While the world is still fighting hard every day to get the coronavirus under control, another “cold war” is happening the background, the future of our money; the so-called Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Digital bank money is nothing new; worldwide only 8% of the money used is cash, the rest digital and in some European countries this is even less than 1%. The big difference with CBDCs is that the money is managed by a government and not a commercial bank. The revolution around cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology has sparked this discussion but has been accelerated over the past year by Facebook’s Diem (formerly Libra) project and the announcement that China is well advanced in developing its own CBDC. What is a CBDC, what are they used for and what can you expect? In this blog you will find all the information

It’s going to be the biggest change in the global financial system after Bretton Woods, according to experts. While in the early years of Bitcoin and blockchain the technology was still dismissed as “criminal” and “unnecessary”, in recent years the discussion has turned completely and most countries and economic regions have now started developing their own digital currency. According to research by the ‘bank of banks’, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), dozens of central banks are now working on this, representing 80% of the world’s population and 90% of economic activity worldwide and will be 20 in the next 3 years. % of the world’s population have access to it.

“The euro belongs to Europeans and we are its guardian. We should be prepared to issue a digital euro, should the need arise.” Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB

In addition to Facebook and China’s announcements surrounding its own digital currencies, corona has given the discussion an extra boost, according to the European Central Bank (ECB). But it’s not just the pressure from other governments, technology companies and the sharp decline in the use of cash; according to the Dutch National Bank, it can also be used to implement monetary policy, such as reforms around debt and a basic income. According to the Russian Central Bank, their digital ruble is mainly intended to restore power over money to citizens and the Chinese Central Bank has indicated that it will not compete with existing payment apps.

CBDC Developments

The main reason for many central banks to develop their own CBDC remains the risks that commercial banks, such as ING and Rabobank take. According to a recent report by the Dutch Government’s Scientific Council, 10 years after the credit crunch, the commercial banking industry is still vulnerable to major blows. Especially in view of the consequences of corona and the risks that the banks still take, central banks want more control over the money flows. Now that the cash, which they manage themselves, is declining sharply and the influence of tech companies on the financial sector is increasing sharply, setting up their own digital currency is a logical step.

What a digital Euro can look like is clearly shown by the first CBDC recently launched in the Bahamas, the Sand Dollar and the many public experiments with Chinese CBDC, the DCEP. Many experts are frantically looking at the experiments in China, which will reportedly launch the coin globally during the 2022 Winter Olympics, to be held in the country. The country made the first banknotes in our global history and now sees 90% of all payments go through the popular apps WeChat and Alipay, the same size as the worldwide payment of Visa and Mastercard credit cards.

The totalitarian state

According to the government, it is not only a response to Libra, but mainly intended to remove all kinds of layers in payments and thus prevent corruption, combat poverty better and, according to many experts, also to control much more tightly where the money goes. This is also the biggest fear of residents of Europe, according to a recent survey by the ECB. The Chinese government is already going a long way with the control of its citizens, because of the more than 100 million cameras that hang in the country, the ‘social credit’ system and the countless algorithms that automatically determine on big data whether you are a criminal or not.

If, with this information and power over the money, it can also determine (by programming this in the code) whether and what citizens can spend the money on, then you are taking away a significant portion of the freedom. Imagine that a government programs that you can spend money on rent and healthy food, but not on fast food, cigarettes or porn. Or worse; because algorithms think you are engaged in criminal activity, your digital wallet is completely blocked. Due to the “social credit” system, already 23 million Chinese are no longer allowed to leave the country, because their score is too low.

Helicopter money

Even though most Chinese are not yet so enthusiastic about the Chinese DCEP, the government was able to get its citizens to create a digital wallet in a very smart way. Everyone who had installed a wallet on their phone received the digital currency deposited on it. “Free money for everyone,” historian Rutger Bregman would say. The adoption of this currency can therefore go very quickly. African countries are already preparing to use the currency in trade with China, and Huawei’s latest phone models already include a DCEP app. Investment bank Goldman Sachs expects the DCEP to be used by at least 1 billion users in 10 years and to facilitate nearly 20% of all payments in China.

