“Blockchain Could Be Recognized as Even More Important than the Internet”

Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain are now part of history, perhaps representing the end of the financial and social system as we know it. However, it seems that only a few understand the deep foundations of cryptocurrencies, the technology behind them, the way they work and where they are heading to. We have collected the thoughts of Marco Amadori, an expert on blockchain, bitcoin, ICO’s and cryptocurrencies.

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Blockchain has been compared to other major inventions such as the electricity and the internet. How significant is the Blockchain technology in relation to other inventions?

“It is an answer that will be given clearly only in a few years. Looking at it retrospectively, there are many similarities between the past and our days, often highlighted by commentators, in various innovations regarding the coldness which they were accepted by contemporaries and by the media of the time. Remaining on the “electricity” example, you can find images of old newspapers that showed drawings of burned houses by those fools who “dared to play with the power of lightning in the home”. Obviously, it is not enough to not -understand technology in order to be revolutionary.

A few months ago it was fashionable to call it The Internet of Money. If we think about it, it’s simple and it fits. The internet can also be described as “a decentralized system of communication of information that can not be censored globally”, while Bitcoin is “a decentralized system of communication of uncensored value on a global level”.

From these cases of the past, it is easier to describe an ecosystem of startups that develop above (and around) Bitcoin as in the early nineties there was an ecosystem of startups and companies that developed above (and around) the Internet.

So the comparison is not exaggerated, perhaps a little premature, but with an incredible potential.

While the final judgment remains premature, given all this range of enabling technologies, we could say that this innovation could one day be recognized as even more important than the Internet.”

There are many nations that integrate the Blockchain technology into the financial sector and banks (private banks and central banks). So far, what has been done to implement the blockchain technology in the Italian Financial sector?

“Speaking of nations I would say that at the political level very little has been done properly in Italy, we have seen timid consultations at the national level; However, the Autonomous Province of Trento stands out.

In 2017, it approved a proposal to promote the use of Bitcoin in the province, taking note of the phenomenon already underway that has transformed those areas into the Italian Bitcoin Valley. The banks have been interested in various ways, some have invested in internal training, to understand its potential and threats, while some invested also in private consortia, such as R3CEV, which take some concepts of Bitcoin but present them in a more engaging way.”

The Next Step in the Blockchain Evolution and Cryptocurrencies

Given the fall in Bitcoin’s price since the beginning of 2018, the future of cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology is a hot topic. There are those who believe that cryptocurrencies are still a bubble and those who claim that they have become the next means of global payment. The blockchain, however, seems to be, in the unanimous opinion, a revolutionary technology that will remain part of the future.

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What is the next step in the evolution of cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology and ICO’s?

“Level 2 of the blockchain, known as Lightning Network or more simply as “off-chain systems”, that is, they do not write on Blockchain. Blockchains do not scale, they are slow and expensive; this is the price of non-censurability, reliability and open access security; so you have to use clever methods. The inheritance of trustlessness “on-chain” is inherited from below and moving correctly, with versatile and innovative cryptographic tools and sensible incentives for game
theory, to bring it “up” to more applicative layers.

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies, similar to the Internet, have also “low” logical layers such as the home ADSL connection, and higher logical layers, such as the HTTPS protocol, which we use to surf the Internet (or rather, use our “browser” to an even higher level of abstraction”).

The ICOs on digital platforms are easy to use but even simpler to exogenous problems to those who deal with a specific ICO (crypto kitties anyone?). Those ICO’s will migrate to off-chain tokens over Bitcoin, for added security and scalability.”

What are the major disadvantages of Blockchain as well as cryptocurrencies compare to the current system?

“Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are still in the early stage of their growth. We did not experience them for decades as a society, so we have not “internalized” them yet. The main flaw is that even before Bitcoin the world was not “ready” for digital security, users use silly passwords and insecure systems, now Bitcoin raises the bar because even before it was true that “data is money”, now it is also the opposite “money is data”, so the main risks are human experience with the digital medium.”

Legislation and Security

Governments in various countries of the world have begun to ask how to regulate the use of virtual currencies, how to guarantee savers against the associated financial risks, how to succeed in imposing fair taxation and how to apply anti-money laundering regulations.

The first laws are being enacted but it’s not easy to achieve the objectives of security, transparency, and fairness that governments must achieve.

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What is your advice for the ICO industry to become legit and gain people’s trust?

“The technology is already good as it is, however, I also find that it’s right not to trust ICO’s as the ecosystem has yet to overcome the “baptism of fire” and investors cannot be protected without proper use cases.

In reality, a “hybrid” system between regulated ICO’s and IPO’s could be useful to allow regulated entities to have access to additional liquidity on secondary markets. It makes no sense, for now, to have both an investment tool for anonymous people around the globe but is recognized by institutional investors.”

The broad public is not yet familiar with the blockchain technology. How do you believe it should part of the common knowledge? Should it be thought in universities or perhaps at a younger education level?  

It would be a good idea. For now, however, the subject is unknown both in the private sector, in universities, and in research institutes. We have a superficial knowledge of theoretical nature and certainly insufficient from the practical point of view.

There is a large information asymmetry even within the industry ecosystem, there are very few real experts who practice and study and a flood of sellers of magic remedies based on rattlesnake oil; this is one of the reasons why inbitcoin and some other entrepreneurs from Pordenone founded Bcademy, a company selling training made by those who really use the technology to provide higher and working education both to  developers, accountants lawyers, and managers.