Monday, October 08, 2018

Interview as a Speaker for the European Blockchain Convention

European Blockchain Convention Interview done as part of the Speaker Series for the European Blockchain Convention at Barcelona.

"Public blockchains really express the most powerful features of blockchains. Public blockchains often provide more transparency, better security, larger consensus and maximum levels of decentralization.
However public blockchains are difficult to monetize, they are difficult to adapt to comply with strict regulations and their performance are often suboptimal for special use cases.
This is where private blockchains come to life, while public blockchains will provide the underpinning infrastructure for most solutions".
Víctor Escudero Rubio

Víctor Escudero Rubio

Global Head of Integration of Cybersecurity at S21sec 
Co-autor of "Blockchain: the Industrial Revolution of the Internet"



Welcome to Speakers Series where we get closer to our Speakers

Victor Escudero is Global Head of Integration of Cybersecurity Solutions at S21sec and co-author of the book "Blockchain: the Industrial Revolution of the Internet"

Escudero is passionate about Free Software. He has lived and breathed Bitcoin since its inception and since then he actively shares his knowledge about protocols based on Blockchain.





1. Where were you the first time you heard the word Bitcoin?


I was leaving the office after work when I received a phone call from an old friend. He told me that he was amazed after seeing that someone had invented a system to make new money based on an open source license. It was back in 2009 and I didn’t spend a minute to check the new invention. Several weeks after that, another friend that was an amateur trader in Australia told me something about a cheaper way to exchange fiat money from one currency to another via a new digital currency. After that second chance, I decided to take a look on the Internet, but after a quick search I did not find any reference to Bitcoin. Fortunately, a few days later a colleague of mine that was also researching about new applications of Elliptic-curve cryptography pointed me to an article that had a reference to Bitcoin’s white paper. After reading Satoshi’s white paper and for the next six months, I couldn’t stop reading avidly everything I found about bitcoin.



2. Does Blockchain offer hype or hope?


Hope. There has been too much hype around blockchain in the past and it continues even nowadays. One of the reasons of that hype is that one of the first use cases of a lot of blockchains has been related to the transfer of money and, especially, to the financing of new companies through ICOs. However as more and more uses cases continue to emerge every day, blockchain will keep on providing excellent responses to new needs.



3. Have you ever used a Blockchain or a DLT? If yes, for what?


Yes. I began using the old Ripple system (the one that was born in 2004, way before Bitcoin) to exchange time credits between open source communities in the past. Regarding Blockchain I have used dozens of cryptocurrencies and done operational research of new applications in the cybersecurity area.



4. Do you think Blockchain in the future will be as important as the internet is today?


I think the Internet and Blockchain are different kinds of animals. Internet represents interconnectivity in such a large scale that its impact goes beyond any other technology humankind has developed after the invention of the wheel and the discovery of fire. Blockchain is a disruptive technology that will impact our future as much as other disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing or Robotic Process Automation will do in a few years. However Internet will keep on being the enabler for most of the advances we will see in the near future. In essence, Blockchain provides distributed trust and as such, it relies on the underlying connectivity of its nodes, often through the internet.



5. Public Blockchains or Private Blockchains?


Both of them, but for very different purposes. Public blockchains really express the most powerful features of blockchains. Public blockchains often provide more transparency, better security, larger consensus and maximum levels of decentralization. However public blockchains are difficult to monetize, they are difficult to adapt to comply with strict regulations and their performance are often suboptimal for special use cases. This is where private blockchains come to life, while public blockchains will provide the underpinning infrastructure for most solutions.

Interviewed as a Speaker for the European Blockchain Convention.
Original source: https://mailchi.mp/483732b3cef5/do-not-forget-about-your-15-welcome-code-192841