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The Philippines is a global blockchain and digital assets hub, with the Southeast Asian country ranking behind Vietnam in this year’s Chainalysis Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index. The recent BSV Blockchain Meetup Manila sought to bring together this rapidly-growing industry to talk about the utility of blockchain technology beyond mere speculation, and it was a great success.
Touchdown at BSV’s Blockchain Meetup in Manila. Can’t wait to see what’s in store 🤩
Follow this thread to see our coverage of the event! pic.twitter.com/KqB3DWe9rw
— The Collectiverse (@d_collectiverse) August 16, 2022
Government officials, enterprise executives, startup founders, Bitcoin experts, and general blockchain enthusiasts all came together to talk about the latest developments in the space and what the future looks like for the technology.
The meetup was organized by Stephanie Tower, and as she told CoinGeek’s Claire Celdran, the idea behind it was to divert attention from token speculation to blockchain utility.
“There’s been so much interest going around in this space, but more on the digital currency side of it–the trading and investment. Being able to show the data management side of what a blockchain can do is very essential. We’d really want to put that forward to the government and enterprises,” commented Tower.
Adoption of digital assets, the metaverse, NFTs, and blockchain in general in the Philippines has taken off in recent years, boosted by the country’s young, tech-savvy population. The country was the biggest market for the ill-fated Axie Infinity Web3 game, at one time accounting for 40% of Axie’s active players.
At the meetup, one speaker after another hammered home the message that Bitcoin SV’s infinite scaling, low fees, and stable protocol are head and shoulders above all other blockchain networks, be it for government, SME, or enterprise data needs.
“…the sky is the limit on what can be invented [on BSV] and there’s a lot of opportunity here,” CoinGeek’s Editor-in-Chief Tom Abrahamsen told the audience.
Many of the biggest names in the local blockchain and enterprise scene were well represented. One of these is UnionBank of the Philippines, and as its Blockchain and API Business Group First Vice President Cathy Casas told CoinGeek, the lender delved into blockchain ‘even before it was cool.’
The bank set up the Blockchain Center of Excellence four years ago to “learn about the technology and how we can possibly integrate it into our operations.”
The Head of Growth Marketing at leading mobile wallet GCash Lorenzo Canaria was at the meetup too. He believes that the Southeast Asian country is just getting started with its blockchain adoption. Being from fintech himself, he told CoinGeek that the trust that blockchain introduces would become integral to the growth of financial technology in the Philippines.
GCash, announced two months ago that it would begin to offer digital asset support in keeping up with user demand.
The BSV ecosystem was represented by, among others, Stefan Matthews, the executive chairman and CEO of leading transaction processor TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. (CSE:TAAL | FWB:9SQ1 | OTC:TAALF).
As he told CoinGeek, he was impressed by the appetite for Bitcoin and blockchain with everyone he met at the event. He was particularly interested in the government officials who were keen to learn how blockchain can be integrated into governance.
Carlos Albornoz was among those representing the government. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) official revealed that the government has been surprised at the number of local blockchain initiatives in recent times.
According to Carlos, much of the growth is down to blockchain gaming.
“Play-to-earn games have been big and that actually ‘laymanized’ blockchain technology for a lot of Filipinos. We are very grateful for that,” he noted.
Terry Ridon, the convener of Filipino think tank Infrawatch PH, represented the civil society, and he believes that BSV has a big role to play in the continued development of the Philippines. Terry has been a very vocal voice in the digital assets sphere, with Infrawatch PH being among the biggest critics of Binance’s illegal operations in the country.
Watch: The BSV Global Blockchain Convention presentation, Scaling Games on Layer One: Why It Matters
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