The times they are a-changin’. Three months ago, I wrote a piece calling for an urgent step change in the Fintech industry in this very tune of Bob Dylan. In perspective, the modern-day fintech industry has been battling with macroeconomic issues — from rising interest rates, soaring inflation, industry-wide layoffs, and dwindling consumer confidence.

A decade of good times has created some complacency, and with the cold winds of winter upon us, businesses desperately need to become more adaptable and resilient to survive long term.

Now, three months later, and after hosting the largest gathering of the fintech community ever, the industry is beginning to sing a different tune — one that chants about coming together.

Come together, right now, over fintech

At the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) last year, we saw this very hymn of collaboration come to fruition, with the community coming together to support one another by exchanging valuable insights on business resilience and building new relationships.

When it was all said and done, we saw record turnout totalling over 62,000 across 115 countries. It was absolutely astounding given what was happening in the background, with budgets slashed and rising travel costs from the macroeconomic conditions.

Also Read: A new breed of fintech payment is here to slay the game

Instead of the community turning inward, we saw an incredible embrace and cross-pollination of ideas from people from all walks of life. There were lots of discussions about why now is the time to build and, in many cases, organisations coming together to explore a variety of partnership constructs and M&A activity.

It might seem like the start of a bar joke, but how often do you see a sustainability and educational reformist, a major tech company founder, and a chief executive of a financial regulator walk into a room together? This is the only place I’ve ever witnessed such an open and diverse dialogue in fintech with corporate leaders, policymakers, and regulators.

And now the work begins

Some may think of SFF as a culmination of the fintech industry, but I think of it as a springboard for propelling the industry forward. And now, it’s time to deliver on the promising conversations and insightful dialogues.

To encapsulate key learnings from SFF, we’ve collaborated with a few of the world’s leading consulting firms, such as McKinsey & Company and Oliver Wyman, to release seven post-event reports to the community. These reports include insights such as Web3 and digital assets, banking for business, balancing innovation and regulation, the future of fintech in growth markets, and how fintechs can become more resilient. Most reports have been released and are available to download for free by creating an account on the Elevandi website.

The roundtable dialogues during the event also gave birth to working milestones that would benefit fintech leaders and businesses in the long run. Up to 13 reports from these roundtables are to be released to the fintech community in early 2023. These reports outline solutions and steps for tackling complex industry issues that were discussed by public and private sector leaders during the Elevandi Insights Forum at SFF 2022.

Key reports include a focus on building cross-border payment systems, overcoming talent shortages, and responsible AI in financial services. Likewise, The Milken Institute and United Nations ESCAP — organisations that focused on problem statements around sustainable finance — will be publishing their reports, which would serve as a reflection of the COP27 goals.

Also Read: The global fintech market: Getting a piece of the pie

And further follow-ups will take place in 2023. First will be the convening of fintech communities from the Global South — Africa, Latin America, and Asia — at the Inclusive Fintech Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, on 20-22 June.

There we’ll work towards promoting technology and policy conversations to enable fintech development to become equitable, accessible, and sustainable to all people of the world. Immediately after, we’ll head to Zurich, Switzerland, for the second edition of the successful Point Zero Forum (26-28 June) to advance Web3 and sustainable finance together with regulators and policymakers.

Then on 14-17 November, the global fintech community will unite once again at the Singapore Fintech Festival — to reflect on the year’s progress and discuss efforts for 2024.

Onward and upward

Now, as more organisations begin to see the importance of dialogues between the public and private sectors to build resilient and adaptable businesses, there’s certain to be a stronger call for open dialogue and collaboration globally.

And we, at Elevandi will remain to be at the forefront of making this happen. Since our inception in 2021, we’ve been pushing conversations that matter to the fintech industry to help global organisations stay abreast of current issues. Driving the adoption and growth of fintech globally is in our DNA, and we will continue to raise the bar in 2023 through our different platforms.

Ultimately, the future of the fintech industry is in our hands. While it is uncertain what the economic and industry landscape will look like over the coming months and years, coming together will not only help us weather the storms of uncertainty but also serve as a burgeoning economic lifeline that will enable us to thrive together as a community.

