Switzerland is undoubtedly an attractive location for investors, thanks to the country’s favourable tax system and the legislative system that introduced the concept of blockchain and digital assets.
As a country that has always been at the forefront of digital assets, Switzerland initially experienced huge explosions in popularity in 2017 and as a result, changes were made to existing laws to make way for further innovation and growth in the blockchain industry.
Among the various initiatives in the country, the city of Lugano is very active in this regard and the Decentralized Lugano event, recently organized by BIL (Bank Internationale de Luxembourg) Suisse, one of the country’s historical banks, is an example of approaching innovative technology in the sector.
Sascha Wullschleger, speaker and organizer of the Decentralized Lugano April 2022 event, granted us a short interview to explain why Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (Suisse) SA was there, as the organizer of such an important event involving the blockchain industry and the Polkadot team with Gavin Wood.
Mr Wullschleger how did the idea of organizing the Decentralized Lugano April 2022 event come about and how did you manage to do it so well?
Coming into contact with top professionals, I proposed to Mark Cachia, founder and CIO of Scytale Venture Capital fund, to organise the event with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of Blockchain technology in traditional sectors. The idea of organizing a prestigious event in the beautiful city of Lugano and inviting Gavin Wood, a pioneer in the field, came to me during a meeting with Mark.
His presence in Ticino represented his first visit to our region, giving the event a prestigious aspect. One of the aims was to bring together companies financed by the VC fund, to compare notes with each other, whose common denominator was and is the use of the Polkadot infrastructure.
Given the presence at the event of many CEOs of the companies financed by Scytale, which counts Gavin Wood, Ewald Hesse and Aaron Buchanan on its advisory board, the importance of the event was also the opportunity to personally meet the creator of this infrastructure of significant innovation.
Conveying a message to the traditional entrepreneur is another reason why we organized the event. The world of blockchain is starting to be used more and more in various sectors, and meeting there was the ideal way to create new synergies.
Many of the CEOs who presented the peculiarities and features of their technology during the day of the event took the opportunity to stay a few days in the city. This form of networking therefore paid off by allowing the companies to come into close contact with each other, creating the basis for possible future collaborations.
What is the message you want to convey with this initiative?
The objective of the host Scytale Ventures and BIL was to show the future usefulness of this disruptive technology in the traditional industry with a positive effect from many points of view. Prominent figures from the worlds of fashion and music were present at the event. Notoriously historical and traditional sectors that have shown interest and formed start-ups using blockchain technology on trusted infrastructures such as Polkadot.
Our message was also intended to raise awareness of this sector through the example of the industry’s leading professionals.
Banca BIL in its nature is very close to the entrepreneurial fabric, which is why we wanted to create a platform that would allow various companies active in different sectors to meet and compare notes with a view to possible collaborations.
We associate ourselves with the world of blockchain, so creating a platform for meetings to discuss the various applications that are being developed was, in our opinion, very useful for entrepreneurs, professionals active in asset management, investors and politicians.
Present at the event was the mayor of Lugano, Michele Foletti, who spoke about Plan B. Was the city of Lugano involved in the organization?
The event had already been planned before the Lugano Plan B conference, and they were invited as guests in view of the initiative of the city of Lugano with Tether and CTO Paolo Ardoino. In my opinion, it was important to combine synergies, to show that projects and entrepreneurs of the highest calibre such as Sctytale Ventures, whose advisory board includes such high-profile figures as Gavin Wood and Ewald Hesse, are already present in Lugano, and it seemed appropriate to have their testimony as a model that blockchain works and will be increasingly important for future developments.
In Switzerland, the approach to the world of blockchain is increasingly strong. In your opinion, why?
The big advantage of Switzerland is that it has a very advanced legal interpretation, in fact the only banks with a FINMA banking licence are currently only in the Swiss confederation. The fact that there are no financial institutions in Europe with such a government licence makes it much easier for our country.
Technology is linked to development and needs to be taken care of, so I hope I have managed to convey the right message through this initiative.
At the event, there were guests from 10 different European countries, from all regions of Switzerland, and there were some professionals currently residing in Dubai, Hong Kong and the US. Everyone participated with a lot of enthusiasm and positivity. The aim would be to repeat this exceptional experience next year, with the same format, keeping the event by invitation only and exclusive.
Finally, we received overwhelmingly positive feedback from all participants, both entrepreneurs and investors in attendance. I can therefore say that the goal of the event was achieved.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/05/24/lugano-tradition-blockchain-innovation/