FinkaMetals Onboarded by Swiss Subnet: Sovereign Onchain Data Storage in Switzerland on ICP

[00:00:00]Hello guys, welcome to zero to hero and welcome to another interview at the headquarters of the definitity foundation in Switzerland. Today we have here Dennis Platzel the CEO of the Swiss subnet and Carlos Francisco Fernandez the CEO of Think Metals. Thank you for being here first of all. It's such a pleasure to have you on the channel and today we are going to discuss about something very unique and meaningful on the internet computer.

[00:00:26]>> Thank you Fabio. It's our pleasure to be here. So uh we can start with uh the first question that I have uh prepared for you and uh just to mention something for the people that are watching us from home. So this is going to be a minieries of three interviews in which we are going to discuss about usage adoption of the Swiss subnet but also their first institutional client Fina metals that is a revolutionary platform that is going to do something very very meaningful for the commodities market. So, Carlos Francisco, uh, can you tell us a little bit about your background and what is the scope of think metals business?

[00:01:05]>> Sure. Uh, thanks. I am, uh, originally from Bolivia, a a country that is, uh, very much, uh, dependent on commodities.

[00:01:14]So, I've been very familiar with commodities all my life. I worked for Glenor for 14 years until 2024. And in 2025, we started building uh, the Finina Metals platform. Uh before going into the platform itself, I think it's worth going through how the industry works to give you an idea of what we're doing and what we're solving. Um the the metals industry, everything that you know you use for your watches, your cell phone, your car, your house, uh it's heavily dependent on metals and metals uh the way you see them go through a very long process before you can actually have the the refined metal as as we know it and as we see it. Uh you start with with the mine. Uh the the the ore is dug up from from the mine. And if you look at a ton of ore, a ton of rock, uh the the metal content is very low. Uh let's you know take copper as an example. It's less than usually less than 1% uh copper contained in a ton of ore. So that's what you get out of the ground. And what happens most of the time is that you have a concentrator plant right next to the mine which effectively concentrates that material into a what's called a concentrate that has a higher content of the metal itself. So for example for copper you go from 1% contained in the ore to 25% metal contained in the concentrate. And then usually what happens is that that concentrate is shipped all over the world. Uh where you have refineries whether it's in Asia, Europe, North America, wherever it may be. You have um a lot a lot of concentrate uh hundreds and hundreds and and thousands of of tons flowing through the globally through the through the different you know from the mines going to the refineries uh through traders etc etc. Uh and the system the the the commercial and admin system behind all of this is extremely antiquated extremely um nothing has changed for the last 25 years. And if you think about where we were 25 years ago, for example, what kind of cell phones we used, we didn't even have smartphones. You know, Blackberry 25 years ago was kind of a new thing. Uh iPhones were nowhere to be seen. That only came in in 2007. So the the the progress in technology that we've had over the last 25 years has been tremendous.

[00:03:43]Yet in this industry the way everything is is is is handled on the commercial side on the admin side is exactly the same. It's using Excel spreadsheets.

[00:03:54]It's using PDFs. It's using emails, phone calls, now WhatsApp. So it's it's it's it's a it's a it's a system that is that really needs some significant upgrade and that's what we're building with with with with Think Metals. We're building a platform where we take this analog process extremely antiquated process uh into the digital world. So we're building a a platform that is an end toend platform. It's a it it covers the whole cycle from the moment the the concentrate is put up for sale by the by the seller uh goes through the marketplace with biders buying bidding and then buying for the concentrate uh and then it does all the managing of the contract itself uh including laboratory analysis uh where where laboratories upload the the reports directly into the platform. uh you have you track all your shipments uh you track all your invoices, payments, etc., etc. until the the seller gets the final payment from the last delivery. So that's you know we we're covering the whole life cycle of the concentrate and then uh as as we'll explain later on we're going to expand not only into the concentrate side but also into the metals uh space where where we're going to be also including the refined metal in the platform.

[00:05:13]Okay, that's a great uh first explanation. Thank you very much. So, I have some follow-up questions about this procedure and the first is uh for for Dennis.

[00:05:24]>> So, um since this is your first institutional client and by the way, congratulation for this big >> for this big milestone. So, what do you think? Why are companies like Fina Medals a good fit for the for the Swiss subnet? So first of all, I'm very happy that we have uh Carlos Francisco here today and thank you for sharing your story is super meaningful for the whole space and also a big milestone as Fabio just mentioned for the Swiss subnet. I think having a customer like Fina for our platform really shows that international businesses want to be based in Switzerland, want to do their trade in Switzerland and that's why also their data should sit in Switzerland. So it's all about the data residency and where the execution happens. So this is one of the big milestones for us. It's one of the big milestones for them and it's also giving the whole space really this true longevity of where data residency is going to sit over the next few years and that the hyperscalers are not the right fit for everyone.

[00:06:32]That's a very good and meaningful explanation because once again I believe that uh data and privacy and what the Swiss subnet is doing is extremely meaningful for the industry as a whole and we have seen a lot of cyber attacks a lot of issues related to the security of the data a lot of companies that are not willing to use AI tools anymore because of this issues because they cannot use them. So having data stored in Switzerland and on top of that having data that is safe, secure and on top of that regulatory clarity for the data and for the customers of people like Carlos Francisco. I believe this is very very meaningful and where this industry is heading in the future. So follow-up question now for uh Carlos Francisco. Uh why do you think uh Fina metals is um going to be revolutionary in what is currently doing and how this technology can can help you to and help your customers most importantly feel safe and secure about what you're doing.

