ITSA talks: Peter Eulberg about analytics, change and his first Bitcoin transaction

 

Peter Eulberg is CEO & Co-Founder of Anyblock Analytics GmbH. Anyblock Analytics is a blockchain solution provider that helps businesses to integrate blockchain in their business processes by providing methods, tools and data. We talk with Peter about the value proposition of his business, the next crucial steps and why standardization of token markets is important for Anyblock Analytics.

 

What is your professional background and how did you get into contact with blockchain technology at first?

Originally I studied Biology at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and Ecology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. I’ve been an IT generalist since 1994 and established my first IT company 2001. Besides being a Linux Professional (LPIC), Project Management Professional (PMI), and ITIL Service Manager I have been digitizing business processes for more than 15 years.

My first contact with blockchain was through my fellow study colleague Heiko Hees from brainbot who gave me my first bitcoin a couple of years ago and made me pay for a beer with it. At the time I was not convinced of the technology but I still own that wallet including the remainder of this transaction. Once Ethereum came along I knew pretty quickly that this would be a game-changer.

 

About Anyblock Analytics

 

What industry are you working in and how do you believe blockchain is going to shape the future of your industry?

We are a blockchain solution provider. Since the market is small, we do not focus on a specific industry. We just distinguish between blockchain native companies and classical enterprises.

In times of Corona, only well-established businesses are moving forward. Most of them are in a very defensive mode. We are lucky that we have customers that are looking further than the next 12–24 months.

The blockchain native market doesn’t seem to be affected by Corona too much.

In general, we believe that blockchain is already changing the world as fundamentally as the internet. One can send value to someone digitally without an intermediary now.

 

How does your organization use blockchain technology to create value?

Besides our consulting services, implementation and operation support we index blockchains so they can be searched using SQL and Elasticsearch DSL.

Anyblock Index and accompanied services like Monitoring and Alerting are offered as SaaS but can also be obtained as a virtual appliance to be used in private enterprise, encrypted and consortia networks.

By using our technology it is very easy to build interfaces, e.g. to existing software like ERP, do Business Intelligence using existing skills and tools like Tableau or integrate your smart contract in an existing Enterprise Application Monitoring suite like Nagios for example.

In short, we are commoditizing blockchain from an island technology to just another IT component. This reduces project time and risks and therefore shortens time-to-market. It also reduces the cost of operation significantly.

 

What is the problem your organization solves (using blockchain technology)?

Using blockchain in an enterprise context is hard. Whether you want to read from blockchain, build on it, integrate it in existing IT infrastructure or want to write to it — it is cumbersome and inconvenient. We ease these troubles significantly.

If desired, we can package it all in one single service including service level agreement. We can also provide separate services like node or RPC hosting for example.

Besides technological problems there are also others, for example:

- Is blockchain the right approach to this business problem?
- What blockchain do we use and why?
- Who will we be running the blockchain with?
- What does that mean for us, e.g. legally or with respect to governance and accordingly who is in control?
- Can we build a business on an infrastructure that we don’t have full control over?

For us the more interesting questions we get asked are like:

- Can we transform our business to also be successful on blockchain?
- Can we create new business using blockchain?
- Can we reduce costs or risks using blockchain?

Based on our experience we can help our customers answer these and similar questions.

 

What are the next important steps for your organization?

We would like to extend our services to more blockchain technologies. This is already in beta and will gear towards AML/CFT as well as law enforcement use cases.

Besides extending our services we are looking to grow as a company by selling more of our existing services and do more blockchain projects that will go into production.

 

What is the target group of your organization and how can they get in touch?

If you are a businessman and want to do business with (or on) blockchain — we are happy to talk. As an IT professional, if your company wants to do a blockchain PoC or you’re asked to move from a PoC to production — let us know. We are able to find an optimal solution for your individual use case.

If you are a blockchain native company, e.g. you are operating a custody or tokenization platform or you are about to create a blockchain or DeFi fund: we can help you bring features to your customers very quickly. Also, we can reduce the costs of operation.

If you want to monitor data from blockchain — we are your best option.

If you are looking for any on-chain data we most likely already have it. You can reach me at peter@anyblockanalytics.com or at +49 6131 3272372.

 

Which are the most interesting blockchain trends for the next 12 months?

Looking in the future, I see five important trends:

1. Continuing tokenization of assets
2. The growing maturity of custody providers in Germany
3. On a global perspective: More new DeFi solutions
4. Growth in special interest segments / long tail like NFTs (https://opensea.io/assets) or protocols as part of an IM like status.im, Kakao/Klaytn in South Korea or LINE in Japan.
5. ITSA and Standardization.

