FundForum: Dust is settling on blockchain 26 June 2019Copenhagen Reporter: Jenna Lomax
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The dust is beginning to settle on blockchain and the industry is starting to see how it’s transforming the market in a practical way, according to one panellist at this year’s Fund Forum in Copenhagen.
The panel, which discussed the impact digitisation and tokenisation has on the future shape of investment management, explained that globally, 90 percent of blockchain is a scam, while 20 percent of the money raised for blockchain around the world has been hacked at some point.
A panellist indicated that because of these numbers, the industry is “correct to be sceptical when playing in this field”.
One panellist affirmed: “Education is still key, there’s still not a lot of distinction between cryptocurrency and blockchain, clear definitions need to be understood. What’s holding us back is culture and human intuition.”
The moderator added: “Data is the backbone, understanding data is the next move. The next horizon is not tokenisation of cryptocurrency, it’s to unify the data concerned with that and it has to be at a pace our clients can take it. To me, that understanding and consideration still feel a long way off.”
The panel also spoke about blockchain on a regional level and cited China as the ‘Wild West’ for blockchain and digitisation, comparing it to Europe, which he said was “traditionally very restraint with a high level of regulations guidance”.
Another panellist, based in Asia, said: “In China, we adopt blockchain because we have too, our cities use blockchain with a population of 1.4 billion–people go to university to study blockchain. Is it scalable? I would say it's still in its infancy. Everything you see with blockchain right now will not be recognised in five years time, it will totally change.”
He concluded: “China holds 27 percent of the world’s cryptocurrencies. Blockchain enables anything you can digitise to move. Technology and blockchain will evolve, it will evolve because of data, governance and globalisation.”
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