As the world continues to better its understanding of blockchain technology and its benefits, there is an ongoing push among innovators to improve the technologys ability to serve in our everyday lives. In Canada, one such innovator is Kyle Collier. He is notable for being the CEO and founder of the Toronto-based company Phaze, and is an advocate of making cryptocurrencies easier to spend. As part of a regular series, Coinsquare News is profiling some of the Canadian blockchain industrys significant figures. This series is designed to shine a light on Canadas prowess in the blockchain movement, and provide an overview of exciting innovation in the country.
Long before he would go on to found Phaze, Collier was a kid growing up in Middle Sackville, Nova Scotia. He attended Millwood High School until graduating in the early 2000s.
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Upon graduating high school, Collier found himself needing to make an important choice. He was offered acceptance at several prestigious engineering universities across North America, but ultimately chose to stay in Canada to pursue his studies.In 2011, he graduated the University of Waterloo with a Bachelors of Applied Science in System Design Engineering, with a minor in Management Science.That school engineered my perspective to be less like a unicorn and more like a phoenix - learn from defeat and rise from the ashes, again and again, said Collier, speaking on his experience with the university in a statement to Coinsquare News.
With his degree by his side, Collier found employment in 2011 as a product manager for Public Mobile; a Canadian prepaid mobile brand that launched the previous year. Notably, this is the year that Collier had his first experience with cryptocurrency.According to statements made to Coinsquare News, Collier got into Bitcoin by accident. Some of his friends from school were holding the cryptocurrency back in 2011, and would often pay him back with bitcoin when it came time to settle the cheque at a restaurant.At that time, Collier was not as involved in the space as he is today. In fact, he found the currency difficult to spend and lost his holdings as a result of the Mt Gox beach. In early 2013, he went on to find employment as a technical product manager for the fashion company Indochino. Towards the end of his employment, he also began serving as a Fellow for the global not-for-profit educational network known as the Startup Leadership Program.From there, Collier begun dabbling in creating companies of his own. He founded BoothPass, a Toronto-based company that calls itself OpenTable, Uber, and eBay for nightclubs. Following this venture, he became the founder and CEO of Eve Tab; a company that aimed to revolutionize evenings and events. It was at this point in 2014 that his co-founder at Eve Tab began to mine cryptocurrencies in the office. This served as a catalyst for Colliers future experimentation with digital assets. While he explored using cryptocurrency a variety of times in multiple startups prior to the launch of Phaze, he said the technologys limitations proved prohibitive.
Many of Colliers modern pursuits in the blockchain field revolve around a company he co-founded at the beginning of 2018 known as Phaze. Based in Toronto, its mission is one of freeing cryptocurrency by making it spendable.Phaze was inspired by the growth of the first generation blockchains and their underlying cryptocurrencies, explained Collier. Initially they were used for transferring money internationally, then later viewed almost like investments and traded like stocks. Now everyone is focusing on enhancing blockchain technology and scalability.
According to Collier, he is an advocate of Bitcoins use as a decentralized currency. However, he identifies issues with the technology when it comes to storing information outside of the ledger, such as rich data.As for the limitation he is attempting to address as Phazes CEO and co-founder, the projects mission is to make cryptocurrencies easier to spend. Cryptocurrency wasn't spendable back in 2011 and still isn't spendable today, he said, reflecting on his original experience with Bitcoin at the beginning of his career.With Phaze, he is looking to address obstacles preventing merchants from accepting cryptocurrencies. This includes issues like volatility, technological limitations, and compliance.Purportedly, Phaze aims to bridge the gap between merchants needing fiat currency and users hoping to spend cryptocurrency. Its method to create this bridge involves a credit-card like payment experience, which instantly liquidates digital currencies at the point of purchase.
Since the dawn of mobile phones, I've always been intrigued with digital finance and believe that currency will be completely digitized, said Collier. Blockchain is one of the tools many companies will use to accelerate that reality. Colliers endeavours with blockchain technology reflect a growing spirit of entrepreneurship that can be observed in the cryptocurrency movement taking place in Canada. While the technology is still a relatively new addition to the world of finance, innovators continue to build upon it, while the countrys regulators vow to not stifle innovation. https://twitter.com/KyleACollier/status/1057050146788311040A few months after starting Phaze, Collier also became the managing director of the Blockchain Accelerator at the Toronto chapter of the Founder Institute, an entrepreneurship training and startup launch program. Further, he is helping organize a Web Summit conference in Toronto to take place in 2019, which expects to host about 35,000 people.Ultimately, his ongoing work both with Phaze and as an advocate for entrepreneurship helps cement his place in the Canadian blockchain conversation. Hopefully, it will also trickle down to the aspiring founders he tries to inspire, which could one day become blockchain innovators of their own.Image credit: Phaze.io
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