“We need to make sure that our currency is fit for the future. Inaction is not an option.” Fabio Panetta, boardmember ECB

Behind the scenes, Europe is also working hard on its own “digital Euro”. European finance ministers, such as Germany’s Olaf Scholtz, have urged to do everything in their power to have an “answer” to the Chinese plans as soon as possible. Several European countries are already experimenting themselves, such as Italy, Ukraine and the Netherlands that even say they want to play a pioneering role in this. The European Central Bank has indicated in a recent report that it will only make a final decision in the summer of this year whether it wants to issue its own digital Euro and its president, Christine Lagarde, recently indicated that if the ECB decides to do so, it will certainly will take until 2025 before it is actually there.

The American Kodak moment

Also on the other side of the ocean, a fierce discussion about a digital dollar is raging. The head of the American bank has sparked the discussion here with the statement “we do think it is more important to get it right than to be first and getting it right”. However, experts point to the “first mover advantage” that China will have on the global financial scene, with all the consequences that entails. The Chinese government has already indicated that it would like to cooperate with other central banks worldwide, but with the aforementioned, far-reaching functionalities that the DCEP will have, this is mainly viewed with fear rather than enthusiastically worldwide.

There are still a lot of snags that need to be worked on before such coins can appear on the world stage, in my view. The more central the power over such a currency, the easier it is to hack. But also the informal economy, in which 60% of all jobs worldwide function and come under pressure from government regulated money. The International Monetary Fund also continues to question monetary stability, which can be affected by central bank issuance of their own currencies. The speed at which developments are currently taking place on the world stage are fascinating, but also frightening, when you consider the expected consequences of shifts in power. And, The coming year will therefore be a very interesting and important year for the global financial system.

CEO of Web3

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2015. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and agency, he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3 all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the global impact of blockchain technology.

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Jan Scheele

Jan Scheele werkt dertien jaar op het snijvlak van deep tech, strategie en leiderschap. Als keynote spreker en dagvoorzitter maakt hij technologie tastbaar voor boardrooms, directieteams en grote podia, zonder de complexiteit te versimpelen of te verbergen achter buzzwords.

Zijn achtergrond ligt in het bouwen. Als CEO van een technologie scale-up, oprichter van meerdere techbedrijven en organisator van meer dan vijftig TED-events wereldwijd zag hij van dichtbij hoe technologische keuzes doorwerken in strategie, governance en cultuur. Vanuit zijn betrokkenheid bij het World Economic Forum en de BCNL Foundation kijkt hij daarbij niet alleen naar wat technisch mogelijk is, maar ook naar wat bestuurlijk houdbaar en maatschappelijk wenselijk is.

Hij publiceerde vijf boeken, waarvan twee Amazon-bestsellers, en schrijft wekelijks over AI, blockchain en de organisatorische gevolgen van deep tech. Zijn blogs bereikten inmiddels meer dan twee miljoen lezers.

janscheele.nl

The best year ever and a catalyst for many more beautiful things to come next year. The Bitcoin price soared to an “all time high” and in its wake, the many “altcoins”, many big and established ones got in and several big projects, such as Ethereum, are about to launch big breakthroughs. Next year also promises to be a year like never before. In this blog the 5 most important developments that I am looking forward to.

Let’s look back first

Even though it is often said that a day in the crypto world is a year in a human life, the predictions I made in the past year have all come true. The halving, the halving of the pay of the miners of the Bitcoin blockchain network, would not itself lead to large price gains in May, but afterwards. We saw the Bitcoin price dip below $ 4,000 in March and as the year progressed, the price continued to rise, eventually surpassing the old record of nearly $ 20,000. The various crypto startups are also expected to have worked hard over the past year and come with big revelations every week.

The use of cryptocurrencies has increased exponentially worldwide with more than 100 million users and at one point last year 25,000 Bitcoin wallets (digital wallets) were created in 1 hour. Even though there is no telling what the “mother of all coins” Bitcoin will do in terms of price; predictions range from $ 0 to $ 1 million, fueling the massive wall of money being created by governments worldwide to combat the corona crisis, the move of many investors to cryptocurrencies.

Whales are on their way

Where in the previous big “run” in 2017, mainly the smaller retail investors bought cryptocurrencies, in recent months it was the turn of the “big boys”. Microstrategy bought half a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin and their CEO privately for a quarter, payment company Square put in $ 50 million and Paypal bought 70% of all newly created (mined) Bitcoins in the last month. The head of investments of Blackrock, the largest investor in the world, indicated that he no longer sees Bitcoin disappear and even gold disappears over time. That it is not just words, but also actions is evident from figures from, for example, Coinbase, which offers, among other things, “crypto custody”; securely storing cryptocurrencies and saw their digital storage increase in value from 6 to 20 billion dollars in a few months.

