News Roundup — Blockchain Events
Held in Paris on 4–5 September, the Blockchain Policy Forum was billed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as “the first major international conference to take stock of blockchain’s impacts across the full range of government activities and public priorities”.
Among the more than 1,000 people attending the event were OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić and Premier of Bermuda E David Burt. The forum was organised to discuss blockchain’s impact on the global economy and potential for improving governance and enforcement practices, as well as to talk about blockchain-related issues such as privacy, cybersecurity, inclusiveness, green growth and sustainability.
“Blockchain is not a policy,” Gurría said upon welcoming attendees to the event. “Blockchain is not a regulation. Blockchain is a tool. And the idea is to what extent can we make the tool a standard so that when it is a generally accepted standard it can then become part of the regulatory process, therefore mandatory in the regulations so that it can serve the policy purposes better.”
During the opening discussion on ‘Blockchain for Better Policies’, Jugnauth said there was no doubt that blockchain would enable governments to deliver their services in more secure and transparent ways. At the same time, however, he acknowledged that the technology had the potential to displace sectors that currently provide a variety of intermediary services.
Brnabić said she had high hopes that new technologies would enable transformative changes in her country, pointing to Serbian-based initiatives such as the Global Sun Foundation and the Serbian Blockchain Initiative. She added that Serbia is now “actively considering” putting its citizens’ registry on a blockchain — something that’s already been done for more than a decade in Estonia.
Bermuda is also embracing blockchain and other digital technologies, said Burt, who described his country’s recent adoption of new legislation for initial coin offerings, digital asset businesses and digital banking.
The event also highlighted occasionally mixed feelings about blockchain technology, particularly cryptocurrencies. For example, a poll taken during one session showed a majority (57.4 per cent) of attendees believe that up to 25 per cent of bitcoin transactions are for illicit activity, while only 13.9 per cent of attendees chose the correct figure of less than one per cent. And Gurría joked during his opening remarks about blockchain’s potential to eliminate the need for trusted third parties such as government: “So those of us in government hope that they don’t succeed, too much. What are we going to do? We’re going to be without a job.”
On a more serious note, Gurría later noted that it’s important to ensure that blockchain’s potential for disruption is positive rather than negative.
“Now, disruption is a word which, if you go to a meeting of experts of technology today, is a good word,” he said. “Everybody wants to say that they’re more disruptive than the next guy, OK? The problem is, we use it as a bad word, you know? We don’t want anything to disrupt things. We want it to be orderly… And the problem is precisely, make sure ‘disrupt’ is a good word with a capital ‘D’ rather than the other way around.”
Burt also expressed some ambivalence during the forum’s kickoff: “As much as some digital assets have not earned themselves the best reputation, I believe that the power of the underlying technology must be harnessed for good.” He added that it’s vital that organisations such as the OECD pave the way for such outcomes by making sure that new systems benefit the many, rather than just a few.
“A future that continues to see many of the banked becoming unbanked and those that are unbanked with no possibility of becoming banked will not improve the economic and social well-being of the world’s citizens,” Burt said. “It is incumbent upon organisations like the OECD to not only do the work to combat financial crime but to ensure that innovations like distributed ledger technology and blockchain can make that fight more effective while not causing the collateral damage to citizens, businesses and countries… At a time when multilateralism is being challenged, it is my hope that the OECD can rise to this occasion and look to ensure that the future of distributed ledger technology is owned by no one, controlled by no one, however, it benefits everyone.”
