In this interview hosted by Anita (Crypto Granny), Malta‑based blockchain experts Abdallah Kablan and Ian Gauci discuss their multifaceted careers, Malta’s pioneering regulatory framework for distributed ledger technology, and how Finland can adopt a similar innovative stance. Abdallah outlines his background as a technologist, founder of Kaleido, director of the Malta Stock Exchange, university lecturer, and advisor to the Maltese government that helped craft the world’s first blockchain‑specific regulations. Ian describes his experience as a technology lawyer, member of Malta’s National Blockchain Task Force, co‑author of the legislation, managing partner of a law firm, and co‑creator of the interdisciplinary Blockchain Masters programme. Both emphasize the collaborative model between academia, industry, and regulators that underpins Malta’s “Digital Innovation Authority.” They advise Finland to leverage its strong technical talent, embrace risk, and at minimum avoid obstructing blockchain innovation. The conversation then shifts to the Delta Summit, an annual Malta‑based conference that began in 2018 to showcase high‑quality thought leaders in blockchain, AI, IoT, esports, and game development, growing from 1,000 planned attendees to 4,500 participants while maintaining strict content standards. Abdallah invites Finnish companies and innovators to join the upcoming October edition, positioning Malta as a “digital innovation island” and a hub for European collaboration.
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TranscriptAuto-generated · 15 min
So I have had the pleasure to talk to quite a few people today, but now I'm really lucky to get 2 friends from Malta. So, Crypto Granny friends Abdallah and Ian, please introduce yourself because unfortunately in Finland I'm not sure if they know you so well as yet, but I hope that will be the case in the future. Hi, I'm Abdallah. Hi, I'm Ian. So maybe you, Abdallah, first. Who are you?
Well, it's very nice to see you again, Anita. It's a great pleasure and it's an honor to see you again. So I'm Abdallah Kablan. I'm a technologist based in Malta here. I wear a number of hats. So throughout the years, I founded a number of companies in the AI and fintech space. One of my latest and proudest companies is Kaleido, where I'm founding partners with Dr. I am Gauci, where we are a company that services the blockchain industry by handling the virtual financial assets agencies and systems auditing amongst various other things. I'm also a director of the Malta Stock Exchange. I'm an academic at the University of Malta, so I lecture and research topics ranging from deep learning, algo trading, and principles of blockchain technology. And since the end of 2017, I've had the honor of advising the government of Malta on digital innovation and regulatory arrangements, which culminated into setting up the world's first regulatory framework for blockchain technology. I'm a technologist, so I did not write the law. People like him wrote the law, who are the lawyers. So I'm going to pass to Ian.
I think it's better if he introduced me, introduced him, because it's a little bit strange always introducing myself. So, um, similar to Abdallah, I wear a lot of hats. By profession, I'm a lawyer, but a lawyer with a very strong policy and regulatory background. So, um, I originate as a telecoms lawyer, so I'm a technology lawyer. I can say that I, I'm not an expert because I hate to use the word expert, but I worked exclusively in technology for the past 18 years. So I think I'm quite comfortable in that area. That led me as well to be chosen for the National Blockchain Task Force, where similar to Abdallah, I was advising government, the ministry on the policy formulation, on choosing the right people as well to formulate the policy, upon which we embarked on another step where together with technologists, together with other industry people, and it was a fantastic experience. We started crafting the legislation as well. So there I was an intrinsic part as well of the drafting team in Malta. This was an exhilarating experience which has not ended because right now we're still advising the Malta Digital Innovation Authority and the MFSA. So there is a lot of work to be done. Another hat which I have is that I also teach at university. Both myself and Abdallah are as well involved Dr. Kaplan are as well involved. We have created a specific interdisciplinary master course, which is the Blockchain Masters. It's a unique form of master's in Europe, and we are, both of us teach and are in the board. I teach as well law students, normal law students, so not at master's level, legal futures. That includes as well DLT, ethics, and AI. Okay. And then I have my business. So aside from being a lawyer, I'm as well the managing partner of the firm, and I collaborate very closely with Abdallah. One thing which is very important is Kalido. Kalido represents what we and Abdallah were doing for the past years. We were striving for excellence. We were striving for something which is quite innovative, where you have different people coming from different backgrounds, coming from different as well, different as well professions, working on one Common aim was innovation. We did that. It proved to be successful when we worked together. We got to know each other when we were advising government. That's where I got to know Dr. Kaplan, who was advising before me. We got to know each other through coincidence. So we said, listen, this can work literally. And we created the same, replicated the same model, which we're doing as well at university in our business practice, which is quite innovative.
In fact, I have a funny story. Basically, like, Dr. Ian and I speak at a lot of conferences and we've always been good friends, but when you're busy and speaking at so many conferences, you don't keep track of who else is speaking at the conference. So like, for the past years, we kept on bumping into each other in so many conferences, and then it escalated to the extent that we were bumping into each other on the panels we were speaking. And then the moment where we realized we should actually work together was in one day, once in the morning, we were at a conference on the same panel, and then in the evening there was a completely different conference. I went there and they found out that I am on the same panel with him at that other conference. So I said, okay, maybe we should, we should do something together.
Thank you so much. And obviously I've known both of you close to a year now. And, uh, Crypto Granny with no tech knowledge or background whatsoever. So obviously you are my guys to come back to would I get some, some tricky questions or just facing problems that I, I really, really, really would not understand. But obviously one of the things, as you know so well, my approach in the scene, if you wish, amongst the actors is to simplify things. So someone with my kind of a background and not being so young anymore, obviously it is sometimes very challenging to understand what is going on. But the other pain point, if you wish, within me and the ConsenSys guys as well back home in Finland is that I'm quite proud of being a Finn coming from the Nokia country, but I kind of feel at this moment that we are missing the train. So coming from this innovative and very tech-capable nation and this, you know, context, I really admire what Malta as a small EU country is doing. You are obviously in the front line of that. So what would you say or how would you like to comment that a country like Finland, for example, what would be the good approach to take as we want to be very, very precise when it comes to law and taxes and all that? We, you know, just go and pay whatever they want. So in this field, how could, as a nation, as a country, as a government, Finland maybe support the actors and the tech guys that are looking into this industry?
