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WorldCoiner (OP)
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October 16, 2018, 07:07:10 PM |
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Forctis AG
-> Forctis is a Swiss-based company (registered as an AG, “joint stock company”) behind an initiative to create a viable Asset Representation System based on an original blockchain protocol and platform.
-> The critical concept is Representation: The ability to communicate valuable information about an asset. This asset could be a house, a car, a bicycle, or stocks.
-> One the key supports of a modern economy is the existence and recognition of property rights.
-> Representation is essential because it makes vital transactional data about assets fully visible to other members of society. Examples of such information are current economic worth, asset potential (e.g. competitive
or locational advantages) and history of ownership.
-> In that sense, Representation is the glue that makes a marketplace efficient and enables it to function properly.
-> Focusing on this concept, we have created a polymorphic digital token by the name ARES (acronym for Asset Representation System). Today, there is no other token in any other blockchain design that shares its qualities.
-> We will also integrate a cryptocurrency into ARES, to be called GenS.
-> GenS is a new cryptocurrecy breed in the category of stablecoins.
-> Why a stablecoin? From our White Paper (part 1), pp. 9-10.:
"If a commodity [or an instrument] is available that assures all parties entering into a transaction that the same value is given
up as is received, then such commodity [or instrument] be adopted as unit of account. Previsibility becomes essential and in that sense stability is a sufficient condition. Contracts, be it for immediate or future delivery, can then be easily expressed if a unit of account is available. This combination of factors is what leads to the general acceptance of such commodity [or instrument] as a medium of exchange. In other words, the stage when it has the highest subjective probability of trade amongst all the economic goods available to society. Otherwise, it would not adequately serve the objectives pursued by an ecosystem conceived to represent property rights as a means to free their potential to make them liquid."
The Idea:
To create a Blockchain inspired by the way DNA works
Our original inspiration, the spark, can be traced back to the mathematical models of biological systems.
In particular, our focus has been DNA. A bio-molecule and an essential component in the cellular machinery of all known living organisms.
Why? Because DNA is also a superb engineering primitive, like LEGO® bricks.
A perspective that opens a completely new landscape in terms of applications.
Ours is one of them.
The new age of Blockchain
The biological functions of DNA are mediated by specific proteins that interact with it. Proteins "bind" to DNA by targeting those nucleotides.
That is how many key biological functions take place.
Each block in our Blockchain performs a role comparable to that of nucleotides in a DNA molecule. Tokens assume the role of proteins. They are the fibers of a geometric object, like the threads in a piece of cloth. The pattern and even shape of that cloth depend on the number and type of assets mapped into the Blockchain.
Cryptography keeps it all together. It also mediates the binding of the tokens to the Blockchain.
On top of all of this, economic theory helps us rationalise this completely new operational framework, and statistical mechanics provide us with powerful tools for its synthesis.
Our proposal:
A radically different protocol
The Mechanics:
If a token is able to recognise its target in a Blockchain strand, our equivalent of a DNA molecule, it "binds" to it and hence to the Blockchain.
If binding occurs, the information hardwired into that token could then be passed across to any other tokens insofar they are also recognized by the Blockchain.
The actual exchange and type of information exchanged require authorisation by the issuer and acceptance by the receiving party,
as it routinely happens in any contractual arrangement.
Interesting, but how are tokens created?
On demand, arbitrarily. The only requirement is having a digital representation of an asset. It is as simple as that.
There is an exception, however, in the supply of GenS. It is regulated by an automaton designed to adaptively balance GenS supply to demand.
Therefore, other than GenS it is possible to add any asset class to our Blockchain platform if proof of their ownership can be properly asserted and if legal or regulatory compliance can be adequately enforced.
Other features of our protocol and platform design:
-> Highly parallelized.
-> Implementing a novel hybrid (or managed) decentralization architecture.
-> Resilient.
-> Fast throughput.
-> Algorithmically regulated (no mining involved, Masternode concept).
