Report from the XNUMXnd edition of BlockchainTech Congress - Blockchain is a revolution (?)

The second edition of the BlockchainTech Congress event is behind us. On October 1-2, representatives of various industries gathered in the Westin Warsaw Hotel to share their knowledge, experience and reflections on this technology. Forex Club had the pleasure to participate in this congress as a media patron.

The motto behind the event was "Revolution is comming". Is blockchain really a revolution? Or maybe it will be her? Frequently, there have been answers to such questions from industry specialists. First things first.

Blockchain in simulation

The conference, rich in debates as well as solo speeches, touched on various topics that were able to both introduce into the blockchain world of total laymen and satisfy the needs of more experts in the subject.

In the middle of the first day, Norbert Biedrzycki (Chairman of the BlockchainTech Congress Advisory Board) and Mariusz Sperczyński (bitSecurities.io) simulated blockchain technology. Thanks to this, the viewer could not only see what it is, but also become a participant co-creating the simulated blockchain. A great thing, thanks to which even "random" listeners later had an easier task to find themselves in the terminology used by the speakers.

It was extremely important due to the fact that blockchain technology itself is commonly associated mainly with cryptocurrencies. The very popularization of this technology followed the dynamic increase in Bitcoin's rate, which gave it a not-necessarily positive and truth-reflecting label. Meanwhile, virtual currencies only use it, and there are many more uses and possibilities.

Application of block chain

Blockchain has suddenly become fashionable. Some companies want to "have" it, although they do not know yet what it is and how they can benefit from it. Of course, they implicitly want to achieve one of two things - a competitive advantage or savings. And in fact, with the help of this technology, it can be achieved in many areas. But not all of them, at least at this stage.

During one of the debates, as rightly stated by Dr. Paweł Rzeszuciński (Data Scientist, Codewise, Member of the European AI Alliance), blockchain technology opens up a number of interesting possibilities, but at the current stage of development, it will not always turn out to be something better, more effective or cheaper than some solutions with greater seniority and level of refinement. Is it worth succumbing to fashion at all costs?

Buy/Sell Ads

Probably in the minds of blockchain traders, it is usually associated with cryptocurrency transactions. Another thought is whether it would be possible to use such a solution for other instruments, starting from the stock market. The representative of the Warsaw Stock Exchange answered this question.

Is the WSE waiting for a blockchain revolution? Not yet, although work is underway to implement this technology not so much in the transaction process as in "post-transaction" activities. In addition, KDPW has been involved in the eVoting project based on blockchain since 2017, which is to enable minority investors to participate actively in general meetings of shareholders (more about the project in PDF).

Will it ever be transferred to the transactional part? Possibly. In the end, it has already happened in Australia.

Real estate market

Blockchain came here too. Robert Chmielewski (Co-Founder ShareSpace) showed during his presentation how his company managed to use blockchains in the real estate market. The result is the conclusion of smart contracts on the ShareSpace.pl platform, used for the rental of co-working offices. Can you? You can!

Banking

PKO BP was one of the first banks in Europe to successfully use blockchain technology in its infrastructure. It's something to be proud of. How? It was told by Grzegorz Pawlicki, Director of the Innovation and Customer Experience Office at PKO BP. The presentation topic of his presentation was: "Blockchain implementation at PKO Bank Polski - Durable medium and more ...".

What counts in banking is: speed, convenience, security and price. Undoubtedly, in the field of concluding contracts and transferring documentation, blockchain is able to offer this. As a result, customers receive information about changes to product regulations electronically. This is the end of the era of sending a ton of letters by post.

According to Grzegorz Pawlicki, the blockchain will not necessarily revolutionize finance and banking. Certainly, it can make it solve many problems in the industry, but it has a greater chance of a revolution in other sectors.

Security

Are the block chains safe? By following the regular financial and technology media you can get the impression that you do not. After all, who has not heard about the hacking of users' wallets that resulted in the theft of their cryptocurrencies? However, it is worth specifying that often the fault of such a state of affairs is borne by the users themselves who do not adequately protect their passwords. And this was clearly emphasized by the conference participants. The way to increase security is to increase the awareness of users.

On page Crypto51 you can check what is the estimated one the cost of a hacker attack carried out on the portfolios of individual cryptocurrencies. In the case of Bitcoin, the attack time is close to 0,5 million USD. This indicates a relatively high risk "Investment" in relation to the uncertain "Profit". And in fact this argument is extremely convincing.

During the conference, the subject of user anonymity was also discussed in legal terms. A dilemma arises whether the blockchain actually provides full anonymisation. According to some panelists, we can only talk about pseudonymisation. It is true that with each subsequent block there is no name or surname but there is a unique hash. But can you track the user with a hash? This issue is already being investigated by the French regulator, and probably more will follow in his footsteps.

"Regulations? We are waiting! "

The law cannot keep up with technology. It's been like that forever, and nothing is likely to change that. All panelists who had the opportunity to discuss the topic of regulation on the blockchain and cryptocurrency market were completely in agreement - regulations are needed and companies using this technology want them to be introduced as soon as possible. However, there is a concern that the novelty of solutions will be insufficiently understood by decision-makers. It is this regulatory uncertainty and possibly too drastic or hasty steps that may be taken that constitute the greatest fear of many bold investments.

Summation

We assume that with the blockchain technology the congress itself will also develop, and each subsequent edition of the event will reveal its new possibilities and applications to us. Just like 20 years ago no one knew in which direction the Internet would develop, so it is not known at the moment on what planes blockchain will revolutionize our world. And that's what we're curious about!

Was BlockchainTech Congress worth your interest? A full room for the whole two days, which sometimes turned out to be too small, is a sufficient answer :-).