Emerson Fonseca, Paylance and NEM PH, [PH 2019 Crypto & Blockchain Year in Review]

December 27, 2019 – Depending on who you ask, 2019 is another turbulent year for the crypto and blockchain industries. Globally, we’ve seen companies refocus their efforts or merge with others to survive. In the Philippines, we’ve read about more pending regulations, developments in the space, and more education drive. BitPinas sought the opinion of people who work in the blockchain and crypto industry in the Philippines, including leaders and influencers here and abroad on what they think about 2019 in general and what they look forward to in 2020.

Emerson Fonseca is the CEO of NEM Philippines and the Chief Community Officer of Paylance. NEM Philippines advocates blockchain education in the Philippines, partnering with schools and universities through training and their NEM blockchain elective courses. Paylance is a platform where users can accept and distribute funds across the world easily.

Can you please share the latest developments from your company/project/group this year?

Ever since we established NEM Philippines 2 years ago, one of our missions is really to push the Blockchain Education in the Philippines. Currently, we are able to partner with more than 20 Universities in rolling out the NEM Blockchain Elective course. I think this is the biggest development and our best contribution to the Blockchain industry in the Philippines. More and more universities are approaching us, inquiring about blockchain even though at some point, the term was highly connected with the misconceptions about cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings. We want to fill in the gap for the people and new industry to understand the potential of Blockchain Technology.

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Please share a personal highlight for you this year in the crypto and blockchain community.

I just joined Paylance, another company that has been in the industry since 2014. I got on board just this October 2019 as their Chief Community Officer. I have been using the Paylance platform ever since I started crypto trading way back in 2015 and did not encounter any single issues with them. That is why I got excited when they approached me to join them. I am very thankful to the executives for their overall trust and confidence.

What do you think is the most important blockchain and/or crypto development in the Philippines/Globally in 2019?

For the Philippines, I think the most important development is that local companies are now advancing in adopting new technologies not limited to Blockchain but as well as into other emerging technologies such as Big Data, Cloud Technologies, IOT, and AI. There is also a growth in the number of startups that leverages Blockchain as part of their solutions. I personally believe that Blockchain has a very huge potential to transform the financial services sector. Globally, we have seen so much advances in Blockchain development from market and enterprise adoption, investors and financial institution interest, and also regulations.

What is your company/project/group looking forward to this 2020 in this space?

For NEM Philippines, we are still looking forward for more partnerships and collaboration with enterprise clients, partner universities and the government. For Paylance, we are looking to onboard more users and business partners, micro, small, and medium enterprises to integrate their system with our platform and help our fellow Filipinos, here in the Philippines or outside to manage their remittances, funds, and any financial transactions easily and efficiently.

What do you personally look forward to in this space?

I still personally look forward for more blockchain awareness as well as more mainstream consciousness when it comes to cryptocurrency investing. Even now, we still hear or read reports about cryptocurrency scams and frauds, and news like those always put cryptocurrency and blockchain in a bad light.

What do you see for the Philippines in 2020 in this space?

Regardless of the bear market and despite all the scams and ICO hype, I still believe that there we are likely to see more developments in the Blockchain Space. There are positive sentiments and movements from the government, financial institutions, banks, tech giants, and different industries globally.

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