EXANTE Blog | EXANTE Executive Director Anatoly Knyazev at Blockchain Finance Forum 2019 in Vienna

EXANTE Executive Director Anatoly Knyazev spoke at the Blockchain Finance Forum 2019 in Vienna. Anatoly took part inseminar “The Future and Problems of Exchanges” and shared his views on crypto platforms and their prospects. After the seminar, the forum organizers conducted a separate interview with Anatoly.

Today I am here with Anatoly, Executive Director of EXANTE. So, Anatoly, how do you like Vienna, how do you like the event?

Michael, thanks for the invitation!Vienna is a very comfortable city to live in. It seems that for many years now it has been recognized as the most comfortable city to live in, for the tenth time in a row. It's great to be here and the event itself was great. The ANON summit and the financial forum were all very enjoyable.

Thanks so much for the tip! Please tell us what EXANTE is doing now?

EXANTE began its activities as a financialcompany almost 10 years ago, in 2011. We traded derivatives and securities around the world. In 2013, we got into cryptocurrencies and decided to become more active in the crypto space. Since then we have invested in various projects. We bought cryptocurrency for ourselves and for our clients, built relationships with crypto players around the world: in the USA, Europe, Asia... We position ourselves as a crypto investment bank. If anyone has a need to buy, sell, finance, lend, borrow, make deals, if someone is looking for a buyer or seller for cryptocurrency, we can help.

This is your business today. What will your company focus on in the next three years?

I hope that in three years we will see a trend towardsdecentralization, so we work in the field of decentralized finance and pay a lot of attention to it. Of course, we do not forget about classical financial instruments, but it is on decentralization that our R&D resources are focused. We have a research and venture division called Exantech, which is somewhat similar to Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works. We have assembled a team of very talented software developers. We bring some projects to life, some we don’t - in any case, we do very cool things.

You spoke at a seminar with Bitpanda and OKCoin, boththese projects are crypto-exchanges. It was interesting to know your point of view on this topic. You said you believe in decentralized exchanges. What is your belief in decentralized finance (DeFi) and platforms related to? Why is the future behind them?

Decentralized finance and decentralization ingenerally can not solve all the world's problems. For example, we do not yet have unsecured lending on the blockchain. We can only lend for certain assets, otherwise it does not work. But what can be solved, blockchain decides wonderfully. Perhaps this is why cryptocurrency exchange projects feel some kind of decentralization threat, just as banks felt when Bitcoin first appeared. I think decentralization is absolutely inevitable: in the hands of users will be more and more control over the storage of assets, over risks and borrowed funds. Exchanges should not belong to one organization that exercises legal control. It is clear that we must use the strengths of mathematics and cryptography to make the process more efficient. The less we have to “trust” something, the better it works as a whole. Using the Internet as an example: you don’t need to trust any intermediary in order to transfer bytes from point A to point B safely, however, this works fine.

That's why you told the audience that 99% of your portfolio is proof-of-work projects?

Yes exactly. Most of the portfolio is still Bitcoin, but we also have Ethereum, Monero, and possibly a couple more cryptocurrencies. I would say: more than 80% in Bitcoin, much less in Ethereum and others. I think Monero is in second place.

Your LinkedIn profile says: “Keep calm and buy Monero.” Thank you very much for your time and a successful conference! Thank you!