Commenting on his new role, Conroy said that “problems of under-insurance and fraudulent claims” remain significant issues for both clients and insurers. He said he believes a blockchain-based asset registry will prove to be “a win-win” for both individuals and the industry.
Australia’s former Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has become chairman of the advisory board for an insurance-focused blockchain firm.
Stephen Conroy – an Australian Labor Party Senate member from 1996–2016 – has joined the Melbourne-based blockchain firm Day By Day, according to a Dec. 18 report from ZDNet.
Day By Day is focused on the creation of a blockchain-based asset registry management platform intended to innovate insurance inventories and expedite claims in the industry.
A divisive career
During his time as communications minister, Conroy had attempted to introduce controversial legislation for mandatory internet filtering back in 2009.
Intended as a clampdown on online child pornography, the policy would have compelled all ISPs to block any material hosted on overseas servers that had been deemed unacceptable by the Australian Classification Board. It was ultimately withdrawn following a severe backlash by critics of internet censorship.
Conroy eventually distanced himself from the policy after the Board’s blacklist was found to include a heterogeneous mix of apparently innocuous sites. Yet his advocacy of the legislation – among other unpopular policy initiatives – led to his crowning as «Internet villain of the year» at the 11th annual Internet industry awards in the United Kingdom in 2009.
After resigning from the Senate in 2016, Conroy took on a role as head of Responsible Wagering Australia, a lobbying group for the Australian-licensed online gambling industry.
Crypto-related developments in Australian politics
Speaking at a counter-terrorism conference in Melbourne this November, Australia’s Minister of Home Affairs Peter Dutton has warned that terrorists are exploiting cryptocurrencies to “fund their deadly missions.”
The country’s Treasury has broadly struck a more restrained tone, pointing to the scant evidence that cryptocurrency is being used to facilitate black economy activities in Australia.
COO Parts Ways With OKEx to Focus on Mass Adoption Through Consultancy
OKEx chief operating officer Andy Cheung announced Jan. 7 that he has resigned from the cryptocurrency exchange to form a new blockchain consultancy institute called Bitwork. The entrepreneur’s stated goal is to help projects connect to markets and drive mass adoption.
Helping create quality projects
Cheung claimed that his contribution toward the mass adoption of cryptocurrency is very limited within an exchange. Therefore, with OKEx’s blessing, he left to better achieve these stated goals with this new venture. His inspiration for Bitwork comes from his role at OKEx:
“The question I was always asked in OKEx was: How can my project get listed on your exchange?… we always tell the teams that project quality is the key… But how to improve the quality of a project? What do the markets need?”
Bitwork aims to help projects answer these questions, through exchange partnerships, advisory, marketing management, branding and public relations, fundraising and event management services.
Exchange listings are key
According to the announcement, the Hong Kong-based startup “is formed by a team of experienced blockchain experts from different cryptocurrency exchanges.”
Certainly having a prior relationship with an exchange would seem to be a benefit when presenting client projects for listing. And getting listed on exchanges certainly plays a large part in the success of a project.
As Cointelegraph reported, many are still prepared to pay substantial amounts to ensure visibility on the top exchanges. For example, Blockstack reportedly paid $250,000 to be listed on Binance for a year, and will commit to around $1.1 million in fees over a four year period.
