Blockchain is the track, bitcoin is the train

George M. Mangion Catania asked the audience five pertinent questions for which the audience could not easily answer. These were: Do you really trust the intermediaries? Do you trust your credit cards, your transactions? Do you trust your banks? Do you trust your government? Do you trust news? Blockchain can solve the trust issue. Without going into the intricacies of code he explained the basic terminology commonly used in the industry. First, he tried to simplify what a hash is. What is a hash? It is basically a mathematical method of making gibberish represent text. What is a block? It has an address and some data. To create a hash one needs to mine it. When you mine it, it is going to try to find the combination of all this data. A blockchain is a chain of blocks.

Loui Mercieca was the next speaker who explained how to develop code. For example, how can we set up a system that can interpret code? That is what Ethereum is. Some of us in this seminar heard about Ethereum and are aware that it is a popular framework, yet it is not the only framework. There is a range of options one can use. This option gave us ample ways how it is coded in the system is on top of the blockchain. Ian Gauci started the topic on the origins of Blockchain recalling the Arizona bill that made it into law in the United States. In his brief presentation, he explained the difficulties industry faces particularly in interpretation which could result in difficulties for everybody not only lawyers, judges and regulators but even for the industry.

Any new legislation in Malta in the past 25 years will certainly find the imprint of Max Ganado and Blockchain is no exception. Ganado drew bridges starting with the similarities of Blockchain law to that of Intellectual Property rules. He asked: what do we find in the context of IP (Intellectual Property) which might be relevant to what we have been hearing so far in this seminar. First of all, IP is that kind of asset which we create and regis- ter in order to show it exists, just as we do with a share in a company. They are things which exist but you cannot touch them. We register them in a way that we can prove they exist and we can then protect them. We start creating a whole set of rules around the registration of assets. Secondly, you need verification of asset ownership. Asset ownership is critical. In his concluding remarks, he saw commonalities with IP that could, with the necessary tweaking, be ideal to serve as the building blocks of blockchain regulation.

If Blockchain is the forerunner of cryptocurrencies, why is the European Central Bank so risk adverse? The answer is that the Commission is slowly smelling the coffee. Last year the European Commission adopted a proposal for legislation to amend the fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive that will bring virtual currency exchanges and wallet providers into the EU’s anti-money laundering framework. It is an undeniable fact that Bitcoin is growing at a fast rate. Joseph F. Borg, VP of BitMalta thinks the technology will also change the banks, whether they embrace it or not. Some people think that cryptocurrencies will hurt the banks, but in his opinion, this will not happen. It goes without saying that banks will invest more to embrace this technology as it will make their processes more efficient; this way the entire nation gains.