In August 2018 in a Telegram chat between Ethereum developers and entrepreneurs the term “DeFi” was coined for the first time referring to Decentralized Finance. Less than two years later, the term became widely popular due to the exponential growth of the sector.

Thanks to Blockchain technology DeFi brings today the opportunity to unlock liquidity while enhancing security and transparency, disrupting the traditional financial model; which is plenty of frictions, centralization, and what is more, already left aside 33% of the adult population of the World unbanked. Nowadays, the different tokens, protocols, DEX's can be combined in different imaginative ways and solve different financial situations or create new concepts.

The amalgamation of DeFi tools is infinite, and the exponential growth of DeFi ecosystems without trusted third-parties creates transparency and encourages price and market efficiency. Giving control of assets to users has the potential to disrupt the global Real Estate model as well, which is the second largest global market behind Financial Services.

London is the engine room for growth and development of frontier technologies. Two major players, FIBREE (The Foundation for International Blockchain for Real Estate Expertise) and the ‘DigitalDisruption’ consortium at the Bartlett Faculty of Built Environment, UCL have joined together to bring a stellar panel of experts in DeFi and Real Estate for a roundtable discussion which will explore the complexities and possibilities for institutional development, investment and operation of assets.

Speakers include:

Jeremy Barnett (FIBREE Chair) - Moderator, Honorary Professor at the Bartlett, UCL, Founder Resilience Partners Ltd

Irina Karagyaur (FIBREE Chair) - Head Ambassador Western Europe at Polkadot & Kusama Networks, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Marhaba DeFi

George McDonaugh - MD and Co Founder KR1

Nic Cary - Co Founder and President Blockchain.com

Thomas Wünsche - Senior Director, Greystar, Investment Management, Head of Germany and Austria

Yakub Sheikh - CMO Robonomics Network

Sergei Lonshakov - Blockchain + IoT projects developer, Robonomics network architect

Ajit Tripathi - Head of Institutional Business at Aave

Jonny Fry - CEO TeamBlockchain

Our thanks to our Legal Partners CMS for supporting this event.

DeFi and Real Estate: The Mechanics of Decentralised Trust