The future of blockchain is very bright Danny Rowshandel from HPB With thanks to Jeff Ranker at
https://t.me/hpbdutch for helping with this translation.
High Performance Blockchain was introduced on BlockchainStories last week. In this Q&A we put a few questions to the Managing Director of HPB, Danny Rowshandel.
1. Could you introduce yourself briefly? How did you get a job with HPB? What does ‘Managing Director’ mean exactly? I am Danny Rowshandel, Managing Director of International Business at High Performance Blockchain (HPB). My team's goal is to expand HPB's business to new geographic markets. I do this by setting up strategic partnerships with the business community, universities and other organizations. I also organize business events such as workshops and hackathons and I represent our company at international events and via the media. Before I worked at HPB, I was active in the financial world in China, where I worked for ICBC, China's largest state-owned bank, and HNA Technology, an investment conglomerate focused on IT services. At both companies I did research with other colleagues into blockchain technology. At ICBC, for example, we looked at the possibilities for digital payments and going digital with documents through digital ID technology. On the other hand, at HNA I explored possibilities to tokenize a number of our assets. The idea was to create fractional ownership through tokenization, making it easier for investors to participate and reduce financial risks. In addition, I acted part-time as a consultant for a crypto VC where I advised them on promising blockchain companies in China. During my research into promising cryptocurrencies, HPB was one of the projects that caught my attention. Coincidentally, a good friend of mine, Emma Zhu, was already working there as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). She told me that HPB has great ambitions to expand internationally and asked if I would consider making a full-time switch to blockchain. After a few good conversations with the management team I decided to get started here.
2. How did you come into contact with cryptocurrency in general? About 10 years ago one of my classmates started talking about Bitcoin. He was intrigued by Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper and thought it could bring about a real change. He planned to invest 5000 euros and asked if I would like to join him. At the time I did not understand bitcoin, because I constantly heard that bitcoin is digital money that you can make with your own computer. That concept was strange to me and it sounded like a scam. Unfortunately, I did not properly investigate the issue at the time, nor did I take the time to read the white paper. My former fellow student regularly brings up the subject when we have drinks with friends to tease me about my wrong decision. In 2016 I started doing research on blockchain technology because of work. In 2017 with the ICO hype, I started looking at cryptocurrencies actively.
3. What do you think the future of the crypto world looks like in general? And what place does HPB have in it? It is important that we make a distinction between blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Blockchain is a digital ledger and is the foundation cryptocurrencies are built on. Cryptocurrencies provide the digital means to complete a transaction on the system. The future for blockchain technology is extremely bright. In recent months, a number of governments and companies have indicated that they will use blockchain technology. For example, KLM is very active in the Netherlands. They are conducting experiments to simplify the flight ticket booking process, launch digital loyalty programs and improve logistics processes. I expect that more organizations will slowly realize the benefits of blockchain technology and that demand will increase sharply. To understand the role that cryptocurrencies can play in our future society, we need to look at the function of traditional money. Money has four basic functions; it serves as a guarantee of value, an exchange of value, a means of payment and a common measure of value. With the invention of the internet and everything that has made it possible, we are witnessing a steady transition from value embedded in physical assets to value created by digital assets. If we look at the world's top five companies, these are all technology companies, with data as their primary asset. There is therefore a fundamental review of the meaning and functionality of money. Decentralized networks based on open protocols will transform the internet and entrepreneurship. Cryptocurrencies offer the opportunity for companies to develop their own micro-economies where all stakeholders have common motives and where fraud and disputes can be avoided. Taking these benefits into account, I believe that the market for cryptocurrencies will grow in the long term. HPB has the potential to become one of the leaders driving this change. By building the world's first and only hardware solution, our technology is future-proof and we provide a good foundation for building applications on our blockchain protocol. Our hardware chipset, the Blockchain Offload Engine (BOE), makes it possible to reliably send data at high speed.
