We at Cointelegraph are strong believers in the immense potential of the Blockchain to change the world. Every day we are on a mission to increase the awareness of the endless opportunities and benefits offered by this innovative technology. We strive to do it by delivering the latest news, breakthroughs and analyses to our loyal readers.
Interest in the Blockchain is high and growing
The best way to ‘socialize’ and popularize Blockchain is to go to the community. That is why we flew to Helsinki for the first Nordics Blockchain Conference. With the growing interest from developing technology industries in the Blockchain and cryptocurrencies we were certain that the event would attract attention.
We were pleasantly surprised, however, to see a full house - more that 200 Blockchain enthusiasts, business and financial technology experts, entrepreneurs, developers, and researchers met at Microsoft Flux, a Finnish startup community space, to discuss current trends and share ideas on the future direction of the Blockchain industry.
We were very grateful to see giants like Nordea, Nokia, Microsoft, Citi Bank, FIBAN, Hashflare among the supporters of the conference. Seeing such a huge interest helps inspire and drive us further to develop new projects.
The story of Blockchain
The CTConference was opened by Victoria Vaughan, CEO at Cointelegraph. She talked about the basics of Blockchain technology, its logic and the mechanisms of functioning.
Vaughan shared her enthusiasm about the rapid development of the technology:
“Several years ago Blockchain was known only within a community of geeks occupied with the idea of it alternating the future of money and changing the world. Now we see huge businesses recognizing the potential of Blockchain and getting more and more involved in its development, testing and application in various industries. And this is really cool! ”
Speaking of the scope of diffusion, Blockchain has already offered effective solutions to the challenges which have existed for years in spheres like the provision of public services, identity and KYC, intellectual property and product management, finance and IoT, and social networks.
It’s impossible to talk about the many use-cases of Blockchain without giving a concrete example, right? Matej Michalko from DECENT took over the stage to talk about many of the benefits that Blockchain brings.
He said:
“One of the key principles of Blockchain, for which the technology is so highly-valued, is that it allows the elimination of the middleman, it decentralizes operations, and it reduces transaction costs. Until now there was a need for a different kind of middleman to facilitate these services. However, thanks to Blockchain, we can forget about it”.
Bringing the positive effects on the processes handling and decentralization, however, sets some challenges. Remembering the DAO case, Matej raised a few important questions with regards to the responsibility for system stability and its sustainability. Matej also shared DECENT’s vision on the application of the technology. Thus, the team has created a secure platform for sharing digital content taking the maximum of the Blockchain to ensure cost-efficiency, privacy and security of the process.
Blockchain knows no borders
Erik Vollstädt, Lead Ambassador at Bitnation, presented a totally mindblowing application of Blockchain. It was embedded to provide the same services that traditional governments provide, but in a geographically unbound, decentralized and voluntary way.
He said:
“With Blockchain we can choose government services just as we choose our phone provider. Bitnation provides services where we still have monopolies - insurance, social services and security. With Bitnation you can even start your own nation, which anyone can join irrespective of where they live. We are getting closer to becoming world citizens. Blockchain is not only about the money, you can also use it to create new government structures.”
We live in a world with imaginary lines called borders. Instead of living within these imaginary lines we should be allowed to use government services in a decentralized manner. Erik is certain that by creating a new form of competition it is possible to increase the quality of services to ensure transparency and minimize bureaucracy.
Mads Emil Dalsgaard from Funderbeam, the world’s first startup marketplace powered by the Blockchain, presented the latest investment trends in the Blockchain industry, saying that as new use-cases are being discovered investment activity in Blockchain related businesses is increasing.
However, he pointed out that in order to drive innovation, it is important to invest not in the development of the technology itself, but in businesses who can do something incredible with it.
Other CTConference speakers included Peronet Despeignes from Augur.net and Nikolaus Kangas, one of the most successful Finnish entrepreneurs in the Blockchain industry, co-founder of LocalBitcoins.
The conference closed with startups pitching their ideas, along with lots of networking.
As Mads Dalsgaard noted, you don’t need to understand all the aspects of the technology to understand the immense benefit it brings to our lives. We at Cointelegraph are passionate about discovering these new benefits, and strive to make everyone fall in love with this amazing thing called the Blockchain.
The Helsinki Blockchain Conference is just the first step in achieving our main goal. I will just add that you should stay tuned for more news, breakthroughs and events in the industry. If you want to watch exclusive interviews with the Helsinki CTConference speakers please subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. The photos of the event are available here. And see you at our next Conference in Germany in March 2017.