Blockchain: Unfiltered

• Alibaba is spending more than $3 billion to dominate online groceries in China
• The US government sues Google for alleged anticompetitive abuses in search

Featured roundtable: Does COVID19 mark the beginning of the end for traditional education? What transformations will we see over the next decade

• Covid-19 could push some universities over the brink
• An economist explains how COVID-19 will impact universities
• Education may be forever changed for Gen Z after the coronavirus pandemic.
• VCs pour funding into edtech startups as COVID-19 shakes up the market

Learn more about our special guest Laurence Smith:

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Transformation Mindset

Latest news:
Politics in tech- Inside the BLM turmoil at Coinbase
https://www.wired.com/story/turmoil-black-lives-matter-political-speech-coinbase/

Technology becoming a cornerstone of global diplomacy?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-01/china-tech-to-face-even-closer-scrutiny-from-global-governments

The beginning of the breakup of bigtech?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-05/house-panel-to-recommend-breakup-of-tech-giants-republican-says

Featured Roundtable: What influence has COVID-19 had on technology adoption and digital transformation? 

Which companies and industries will be the winners and losers?
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/digital-transformation/digital-transformation-COVID-19.html

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin disclosed today a mega hack
https://www.zdnet.com/article/kucoin-cryptocurrency-exchange-hacked-for-150-million/

TikTok’s fate coming to a head
https://www.livemint.com/technology/tech-news/tiktok-s-fate-coming-to-a-head-11601210526711.html

Featured Roundtable: 
Asia encompasses a diverse mix of advanced and high-growth emerging economies undergoing immense demographic, economic and technological transformations. As such, the region’s growth and dynamism represent one of the world’s best long-term growth stories.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GadhFQAcxOmQjEWnGRC3tovr3icPl3DKFsnsbl5gDOc/edit  

Investment highlights/ Startup spotlight:                                                                                                                                   

Indonesian fintech startup BukuWarung gets new funding to add financial services for small merchants 
https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/28/indonesian-fintech-startup-bukuwarung-gets-new-funding-to-add-financial-services-for-small-merchants/

Philippines payment processing startup PayMongo lands $12 million Series A led by Stripe
https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/27/philippines-payment-processing-startup-paymongo-lands-12-million-series-a-led-by-stripe/

Latest news:
https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/alibaba-3-207255/
https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/17/tiktoks-chinese-rival-kuaishou-becomes-a-popular-online-bazaar/  

Investment highlights/ Startup spotlight:
https://www.techinasia.com/tiktoks-rival-kuaishou-aims-raise-5b-hk-ipo
https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/21/wm-motor-1-47-billion-funding/
https://e27.co/kim-an-raises-series-a-to-connect-vietnams-financial-institutions-with-msmes-via-its-fintech-platform-20200911/ 

Featured roundtable:
Asia's digital economy is developing rapidly, and at a faster pace than the West. Why is this so?  1. Asia's scale a digital advantage: Asia has around half of the global internet users, with China and India leading the way.  2. Emergence of Unicron innovators - Asia has around 40% of the global tech unicorns who are actively driving innovation. 3. Role of the government, in some cases, governments have remained on the sidelines, creating space for startups to experiment. In other cases, governments have taken an active role in promoting innovation eg Singapore. 4. In some emerging economies in the region, there is less legacy infrastructure standing in the way, enabling innovators to bring advanced solutions right to the public at speed. 5. Consumers’ openness to new technologies and the mobile Internet. 6. In many countries fundamental infrastructure is broken, and founders can leverage technology to fill those gaps. What does this all mean for investors and the wider global economy?

• Vitalik's view on de-fi
• https://decrypt.co/40318/vitalik-buterin-ethereum-defi-yield-farmers-central-banks
• Japans evolving view on blockchain
  • https://decrypt.co/40220/japans-evolving-view-on-blockchain-regulation

Track and Trace and provenance in whisky, and Amazon's counterfeit problem

• https://decrypt.co/23384/blockchain-is-helping-weed-out-fake-japanese-sake

DeFi Is Just Like the ICO Boom and Regulators Are Circling

Security

Uber’s Former Security Chief Charged With Trying to Conceal Hack Using Bitcoin

Huawei Builds Blockchain Platform to Help Beijing Government Manage People’s Data

Central banking and Regulation

Boston Fed looks into 30 Blockchain networks to support Digital Dollar

Story from News Brazil’s Central Bank Tasks Group With Laying Out Road Map to Digital Currency Issuance

PBoC Says Digital Yuan Tests Focus on Small Transactions After Rumored Property Sale

Venture and M&A

Polychain Capital’s Original Crypto Fund Raises an Additional $19.5M

ConsenSys Acquires JPMorgan’s Quorum Blockchain