Connect with us

Uncategorized

Anndy Lian Interviews Pavel Matveev, CEO of Wirex: “Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation.”

Published

on

The payment tech industry is growing and one of the main player in my opinion is Wirex. My name is Jenny Zheng, Cofounder of Blockcast.cc. We are based in Singapore and have presence in South Korea, China and the USA. This afternoon, I have the chance to speak to the man himself, CEO of Wirex, Pavel Matveev. We have brought Anndy Lian into the house as well for this interview. He is an inter-governmental blockchain advisor, book author for “Blockchain Revolution 2030”, investor and recently took on the role as Asia CEO of DECENT Group, previously he founded the world first blockchain supply chain solutions for fast consumer goods. He will be the one posting the questions to Pavel and facilitate this discussion.

Jenny: Dear Pavel, good to meet you. Can you give an introduction of yourself?

Pavel: Hi Jenny, thank you for the interview. Hi Anndy, thanks for being here as well despite your busy schedule.

My name is Pavel Matveev. I am the co-founder and CEO of Wirex. As well as ensuring that the company is constantly pushing the boundaries of payment tech, I believe that my role includes facilitating and evangelising the mainstream adoption of distributed ledger technology across a number of industries.

Jenny: Our readers would like to know more about you, your past and current experiences or even your hobbies too. Can you share that as well?

Pavel: Sure. Before Wirex, I helped top-tier investment banks like Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse build trading platforms and algo-trading strategies. During this time, I recognised that the cost and inconvenience of off-boarding digital currencies was an impediment to their use by both consumers and businesses, despite the latent potential in a tokenised economy. Dmitry Lazarichev and I founded Wirex to solve some of these problems and allow people to use their cryptocurrencies in everyday situations.

In my free time, I like to swim, ski and play video games. Not all at the same time!

Anndy: Impressive background. Tell us more about Wirex. We would like to know more on the progress and the future roadmap. For your information, Blockcast.cc did the PR work for OKEX during your IEO stages for the South Korea market. I was in South Korea during that period of time and we know so much about your company. How was the last 12 months for WireX?

Pavel: It’s an exciting time at Wirex and we’ve recently hit some major milestones. Over the last 12 months, we have partnered with Stellar — preparing 26 fiat-backed stable coins to revolutionise international remittance.

The Wirex Token (WXT) — our own native utility token, built on the Stellar network was also released. We then launched our next-gen, multi-currency Wirex Visa travel card in APAC.

We went on with our development work and have completely overhauled and re-designed the Wirex platform and card in early 2019, including the introduction of interbank and OTC rates for fiat and crypto exchanges respectively.

Lastly, we have received JVCEA Type II membership in Japan.

Anndy: You must have great plans ahead after obtaining the Type II membership, maybe Type I? What geographical expansion plans do you have right now?

Pavel: In terms of geographical expansion, we will begin operating in Japan, Canada and the U.S this year. We’re currently working towards acquiring our Type I Licence from Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) — this will establish the platform as a legal Crypto Asset Exchange Service Provider (only 19 companies have achieved this to date) and allow us to offer our full range of services to Japanese customers.

We’re also continuing to develop our business product, including merchant offers that will allow companies to circumvent traditional payment channels run by Visa or Mastercard and Stablecoin-powered remittance.

Anndy: One reason why I stepped up to be part of a government advisor for blockchain is that I do see that there are a lot of scams in the market and it is not getting any better, depending on how you see it. Of course in my line of work, I do see many companies trying their best to navigate this unregulated space to get the best-commercialised value for their business. How do you see the blockchain and cryptocurrency market in general?

Pavel: Blockchains first use was for the movement of money, e.g. — cryptocurrency or digital currencies. I believe digital currencies are the biggest thing to happen to the financial sector since the Bretton Woods agreement. Not only do they allow for a system of money that sits outside the authority and oversight of central banks and governments but they also enable businesses and consumers to circumvent conventional financial infrastructure.

Legacy banking rails are slow and expensive; cryptocurrencies allow for near-instant transactions at a fraction of the cost, with none of the fees associated with Mastercard and Visa payment infrastructures. Even cryptos market volatility can be mitigated through the use of asset-pegged stable coins such as Dai.

I certainly wouldn’t agree that it is ‘not getting any better.’ The introduction of the 5th Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) means measures are being taken to prevent digital assets being utilised for ransomware purpose. Generally, procedures in line with the regulatory requirements of the traditional financial service sector are being implemented across the industry — an important step in a previously unregulated space.

Anndy: How do you see the term decentralisation in the blockchain space? Do you think it is feasible? Or is there a need to “re-decentralise” it, giving a new meaning.

