New Zealand: The Vanguard of a Decentralised Future
How EHF Catalyst Centrality is providing the digital infrastructure for a fairer, more inclusive world.
We launched the EHF Catalyst programme a year ago, as a means of providing a way for aligned partner organisations to leverage their networks, knowledge, and resources to assist EHF Fellows in leading change from Aotearoa New Zealand. By supporting the EHF community, Catalysts help to build and maintain the growth and momentum of an impact-focused entrepreneurship ecosystem in New Zealand, that can lead the world with bold solutions to complex problems. In our Catalyst series, we’ll be introducing the organisations who have put their hands up to support impact-centred innovation in New Zealand, and help catalyse the work of EHF Fellows. To learn more about the Catalyst programme, get in touch here.
Centrality are a world-leading venture production studio based in Auckland, which is building the digital infrastructure to enable software businesses to create a better, fairer world. Launched in 2016, the company has already raised over $100M in funding selling out a $100M Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in a record 6 minutes. The team has expanded to 180 people across Auckland, Melbourne, Singapore and Japan, placing them as a key global player in the transition to a decentralised global economy.
Centrality is EHF’s highest level Catalyst with 10 seats — that is, broadly speaking, catalysing the work of 10 EHF Fellows for a year. The company’s leadership team were attracted to EHF thanks to a high level of alignment in values, a common vision for a more fair and equitable world, and the desire to be part of a global community of people focused on solutions. In addition to supporting EHF as a Catalyst, Centrality Co-founder and CEO Aaron McDonald was accepted as an EHF Fellow into the Kopakopa Cohort (Cohort 3).
Through building a scalable peer-to-peer blockchain marketplace, Centrality is leading the charge in developing what is increasingly becoming known as Web 3.0 — the next generation of the internet that will see decentralised ecosystems governing online and offline experiences across finance, government, health, mobility, tourism, trade supply chains and many other applications that help us manage everyday tasks — all via one login and using blockchain-enabled infrastructure.
At the crux of it, Centrality is in the business of providing citizens and businesses sovereignty over their data and information. Imagine a future world where instead of monopolistic tech giants gathering your data to sell to advertisers, you can choose to get paid for providing data on your own terms — or you could choose to donate that financial reward to a charity of your choice. Better still you can be an owner in the system itself through its token economy. You could choose to earn reward points, in an online community that matters to you. The possibilities are vast. But the point is that you are in charge.
“We believe in creating a world where applications can help each other scale and work together in a cooperative way. Think of it as a thousand zebras, running in a herd against the competition, rather than one unicorn.”
— Aaron McDonald, EHF Fellow and Co-founder, Centrality.
In the first year of Centrality supporting EHF as a Catalyst, the organisation has collaborated with a number of EHF Fellows and the wider community. Aaron explains that the EHF mission is so closely aligned to that of Centrality, that finding opportunities to work together hasn’t been hard:
“2018 has been an awesome year working with the Catalyst program at EHF. I have been really proud of the joint work the team has put out this year including the report for government on blockchain opportunities in NZ.”
— Aaron McDonald, EHF Fellow and Co-founder, Centrality.
Two of the biggest challenges that Centrality are looking to solve are inequality and climate change. Both are issues that intersect with the work of several EHF Fellows, and Centrality has invested in and helped to develop the following projects in various ways.
Ahau
Following New Frontiers Waiuku in October 2017, Centrality have invested into and helped to develop Āhau, an community management and digital identity solution for iwi, hapū, whānau and communities, driven by Kawakawa (Cohort 1) Fellow Kaye Maree Dunn.
The kaupapa (mission) of Āhau is to empower communities with access, ownership and management of personal and tribal data, leading to stronger, healthier communities, greater use of community resources, and a heightened sense of identity amongst the people.
There are many applications that the project is exploring. Users could access encrypted records and information about their whakapapa (genealogy), whenua (land), histories and members of their community. Members will have greater input into decision-making process that affect their communities. A programmable digital token, Iwi-coin, could be used to pay for for specific community-supportive outcomes such as healthcare or education. As more iwi and hapū around Aotearoa New Zealand go through the Treaty Settlement process, Āhau can help people to understand what entitlements and benefits they are have the right to access.
Building these records into a distributed ledger using blockchain technology essentially makes Āhau a data cooperative, owned by and for the people it serves — a prime example of the type of decentralised community-serving platform that Centrality seeks to build and support.
CoverUS
The core purpose of CoverUS, a mass market “mHealth” platform spearheaded by Kawakawa Fellow Andrew Hoppin, is to provide data sovereignty to users in the area of healthcare. Centrality is one of the largest pre-seed investors.
