Having enjoyed strong support in Australia, the NEM Foundation has its sights on expanding Australia’s blooming blockchain ecosystem by starting a new blockchain hub in Melbourne, where dedicated NEM representatives will be present to engage with members of the public and the community, to help them understand the NEM Foundation’s vision of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. This comes after period of sustained partnership success with Australian firms such as TravelByBit.
Expanding Australia’s Blockchain Ecosystem
In addition to helping Australia’s blockchain ecosystem grow, the new NEM hub will also be a way to expand the growth of NEM’s ecosystem of partners and support start-ups who want to adopt the technology for their business. To this end, it will host a series of blockchain events and educational programs.
Speaking about the new hub, NEM Foundation lead in Australia and New Zealand. Jian Chan said:
The launch of the NEM Blockchain Hub in Melbourne is a strong sign of our commitment towards supporting innovation in Australia and the world. […] Having first launched our Australian operations at the FinTech Australia Intersekt Festival last year, NEM is now present in over 40 countries.
The NEM Foundation has experienced rapid growth, in part due to the existence of similar hubs in other countries, particularly within the Asia-Pacific region.
LaunchVic CEO Kate Cornick said:
Blockchain is a fast-growing and evolving technology, and LaunchVic is pleased to welcome NEM.io Foundation to the Victorian Innovation Hub. This is set to become a multi-sector co-working facility that celebrates collaboration and innovation for more than 360 of Australia’s top startups, accelerators and incubators.
New Partnerships
The NEM Blockchain Hub and Blockchain Centre will also join Stone & Chalk, one of Australia’s fintech fixtures, which extended from Sydney to Melbourne in 2017. They have come together to create a new element in the “innovation precinct” in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD.
Speaking to Finder, Alan Tsen, general manager for Stone & Chalk said:
We are excited to include NEM as part of the Stone & Chalk community. Blockchain is an area of growth and we look forward to working together on initiatives to support the ecosystem here.
The move is likely to add some diversity to Australia’s blockchain ecosystem, expanding awareness beyond bitcoin and Ethereum by showing an example of a platform-level cryptocurrency and showing how they differ from each other.
Alluding to this, Karen Cohen, general manager of the Blockchain Centre said:
There is a demand within our community to understand the difference between various blockchain protocols and we are glad that we are able to work with NEM on this.
Besides Australian and New Zealand firms already with it, NEM revealed that there are other Australian partners in the pipeline, and also plans for some NEM-based ICOs later on.
