FinTech4Good 2020 Magazine- Davos Issue

For decades, the World Economic Forum has been convening world leaders to shape global, regional, and industry agendas. If we look back at WEF’s agenda in the past 5 years, it is clear that digitization has become a key framing that shapes how both public sector and private business approach their long-term strategies.Blockchain, an emerging technology, which is at the forefront of this global trend, has the potential to disrupt many aspects of how countries can achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. In particular, blockchain and other digital technologies are enable the emergence of a new citizen-centric financial system which may help to remove some key barriers in SDGs financing.

However, in order to harness the potential of blockchain for greater impact, especially in supporting the financing for SDGs, there are three key challenges to overcome: 1) minimal understanding of the technology, regulations, business models, and industrial application roadmap; 2) lack of a compelling use cases for stakeholders, especially ones that are risk averse; and, 3)no one platform toidentify, efficiently communicate, and link the SDGs with the leading innovators to create appropriate blockchain based digital finance solutions and get them funded.

We, at FinTech4Good, are committed to scale up FinTech and Blockchain based solutions for a better world. We achieve our goals through partnership and collaboration. We initiated a Digital Finance Advisory Group (DF17) to support the international process and identify tested solutions. We pre-launched a digital finance impact fund of funds to leverage private capital to scale up tested solutions. We co-founded a Digital Finance University to enhance capacity development on digital financing for SDGs in frontiermarkets. We will organize World Digital Finance Forum to showcaseexemplary initiatives and foster international collaboration.

This Special Issue is prepared by FinTech4Good to share our vision and stories with global leaders during the WEF2020 in Davos. We would also like to thank Darius Nassiry, Steven Cinelli, Antonio Potenza and David Shedd of their useful comments in completing this Issue. We hope you will enjoy reading it. Click the picture to download