Thank you very much, everyone. It's an honour to be here today and to be able to speak to you all about blockchain technology here in Canada.
Good afternoon. My name is Aidan. I am one of the co-founders and the CEO at ChainSafe Systems. ChainSafe was founded here in Toronto to provide open-source developer tools that accelerate web3 adoption. We have become one of the world's top blockchain research and development firms and now have over 120 team members across the world.
To understand the full potential of blockchain in the context of the Canadian economy, let's start from the beginning and talk about Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain. Ethereum is a favourite of developers because of its potential applications, the smart contracts that automatically execute when conditions are met.
Toronto is one of the major homes of the Ethereum project, with almost half of the Ethereum co-founders being Canadian, mostly notably Vitalik Buterin, the leading founder of Ethereum. We've seen many great Canadian companies and projects being sprung out of the vision and idea that is web3. There have been some amazing conferences in Canada that bring people here from all over the world to learn, connect and collaborate on the technology that is changing the world.
Ethereum has also experienced tremendous growth, with the 2021 report by Electric Capital verifying that there are over 18,000 full-time developers dedicated to blockchain tech, with over 34,000 new contributors in the same time.
You may or may not have heard about FTX and what has happened in the last few weeks. Understandably, there is a lot of talk about crypto and regulation, talk that has been happening for a while, but it has been heightened because of this incident, with many taking a negative stance about crypto and blockchain technology altogether.
This is a pretty harmful stance to take, because frauds have been around since the beginning of time. It is also critical to separate the technology from bad actors. Fraud is illegal no matter how it happens or what technology is used to commit it.
Second, it is also important to understand the difference between cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are digital currencies that are verified using blockchain technology to record and secure every transaction. A cryptocurrency can be used as a digital form of cash to pay for everyday items as well as larger purchases like cars and homes.
Blockchain, on the other hand, is a set of digital records that are duplicated across a network of participating computers. Blockchain technology can power new models for change, advancing humanity and helping social organizations create impact. An example of this is the World Food Programme, which deployed cutting-edge blockchain technology in a refugee camp in Jordan to allow for quick and easy transactions by Syrian refugees to purchase food and supplies. This technology can make sure that humanitarian aid is not misappropriated and that food security is improved for those in vulnerable situations.
Canada is well situated to be a leader in the blockchain space, not just because Ethereum was founded here but because we have the talent and resources to make this a reality. It may be hard to see right now, but it is definitely possible. We see this all the time. It's hard to see the full extent and use cases for technology early in its history. Some of you may have heard of Snowdevil, which was an online snowboard shop that two years later led to the birth of Shopify. The now 16-year-old company has created countless jobs for Canadians.
I mentioned Ethereum earlier, and the potential of the technology. It has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in Canada. Let's together make Canada the number one leader in blockchain.
We have emerged as a leading crypto nation based on innovation, low energy costs, high Internet speeds and favourable regulatory regimes. While it ranks third in the world behind the U.S. and the U.K. when it comes to embracing blockchain technology, Ethereum blockchain technology adoption around the world, with a wide variety of applications in finance, government, legal, health, education, space, national and multinational cryptocurrencies, energy and others, is unparalleled.
Canada has fallen behind other jurisdictions like the U.S. and Europe when it comes to digital asset policies, but it's really important to think about meaningful regulation that creates regulatory clarity and clear standards so that businesses can flourish in Canada. It is an opportunity of a generation to have access to a new net industry, and we can have it right here in Canada.
This is the future. Let's build it together.
Thank you very much for listening to my testimony today. I very much look forward to hearing any questions that might come up.
Thank you.