[00:07:39]>> Yeah, it's precisely for the reason that we are bringing an industry that is extremely necessary for humanity into the the today's technology. uh something that is long overdue uh something that the industry needs and something that is going to be super beneficial for all players in the industry. I mean having the ability to control your sale process as a as as a mining company as a seller and have full visibility traceability of everything that happens on your commercial side for your your products is going to be extremely uh beneficial.

[00:08:12]So what we what we aim to have with this platform is that users will see will start uh using a platform that has never been done before in the way that we're doing it as complete as as we're doing it. And they will realize all the benefits from having a centralized platform where they can manage all their transactions and manage all the contracts until they get the final payment.

[00:08:45]Well, uh, first of all, we I I I fully agree with with Dennis, uh, on basing, I mean, Switzerland is is the pinnacle of safety, security, reliability, uh, etc., etc. For us, it was very important to start with a company having a Swissbased company. Finet is a Swissbased company.

[00:09:07]We are developing the platform with uh two technology partners both of them uh Swissbased that's espro and core ledger and we're adding an an extra layer of security uh with Swiss subnet. The reason why we're doing this is uh because for our users, for the industry, data privacy is perhaps the number one priority in terms of dealing with a platform because many questions that we get from the from the industry is okay, but how's my data going to be handled?

[00:09:37]Uh is it going to be protected? Uh because ultimately the the information that they have from their products, it's what what's what's worth the most. Um, so the way we're doing this is first of all with with with Core Ledger and with Espro, we're doing the platform at least as secure as an online banking digital platform in Switzerland. That was our base. We said this is for us an absolute necessity. And with Swiss subnet, it's a whole new layer on top of it that brings even more security to the platform. So we are addressing the number one priority that our users have not only by doing it in Switzerland, doing it with two uh technology providers that are Swiss uh Swiss-based but also with such a strong platform as Swiss subnet.

[00:10:27]That's for us a key uh a key requirement.

[00:10:31]>> So you answered to another of my follow-up questions. Do your customers care? And this was I believe the talk of the town in many of those crypto meetings, conferences. We we are starting to discuss finally about privacy and data security. And I see those as very important elements. And many people are discussing about the so-called onchain while not really understanding what does this mean. In my vision, onchain means data fully on the blockchain, stored security, computation onchain, everything in one environment and an environment that is safe and secure for your customers and on top of that that provides the highest standard of regulatory clarity for the customers so that everyone can feel comfortable doing business with each other. So now one final follow-up question now this time uh for for Dennis here. Um this is a big milestone of course uh Dennis for your whole uh operation and I believe that this is just the start of something uh very meaningful for for the Swiss subnet. So what do you think in terms of uh the business model of thinker medals?

[00:11:46]how the Swiss subnet can make this operation even better for them in sense of providing this highest standard of security for for their clients and how would you rate most importantly in terms of let's say quantifying it how much more secure that is compared to a centralized cloud provider >> yeah thank you for the question and uh absolutely agree with what with what Kosisco said earlier having this data privacy and data this data residency in Switzerland and then this was one of the biggest requirements is a huge milestone for us hearing this from a market like the commodities market where there's a lot of trade happening uh through Swiss companies like Glancor where Carlos Francisco has worked before so getting the attention of those markets is super important for us and that's also how we're going to grow internationally and of course the Swiss market is super important to us but growing internationally is where the Swiss subnet is heading and wants to head talking about how much more security uh a platform like Thinker gets through the Swiss subnet and to quantify that. So to quantify that is very very tricky. But if you think of what are the back doors if you have for example let's say an AWS data center that's partially uh based in Switzerland or Germany those are the the common offers you would get as a company. I mean there will always be a backdoor for the Swiss subnet. You have at the moment 13 independent node providers very often in independent data centers. For example, Moritz and I we visited one one of our data centers yesterday. This the kind of security that they have is like having a Swiss vault or a Swiss bank. So this is a whole another level. If you are in the industry and want to protect the client's data in the long term, Swiss subnet is the go-to. Obviously, we're not here for everyone, but for an institution like Fina, we're the perfect one-s solution. And I think uh what you mentioned now it's very meaningful for Fina because my understanding is and Carlos Francisco Carlos Francisco you can um also adjust if if I'm I'm wrong here that you have miners participating you have traders you have many other participants many multiple participants so it's a process in which data privacy is very important security of the data is very important and those data points are very meaningful for for those institutions. So they want guarantees before starting to use the platform that the data is safe and secure.

[00:14:36]>> Absolutely. I mean you said it 100% correct. That's exactly what the what the industry needs. That's what our users uh require uh for the right reasons and that's what we're giving to them.

[00:14:47]>> Okay. Perfect. Thank you very much for this introduction for this first part.

[00:14:52]So in the next couple of parts we are going to discuss about many other meaningful topics. For example competitors and how uh does fina metal compare to other competitors and how does this solution compare perhaps to other competitors in terms of um also usage and adoption of the Swiss subnet.

[00:15:12]have discussed about this with Dennis as well, but we are going to continue this discussion taking in consideration the first institutional client providing timeline for everyone that is extremely interested about that and much much more. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for participating, for watching this video, for being part of this community, and for taking the time to listen to this very meaningful and constructive discussions about the future of this technology and of this industry. Having that said, I wish you all the best and I will see you in the next one. Bye-bye.