 

Why have you become a member of ITSA?

The blockchain space will evolve quickly and for many years to come. In the resulting space, standards are a means for more efficient growth and interoperability. I suppose everyone currently involved is aware that education and standardization are amongst the most important jobs to be done. ITSA is an organization with a mission to solve some of the challenges. We want to support the platform and its goals.

 

How do you integrate ITSA’s standardization projects in your daily work?

Soon it will be possible to search for ITINs at Anyblock Universal Search: https://search.anyblock.tools/ We will also display the ITIN in any token search results if available.

 

Why is standardization necessary for your business and/or the ecosystem?

Anyblock Analytics is a provider for all on-chain data covering some 22 blockchains today. Tokens are a specific class of smart contracts. We would like to make that data more accessible and therefore incorporate ITIN and Tokenbase. We are also looking to extend Tokenbase with on-chain data for other users.

 

 

Collaborate with ITSA!

As we are well aware of the subjectivity of each framework and its existing biases, we would also like to invite all readers to provide their feedback on our approach and/or to join the ITC Working Group to develop the next ITC update together with us. Just like all other standardization projects of the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA) e.V., the International Token Classification (ITC) framework will be updated and developed further regularly. Therefore, we would highly appreciate external feedback or suggestions on new Dimensions to be added or new ecosystem trends to be incorporated. Finally, we are always looking for partners that are interested to classify new sets of tokens together with us, either as part of a research project, an academic thesis, or any other viable cooperative setting. You can find contact details in the remarks section of this article.

 

Remarks

If you like this article, we would be happy if you forward it to your colleagues or share it on social networks. More information about the International Token Standardization Association can be found on the Internet, on Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner is head of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC) at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. In 2018, he was ranked as one of the “Top 30” economists by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a major newspaper in Germany. Further, he belongs to the “Top 40 under 40” — a ranking by the German business magazine Capital. The expertise of Prof. Sandner in particular includes blockchain technology, crypto assets, distributed ledger technology (DLT), Euro-on-Ledger, initial coin offerings (ICOs), security tokens (STOs), digital transformation, and entrepreneurship. You can contact him via mail, via LinkedIn, or follow him on Twitter

Maximilian Bruckner is Executive Director at the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA) e.V., working to create the world’s largest token database including a classification framework and unique token identifiers and locators. He has a strong international background with significant time spent in Spain, South Africa, and Canada. Currently pursuing studies at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, you can contact him via maximilian.bruckner@itsa.global and connect on LinkedIn if you would like to further discuss ITSA or have any other open questions.

Christian Viehof is an Executive Director at the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA) e.V., working to create the world’s largest token database including a classification framework and unique token identifiers and locators. He completed his Bachelor in Economics at the University of Bonn, the Hong Kong University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science with a focus on Behavioral Economics and Finance. Currently pursuing his Master of Finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, you can contact him via christian.viehof@itsa.global and connect with him on Linkedin, if you would like to further discuss ITSA e.V. or have any open questions.

 

About ITSA

ITSA e.V. aims at promoting the development and implementation of comprehensive market standards for blockchain- and DLT-based cryptographic tokens. To increase transparency and safety on global token markets, ITSA e.V. assigns a unique and fork-resilient identifier (the ITIN) to each token and classifies the token according to our International Token Classification Framework (ITC). This data is then entered into the TOKENBASE. It is our vision to create the world’s largest DLT token database and see our market standards be implemented across the world. Our working groups are actively driving the development and progress of both the ITIN and the ITC.

  • The International Token Identification Number (ITIN) is a 9-digit alphanumeric technical identifier for both fungible and non-fungible DLT-based tokens. Thanks to its underlying Uniform Token Locator (UTL), ITIN presents a unique and fork-resilient identification of tokens. The ITIN also allows for the connecting and matching of other media and data to the token, such as legal contracts or price data, and increases safety and operational transparency when handling these tokens.
  • The International Token Classification (ITC) is a multi-dimensional, expandable framework for the classification of tokens. Current dimensions include technological, economic, legal, and regulatory dimensions with multiple sub-dimensions. By mid-2021, there will be at least two new dimensions added, including a tax dimension. So far, our classification framework has been applied to 99% of the token market according to the market capitalization of classified tokens.
  • ITSA’s Tokenbase currently holds data on over 4000 tokens. Tokenbase is a holistic database for the analysis of tokens and combines our identification and classification data with market and blockchain data from external providers.