Ben Yablon, Co-Founder/Chairman of SALT Lending interview with Matt Bird at the Blockchain for Europe (EU Parliament)
HIGHLIGHTS
- IBM representative highlights successful blockchain deployment projects happening around the world
- Countries like Africa and Asia are looking at OECD to help deploy nationwide blockchain projects
- Digital Assets are becoming more accepted worldwide
FULL COVERAGE
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: Ben Yablon, Co-Founder/Chairman of SALT Lending and Matt Bird, Host of ESG News
Matt Bird – Host, ESG News: 00:00
Welcome back to the Traders Network Show. We’re broadcasting worldwide from Brussels, Belgium. I’m Matt Bird. My next guest needs little introduction on this show he’s been on numerous times. In fact, you’ve been a contributor, you’ve been a guest, you’ve been an expert correspondent, Ben Yablon, the co-founder of SALT. He also is a special advisor to the OECD on the blockchain policy site. Is that right? Ben, welcome back. You know, yesterday I saw you walking around with our network vest. I loved it.
Ben Yablon – Co-founder/Chairman, SALT Lending: 00:27
I thought you would get a kick out of that. It was a reminder of Davos last year. That was,
Matt Bird – Host, ESG News: 00:31
It was such an amazing time. But listen, here we are at the EU parliament, right. We’re here for the blockchain for Europe summit. You’ve seen Jason Kelley, who was just in here just a minute ago. You saw him on stage. You saw some of the commission leaders. Tell us a little bit about what’s going on right now inside the main room.
Ben Yablon – Co-founder/Chairman, SALT Lending: 00:48
Absolutely. You know, you’ve got real thought leaders up there. Jason did a fantastic job of tying together a lot of kind of loose threads. You know, there were quite a few lawyers on that panel and Jason was not one of them. So he really served as a good counterbalance and was able to highlight some of the truly important projects that are being deployed right now. So you know, he highlighted that there’s a bit of hype around blockchain, but there are also some very real solutions that are being deployed. IBM has been in the center of a lot of those conversations.
Matt Bird – Host, ESG News: 01:17
Now, talk about real solutions. SALT, you guys are arguably the world leader in digital asset lending. I mean, you see pretty much every use case there is out there of a digital asset. How is what’s happening today gonna affect SALT and gonna affect that industry moving forward?
Ben Yablon – Co-founder/Chairman, SALT Lending: 01:30
You know, it’s really interesting question. Part of what we’re watching in the OECD context and here at the European parliament is a taxonomy around how digital assets are classified and that’s vitally important for a lending company like SALT because the regulations vary depending on how a particular asset is categorized. We have different regulatory burdens. So seeing a harmonization take place from the global regulatory power is a vital step in being able to scale SALT successfully.
Matt Bird – Host, ESG News: 02:05
Now there was rumor, not rumor, there’s some stuff going on in Africa and some of the Asian countries. We seen a little bit of the OECD type of thought leadership going on. What’s happening outside, let’s say just outside the EU parliament right now, outside the states, what’s happening in those regions.
Ben Yablon – Co-founder/Chairman, SALT Lending: 02:21
You know, in Africa we’re seeing really broad-based acceptance and support of digital assets. And that really is an exciting opportunity, particularly for a company like SALT that wants to get into these emerging markets. OECD has really done a good job of putting together regulatory framework and hosting a lot of the African nations at OECD over the last year.
Matt Bird – Host, ESG News: 02:50
Now, speaking of the OECD you know, this is a different year 2020, we’re gonna see probably some new additions to the board coming in. Later in the year, you’ve got Greg Medcraft, who’s always amazing to listen to and watch. I enjoy the time I get to spend with him. He’s so knowledgeable and on all aspects of it, but you look in Australia and how they’re leading things on the governmental adoption side of things. How is the OECD kind of inter personalizing those use cases and you know, what they’re learning from coming out of that?
Ben Yablon – Co-founder/Chairman, SALT Lending: 03:20
Sure. I think that supply chain is really the first thing that OECD is very successfully tackling and making sense out of how particular assets are going to enter the blockchain supply chain mechanism. So once you’ve got a verifiably good asset into a supply, that’s when the power of blockchain becomes unbelievably special. If you’ve got assets that are questionable going into that supply chain, you’ve got unbelievable problems. So they’re really taking a HandsOn approach to making sense out of the regulations. And ultimately these conversations will be elevated to the G20 and we will see some very positive developments this year.
Matt Bird – Host, ESG News: 04:03
It’s amazing. Listen, Ben, I’m getting a wink and then we have a head of state from a sovereign nation about to walk out through this back door. So I think we’re gonna have to wrap it up. Ben Yablon, thanks for coming on. You know, I love to get an update from you later on what’s happening with SALT. I hear there’s some emerging growth times over there and you guys are coming out with some new products and I’d love to hear all about that.
Ben Yablon – Co-founder/Chairman, SALT Lending: 04:24
Yeah. Global custody. That’s the word, Global Custody.
Matt Bird – Host, ESG News: 04:26
I love that. You’re watching the Trader’s Network Show broadcasting on ESG News network. I’m Matt Bird. We’ll be back we’re at these messages special, thanks to our network, affiliate partners, ABC NBC Fox and CBS. Don’t go away.