The push to maintain Gibraltar’s drive as a blockchain hub continued last week in New York at Consensus 2019.
Consensus is the annual gathering of the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology world.
Since 2015, Consensus has attracted every major company, developer, founder and investor
in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world to engage in an annual discussion about the
future of the industry. Previous speakers reflect the richness and diversity of the Consensus
crowd, ranging from titans of Wall Street and rulers of the Fortune 500, to pioneering
cryptographers and the core developers who power the world’s most valuable
cryptocurrencies.
The event enables Gibraltar Finance to meet with firms already licensed in Gibraltar as well
as potential new firms interested in establishing themselves on the Rock. As a result, Minister Albert
Isola, Gibraltar’s Minister for Commerce, engaged with an array of firms and professionals in the sector as well as professional associations and attended a number of media engagements.
Minister Isola also delivered an address at Consensus entitled:“Build It and They Will Come:
Global Blockchain Hubs Deep Dive” which provided an opportunity to share with the
audience jurisdictional developments in Gibraltar in respect of our highly successful DLT
proposition.
Albert Isola commented,
“This is my second visit to Consensus, the leading conference for
this sector. I was delighted to, once again, be invited to speak to the international audience
that the event attracts and showcase the extent of our journey over the last 12 months. Since
our last visit, the first DLT Providers licences have been awarded together with several in
principle decisions, a major step forward over that period. We have a pipeline of excellent
new applications and I hope to be able to announce these shortly.”
David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Digital, recently in receipt of a DLT license in Gibraltar, also spoke in the
session on the merits of the Gibraltar legal framework.
Representatives from law firms Hassans, Isolas, PRT and Gibro Group were also at the
Conference as were most of Gibraltar’s licensed DLT firms.
Minister Isola also attended Digital Asset Summit (DAS), a conference that helps bridge the gap
between the legacy financial system and the nascent world of digital assets. DAS is designed
with financial market and investment professionals in mind. Familiar concepts such as market
infrastructure, trading and liquidity, and derivatives were discussed in the context of
distributed ledger technology and the emerging field of “decentralized finance”.
Accompanying Minister Isola on this visit were Michael Ashton and Paul Astengo, senior
executives with Gibraltar Finance.
