Ben T. Smith IV, a longtime Silicon Valley executive and currently head of the Communications, Media and Technology practice at Kearney, speaks to Global Finance about the post-SVB venture capital industry and the pace of innovation.
Many of the world's richest countries are also the world's smallest: the pandemic and the global economic slowdown barely made a dent in their huge wealth.
Global Finance editor Andrea Fiano interviews Ásgeir Jónsson, Central Bank Governor of Iceland during Global Finance's World's Best Bank Awards at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on October 15th.
Freedium, a Swiss company that is setting up at the Dubai Multi Commodities Center, plans to introduce the first stable digital currency backed by commodities and tracking the dollar. Freedium is expected to issue its first coin (the Freedium) by the end of this year and will provide financing to commodity owners in emerging markets.
“Mobile and smart phones have allowed these countries to get connected with the rest of the world and access the global information superhighway,” says Keba Keinde, co-founder and chairman of Freedium. “Now, blockchain technology can enable emerging and developing countries to efficiently transact with other nations and access global financial markets.”
The company said in a release that it “set out to develop a solution based on blockchain technology to unleash emerging and developing countries from constraints such as limited access to financing, foreign exchange scarcity, volatile currencies and limited access to banking services.”
“Our mission,” explains Aaron Dutta, a former global head of blockchain at IBM, now acting as Freedium’s chief strategy officer, “is to facilitate the seamless exchange of value between developed and emerging market trading entities in a trusted business environment.” Dutta is chairman of blockchain technology firm VAPHR.