Launching soon, users in the United States will be able to choose to supply their IoT device data, genome data, medical history, undertake healthcare surveys and provide other healthcare-related information, and be financially compensated for it. CoverUS has the potential to radically disrupt the multi-billion healthcare industry’s centralised data model, putting power back into the hands of the consumers who provide that data.
“We’re honored to have Centrality as an investor, grateful for the global network they have opened up to us, and hope very much to be a customer of their tools within this year.”
— Andrew Hoppin, EHF Fellow
Other EHF Fellows that Centrality are in early conversations with include:
- Isaac Nichelson — A clean-tech entrepreneur focused on the development of circular and regenerative technologies. His company Circular Systems is focused on sustainable fashion and redefining society’s concept of “waste”. Isaac’s work includes producing textiles with food waste, and combining blockchain, smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide complete, immutable and automated product traceability solutions.
- Matt Petersen — The former first Chief Sustainability Officer for the city of Los Angeles, and CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, Matt supports several dozen startups across energy, mobility and sustainability. Centrality is in the process of connecting with resident companies and exploring how they can support the development of cleantech projects.
- Adrien Gheur — A Singapore-based investor, Adrien is in the business of finding exceptional founders who are using technology to develop solutions for social and environmental challenges. He has had conversations with Centrality to better understand NZ’s digital landscape and how his portfolio companies could help drive digital transformation within the local ecosystem. Conversely, Adrien has also provided ideas on how to assist Centrality’s startups expand to the large/fast growing Southeast Asian markets.
“We are not completely certain what the future better world looks like, but if we start with the right values, and spend quality time with the right people, then good things will happen.”
— Andy Higgs, Strategic Partnerships Manager, Centrality.
New Zealand’s Blockchain Opportunity
Beyond supporting the EHF community, Centrality is looking to support and influence the development of the wider blockchain industry in New Zealand.
The company’s Strategic Partnerships Manager Andy Higgs explains that as a country that has historically prided ourselves on being an egalitarian society, New Zealand has a lot of advantages on the global stage. We value a high degree of personal connection and inclusivity in business, and are inherently distrustful of systems that enable concentrated wealth and power. Combine that with the fact that the overwhelming majority of our GDP comes from small to medium-sized businesses, and New Zealand is the perfect place to develop the next generation of decentralised solutions embodying the second wave of blockchain development.
“When you boil it down, inherently fairness is to New Zealand what freedom is to America.”
— Andy Higgs, Strategic Partnerships Manager, Centrality.
Following a roundtable discussion at EHF’s New Frontiers Summit in April 2018 that included key leaders at Centrality, Callaghan Innovation’s CEO Vic Crone, the head of the Provincial Growth Fund Nigel Bickle, and several EHF Fellows, a report on New Zealand’s blockchain opportunity was published late last year. Taking a collaborative approach, the report’s lead author, Enspiral Co-founder Joshua Vial, spoke with over 50 industry leaders and conducted a literary review.
The report found that, by and large, the legislation governing financial markets in New Zealand is relatively supportive of the development blockchain industries including cryptocurrencies. It concludes with eight recommendations including the development of a cross-sector blockchain working group, prioritising digital identity adoption and digital inclusion (such as the work that Āhau is aiming to achieve), and focusing on security tokens. What is needed now is some bold leadership from policy-makers to solidify New Zealand as a global mecca for all things blockchain.
While New Zealand is a great test market for blockchain applications, Andy sees working with the EHF community as one of the key ways that Centrality can scale globally.
“Currently we are a significant player in an aspirational little market. Therefore once we have honed this new infrastructure for collaboration down under, EHF provides a great stepping stone for reaching aligned communities of individuals and businesses globally.”
— Andy Higgs, Strategic Partnerships Manager, Centrality.
The first year with Centrality as an EHF Catalyst has seen so many mutually beneficial projects get off the ground. Aaron believes it is just the beginning, and there is so much more we can achieve together to help solidify New Zealand as a global hub for decentralisation, blockchain and distributed ledger technology to benefit all users.
“Beyond the corporate Catalyst collaboration Centrality has with EHF, I personally have gained a new level of insight as an EHF Fellow into how the EHF programs work and the immense potential the Fellows bring to NZ. This has helped me to understand more about how we can grow in our own mission and also how we can help EHF grow in theirs.” — Aaron McDonald, EHF Fellow and Co-founder, Centrality.
Want to help support visionary entrepreneurship that can impact the world from New Zealand? EHF Catalysts get special access to EHF Fellows, exclusive invitations to EHF gatherings, prominent brand placement in our produced content and website, and other benefits. Get in touch to find out more.
