Blockchain is the track, bitcoin is the train

The FinanceMalta Blockchain seminar, which addressed the constant demand from the public to become aware of this latest trend, played to a packed hall.

The seminar, which was facilitated by consultant Steve Tendon, started with a presentation by Charles Catania entitled “How does it work” followed by Loui Mercieca, Agilis software architect, as he presented an overwhelming theme, ‘What is a Smart Contract?’ Ian Gauci, Founding Partner of GTG Advocates spoke about the Legal and Regulatory Issues on Blockchain, while Max Ganado, Senior Partner at Ganado Advocates tackled the subject of Intellectual Property law and its relation to Blockchain. Following the legal session, Joseph F. Borg, VP of BitMalta, expounded his views on how and when Malta can advocate cryptocurrencies and usher in the Blockchain technology. Borg said it is difficult to acknowledge this industry if we do not accept that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. This was followed with closing remarks by Dario Azzopardi on how the ordinary average person can conceptualise the art of mining hardware.

The seminar attracted the attention of Silvio Schembri, the parliamentary secretary at Office of the Prime Minister responsible for innovation and digital sectors. He started by thanking FinanceMalta for giving him this opportunity to talk about government plans on the subject which is fast gathering interest among various sectors, industries and institutions. The government believes this is the next big thing and recently met BitMalta to discuss progress. He admitted that the government cannot do it alone and is opening the doors to various consultants and experts to come up with ideas. Mindful of the legal and technical minefield that lay ahead in this innovative technology, he called for legal experts to help design and think about parameters within a legal and safe framework.

It was then the turn of Steve Tendon who recalled how the stealthy technology was baptised in 2008/2009 in the fora of programmer forums. He asked: what could a country do to disrupt the competition. His steady contact with Silvio Schembri bore fruit and a vision took form that by April, the first steps will be taken to create a national Blockchain island forum where representatives of all sectors of the industry will be invited. The obvious choice was the IGaming industry as the use of cryptocurrencies may enhance the industry but there are other sectors as well. Tendon would like to see Malta become a jurisdiction that attracts talent from all over the world. Little Malta can become an economic superpower.

Next came the difficult and technical stuff and it was James Catania‘s job to explain how blockchain works. Dark clouds drifted in the hall as keen minds tried to understand how Blockchain technology uses things that exist, and how the ill-famous Bitcoin concept was conceived around 1995. Catania came to the rescue as furrowed faces tried to grapple with the jargon but he let everyone off the hook when he explained; Blockchain is the track, bitcoin is the train. The lacuna right now is an issue of trust, we run billions of transactions but we have no process of trusting each other. If someone asks me what blockchain technology solves, the answer is blockchain solves the trust issue.