BlockShow Europe: Crypto must go mainstream or die!
Last week our VP of Exchange Relations, Francesco Andreoli attended the two-day Blockshow Europe event in Berlin, a gathering deemed the “Cirque du Soleil of conferences”. With its unconventional standards and informal atmosphere, the event also attracted some of the biggest tech personalities including Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and Bobby Lee, co-founder of the leading Bitcoin exchange, BTCC. It is therefore not surprising that BlockShow drew in an audience of over 3,000 attendees and showcased 150 projects.
“…Every year Blockshow presents insightful panelists with great perspectives on the industry, selected startups demonstrating innovative Blockchain use cases and a great audience to network with…” — Francesco Andreoli.
One of the main topics for discussion was global regulation and how to improve the current regulatory system for Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
In the panel discussion titled Governmental Blockchain Initiatives within the EU (and beyond), the consensus was that governments need to start acting on Blockchain, and they need to act quickly: “Twelve years ago Europe was responsible for 32% of the global GDP output, and now they’re responsible for less than 21%. This means that a third of Europe’s power has vanished in only 12 years.” said Plamen Russev, Executive Chairman of Webit. Although, perhaps a little bit of an exaggeration, the message from the discussion was clear–countries who are quickest to adopt distributed ledger technology will benefit more, and those that don’t, will get left behind.
So how do we encourage countries to get more involved in the cryptocurrency space? According to Alex Grebnev, CEO of Oxygen the first thing to do is to get the mainstream involved in cryptocurrencies. “If you look at fund managers, who are managing third-party money, although they might put their own money in cryptocurrencies, they feel uncomfortable with putting other people’s money in it. A company like Fidelity, with over 2 trillion dollars under management will never invest in cryptocurrencies without the proper regulation.” This point has also previously been emphasised by the Keybox CEO, David White, “People will not deal with money if it’s not secure. In order to get mass adoption, security has to be a given and in order for security to be a given, it has to be easy.”
However, although there was an evident sense of urgency regarding the implementation of Blockchain, it was also acknowledged that Blockchain will not necessarily change the world. This is because Blockchain is not a disruptive technology, but a foundational one whereby it can create new foundations for our economic and social systems: “The presence of Blockchain will not replace current powerful systems, but may be a complimentary layer to established business processes,” declared Artiona Bogo, SAP Blockchain Technology Consultant.
In conclusion, it is going to be vital for governments to be open and encouraging to the powers of Blockchain. With countries constantly competing in terms of technology and innovation, no one wants to be left behind. Luckily, some governments have already “boarded the Blockchain train”, such as Estonia implementing Blockchain within their registry databases and Gibraltar issuing a ruling that grants Blockchain licenses for the storage and transfer of digital assets. At the same time, however, governments of some of the more powerful nations like China, France and the UK are banning cryptocurrencies or introducing strict cryptoregulations. Indeed, if we want to make crypto mainstream, it is going to be vital that these larger and more influential nations voice greater encouragement for Blockchain technology. [DLT Power to the People!]
