Our Episodes
Season 3
Elitsa Taskova is a Product Owner at Nexo. She has been part of the company’s engineering team since the very onset as she joined in 2019.
Elitsa is the driving force behind launching Nexo’s flagship Earn Crypto Interest product, the instant Nexo Exchange, and most recently the non-custodial Nexo Wallet.
In this exclusive episode with her, we discuss how Nexo is actively taking part in shaping the future of Web 3 and has been establishing itself as a leader and trendsetter in the market in the past years.
In this update-episode we reconnect with the Co-founder & CEO of Personal.ai, Suman Kanuganti to talk about the launch of Personal AI 2.0 and what has changed since we last interviewed him in the summer of 2022.
In this episode, Stella Friaisse, Dimitar Stoychev and Steven Claeys speak about their favourite crypto memes, address Logan Paul’s latest crypto scam, discuss the dangers of the metaverse and touch on the topic of NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.
For the 2nd episode of the third season of The Blockchain Practitioners podcast our colleague Stella Friaisse talks to Emre Bilgutay about blockchain adoption and the role of Gen Z in the industry as well as his journey and what Crypto Executives is all about.
Stella Friaisse, Dimitar Stoychev and Steven Claeys discuss news and plans in this dynamic episode to start the new season.
To kick off the third season of our podcast we held a digital meeting where we discussed the recent events in the crypto-verse en blockchain industry as well as provide our listeners with some exciting announcements and a bit of a road map for the coming season!
Season 2
For the 7th episode of the second season of The Blockchain Practitioners podcast our colleague Alexandros Ntolgkov CBX® talks to Eric Gilbert-Williams about #CityDAO. A #Decentralised Autonomous Organization which is building a city without a leader in Wyoming #United #States.
In todays episode Steven Claeys dives into on-chain game mechanics and the use of knowledge graphs together with Neeraj Kashyap, the CEO of Moonstream.
Neeraj Kashyap has been a blockhead since 2015 with a focus on building software for interconnectivity between blockchains as well as to centralized services. Come with us on a journey that takes us across the globe and dives into one of the hottest topics in blockchain.
This time, Stella talks with Alexandre Hardouin about how #web3 and the metaverse will completely disrupt the world.
Alexandre is a former tech investment banker and a serial entrepreneur. In this episode, he will answer all our questions regarding the metaverse including our concerns regarding the astronomical prices of the lands or the eternal debate “Metaverse VS IRL”.
Suman Kanuganti has an MBA in Entrepreneurship at the University of California Rady school of management, was the Founder of Aira, which develops augmented reality applications to help blind people. He is the current Founder & CEO of Personal AI, an AI startup that is building technology to create a digital version of your mind.
In this episode we talk about what a personal ai looks like and how it operates as well as why blockchain technology is key, not only for data ownership and protection but also for monetization and community growth.
Christophe de Beukelaer, Member of the Belgian Parliament & Entrepreneur who started accepting his salary in Bitcoin recently.
Christophe’s is a Belgian politician who was the Alderman of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre for 6 years before moving to the Belgian Parliament. Christophe’s priorities and interests range from intelligent ecology, entrepreneurship & innovation. Christophe is also organising the annual Brussels Blockchain Week conference together with Raoul Ullens. Christophe is convinced that Blockchain will unleash a revolution of the same magnitude as did the internet 30 years ago, especially for sectors such as finance, insurance and management which will be turned upside down.
Federico is the Head of Innovation in the WFP Kenya country office.
The UNWFP has an accelerator developing several innovative projects. One of those projects is the Building Blocks project, which is the world’s largest implementation of blockchain technology for humanitarian assistance; currently assisting 1 million people in Bangladesh and Jordan. Many other projects and innovations are being developed with the goal of solving world hunger.
Federico is a start-up enthusiast with over a decade of professional experience in management, entrepreneurship and innovation. He joined WFP six years ago and since then, has been fully dedicated to leveraging innovation and technology to positively impact the humanitarian sector. Federico has a proven track record of successful implementations of innovations in 12 different country offices including three L3 emergencies: South Sudan, DR Congo and Afghanistan.
Federico is the Head of Innovation in the WFP Kenya country office.
The UNWFP has an accelerator developing several innovative projects. One of those projects is the Building Blocks project, which is the world’s largest implementation of blockchain technology for humanitarian assistance; currently assisting 1 million people in Bangladesh and Jordan. Many other projects and innovations are being developed with the goal of solving world hunger.
Federico is a start-up enthusiast with over a decade of professional experience in management, entrepreneurship and innovation. He joined WFP six years ago and since then, has been fully dedicated to leveraging innovation and technology to positively impact the humanitarian sector. Federico has a proven track record of successful implementations of innovations in 12 different country offices including three L3 emergencies: South Sudan, DR Congo and Afghanistan.
