Blockchain; bullshit!?

BètaBreak edition March 2019

In October 2008, a John or Jane Doe published a paper that would go on to change the world: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. It described, for the first time ever, a completely decentralized currency using a technique later coined as “block chain”. The idea has since then spiraled out of control, resulting in a large group of people preaching about a decentralized utopia powered by block chain. This became especially obvious in the bitcoin hype around a year ago. This has, in turn, caused many people to dismiss the technology altogether, as this hype seems completely unrealistic to them. In short, the debate on the actual implications that block chain could have on our society has been clouded to a large extend. In other words; there’s a lot of bullshit going around. That’s why it’s high time that we have a realistic discussion on the implications of block chain at the BètaBreak! Join us on 20 March between 12:00-13:00 for an interesting discussion panel on this topic. We have invited 3 experts who work with block chain on a daily basis in law, science and finance. They will help us paint a realistic picture, what its impact may have in the future, and what we as student can do with the block chain now. Will block chain revolutionize the world as we know it, or is it truly bullshit?

Speakers

Dennis de Vries (founder of KPMG Distributed Ledger Service)

Frans van Ette (coalition manager for the Dutch Blockchain Coalition)

Zhiming Zhao (associate professor and senior researcher at the UvA)