International Tech Summit coming to Bermuda on March 7, 2022

0:00i'm ashton addison from block west capital for investmentpitch media and the Crypto Coin Show and today on blockchain interviews we have sean stapley partner at penrose partners sean welcome to the show and thank you so much for taking the time ashton thanks for having me it's pleasure to be here likewise let's dive straight into it penrose has been working in the

0:20blockchain space for quite a while you guys are great curators of events and community community based events as well and i've been following and worked with people at penrose i know you guys are doing some really great stuff and i know that in the near future here we have the international tech summit that penrose is helping host in bermuda and that's

0:43what i want to focus this discussion around i would love for you to kick it off by just talking a little bit about about penrose and about the international tech summit and what makes it so great and why did you guys decide to put it on great questions thanks for having me man and really for us you know to start things off penrose partners has been

1:01around for quite a few years in the space now myself and my co-founders met while working at previous firms so we've all been working in this space for quite a few years for us really it's it's about education it's about adoption and it's about finding the right partners for long-term growth of the ecosystem and really for us that's you know doing as you mentioned building

1:20communities finding the right people bringing everyone together and often breaking down you know what are some of the common myths about the space so we can focus on actually building the future but you know what part of this and what we're excited about to be presenting you know here in beautiful bermuda is the third annual international tech summit and really for

1:38us this is you know the summit the goal really is to bring together leaders builders and enthusiasts from around the world and to explore the latest breakthroughs that we've seen both in digital assets in blockchain technology and in innovation as a whole and so as i mentioned you know the conference really is to bring together both for those that are attending in person and flying to

1:58the island but also for those around the world that are hoping to tune in virtually and so we're going to be kicking off on march 7th going through the full week we have an education day in partnership with the bermuda government that will be launched on march 8th the tuesday where we'll be presenting everything from blockchain 101 how to get involved in the industry

2:18Some of our education partners and being able to board with different hackathon groups as well but then the real main event that we're kicking off is going to be march 9th and that's our full conference day and so that's really as you know looking at our third year running we're working in partnership as i mentioned with the bermuda government with the canadian consulate of new york

2:36But we're also proud to say that this year we have our sponsors algorand which many of your listeners are familiar with but also with three iq corp who's the canadian investment manager that launched the world's first publicly traded bitcoin fund and so for us you know i think a big change for us is really wanting to dive into what are some of the most pressing issues here

2:55but really throughout the day we're going to be having a bunch of different panels bringing in our partners and speakers from around the world and just to dive into you know what is blockchain all about how can we bring this together and what comes next but after the wednesday and we can dive a little bit into some of the topics we'll be doing as well a climate and

3:12sustainability day on the thursday of the week march 10th and so that'll be diving a little bit more into regional climate goals some of the ways that we're doing carbon neutral chains but also looking to explore where is the overlap between things like renewable energy and blockchain and finally wrapping the week up as well doing a pitch contest on the friday where we're

3:32letting startups from around the world pitch to a panel of investors and judges to really show them what they've got and why they should be the next big thing so happy to dive in really anywhere but we're stoked to be doing this for the third year running penrose has been doing this for quite a few years here and each year it just gets bigger and better

3:51incredible sean thank you for that intro and yeah a lot to cover there some very interesting guests and attendees and sponsors of the show that have been on the show sorry that you mentioned there al goran we've spoken to a great project that i have huge hopes for and three iq as well making great strides in canada to get more access for traditional investors to

4:14exposure to digital assets in bitcoin and you mentioned the bermudian government and the canadian consulate i feel like these guests are going to make the event super special you know i feel like it's going to be a different kind of event than you would normally see at like bitcoin miami or something like that where people are there to maybe more

4:33degens talking about nfts and like degenerate defy you know early stage projects so how do you think the guests and the sponsors that you have at this event is going to sort of cater the discussion i know you mentioned you know climate and the and like hackathons and pitch contests i think that's all great but there's so many topics to cover even

4:57in a week or you know half a week of full day conferences with these special guests what do you think are sort of the main talking points that these parties are going to want to make sure that they cover at the international tech summit of course and really for us you know we've got a full list of topics you can view on our website internationaltechsummit.com

5:18but really for us you know we wanted to talk about some of the most pressing areas and you know everyone's had different ideas of what's important but really for us that comes down to a couple of different parts first and foremost we really want to focus on digital adoption really trying to understand you know what comes next and when we see you know waves of retail

5:36getting involved we're seeing discussions around last year obviously with el salvador holding launching their bitcoin network being able to include different national governments and institutions we're finally seeing this wave of involvement from people that traditionally have looked at the space and seen it as perhaps some of those kids playing around with their magic internet money

5:55and now we're seeing this as a full-scale growth of the ecosystem around the world we're seeing adoption from everyone from kids getting involved with bitcoin in the early days and developing their own decentralized apps all the way to institutions that are actually buying into and getting bitcoin and ethereum on their treasures but we also want to look at things like

6:15decentralized finance how people are keeping their crypto safe looking a bit at the custody angle but also from us it's understanding what comes next and i think for us you know we also want to dive a little bit in and this is where we actually have one of our panels that will be led by barry finkelstein from our end itself and so we want to dive

6:33into from a perspective of privacy identity and payments and what happens you know with everyone always talking about bitcoin being completely open and transparent there's some questions that come up around the privacy angle and what your identity means in a decentralized world so there's a lot of different topics like this that we do want to talk about