The nice thing about blockchain, and especially the Bitcoin blockchain, is that the transactions are all public. You can do very cool data analyzes on it, for example of the large investors, called the “whales”. A nice graphical analysis shows that the large Bitcoin “wallets” with a size of more than 1000 Bitcoin (value of 20 million euros or more) have increased very quickly and that these owners also hold the Bitcoins and do not sell them.

The bull just started to run

After two years of the so-called “bear market” in cryptocurrencies, a long period of declining prices, the “bull market” has finally arrived. The overall size of the market has grown by $ 500 billion since March and it doesn’t seem to be going to end. While the recent price increase is mainly attributed to the larger investors, we are now again waiting for the smaller retail investors. Bitcoin is back on the front page of De Telegraaf and NU.nl, the number of searches around “bitcoin price” has never been higher and it is becoming easier to buy cryptocurrency. Paypal announced that its 300 million users could now also buy, sell and store cryptocurrency, which has already been done by 20% of users in the United States.

With the recent approval by the Dutch bank of a handful of major Dutch cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinmerce, it will not be long before I will be back in line at Albert Heijn or at the hairdresser. Not only Bitcoin, but also other cryptocurrencies, the so-called “altcoins” have increased in value tremendously and the price of some has even doubled or tripled in a short time. A well-known pattern; in recent years Bitcoin has always been first, after which the altcoins followed exponentially. Promising projects such as Ethereum, Chainlink and Polkadot were especially popular in this.

Big updates from the big boys

The popularity of the various cryptocurrencies is partly due to the major developments that have taken place in recent times and will be launched in the near future. After years of preparation, Ethereum, which is the second cryptocurrency in terms of market value, has started to launch the extensive 2.0 version of its network. An insane leap forward, because of the new way of validating transactions, which makes the network insanely faster, more stable and cheaper in one fell swoop. Because the network is increasingly used to build and run so-called ‘smart contracts’, but also DeFi (decentralized financing, which I wrote about earlier) so-called ‘DApps’ (decentralized applications) and ‘DAOs’ (decentralized organizations), it is also called the ‘supercomputer of the world’ and is attracting attention to more and more investors.

Even though mysterious Bitcoin founder or founders Satoshi Nakamoto has never been heard from, thousands of enthusiasts are still developing the code for this groundbreaking cryptocurrency every day. Problems that Bitcoin has been struggling with for some time; scalability and privacy are being addressed in the short term with the major updates Taproot and Schnorr. Another ‘top 10 project’, Cardano, one of Ethereum’s biggest competitors, comes with the major ‘Govuen’ update, which focuses even more on decentralization and makes all kinds of functionalities available to companies, such as ‘smart contracts’ and ‘DApps’. . With its 3.0 update, NEO will realize its major ambitions to create such a scalable blockchain that the transaction speed is at the level of that of regular banks.

CryptoCrime is on the rise

A lot of money unfortunately also attracts the wrong people; criminals have now also found the virtual route well and billions of cryptocurrencies were stolen last year. Recently another $ 150 million at the major trading exchange KuCoin. According to the United Nations, these are not only self-employed crooks, but even the government of North Korea, who has now stolen an estimated $ 2 billion, mainly to help develop nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, cybersecurity expert Kasparsky also expects criminals to become more interested in cryptocurrencies in the coming year. Especially the newer “DeFi” projects, which often grow too fast to be able to continue to guarantee safety, fall victim to this, as happened recently with Balancer, Akropolis and Opyn.

That cryptocurrency is only for terrorists and criminals, was recently disproved by a board member of Chainalysis, the largest crypto-data analysis company in the world, at a blockchain event that I recently organized in Amsterdam. Although more and more ‘ransomware’ attacks are taking place for which cryptocurrencies are demanded by criminals, the number of criminal transactions has fallen far below 1% and investigative agencies such as the FBI and the Dutch Police even admit that cryptocurrencies enable them to collect criminal money. to follow.

