From Mastercard to CUBE3: Continually Building Trust and Security

One of my overall hypotheses has been that as technology advances, it has an opportunity to bring people from around the world together. My journey from a captain in the U.S. Army, to an IP lawyer, to EVP with Mastercard and now at the forefront of web3 innovation with CUBE3, has been guided by a single principle: trust is the bedrock of any system.

One of my principle beliefs is that we are here to maximize our impact on the world, in order to truly build things that matter, trust is a necessary component. Therefore, scaling systems that ensure safety and security creates opportunities for more people across the globe. 

In this post, I’ll reflect on why I believe the greatest opportunity for humanity is through emerging infrastructures that are increasing security, scalability, and decentralization and why joining CUBE3’s team provides the greatest ability to affect real change.

Building Trust and Security Through the Science of Certainty

The evolution of value transfer technologies has historically created more opportunities, connecting people globally. We’ve progressed from grain banks to Roman ingots to fiat banks, and now to real-time digital transactions. Bitcoin and the “crypto” ecosystem are the latest steps, enabling faster and more interconnected value exchange.

However, new infrastructures are often exploited for their vulnerabilities. Whether it’s physical checks or digital assets, new systems are more susceptible to fraudulent activities due to similar factors, including unsecured or weak authentication, lack of real-time monitoring, sophisticated fraud schemes and human error. While bad actors have caused setbacks throughout history, the majority of participants are good. Recently, misconceptions about anonymity and security have hindered web3’s full potential.

Trust is fundamental to all economic systems. For these systems to work, we must believe they operate fairly, securely, and reliably. Trust ensures that transfers reach their intended recipients and are usable.

Unification Through Merit

With tools like CUBE3, we have the opportunity to start embedding safety, security, and trust at the epicenter of how individuals or institutions engage and interact, regardless of network, location or status. What’s exciting to me about the blockchain-crypto ecosystem is that it’s a meritocracy that touches all corners of society.

Lower socioeconomic areas can participate the same as the high net worth individuals through borderless and virtual access points. They may use a “web2” browser and a “web3” account. When done correctly, blockchain networks lower the cost of engaging, transferring and investing money but that’s just the start. As this emergent system evolves we will not distinguish between web2 and web3.

Some may scoff at the $2 trillion marketcap of crypto and claim it’s a separate financial ecosystem. Some want it to be a separate ecosystem. However, my perspective is there is only one financial ecosystem. As technology continues to improve in speed and predictive accuracy, so will transactions. In order to tokenize real-world assets, settle with stablecoins, reduce cross-border payment fees, we must utilize blockchain networks in a more utilitarian aspect beyond the simple investment thesis. 

Regardless of what type of transactions occur, in order for interoperability to be realized between centralized and decentralized networks, safety, building trust and security is going to be essential. Building trust is what I have been doing my whole career and CUBE3 is on the forefront of what’s next.

From Mastercard to CUBE3.AI

10 years at Mastercard were inspirational for me. As Executive Vice President of Crypto Services & Financial Crimes, I had the opportunity to contribute to the development and acquisition of numerous safety and security products. My experiences with these world-class teams have provided deep insight, experience and awareness of how the proper security solutions are helping people make more informed decisions and in turn stopping fraud, crime, and allowing business to optimize profitability.

However, we have seen technological innovation, we have seen a corresponding rise of fraud because criminals increase their sophistication and the speed at which they’re able to exploit victims.

AI is the next frontier of cybersecurity solutions. With CUBE3, I have an opportunity to participate directly in building the future of crime prevention. With the knowledge of traditional finance, from the creative and innovative solutions at Mastercard, I have a keen sense of the customers and pain points that can be solved with cutting edge technology.

This is the opportunity to truly get engaged at the ground level to build that next generation of digital safety and security.

Building Trust and Security for the Future

I think what Einaras, Chris, Attila and the entire CUBE3 team has done to create a real-time, on-chain AI crime prevention system, is the future of securing the financial industry and so much more.

We can now identify where bad actors engage, identify them, deprecate that transactional curve and both prevent then predict financial crime before it occurs. Going beyond heuristics to anticipate where the next bad actor is going to occur creates an offensive, proactive security posture. Moreover, CUBE3 is packaging sophisticated AI models in a way that the average TradFi, DeFi and CeFi user can understand and operate out of the box. Usability for the customer is where the real magic happens. 

CUBE3 is leading the financial ecosystem by demystifying the crypto and blockchain world to make detecting and stopping fraud, exploits and vulnerabilities accessible.

Additional Actionable Data for Everyone

CUBE3 goes beyond a decision-making engine for financial institutions like banks and fintech companies. Whether it’s a payment provider, behavioral biometrics, data intelligence modeling, CUBE3 can augment transaction monitoring data, so companies can best support their customers. Reducing risk vectors opens the possibility for companies to engage in an array of ways from real-world tokenization of assets, NFTs or remittances. 

Companies want to retain their customers and engage in different smart contracts and on chain transactions. The only way this ecosystem will truly evolve and reach its maximum potential is if it’s safe, secure, and trusted. ​​

Companies will always continue trying to generate revenue. They’re trying to find different avenues where revenue can come from. With CUBE3.AI you’re going to keep a customer happy, you’re going to keep them in the ecosystem, you’re going keep things safe, you’re going to make the regulators and law enforcement happy by having our tools.

Building trust and security is what CUBE3.AI does. It is bringing predictive intelligence using AI and machine learning to look at things from a pre-crime point of view and stop bad actors.

That is a win, not just for CUBE3, that’s a win for our customers, that’s a win for the entire ecosystem.

And that’s why I’ve come to CUBE3.