Arne Blix, CEO of Friend Unifying Platform, describes a streaming OS that lets users access cloud applications through any browser with just an identity. The platform plans an ICO from Norway, a hybrid marketplace accepting tokens and fiat, and peer-to-peer resource sharing. Blix, with 15 years in FinTech, predicts blockchain will see rapid growth and turbulence in 2018 before stabilizing.
Questions this video answers
Just a browser (on any device) and the ability to identify themselves.
By streaming pixel differences (described as a "streaming OS" or MeTAOS) while leaving applications and data where they are.
Norway.
15 years.
From 2007 to 2012.
Chapters
What is my barrier to entry? What technology will I need to have so that I can access the cloud to have this amazing computer at my fingertips?
Just a browser. And that browser can be on any device. You only need to be able to identify yourself and then you're on your virtual cloud computer.
Really? Now, how are you alleviating the stress of bandwidth that may limit some of the folks up to the cloud?
It's a great question because it should be called a streaming OS or a MeTAOS, because we're only streaming the pixel differences. We are leaving the applications where they are, we are leaving the data where they are. We just connect it all in one unified experience, which makes the GUI easier. No passwords, no download of applications, no uninstallation of applications, because you're running out of space. So we are first talking to and helping developers and they will create fantastic user experiences, but we are helping them with this tool so that they can do this.
Walk me through your process over the next 12 months, if you don't mind.
Yes. So we're doing the ICO from Norway and in Norway, and Norway is transparent. So in Norway you have to report more as a private company.
I've heard things about Norway.
Yeah. We're actually quite democracy country and there's no thumb holding us down because we don't have foreign debt.
Right.
And we have the min, the least distance between poor and rich in the western world.
Interesting.
So it's a very flat society, it's a social democracy. So it's the values that we like and I believe the viewers here, that's the values we want. So the transparency level in Norway is such that a private company has to disclose more than a public company has to disclose. In the US that means all token holders can be in the cards at all times. And that's good. Transparency is a friend blockchain is for transparency.
Speaking of transparency with your coin, what I'd like to know is how are you tying the value to your coin?
Yes. So it is the utility of it is a membership. So you can use this network for free. Peer to peer. People can download the friend core and share resources and earn tokens peer to peer. So that's the free part of it. So we connect all these great decentralized technologies and we connect their tokens with our token in a token token integration, like Omezigu, for example, and then in the Friend Store, which is a marketplace on top of the network, an agnostic marketplace, just like Google Play and Apple store, etc. But it's cheaper and it can also accept fiat. So it's a blend of technology because we can then mix and blend decentralized and centralized fiat technology and new technology, and we can blend currency.
How are you looking ahead towards some of the government regulations that may come into place in some of the areas where you're looking to penetrate? How is your leadership approaching?
That's a great question. What we're doing is we. I've been 15 years in FinTech, so I have 2ft solidly placed in the World Economic Forum type style. I've been here since 2007 to 2012 in my old. So they know me, they trust me, and I'm telling them, this is a bit scary, but it's okay. It's just that you don't know it yet.
It's scary because they are not informed.
Yes, okay. What you don't know, you fear. That's just that simple. I used to drive submarines for a living. And whenever you talk to people about that, people go, oh, that's scary. It's just because they don't know the tech. Absolutely. You fly planes, right? And you trust.
You know that.
Well, you know, at least you sit on them and you don't know necessarily all the details, but it's safe. Right. So it's the same type of thing. New is scary, but that's, you know, decentralized is made for building trust into the tech. And blockchain was built to be able to make it easier for people to go from the financial crisis to a better place. That's what we're trying to do. So it's a transition. It's not a revolution, it's an evolution.
Let me ask you, have you found that financial institutions want to work with you now and because of the. Obviously because of the offerings that they don't find in traditional settings.