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Data plays a massive role in our everyday lives, and the healthcare industry is certainly no exception. In fact, approximately 30 per cent of the world’s data pertains to healthcare. By sorting, organising, and analysing these huge datasets of health information, healthcare providers and researchers can find ways to significantly improve outcomes for patients and effectively save lives.

Accessing such data unfortunately remains a challenge due to analogue data, multiple data standards, lack of system interoperability and data privacy regulations.

During my time as a practising physician working in oncology, the onus was on the patient to facilitate the sharing of data between the different healthcare providers to coordinate care. Sadly today, the same challenge persists.

As a patient myself, I struggle to find an efficient way of keeping all the information surrounding my health conditions in a single secure place. From digital and non-digital sources, various data formats are scattered across several applications, making it difficult for me to view insights that could better manage my care.

Managing my health data takes up a lot of time, leading me and others like myself to feel overwhelmed by this arduous task. Not to mention the additional burden of actually having a health condition.

Moreover, such data is sensitive and valuable and requires protection against malicious actors. This is of growing concern, given the rise in healthcare data breaches.

Also Read: How mental health startup Intellect’s founder catalysed his personal battle with anxiety

In 2019 alone, 41.2 million healthcare records were exposed, stolen, or illegally disclosed, according to a study published in the HIPPA journal. This has far-reaching implications when it comes to fraud, discrimination and identity theft, to name a few.

A more effective approach for managing health data

Fuelled by my belief that there must be a more effective approach for managing health data between different parties within the ecosystem while simultaneously preserving patient data privacy, I co-founded Jonda Health, a health tech platform.

At Jonda Health, we are currently building a technology stack to help open the doors for data silos, regulate data flow, and use the right ‘valves’ to direct the data to the right place where and when it is needed.

Given the sensitivity of health data, we do not use open-source software integration. Instead, we leverage multiple layers of encryption, including that of the database, tables and data, for added protection against breaches. For the data level encryption, we use zero-knowledge encryption – an encryption process where user data is always secured, with only the user having the key needed to access and decrypt it.

We also employ our own proprietary real-time audit system to detect hack attempts and comply with HIPPA, GDPR and PDPA to ensure health data is adequately protected.

As we continue to build our tech stack, we have deployed our existing technology to a patient-facing application called Jonda. Jonda helps patients today by empowering them with their data regardless of provider or geography. To do so in a meaningful way, the user-centric app has been built with patients in mind so that it is easy to use.  This goes beyond UI and UX to include functionality based on human behaviour.

Also Read: How telemedicine can revolutionise the veterinary world?

For example, when a user is tracking their conditions and looking for a specific biomarker (such as LDL Cholesterol) in their records, they will be able to find this easily even if the biomarker is coined differently (i.e. Low-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol).

With each laboratory calling the same test something different, tracking the biomarker can be a challenge. To address this, we have created our own data dictionaries and enabled reverse search. A reverse search provides users with a convenient way of finding records or data using alternative names.

As a patient myself, I use our patient-facing application to manage my health by keeping all my health data in a single secure place and keeping track of my biomarkers. This is incredibly helpful as it has helped me to finally get rid of my box of paper medical records where I couldn’t find anything anyway.

Not to mention that each laboratory has a different unit of measurement for the same blood test, which made it extremely challenging to keep track of my biomarkers over time. The biomarker trends on the app helped me track my health data and uncover my iron deficiency, where I got to notice a downward trend in my iron count over a two-year period. I was then able to request the necessary laboratory tests and seek the appropriate care.

As we look to the future, there will be even more health data generated thanks to the increased digitalisation of healthcare with a rise of wearables, medical IoT and the like of it.

In addition, we will start to see more attention paid to data veracity, data privacy, data security, data usage rights and compliance thereof.

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I am now the ambassador of a city-state. No, not a real country like Singapore, but a metaverse game and virtual city-state built entirely on the blockchain: Cryptopia. 

As the recently appointed Cryptopia Ambassador for the Philippines, I represent our city-state to the outside world — in particular, the Filipino community. This is my role in the real world.

Within the metaverse, I have chosen to join the Traditional Faction, which, along with Tech, Eco, and Industrial, is one of the four Factions that have different views on how best to run a Cryptopian society.

