Page 16 - CSA Celebrity Speakers | CSA Speaker Bulletin January 2016

P. 16

TECHNOLOGY

LEARNING TO LOVE
THE BLOCKCHAIN

Peter Vessenes is the CEO of CoinLab Inc. and Founder of the Bitcoin
Foundation. He spoke to us recently to give us his views on what 2016
will hold for businesses, especially in the context of the blockchain.

2016 is the year of the blockchain interesting are putting real estate or hundreds of other functions will
for most enterprise executives. property titles onto blockchains feel the impact by 2018. Whether you
It’s time to have a strategy for (Honduras), and putting AML/KYC believe disruption should be managed,
blockchains, and decision makers (Anti-money laundering / Know Your embraced or squashed, just getting
need information and perspective Customer) data onto a blockchain information and perspective is the
about the risks and opportunities. for various partners to share. Media first step for forming the strategies
companies are experimenting your team and company need to
What is the blockchain? The with tracking royalties on custom thrive.
blockchain isn’t any one computer blockchains, allowing auditability and
program or database - it’s a set of instant payment to all rights holders. What’s next with blockchains and the
new technologies with some common enterprise? With all the excitement, I
themes. Most often, blockchain Further afield, gambling bookmakers have some ideas - and I bet you do as
technology is used to take internal and prop-bet markets are utilizing well. n
data or an internal process and safely blockchain technology to create
put it outside the organization so that transparent gambling and prediction WHAT IS IT REALLY?
more partners can access it. services. Venture capitalists and
private equity firms are pouring A blockchain is like a database
The first use of blockchain technology hundreds of millions of dollars into but it has some powerful extra
- Bitcoin - launched in 2009 and is investments as the industry shows features:
now a bona-fide digital currency with signs of incredible growth ahead. 1. Immutable history of all
billions of dollars in value. In 2014, Almost any data that would be stored data ( data can never be
banks worldwide started trying to inside a corporate data center in 2010 erased or altered once it’s
adapt the Bitcoin technology to their may be pulled out of the organization committed to the chain).
own needs. Almost all global banks and placed on a blockchain, whether 2. Digital Signature support
have multiple blockchain projects private or public in the next few years. through cryptography
today. Basic projects include putting (identities can be validated by
stocks and bonds onto blockchains - Blockchains are highly disruptive any user of the chain).
threatening to disrupt the settlement technologies - Bitcoin’s stored value 3. Cryptography enforces only
and clearing industries - and replacing exceeds that of many small nations’ ‘safe’ and allowed interactions
existing wire transfer and settlement national currencies 6 years after with the data (untrusted
mechanisms, threatening huge launch. Similar shifts will be occurring parties can share and use the
near-monopoly players like Visa or for some financial institutions in data as they choose).
American Express. the next year, and any company
More sophisticated projects are that deals with big data, customer
under way as well; some of the most information, international commerce

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