Page 33 - 2019 January Newsletter WEBEL

33 Volume: 23
January 2019 Issue

The next Key Note Speaker was Ms. Rosine Kadamani – Co-founder of the Blockchain Academy in Brazil. In her talk on
‘Blockchain – origins and current status, and general view on LATAM situation’, Ms. Kadamani spoke on Bitcoin and
how Blockchain technology was used in this particular use-case. She then moved on to Blockchain and the current
applications that are being developed and used in the area of International Remittances, Logistics, Supply Chain. She
ended her talk with various Blockchain applications being developed in the Latin American region and the regulatory
challenges associated with it.

Ms. Rosine Kadamani delivering speech Shri Debashis Sen, IAS giving memento to Ms. Shri Debashis Sen, IAS giving a live portrait to
Rosine Kadamani Ms. Rosine Kadamani

Prof. Bart Preneel from the University of Leuven, Belgium, shared his views on Novel opportunities and Novel Tradeoffs
in Blockchain. Professor Preneel, started his talk with the history of currency and the various forms and functions it has
morphed into, over time. He mentioned that before the world saw Bitcoin, there was an earlier rush to create Digital
Money and e-gold was one such example. Trying to set in some realistic expectation, Professor Preneel compared the
results of the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies for the years 2016 to 2018 and stated that Blockchain was
in between the ‘peak of inflated expectations’ and ‘trough of disillusionment. He also elucidated on current Blockchain
challenges in terms of scalability, consensus mechanism, transparency versus privacy and governance of decentralized
systems.

Prof. Bart Preneel delivering speech Shri Debashis Sen, IAS giving memento to Shri Debashis Sen, IAS giving a live portrait to
Prof. Bart Preneel Prof. Bart Preneel

The next speaker in the Key Note Session, Mr. Sreeram Ananthasayanam, Partner, PwC India, spoke on ‘Making
Blockchain Real’. He spoke on 4 strategies that were needed to overcome Blockchain’s Trust Paradox. He emphasized
on the importance of strategic clarity, need for eco-system(s), interoperability and scalability, various operating
models, design principles and the critical aspect of regulatory uncertainty. He reiterated the fact that whilst making
the business case, one needed to be sure to think big, plan for it but start small and scale-up rapidly.

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