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Opening Remarks - The dangers of complacency in the face of unprecedented opportunity
We live in exponential times, and the blockchain/cryptocurrency industry is itself one of the best examples of this. We have been given the tools to build anything and we cannot afford to copy the exact systems we set out to remake.
From the pace of chip development in the asic race, to the growth of capital moving into ICOs, to the development of technologies, frameworks and tools that build upon each other, we see example after example of innovation moving at record speed.
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Dr. Michael Gebert
12:00 - 12:15
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What is the real innovation made by crypto-currency exchanges? Strategic split and positioning of secondary-markets
Splintering of markets, with the first group being the new wave of institutional type clients. Exchanges serving these will aim to achieve full regulatory compliance in all jurisdictions of clients once the current uncertainty has cleared, assuming many of these customers may have no choice but to use them over ‘unregulated’ trading venues.
It may in the short term be difficult for these new ‘regulated’ exchanges to compete with existing liquidity pools. i.e. Many existing centralised exchanges usually do not have custody of their largest institutional client’s funds, and instead offer credit lines (since unlike the retail clients, there is no risk of these clients running away). These clients also can easily establish entities in offshore jurisdictions through which they already trade.
There will be additional uncertainty around allowing the trading of securities tokens and tokenised traditional asset classes, and with global customer bases, it is for the moment an impossible task unless focusing on just a small number of jurisdictions. Liquidity therefore is not likely to be high.
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Will Harborne
12:20 - 12:45
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Are ICOs the New “Gold Rush”? The Role of "Security Tokens" and What makes Them Successful
In 2017, the implied market capitalization of blockchain-based coins and tokens rose from $2.4 billion to $373 billion, excluding bitcoins. To fully put this into context, in the space of only one year, the value created would rank thirty-second as a country measured in GDP, and it would be considered the tenth most valuable corporation in the world.
At the root of this growth are two transformational effects that blockchain technology offers our understanding of existing business models: First, it enables radical new business models, such as "decentralized/ownerless" and "better than free," and, second, it replaces the need for trusted intermediaries.
Currently, crypto assets develop into an own small asset class with funds, analysts, index providers etc. - all known from traditional capital markets. This also includes the emergence of new crypto funds and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) to finance startups and small companies.
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Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner
12:50 - 13:10
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ICO Listing Sites as Gatekeepers - Do We Need a Centralised Platform to Announce ICOs?
How can one figure out which promising initial coin offerings are coming up? As an enormous number of token sales occur at the same time, it is difficult for an investor to keep track. Therefore, hundreds of ICO sales trackers, listing sites, calendars, and data aggregators have emerged over the last few months. These sites compile a calendar of token sales and are a important source of targeted traffic.
Nevertheless, based on data from more than 15 listing sites and 1,100 ICOs, this masterclass will show that listing sites are not a reliable source of information due to poor data quality, misaligned incentives and intransparent selection criteria. But how should ICOs be announced? Do we need a centralised and trustworthy platform?
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Daniel Blaseg
13:15 - 13:35
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ICO Pitching Session One - 5 Minutes - 5 ICOs - 5 Investments
Hear all about our selected ICOs and join us for a unique opportunity to hear from the founders about their projects and vision.
Each team will have
5 minutes of the main stage prime time to present their ICO, moderated and challenged by our
Master of Pitching Sessions:
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Michael Stanley Ricks
13:40 - 14:20
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Regulatory outlook for platforms – how far does the regulatory net reach?
MiFID II, the EU’s legal and regulatory regime for financial markets, has redrawn how a number of financial markets and participants engage with one another and casts an exceptionally wide regulatory net when it defines a “multilateral system’ means any system or facility in which multiple third-party buying and selling trading interests in financial instruments are able to interact in the system”.
Being caught within that net brings with it supervisory obligations and compliance costs, but also commercial opportunity and certainty. With the types of token and digital assets diversifying as well as the platforms upon which market participants can access them growing and specializing, this panel considers the outlook for platforms and what the impact of full regulation might mean for platforms, ICOs and the wider market as a whole.
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Michael Huertas
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Tobias Seidl
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Matthias Manke
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Will Harborne
14:25 - 14:45
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ICO 2.0 - State of Projects and Technologies for the German Mittelstand
The state of the projects and technologies in the crypto space exercises considerable influence in two distinct ways. One is the relative lack of “completed” or functioning projects amongst those having already completed token sales. This is neither surprising nor disappointing in itself, for projects take time to build. However, the reality of more than $14 billion having been raised with few projects actually completed and operating does represent a bit of headwind for the new projects looking to complete their own sales.
ICOs and the tokenisation movement have shown promising ways of solving these issues. However, utility tokenization is neither the right fit for most SMEs and Start-ups nor retail investors. Tokens will hence more and more embed security features as participation elements. Combining the financial system with what we have learned from ICOs will create a new investment ecosystem.
