Amazing Blocks appoints Raphael Hess as Chief Technology Officer
Raphael is a true blockchain enthusiast and expert in tokenization as well as decentralized finance. He previously had a focus on SAP ERP software. We are therefore especially proud to introduce Raphael as our CTO. He has been part of the Amazing Blocks team since the very beginning and is successfully managing numerous projects. Working closely with our partners, Raphael has become a mainstay of the Amazing Blocks team and is the primary contact for any technical questions. In the future, Raphael will continue to hold the Blockchain lead on all projects and drive Amazing Blocks’ progress on the technical side in collaboration with the team and our partners. With him as CTO, Amazing Blocks is well-positioned to develop further in the ever-evolving digital assets market. We are therefore very pleased to congratulate Raphael on his position. — Author: Nicolas Weber
Meet Raphael Hess, Chief Technology Officer
Nicolas: First of all, congratulations on your new role, Raphael and thank you for taking the time for this interview. You have been appointed as Chief Technology Officer at Amazing Blocks. I would love it if you could tell us about your time before you joined Amazing Blocks!
Raphael: Dear Nicolas, thank you for your invitation. Before I joined Amazing Blocks I mainly focused on the SAP ERP business software. I really liked that field for its structure and deep understanding of business processes. Interesting for me is that I see many parallels between the blockchain and the business software world. On top of that, DeFi has always been a topic that gathered my attention and consequently I had written my master thesis on it.
Nicolas: Very interesting, Raphael! You’ve been in the IT field for quite a while now — how did it come about? What drives and motivates you to pursue a career in this field? And as a follow-up, I would like to ask you how you finally found your way to the topic of blockchain and what led you to choose and work in this particular field?
Raphael: My enthusiasm for technology is something that I felt already in my childhood. I have been crazy about computers and the internet since day one. Countless “Wikipedia journey”-nights, working on my own tweaked systems and just enjoying new features I integrated into my life explains shortly my IT field drive.
Blockchain is in my eyes a general purpose technology module which we will integrate in so many things. Digital scarcity (value) and trustless value exchange is crucial for future applications. Furthermore, AI and machine learning built perfectly on authentic and structured data which the blockchain provides. What a time to be alive.
Nicolas: How does trustless value exchange work on the Amazing Blocks software, and is there something special about it?
Raphael: Amazing Blocks software uses the Ethereum blockchain as the underlying DLT register. This allows us to make use of all the great benefits the technology provides. Since the Amazing Blocks software is intended for security token tokenization, we added further security measurements on the blockchain level for improved compliance control.
Nicolas: I know that you are particularly a huge fan of the DeFi sector! What fascinates you about it?
Raphael: When Bitcoin was made for disruptive value storage, then DeFi was made for disruptive finance. And it is happening right now. Decentralized Finance appears in my eyes as a utopia of new financial applications: New possibilities are countless, the network is borderless and it is elegantly efficient.
Nicolas: Thank you for the insights! To stay on the subject of DeFi, but also to draw the bow to tokenization at the same time: Where do you see potential to combine these two exciting fields? Are there already exciting use cases for you?
Raphael: While DeFi doesn’t need security tokens from the “legacy” world, it still harmonizes wonderfully with them. What I intend to explain is that tokenized assets in DeFi are a great addition to the ecosystem. It is impossible to predict the future, how important these types of security tokens become for the system. Possible scenarios may vary from crucial underlyings due to political reasons or the next brokerage standard worldwide to “just” an option of investment as part of the new ecosystem.
Nicolas: How does the software of AB compare to other tokenization platforms and what makes it unique?
Raphael: The unique selling point of AB’s software is the ready-to-go digital share register on-chain. Something I love about the venture is to show people a glimpse of the future by providing our Amazing Blocks shareholder distribution on Etherscan, on which you wrote a great article about.
Nicolas: How can DeFi & tokenization be combined from a technological perspective?
Raphael: In easy terms we need a “bridge” to the DeFi ecosystem. This bridge can be represented as diverse applications of technology combining these fields. Decentralized exchanges, value storage for DeFi systems, insurances, collateral and many more subjects are here in question. As mentioned before, countless applications are possible.
Nicolas: What are and have been the biggest influences in your life?
Raphael: Next to my beloved family I try to soak up information from almost everywhere. Furthermore, I am truly believing that you can learn something from anyone. Of course I do have “idols” to get inspiration from, but my biggest influence are the people around me and cross-links I follow on the world wide web when I do my own research.
Nicolas: Let’s take a look into the future! We live in exciting times with big changes and not just a few people consider Blockchain to be one of the key technologies of the next decades! That sounds very promising at first! But asked specifically, what are you most looking forward to when you think about Amazing Blocks in 2021 and maybe even beyond?
Raphael: Enjoy the ride. The tokenization business is growing per second. Regulators are pushing out innovative legal frameworks. In this decade we will see the first real disruption of finance. As I said before: what an amazing time to be alive!
Nicolas: Thank you for this amazing interview!
Raphael: Thanks to you, too Nicolas!
Remarks
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Amazing Blocks offers a tokenization solution that enables its clients to tokenize various assets according to the Liechtenstein Token Act (software-as-a-service). The software covers both the issuance of tokens and investing in tokens. It suits the needs for tokenizing all kinds of assets (e.g., machines, cash flow generating contracts, trademarks, real estate, cars). Imagine that some asset should be tokenized. For this asset various tokens would make sense: Equity tokens, debt tokens, participation rights as tokens, ownership tokens, or any mixture of these tokens. The software of Amazing Blocks helps issuers to handle multiple assets and to issue multiple tokens for these assets. This is possible by integrating blockchain technology with the law (i.e., the Liechtenstein Token Act). At the core, there is the “digital legal entity in Liechtenstein” based on “tokenized shares” which allows a very efficient foundation, a very efficient operation of the company and, thus, an efficient and flexible possibility to tokenize assets. This should now make a wide variety of tokenization projects possible, because the costs for tokenization are significantly reduced.
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