From Banking to Blockchain - Jeremy Firster joins the Cardano Foundation as Project Manager

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Greetings to the Cardano community!

My name is Jeremy Firster and I have recently joined Cardano Foundation as Project Manager. I have been living in Asia for the past 10 years and am based in Taiwan’s vibrant capital, Taipei. As Project Manager, I help facilitate partnerships and third-party integrations to further expand the Cardano ecosystem. My main focus is to expand market adoption through these relationships, further enabling Cardano as a blockchain-based solution.

My core professional background is in corporate banking, where I completed various project and structured finance deals for major corporations in Asia. I entered this market while working at two different Taiwanese banks, where I covered mostly Asia and emerging markets.

Back in 2012, the bank I worked for (now KGI Bank), was the first bank in Taiwan to open a bank account for a cryptocurrency exchange business. This was my first introduction to Bitcoin and the spark of my interest in this industry. While fintech and blockchain both grew in adoption and use cases, I became further involved, as Taipei is a tech capital of the world.

In 2016, I actively joined local Bitcoin meetups and in 2017 began hosting blockchain events focusing on current trends and innovations. I left the banking world and co-founded an incubation lab which focused on helping startups create blockchain solutions. In efforts to create a larger ecosystem, I began hosting various events which attracted attention to myself as a thought leader in the industry.

Noticed by a government supportive of innovative technologies, I became an advisor to Taiwan’s Government for Crypto Policy Regulations, establishing working groups that produced frameworks for how to regulate crypto assets, security tokens, exchange operations, and utility tokens.

I have had the privilege to work with many exciting projects as the blockchain industry has grown, including advertising networks, non-fungible tokens for video games, payment networks, exchanges, decentralized finance applications, and more!

I was first introduced to Cardano in 2017 and instantly found the solution I felt was needed for real-world adoption. In 2018, I became an ambassador for Cardano before the Ambassador Program existed, promoting Cardano as an enterprise solution and hosting Cardano meetups in Taipei.

I am thrilled to join the Foundation and help make the vision of Cardano a reality. My focus has always been on using blockchain to solve real problems and in my opinion there is no better place to be than here! My time is equally split communicating externally with partners as it is internally to match the roadmap for Cardano development with opportunities chosen by the Foundation for further growth.

Originally from the United States, I graduated from Indiana State University with a Bachelors in Finance and a minor in Economics. I have a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Shih Chien University in Taiwan, and speak conversational Mandarin.

I love to be a part of the wider Cardano Community and see things grow to new heights, and beyond!

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Very happy to contribute towards the greater adoption of Cardano!

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Welcome @JeremyFirster, happy to have you. :wave:t2:

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Congratulations Jeremy on your appointment,

Love the fact that you have been connected with and saw the potential of Cardano even before all the recent updates.

Wishing you every success :+1:

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Welcome Jeremy!

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Welcone on board @JeremyFirster. I recently completed a Strategic Branding Review which has now been added to the Community initiated roadmap. [See Document attached]. I’ve also alerted the community to the importance of completing a Rebrand before the launch of Goguen and the dangers Cardano risks of not prioritisng this exercise and bumping it to the top of the Cardano action list. Rebranding needs to be harmonised across all media channels and communications and it takes time to do it correctly so action must be taken now to capitalise on the golden ‘trump card’ that the launch of Goguen presents to us. Currently we have a hotch potch of confusing branding that is watering down the strength of the brand. Please take a moment to read the document to understand the enormity and urgency of this problem. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lGocGeDfqxUovWlhwPEgexlVMblD40I_wcJx3H-uJ-I/edit?ts=5f5a0c68

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welcome and good luck for your new job!

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Hi Stephen,
Appreciate the breakdown and full review, would just like to add my support and recognise the strength we have within this community. :+1:
We’re not going to please everyone with a criticism or comment, however when someone goes to the effort to produce a report as you have done, your adding value (i also think the re-branding has missed it’s mark), one of the challenges i had initially, was to try and make sense of the various parts to the whole Cardano family.
If we want ‘use cases’ we need it easy to use, branding of website and communication emails etc. is our first opportunity to connect with people.
Yes the coders/programmers and people already in the crypto sphere will probably be all over Marlowe/Plutus/Blockchain/Daedalus/Ouroborus etc. and that will carry us so far, however we need ‘Joe Public’ to also be able to connect with ADA.

in your closing argument you make a good point on Daedalus re spelling/scams etc, i differ with your alternative solution, to use "Bull’ or Bull Bank etc. the various iterations could lead us to Bullsh… !!! additionally the word Bull is also typically used as a shorthand insult. (not sure if your first language English sorry)
My suggestion for the wallet would be really simple, something on the lines of just ‘ADA’ or ADA Wallet/Bank. We could (in very small print) have the story how Daedalus became ADA (wallet) for a short period, then loose it as we move forward.

A website/coin who are building a very clean marketing and brand would be UTRUST, been watching these for a few years now, they also carried out a re-brand which i think has made it so much easier for people to connect with them. Their wallet is called UTRUST, genius in it’s simplicity :grinning:

quick edit, in view of the longterm plan to have ADA (wallet) holding multi currencies, have the tag line ‘ADA’ secure multiple assets on blockchain with ADA wallet.

Great to see more amazing talent joining Cardano Foundation.

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Hi WowPool.

We have your concerns on our radar and adding more people to the discussion (while replying in non-relevant topics) isn’t going to improve anything.

Thanks for understanding :slight_smile:

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Great background @JeremyFirster! Welcome to the project!

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Welcome on board. Wish you success in your endeavors that lie ahead.

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Quite an impressive resume! Glad to have you on board, @JeremyFirster!

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Thnks Jeremy for the detailed intro about you. Being myself a
Corporate/Commercial Banker with several years experience, I am keen to see how Cardano can help banking sector. I look forward to receiving info about your findings, going forward.

Hi @abdumail, you may find this recent article written by @Hinrich on [ways blockchain can transform the financial services industry]. Another way of looking at this is by easily lowering infrastructure barriers to enable financial services.

(https://www.cityam.com/blockchain-can-futureproof-the-financial-services-industry/).

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Hi Jeremy:

Thanks for sharing this very interesting article. Please allow me to read thru and get back to you with my input.

​****Mohammed AbdulKhader

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Congratulations!