Well it was interesting but ... blockchain isn't the solution for everything but it will revolutionize the IT world for sure. Not only the IT world but this is were it will start.
Why will pension funds be using it?
Well like always the main motivation is cost reduction. The pension funds in the Netherland are obliged to have so many connections with other systems of the government and control instances. Most of the time they are copying data to store in within their own database. Which can be faulty and is expensive.
The blockchain will not change the backbone of the system (for now) but will change the ways how different systems interact wit each other. Imagine a world where all government and banking system are linked by a major (or more) blockchains. Depending on the smart contracts parties can read personal data or read/write the data. Thing will so much faster, read cheaper.
The pension funds were relatively late with understanding the real power of the internet. It took them more than 10 years to see the added value. Now a days, most pensions are completely automated from request via the internet, through the calculation and pay-out of it! A few year ago, all communication and the request were done via postal mail!
But it won't become mainstrain at the moment, because they don't see blockchain yet on a level which is usable for the businesses. They do expect that this will be within 3 to 5 years.
The most important for pension funds is the security of the blockchain! This is even more important than a potential cost reduction.
A second important things is the evolution of blochchains which builds bridges between the different blockchains.
A building a pension blockchain can't be done alone. Lots of pension funds will need be involved and connected to it, otherwise their will not be any added value.
Demos
Of course, there were also some startups present to give a demo about their blockchain. Some really could become a game changer, when worked out correctly, while others are not blockchain solutions according to me.
Game changers
The game changers were NestEgg and Pi (Pension Infrastructure). Both were running on Ethereum.
PI want to build a low cost Pension Infrastructure.
NestEgg on the other hand is more focussed on some sort of private pensions. The idea is that you can invest in things that are needed when you are retired. Such as housing, healt care and energy. Via NestEgg you could purchase a share of a Windmill and generate dividend from this. The idea behind is, that we don't know the value of money in the future, let alone if money (like we know it today) still exists when we are retired. Really liked the idea behind it. More info can be found here: https://www.nestegg.eu
The not so good ones.
I will not call them by name, cause that would not be fair. The problem I did have with the other demos, is that one looked like a reversed ponzi scheme and that the other could be easily be build without a blockchain, it was more a detailed program for freelancers, including tax calculations.
Melonport
Melonport want to build a blockchain for funds managers, so that they can easily manage the funds of the lucky rich ones. Via smart contracts, control is done before the purchase of something in stead of finding out that the rules were broken during an audition.
Assume that a fund manager will have the restriction that an investment in a certain coin may not be more than 20% of the portfolio, the smart contract will check this before the coin will be purchased and allow the purchase to go through or will give a warning and block it.
Due to the fact that there a no fees for the funds managers to use the blockchain, I did not see the business model behind it. But now I know. Melons are used on the blockchain. Probably the investors and the company will have the major part of the melons, so that were the business value is.
Ocean protocol
Next up was John Enevoldson from the Ocean protocol. They are trying to break down the silos in which data is stored and by using a blockchain, give (sell) data to companies. I did read something like this before: Snovio. But Ocean wants to go much wider.
Smart contract will be used to secure the data and data exchange!
More info: https://oceanprotocol.com/
TNO
This was the most interesting part of the day. TNO gave a presentation of the power and flaws of the smart contracts. The biggest problem with smart contracts is that they are made by humans and mostly build with solidity, which is not he most robust language in the world. Undiscovered bugs did loose millions of dollars worth of coins.
Within a second you can find various examples of this on Google.
Laws
The biggest problem for the blockchain are the different laws, currently forced by governments. Think about privacy. The european union wants the give the people the power to ask what data they have about them and could even asked to be completely deleted from the system. A deletion of data on a blockchain isn't that easy and even all most impossible. It stead of trying to work the government the change the laws (each blockchain will have its own challenges with laws), the blockchain just have to find a cleaver way of dealing with these laws. It is impossible to think that laws will be changed constantly when a new blockchain has a problem with the law.
Conclusion
- During the complete conference I did not hear bitcoin? But a lot of the applications and demos were build on Ethereum!
- Blockchain are not ready yet for mass adaption by the business world, but it will come.
- Governments will need to understand that they can't beat the blockchain technology, so they will need to adopt it.
- Blockchain will change the IT world for sure, but also the world of non IT people. And this will happen sooner than later. Can you imagine a life without smartphone or the internet?
Keep the faith!