Our horizontal innovation enables projects built on our platform to continuously innovate and stay current, says Coinweb CEO Toby Gilbert.

There is currently divided opinion on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. As an operator in the sector, what do you think are the arguments in favour? 

There is a common misconception that the two are independent of one another. The vast majority of blockchains rely upon the token system to operate. Wild speculation has occurred in cryptocurrencies leading to massive swings, one contributing reason for damaging the reputation of the space – albeit adoption of blockchain technology is increasing at a rate not previously seen especially among corporates and governments.

We believe that the shake-up we are seeing in the specific ICO space is weeding out the weaker projects and will ultimately deliver the technology and solutions that drive mass adoption.

Do you envisage more investor buy-in, into cryptocurrencies? 

We already see considerably less retail investment and more professional and sophisticated investors entering the market. Many of the crypto funds are underwater and are pitching to the traditional sources of capital to recap them in turn, which is prompting them to set up their own crypto investment divisions.

In your mission statement, you say that you want to ‘make the blockchain mainstream by making it more personal and more connected’. How do you plan to do this? 

Coinweb makes it all more personal via a name system that replaces hash addresses and spans all blockchains. What the DNS does for the internet, we do for the blockchain and the man who invented the DNS, Paul Mockapetris is leading this effort for us.

When we refer to making it more connected, we have built a hyper layer which connects the blockchains. So now you can build on top of our layer 2 protocol platform and pick and choose the functionality of the underlying chains that we sit on top of. 

In your white paper, you also speak of ‘horizontal innovation’. What does this entail? 

The majority of new innovations within the space are based around developing new blockchains that have their own sets of features and functionality but are built in silos unconnected to one another.

Thus when a project builds on top of one of them they are anchored to that chain hindering their ability to innovate with new functionality attached to new blockchains being released.

We refer to this as vertical innovation. In turn we propose a horizontal innovation where we build across the chains, constantly incorporating new ones and their associated functionality.

This enables projects built on our platform to continuously innovate and stay current. 

What are your main product and service offerings? 

Our product offering is focused on the ability to purchase your own name similar to an e-mail address that is used to send and receive tokens in our own multi-currency wallet that is as easy to use as e-mail.

Users will also have the ability to issue their own branded tokens and smart contracts while being able to pick and choose the functionality of the underlying blockchains we sit on top of.

There will also be a decentralised exchange that will list the tokens issued from our platform as well as the majority of the other tokens in the market and this will plug into some of the major exchanges in the market for the purposes of liquidity.

All of this functionality will be unbelievably simple to use with an aim of lowering the barrier to entry to achieve mass adoption. By way of a service offering we have a 360 Accelerator that works alongside traditional companies and projects with existing customer bases to integrate the blockchain their day to day running and in turn we acquire their customers onto our platform. 

You will be present at the Malta Blockchain Summit. How will you engage with attendees? 

We are sponsoring the event and have a booth there as well as a presence at all the major gatherings, dinners and of course parties.

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