NEW Travel Rules & FATF - an interesting article by Katharina Lasota Heller & Allison Fromm

The Travel Rule, established to monitor how money ‘travels’, obliges financial institutions to share information about transaction originators and beneficiaries in order to quickly detect suspicious transactions and fight money-laundering.
In June 2019, FATF (Financial Action Task Force), an intergovernmental organization created to fight money-laundering, stated that virtual assets (cryptocurrencies and asset tokens) have to follow the Travel Rule unless only one party uses VASP, or VASP is not used at all.
Switzerland’s rules on VASP use are stricter, as in 2019, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) informed that Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) are subject to anti-money laundering regulations and have to meet legal certain requirements, no matter if they transfer cryptocurrencies or different assets.
FINMA’s standards oblige both VASPs participating in a given transaction to be based in countries with strong anti-money laundering regulations in place.

 

 

Certain countries, such as North Korea and Iran, are completely blacklisted so transactions between them and Switzerland are not accepted. Some countries, for example, Syria, Albania, and Pakistan qualify for increased monitoring so whether transactions to these countries are accepted depends on every case individually.
Additionally, FINMA obliges Swiss VASPs to confirm the identity of all involved parties of transactions, even if the owner of funds transfers his own funds between different wallets.
Such verification can be quickly done if an involved party is a VASP customer, otherwise, a VASP needs to seek other means of confirming the identity of all involved parties.
Such regulations introduce increased monitoring to decentralized finances, which is a subject of debate in the financial world. Read more

Gaming without limits - the journey into the blockchain-powered gaming world with Kristaps Vaivods

With the emergence of blockchain-powered gaming solutions, the gaming world may enter an era of brand-new possibilities.
Many gaming visionaries dream of the gaming multiverse, connected by the blockchain system and built on transparency, trust, and security. In such a blockchain-powered gaming world, players can freely trade their assets, and they have greater control over the game than ever before.
In the player-owned economies, the rules of the game change, and blockchain veterans such as VZ Games’ Kristaps Vaivods, welcome such changes with open arms. Blockchain game starts! Read more
Artur Pszczółkowski after GamerHash's victory in Singapore

‘GamerHash is done by gamers, this is our DNA and legitimizes us within global communities’

In only 3 years since its foundation Gamerhash gained over 500 000 users around the globe, won AIBC Malta Pitch, BlockShow Singapore, and Miami Blockchain Week - pretty impressive and it is really hard to find a blockchain company with so many successes. Now Gamerhash has more reasons to celebrate - GamerCoin (GHX) token attracted many investors and collected $2,8 million in BTC, ETH and USD, EUR, and PLN during the private sale round. Read our interview with Artur Pszczółkowski, Co-Founder & CMO at GamerHash

How to navigate the investment world in the blockchain-powered era? Jürgen Kob on global and Swiss Asset & Wealth Management

How is the Swiss Asset & Wealth Management industry adapting to the new digital reality, powered by blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Let us explore Asset & Wealth Management both in Switzerland and worldwide with the help of experienced asset manager, Jürgen Kob, currently working at Friends & Finance. Read more

WHO WE ARE

There’s no better place to be for blockchain enthusiasts than Swiss-Polish Blockchain Association.

We are located in the heart of Switzerland - in canton Zug, famous for being a fintech startups’ mecca. It is where entrepreneurs from around the globe go, looking for growth opportunities and investors.

Proud to be part of this unique and exceptional ecosystem, we want to build a bridge between the Swiss and Polish blockchain community.

Our team consists of experienced professionals, both from Poland and Switzerland, with multidisciplinary backgrounds, but with shared common belief that blockchain is the gamechanger for many fields.

It includes looking at the technology and its’ usage from various angles, for instance - legal aspects, impact on societies or usage in widely defined healthcare.

 

JOIN THE ASSOCIATION!

 

The strength of who we are and what we do  -  is you! We are glad to welcome everyone to our Swiss-Polish Blockchain community. Add your talents and expertise and gain the full benefit of our network.

photo-of-zug

WHY IS WORTH JOINING US?

We aim to achieve our mission by:

  • building and establishing a networking platform and meeting place for members
  • organizing common projects
  • starting and enabling research
  • organizing conferences, meet-ups and other useful events
  • offering an initial business and legal advice relevant to startups setting up in the blockchain/crypto space by issuing policy recommendations

Part of the power of blockchain technology is the ability to create powerful network effects. That is our aim as well.

Bring your talents, your vision, your problems - and let’s build a strong link in the Swiss-Polish blockchain community (Articles of Association / Statut Stowarzyszenia).

OUR EVENTS

March 2020

March 2020
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Any home can be a smart home, whether it is a studio apartment or a mansion. An official definition of smart home doesn’t exist. What started as more of a buzzword has entered into a common usage. A smart home … Read More

October 2019

October 2019
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On October 23rd, SPBA co-organized a successful and well-attended event dedicated to health in the digital transformation. Our President Katharina Lasota Heller gave an inspiring speech about a really hot topic: who owns our health data?   Paweł Sobotkowski presented … Read More