4. What will happen in the coming months around the High Performance Blockchain? Our team is very active in various areas. On a technological level, our team is busy optimizing our current hardware chipset and doing research into technological improvements, which may enable us to introduce a future BOE version 2.0. In addition, our tech team is working on new applications for different industries, so that we can offer a complete plug-n-play solution to users and organizations. From a marketing perspective, we are busy setting up partnerships with tech accelerators, universities and media contacts. It is extremely important that we focus more on our project, especially outside of China. As the HPB organization is predominantly Chinese, it is of fundamental importance to achieve our goals together with good local partners. In addition, our goal is to offer the HPB coin on more international exchanges. We especially want to work with exchanges that have real volume and make it possible to buy cryptocurrencies directly with fiat money. The plan is to make it as easy as possible for users to join our ecosystem. From a business perspective, we are in conversation with various parties and we see that demand is constantly increasing. In China, for example, we are already working with UnionPay, the world's largest payment provider, and ITCEC, a large Chinese state-owned company that provides electricity in various parts of China. Outside of China, we had exploratory talks with a number of large parties in the business community and governments about large-scale projects. We hope that we can make progress in this regard in the long term.
5. Is the BOE only useful in combination with the HPB open-source software? Or can this hardware be used for more applications? The BOE is open source and can in principle be combined with any blockchain. We can also combine the BOE with virtual machines, for example the Ethereum network. But the technology is optimized for our blockchain.
6. What are the biggest obstacles you encounter as a blockchain startup? The vast majority of society does not yet understand what blockchain technology is and what its function is. When you start talking about blockchain, people often make the association that you are a bitcoin trader. On the other hand, many people tend to label you as an ICO fraud. It can be a challenge to have a constructive discussion when the person you are talking to has different frames of reference. On the other hand, there are organizations that show a strong interest in blockchain technology, but they struggle to transform their organization in a way that will allow them to embrace the technology properly. For us as blockchain providers, it is crucial to create awareness for the technology and to offer plug-n-play solutions to help users and organizations use the new technology.
7. How does the Chinese blockchain market differ from those in Europe? And what is the biggest (unjustified) prejudice we have about this? What are the benefits of this Chinese market? In terms of blockchain technology adoption, China is ahead of Europe. China's president Xi Jinping sees blockchain technology as one of the fundamental technologies to reform the Chinese economy. Blockchain technology has already been embraced at various levels of government. Furthermore, there are hundreds of companies in Shanghai alone that are involved in blockchain. In that respect, the Chinese population and business is a lot more pragmatic than Europe. Trading in digital coins is a grey area in China. The Chinese state wants to ban it because many wealthy Chinese people use Bitcoin to send their capital abroad. The Chinese government wants to keep control of all flows of money and data and therefore does not support the current Bitcoin model and other cryptocurrencies.
8. Recently there was an HPB meet-up in the Netherlands. To what extent is Europe really a target group for HPB (in terms of: partners and communities)? Europe is one of the leaders in blockchain technology and has, for example, already outpaced the United States and large parts of Asia by applying disruptive distributed ledger technology. The European market has a lot of potential, because a large pool of talented developers is available. Furthermore, a number of European countries are particularly pragmatic. Malta and Switzerland, for example, have already introduced an extensive legal framework for blockchain technology and organizations. This offers certainty for blockchain companies and for companies that want to apply the technology. We see the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland as strategic locations for building communities. That is why we have set up an incubator in Switzerland together with Cryptovalley to support local blockchain developers. In addition, we recently organized a meet-up and workshop in the Netherlands.
9. What are the biggest competitors for HPB? Ethereum and other "second generation" blockchains, other new blockchain startups, or is it just Bitcoin? We actually have no direct competitor, because there is no other blockchain company that offers a similar product (blockchain hardware chipset) as HPB. In practice, every blockchain protocol can compete with us. Then you can think of projects such as Ethereum and EOS. But we believe that we offer a different value proposition and in this way will distinguish ourselves in the long term.
10. What is the one tip that you want to give to every blockchain and crypto fan? The number of blockchain projects and applications will only increase in the coming years. Many of these projects have very ambitious goals, but various studies show that 90% of all tech companies fail within 5 years. First, it is important to evaluate whether the business model of a project is practical and whether it has a reasonable chance of success. I would therefore also recommend that people check carefully whether a project is still active and transparent about their performance and progress. Interview first published at:
https://www.blockchainstories.com/2019/03/29/rowshandel-van-hpb-toekomstblockchain-is-enorm-rooskleurig/