FintekNews is pleased to offer our weekly feature column “3 Questions”. Each week, we feature a thought leader within a unique sector of fintech and ask them to answer just 3 questions for our audience in their vernacular. This week, we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Timo Schlaefer, the CEO of Crypto Facilities, a London-based digital assets trading platform. He holds a PhD in Financial Engineering and previously worked in Mergers and Acquisitions and Quantitative Modelling at Goldman Sachs.
NAME: Timo Schlaefer TITLE: CEO COMPANY: Crypto Facilities WEB ADDRESS: https://www.cryptofacilities.com
How did you personally become involved in fintech?
I have spent my entire pre-fintech career at Goldman Sachs, a phenomenal firm, but traditional finance has somewhat lost its buzz. I believe that the next decades will continue to be driven by innovations in technology. Fintech is a great place to be in if you understand finance and are resonable techy. So re-focusing my career on fintech was an easy decision, and so far I have not regretted it one bit.
What area/s of fintech do you believe will grow the most in the coming 5 years?
Blockchain technology, and make that 50 years. Predicting how blockchains will change our world is like predicting the impact of the internet back in 1990 – almost impossible.
Imagine a world where all transactions, whether cash transfers, shares transfers, micropayments, buying electricity or paying toll road charges are done peer-to-peer without any bank or other intermediary, in real-time, tamper-proof and without the need to ask anyone for permission. Imagine machines or software autonomously producing goods and services and trading them between each other or with humans. Then imagine what we cannot imagine yet and add that on top.
What has been the biggest success in your firm to date?
Our trading platform CryptoFacilities.com lists the first and only regulated Futures on bitcoin, world wide. And late last year we launched the first bitcoin reference rate, together with CME Group, which will become the authoritative pricing source for bitcoin
Dr. Timo Schlaefer is CEO of London-based Crypto Facilities, a trading platform for regulated derivatives on digital assets.