It is up to the government

Even though the industry is becoming more and more mature, there are also many things that are absolutely unacceptable, such as artificially inflating prices. Due to the “pacing” problem, governments are always lagging behind in drafting and implementing laws and regulations, due to the rapid development of certain technologies.

The strict Dutch legislation has ensured that various Dutch cryptocurrency exchanges have now been registered with and are supervised by De Nederlandse Bank. But many of the largest stock exchanges worldwide, such as Binance and Bitmex, are avoiding this dance by establishing themselves in tax and regulatory havens like the Kaayman Islands and Sechelles.

The CEO of Paypal, Dan Schulman, who, as I wrote earlier in this blog, has made it possible for customers to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency, has therefore called on the industry to proactively sit down at the table with the regulatory authorities, in order to prevent major obstacles from being thrown up in all kinds of ways by international bodies and national governments as a kind of ‘counter-reaction’. Right, now that mass adoption is starting to take such beautiful forms.

MICA

The European Union introduced the “MICA” in September; regulations surrounding the cryptocurrency market. Ambitious and mainly focused on stimulating responsible innovations. Once approved, it will apply to all 27 member states and will finally provide broader clarity about the rights and obligations surrounding cryptocurrencies for consumers and organizations. In my view it contributes to a maturing market and will, due to the certainty it will offer, also attract more and more consumers and companies, to both use it and invest in it, which ultimately benefits the entire market. come.

It will be a special year, with the launch of DIEM immediately in January, the renamed cryptocurrency project Libra, which Facebook has initiated, the launch of the Chinese DCEP (digital government currency) and much more. Last year was already one to write in the books in the field of cryptocurrency, 2021 could very well exceed that!

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Jan Scheele

Jan Scheele werkt dertien jaar op het snijvlak van deep tech, strategie en leiderschap. Als keynote spreker en dagvoorzitter maakt hij technologie tastbaar voor boardrooms, directieteams en grote podia, zonder de complexiteit te versimpelen of te verbergen achter buzzwords.

Zijn achtergrond ligt in het bouwen. Als CEO van een technologie scale-up, oprichter van meerdere techbedrijven en organisator van meer dan vijftig TED-events wereldwijd zag hij van dichtbij hoe technologische keuzes doorwerken in strategie, governance en cultuur. Vanuit zijn betrokkenheid bij het World Economic Forum en de BCNL Foundation kijkt hij daarbij niet alleen naar wat technisch mogelijk is, maar ook naar wat bestuurlijk houdbaar en maatschappelijk wenselijk is.

Hij publiceerde vijf boeken, waarvan twee Amazon-bestsellers, en schrijft wekelijks over AI, blockchain en de organisatorische gevolgen van deep tech. Zijn blogs bereikten inmiddels meer dan twee miljoen lezers.

janscheele.nl

We’ve probably never been as dependent on technology as we are now. Working from home, learning, communicating, shopping; think about the problem you have if your phone or laptop breaks down or the internet connection gets lost. According to Vodafone, data traffic has increased by as much as 50% in some areas, the top 4 social media channels by 20% and Netflix has lowered the quality of its streams by a quarter because it could not meet the demand. Although experts are already warning of the even faster-growing power of the already very powerful tech companies, such as Amazon and Facebook, it is also very nice to see how new technologies are used to combat corona.

Artificial Intelligence is used to predict pandemics and accelerate drug development, blockchain technology is now also used in various ways. In this blog 5 things for which blockchain technology is and can be used in the corona crisis.

The rapid advance of blockchain in technology was already a fact. In a previous blog, I wrote that 15% of healthcare executives were already implementing the technology, which is now gaining momentum. The Red Cross now allows donations in Bitcoin and global organizations such as the World Health Organization and my colleagues at the World Economic Forum are setting up one after another cooperation platform so that governments and organizations from different countries can work together.

Sharing Data

This cooperation is urgently needed because corona has no boundaries. Sharing data is currently extremely important to help governments and healthcare professionals make the right decisions, but “just sharing” is easier said than done. Not only because there is a lot of suspicion about the validity of data (the CIA even investigates whether China is publishing the correct numbers), but also simply because the data is stored in so-called data silos, which, according to experts, makes interoperability extremely difficult. Language barriers, cultural differences, privacy laws, and various other obstacles add to that and make it unnecessarily difficult for experts to do their important and urgent work at the moment.

