe to zoom out a little bit, uh how do you think about Europe’s approach to this industry, differing from other regions and particularly in the, in the light of the fact that you just were at Davos with upcoming MICA regulation, the Europe uh is trying to adopt uh more universal standards and it’s important to have standards um in order to get this technology adopted in masses. Um Currently, it’s still quite siloed and the regulations like whenever it’s getting more strict in certain jurisdiction projects tend to move away under another jurisdiction and then like kind of escape the jurisdiction until, until like they are at the roadblock. So uh I think we need to have uh universal regulations and, and there has been discussion that Mica might be also suitable for other areas outside Europe, uh like us even and it will, it will be one of the strongest uh regulations and most in depth and comprehensive ones to adopt. Um And uh I guess the thing is that we’ll have to wait and see also and, and, and that’s the, that’s the issue like how it all gets implemented because we’ll probably get a better idea of, of uh Mika make a 2025 1 final. I mean, it expected to be implemented throughout this year or next 18 months all over Europe. Yeah, so just one final question. Um It’s been a buzzing topic uh in crypto over the last few, several weeks after the spot Bitcoin ETF approvals in the US earlier this month. Uh Do you think uh that tr fire views on crypto are changing? Just remembering the fact that, you know, an entity as powerful as Black rock uh was one of the few who jumped on the crypto or spot Bitcoin ETF bandwagon. So has traditional finance actually changed its views on crypto or is it changing? No, definitely, I see a huge change in the whole sentiment and they’re not just approaching the ETF, they’re actually running mining mining operations themselves. So I think it gives a huge confidence in the overall crypto market. And uh and uh yeah, we might see even an ETF for uh Ethereum. Uh so it’s, it’s going to be exciting and of course, it was anticipated to have some kind of uh price movement um at the, at the approval. But um but I think it’s, it’s coming over the next month and uh we’re all excited in the vector space. All right. Uh Well, that’s it. Uh Shirley. Uh You answered several questions. Uh Davos, Estonia, Switzerland, ETF Europe. Uh That’s been great. Uh Good luck to you and Patricia, the Blockchain, uh lay one company. Uh Thanks so much for taking the time out to join us.