Within Crytopia, you can choose to play for free as an adventurer, build your reputation, and earn digital assets by completing quests. Or you could buy NFTs (non-fungible tokens) from the start and build a business empire as a tycoon by claiming virtual land, profiting from its resources, and employing other players.

Also Read: “See you in the metaverse” – Yours, life

By being completely built on the blockchain, Cryptopia is not only a Web3 game but also, in a way, a model for the decentralised future of our real world.

Much ado about the metaverse

Cryptopia is part of the second generation of blockchain games, which are moving away from the old play-to-earn model that the meteoric rise of Axie Infinity made popular. It is also an example of a metaverse.

Yes, that much-hyped buzzword that Mark Zuckerberg is betting the future of his company on, to the point that he renamed Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms, Inc. in 2021.  

Yet what exactly is the metaverse?

Like “cyberspace”, which was first coined by the Father of Cyberpunk, William Gibson, in his 1982 short story “Burning Chrome” and later popularised in his 1984 debut novel “Neuromancer”, the term “metaverse” comes from science fiction.

It was Neal Stephenson who first coined “metaverse” in his 1992 science fiction novel “Snow Crash” to describe an immersive virtual realm that users accessed via VR goggles and explored through computer-generated avatars.

Since much of science fiction eventually turned into science fact, we are now living in a world where the metaverse is a reality. Just look at the recently concluded CES 2023 in Las Vegas, where both Web2 and Web3 companies presented their own visions for the metaverse.

“A common thread throughout CES was the creation of frictionless experiences that focus on what fans and communities really want. These experiences also need to be delightful – which will prove key to mainstream metaverse adoption.

“‘In the metaverse, we are all world builders, and we all have a chance to build,’ Hackl concluded. ‘At the end of the day, it’s about people.’”

To VR or not to VR

While Zuckerberg seems convinced VR is the way, different paths to the metaverse exist. And while a metaverse doesn’t necessarily have to be built on Web3 – in fact, many metaverses now are Web2 ones – I’m convinced that blockchain technology is what will lead to mainstream adoption of the metaverse.

First of all, Web3 games and NFTs (now called digital collectibles by mainstream brands such as Starbucks) have proven the allure of owning digital assets and having the ability to profit from them or gift them to others.

Also Read: 7 trends changing the reality of immersive gaming

Not only that, but blockchain and cryptocurrency can become the building blocks for DIDs (decentralised identifiers) that allow users to use one digital identity to log in to different sites and applications while protecting their privacy. Again, as part of the Web3 ethos of decentralisation.

The virtual and the real

Of course, I won’t deny the appeal of VR, which, after all, was part of the original meaning of the metaverse. In fact, I’m a big believer in VR. I was fortunate to have bought a PICO 4 VR headset during the holidays, which allowed me to watch the first VR concert of the K-pop girl group (G)I-DLE. This was streamed for free to PICO users in 10 countries, which happily included Malaysia, where I’m now based.

And if you think metaverse concerts are just a fad, think again. They are becoming so prevalent in video games such as Fortnite and PUBG Mobile that last year, the MTV Video Music Awards even added a new category for “Best Metaverse Performance“, which K-pop girl group BLACKPINK won.

The metaverse is expected to reshape society, including these five trends, in the next decade. Just as the internet created new ways to work and play, so too will the metaverse. And they won’t just be jobs involved in building the metaverse, but also jobs within the metaverse.

Apart from Cryptopia, examples of Web3 games that are creating new metaverse jobs are Ark of Dreams and GensoKishi Online. In Ark of Dreams, players can earn by performing tasks and even putting up their own businesses. Meanwhile, GensoKishi Online is bringing in big brands like Sanrio while also introducing a UGC (user-generated content)-a to-earn model that allows content creators to sell virtual items.

So don’t expect the metaverse to go away anytime soon. From the Seoul government opening up its metaverse project to the public to The Sandbox launching a Lunar New Year event in the metaverse to Lenovo introducing its Project Chronos motion-based system that might do away with VR headsets, the virtual will become increasingly part of our reality in 2023 and the years to come.

In the end, there won’t be one metaverse to rule them all. Perhaps a multiverse of metaverses, then?

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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