The Shape of Work

#129: [The Web3 Shape of Work] Ashish Anand on the future of financial inclusion, DeFi, and how blockchain will transform recruitment

October 07, 2021 Springworks Season 1 Episode 129
The Shape of Work
#129: [The Web3 Shape of Work] Ashish Anand on the future of financial inclusion, DeFi, and how blockchain will transform recruitment
Show Notes Chapter Markers

Ashish Anand is the Founder & CEO of Whrrl Loans, which allows the transfer of loan amount to farmers in just five minutes in a secure and transparent way by making the lending process risk-free for the banks using proprietary blockchain solutions

As a parallel entrepreneur, Ashish recently founded Bru Finance, an award-winning Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocol which is linking real-world assets ranging from agricultural commodities, real estate, gold, mortgages, receivables, loans against securities and exotic assets with a new DeFi ecosystem, free from speculative products and protocols.

In addition to his 17 years of experience in varied fields of finance, viz., debt syndication, CFO services, commodity finance, hedging etc. Ashish has spent four years in the blockchain space, running an international advisory blockchain platform with more than 100 advisors before starting Whrrl.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • His journey from becoming a Chartered Accountant to starting his own fintech startups
  • Blockchain & financial inclusion: how digital lending is reaching the farm gate
  • Building a solid culture in early-stage startups
  • How blockchain will transform recruitment
  • Future of DeFi and its potential
  • How to prepare the market to be receptive to the world of blockchain and DeFi

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

The Journey of Blockchain, Commodity Finance and Farm Gate

 Blockchain technology is challenging to use at the consumer level; its UX UI still needs to evolve; secondly, it has significant usability issues. Hence only the back-end was developed using blockchain. Farmers only need to go to the warehouse and get the loan without going to the bank. It’s a paperless, person-less system where farmers’ interaction with technology is limited to “pressing a button”, “Apply for a loan”.

How Do You Set Up the Building Blocks While Starting up Something New?

Ashish says that since the margin of error on hiring is very low in startups, the right building blocks are vital.

  • Focus on hard skills during initial hiring; the person should perform from day one. This changes after things have settled and processes are in place.
  • Two aspects are essential. Are we able to make an impact? Is our work making an impact? If you are coding, are they coming from the perspective that farmers can use it?

Effect of Decentralized Finances (DeFi) On Centralized Banking

DeFi is the fintech equivalent of the crypto market. The competition of DeFI is definitely with traditional banking. For example, if you own digital assets, you can go on any DeFi platform and take a loan. You don’t need to go to a bank to take a loan.

Most central banks don’t have a good comment on cryptocurrency because they are concerned with the supply of money that decides growth and inflation. Bitcoins distort everything from their control.

How to Create a Market for a Blockchain Solution?

A blockchain requires an ecosystem. For example, in commodity finance, we need both farmers and warehouses to come on board. It is similar for supply chain solutions that work on traceability and other factors. Every component of the supply chain must be on the blockchain itself. Unless that happens, we will defeat the purpose of the blockchain.

Follow Ashish on LinkedIn

Produced by:

The I.T. Career Podcast
Your ultimate guide to success in the I.T. industry. Helping you Grow your career!

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(Cont.) #129: [The Web3 Shape of Work] Ashish Anand on the future of financial inclusion, DeFi, and how blockchain will transform recruitment