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Donald Lim, COO of Dito CME and president of the Blockchain Council of the Philippines, emphasized the growing impact of blockchain in the country and the need to simplify it during his keynote at the PBW 2025 press launch.

• The speech happened at the press launch of the upcoming Philippine Blockchain Week 2025 in Makati City last March 31, 2025.

In Focus: The Philippine Blockchain Week 2025, with a focus on blockchain, AI, and cybersecurity, was formally announced to happen from June 10-14 at the SMX Convention Center Manila.

• Recent news: At the same event, actor and restaurateur Marvin Agustin also introduced FishBlock, a block-shaped fish ball with an NFT on Bayanichain,. 

The following excerpt from the speech highlighted the Philippines’ growing blockchain adoption, government collaboration and the need to simplify the technology for broader acceptance. Lim also reaffirmed PBW’s role in making the country Asia’s blockchain capital through collective efforts.

Donald Lim Keynote Speech at the PBW 2025 Press Launch

Donald Lim, President of the Blockchain Council of the Philippines: To our partners, all of you who trusted and worked with us since day one. Here we go again—not the geeks in the room, but the geeks in the country.

When we started talking about blockchain, people would always ask, what the F are you doing and what the F is that word, right? And I always say, when you do Philippine Blockchain Week, it’s always no different from a Philippine nuclear physicist’s week or whatever, because the word “blockchain” alone is such a big word.

But then we begin to realize how much blockchain, if done and implemented right, has a big positive effect on our country. We’ve seen a lot of inroads with our Philippine government and even with the Blockchain Council. My co-trustees, Chezka [Gonzales], we’ve been doing a lot of work—forums with the SEC, [and] with the Department of Budget and Management. We’re seeing many government offices trying—bits and pieces, efforts—working on blockchain.

We’re also seeing, of course, the Philippines—we take pride in being one of the biggest users of crypto trading and also gaming. And I think it’s only right that we continue pushing forward—all of us here, who are believers in web3 tech—to really, what I call, evangelize our country and also the rest of Asia. That is the kajos that we want to take upon ourselves. And when we were planning for the Philippine Blockchain Week, Janelle [Barreto] will explain later on why we had this theme. But we have to bring blockchain to something that is easy to understand for everyone. That is also the reason why we brought in our partners. Because if we all keep on talking about blockchain, maybe everyone in this room—we all understand it and how it works—but everyone outside, their life goes on with or without.

But we have to tell them that there is something better, that there is a tech that is better—the principle of decentralization, the principle of us putting the power into our hands and using a tech that is extremely powerful.

Again, all of us have to work together. Blockchain can only succeed if the government, the public sector, the private sector and the users all work together. And it’s not going to be easy, like any new technology. I still remember—of course some of you here are very young—but when the internet came, it was seen as evil also, and that was in the year 1998, 1999, 2000. But right now, with AI coming in, which would make the adoption of blockchain easier, faster—we’re talking about it coming into play already. We’re going to see how blockchain will move—and then going to move leaps and bounds in terms of adoption. Hopefully, the Philippine Blockchain Week is all about having this open discussion again.

Some countries do not like the word “blockchain” and “crypto.” Some are very open, and I think we’re very lucky that we’re in this country to be supportive of that. And, as you all know, our founding board of directors, Henry Aguda, is now secretary of the ICT also, so I’m sure you’re excited. Of course, he will be part of us.

We always like to tell people this anecdote: When we have a lot of our foreign participants who come in, they’re always astounded by the support of the government and support of the private sector—that those who are in web1 and traditional sectors are coming into the Philippine Blockchain Week. I think, again, they’re very surprised, right? Why would the government support something like this?

The Blockchain Council—again, we’re also there. We’re speaking to Congress, we’re helping them with the blockchain; we’re with the SEC, we’re helping them with the VASP [virtual asset service provider] and the CASP [crypto-asset service provider] license, among many others. Again, bits and pieces—but imagine a big puzzle worth filling each piece, one at a time. And with all of you here, with the partners here and with our friends in the media, I hope that we make this our platform. All of you are invited. We make this our platform to again really position the Philippines as the blockchain capital of Asia. I’m really confident that we can make that happen, because all of the stakeholders are all working together with that same belief. And again, it’s all of us working together—the same principle as what web3 is.

So again, I hope you have a good afternoon, and I’ll see you on PBW.

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This article is published on BitPinas: Donald Lim Keynote Speech at the PBW 2025 Press Launch

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