Blockchain Island: myth or reality
The Business Breakfast organized by this paper together with FinanceMalta last week (see report on pg 4) gave participants a glimpse of what Blockchain can give Malta.
At the same time, however, participants urged people to keep their feet firmly on the ground.
This is the new reality. Steve Tendon, the main speaker, went back to the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 and explained the technological spurt it brought by means of innovations such as the Doomsday Book. Property ownership was made instantly public and verifiable.
Blockchain makes ownership ineradicable and public. No one can erase or hide parts of it. It is instantly accessible.
If Malta plays its cards well, Mr Tendon argued, it can become the Blockchain superpower of the world, where size does not matter whereas efficiency does.
To which some of the participants begged to differ. Even relatively simple improvements such as in digitalization etc prove impossible to achieve, which makes one wonder how on earth can we benefit from technological improvements such as computers, etc.
Those who sing the praises of Blockchain wax lyrically on the future demise of some professions, such as notaries, which, they say will be rendered superfluous in a Blockchain future. But notaries who were present begged to differ given the lack of professional staff at such places as the Land Registry.
It does not seem that just the introduction of terms like Blockchain in speeches by public persons or just the approval of the three bills now being scrutinized in Parliament will be enough. Before we launch ourselves as tech pioneers, we must ensure that the basis, that is the foot soldiers of technology, do their work well and with efficiency.
It may thus be that we miss out on the wonderful opportunity that stares us in the face. Blockchain is real, it is now. And Malta, being small, well-connected and technologically advanced, can leapfrog over so many bigger countries who have not even begun to prepare for the future. Malta’s smallness enhances its agility and flexibility.
At the same time, we warn that this Brave New World can become undone if politics are allowed to have a sticky finger in the development of Blockchain. It is inevitable that politics gets a role, for after all the legislative process is a necessary phase. But other than that, Blockchain must remain mainly a private sector venture.