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ALDE Group
Overview of potential blockchain applications: How can the blockchain empower ordinary citizens?

Overview of potential blockchain applications: How can the blockchain empower ordinary citizens?

Blockchain: regulatory technology or technology to regulate? - part 1

2 March 2016European Parliament, Brussels

The blockchain has many potential uses beyond Bitcoin, from automating legal processes and contracts to enabling decentralized crowdfunding and distributed social networks.The bottomline is that the blockchain lets people who do not trust each other collaborate and exchange value without relying on any central authority or clearinghouse. AsThe Economist said in its cover-piece from October 2015 on the technology: “Simply put, it is a machine for creating trust”. The blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the way we store data and manage information, significantly reducing the role of the middleman in many different areas of society.

The blockchain also enables the development of new governance systems with more democratic or participatory decision-making and decentralized applications that can operate over a network of computers without any human intervention. All these applications have led many to compare the blockchain to the Internet, with accompanying predictions that this technology will shift the balance of power away from centralized authorities in the field of communications, business, and even politics or law.

COALA, Dynamic Coalition on Blockchain Technologies, IGF, Internet Governance Forum, technology, bitcoin, blockchain

Program

Opening remarks
Marietje Schaake
MEP, D66/ALDE, Digital Agenda Intergroup
Pindar Wong
Chairman, VeriFi
Henning Diedrich
Senior Programmer, IBM
Primavera De Filippi
Researcher, National Center of Scientific Research, Université Paris II
Questions & Answers

About the Organiser

Marietje Schaake has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Democratic Party (D66) with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) political group since 2009. She serves on the International Trade committee and is the spokesperson for the ALDE Group on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Schaake also serves on the committee on Foreign Affairs and the subcommittee on Human Rights. She is the founder of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Digital Agenda for Europe. Furthermore, Marietje Schaake is the Vice-President of the US Delegation and serves on the Iran Delegation and the Delegation for the Arab peninsula. She was a Member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance and is a Young Global Leader and a Member of the Global Future Council on Future of Digital Economy and Society with the WEF.