Pavel: It is feasible. In 2019, we’ve seen a lot of existing and new DeFi (decentralised finance) projects get traction and create real value for real users. Notable examples include MakerDAO launching its multi-collateral DAI upgrade. We expect this trend to continue and are keen on supporting and cooperating with the best projects in the space.

Anndy: What is the future of blockchain? How do you visualise it? Where are the breakthroughs?

Pavel: The future of blockchain is bright, as highlighted above. I believe it has positively changed the world and there are more industries it will have an impact on.

Whether blockchain will become mainstream is a question of when, not if. Cryptocurrencies and stable coins are already revolutionising payments, lending and other areas of finance. Blockchain overall holds huge potential in other areas, too — decentralised data storage, smart contracts and so on.

The overall quality of projects in the space is consistently improving. Real-life use cases beyond investment and trading are increasing and creating real value — this trend will continue.

Jenny: We have reached the end of the interview Pavel. Can you share an inspiring quote for our readers?

Pavel: A quote I admire from another giant in the tech space is:

“Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation.”

– Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

Jenny: Yes innovation is the key to the technology industry. Thank for your time Pavel and thanks Anndy for being here with us today.

For more information about Wirex, please go to www.wirexapp.com. You will discover a new way to pay, giving you total control of your crypto and traditional currency, wherever you are in the world.

Original Source: https://blockcast.cc/interviews/blockcast-cc-exclusive-interview-with-pavel-matveev-ceo-of-wirex-our-industry-does-not-respect-tradition-it-only-respects-innovation/

Hannah Barwell is the most renowned for his short stories. She writes stories as well as news related to the technology. She wrote number of books in her five years career. And out of those books she sold around 25 books. She has more experience in online marketing and news writing. Recently she is onboard with Apsters Media as a freelance writer.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Uncategorized

A Chinese Laboratory has unveiled a “Reasoning” AI model to compete with OpenAI’s o1

Published

on

What looks to be one of the first “reasoning” AI models to compete with OpenAI’s o1 has been shown by a Chinese lab.

A preview of DeepSeek-R1, an AI research startup backed by quantitative traders, was made public on Wednesday. According to the company, DeepSeek-R1 is a reasoning model that can compete with o1.

Reasoning models, in contrast to most models, take more time to think through a question or query in order to adequately fact-check themselves. By doing this, they are able to steer clear of some of the common mistakes that models make.

As with o1, DeepSeek-R1 comes up with an answer by reasoning through tasks, planning ahead, and carrying out a sequence of actions. It may take some time. Similar to o1, DeepSeek-R1 may “think” for tens of seconds before responding, depending on how complicated the question is.

According to DeepSeek, on two well-known AI benchmarks, AIME and MATH, DeepSeek-R1 (or, more specifically, DeepSeek-R1-Lite-Preview) performs similarly to OpenAI’s o1-preview model. MATH is a set of word problems, whereas AIME assesses a model’s performance using other AI models. However, the model isn’t flawless. According to certain X critics, DeepSeek-R1 (as well as o1) has trouble with tic tac toe and other logic difficulties.

Additionally, DeepSeek is easily jailbroken, meaning that it can be encouraged to disregard security measures. The model provided a comprehensive meth recipe to one X user.

The Chinese government’s pressure on regional AI programs is probably the cause of the conduct. China’s internet regulator must benchmark models to make sure their answers “embody core socialist values.” Many Chinese AI systems refuse to reply to subjects that could enrage regulators since the government has reportedly gone so far as to suggest a blacklist of sources that cannot be utilized to train models.

The increased focus on reasoning models coincides with a reexamination of the validity of “scaling laws,” which are long-held beliefs that a model’s capabilities would continuously rise if it were given additional data and processing power. Numerous news stories indicate that models from prominent AI laboratories, such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, aren’t making as much progress as they used to.

New AI concepts, systems, and development processes are in high demand as a result. The first is test-time compute, which supports DeepSeek-R1 and o1 models. In essence, test-time compute, sometimes referred to as inference compute, allows models additional processing time to do jobs.

During a keynote address at Microsoft’s Ignite conference this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made reference to test-time compute and stated, “We are seeing the emergence of a new scaling law.”

An odd move is DeepSeek’s announcement that it intends to expose an API and open source DeepSeek-R1. High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese quantitative hedge fund that bases its trading decisions on artificial intelligence, is supporting it.

The general-purpose text-and image-analyzing DeepSeek-V2 model, one of DeepSeek’s original models, compelled rivals like ByteDance, Baidu, and Alibaba to lower the usage fees for some of their models and make others entirely free.

