Building With the Enemy: It's the Crypto Network That Makes Us Strong

Ian Simpson is chairman of communications at the Crypto Valley Association, an organization that supports the Swiss blockchain sector.

In the current crypto market conditions, many people, on all sides, are "Bearing" it, most without any grin on their face whatsoever.

Crypto supposedly allowed every talented group of visionaries to pursue their own version, at their own pace and within the confines of their own team.

Not only was it not good because teams weren't held accountable for shipping code and acquiring a healthy base of users and customers in order to sustain a business, it wasn't good because the vast majority of projects set out for the moon, charting their own path without ever considering how they would eventually fit into a wider, more interconnected blockchain ecosystem.

Further, you would be hard-pressed to find a more collaborative developer community than Ethereum and a more decentralized company than ConsenSys, and both have had their troubles.

The spirit of cooperation and decentralization have long been "Central" to the success and prosperity of Switzerland, home of the Crypto Valley.

Over the last 12 months, projects coming to Crypto Valley, Switzerland have found great advantage in the close connection to nearby Lichtenstein.

The Crypto Valley Association has hosted numerous high-level delegations from other countries, many in Asia, who are looking to learn and understand what makes for good public policy for blockchain and crypto technology.

There are even projects, like Covee, in Crypto Valley using blockchain to tackle the very challenge of collaboration in the field of knowledge work.

Perhaps the most telling example comes from a brief moment during the public launch of SEBA Crypto, the Zug-based company aiming to become Switzerland's first fully-licensed and fully-regulated crypto bank.