Sasha Ivanov, CEO of Vostok with Matt Bird at World Economic Forum (DAVOS)

HIGHLIGHTS

•  Largest Blockchain Initiative in Russia
•  Raised $120 Million in Capital
•  Partners with some of the largest enterprises in Russia

FULL COVERAGE

• Watch complete coverage of the World Economic Forum

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: Sasha Ivanov, CEO of Vostok interview with Matt Bird

Matt Bird (Show Host, Traders Network Show):00:00    

Welcome back to the Traders Network Show broadcasting the worldwide and Equities.com I’m your host Matt Bird. We’re here in Davos, Switzerland covering the 2019 World Economic Forum. And my next guest is Moscow based CEO, Sasha Ivanov, of Vostok. Sasha, welcome to the show.

Sasha Ivanov (CEO, Vostok): 00:17

Thank you for having me. 

Matt Bird (Show Host, Traders Network Show): 00:19

It’s a pleasure. You know, so Vostok currently is arguably the largest blockchain initiative in Russia at the present time they’ve raised $120 million current valuation of about 1 billion. They have over 200 employees, offices in Amsterdam, Moscow, Berlin, London and soon to be New York. They are a secure and open chain, very similar to Hyperledger. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about this? 

Sasha Ivanov (CEO, Vostok):00:59        

So, we aren’t similar to Hyperledger actually we target the same market and the market of enterprise usage for blockchain, but we have a very different technical approach. So, we are closer to open blockchains because it is based on our waves chain, which is on all the chain and we just live in the last three years and they’re trying to bring the ideas from open blockchain over to enterprise world. 

Matt Bird (Show Host, Traders Network Show): 01:14

And, and how much success that you’ve been having so far have you, you’ve been expanding like crazy over the last year. Tell us more about some of the implementations you’ve had. 

Sasha Ivanov (CEO, Vostok): 01:22

Yeah, we’re working with very many companies in Russia and also worldwide. So in Russia we are working in is the biggest real estate agency in government agency was the biggest bank in Russia. So, we have very many partnerships and very many projects from very different directions. 

Matt Bird (Show Host, Traders Network Show): 01:38

So, are they starting to see ROI from the implantation side of the chain? 

Sasha Ivanov (CEO, Vostok): 01:42

Yeah. Yeah. So, we have like a separate project with different parties now and they’re going to be a public block of changes to village about the summer.

Matt Bird (Show Host, Traders Network Show):01:48    

So, you’ve been on the street were you here last year for Davos in 2018. There’s obviously a big difference between what’s going on today, what happened last year. Tell me a little bit about what you’re seeing. I mean, you’re an expert in the industry, you know, obviously there’s been some turmoil in the crypto space, but if from you, from your eyes, what do you see going on right now? You know, from WEF on the street.

Sasha Ivanov (CEO, Vostok): 02:12

Yeah, I think it’s very positive what is happening now because we had some kind of hype, which was, was actually not so substantiated and now we have a better situation for development. Actually, I started doing blockchain before the public interest. And for me it was a very weird situation because I didn’t feel comfortable and now, I feel comfortable again so I can just work on my project and on my product and it’s perfect for me.

Matt Bird (Show Host, Traders Network Show):02:36    

And there’s also, I think I call it, you call it fitting into the herd. And I think we saw a lot of people who had the means to get here, but they’re not necessarily the had the ability to deliver anything in material and enterprise side. And so I understand what you’re saying. I think there’s certainly right now a, a more a quality demographic of organizations, companies. But so, what’s next for Vostok? 

Sasha Ivanov (CEO, Vostok): 03:00

So, we are launching a very many international projects. For example, it’s going to be a project with an insurance company, big insurance company, also real estate projects. And after the other we are going to be watching our public test net. And after that we are launching the maintenance. So, we are going to meet having a maintenance and connected site chains, enterprise site chains which are secure by department. 

Matt Bird (Show Host, Traders Network Show):03:23

That’s incredible. So, you guys are working on a lot of things. Well you know what, with 200 people behind it, I’m looking forward to seeing some, some more development. But what I would like to do is I look to have you back on tomorrow. 

Sasha Ivanov (CEO, Vostok): 03:37

It would be a pleasure for me.