Portugal, a leader of the new digital economy? (I) – ECO
Our country has the potential to lead the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry in Europe, if not the world. But to get there, it’s time to know where we are and where we want to go.
A recently reported that the pace of mergers and acquisitions in the cryptocurrency industry was also hitting Portugal. A source would also add that, in 2021, we were hosting about 1.5% to 2% of the approximate total volume in Europe. It’s a good start. But it is still too early to say that “the country is already a ‘hub’ of the crypto market”. It is true that the national ecosystem of startups in the area of blockchain and cryptos is a younger area – whether we look only in this area so small that companies were born thanks to local talent, which for the thousands of specialized foreigners, who are landed on our coast sunny during and around here they have a website.
And it is true that even Binance, the largest centralized in the sector, recently declared that “Portugal is a technological center for the whole of Europe”, after announcing a very good partnership with the Portuguese Blockchain Alliance to “launch programs” on this digital world. new.
We have operations around here, passed to small roots but leader Immunefi to the unicorn Anchorage, which in the year alone raised 430 million dollars.
This January’s frenzy also illustrates the advanced state of development in this planted seaside corner. We are just beginning the acquisition of UTrust, a pioneering startup from Braga, 2TM in CriptoLoja, expects the announcement of the opening of BitBase cryptocurrency exchange stores, and the launch of the 30 million dollar fund from Lightshift Capital will be a tip of the iceberg .
Because we cannot confuse possibility with reality – which is quite fragile. Using an analogy close to the public, most achieved for this sector by stories of unprecedented valuations, there is a big difference between potential and realized gains – just like the latest evidence.
In fact, since we already touched on the subject – and to protect the meaning that a national industry defines this has in the collective imagination of the ECO, it justified the fall of Black Friday with a proposal of “using and mining cryptoassets”” in Russia. This despite not referring to a very high high with the American market. After all, like the Nasdaq tech stock index, the total market capitalization of crypto assets also hit an all-time high in November and has been falling ever since.
Interestingly, that same article highlighted that the New York City Council’s new president has just finished president or his first salary in ether (the currency used to pay transactions on the Ethereum blockchain) and in bitcoin. This is to literally wear one of the flags of choice: becoming a center for digital currencies that never sleep in the city and other financial innovations. Angry!
On the US coast, Andreessen Horowitz, the world’s best-known venture capital firm, has reinforced a message that a land of opportunity is at risk of “losing the future” due to the technological leadership crisis that it is experiencing, due to the poor regulation and the lack of a digital one. However, the “promise of this new generation of the internet”, known as web3, has the potential to benefit the common citizen and as institutions, due to its security, inclusion and efficiency.
Which brings us to the beginning: Portugal has the potential to be a center, if not the center, of this new economy that has dazzled the world – not only because of the not so dramatic rises and falls of prices, but increasingly Due to technological innovations and social organization allows. And, in the case of a good strategy to promote a country (which has almost started to develop, it must be an external investment that attracts, of high added value, and that generates sustainable economic growth).
But we have to know the reality for non-digital (better this opportunity of reality for non-digital). We have to know that in Lisbon we still have about 50 startups in the area – and this is already counting in a charitable way – after all, how many remote workers in a city are equivalent to an office? And that between Porto and Braga we count about ten, but we expect that there will be 20, half of which are working under the radar. And these are not numbers from a ‘crypto market’ ‘hub’.
And we have to know that a recent study by the CNSF also shows that only 1% of the Portuguese have already invested some change in cryptoassets. And these are not numbers from a ‘hub’ either, especially when 4x as many Brits have already invested in some
crypto asset.
It is true that Chainalysis, a leader in blockchain analysis, indicates that in 2021 Portugal was the fourth largest digital economy per capita in Europe, behind the Netherlands, Switzerland and Slovenia (and ahead of the United Kingdom). But that just tells us that our beaches and conferences have attracted a highly mobile workforce. Which is good, and very beneficial for the local ecosystem, but it could disappear.
In short, digital Portugal still needs to be fulfilled. We have the potential to lead the digital economy of the 21st century, just as a notorious valley led that of the last century, but our condition is precarious. What is missing then, now that everything is uncertain and final? That will be the topic of our next article. It’s the time!
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