Experts on blockchain in 2030: “We haven’t seen nothing yet”

On April 1st, ARYZE held a live-streamed virtual event about blockchain in 2030. The discussion covered how crypto will look in 2030, the privacy and regulation implications of increasing use of blockchain infrastructure, and how it will change our lives as consumers and workers.

The Blockchain 2030 event was hosted by ARYZE CCO Rasmus Bruun and moderated by PwC Denmark’s Robert Bo Jensen. ARYZE‘s CEO Jack Nikogosian, MakerDAO’s Nikolaj Lollike and eToroX’s Johannes Jensen each shared their perspectives on the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Jack Nikogosian on where blockchain in 2030:

The panelists all agreed that in the future, blockchain will be an infrastructural tool that is integrated into the technologies we use daily. Although blockchain is currently associated with and utilised primarily by the tech savvy, that will soon change as it becomes integrated into our daily lives. This integration will eliminate the middlemen common to today’s market, reducing costs and boosting efficiency and autonomy. Says Lollike:

The main point is, in 2030 we won’t talk about the concept of blockchain, it’ll just be an integrated part of the web and the tech stack we have available.

Nikogosian built upon this idea, comparing blockchain to AI, which has been increasingly adopted in recent years:

Blockchain will run in the background; we will use it like we use AI with Siri and Youtube algorithms, things that are taken for granted today.

The panel went on to discuss the barriers that might impede the wide-spread adoption and integration of blockchain that they foresee. Nikogosian argued that such a decentralised technology cannot be stopped, a fact which lowers the entry barriers for new users. However, he argues that it is important that blockchain is used in a way which fosters user privacy and autonomy:

KYC procedures are necessary if you want to operate as an e-money institution, but although some KYC processes today are digital, it is very fragmented and difficult to know where data is and what information about you is out there. ID on a blockchain can actually be a solution; but it can also be very ‘big brother’ if done poorly. So you can use blockchain tech to either track and surveil, or, if done correctly using correct key tech and intermediaries, you can use elements of blockchain to enhance your offerings.

Jensen asserts that increasing tech development has made it possible for relevant parties to ascertain the validity of a piece of information without ever knowing it. This will enable financial institutions to identify users without gaining access to sensitive information: 

We’ve all had KYC experiences where we have to send sensitive information to a third party. Instead we can now validate the existence of a piece of information without sharing that information. We don’t have to own that info, we can simply rely on the regulators to maintain data and then compute a proof of the equivalency of that data…The key really is privacy, not anonymity.

Finally, the panelists took on the significant question of how blockchain will change our lives both as consumers and as workers. Nikogosian believes that blockchain will enable a large percent of the world’s unbanked people to access financial services. When this happens, he argues, innovation will multiply as a whole sector of the world become able to participate in the global economy:

When all these people are suddenly unboarded onto these new platforms, what can you buy from them, what can you sell to them, which talents do they have, what type of knowledge do they have that we can monetize, patent, and build upon? I think that we haven’t seen nothing yet; it’s all about giving people a voice, and this is where blockchain will be a key factor. 

Jensen argued that another way that blockchain technology will change our daily lives is in the way in which we work:

The concept of a DAO [decentralized autonomous organisation] really facilitates a new idea about what it means to be part of an organisation and what it means to go to work. Working online and working remotely has never been more popular than it is today. I can certainly see a future where people go to work on a much more distributed basis, potentially working on an ad hoc basis within a system governed by the constituents working for the DAO.

Maker exemplifies this new concept of work, as 50% of their employees work on the same project from home all around the world. Says Lollike: 

With open-sourced projects, work is more fluid in the sense that anyone can come and contribute to an open source project. Blockchain technology allows us to create an incentive layer and transaction layer for paying out people who contribute to such a project.

Blockchain has the potential to make our daily digital transactions more safe and seamless, to bring people out of poverty, help protect our rights and information, and much more. This summary only begins to unpack the fascinating conversation these industry experts had about the transformative future of blockchain. To learn much more about that future, please watch the recording of the live-stream here. For more insights into the future of tech, blockchain and finance, please visit ARYZE’s blog.

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