-> Smart-contracts to be enabled in the protocol.
-> Scripting engine to create tokenized assets on demand.
Our Team
Eduardo Salazar
CEO and Co-Founder
Economist specialised in econometrics, but more of a technologist doing science in his daily life, for over 30 years Eduardo has followed a career path involving broadly engaging cross-disciplinary environments. In the early 90's he was a Visiting Researcher of the Calculus Institute at the School of Sciences, University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Throughout his PhD at the University of Cambridge he became Research Associate of the then Department of Applied Economics and later moved to Britain's oldest independent research think-tank, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR). Back in Argentina, Eduardo joined the iconic Instituto Torcuato Di Tella as Senior Research Fellow. He also worked as Senior Consultant to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
His entrepreneurial drive induced him to leave academia for the appealing world of media and advertising. Eduardo thus joined a specialised marketing foresight consultancy of the WPP Group as Managing Partner and R&D lead. He subsequently moved to another top-5 media holding company as its first Global Head of Analytics. More recently, Eduardo was invited to the Advisory Board of MarketShare (now Neustar MarketShare) and was Senior Consultant in data investment management and marketing analytics to HCL Technologies in EMEA. Since 2016 he is on the Jury of the I-COM Data Creativity Awards, joining in 2017 the I-COM Blockchain and Advanced Research Subcommittee.
Marc Degen
Co-Founder and Member of the Board
Marc has been named in the annual list of Switzerland’s 100 digital shapers by Bilanz and digitalswitzerland. He brings his top entrepreneurship credentials and experience in the blockchain and distributed ledger space, also as early stage investor through dizrupt AG. He is co-founder and member of the Board of Modum.io AG, one of the most successful blockchain companies in Switzerland. In addition, he is a member of the Board for webtiser AG, a leading SAP Hybris integration company operating in the European market. Marc has previously been CEO of an online travel start-up, COO of one of the largest online agencies in Switzerland and Head of Digital at a Swiss mobile operator. He has a degree in IT and Communications from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) coupled with an Executive MBA from the University of St.Gallen and further executive education at INSEAD.
Isabelle Ganz
COO and Member of the Board
Isabelle has an MLaw specialised in economic and banking law. Following her legal education in Basel and Berne, Isabelle's multi-faceted expertise includes roles at a leading Zurich law firm, at the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory (FINMA) and at the Embassy of Switzerland in the Russian Federation. During her time in Moscow she completed a joint Executive MBA (with distinction) by the Kingston Business School (UK) and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA). Her entrepreneurial and management skills turned into action when she co-founded QUORUS LLC in 2016, becoming COO and also its head of business development. QUORUS LLC is a Swiss-Russian management and consultancy firm having an exclusive operational focus on Swiss/European and Russian/Eurasian cross-border activities.
Marc Bettinger
Director and Member of the Board
Marc began his 20-year banking career in his native Germany. Immersed in the blockchain sector since its early days, he managed to build an enviable track record in that space. Marc was CRO at Julius Baer Private Bank until 2017 and previously AVP for Credit Risk Modeling at Credit Suisse, in both cases based in Zurich. In 2013 he created the "Der Altcoinspekulant" blog (actively managing it until 2017) as a one of the pioneering sites fully dedicated to alternative cryptocurrency (Altcoin or ALT) investments, quickly establishing itself as a prime information and analysis source. It therefore gained a remarkable reputation and media coverage during his time at the helm. Marc has also been co-host of the Altcoin-Meetup Switzerland and initiated the "Altcoin Switzerland" Social Media channel, perhaps the most credible site nowadays in Europe providing news, expert analysis and hosting active discussions on everything happening in that space.
He is a Banking Economist from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and a Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA) from the Swiss Financial Analysts Association (SFAA).
Our Advisors
Our Advisory Board brings together some of the best thinkers across multiple domains of study.
- Economics, focused in the sub-fields of Monetary Economics, Finance and Development.
