The NEM Foundation is endorsed by an international network, compiled of a wealth of experience in IT, entrepreneurship, business processes, trading, property and asset development, international management and academia. Jason Lee, Director for Australia and New Zealand NEM.io Foundation.

By Peter Lee, Blockchain Industry Group, and Jason Lee, Director for Australia and New Zealand NEM.io Foundation
NEM.io – https://nem.io/
LinkedIn Profile: Jason Lee

Peter Lee: Jason, please tell us a little about yourself and NEM?

Jason Lee: I’m the Director for Australia and New Zealand for NEM.io Foundation and NEM is a plug and play enterprise smart asset blockchain solution

Peter: Jason, you’ve got a few good things going for you.  First, love your last name!  And, to let our members know, more formally, your title is that of Global Director for Partnerships & Strategic Alliances at the NEM.io Foundation.

Jason: Thanks, I would like to also add the role for Australia and NZ because I would like to emphasis the focus in this region, thanks!

Peter: What are the basics of how the NEM blockchain platform works?

Jason: NEM is built around a powerful system for customizing your use of the blockchain. We call it the “Smart Asset System”, and it gives you the power to use NEM as if it were a custom blockchain built for your application and your assets. Rather than force you to write your own “smart contract” code from scratch or use off-blockchain methods of defining custom assets for your business, NEM gives you direct API access to a specialized set of tested and secure on-blockchain features. The benefit is that is easy to use and understand compared to other blockchains.

Peter: To help our Members understand the scope and size of your operation (for e.g., your XEM currency has about 3.7 Billion in value and is currently 14th largest in cryptocurrency market capitalization), please name some of the bigger adopters of the NEM platform and how they’re using it?

Jason: A few bigger adopters:

1. Japan’s First Online Bank – to reduce cost and improve efficiency – http://mijin.io/en/1370.html
2. Tracking of game meat – https://cointelegraph.com/news/japanese-use-blockchain-to-track-game-meat
3. Loyalty rewards platform – https://coinsessions.ph/loyalcoin-blockchain-based-loyalty-rewards/

Peter: What don’t people know about NEM and what are some of the blockchain issues that the NEM platform helps to resolve?

Jason: It is built from scratch to inherently address the major issues cryptos / blockchains face today like scalability, ease of use, energy consumption, governance, incentive to use, avoiding centralization and consolidation of power by miners governments who become involved.

Peter: Okay, I don’t mind ‘lobbing this softball’ at you because I think our members would like to know – how is NEM different from the Ethereum platform and what advantages do you hold over Ethereum?

Jason: Wouldn’t want to comment on comparing against Ethereum but what I can say is that:

1. NEM is very easy to understand compared to other blockchains, developers just need to look into our platform and they can immediate understand the difference.
2. NEM is a plug and play solution which allows for easy access to the NEM blockchain using what we call Smart Assets. Other blockchain may not have a similar approach.

Peter: What has surprised you most about NEM’s journey?

Jason: The fact that NEM Blockchain is an open source platform and has grown by leaps and bounds. Anyone can use it, integrate systems, develop or program inside.  The Platform is developer-friendly and very easy to use for creating applications. NEM Blockchain is an built from scratch and re-imagined from scratch as an ideal blockchain. This platform does a lot such as recording transactions, for payment transactions, proving identities and authenticity, store data, timestamp documents and create arbitrary digital assets.  NEM Blockchain is the future of Blockchain Technology and will always gear towards innovations and improvements.

Peter: What other areas do you have a plan for innovating and improving?  As no blockchain is perferct, in which area do you think NEM could be most improved?

Jason: Areas to innovate and improve:

1. Developing more robust smart asset features which will add to the NEM ecosystem.
2. NEM could improve in marketing and letting the world know how easy it can be to implement a blockchain solution especially for enterprises.

Peter: What does a promising NEM future look like 5 or 10 years from now?  (Also, tell us about 1 or 2 important NEM features that are especially relevant in this regard.)

Jason: Most promising future in the next 5 to 10 years is that you will see more ICOs on the NEM Blockchain.  You can start by looking at the 2 features below:

Mosaic “Fixed” Smart Assets

Mosaics are part of what make the Smart Asset System unique and flexible. Mosaics are fixed assets on the NEM blockchain that can represent a set of multiple identical things that do not change. A Mosaic could be as simple as a token, but it could also represent a set of more specialized assets like: reward points, shares of stock, signatures, status flags, votes or even other currencies. Each Mosaic is defined by a variety of attributes such as name, description, quantity, divisibility, transferability and more.

Personalized Namespaces

Namespaces let you create a unique place for your business and your assets on the NEM blockchain. A Namespace starts with a unique name that you choose, similar to an internet domain name. You then have the ability to define your own subdomains, as well as names for your assets. This makes your assets unique, easy to use, and trustable.

Peter: I saw a comparison of NEM to an iPhone in the way that other companies could build on top of NEM the way Apps are currently being built for the iPhone.  How appropriate is this analogy?  And, what would it take for NEM to dominate in your industry like Apple does in theirs?

Jason: Comparing it to Apple would be a suitable analogy, in a way where developers just need to understanding our the way NEM operates and utilize the smart asset platform.

For NEM to be on top of things, it would mean having a network effect of developers, end users and real tangible benefits being materialized from proof of concepts and use cases.

Peter: On a different topic, what’s one thing that’s important to consider if we want to save the earth, this world and humanity?

Jason: We can save the earth, this world and humanity by having growth mindset towards ourselves and beyond us. If everyone thought about how they could make the world a better place in their own world, this would lead to saving major issues our world is facing.

Peter: What do you like to do that’s different in your spare time?

Jason: I am enjoy getting on the adventurous side of things like skydiving and bungy jumping and probably why I am attracted to explore blockchain and the crypto space!

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Jason Lee on Forbes 30 Under 30