6:52but of course one of the big themes that we always want to bring it back to as well is sustainability you know how can this technology be applied to combat climate change how can we address some of the common myths around bitcoin's energy usage but how also can we talk around getting more people involved and that's really also a big part of it is just saying

7:10if you are interested if you want to get involved if you have an inkling that this might be something that drives you and you're passionate about how can you get in up and running and for us it'll be introducing a lot of our and partisan attendees to different partners that may end up hiring them but also it'll be to be providing resources out to the world and really to be able

7:29to get an easy way of saying from blockchain zero to hero what comes next and so for us i think a lot of it's just you know discussing these topics getting the conversations going and seeing what comes next for the world great point sean and i like that you mentioned the digital identity there i think that's really important and sometimes people forget about that and i

7:50know you know governments around the world are looking at that and considering you know is this right when is this right how do we integrate this and make our technology and our government more innovative and you mentioned working with the bermuda government at in bermuda at the with the conference and also the canadian consulate as well which is super interesting i'm curious

8:10if there's any more insights into you know why bermuda i feel like it's quite far away from canada but it probably plays an important role maybe you can touch a little bit on that it does and for a couple of reasons first and foremost i'm actually bermudian i've spent about 10 years living up in canada now so it's good to be a citizen of both places but

8:31really for us bermuda makes an awful lot of sense because they've positioned themselves to be the premier blockchain jurisdiction of the world for us the international business community here has been thriving for about 50 or so years there's a massive insurance presence here and the talent that you can run into from walking from here down to our local coffee shop is incredible

8:51and really for us that coincides really nicely with premier bert's vision of a digital currency standard and to look at how essentially bermuda can position itself to bring in companies from around the world we've seen some of the ones around that have set themselves up here include circle the stable coin issue are responsible for usdc we've had bittrex a leading global

9:12exchange and more recently we've seen block 5 position themselves as a bermudian institution because of the way that they recognize this as a jurisdiction that is able to have conversations between regulators governments and the builders in order to find what's the best way to meet in the middle and look at this as an innovation not a danger to the world and so for us

9:32bermuda's really been the place to be both because we've had amazing support from the government and from the private sector but also because of the fact that as a place for international companies to set up both large enterprises like the ones i mentioned and for digital asset startups this is the place to be i'm calling in today as well from inno fund incubator one of our partners here

9:53that we're working with in order to help drive digital asset businesses to the island and be able to provide them essentially a landing pad for all fintech firms and for us it's all of these things come together to say bermuda's the place to be not only because of the amazing weather that we have here year-round but also just because from a business perspective from

10:11the regulatory perspective and also just from the talent that you can find here it really is the perfect place to set yourself up incredible sean i did not know that circle bittrex and some of these large crypto companies are already there in bermuda and that really there's something there i think a lot of the crypto companies and startups that are

10:33watching the show should definitely consider learning more about that and there's definitely something to that and i know you mentioned at the beginning you don't actually have to go to the conference to see the talks and to interact it's also possible to attend virtually to learn more and you mentioned the schedules on the website so are you interested in

10:55anybody to come and attend virtually and interact or are you looking specifically for these crypto companies and people that are interested in their bermudian area it really can be anyone if you're interested in blockchain the conference is for you and frankly even if you're you're a little bit skeptical if you're not certain about if this is the future

11:13or not it's also the place to be we are not just one of the ones that are going to hype up this is the magic sauce the magic solution to everything i think for us we look at blockchain and the associated technologies as a tool that can be applied to many industries there's reasons that the insurance industry is looking into this international business

11:31is interested in blockchain and it's not just from the financial perspective and so really from us you know we're hoping to bring to like the opportunities that do exist not only for those that are working in the financial space but also for anyone that's looking to dip their toes into the industry to meet potential partners to meet potential employers but

11:48also for us really to be able to bring together different viewpoints from around the world and as you said a lot of this will be virtual so many of our speakers will be tuning in from around the world because they may not be able to physically be here but to give you an idea of some of the ones we're excited to hear from we do have premier bert of bermuda that will be speaking with us

12:06he'll be speaking as well not only with hawar nasim from the canadian consulate but also we'll be doing a fireside chat with steve coquinos the ceo of alvarend which will actually be moderated by mike mcglone from bloomberg and so among them we also do have fred pie of three iq but we're also excited to hear from different partners of ours around the

12:25world like sandra rowe who's the ceo of the global business blockchain council and garrett heilman who's the head of research at blockchain.com and so for us it's we've assembled you know a variety of voices that are you know very pro blockchain but being able to bring in different perspectives which i think is really the part that we want to focus on

12:43is you know everyone always focus you know it's a good day when the number goes up and you see bitcoin rising but for us we're talking about long-term adoption and that's why we've chosen the partners we have that's why we've positioned ourselves here and it's why we see ourselves doing so for many years to come very well said sean and for the people

13:01that are interested in attending virtually and putting it in their calendar to make sure they don't miss the talks what is the best way for them to get involved there absolutely the best place to be is internationaltechsummit.com and you'll be able to find all of the information about the conference the registration links and also access to all of our partners and other resources

13:21that might be of use just to get a little bit more knowledgeable about what's being built here and how you can get involved amazing thank you so much sean i will leave the website link for the virtual attendance in the description box below all the best with the conference coming up very soon here and with everything surrounding it really does sound like

13:40a great experience and thank you for coming on the show all the best with everything at penrose and let's follow up in the near future looking forward to it thanks for having me ashton