Concordium, the sound of smart money

There is a good chunk of the planet that is not able to make payments, buy or sell stuff, or exchange value in the way more advanced countries do. Not because these people are not worthy for traditional finance players, or maybe not just because of that. It’s not bad will. It’s ultimately because our money is not smart enough. Not so smart to allow everyone in the simplest game of all: trading human-to-human, peer-to-peer.

We are not going to be equal until our money is smart, or until it works as hard for everyone, no matter the size of their wallet. This is where technology can help. And this is why we (FP) sit down with Boris Boher-Bilowitzki, CEO at Concordium, a Layer-1 blockchain built for a new era of digital trust. We should commoditize trust so that even the smallest and legitimate stakeholder can maximize their chances in life. Money is the music of our life. The smarter, the better.

Tell us a little bit about you. 

Boris Boher-Bilowitzki: I was born in Liechtenstein, raised in Austria, and studied in Switzerland. It has been almost ten years now that I have lived in London. I have been in finance my whole life, from brokerage to funds to asset management. Before Concordium, I was the Chief Commercial Officer (and I am a co-founder) of Copper, a multibillion-dollar business now and one of the largest custodians in the blockchain industry. I needed a change, and I probably was not the best fit for Copper any longer. The company has become big and process-oriented, as it is the case for larger firms. I prefer to build things, create something new.

I completely share the excitement of the beginning of this whole movement. I loved the promise of global, electronic, peer-to-peer cash or payments, contained in the Satoshi paper. I believe there must be a better way for people to pay and exchange. Before finance, I came to London to open up an Austrian-Bavarian restaurant. Alpine food is great and undervalued. It should be much bigger than it is. The project did not take off, and that’s where the boring finance stuff began.

What’s the USP of Concordium?

Boris Boher-Bilowitzki: With identity and compliance-ready features embedded right at the protocol level (and not at the smart contract level), Concordium provides a secure and accountable foundation for the digital economy. What does that mean? The core of Concordium is smart money: programmable, identity-embedded, and compliance-ready. It enables frictionless exchange, automation, zero risks, and fraud. Let’s break it down. One of the core ideas of crypto is that it is anonymous. But there is a regulator and there are laws in business, and identity is fundamental if you want to trade anything in today’s financial world. A basic layer of identity is necessary. Concordium is the only chain where identity is in the DNA of the chain. It’s rooted in your wallet. Of course, we preserve privacy. But identity is established at the L1 level, and we have PLT, or protocol-level tokens, which make money smartest and safest, on top of hygiene factors like throughput, finality, and scale.

The tech stack started four years ago, and the new management and I have put in place a new strategy. We believe our goal should be one of making payments and transactions easy and safe in strategic industries, like finance, or entertainment markets like gaming, gambling, and social media, where verified identity and hack-free exchanges are a must. We are not going to be the only chain in business, but we want to be the one with the lowest level of risk and the highest level of programmability, with no exposure to attacks and zero friction.

What’s the future of Concordium and the space?

Boris Boher-Bilowitzki: The main idea contained in the Satoshi paper is still valid. Payments are the core use case for blockchain. We have partnerships already announced and more to come. Take Verify and Pay, where, in one click, you can do it all, verification and payments, without slowing you down and without exposing anyone to risks. We want to be the railways for smarter money in the future.

Like any other chain. Adoption is our priority. We have a Team scattered around Europe, from London to Aarhus, from Copenhagen to Switzerland, where we have our Foundation. We are around 70 people. Our goal is to grow, of course, and focus on simple and relevant use cases, like payments with our tokens, yield-bearing stablecoins, and so forth. Our focus will allow us to be compelling and will allow blockchain-powered money to be smart, inclusive, and finally impactful.

I like the idea of money that is so smart, to make any player in the world arena as smart and empowered. It’s not the end of finance, banks, and traditional institutions. It’s one more technological tool at the service of the global economy.

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