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Tobias Seidl
14:50 - 15:10
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Improvements: sketching ICO´s with DAICO enhancements
ICOs use various concepts implementing the underlying tokens on the Blockchain. In 2017 we saw many different mechanisms of defining the actual price of a token during its sale. We will present the most used pricing mechanisms (auction, fixed price, dutch auction).
After the token sale a smart contract can act as an escrow that allows withdrawals of the invested capital based on different triggers and conditions. One proposal is the DAICO, which combines concepts from ICO and decentralized, autonomous organizations (DAO) in a smart contract. We will present this improvement of a traditional ICO to sketch ICOs' potential enhancements.
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Dr. Christoph Niemann
15:15 - 15:35
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The future of ICOs and crypto asset management KYC / AML / Regulation and Beyond
Investing Conducting in a legally compliant ICO/TGE is more challenging than ever and government regulators are watching every move. Issues of Overliquidation, Scams and lacks of prefunding as well as unaudited token contracts marked many ICO fails last year.
Yet, confidently complying with the global patchwork of laws and regulations, and exploiting the vast opportunities provided by certain legal structures, can produce both peace of mind and also enhanced access to capital and customers.
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Lukasz Musialski
15:40 - 16:05
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Legitimizing Tokenomics: why “ICO” is a bad word in banking
Crypto-assets are a highly speculative asset class that belong as a small part of a well-diversified portfolio. While many of these crypto ventures will fail, some may reach lofty valuations if they become an integral part of the new blockchain economy. Many long-standing financial institutions continue to overlook crypto-assets, as “serious” bankers hold back from considering ICOs due to the mere culture clash of the crypto community and traditional investment banking world.
Regardless of how this duel plays out, the sudden surge in activity, extreme volatility, high failure rate, and high regulatory uncertainty of this new asset class suggests the need for a structured framework by which to assess and better understand the valuation and classification of these digital assets. Overall, a deeper understanding of the use cases of digital assets is critical, as is regulatory guidance that protects investors while providing a sandbox for innovation to continue without restraint.
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Dr. Carly E. Howard
16:10 - 16:30
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Investment Banking in the Age of Blockchain: a vertically integrated ICO investment bank
As ICOs are quickly becoming main stream via STOs (security token offerings), the traditional investment banking model will be tested and some of the established players will likely disappear. In this talk I will share with you what investment banking model will likely prevail and which investment banks are already quietly positioning themselves for the blockchain age.
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Hans Overturf
16:35 - 16:55
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Auditing Smart Contracts - in demand for a toolset of challenges and rules
Ensure you take the correct security measures to protect your funds. 10% of money raised in ICOs has been stolen from hackers and almost all unaudited contracts contain security vulnerabilities.
Learn about the importance of smart contract auditing and how to account for it properly in the ICO planning process.
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Eduard Kotysh
17:00 - 17:20
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Market activity analysis and the secret Ocean Protocol mechanics of a successful Token launch
To describe market conditions as challenging during Q1 2018 would be a considerable understatement. It is a powerful indication of the token sale market’s continued strength that projects were able to raise such substantial amounts amidst the turbulent conditions and with markets generally declining throughout the quarter.
In terms of market activity, what is particularly striking was the high degree of correlation amongst market performance between various cryptoassets. The chart below illustrates this by looking at the network value of a handful of the largest cryptocurrencies, but the correlation extends across much of the entire sector, where relative outperformance was rather exceptional.
What parts do you need to conduct your token launch and make it successful?
The talk will offer an entrepreneurial look at the modules involved and gives practical insights from his experience with the Ocean Protocol launch.
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Julian Leitloff
17:25 - 17:45
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BaFin Insights for Crypto Asset Investing – a Regulator´s Perspective
Last year, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) exploded into the limelight with an estimated 891 ICOs raising over EUR 6 billion. As the capital raising model was previously unknown, regulators had to start investigating the model and begin their determinations on the various legalities.
Focussing on Security Token Offerings a more defining and serious discussion is at stake. With all that money and hype pouring in and scam artists taking advantage of a new opportunity, regulators around the world are taking action and either introducing temporary bans, delivering warnings, or creating new rules.
The talk will give insights on the per case selection methodology practiced the BaFin regulatory protocol and showcase Best Practices as well as highlight the challenges of managing the Status Quo.
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Hagen Weiss
17:55 - 18:15
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The regulation of ICOs: current state of affairs and a glance ahead
In our final panel we will bring together regulators and practioners from different continents to share their insights on best practice methods and discuss current developments in respect to their international backgrounds. This contextualization will shed light on the current challenges of the status quo and allow a glimpse onto what most probably is to come.
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Hagen Weiss
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Robert Michels
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Kerstin Hansen
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Tracy Molino
18:20 - 19:00
