Blockchain is able to change the operating mode of the current monetary service system
By: Zerobank - Your Local Currency
Tags: Remittance, Moneytransfer, Blockchain, Zerobank

Interviewing Ly Van Bao Ph.D.- an IT consultant in the field of finance and banking with many years of experience working for “giants” like HSBC, BNP Paribas or AXA, he shared his experience and knowledge on blockchain technology and the trend of using blockchain in the banking industry in France and around the world, especially its application potential in Vietnam.

In 2005, Ly Van Bao successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on Computer Science at Télécom SudParis University, France with the topic of Applying Artificial Intelligence in Hand-written Signature Verification; the subject was issued with the patent No. FR2006/051194 of France. When tested on an unknown data set at the 2004 International Signature Identification Contest (SVC 2004), this algorithm was ranked second in fifteen algorithms participating in the competition.

Good afternoon, Mr. Bao from such a strong starting point, how did you “struggle” in the information technology field of banking and finance industry in France?

I have lived and worked in France for 16 years. I started as a programmer in charge of maintaining the operations of technology projects used in banking. And soon after, I was involved in building and redesigning to optimize such projects to save cost. For example, I have rewritten an application that records all of HSBC’s worldwide trade transactions (Trade Booking) to calculate and mitigate the risk for HSBC. I also have re-built the counter-party risk application at AXA Bank, etc.

Bao has 16 years living in France and he is a big fan of blockchain technology

Currently, I am the architect designing and coordinating the groups to rebuild the e-Commerce application for derivatives of BNP Paribas, one of the top 10 banks in the world. This is part of BNP’s “Investment Bank of the Future” and “The Age of Digitalization” with a total investment of over $ 3 billion.

After having had a solid foothold in the industry, people often allow themselves to enjoy more. So, why do you decide to start up at this time, Sir?

I have embraced the idea of ​​a more cost-effective, more common, and more secure currency exchange solution that guarantees free flow of money since long time ago during many years of consulting, architecting, constructing and deploying information systems for multinational banks. With a holistic view of a complete information system from the architecture, infrastructure, software, security to financial services, I realize that this is time for blockchain technology to help things done. This will be the time when I can bring my experience and knowledge of technology together with my colleagues to create a breakthrough product having the above-mentioned features.

What advantages does blockchain have that persuade you to follow a path that is so new and so difficult?

Firstly, banks are using inappropriate technologies to digitize money. If this information is stored on blockchain platform, the security and transparency will be improved and upgraded, making the payment of customers easier. Secondly, each bank has a different system for storing money information and customers have to find a central system to carry out monetary transactions. This causes difficulties for the monetary exchange. At this point, blockchain, with its excellent support for cryptography and currency storage, can solve the problem thoroughly.

Together with two colleagues, Kai Yee Goh, a specialist with 25 years in banking and money transfer, and Ben Nguyen, a businessman in the currency and travel industry, Bao has built up ZeroBank project, which promises to be a breakthrough in the field of cross-national transfer and exchange of non-commercial transnational currency with a pioneering model using blockchain technology, smart contract and sharing economy. In this project, depositors and money exchangers can perform peer-to-peer transactions at any time, anywhere, at the lowest cost by eliminating all intermediaries with high cost such as banks or companies that provide international money transfer services. Moreover, this is not the segment of services that banks are interested in.

Thank you very much!

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