We are thrilled to present you the first episode of our second season featuring Petter Ikekhua from Chainalysis with whom we’ll talk about financial crimes and investigation.
Chainalysis helps government agencies, crypto businesses and financial institutions stay compliant with AML regulations. Their data powers investigation and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases.
Petter is a professional with 9 years of experience in Digital Assets and 5 years of professional experience in the blockchain industry helping businesses adopt blockchain technologies with a focus on permissionless, openness, and transparency.
Season 1
Episode #14 - DeFi & Traditional Finance with Morgan Deane of Baader Helvea
Morgan Deane is the CEO of Swiss-based investment bank, Baader Helvea. Originally, an international lawyer, he has worked with some of the world’s most prominent financial institutions throughout his career.
He is an advisor, mentor and angel investor in early-stage companies focusing on blockchain and cryptocurrency-related ventures in his private capacity.
He also provides strategic advice to brands seeking to enter the Metaverse and advises Governments & International Organizations on Blockchain related projects.
He is a member of the Forbes Finance Council, a regular speaker & author, and a thought leader in disruptive technologies and innovation.
Links of the projects Morgan is involved in and we discuss in the episode:
N-chain link: www.nChain.com
Digital Village link: www.digitalvillage.io
Episode #13 - Intellectual property & women empowerment
This is part 2 of the interview with Violetta Shishkina, a serial entrepreneur, who recently figured in the list of the top 100 European most influential women in the startup and VC space (EU-Startups magazine). In this episode, we talk with Violetta about her non-profit project Fe/male Switch – a simulator game that puts women in a virtual startup village, where they can experience startup life and get hands-on experience. We discuss the game, the benefits of participating in it and the road to creating this project.
Click here to donate to Fe/male Switch nonprofit
Episode #12 - Intellectual property & women empowerment
Violetta is a serial entrepreneur. She is currently leading several startups and projects including CADChain and Fe/male Switch. In this episode, we will be talking about the various challenges and opportunities in the field of Intellectual property protection for blockchain. We will also talk about her social impact project which is an innovative simulation game aiming to bring more women into tech startups.
Violetta Shishkina on LinkedIn
Click here to donate to Fe/male Switch nonprofit
Episode #11 - Preparing for the token economy
Yip designs Blockchain & Crypto Learning, Mentoring & Coaching Programs. 15 years expertise in desigining peer to peer or centralized training programs / curriculum, and designing transformation programs for self- and organizational development.
Enroll in any of Yip’s educational programs:
–Unit masters: 6-week learning program
–DLT Talents: 18-week training and educational program (women only)
–DeFi Program: 18-week training for Decentralized Finance
Thy-Deip (“Yip”) Ta on Linkedin
Episode #10 - Bitcoin & Digital Nomad life
Leon is a passionate Bitcoiner. Over the past 6 years, he has been leading several initiatives aiming to observe and support the Bitcoin Revolution. Among those initiatives: Bitcoin Club Malta, MoonZebra and more recently Bitcoin News, a project to give a voice to small projects and bring underground news to light.
As a digital nomad, Leon has been able to travel and witness with his own eyes the adoption of Bitcoin in various countries including El Salvador.
Leon Siegmund on LinkedIn
Episode #9 - Central Bank Digital Currency
In this episode Alexandros Ntolgkov talks to Manuel Klein Product Manager – Blockchain Solutions at Deutsche Bank. Manuel has been working on how the existing monetary system works and what alternative monetary systems might develop in the future since 2014.
Manuel works on the third industrial revolution and on the decentralization of the economy. Manuel is convinced that digitization and the internet of value, energy and mobility will change our economy and society dramatically. This is why he contributes to the disruptive power of digitization not only in the monetary -and financial system but in all industries to make the economy more efficient and sustainable.
Manuel Klein on LinkedIn
Episode #8 - Privacy and marketing
Michiel is a qualified business lawyer with a Master of Law from the University of Antwerp. He got a Master’s degree in intellectual property law at the University of Bern in Switzerland on an Erasmus scholarship (2012) and as a Fulbright scholar, he pursued an LL.M at the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia. Michiel is working as legal counsel and Technology lawyer for Cisco Belgium and Luxembourg, providing commercial legal advice and negotiating contracts with Cisco partners and customers. He is also a Co-founder and General Counsel for a blockchain project called Profila, and will give us insight into this platform of new era data sharing, communication and digital marketing that is empowering people to take control of their personal data & get compensated for granting access to it.