For model training, High-Flyer constructs its own server clusters; the latest one apparently costs 1 billion yen (~$138 million) and contains 10,000 Nvidia A100 GPUs. High-Flyer was founded by computer science graduate Liang Wenfeng with the goal of creating “superintelligent” AI through its DeepSeek organization.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Indian EV startup funded by SoftBank Ola Electric Jumps 20% on its Initial Public Offering, Putting the Company at $4.8 Billion

Published

on

In its first trading session on Friday, shares of Ola Electric shot up 20%, valuing the Indian electric car startup at almost $4.8 billion.

Ola Electric raised almost $730 million through its initial public offering in Mumbai by pricing its shares at 76 rupees, or 91 cents. Reuters claims that it is the largest listing in India for this year.

By 3:52 p.m. local time, the value of the shares was approximately 91.20 rupees.

The company’s first-day increase is the result of investors’ bets that it will emerge as a major player in India’s electric vehicle market at a time when the government is taking steps to support the sector.

Just two and a half years ago, Ola Electric, a manufacturer of electric scooters, shipped its first unit.

In India, two-wheelers are the most widely used form of transportation. According to research from McKinsey & Co., electric two-wheelers in particular are predicted to make up 60% to 70% of all new scooter sales in India by 2030.

As it gets ready to release its first electric motorcycle product in the second half of 2025, Ola Electric is attempting to capitalize on this trend.

Like Tesla, the venture was started by well-known businessman Bhavish Aggarwal and bills itself as a corporation that can handle everything from design to manufacture and batteries.

However, as of right now, it doesn’t seem like the corporation has any intentions to enter the auto industry.

Temasek, an investment group based in Singapore, and SoftBank are two well-known investors in Ola Electric.

The business stated that it intends to utilize the profits from the initial public offering (IPO) to finance the growth of its gigafactory battery production, pay down debt, and increase research and development.

In the year that concluded on March 31, the company’s sales increased by 90% on an annual basis, but its losses increased. The business hasn’t made any money yet.

Aggarwal is also a co-founder of Ola Cabs, an Indian ride-hailing service.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Debris Hits International Space Station Following Mysterious Satellite Destroy

Published

on

The prospect of debris from another spacecraft colliding with the International Space Station posed a terrifying situation. This was the outcome of a Russian satellite that had been deactivated that had fragmented into at least 100 pieces in orbit. The station’s crew sought refuge as best they could, anticipating an impact from the dangerous circumstances.

“USSPACECOM has observed no immediate threats and is continuing to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain. As such, USSPACECOM has notified commercial, governmental, Allied and partner organizations via Space-Track.org, to include Russia as the satellite owner.” the U.S. Space Command said in a statement regarding the situation and the possible threat to the International Space Station that was posted on X. In order to include Russia as the satellite owner, USSPACECOM has informed commercial, governmental, Allied, and partner groups via Space-Track.org.

Thankfully, it seems that the International Space Station is safe at this time and that any possible crisis has been avoided. “Mission Control continued to monitor the path of the debris, and after about an hour, the crew was cleared to exit their spacecraft and the station resumed normal operations,” U.S. Space Command said in confirmation of this.

On June 26, the Russian spacecraft known as RESURS-P1 broke apart, throwing more than 100 bits of debris into Earth’s low orbit. The satellite weighed 13,200 pounds and was traveling 220 miles above Earth when it broke apart. It is enough to suggest that the possible consequences of such an object colliding with the International Space Station may have been disastrous.

That was obviously a frightening time to be on the International Space Station, and sadly, it’s not something they’re not used to either. There have been previous instances where a Russian satellite has put other people in danger. In order to test an anti-satellite missile system, Russia purposefully destroyed one of its own Soviet-era satellites back in 2021. The crew of the space station was also forced to seek cover as a result of this disaster, as the aftermath sent thousands of debris pieces hurtling across space.

Some are wondering if the RESURS-P1 breaking apart was part of another Russian missile test given that historical history. Back in 2021, NASA sent a reprimand to Russia for this behavior, highlighting how dangerous it was for the safety of astronauts in space at the time. It’s unclear what kind of punitive measures Russia would face if it becomes out that its direct activities put the International Space Station in peril once more.

Experts have conceded, nevertheless, that the RESURS-P1 might have simply disintegrated as a result of a space collision or a satellite battery explosion. Without a doubt, more investigation into the incident will be done to ascertain its cause. Everyone seems to be concentrating on how relieved they are that there is no threat to the security of people who are on board the International Space Station right now.

The United Nations passed a resolution banning the testing of anti-satellite missile systems following the 2021 incident. Even after learning about the danger it posed at the time, Russia was among the countries that voted against that move, indicating that they do not support it.

But whether they would genuinely want to break such an arrangement is debatable. NASA would undoubtedly be upset even if the International Space Station sustained damage because of its significant scientific significance. This is true even if no one on board is hurt. What what caused the most recent Russian satellite to be destroyed is still unknown.

Continue Reading

Trending

error: Content is protected !!