On March 21st, ZB were privileged to attend and participate in the AIBC Dubai summit. Romex Jha, our CEO International, moderated a discussion on the necessity of payment providers for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, in a fruitful debate with other key leaders in the cryptocurrency space.
Attendees Viktoria Soltesz of PSP Angels, Sunil Rajan of E.POP, Vytautas Karalevicius of SpectroCoin and Mohammad Khalifa of Garantex joined Romex in the early afternoon to discuss the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies across the world, and the role that payment providers will ultimately play in creating a world in which cryptocurrency is easily accessible.
Amongst the panelists, there was a broad consensus that there is definitely a potential for crypto to be adopted en masse, but the task involves far more moving parts than the industry is currently moving with. That being said, the conversation has moved forward considerably in a very short period of time, and if it continues to move at this speed it will be fascinating to see where the industry is in just a handful of years time.
The AIBC Event
AIBC Dubai was focused on all things DeFi and the digital world. Discussions about Blockchain gaming, social impact, online security in the digital age and brand presence on social media were all on the table, with the end goal of leaving visitors enriched with ideas and new perspectives about the direction of the industry. A particularly special guest was Akon, the founder of the Akoin and a key driver of development in Africa, a lot of which he is overseeing himself.
AIBC is not an event with just a Middle East audience — conventions are being held across the world, including in Toronto, Malta, Belgrade and Nairobi, throughout 2022 and into 2023. If this was to indicate anything, it would be that the conversations taking place in Dubai are in demand across the globe — which certainly bodes well for the future of the industry. The scale of the conversations is growing year upon year too, with the event becoming larger in scope.
The majority of AIBC attendees are from Europe, making up 62% of total delegates. 18% of attendees hail from the Middle East/Asia region, 11% from the Americas, and 9% from Africa. 47% of these are decision makers in their industry, demonstrating the gravitas of those attending the event. While, of course, it would be easy to interpret that Europe is leading the charge with influential decision makers shaping the digital age, with events like AIBC heading to every region listed, involvement from natives of those regions will undoubtedly begin to balance out as knowledge grows.
Our Reflections
The nature of crypto discussions has undoubtedly shifted. At one point in time, there were genuine questions raised about the perceived feasibility of cryptocurrency on a global scale — now, discussions are based on the many factors that are involved in making this happen. The nature of debate has matured, and whereas before the question was always ‘if’ this could happen, it is now ‘when’ and ‘how’. There is an assumption that crypto will reach the positions that people once used to be skeptical it could ever reach, and conversations are becoming very practical as a result.
Looking to the future, there is a plethora of opportunity available to crypto when considering where it will head to next. What its next turn in the market will be currently remains to be seen, as it continues on its exponential growth journey and hundreds of new cryptocurrencies enter the marketplace frequently. However, it will certainly need a breakthrough like those discussed at AIBC before it can consider itself running truly parallel with the existing financial institutions that operate on a mass scale.
With that said, one thing is for certain — a crypto-centric future is closer than it ever has been.