Michiel Van Roey on LinkedIn
Episode #7 - Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)
Daniel Du Seuil is a convenor at the European Self-Sovereign Identity Framework at the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure (also known as EBSI).
Daniel is operating both as a project manager for digital transformation and as convenor at the EBSI. The EBSI is a part of the European Blockchain Partnership, which gathers different European public sector administration services seeking to implement blockchain to collaborate more efficiently together. Daniel has previously been working on a national level with the Belgian government on blockchain program management before getting involved on a European level and becoming a member of the expert panel of the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum. Daniel is working actively on using blockchain in the field of Self Sovereign Identity (or SSI) and in this episode, he will give us insight on what SSI is and how it could be a game changer for citizens, governments and companies.
Daniel Du Seuil on LinkedIn
Episode #6 - Non-Fungible Tokens
Alena Afanaseva is the CEO of BeInCrypto, one of the leading news companies specializing in blockchain and digital currencies.
Alena is the CEO and co-founder of BeInCrypto and guest lecturer on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. As a well-known Russian Financial Analyst in the past and a former Managing Editor of ‘Currency Speculator’ Magazine, Alena is knowledgeable on all topics related to macroeconomics, monetary policy, fundamental analysis of financial assets (both crypto and traditional), the future of blockchain and the current state of crypto regulation in Eastern Europe and Middle Eastern countries. Furthermore; Alena’s background allows her to share the experience and perception of online news media business and the strategies behind building a world-known multi-language crypto news outlet.
Alena Afanaseva on LinkedIn
Episode #5 - Revolutionary change in the Financial industry
Lars Schlichting, a FinTech and LegalTech expert and Partner at the prestigious Swiss Business Law Firm Kellerhals Carrard. In addition, he is the Co-head of the Southern Alps Chapter of Crypto Valley Association, founding member of Ticino Blockchain Technologies Association and member of the advisory board of Swiss LegalTech Association. He is also a board member and Co-founder of Ibx.ch, one of the first exchanges in Switzerland to offer institutional clients an exchange for fiat currency vs crypto.
We talk about blockchain integration in finance and business today as well as in the future with one of the leading experts in this field as Lars has vast experience in leading the digitization process in the financial industry!
Lars Schlichting on LinkedIn
Episode #4 - How Ericsson uses Blockchain as an advantage
In our fourth episode of the Blockchain Practitioners Podcast Alexandros talks to Giovanni Franzese about how the company he is part of, Ericsson is using Blockchain as an advantage and the benefits and ROI that they see in their investment as well as his own own journey into digital currencies and blockchain.
Giovanni is the Head of Blockchain Business Development CIO Ericsson and has vast experience in international business and technology. Giovanni has been in the space as early as 2010 when the technology was practically unknown!
Giovanni Franzese on LinkedIn
Episode #3 - Implementing KYC & GDPR with blockchain
Randa al-Rifai is a seasoned professional in the Lebanese Banking industry. The first certified Middle Eastern woman in Digital Currencies and Blockchain. Leader of Lebanese Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain community (BBB Labs). Ambassador of IFF (Institute for the Future) – University of Nicosia MSc Student of Digital Currency and Blockchain at University of Nicosia Keynote Speaker & Instructor.
Randa Rifai on LinkedIn
Episode #2 - Blockchain & Healthcare
Georgina was one of the first people in the world to gain a Master’s in Blockchain with distinction. Prior to co-founding Dcentric Health she spent 10 years working in international businesses in London and Cyprus as an auditor, including PwC and Deloitte. She gained her Certified Accountant qualification and built successful online education platforms.
Thanks to her extensive research into medical records and blockchain, she has been published in prestigious publications such as the Lancet, and has delivered keynote speeches across the world.
The My Aria website
Georgina Kyriakoudes on LinkedIn
Episode #1 - Cold Wallets
Ruben Merre is co-founder and CEO of NGRAVE, a blockchain technology company on a mission to empower individuals and businesses to take seamless and secure ownership and control of their digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Under the tagline #OwnYourAssets, NGRAVE offers a fully integrated solution consisting of a new generation of hardware wallet – “The Coldest Wallet”, a cold back-up, and a plug and play interface for online solutions such as exchanges and software wallets.
Ruben is a repeat entrepreneur who launched his first business when he was eight years old, followed by later on in his career establishing the first automated investment platform in his home country and leveraging a fluency in six languages to scale it internationally. Ruben is a lifelong learner, obtaining multiple postgraduate degrees in parallel to his professional life as a strategy & management consultant, and entrepreneur. He also successfully completed Oxford University’s Blockchain Strategy Program. Ruben was also named a Belgium’s Forbes 40 under 40 in 2021.
NGRAVE Wallet link
Ruben Merre on LinkedIn
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