The World Health Organization has taken the lead in setting up corona blockchain & AI platform MiPasa, in collaboration with IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft. Using big data, it predicts trends, detects outbreaks, and supports analysis. China, Europe, and several large hospitals such as the famous John Hopkins have already proactively joined.

Mapping the chain

One of the biggest problems that corona poses on a business level, is the insane disruption of many supply chains. Over 75% of companies now report, their supply chain has been compromised and often don’t know where the actual problem is, because the chain is often long and far from transparent. Not practical, if you want to know as a government, where your shipment of mouth masks currently is located. But it’s not just the face masks or disinfectant soap that has a hitch in the non-transparent disillusionment cable; over 5 million companies source parts or products from the Wuhan region in China, which was locked for a long time. Companies like Apple have almost all their production in sealed China and Dutch eCommerce giant Coolblue even canceled its affiliate program because it could no longer meet the demand due to the decreasing supply of products from China.

Supply Chain Transparency

One of the biggest breakthroughs that blockchain technology facilitates is supply chain transparency. This has already delivered great results worldwide; supermarkets like Albert Heijn and Carrefour that save millions of euros through efficiency gains, dozens of companies worldwide use IBM’s Food Trust blockchain platform to track food from seed to sale, tens of thousands of deaths are prevented by countering fake medicines and many other industries are booking through the strategic deployment of the technology, great progress in optimizing and shortening their supply chains. This is still in its infancy in many industries and one of McKinsey’s main recommendations is to make the chains transparent as soon as possible, to counteract the effects of the corona crisis as soon as possible.

Not only, according to Harvard Business Review, to know 24/7 where products are located in real-time, but also to counter fake products. In China, 31 million fake mouth masks have already been seized, which are supposed to save lives. Alipay has already set up a blockchain platform to track medical devices and the Dutch Tymlez started developing blockchain websites during the hackathon “Tech against Corona” to map the supply and demand of medical supplies. The World Economic Forum has launched a major initiative for all possible supply chains to make them more transparent, efficient, and trusted, precisely because they have also been proven to accelerate sustainability.

Farewell Fake news

Baking soda or drinking water every 15 minutes to combat corona, 5G, and ibuprofen which makes corona worse, hold your breath for 10 seconds to test whether you have corona, all Whatsapp messages from medical professors from Italy and China who give advice and the United States who used corona as a biological weapon to break down China’s power. We used to call this an urban legend, but in 2020 “fake news.” Due to our hyper-connectivity, these types of fake messages spread very quickly and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them from real ones. According to the World Health Organization, we must, therefore, watch out for a new virus: information disease, the rapid viral spread of fake news about corona.

Facebook and Instagram are already using fact-checkers. The Dutch Cybersprint, together with journalist Huib Modderkolk, is investigating fake websites that claim to communicate on behalf of RIVM. Worldwide, more and more organizations are using blockchain to prevent “fake corona news,” such as in China and Italy. The investigations into the prevention of ‘fake news’ with blockchain have been ongoing for some time; Frankwatching co-initiated the “Blockchain As FactChecker” study, with many groundbreaking results.

Is my donation effective?

Our confidence in practically everything; from media to food and from politics to each other, continues to decline. The number of donations to charities is also decreasing sharply and a sixth of the Dutch even distrust charities, often because of all the money that sticks to the bow and the opacity of the expenditure and impact of it. Corona has ensured that many people donate to charities again; Amazon founder Bezos donated $ 100 million, Microsoft founder Gates $ 100 million, and Twitter founder Dorsey even donated one billion. The big question remains; where does that money all go? Is it well spent? Unfortunately, there are too many examples of charity money, which has been misused, such as Oxfam Novib employees who paid for sex parties in Haiti.

Dozens of charities, including many in the Netherlands, are now busy putting donations on the blockchain. As with supply chains, the donation technology ensures great transparency for both donors and the organization itself. This not only strengthens the integrity of the organization but according to the Longfonds also the projects themselves, which can be executed much more efficiently. Receiving payments in cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin), which the Red Cross already offers, also ensures that the high transaction and banking costs are avoided.

