🇮🇹 At ETHMilan today and tomorrow! When I’m in Milan and it coincides with the main Web3 event in Italy, of course I’m attending. Ping me to meet at Museo della Scienza and talk stablecoins, on/off ramps, blockchain + AI for travel. #ethmilan #stablecoins #web3travel Originally posted on LinkedIn
📍In Nairobi for tomorrow’s Nairobi Stablecoin Conference at the Hyatt. Today I’m camped near Sarit Centre where half the fintech world seems to be gathering for the Africa Tech Summit. Got a full day of meetings and I’ll be running on Kenyan tea by tonight, but if we’ve been chatting about meeting this week, today might work too. Say hi! #NairobiStablecoinConference #AfricaTechSummit #Stablecoins #FintechAfrica #Nairobi Originally posted on LinkedIn
🇰🇪 Nairobi on Feb 13th to turn stablecoin-travel thesis into transactions, and meet the people building the corridors. Last year speaking at KBCC let me gauge where blockchain payments actually stand in East Africa, and bootstrap my network on site. This time I’m here to execute. I’ll be at the Nairobi Stablecoin Conference plus will stay the days before and after, to make time for in-depth conversations. The context: two concrete implementations with Camino Network consortium members (one airline, one hotel-tech) that need last-mile connectivity between stablecoin rails and local payment methods. Kenya’s stablecoin adoption and mobile money maturity make this the right place to build those corridors. ...
10 major European banks just unveiled their stablecoin giant: Qivalis. It’s the headline the industry awaited. For us at Chain4Travel, this announcement is the culmination of a 1-year journey reshaping travel payments. 🚀 Here is how we got here: Oct 9, 2024 — ECB B2B Payments Workshop. We present travel’s case for programmable money to 150+ experts, connect with ING’s digital assets team, and collaborate on requirements for their stablecoin project. Dec 4 — Monerium’s EURe announced on Camino testnet, complementing historical partner SH Digital’s EURSH tokenized deposit. Multiple regulated euro options for travel businesses: different rails, same destination. Feb-May 2025 — ING tests minting on Camino. Chain4Travel among ~70 pioneers selected for the ECB Digital Euro Innovation Platform, testing how retail CBDC conditional payments sync with blockchain settlement for travel B2B. Jun 12 — While in Nairobi to speak at Kenya Blockchain and Crypto Conference, I witness a thriving stablecoin ecosystem in action, powering last-mile payments. The infrastructure is proven. Wake-up call for Europe: Africa isn’t waiting. Sep 25 — 9 major European banks announce consortium for stablecoin: ING, UniCredit, Danske, CaixaBank, SEB, Deka, Sella, KBC, Raiffeisen Bank International. Sep 26 — ECB presents in Milan platform findings: B2B, offline, and blockchain sync are priorities for 2026. We pushed for these. Sep 29 — Chain4Travel’s Travel Un’chained: ING’s Jan Lebbe presents the consortium to 170 travel C-levels. SAP shows Digital Currency Hub: stablecoins integrated into ERP with automated reconciliation & audit trails. MTS Globe reveals Payment Hub on Camino: 95% workload reduction, 4.6s execution, <€0.001/tx, 0% failures. Late Oct — Back in Kenya on holiday. I buy a flight with stablecoins on Trip.com, B2C is here. Then M-Shwari (M-PESA savings) goes down for 3 days. Balances show zero despite real savings. 7.4M users, KES 49B deposits, inaccessible. Funds are safe, but a decentralized architecture would have avoided sync errors. On-chain + last mile is the way M-PESA Africa. Dec 1 — BNP Paribas joins the consortium. Now 10 anchor European banks. Dec 2 — Qivalis unveiled: the Amsterdam-based entity, Jan-Oliver Sell as CEO, Sir Howard Davies leading Supervisory Board, Floris Lugt designated CFO. DNB e-money license in progress. Launch H2 2026. ...
Programme context and Chain4Travel’s participation In late 2024, the European Central Bank (ECB) launched an innovation platform seeking “pioneers” and “visionaries” to collaborate on digital euro development. The programme aimed to demonstrate how conditional payments could be implemented technically, provide opportunities for participants to interact with simulated digital euro interfaces, and explore additional use cases for the digital currency. As part of their preparation phase for a potential digital euro launch, the ECB invited stakeholders including merchants, banks, payment service providers, fintech companies, and technical experts to participate in this groundbreaking initiative. ...
My Travel Un’Chained 2024 wrap up, or how I witnessed #TravelTech, #IDtech, and #FinTech making history before my very eyes. They say the third time is the charm: first year was about vision, second year about tech foundation, and this, finally, mostly about demonstrated, tangible traction with an impressive string of live use cases lineup. Highlighting Lufthansa Group and AVRA Tours S.A. going public with some of the use cases we’ve been working with them and tech partners on: onchain payment and settlement with #stablecoins for non-BSP markets, and product supply & distribution via the Camino Messenger. And witnessing this in turn generating immediate fomo (corporate fomo: a beauty to be seen). ...