Digital ID, Financial Security, Metaverse - Dinis Guarda Interviews Lars Seier Christensen, Founder of Concordium and Saxo Bank
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Lars Seier Christensen, Founder of Saxo Bank and Concordium Blockchain Identity Solution, is the new guest in the latest episode of Dinis Guarda YouTube podcast. Both experienced entrepreneurs and experts discuss the multi-dimensional solutions that blockchain offers and how Concordium is harnessing this technology to create a sustainable infrastructure for innovating identity solutions. And all of these within the context of the metaverse.
Lars Seier Christensen is a Danish businessman, investor, and serial entrepreneur. He is the founder of one of the most iconic financial and multi-asset trading and investment platforms, Saxo Bank. Having spent his early career years at Saxo Bank, and learning some of the most challenging lessons here, Dinis was delighted to interview Lars at the latest episode of his YouTube podcast series, powered by citiesabc.com, fashionabc.org, and openbusinesscouncil.org.
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The two experts journeyed through various milestones within the context of technological advancements, while discussing the potentials that lie within the bedrocks of blockchain technology, and finally how Concordium, a blockchain-based infrastructure founded by Lars, provides identity solutions for its users. The conversation grows up to touch one of the highlights: how all these solutions will meet and enhance the metaverse.
Early in the interview, Lars clearly indicated his profound interest in the business. It was this urge to attain extraordinary dimensions, that he worked in a multitude of industries before starting a brokerage firm with one of his clients, that later popularised into Saxo Bank: an unconventional internet-based trading and financial platform.
"I had no idea about the internet at that time. We were attracted to it as we realised that it had a lot of potential for the world, not just the financial industry. And we ended up bringing up one of the world's most interesting foreign exchange trading platforms, and it later became a much broader offering. With the internet, we were able to gradually scale up from tens to hundreds to thousands of people at the same time, and then to a much wider public than had prior to that.", he told Dinis.
Recollecting his experiences at Saxo Bank, Dinis agreed with Lars that while the work culture at Saxo Bank was performance-oriented, it always considered every stakeholder into perspective. "When somebody chooses you for banking or any other purpose, they are there for their own development or to feed their own family. They are not there to make me rich. So, there needs to be something in it for everyone.", said Lars, sharing his ideology with Dinis as a founder. "It's not only about maximising the business outcome if you don’t have a nice time,'' he added.
Venturing into the world of blockchain
Between 2009 and 2011, when blockchain was just born, Lars started to get aware of this trending technology. Over the next few years, he started to explore it and realised the potential that lay in it. Working in a world where financial institutions and service providers are governed by regulations and legislation, Lars followed it as a hobby.
Although decentralised in its nature, he told Dinis, he understood that the drawbacks of the technology, like anonymity and non-scalability, could become major challenges in its mainstream adoption.
"That's what led me to set up Concordium as an attempt to combine these two things- take what's great about the blockchain (distributed nature, no single points of failure) and with the traditional finance system where we know what regulators think," he told Dinis.
Thus, with a solid framework at its foundations, Concordium provides an impenetrable infrastructure that merges conventional financing with the decentralised blockchain network to offer an advanced model for users where they can build a multitude of use cases.
Seier Capital: Lar's family office and investment vehicle
Steering the conversation to another dimension of Lar's personality, investing, Dinis asked him to throw light on Seier Capital. Lars told him that after he left Saxo Bank, he shifted his focus to provide an identity to it. As of today, he has morphed it into an operational unit from where he makes his decisions related to investment in businesses and enterprises and operated his restaurants and other ventures in technology, especially blockchain.
"I've allocated a portion to the use cases that I want to build on Concordium. Somebody sitting and thinking I'm building this exciting blockchain use case, may have a look there. You might be lucky to inspire me so much that I help you a little bit financially," he said about Seier Capital.
Sharing his wealth of knowledge and wisdom for young entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts, Lars said:
"There will be hard days but you really need to have love and persistence for what you want to do. Further, focus on something that you know about. You need to know at least something about what you are going to pursue. Other than that, make your decisions, and have the stomach for what comes next."
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4IR: AI Blockchain Fintech IoT Reinventing a Nation by Dinis Guarda and Rais Hussin (4irbook.com)
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Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.
