DECENT at the CoinTelegraph Blockchain Conference

Interest in blockchain is high and growing

The best way to make blockchain “social” and popular is through the community. That’s why we flew to Helsinki to attend the first Nordic Blockchain Conference. As the technology industry’s enthusiasm for blockchain and cryptography-related developments continues to grow, we are sure that this event will attract attention.

We were pleasantly surprised to see a full community of over 200 blockchain enthusiasts, business and financial technology experts, entrepreneurs, developers and researchers at Microsoft Flux, a Finnish startup community, to discuss current trends and share ideas on the future direction of the blockchain industry.

We are very grateful to see that big companies such as Nordea, Nokia, Microsoft, Citibank, FIBAN, Hashflare are also among the supporters at the conference. Seeing such huge interest helps to inspire and further promote our development of new projects.

The story of blockchain

The CT conference was opened by Victoria Vaughan, CEO of CoinTelegraph, who spoke about the basic concepts of blockchain technology, its logic and how it works.

Vaughan shared her enthusiasm for the rapid advancement of this technology:

“A few years ago, blockchain was only known by a community of enthusiasts who wanted to use blockchain to replace future currencies and change the world. Now we see many giant companies recognize the potential of blockchain and become more involved in its development, testing and application in various industries. This is really cool!”

In terms of the scope of its spread, blockchain has already provided effective solutions to years-old challenges in public service provision, identity, KYC, intellectual property and product management, finance, IoT, and social networking.

It’s almost impossible to talk about the many use cases of blockchain without giving a specific example, right? Matej Michalko from DECENT then discussed the many benefits that blockchain brings.

He said:

“
One of the key principles of blockchain, which is why this technology is so valuable, is that it allows the elimination of intermediaries, it is decentralized and it reduces transaction costs. Until now, there was a need for different intermediaries to speed up services, but thanks to blockchain, we can forget about it.”

The positive effects of process processing and decentralization come with some challenges, however. Recalling the DAO case, Matej raised several important questions about the responsibility of system stability and sustainability. Matej also shared DECENT's vision for the application of this technology. Therefore, the team has created a secure platform for sharing digital content, making the most of blockchain to ensure cost-effectiveness, privacy and secure processing.

Blockchain without borders

Erik Vollstädt, Bitnation’s Chief Ambassador, proposed a completely fascinating application of blockchain. It is embedded and provides the same services that traditional governments provide, but in a geographically unbound, decentralized, voluntary manner.

He said:

“With blockchain, we can choose government services like we choose our cell phone provider. Bitnation offers services that are still monopolized - insurance, social services and security. With Bitnation you can start your own country and anyone can join, no matter where they live. We bring the citizens of the world closer. Blockchain is not just about money, you can also use it to build new government structures.”

We live in a world with imaginary lines called borders. Without living within these imaginary lines, we should be allowed to use government services in a decentralized manner. Erik is convinced that by creating a new way to compete, it will be possible to improve the quality of services to ensure transparency and minimize bureaucracy.

Mads Emil Dalsgaard from Funderbeam, the world’s first blockchain-powered startup marketplace, presented the latest investment trends in the blockchain industry, saying that new use cases are being discovered and investment activities in blockchain-related companies are increasing.

However, he pointed out that in order to promote innovation, it is not necessary to invest in technological development itself, but to invest in companies that can do something with it.

Other CT conference speakers include Peronet Despeignes from Augur.net and LocalBitcoins co-founder Nikolaus Kangas, one of the most successful Finnish entrepreneurs in the blockchain industry.

The conference closed with startups (including many networks) pitching their ideas.

As Mads Dalsgaard points out, you don’t need to understand every aspect of this technology to appreciate the huge benefits it brings to our lives, and we at CoinTelegraph are passionate about discovering these new benefits and striving to make everyone fall in love with this amazing thing called blockchain.

Helsinki Blockchain Conference is just the first step towards our main goal. I would just like to add that you should stay tuned for more news, breakthroughs and events in this industry. If you want to watch exclusive interviews with speakers from Helsinki CT Conference, please subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. Photos from the event can be found here. See you at the next conference in Germany in March 2017.