Payment Expert’s Blockchain Bulletin analyses how the world of blockchain is constantly evolving and heavily impacting the payments industry, with cryptocurrencies, NFTs and the metaverse revolutionising the space.
This week, Payment Expert was present at this year’s London Blockchain Conference covering a range of panels and topics, from blockchain’s role in AI development, the future for digital currencies, and the government’s role in regulation.
Central banks have “woken up” to digital currencies
The influx of digital currencies, such as stablecoins and central bank digital currencies has caused central banks and global financial policymakers to not only pay attention, but to formalise plans to integrate them.
What caused these figureheads to become disturbed by the disruption? Will digital currencies have a significant impact on financial stability? And how interoperable can digital currencies be alongside its fiat counterparts.
In this panel session, Simit Naik, – Director of Strategy for nChain – Blake O’Donnell, – Partner of Punter Southhall Law – Kaj Burchardi, – Managing Director for the Boston Consulting Group – and Vincent Mele – Founder of Otranto, answer these critical questions.
AI might be untrustworthy, but does blockchain hold the answer?
During a noteworthy keynote speech to round out day one of the conference, FICO’s Chief Analyst Officer, Scott Zoldi, attempted to rationalise the concerns over artificial intelligence (AI).
Zoldi broke down practices for Responsible AI into four key pillars, which are a guide to build an AI model that not only optimises its functions, but also to make people and companies place greater faith in the technology.
Blockchain was cited as a key piece of technology that can thrust this trustworthiness forward, as Zoldi highlights three key roles in being able to do so.
Why perspective is everything for blockchain regulation
Whilst regulation continues to progress after policymakers began to take a stand following the FTX collapse in late 2022, there are a lot of varying factors that stand in the way.
Unsurprisingly, there is not a set of established guidelines set in stone for the regulatory oversight of crypto and digital assets. Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) is set to come in this year, but will countries look to this to build its own legislation?
Alun Cairns MP, – UK MP for Glamorgan – Tom Spiller OBE, – Legal Director at law firm Rosenblatt – and Financial Regulatory Consultant Elizaveta Palaznik, broke down how government officials feel about blockchain and the factors that are contributing to regulatory talks.
Scott Galloway: “Blockchain more of a social movement”
Scott Galloway is one of the more successful entrepreneurs since the post financial collapse of 2008. Investing stocks in Netflix, Apple and Amazon during the housing market crash, Galloway is positioned better in most of what to expect in the stock market for the next decade.
During his keynote speech to open up day one, Galloway shared his thoughts on blockchain and digital assets, viewing it as more of a social movement against the failures of the older generations and why, despite him not being a fan of the sector, it has endured from 2008 to today.
The growing blockchain attack set to plague the industry
Robert Huber, Tech Lead at Software-as-a-Service platform Veridat, gave in-depth detail into how his company has been providing its blockchain-based solutions to help its partners remain secure from attacks whilst also being regulatory compliant.
However, during the same panel, Joseph Kearney, Research Associate at the University of Kent, highlighted that blockchain in and of itself has a security attack that is putting leaders in the industry on high alert.
