Crypto Insider shortlisted for ‘Blockchain Advisor of the Year’ gong
Crypto Insider James Bowater has been shortlisted for honours at the prestigious AIBC Europe awards in Malta later this month.
The enigmatic founder of Crypto AM was recognised for his unwavering dedication to being one of the world’s most respected blockchain advisors.
Joined on the shortlist by such names as Roger Ver, Wesley Ellul, Dustin Plantholt and Taku Tanaka, the winner will be announced on Thursday November 17.
The nomination was welcomed by Bowater, who said he was deeply honoured to be recognised but also pleasantly surprised, explaining that he purposely doesn’t shout loudly about his work on many blockchain projects over the past eight years in the industry.
“I came into this space having been involved in a gold-backed token project in 2014 and subsequently learning about BlockV in 2016, which exposed me to smart contracts and the finance raising potential in the blockchain space,” he said.
“I founded Vaureum to be a commodity-backed ‘index coin’ but I was too early or too late, depending on how you look at it.”
It was during this process when he met a Native American scientist who told him about a project called Cardano and urged him to look into it.
“Having looked, I attended its meet up in London and met my now good friend Charles Hoskinson, who gave a very impressive speech – especially given he was a 30-year-old genuine polymath,” James recalled.
“In that speech he said something that has stuck with me since and that is that in order for our nascent industry to survive and flourish, interoperability, scalability and sustainability are the key tenets.
“I am deeply against maximalism and have been firmly protocol agnostic – as we all are at Crypto AM – and as such, despite a heavy presence in Cardano based projects, I’m involved in many other chains.”
His advisory work began more recently after enthusiastically throwing himself behind the World Mobile project, led by founder and CEO Micky Watkins – someone the Crypto AM editor-at-large describes as “a guide and an inspiration”.
James added: “Any new project that I get directly involved in really needs to have sensible ‘real world’ application and – especially when using blockchain in its tech stack – there needs to be an actual problem that its use could solve. The other key points in any decision making are can I work with the team and is there synergy with the other projects I nurture.
“I’m extremely proud of all the projects I help – some at a very modest involvement level, others more full-on. The list seems long but they all have my attention because they all fulfil my criteria – especially the synergy part!”
Away from Crypto AM and World Mobile, James Bowater is also the founder of Jade Vault and Jade City, an advisor and association board member at MELD, an investor and advisor to Acta Finance, an advisor to Boson Protocol, an investor and advisor to Coinweb, an advisor and Global Ambassador to CUDOS, an investor and advisor to Cornucopias, an investor and advisor to DEGA, a strategic advisor to eTukTuk, an advisor to KamPay, an advisor to Q9 Capital, an advisor to SEKAI, advisor to Quizando, and an investor and advisor to Sheesha Finance.
Anyone wishing to cast a vote with the AIBC Europe Awards can do so here.