This blog series started out as a weekly newsletter for people interested in news from Ireland as well as upcoming local events where you will be welcome to come and learn about Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. During 2018 I had a lot of time to produce this newsletter but I am finding less and less time these days due to commitments and life priorities, but it does seem like a good moment to resurrect it as there is a lot of interest at the moment. I am recently having more and more conversations with family and friends, Crypto is hitting the news very often.

Let me know your thoughts on this newsletter, what you would like to see and if anyone would like to be a contributor please reach out. I would love #hive to be the go to place for people entering the Crypto Space in #Ireland.

What is happening on the Irish Blockchain scene?

This week I will bring you an update from a Meetup I attended this morning.

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Blockchain Ireland Monthly Meetup

Blockchain Ireland is an expert group of industry leaders focused on the promotion of blockchain technology in Ireland. https://www.blockchainireland.ie/

I was very active attending meetups back in 2018 but since then this group has formed. I have been a member of their meetup group for a while but I don't remember being at a meetup in the past.

They have an interesting mandate

• Blockchain Ireland aims to bring together Industry, Academia and state agencies to establish Ireland as a blockchain hub.

They have monthly meetups and provide a regular newsletter. This morning they had their October Meetup Virtually on Zoom.

DEFI (Decentralised Finance)

There was a big Focus on Defi at the meetup. It's been a while since I have been at a meetup and this seems like a big shift from the ones I attended in hotels and the Deloitte offices in 2018 which were much more focused on innovation. Defi is now center stage and the conversation is all about regulation and KYC, i.e. brining Crypto mainstream.

There were speakers there from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) and a startup called "Based" (https://based.global) which describes itself as a Digital Assets Business.

CBI

The speakers from the CBI were Steuart Alexander and Michelle Guiney

I missed the beginning but they talked about VASP and MICA regulations which I hadn't come across before.
• https://centralbank.ie/.../virtual-asset-service-providers
• https://www.centralbank.ie/.../blog-digital-money

They also mentioned NFTs & Security Tokens are not regulated at moment + no clear guidance but it is being discussed.

It's interesting that the CBI now has papers on their website covering Cyrypto Assets. This is progress since 2018!

Based.global

This is a trading firm for digital currencies, based out of Ireland. If you want to invest they will provide the onramp, brokerage and research you need to manage your assets.
Interestingly they stay away from Security Tokens & NFTs and only trade utility tokens. They focus on KYC, they meet investors and understand their requirements and were upfront about not providing anonymity.
Based is the face of Defi in 2021, and honestly doesnt seem that different than traditional finance. I can see the appeal for investors who feel uncomfortable in this new world. It looks the same, sounds the same, same lingo and an easy start to adding Crypto to your investment portfolio with a company like Based.

• An interesting point they made was that they found it difficult to find a banking institution to take them on and had to go to Eastern Europe initially but have since found a UK bank.

As always please add comments to this post with any upcoming events or developments that you think may be of interest to readers.

Previous Issues

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https://hive.blog/ireland/@eroche/crypto-in-ireland-issue-15

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