Let's start with the premise that, as I stated before, I've experienced Finland. I'd experienced Finland when Nokia was still at its high, so I was lucky to be invited in Nokia's labs in Finland, in Helsinki. I experienced Finland as well. I was invited to speak at Rovaniemi University with top people, exquisite places, very competent professors, very competent students who challenged the professors. I was literally amazed. said, wow, the skill set is unique, very bright people. Now, so you have the complement, you have the capacity, you need to embrace the prospect. Now, the prospect is okay because we are the Blockchain Island. The prospect is not blockchain. The prospect is you need to embrace the innovation, you need to embrace the opportunity. Yes, and that carries risk. I think that If I may speak freely, the Finns are afraid to risk. That's the only thing I can say about them. Otherwise, I say that they have a positive predisposition. They have a capable culture. They have capable people. And time and time again, you look at Nokia, you look at other industries, they have always proved to be leaders in certain sectors within the European community and even worldwide. Because let's face it, We were speaking about Nokia. Nokia was a— it still is because it is re-emerging. So I would say it's just a question of, yes, there is a risk. I think we are smaller to that extent, so we are more lean. But, and we both, myself and Dr. Kavlan, have said this time and time again, even if Finland had to not do anything but not oppose this innovation, let's be clear about one thing. We're not doing anything. To benefit Malta at the extent of other countries. We're doing something which, given that we believe in the principle of empowerment and innovation, it is something which we know that is not exclusive to Malta, does not pertain to a particular country. So we collaborate, we learn from each other. So as long as other countries don't oppose this and marry, okay, they marry the value that we are practically projecting and they comment as well, they will still benefit because at the end of the day, this is as well decentralized knowledge and it's all decentralized effort, nothing is centralized in a country. And we really believe in that.
That is very true. And I think most of our audience is over 18 years old. So I can say that I've been— maybe you heard this too— I've been telling people around that, you know, I'm very kind of proud of Malta because you are a small nation, about around half a million is the population. But you are the ones in EU that has the balls, and excuse my expression, to do things that we kind of, you know, would want to do or dream of doing, but being too maybe, I don't know, not honest, but too again strict with each other or not daring maybe. I don't know. There is an event that you did not mention. We are now in the Malta AI and Blockchain Summit, but there will be another one taking place in October. I was again happy and honored to participate last year. It's called the Delta Summit, and you are obviously the key person. You are the founder of the event. I would like very much you to tell what Delta Summit is all about, and hopefully we get Finnish companies and industries and maybe speakers to join the event.
For sure. I mean, the idea of Delta Summit was born last year when we suddenly realized that we're literally the first country in the world to regulate technology arrangements and services such as DLT and the subset that is blockchain. And we wanted to celebrate that fact and put together an event that is unlike no other, an event that focuses mainly on the quality of the delegates, the quality of the speakers, valuing content to a high extent. And to bring together the world's best thought leaders, innovators, pioneers, visionaries, people who can share their insights and strategic foresight about where this industry is going to head in the future. And I think I was quite lucky because I managed to assemble a very, very good team to help and assist in translating the vision that I had in mind of how to create this event in the best way possible and to turn it into, into reality. We ended up with one of the most successful events of 2018. At the end of the year, it was nominated in more than one place as one of the best blockchain events of the year, which is something that we're really quite proud of. And this year, we're actually planning to consolidate that success of last year, make sure that even though the event is actually growing, it's gonna grow quite a lot, We, we keep the very high quality. Last year we created an event with a plan to have 1,000 people and we ended up with 4,500 people, but of very, very good quality. This year the event is doubling in size because together with the blockchain and fintech, we're moving into AI, IoT, esports, and game development. So I have 5 pillars for the event and for that reason the spectrum is quite broader. But the reason why it's like that is because in Malta, even though we are the blockchain island, we're quite proud of that, honestly speaking, we are a digital innovation island. Even the regulator that was set up last year is called the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, not the Malta Blockchain Authority. So, so it is a part of this digital innovation movement that we've created in Malta, the one that is spearheaded by the government and actually implemented and executed by pioneers like Dr. Gauci and everyone else on the ground here in Malta, and people that are either planning to move their operations to Malta because of legal certainty, people who already decided to move to Malta or have, you know, already moved to Malta. So it is, it is going to be again an event like no other. We're actually looking at it as, you know, a concert for intellectuals. The very interesting thing we've done about or for Delta last year, you were there, even in terms of the quality of the stage and, you know, it was quite magnificent. We tried to bring a bit of showbiz into techbiz but keep the quality at the highest standards. So I invite all the Finnish community of technology to come this October between the 2nd and 4th of October. And please, you know, come explore what we're doing here in Malta. And at the end of the day, we're all friends, Europeans. I want to be a part of a broader community, and Finland is one of our target places.
Thank you so much, and I really hope to see many Finnish participants exhibiting but also introducing their innovations. And hopefully the knowledgeable people will join, want to join the event and come to Malta because the Malta effect is obviously everywhere. So it is a slightly different approach, more Mediterranean. So as such, it will differentiate any event in Malta, but obviously within the scene. Abdullah, Ian, thank you so much for your time, and, and I will see you around. Thank you so much. Thank you.