- Computer Science, particularly Cryptology and everything Blockchain-related.
- Modelling and Machine Learning.
- Technology and The Digital Society.
- Idea Creation and Innovation.
Each of them enjoys considerable recognition by their peers for the high quality and impact of their research and consultancy output.
They have been there and done it.
Besides contributing to Forctis' strategic vision, some of them will be hands-on involved in our research initiatives.
Hugo Scolnik
Focus: Advice on cryptographic protocol and Cybersecurity.
Hugo is regarded as one of the pioneers of Informatics in Argentina.
In 1985 he created the Computer Science Department, of which he is currently Full Professor, at the School of Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
Cryptography is Hugo's focal area of research, gaining him recognition as a leading figure in this field. He is the co-author of the argentine Electronic Signature Law enacted in 2001. That said, his research interests are not limited to cryptography and comprise other areas such as numerical analysis, mathematical models and even robotics.
Hugo has published about 50 scientific papers and two books. He was awarded the 2003 Konex Platinum prize for the best trajectory in Science and Technology in Argentina of the decade 1993-2003 and in 2005 the Sadosky prize for the best trajectory in Informatics. He was twice elected Vice President at Large of IFORS (International Federation for Operations Research Societies).
He has also been quite active besides academia, both in the private (corporate) sector and as consultant to multiple public and international organisations. He is a Founding Partner of two leading firms that develop products and solutions for SET and identity protection.
Hugo holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Zurich and a PhD (Honoris Causa) from the University of Cuyo in Argentina.
Anton Golub
Focus: Advice on Blockchain technology and Cryptoeconomics.
Anton Golub is the founder and CEO of Flov Technologies, a financial technology company with a vision of a global peer-to-peer marketplace that utilizes distributed ledger technology as a settlement infrastructure. Anton is also a co-founder and non-executive board member of Trust Square AG, a pre-eminent blockchain technology hub located in Zurich's financial district.
In 2013 Anton co-founded Lykke Corp, a Swiss based company that is building a global marketplace on top of the blockchain for the free exchange of digital assets. Prior to Lykke, he worked as a quantitative researcher at Olsen Ltd, an asset management firm that pioneered the field of computerized trading. As a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Manchester Business School, Anton worked on high-frequency trading, market micro-structure and flash crashes.
2012 he was invited to participate in the Foresight Project - The Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets, an international project on algorithmic trading funded by HM Treasury in the UK. Anton has also been involved in several research projects backed by the European Union (EU) and he is currently in the Supervisory Board for the BigDataFinance project funded through Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
He has co-authored 10 academic papers and two books.
Anton holds a PhD from the University of Geneva.
Edward Castronova
Focus: Advice on Experimental Economics and models of Synthetic Economies.
Edward "Ted" Castronova is Professor of Media specializing in Games, Technology and Society at Indiana University in Bloomington. In the past he has served as Director of the degree program in Game Design and Chair of the Department of Media Arts and Production, also at Indiana.
Castronova's game design work involves board games with a historical focus, and his research on synthetic worlds and their economies has attracted considerable attention. He is one of the co-founders of the renown game research blog Terra Nova and he also created the Indiana University Ludium game conferences, which were built on the structure of a collaborative game environment.
A prolific author, his papers at the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) place him in the top 1% of downloads of over 300,000 academic authors. In addition, he has authored four widely-acclaimed books:
- Wildcat Currency: The Virtual Transformation of the Economy (Yale 2014)
- Virtual Economies: Analysis and Design (with Vili Lehdonvirta, MIT 2014)
- Exodus to the Virtual World (Palgrave Macmillan 2007)
- Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games (Chicago 2005)
Edward holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Nicolás Casariego
Focus: Software engineering and integration.
