“”Vilnius Blockchain Week is over – what a blast! This Soft-Landing and Startup Lighthouse initiative brought around 40 participants to deep-dive into the city’s startup ecosystem with the main focus on understanding what part blockchain plays in it and build connections with blockchain leaders in Lithuania.

Article by Startup Division

Here’s what we did:

Day 1:

• Speed dating between all participants of the week: 11 startups & 10 ecosystem builders
• Got to know Lithuania’s government support for blockchain startups and the LBChain case presented by Jekaterina Govina (Bank of Lithuania)
• Received an insightful overview of Lithuania’s startup ecosystem from Mantas Kondratavičius (Startup Lithuania) and Paulius Petrašiūnas (Vinpra)
• Threw exquisite networking parties hosted by TransferGo (with a 360 degrees panoramic view from the rooftop!)

Day 2:

• Visited key startup hubs and met their representatives – Gediminas Dilertas (Vilnius Tech Park), Mariano Andrade Gonzales (Rise Vilnius), Žygimantas Zabieta and Ian Kane (Blockchain Centre Vilnius)
• Had the Bitcoin journey presented by Rokas Šalaševičius (Civitta)
• Heard Lithuanian startups success stories including Oberlo, Simplex, CGTrader and blockchain startups BitDegree, Debitum Network
• Introduced to blockchain regulation and taxation system in Lithuania by Lukas Pultaražinskas and Evaldas Petraitis (Cobalt)
• Got a chance to hear Danielius Stasiulis (BitDegree), Miko Matsumura (Gumi Cryptos), Lewis Tuff (Blockchain) and Sigitas Mitkus (Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania) sharing their insights on blockchain regulation
• Meet-up at the Blockchain Centre Vilnius with the blockchain community and the Startup Europe Block Forum speakers

Days 3 & 4:

• Participated in the most exclusive crypto conference in Northern Europe – Startup Europe Block Forum
• Had a blockchain community BBQ at Vilnius Tech Park and ended the week at a renowned Vilnius bar Bardakas

Startup Europe Block Forum

Startup Europe Block Forum gathered the global crypto community for a 2-day conference with over 30 speakers and 350 participants. We met, shook hands and took selfies with some of the biggest names in the crypto world:

• Michael Suppo (Suppoman) – the most viewed Crypto Advisor on Youtube, Cryptocurrency Investor and Evangelist
• Chris J. Snook – Founder and Chairman of World Tokenomic Forum
• Jeff Burton – Serial Entrepreneur and Viking of Silicon Valley, Co-founder of Electronic Arts
• Isidro Laso Ballesteros – Head of Startup Europe at the European Commission

…and many more!

As it was loudly announced on stage during the TOP 20 ICOs pitch competition, “BLOCKCHAIN AND ROCK N’ ROLL, BABY!!!” These 6 words sum up our feelings after the Startup Europe Block Forum pretty accurately.

Can such a tiny country be actually rocking the blockchain world? Well…

• Lithuania is ranking TOP in the world of ICOs thanks to extremely active and smart ICO experts.
• A manageable size of the tight-knit blockchain community in Lithuania allows efficient experience and knowledge sharing among the members.
• Blockchain Centre Vilnius is the Europe’s blockchain gateway to the world offering a 4000+ network and access to markets in Europe, Asia and Australia. It also organizes weekly Talk&Trade community meetups to share experience and build connections.
• Bank of Lithuania set up a dedicated regulatory sandbox for blockchain startups and expresses exceptional support for blockchain technology.

Looking at what is happening right now, Lithuania truly aims to create a convenient regulatory and economic environment to foster the growing blockchain and ICO ecosystem.

– Tristan Guy, Founder at Founded Innovation Support

 

Besides building a leading blockchain environment in Europe, Vilnius is full of life and fun. Whether you are a dance floor rock-star, Michelin-Star level foodie or a fan of architecture – Vilnius is ready for you. Are you?

Startup Lighthouse brought these startups:

In their words…

“Deep Dive week was a concentrated vitamin with quality business leads, knowledge and fun that every startup should taste!”

“A knowledge-packed DDW-Baltic engagement on side of Vilnius Blockforum has transformed us from a tech-centric to a business-tech centric mind!”

“Being invited at the brilliant DDW (Deep Dive Week) Baltics event in wonderful Vilnius-Lithuania in June 2018 has opened new significant global business doors in all directions (enablers, partners, industry insights and strategic clients) for the cloudyBoss organisation, showing us along the way the reasons why Vilnius and Lithuania are major world-class playgrounds for DLT, ICO and crypto industries. ”

“We learnt a lot about Lithuanian blockchain ecosystem. Especially we liked the meeting in Lithuanian National Bank, it showed us how open is Lithuanian government to new technologies and innovation. Networking was very efficient and we got a lot of inspiration and ready to move forward with our Coppay project. Thank you!”

Hungry for more?

Open Calls for the next Deep Dive Weeks in Berlin and Portugal are now open! Manufacturing, Industrial, IoT, Analytics, Machine Learning and/or Data Science startups – we’re looking for you!

Ecosystem builders: the upcoming Soft-Landing Missions will be launched very soon within and outside Europe: www.soft-landing.eu

Follow us on Twitter to see snaps of all the activities, talks and be the first to know about more open calls!

Get in touch with Startup Division if you want to to get your startup in the Baltics!

Learn more about Vilnius in the words of our Soft Landers

Why are you pitching investors when you can blockchain? – by Tristan Guy from Salamanca / Australia

Vilnius, the European Blockchain startup ? – by Chloe Ipert from Berlin / France

Vilnius Blockchain Week: Diving into the Vilnius Blockchain Ecosystem – by Tomer Weiss from Israel