Jimmy Nguyen: “Bitcoin is a force that wants to comply with law”

On day 2 of the sensational AIBC Eurasia Summit held in Dubai, the CEO of Blockchain for all, Jimmy Nguyen took to the main stage to give his zealously delivered speech on regulatory compliance in the crypto space, “Law and Ledgers: Blockchain Technology for Compliance”.

Compliance especially in the crypto space in regards to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) regulations has long been an issue that has plagued the industry, with many proponents on both sides of the argument. The decentralised nature of all blockchain ledgers, coupled with the sheer amount of value being moved around on these servers has worried many users and observers of the industry. The issue of compliance and regulation is clearly one which should be discussed as it is more complex than tightening up the laws as many regulatory actions have been met with push back with many claiming it damages the very principles the blockchain space has sought to protect.

The complex nature of blockchains and the ecosystem that has led them to thrive has commonly been condensed into the argument that it allows a user freedom to own their own assets, and trade those assets without having to deal with the stressors and regulators of a middle man such as a bank for instance. Entities which are heavily mired by their centralised nature to stringent compliance laws. This argument has then often been countered with the fear of criminal activity occurring behind the backs of law enforcement and regulatory bodies. This is a topic Jimmy Nguyen had a fresher take on, bringing many solutions and a different angle on the highly lucrative and polarising topic.

Enthusiastically claiming the stage, Nguyen began his address by describing his whole-hearted belief in compliance and in his personal respect for law. “My entire life has revolved around building technology that respects law”. He would go on speak of his father who was a judge in the old capital of Vietnam, Saigon. Continuing on to his own journey within law, becoming a lawyer in Silicon Valley in the mid 90s during the rapid escalation known as the dot-com boom.

Bitcoin

He then moved towards his topic by expressing how he truly believes that technology should be a force to build upon and respect law. In particular the blockchain and how the new, exciting technology is an entity built as “a force that wants to comply with law”, as opposed to becoming “a renegade to disrupt the veracious function of the legal system.”

Bitcoin was of distinct interest to Nguyen who postulated that bitcoin was not designed to take down central banks or governments but instead stressed the inclusion of the the word “honest” in the entities white paper. Describing the blockchain as simply a publicly distributed, time-stamped ledger, that allows users to verify transactions and in turn many other actions across history. A system that must inevitably be designed to actively improve compliance and support the legal system.

Nguyen’s Ventures

This then neatly brought Nguyen to some of the ventures he himself is currently involved in which hold relevancy to his topic. Beginning with a service from Blocktrace named “Fusion” which collects data and feeds related to several entities, including analytic companies, blockchain data etc. Then organises that data by company or entity and produces a composite risk score that is time stamped and can then be tracked in and out of compliance.

The next enterprise was Block ID. One he praised a “universal source of truth”. An auditable ledger that tracks data using the blockchain, with a two-fold application. Firstly, seemingly solving the issue of attribution between advertisers, being able to track users and their chronological history across websites. Enabling advertisers to far more accurately attribute value to the clicks and impressions their content generates. Secondly the issue of consumer privacy, using this technology users can now see the access they have granted to websites and more importantly how and when that date is shared and used.

InvoiceMate was the next innovation he discussed, characterizing the software as a system that uses the blockchain to speed up the process of trading invoices, making them not just more timely but also much faster to authenticate and verify. Bringing up the point that it could power an invoice financing system, allowing banks to lend against pending invoices without the great hassle of a time consuming due diligence. He posited that this could take a process that could take up to 30 days and reduce it to as little as 2.

Worlds of Nguyen

Nguyen then concluded with a statement about the metaverse, from its incredibly practical implications such as applying for papers or performing tasks related to compliance exclusively in the metaverse. Then going on to depict the physical metaverse spaces he and his partners are planning to build, naming them “Worlds of Nguyen” across 5 major cities across the world. Forecasting an inevitable, fully virtual world where everything is digitally twinned, stressing how compliance with legal systems is the only legitimate way forward for the progress of these emerging technologies.