The helping helicopter

The last big opportunity I see, where blockchain can provide wonderful support in coping with the corona crisis, is not yet operational but is already being discussed and studied a lot worldwide. Many governments are currently printing massive amounts of money to pump into their economies; Europe € 750 billion and the European countries individually already more than € 200 billion and the United States even € 2 trillion. In addition to supporting companies, support packages are also being made quickly for citizens, who are losing their jobs en masse due to the crisis. Almost 50 million unemployed people are already expected in the United States, Spain has already cost a million jobs and expectations in the Netherlands range from 1 to 2 million unemployed.

CBDC

Now in The Netherlands, we have the most beautiful social safety net in the world, but in countries where people do not have such a net, you see the immediate, urgent need of a rapidly growing group of people who can no longer pay their rent or even buy food. Two global discussions and developments are now suddenly accelerated by corona; those about basic income and those about a ‘Central Bank Digital Currency’ (CBDC); a digital variant of the Euro, Dollar, Yen, and all other currencies.
 
The discussion around basic income, also known as helicopter money, is now being conducted by many experts around the situation in America. Trump wants to give every American citizen $ 1000 within a few weeks to be able to buy necessary groceries. Something the US government has done during a few previous recessions. Now there are many studies that show and strongly recommend the positive effects of a basic income, as historian Rutger Bregman summed up nicely in the TED talk he gave at TEDxMaastricht. The problem surrounding the practical implementation lies in the payment. In America, the government wants to send money through traditional checks, which are sent by mail. A slow, fraud-prone, and costly process, which is far from convenient in these times. A CBDC could play a great role in this as it addresses all the problems of checks.

Digital Yen Develpment

China was already at the forefront of developing a digital Yen and has recently accelerated that process. Europe was also already working on a digital Euro and because of the corona crisis, the United States has finally started working on a Digital Dollar, probably to distribute the helicopter money digitally in the most efficient way possible. It is not yet known whether all this will succeed, but the chances are high, especially because of the pressure.

Many technological developments have a negative impact on our society, according to colleagues from the World Economic Forum and other organizations such as the IMF. Let’s hope that corona shows the positive side of technologies such as AI and blockchain and that we can get out safely again soon!

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Jan Scheele

Jan Scheele werkt dertien jaar op het snijvlak van deep tech, strategie en leiderschap. Als keynote spreker en dagvoorzitter maakt hij technologie tastbaar voor boardrooms, directieteams en grote podia, zonder de complexiteit te versimpelen of te verbergen achter buzzwords.

Zijn achtergrond ligt in het bouwen. Als CEO van een technologie scale-up, oprichter van meerdere techbedrijven en organisator van meer dan vijftig TED-events wereldwijd zag hij van dichtbij hoe technologische keuzes doorwerken in strategie, governance en cultuur. Vanuit zijn betrokkenheid bij het World Economic Forum en de BCNL Foundation kijkt hij daarbij niet alleen naar wat technisch mogelijk is, maar ook naar wat bestuurlijk houdbaar en maatschappelijk wenselijk is.

Hij publiceerde vijf boeken, waarvan twee Amazon-bestsellers, en schrijft wekelijks over AI, blockchain en de organisatorische gevolgen van deep tech. Zijn blogs bereikten inmiddels meer dan twee miljoen lezers.

janscheele.nl

Becoming a co-owner of a Ferrari, a Picasso, or a special stock of bourbon; who doesn’t want this? So-called “tokenization” assets using blockchain technology is currently revolutionizing the investment world, and my World Economic Forum colleagues even expect 10% of global GDP to be stored on the blockchain in seven years from now. Why are assets so massively placed on the blockchain, and what does this “tokenize” entail?

If you “tokenize” something, it means converting something physical into digital tokens, which are then added to the blockchain. The latter guarantees secure transfer and transparency. If you want to buy or sell a house, you usually go through a cumbersome process with different parties such as a broker, notary, and bank and some parts of this process are not transparent. This is precisely because not the whole process is transparent. According to several studies, this is one of the main causes of the credit crisis 10 years ago. In addition, because several parties are involved, each with their own outdated systems and of course a certain urge to make money, these processes are expensive and slow.

