News Roundup — Blockchain events
In an environment where hyperbole is rife, a recent panel discussion about the global state of blockchain was noteworthy for its measured and sensible take on the technology.
The discussion took place in July during the Distributed conference held in, of all places, Las Vegas, home of all things over the top.
Moderated by The Wall Street Journal’s Tomio Geron, the panel discussion featured Brian Behlendorf, executive director at the Hyperledger Project; Nick Kritikos, who leads global business development at ConsenSys; and Sheila Warren, head of blockchain and distributed ledger technology at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
“The number one thing to think about: Do they really need blockchain or not?” Kritikos said when asked what companies should do when starting new blockchain platforms. “There is a fair amount of interest from database projects that at their core simply don’t need blockchain technology. At the end of the day, the value of a technology and people’s willingness to adopt it is based on how much the technology improves their lives. Blockchain is not always the path to ease or lower cost. It can be cumbersome, brittle, and difficult. There are many solutions entering the space that will vastly improve enterprise and startup adoption, but we still need to think about if the core business model needs blockchain.”
Behlendorf echoed Kritikos’ call for caution.
“There are many challenges for people in the space,” he said. “Blockchains are not a fundamentally, universally faster way to do things or to reduce fees. They are a technical solution to a market structure problem. Blockchain technology is about the inverse of ‘playing God’, where tech companies today try to capture and control markets like Uber has (i.e., the pitch language ‘the Uber of X’). It is the opposite of a traditional VC view of how the world should work — it’s a compelling way to disrupt somebody who is at the centre of an economy and is charging high fees (i.e., Uber).”
In response to another question, Warren noted that some of the most exciting applications for blockchain are not necessarily “sexy”, but are potentially very useful.
“The WEF is working less on specific products and more on general infrastructure and legislation at the moment,” Warren said. “We find the most exciting application of blockchain technology is identity and privacy. With blockchain technology, people will now have control over how they are seen and tracked throughout the world. Less ‘sexy’, but equally important, are use cases like supply chain. Wherever we can eliminate paper, waste, and duplicate processes, we consider that a success from the social impact side.”
Mashable’s Jack Morse called Distributed’s sober and low-key take on blockchain “refreshing.”
“To not have a thousand different confused voices yelling about a society remade in Satoshi’s image while simultaneously shilling useless tokens felt like a luxury,” Morse wrote afterward.
He added, “Overall, day one of the two-day Distributed conference managed to accomplish something most in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space would never dream of: communicate realistic expectations. The conference organisers, presenters, and attendees all appeared genuinely interested in exploring what blockchains could mean for their respective businesses — without all the false promises and bullshit so endemic to industry. Good for them.”