Nicolás Casariego is a senior consultant, software entrepreneur, researcher and author. He is currently Co-Director of the Customer Analytics Farm based at the School of Human Sciences & Technology of the IE (Instituto de Empresa) in Madrid. Nicolás is also Adjunct Professor of CRM/CXM, Customer Analytics & Technology Innovation at the Institute's Business & HST Schools.
Formerly Chief Technology Oficer (CTO) & Head of Analytics of MRM/McCann, he also worked as Senior Consultant to Grey/G2 and OgilvyOne.
Having a technological and analytical background, Nicolás has an unrivalled experience in consulting, building and running customer-centric solutions particularly in Marketing, Digital, CRM, Loyalty, e-Business and Customer Intelligence. He has worked across Europe and Latin America for blue-chip brands like Amex, Banco Santander, Bell South, BAT, L'Oréal, MasterCard, Nokia, Opel, Renault, Repsol, Telefónica/Movistar and Warner Bros. Throughout an extensive professional career he has also led a number of European R&D initiatives.
Nicolás holds an Information Systems degree from University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and a Marketing MBA degree from USAL-SUNY.
Urs Bolt
Focus: Business Development and FinTech partnerships.
Urs has 30+ years experience in the financial services industry, mainly in wealth management, investment banking and banking technology business. He is consistently ranked as one of the top Swiss FinTech influencers by Fintech Switzerland and as a global RegTech influencer by Planet of Compliance.
In his renown career, Urs has held Senior positions at Credit Suisse AG, both in London and Zurich, and UBS in Zurich. His core expertise is to develop and roll-out digital business platforms. Urs's focus is to help FinTech companies and financial service providers to review and re-engineer their business strategies, develop products and markets, execute sales, scout for fintech solutions, build business partnerships, manage projects, and implement corporate structures and processes.
Urs is also a juror of the Financial Times Professional Wealth Management (PWM) WealthTech Awards. In addition, he advocates for social and political causes, particularly new energy policies that balance the economy and ecology to achieve a sustainable environment.
He holds a Federal Diploma in Service Marketing and Management from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (FHZ).
Iván Markmann
Focus: Advice on business strategy and operations.
Iván is a seasoned professional having an extensive global experience in Marketing, Consumer and Analytics/AI Technology Ventures. He is currently a Senior Advisor at Abundant Venture Partners and a Special Advisor to the CEO and Board of Directors of comScore, Inc., a leading American media measurement and analytics company. He is also an early stage investor, board member and advisor across a series of emerging technology companies.
Previously, he was General Manager of Marketing Services at Neustar, a real-time provider of cloud-based information services, following its acquisition of MarketShare where he served as Chief Operating Officer. Before joining MarketShare Iván was with Yahoo! as Global Head of Corporate Strategy. At Yahoo! he also served as Vice President of Operations Finance, where he drove key business planning, analytics, and financial initiatives for Yahoo!’s largest operating units.
Prior to Yahoo! Iván held various strategy and operations roles at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and Procter & Gamble. He has also led and supported various entrepreneurial ventures in entertainment, new media and education.
Iván has an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a MA in Finance from Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Luis Tonelli
Focus: Positioning and liaison with institutional players.
Luis is a highly renown Argentine political scientist. Since 2011 and for three consecutive terms he was Chair of the Department of Political Science belonging to the School of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. His specialisation field is the Design of Political Institutions.
A Chevening Scholar at the University of Oxford (Worcester College) and also a U.S. Department of State Scholar, Luis developed a prolific academic career that saw him lecturing at the Universidad de San Andres, FLACSO, Universidad del Salvador and UCEMA in Argentina. He was named Director (1996-98) of the Argentine Studies Department (Cátedra Domingo F. Sarmiento) at the University of Salamanca in Spain.
Besides academia, Luis became Director-General of Strategic Planning of the Argentine Government, Institutional Relationships Coordinator of the Banco Provincia de Buenos Aires and Advisor to the Board of the Banco de la Nación Argentina. He was for many years an Associate Director at Mora y Araujo Comunicación Institucional, Senior Advisor for Provincial and Local Governments in Argentina and has also worked as Senior External Consultant for several International Organisations.