That’s why there are currently many companies and governments, working to “tokenize” their assets on the blockchain. Every day, billions of assets are tokenized worldwide, from Japan to Luxembourg and South Africa, and institutions such as MIT, Oxford, and the Dutch Central Bank endorse the great benefits. Advantages such as transparency, but also the ability to act quickly 24/7 worldwide, without all those intermediaries, ensure the great interest. Also, because assets can be partially traded and assets that were previously illiquid, which are now and are therefore easy to trade, bring a whole wave of new trading opportunities to the global financial market.

Tokenizing

It is, therefore, not only real estate objects, cars, or art, but also things like copyrights, shares, metals, grains, and for example, music licenses that are tokenized. Tokenizing all of this not only facilitates fast transfers, but also global trade in them, and the use of blockchain technology means transactions cannot be erased or modified, ensuring security and confidence. Because you can also trade certain assets fractionally, the trade suddenly becomes available to small investors and people like you and me. For example, you can only buy a fraction of an Amazon stock of $2,000. The Amsterdam startup Bloqhouse has developed a platform with which you can buy fractional real estate and the Amsterdam startup The Share Council has a solution to simplify co-ownership.

Something that doesn’t keeps the amateur busy? Actually, many Dutch people already benefit from “tokenization.” Apple Pay, which was introduced by ING bank in the Netherlands, works through “tokenization” and payment provider Payvision, even expects that by 2023, more than half of all e-commerce transactions in the Netherlands will run through this technology.

Although you can create your own token on the blockchain with platforms like Fabix in 5 minutes, there are still many challenges for “tokenization.” The underlying blockchain technology is still in full development and that is why it is still far from mature in various areas. One of the biggest challenges at the moment are laws and regulations. Many countries are lagging behind, as a result of which there is not yet a clear definition of a token, good standardization is lacking, and all rights and obligations around it are still often unclear. How about, for example, if you want to transfer ownership of your holiday home in Spain to a Frenchman from a legal point of view? And fiscally?

Challenges

What if you share a real estate object or painting with 10 other owners, and 1 of the owners wants to sell his share? Or should maintenance be carried out? One of the biggest challenges currently still lies in education. While training and talking about blockchain with Bloqon, I notice that the knowledge about the technology is still very much in its infancy. In addition to the basics of operation, understanding the global impact and future applications for most people is still far from clear.

Tokenization

It is clear with all presented plans, that cool future applications are lurking. From tokenizing basketball teams, so that fans can also participate, to tokenizing a trip, so that you no longer have to show your passport, ticket, etc. while flying. Of course, there are also wonderful opportunities in the field of, for example, the ‘gig workers’; How nice would it be if you, as an Uber driver or Deliveroo deliverer, get a share in the company by means of tokenization and thus also a profit distribution? There are already startups such as Fairride and Lazooz that offer such solutions, but just like the underlying blockchain technology, it is still in its infancy. With the many amazing plans and rapid technological developments, we are on the eve of a special revolution in the field of ownership!

Jan Scheele is active in the web3 (blockchain, crypto, NFTs, DeFi) industry since 2013. Besides (former) CEO of a web3 scaleup and founder of an advisory boutique (working for governments, family offices and several multinationals), he is Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum and Board Member at the Blockchain Netherlands Foundation (BCNL). He is writing, consulting, speaking and training regularly about everything web3, all over the world. Furthermore, he is currently finalizing his book about the rise and global impact of blockchain technology.

Jan Scheele

Jan Scheele werkt dertien jaar op het snijvlak van deep tech, strategie en leiderschap. Als keynote spreker en dagvoorzitter maakt hij technologie tastbaar voor boardrooms, directieteams en grote podia, zonder de complexiteit te versimpelen of te verbergen achter buzzwords.

Zijn achtergrond ligt in het bouwen. Als CEO van een technologie scale-up, oprichter van meerdere techbedrijven en organisator van meer dan vijftig TED-events wereldwijd zag hij van dichtbij hoe technologische keuzes doorwerken in strategie, governance en cultuur. Vanuit zijn betrokkenheid bij het World Economic Forum en de BCNL Foundation kijkt hij daarbij niet alleen naar wat technisch mogelijk is, maar ook naar wat bestuurlijk houdbaar en maatschappelijk wenselijk is.

Hij publiceerde vijf boeken, waarvan twee Amazon-bestsellers, en schrijft wekelijks over AI, blockchain en de organisatorische gevolgen van deep tech. Zijn blogs bereikten inmiddels meer dan twee miljoen lezers.

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