Smartlands Platform at Blockchain World Solutions 2018 in Barcelona: Meetings, Thoughts, the Wrap-Up

The two closely neighboring events – IoT World Congress and Blockchain World Solutions are held this week in Barcelona, Spain. For three days, from October 16th to 18th, the Gran Via Exhibition Centre hosted top companies and startup that couldn’t pass on a chance to showcase their excellent wares at one of the most representative industrial forums on the planet. The Smartlands Platform was right there in the thick of things welcoming countless blockchain enthusiasts eager to educate themselves on asset tokenization on Stellar, pick Arnoldas Nauseda’s brain on the future of security tokens and grab a brochure.

Long story short, we’ve done a lot in Barcelona. Countless walk-ins aside, many of our meetings are bound to produce tangible results. And, even though the most valuable interactions came late in the game, at the end of day two during the networking event at the mesmerizing El Nacional restaurant, what went on in daytime was by all means invaluable for the entire Smartlands community.

At the time of press (the morning of day three) the Smartlands Platform CEO Arnoldas Nauseda is getting ready for his speaking engagement at 10:30, so we have time to reflect on some of the most important meetings we’ve had. Naturally, the early bump into our longtime friend Malcolm Tan of Gravitas Holdings, one of the key speakers, in the hall during the registration had to have a follow-up. The proper meeting took place later in the day, lots were discussed, particularly, the role of VCs in the imminent asset tokenization on a mass scale.

Ronnie Boesing, the CEO of OpenLedger gave us his detailed views on the current event in the world of ICOs, thorough market analysis and his take on asset tokenization. The takeaway: of all that the blockchain technology has to offer, the conversion of property rights into a digital token is, perhaps, one of the most promising applications. The tech is here; the legal framework is formulated, we’re excited!

Jonathan Stolk, the CEO of Capptions, sat down with Arnoldas to discuss some of the most outstanding innovation that’s happening in the world of PaaS and how a platform-as-a-service app that supports customer process- and data-management can be of help to the future renters and tenants of a tokenized real estate asset. Essentially, digitizing any business process with Capptions will continuously improve all the required compliance and put any and all tenants’ concerns at ease.

Asset tokenization via the issuance of security tokens has proven to be a major hit in Barcelona, although, it must be said that space is still under the ICO spell. We’ve had several meetings with various utility token organizations – all chirpy and confident about the bright future of plugging your hard-earned cash into casino chips without even bothering to research the tech behind the token. The takeaway here is the one still has to be extremely careful before investing in ICOs. Amazingly. Even after the rapid emergence of the security token, many issuers prefer the “token first, value later” approach.