Luis has authored many press and academic journal articles, both in Argentina and abroad, and frequently appears as a political and current affairs commentator in the Argentine radio and TV.
Nicholas Verwilghen
Focus: FinTech and advice on investment management
Nicholas Verwilghen has become one of the most recognised asset managers in Europe, following a career of over 20 years focused on Asset Allocation, Quantitative Research, Risk Management and Investment Solutions, as well as Hedge Funds.
He is currently a partner in 1741 Group and, as someone responsible for alternative investment funds, he is also CEO of 1741 Distribution Services AG. In his 14-year career at EIM Group (currently listed as LumX Group) where he became President of its Executive Committee, Nicholas steered the Group’s positioning as the leading European institutional provider (mainly to Sovereign Wealth Funds and Pension Funds) of tailor-made investment solutions across asset classes and strategies.
He has also been deeply involved in FinTech as co-Founder and member of the Board of Sentifi Group, a winner of the 2016 Swiss FinTech Award set to become “the next Reuters” for financial markets. Nicholas built its 80-strong big data team and oversaw the operations of the Sentifi Technology Hub based in Vietnam. He is the founder of Deep Signals Ltd, a research start-up based in Hong Kong.
Nicholas holds a PhD (Dr. oec. HSG) in Financial Market Theory from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and an MBA (specialised in Finance) also from the University of St. Gallen.
Suresh Pillai
Focus: Complex Systems, Network Science, Data Science and Product Development
A theoretical physicist at his core, Suresh is a renowned leader in the fields of Data Science, Customer Intelligence and Marketing Analytics. His broad and deep understanding across science, computing and technology has enabled him to motivate and coordinate diverse teams to generate innovation in these fields.
Suresh's research interests are in complexity theory, network science and statistical mechanics. He has carried over concepts and methodologies from these theoretical domains to frame and solve problems in the practical world. For example, inspired by ant foraging he designed self-organising algorithms for network routing (Nortel Networks) and distributed computing (ByCast, acquired by NetApp); and distilled the complexity of online gaming ecosystems to simpler, multi-agent environments.
During his tenure as Head of Customer Analytics & Insights (Europe) at eBay, Suresh disrupted the world of marketing attribution. He demonstrated, as in science, that multiple (dynamic) models were required to have understanding at different granularities: that prediction and insights are not always compatible. Later, as Director of Data Science at ProSiebenSat.1 he expanded his research in marketing and media analytics, generating time-dependent insights not present in stock models. More recently, as the lead for the Data Science & Intelligence Program at Microsoft To-Do, his teams have been using task classification and queuing models to develop product features around task organisation and recommendation.
Suresh holds a Mathematical Physics degree from Queen's University (Kingston), followed by MSc research in Theoretical Physics/Complex Systems at UBC (Vancouver) and a PhD (cand.) at ETH Zurich.
Quentin Stafford-Fraser
Focus: Advice on P2P protocol and platform design.
Quentin Stafford-Fraser is a World Wide Web pioneer, co-inventor of the Webcam and one of the developers of the VNC software now installed on millions of machines worldwide.
Recipient in 2017 of the prestigious Lovie Lifetime Achievement award (the European equivalent of the Webby award in the USA) he has an extensive background in academic and commercial research labs, having worked for the University of Cambridge, Xerox, Olivetti, Oracle and AT&T.
Quentin has founded and co-founded several technology-related startups in Cambridge (UK) and Seattle (USA) including Ndiyo in 2001, DisplayLink in 2003, Exbiblio in 2004, Camvine in 2007 and Telemarq in 2011, a UK-based consultancy of which he is the CEO. He also holds a research post in the Graphics and Interaction Group at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, where his work focuses on connected vehicles and the application of computer vision and machine learning to driver/vehicle interactions.
Quentin holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.
