In 2022, Filipinos were supercharged with multiple blockchain events that made them realize what it is and how it can help local businesses. However, among all these events, one blockchain conference stood out as the biggest of them all, which is the 2022 Philippine Blockchain Week.

The Philippine Blockchain Week 2022 is an annual convention that is created by the country’s cutting-edge thought leaders in the field of Web2 and Web3. The conference aims to facilitate the education, opportunities, and growth involved in the field of blockchain technology in the Philippines.

The conference is spearheaded by the “Father of Digital Marketing in the Philippines,” Donald Lim, and Chezka Gonzales, a pilot and founder of the Women of Substance NFT. They have assembled an all-star team of partners within the financial technology (fintech) industry for the blockchain conference. International and local thought leaders participated in the event from November 28 to December 4, 2022 at the Newport World Resorts Manila. 

Lim believes that the Philippines has the potential to become the “blockchain capital” of Asia due to the country’s demographic and Filipinos being known lovers of technology. “We were the text capital and the BPO capital before, right? And we were the social media capital. [As a] blockchain capital, we are very ripe,” said Lim.

The Philippines has a population of 110 million people with the highest internet and non-fungible token (NFT) penetration rate of a digital population. Indeed, it is at the intersection of innovation, early adoption and job creation for the digital sector.

Some of the activities for the Philippine Blockchain Week included sessions from over 100 renowned experts on blockchain, fintech and the metaverse. These sessions were aligned with the two goals of the Philippine Blockchain Week: to fortify Filipinos with cutting-edge skills and knowledge to be competitive on a global scale in industries of the future and to showcase the Philippines as the “Blockchain Capital of Asia.”

Introducing nChain: An Enterprise Blockchain Solution Provider

To efficiently execute ideas and innovations on blockchain, there needs to be reliable consultancy services available. nChain, an enterprise blockchain-based consulting service and solution provider, was introduced in the conference as it participated in the panels and booths. 

A company that has worked with governments worldwide and has the fifth highest number of blockchain-related patent applications in the world, nChain’s mission is to secure the internet of value and build foundations to allow governments and firms to exchange data and value safely.

nChain focuses on three main areas: software, professional services, and intellectual property (IP) licensing. It carries one of the world’s largest IP portfolios related to blockchain, with over 2,800 filed patents and over 500 granted. 

nChain’s Director of Commercial and Strategy Simit Naik was one of the speakers for Day One of the Philippine Blockchain Week. He explains that blockchain is not only about “digital currencies, but a tool for data integrity.” It is a timestamp server that “gives us the ability to introduce a real-time audit trail” that is immutable.

nChain introduced a scalable and cost-efficient solution to allow nations to offer Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) that can guarantee privacy, security, transparency and traceability. Naik believes nChain will be the “key to delivering peer-to-peer payments with low transaction costs.”

“In terms of what nChain can deliver to the Philippines, nChain pretty much has the full capability for an IT project life cycle. And we have the visionary people on board to help partners, such as the government and [businesses] here to work out what they should be transitioning to the blockchain and how it can deliver them value,” Gareth Roberts, product manager at nChain, explained in an interview.

Many other global blockchain-based businesses were introduced during the Philippine Blockchain Week, which includes crypto exchange 1inch Network, blockchain education portal Binance Academy, social media movement Project Nightfall Philanthropy, and NFT, stablecoin firm Metain, and BSV-powered play-to-earn (P2E) gaming company CoinGeek Bitcade. 

The blockchain conference was also participated by major local firms, such as GCash, the most popular mobile wallet in the country, Coins.ph, the biggest local crypto wallet and exchange that is used by 16 million Filipinos, Philippine Airlines, the flagship airline of the country, and Tier One Entertainment, the biggest e-sports and video gaming entertainment agency in Asia.

The Philippines is already a hub for NFTs and P2E gaming, and according to Chainanalysis, it is ranked second globally for digital asset adoption. Undoubtedly, the archipelago is already a growing force to reckon with when it comes to blockchain development and adoption. 

With the support of the government and major businesses in the country, blockchain’s explosive growth may just what the Philippines needs to boost its economy and finally break free of its label as a third-world country.