A team who are apparently fully clued up on blockchain technology has been announced.

They are running the new Isle of Man Blockchain Office in Victoria Street, Douglas.

A spokesman said that since its inception earlier this year the office has received expressions of interest from businesses in a varied number of industries, including education, real estate, banking, pharmaceuticals and retail.

The office sits within the Digital Isle of Man executive agency, part of the Department for Enterprise.

But help is at hand if you are baffled about blockchain and you are interested in learning more about the new technology.

Digital Isle of Man, in conjunction with Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce and PwC is hosting a half-day training event, ’Be the Blockchain’, on Thursday, June 20.

Each member of the new team is said to bring lots of knowledge to the office from various sectors, with one mutual goal, ’to grow and strategically develop the blockchain sector in the Isle of Man’.

Lyle Wraxall, chief executive of Digital Isle of Man, said: ’We have received a great number of applications for consideration since we opened in March and the businesses wishing to be considered cover a broad range of industries, all of which will make for a rich ecosystem in the island.

’I am confident that through Digital Isle of Man, we have secured the best possible team to guide these new businesses through the blockchain office and beyond.’

Alongside the ’core’ team are Steve Billinghurst (PwC) and Mauricio Artale (KPMG).

They are being seconded from their day-to-day roles for one day a week to provide expertise in their respective fields.

Here are details of some of the team members.

Steve Billinghurst from PwC is the regulatory lead. He is a qualified chartered accountant with more than 15 years of offshore experience across all industry sectors.

Tony Jones, regulatory manager, has been with the e-gaming development team within the Department for Enterprise since April 2011, in a role that has increasingly encompassed blockchain technology and its applications in online gaming.

Jim Burton, technical lead, has been working in the ecosystem since spring 2011.

Mauricio Artale, technical support, joined KPMG in January 2019.

He previously worked in the e-gaming payments industry for two years, covering roles in compliance and finance.

Being fluent in Spanish, Italian and English, he has supported the translation of regulatory documentation.

Kritsana Chase, operations manager, has extensive experience in operations having worked at RBS, Net-a Porter and Suncorp Metway in Australia.

She has also set up a number of businesses in hospitality and, most recently, an e-commerce business.

The team is also joined by members of Digital Isle of Man, who are supporting the Blockchain Office throughout its infancy.

Lyle Wraxall is a management and technology consultant who has worked across the whole digital and fintech space. Most recently he was head of the New York office for Pcubed - an international management consultancy practice with offices around the world.

Mr Wraxall has worked extensively with private sector and public sector clients in London and America including RBS, Deutsche Bank, IMF, US Federal Reserve and UK Cabinet Office.

Christine Hellman, strategic lead, joined Digital Isle of Man from IBM Global Business Services, where she worked as a management consultant for eight years on various projects that extended throughout the digital ecosystem.

Brian Donegan, business development manager, is responsible for the development of the industries represented by Digital Isle of Man, including cultivating and nurturing relationships with blockchain enterprises and ancillary businesses around the globe.

He has 17 years’ experience within the e-business, telecoms and infrastructure sectors and is looking forward to driving the growth of the blockchain sector here.

What is blockchain?

Blockchain is said to be the technology at the heart of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

The Harvard Business Review described the technology as ‘an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way’.

These ledgers, or digital records, can be shared publicly among a network of linked computers around the world