Ugo Panizza
Focus: Advice on incentives design and economic policy implications.
Ugo Panizza is the Director of the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies in Geneva, a Think Tank associated to The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies where he is also Professor of Economics and Pictet Chair in Finance. He is also a Research Fellow at the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).
Prior to joining the Institute, Ugo was the Chief of the Debt and Finance Analysis Unit at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He also worked at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, the American University of Beirut and the University of Turin.
His research interests include international finance, sovereign debt, banking and political economy. He is a member of the editorial board of The World Bank Economic Review, the Review of Development Finance, the Journal of Economic Systems and the Review of Economics and Institutions. He is a former member of the executive committee of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) and an editor of the Association's journal Economia.
Ugo holds a PhD in Economics from The Johns Hopkins University.
Sergio Alvarez-Teleña
Focus: Algorithmics, Machine Learning integration and platform development.
Sergio Alvarez-Teleña is considered one of the "Top Analytics Superstars" by UK's Digital Economy Network. Both an Economist and Computer Scientist, his research in human-bot convergence has been recognised by the UK EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) for its impact in the digital economy.
Before founding SciTheWorld, a start-up focused on augmented machines and algorithmic research where he is Chief Innovation Oficer, he was Global Head of Data Science and also Global Head of Algorithmic Trading at BBVA. Therein, Sergio's engine received in 2016 the prestigious Banking Technology Award for "Best Trading Platform" in the finance industry.
In previous years, he has been consistently swinging between academia and industry in a journey that has taken him through CEMFI (Bank of Spain), Deloitte, Kyoto University, Santander, Morgan Stanley and the Centre for Doctoral Training in Financial Computing & Analytics at UCL in London, where Sergio is also Honorary Senior Research Associate. He has featured as speaker in TEDx, Telefonica, BME and Oxford's Altius, amongst other professional and academic events.
Sergio holds a PhD in Computer Science from University College London.
Resources
Our one-stop shop for thought leadership content.
Reports and white papers, presentations, relevant information and materials from our participation in events and conferences:
http://www.forctis.io/resources
Whitepaper part II will be finished this year, but our overview of ARES is already available:
http://www.forctis.io/forctisTSD%20001-18
Upcoming Events
October 25-26 2018: Eduardo will participate in the STABLE CONF 2018 conference and exhibition in London. It's the world's first stablecoin conference with nearly all players of this interesting sector.
November 16-17 2018: Eduardo will be heading to Buenos Aires to join a Panel discussing Stablecoins during the C20 Conference on November 16-17 sponsored by Cripto247. With already 3,700 participants registered and hosting high calibre speakers and panelists, it will become the largest Spanish-speaking event to have ever taken place debating the latest trends and the future of the blockchain and DLT in a wider sense. A great opportunity to be able to deliver our vision in a region that is leading crypto adoption worldwide.
November 23-24 2018: Eduardo has been invited to speak at the Blockchain Leadership Summit to take place in Basel between November 23-24, 2018. In the words of the organizers, "the primary focus of this large scale event is to unite the brightest minds of the developing industries with the whales of the fiat world, let the most promising projects and start-ups learn about entering and changing the market and see how politicians, businesses and individuals would change the world around us by implementing blockchain and accepting crypto in their cashflows." We're humbled to have been offered the opportunity to share Forctis' vision in this major industry event.
November 29 2018: Our second Meetup in Zürich Trustquare will take place. In the heart of this little big city Eduardo will talk about what was happening this year and what are our plans for the next year.
Meet our team and advisors. Register here: https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/Forctis-io-AG/
Additional Information
Telegram: https://t.me/forctis_io
Homepage: http://www.forctis.io/
News and Media: http://www.forctis.io/news-and-media
Meetup Group: https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/Forctis-io-AG/
Medium: https://medium.com/@forctis.io
Our Factsheet in Russian language: http://www.forctis.io/Birdseye-Russian-Sep2018
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