Yes. You're helping me to go back to your question originally. I'm sorry. So we started off in Switzerland because I know the regulatory environment in Switzerland and we don't have that ecosystem yet in Norway. For blockchain, it's starting. And then I thought, last autumn, why don't I do this ICO in Norway? So I contacted the biggest bank. I contacted one of the big four. We are the only ICO that they are backing. We're working with the Norwegian authorities to create a safe, austere, transparent ICO Runway. Setting a barrier, a standard that other people can follow because it's a great, fantastic, crowdfunding, you know, financial vehicle that can help people like me, other people who are good at tech to talk to and get funded by people who understand them because the established society of VC, etc. They are. Unless you're a big company and there are big dollars, they're not necessarily so patient to understand your technology and they're not going to fund you.
Absolutely.
So this is actually helping people. Red. Lowering the barrier to thumb grade technology. That's what it's doing. So I love you.
Two things that you would like. Two things I would like to know from you.
Yes.
You're a veteran in here in Davos. How have you seen the fintech and crypto community affected in 2017 by blockchain and crypto?
Right.
That were. Let me rephrase that. How have you seen Davos welcome the fintech crypto community?
Specifically, I would say it's a bit yin and yang. The people who are embracing change and continuing to learn and understand that change is the new normal, learning is the new normal. They embrace this. People who are maybe a bit tired of learning and don't want to relate to new things and they think it's a bit scary. Scary. It's about knowledge. Right. So again, what I said earlier, what you don't really know, you fair. Right. And, and this is happening very fast. This is 1995, 2000. Again, much more fast, much more aggressive, much more violent in a way. But it's beautiful and, and, and it will be volatile. There will be some bubble crashing, there will stuff. But this is normal. Failure is okay, but we just have to.
If you learn from it.
Yes. And everyone I meet in this community, they really want to do good. They really want to lower the differences in society. I think it's about humanism.
Right.
I think it's about actually understanding coexistence and flattening of the world and equal opportunity and diversity is good and okay. Right. And I think that Davos is starting to listen and hear this song, but it's a new song and it's a bit scary because it's Christian power constructions and landscape. So people are afraid they will lose their influence actually. For authorities, for banks, for tax. This is a fantastic technology. For government, for police, FBI for example, are out there saying less than 1% money laundering in Bitcoin, right. In Ethereum even less. I just spoke to Ron Resnik, the new CEO of Enterprise Alliance. Enterprise, Ethereum Alliance. He's a great guy. He's a former pilot like me. I fly planes for a hobby and we can understand each other. So this is about the young people being able to directly connect with the more senior crowd. And that's a bit foreign and strange for the more senior crowd. So when I meet Banks, one of the CEOs of the the biggest bank in Norway, I met him and since we know each other, he said, okay, I need a project. I know you, I want to learn.
Okay?
So he said, let's start carefully to do this.
It's nice to know that friend is looking at the regulatory regime, the authorities and playing nicely with them as much as you can, as much as they will allow. That's refreshing to hear with ICOs and 2018, the future of 2018, the economy and blockchain. What do you have forecast for us for the future in 2018? Blockchain and the economy? Yes, I went there with that one.
So for about eight or 10 months ago, I might have the numbers a bit off. We had about half as many different cryptocurrencies or digital assets. I think we should not talk about crypto. Crypto sounds a bit scary. Crypto is scary. So now there's a lot of ICOs, a lot of different tokens coming out that's gonna accelerate even faster. The marketplaces that they are traded is also exploding. There will be more. It'll continue, but there will be some blow ups, there will be some bubbles bursting. But the technology, the decentralized technology and blockchain chain is here to stay. And there will be, there will be a bit of turbulence, but they will start to stabilize and people will actually start dancing along. It's going to be fine. Nothing is going to go really, really bad. It's going to hurt a bit, change hurts, but actually it's going to be a lot of fun.
Well, thank you so much for that and your time. See you soon. See you next year. Again, thank you for coming. Stephen Chase, the Coin Telegraph.
