Wojtek Kostrzewa is the new CEO of Billon Group

• Wojtek Kostrzewa, former CEO of ITI Group, appointed as CEO of the FinTech Billon Group, starting in January 2019, current CEO, Andrzej Horoszczak, becomes CTO and CVO
• Company’s decision is driven by growth: international expansion and the execution of new strategic projects built on Billon’s proprietary blockchain technology

Warsaw / London, December 6, 2018. The Board of Directors of Billon Group Ltd. appointed yesterday Wojtek Kostrzewa as CEO. The decision will take effect at the start of  January 2019. The founder of Billon and the current CEO, Andrzej Horoszczak, is appointed as Chief Technology and Chief Visionary Officer.

Wojtek Kostrzewa has been involved with Billon since 2016 as an investor, and as a member of the Board of Directors since 2017. His new role will cover the day-to-day management of the company, fundraising, and strategic partnerships in Europe and Asia. Andrzej Horoszczak will be responsible for further development of Billon’s blockchain technology and for growing the engineering team. Andrzej’s responsibilities also include project delivery and ensuring Billon maintains its technological advantage.

Speaking about his appointment Wojtek Kostrzewa said, “I would like to congratulate Andrzej Horoszczak and the whole Billon team for bringing such a unique technology to the market. Billon is one of the very few blockchain companies, to move beyond the concept stage to working with banks and large corporations. We are no longer a startup, but an experienced FinTech, building partnerships with large business clients. I am convinced that 2019 will be a year of breakthrough enterprise implementations, proving that the world is ready to receive a civilized blockchain made in Poland.”

Andrzej Horoszczak commented on his new role, “As Billon grows, it is time to follow Silicon Valley’s approach and transfer daily management to an experienced corporate executive. I am glad that I can entrust the company to an excellent manager and friend Wojtek Kostrzewa. Wojtek has a successful 28 year history of building large banking and media companies. I will be able now to devote more time to developing our technology, and focus on client delivery”.

About Billon:

Billon civilized blockchain, creating a regulatory-compliant platform to manage money, identity and data. The platform can be used by enterprise companies to eliminate operational bureaucracy. The proprietary blockchain architecture stores data directly on-chain with no service costs. 

Billon was founded in Poland in 2012. The development of its unique blockchain protocol has been supported by many R&D grants, including the EU Horizon 2020 program. In 2017 the company launched commercial operations in Poland and the United Kingdom. Billon is licensed to issue electronic money in the UK by the British regulator FCA. In November 2018, the company won the world's largest fintech festival in Singapore, organized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, showing a solution to zero-cost blockchain micropayments.

For more information, please visit www.billongroup.com 

Prizes and awards:

• ARP Innovation Pitch for PGE Nowa Energia - November 2018
• Won the Global FinTech Hackcelerator program at the Singapore FinTech Festival organized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the BakerADVANCE Award from Baker McKenzie - November 2018
• Digital Shapers Award - an award for Andrzej Horoszczak in the Visionary category - November 2018
• Europas - Hottest Corporate Blockchain Project - July 2018
• 2018 FinTech 50 - included in the list as the only company from Poland - June 2018
• Participation in the 2018 VC FinTech Accelerator Program by FIS and The Venture Center - May 2018
• World Summit Award - Business & Commerce Diamond Award - March 2018
• Two grants from the Smart Growth program of the Polish National Centre for Research and Development for the development of blockchain technology - 2017-2018
• Participation in the first cohort of the FCA Regulatory Sandbox - November 2016

Bio - Wojtek Kostrzewa

Wojtek Kostrzewa was the CEO of the media conglomerate ITI Group for the last 13 years. In the years 2005-2017 he served as a member and a long-term chairman of the Supervisory Board of television  broadcaster TVN. In the years 1990-2004 he worked as a successful CEO of Polski Bank Rozwoju and BRE Bank (today mBank) and managed the activities of Commerzbank in Central and Eastern Europe. Wojtek Kostrzewa is a graduate of the Economic Faculty at the University of Kiel (Germany) and also studied law at the University of Warsaw.

He currently serves, among other positions, on the board of directors of the Swiss Stadler Rail and on the supervisory boards of the insurance companies of the ERGO Hestia Group. In his free time he is passionate about travel and golf.

About blockchain:

Experts in all fields call blockchain the new internet of value. Blockchain and its parent technology - distributed ledgers -  can change how we record and share data, particularly private data, reducing risk in digital transactions. Blockchain and distributed ledger have the potential to influence digital transactions globally, just like the internet has done for communications for the past 50 years.

Blockchain and DLT help to minimize cybercrime. Currently  online communication is poorly protected against interception and impersonation. In contrast, blockchain uses advanced cryptography to record and transfer digital goods securely. Blockchain democratizes information and gives ownership of data back to its users.

Main features of blockchain:

1. A database characterized by unprecedented security

2. Transactions are recorded immutably, so that no one can make an unnoticed or unauthorized change

3. Immutability of transactions secures the full history of changes made in the document for version control and auditing.

4. Democratic approach to data. Users and customers have universal access to their data stored on-chain, with no consent of service providers needed.

They write about the blockchain potential:

• Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/09/06/what-does-the-future-of-blockchain-hold-10-predictions-from-tech-experts/#e6665b301add
• CBI Insights (separate pdf attached)

The Big Four: 

• KPMG https://www.forbes.com/sites/kpmg/2018/09/11/blockchain-and-the-future-of-finance/#306478af620f
• EY https://www.ey.com/en_gl/news/2018/04/ey-announces-blockchain-audit-technology 
• Deloitte https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/financial-services/us-fsi-2018-global-blockchain-survey-report.pdf 
• PWC https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/technology/essential-eight-technologies.html 
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Billon’s Technology

The basic innovations of our technology are:

• Processing regulated currencies - Polish zlotys and British pounds
• No cryptocoin infrastructure: no mining, stock exchanges, etc.
• Lightweight architecture does not require servers. Blockchain nodes can be  created on mobile devices
• Highly scalable with throughput supporting  global transaction systems
• Ability to store whole files in a blockchain, not just their hash sums.
• Client-side encryption and proprietary mathematical methods ensure GDPR compliance

How we differ from other blockchain protocols

Unlike other blockchains, Billon technology stores any type of data directly on-chain. No information needs to be kept outside the blockchain. It prevents unauthorized loss or modifications and meets regulatory requirements (eg durable medium of information).

Billon is an enterprise blockchain through:

1. Regulatory compliance

2. A new data security paradigm built upon blockchain

3. Light architecture, with blockchain nodes on mobile devices like smartphones and laptops

4. Proven capacity to settle 160 million blockchain payments and write 5 million documents on-chain per day. These are numbers comparable with legacy centralized solutions which meet the needs of even the largest institution.

Media contact:

Izabella Murawska-Deneau

Head of PR & Communication

iza.murawska.deneau@billongroup.com

tel. 0048 734 443 023