In this special episode of Down the Rabbithole we explore all things Libra, the controversial global digital currency being proposed by the not-for-profit Libra foundation and driven by Facebook and their 29 multinational partners. With 2.5bn customers, Facebook could become one of the world's largest financial services players. What does this mean for your privacy? For the banks? For the US Dollar? and with the launch of the digital renminbi by the Chinese Central Bank in November 2019, is the devil that regulators know, a better option than a Sovereign state owning the digital currency space?

It's a very complex, and dynamic situation that will irreversibly change the financial landscape.

We discuss these issues with 4 great commentators:

Edward Plowright - the creative director at Cypto Global News

Bradley Hughes - a seasoned IT professional and blockchain commentator

Dom Jocubeit - a technical guru with over 20 years software development experience

Milen Marinov - who has spent the last 7 years in Bejiing and has his finger on the Chinese pulse 

Will Libra win the battle for global supremacy in the digital currency age? Or will the Chinese renminbi win the day?

Lets find out as we head Down the Rabbit Hole 

In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole we will be looking at how Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain could work together. We will be talking to Penny Wong an Artificial Intelligence specialist at Radmis who also has a deep interest in blockchain to discuss the challenges and the opportunities presented by the combination of the two technologies.

Could blockchain be used to validate the data necessary for Artificial Intelligence to run? Does it have the scalability to carry out such tasks? If the two technologies come together are we getting ever closer to Skynet where AI controls everything and where the blockchain creates "smart contract" code that cannot be altered once launched?

Let’s find out as we head Down the Rabbit Hole.

This episode is the second part of our review of how governments view the use of blockchain technology.

I will be talking with Katrina Donaghy, Co-CEO of Civic Ledger, a blockchain start-up that is focussing on blockchain applications within government. We talk with Katrina about her project, Water Ledger, which looks at the $16bn market for water rights here in Australia and how they have worked with different state governments to deal with the current lack of transparency over Water Trading rights. Water Ledger is gaining traction worldwide. Many international government agencies are looking at Civic Ledger’s ideas and models to see how they are being used to solve real-life problems associated with the allocation and trading of water rights in the Murray- Darling Basin here in Australia which is at the very heart of irrigation for farmers and businesses alike.

Can governments adopt Blockchain technology quickly and effectively? Let’s find out as head Down the Rabbit Hole.

In this episode we will be exploring how Governments are reacting to the blockchain. The episode will be in two parts. In part one, we will be talking with Paul Gutauskas, who runs the Canberra Blockchain centre. For those of you outside of Australia, Canberra is the administrative capital of Australia, where most of the Federal government resides. Given Paul’s background is from Lithuania, he is also ideally positioned to compare the two countries’ governmental approaches to using the blockchain. In part two of this episode I will be talking with Katrina Donaghy, Co-CEO of Civic Ledger, a blockchain start-up that is focussing on blockchain applications within government. We talk with Katrina about their Water ledger project which looks at bringing transparency to the $16bn market for water rights here in Australia. This project has meant working with different state governments. So, are governments adopting Blockchain technology quickly and effectively? Let’s find out as we head Down the Rabbit Hole.

In this episode I will be talking with Rick Klink, Executive chairman of the Digital Malta Exchange.

With cryptocurrencies having been through an extended bear market this year – we talk about the importance of regulation in the way forward for cryptocurrencies, especially in regards Security Tokens – the next cryptocurrency wave.

Rick comes from the highly regulated space of having developed platforms for equities markets. He now bases himself in Malta, and we managed to catch him on his whistle stop tour back to Australia. Malta is being dubbed Blockchain island after the government’s recent regulatory commitment to Distributed Ledger Technology.

Will regulation kill the crypto golden goose or will it transform it to the next level? Lets find out as we head Down the Rabbit Hole.

In this episode we will be talking with Phil Shelper from Loyalty and Reward Co, whose book, Blockchain Loyalty has just been released, and

We are also joined by Michael Bacina partner from Piper Alderman lawyers who heads up their blockchain Group and who has extensive experience within the loyalty space.

Is loyalty the next currency? Let’s find out as head Do the Rabbit Hole.

In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole we will be looking at banking the unbanked. In the West we talk about this major global problem holistically and theoretically. We will be talking with someone who sees this at first hand.

We will be talking with James Preston who runs the South African Crypto podcast about the realities of trying to bank the unbanked. Is Banking the unbanked just a pipe-dream for Blockchain Technology? Find out more in the next episode as we continue our journey Down the Rabbit Hole.

In today’s episode we will be talking with Heath Bencke, a seasoned institutional investor who has seen both the institutional side of investment but also been involved in the crazy ride of the cryptocurrency markets.

We talk about how the institutional investors have looked and are looking at the market both now and in the future and how they will adapt to the upcoming changes. Will Institutional Investment appetite increase as security tokens become more prevalent?  Let’s find out as we head Down the Rabbit Hole.

In this episode we will be talking with Nathan Spataro, co-founder of Secure.vote.

With the US midterms having been completed there has been some highly publicised political rhetoric about fraudulent voting. Is this real? Can Blockchain technology solve this problem. And what about other countries where dictators cloud voting in secrecy; where there is a genuine fear about declaring who you voted for. Can this all be resolved using blockchain technology?

Let’s find out as we head Down the Rabbit Hole.

Down the Rabbit Hole is produced and hosted by Tim Lea, a seasoned Blockchain professional and author of the leading Blockchain book, "Down the Rabbit Hole: Discover the Power of the Blockchain". The Podcast series has been designed from the ground up to provide corporate executives, business people, entrepreneurs and financiers with insights and analysis from within the global Blockchain ecosystem, to help them understand :

• How Blockchain technology is being used in practice
• How to deal with the challenges and opportunities of adoption
• How new ideas are being developed and sold - in practice.
• How the underlying trends from the ecosystem will affect the very future of business itself, especially where Blockchain technology is combined with other upcoming technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IOT).

This will enable our audience to understand how Blockchain technology works in practice and to enable them to see how the technology could be applied strategically within their own organisations to solve real commercial problems.

In order to do this effectively, "Down the Rabbit Hole" is broken down into two core underlying structures :

• education, analysis and commentary
• interviews with Blockchain professionals working with the technology at the "coal-face".

By adopting an educative approach, in plain English, and by aiming for the highest quality, our aim is to make "Down the Rabbit Hole" a primary, ongoing, go-to podcast series for blockchain-based technology and beyond.

The "Down the Rabbit Hole" Series is being broken down into Seasons. Each Season will comprise 10, 30-40 minute episodes and based around a common theme. Season One will explore :

Following an 80%+ fall in the value of cryptocurrency markets in 2018, concerns are being expressed from many quarters as to the true and fundamental value of so many cryptocurrency-based projects. Equally, the language of Corporates is returning to the traditional mantra of "Return on Investment", where the benefits of Blockchain technology can be used to solve actual commercial problems corporates are facing.

Risk mitigation is in the very DNA of corporates. Many do not want to work with decentralised structures, the very essence of so many cryptocurrency projects. Decentralisation means corporates have little control. Instead, we are seeing the increased adoption of private, permission-based blockchains - in the similar ways intranets were built in the dot-com era.

We are at a pivotal point in the adoption of Blockchain and its relationship to cryptocurrencies.

Season One of “Down the Rabbit Hole” will explore this evolving narrative and will explore how this is likely to be further affected by the upcoming Security Token wave.