Attendees to the BlockDown Croatia 2022 festival were witness to Cointelegraph’s discussions around sociopolitics of the Web3 ecosystem, nonfungible tokens (NFT) and the Metaverse. It turns out that ongoing innovations across the crypto ecosystem are well-positioned to dictate the future of media and entertainment. While crypto continues to blur the lines between the virtual and physical worlds, Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief, Kristina Cornèr, agreed that “It’s been a crazy year” when talking about the rising impact of crypto innovations within media companies during the BlockDown festival. Cornèr highlighted use cases within the NFT space that gives independent artists and journalists a platform …

After more than a year, the Cointelegraph-powered cryptocurrency conference BlockShow is returning — this time with an opportunity for participants to join as members of a decentralized autonomous organization. BlockShow DAO’s conference aims to allow attendees to own a stake in the show and participate in organizing events, whether they’re a large sponsor or someone joining for the first time. Organizers made the decision to turn the event into a DAO amid many conferences still struggling to handle the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We believe that only with a DAO can we create the biggest truly community-owned Web3 festival, …

Millennials, a generation beleaguered by student debt, low pay and a lack of savings, can rewrite their financial narratives using Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency according to a panel discussion at this year's BlockShow summit in Singapore. That was the key takeaway from the “Millennial investment trends — new wave of personal finance” panel featuring Aya Kantorovich of FalconX, Zac Prince of BlockFi and Grayscale’s Michael Sonnenshein. The panel delved into Millennials’ impact on the future of digital assets. During the discussion, Prince identified three major Bitcoin adoption trends that are inextricably linked to Millennials and younger investors: The ongoing wealth …

Investing app Acorns aims to help people grow their savings and wealth, but how does inherent market risk factor into the equation? CEO Noah Kerner gave his thoughts on that question at a recent BlockShow panel. "We send this message to our customers: that every downturn in history has ended in an upturn,” Kerner said on Wednesday. Following a particularly difficult period in the markets roughly two years ago, Acorns sent out the same sentiment. Acorns does not offer crypto trading, but Kerner's comments should be of interest to the industry. A chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a …

Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, will be fairly easy to convert into cryptocurrencies in the future, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes. Speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2020 on Dec. 9, Buterin said that he expects a lot of ways to exchange CBDCs to cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC) as well as other digital tokens: “There’s a question of how these central bank [digital] currencies are going to interact with both crypto and digital currencies more generally. There’s going to be more digital assets of many different kinds coming over the next few decades. I expect that there will be …

As internet banking comes of age, so too do new ways of stealing funds. That makes cybersecurity central to modern banking, according to David Leach, JPMorgan Chase’s Asia-Pacific head of cybersecurity and technology controls. "It’s a competitive disadvantage not to have a robust cybersecurity capability that you can demonstrate,” Leach said during a BlockShow conference panel on Tuesday. Before the internet took over, customers mainly asked about banking and financial entities’ services, not about their security, according to panel moderator, Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology. Zubairi also holds experience in the banking industry. Leach said …

Contrary to public perception, JPMorgan Chase has always been pro-blockchain, says the multinational investment bank's head of wholesale payments, Takis Georgakopoulos. In a live discussion with Nasdaq reporter Jill Malandrino at this year’s Blockshow in Singapore, Georgakopoulos said JPMorgan has always viewed the blockchain and crypto industry through three lenses: Bitcoin (BTC) and other non-fiat-based cryptocurrencies; fiat-based digital assets created by institutions and central banks; and blockchain technology. When questioned about whether JPMorgan is “softening its stance” on digital assets, Georgakopoulos clarified the bank had only softened its stance on Bitcoin, as it had only ever had reservations about non-fiat …

The public and private sectors should work closely together to bring about the future of money, according to a former leader of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Chris Giancarlo, a former CFTC chairman and initiator of a blockchain-based digital dollar project, joined the Singapore Fintech Festival 2020 to discuss the future of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. At a Tuesday panel called “Will CBDCs disrupt stablecoins?,” Giancarlo declared that the future of money depends on close government collaboration with the private sector. Addressing Iliana Oris Valiente’s question on the potential coexistence of the emerging rise of CBDCs …

Switzerland’s principal stock exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, and Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings have announced a joint cryptocurrency-related venture. At the Singapore Fintech Festival on Dec. 8, the firms' digital asset-related subsidiaries, SIX Digital Exchange and SBI Digital Asset Holdings, announced that they are launching a new platform in Singapore. The venture will target regulated institutional clients, implementing technologies and market expertise from both SBI and SIX. The platform will include a wide range of services like issuing, listing, trading, CSD infrastructure and custody of digital assets and cryptocurrencies, as well as regulated digital asset securities. The platform is expected …

Speaking during the Singapore Fintech Festival 2020 on Dec. 7, pioneering Bitcoin (BTC) investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss reaffirmed previous forecasts that Bitcoin’s price will eventually exceed prices of $500,000 per Bitcoin. The twins noted that their $500,000 prediction is predicated on the assumption that Bitcoin’s market cap will increase by 40 times to surpass gold’s roughly $9 trillion market cap in the future. Cameron pointed to the “tremendous amount of money-printing going on” in debt and fiat regimes, and concerns surrounding inflation as driving up demand for “hard assets” like gold and Bitcoin. Cameron states that Bitcoin offers significant …

Financial authorities in Europe could form an investigation plan for a digital euro as early as next year, according to an executive at the European Central Bank. Holger Neuhaus, head of market innovation and integration at the ECB, joined the Singapore FinTech Festival 2020 on Monday to discuss the global development of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. During the online discussion, Neuhaus claimed that the ECB expects European financial authorities to assess whether to launch a digital euro initiative by mid-2021: “In mid-2021, the euro system will consider whether to launch a digital euro project. But just to highlight, …

BlockShow has unveiled the speakers for the upcoming cryptocurrency-related event taking place in Singapore in December. As previously announced, the Singapore FinTech Festival, or SFF 2020, is organized in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country's major financial regulator and de facto central bank. The hybrid online and physical event will run from Dec. 7–11, 2020. The upcoming conference will broadcast panel discussions on two channels, the so-called “Green Shoots” and the “Global Channel.” As part of the Global Channel, SFF 2020 speakers will discuss a range of topics related to the future of money. The channel will …