Although Sri Lanka is currently in the midst of its worst economic crisis since independence, there is increasing interest and awareness on cutting-edge technologies such as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain among Sri Lankans and the country will be well-positioned to reap their benefits if the trend continues.
Cryptocurrency and Blockchain have become buzzwords in today’s high-tech world and have steadily taken over as the technological revolution of the past few years. Cryptocurrency can be bought using any traditional currencies used in the world today. They are built with privacy and security in mind and are more secure than ordinary electronic transactions. They are also completely decentralised and favourable for citizens residing in countries with currency instability, it provides them the opportunity to trade freely across borders with citizens of countries with stable, developed economies. Facts such as high speed, low transaction fees, and elimination of third-party verification make them popular for transferring money across borders. Therefore, they are the ideal solution for domestic or international transactions with minimum verification and processing times. Similarly, Blockchain also offers numerous benefits as it serves as a bank to communities with little or no access to banking infrastructure, helps fight inflation and paves the way towards greater transparency in governmental administration and therefore less corruption. Given such a backdrop, by taking the correct approach Sri Lanka can utilise these technologies to boost the national economy.
In the world of cryptocurrency, it is said that the market is always the greatest teacher. Although crypto is undergoing a meltdown at present, the market has demonstrated that technology works as it did not break under a large amount of stress. The uncertainty resulted in the several entities facing difficulties, including a stable provider, Luna, a massive lender, Celsius, and one of the biggest hedge funds in the space, Three Arrows Capital. Although this did cause some panic in the short term, great resilience has been displayed by the Crypto market. The key challenge witnessed in the market today is the lack of real assets.
This is where Ayozat, a British broadcasting, production, and distribution company founded by Sri Lankan-born Umesh Perera, is a cut above the rest. Ayozat has always been sensitive to this whilst building its platforms and the company. It believes that real assets are everything and does not care about fancy names or denominators. Ayozat’s viewpoint on technology is realistic and the company believes in the use of the correct technology to solve a specific problem.
Earlier this year, Ayozat successfully secured the rights to 100,000 tracks, including a string of world-famous hits, in a GBP 38 million deal with entertainment copyright specialist Lumi AG. Ayozat users can purchase the rights to any of the over 100,000 songs from the company’s NFT-ownership platform. NFTs, or Non Fungible Tokens, are a digital asset that represents a real-world object, which are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and encoded with the same software as many cryptocurrencies. Those using Ayozat’s platform can also own a stake in the creative rights of the songs via the platform’s subsidiary, Linkquid.
Ayozat is a broadcasting, production, and distribution company founded by Umesh in 2019. As a proprietary technology company with a unique broadcast network, Ayozat owns intellectual property and applications that include OTT platforms, TV channels, compression technology, gaming and advertising platforms. With its rising engagement among its audience and huge network points, Umesh has managed to grow the company with its reach spreading out to three continents of the world.
