“Welcome to the Blockchain”: my slides from Berenberg’s “Blockchain: From Hype To Reality”

I’ve just done a talk at Berenberg’s “Blockchain: From Hype To Reality” conference — here’s the programme. The audience was bankers, large investors and blockchain industry people — smart non-techies.

Every time I talk anywhere, people come up and ask me afterwards: “Um … what actually is a blockchain?” They presume everyone else knows, and it’s just them! So I figured the basics were in order.

Here are my slides (PDF, 986 kB). I explain the blockchain data structure (SPOILER: it’s a 1979 model Merkle tree), why Bitcoin fans are like they are, and blockchain use cases in business.

This talk’s 30 minutes nominal, 25 minutes speed-run, and was 39 minutes today from a GDPR digression responding to blockchain identity discussions from other speakers. The phrase “Cambridge Analytica, but on the blockchain” got the right response.

Here’s the ECB/BOJ RTGS report I mention therein. Here’s the World Food Programme’s single-user “blockchain.”

I also have longer versions of this talk — I’m available for engagements!

 



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2 Comments on ““Welcome to the Blockchain”: my slides from Berenberg’s “Blockchain: From Hype To Reality””

  1. Great slides; thanks for sharing. Looking at the conference programme, my guess is you might not have been telling them what they wanted to hear… how did it go down? Were any of the presenters touting “business blockchain” honest enough to admit they were just using “blockchain” for marketing purposes?

    1. They were all really nice actually! Yet again I find that crypto people in real life are 100% better than Twitter Bitcoin maximalists. Projects better than I thought too. Great Thoughts to come.

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