Blockchain Versus Cryptocurrency

Transcript

uh hello everyone um as as they mentioned I'm local representative so I'll actually keep to a little bit more of the local topics uh something that's closer maybe to the people who are here but actually when I say closer I don't think it's closer it's a little bit the accent is a little bit uh on the different thing and I'll get on to that so the topic is blockchain versus cryptocurrency these two of course are connected but I'll get why why I want to separate these two topics so if I just press the correct button okay so just just one question how many uh of you

doesn't have a clue what the blockchain is so one two three three people okay so for these three people we have to go from the entire history of blockchain and to explain everything I guess right uh okay so I'll get just get the little bit of intro for the technology because I will have few key points one of the key points is technology and how it's separated from the cryptocurrencies and then I will get a little bit more into the terminology so uh blockchain as a technology it started like some sometime around 2009 we all know about Bitcoin and how it uh how it happened a little bit we also heard of

the examples where people bought pizza with Bitcoin so one of the most expensive meals I guess uh uh there is there is uh there is a few things that I want to go on on the technology level but not get too much into details so uh what's the key points of of blockchain as a technology you can you can see on the on the screen behind me so decentralization it's kind of like notary digital time stamps what does it mean it means you cannot uh you cannot change the data without leaving a trace which is pretty handy if it comes to for example police records medical records

and records that should not be tempered with now uh this is one of the this is one of the one of the key points also there is the distribution of power there is no an entity who controls this data since you cannot change it this actually means that the for example and I will just go with the bad case scenario you are a convict and you have some access or somehow you get into the police records you can change it and then you're like raised your criminal history blockchain disables that to happen in basic plain words uh to summarize to summarize like the the the the the the this this part uh I'll just go with with the

and just go with this so it keeps this and so the way it keeps and stores data uh and doesn't allow you to change the information that easily it's one of the key points to this technology which kind of launch it into the global scale uh uh also when we are speaking in plain words for example you what's it what it can be used for if you have for example a case where you have a dispute over something and and if you want to check it traditionally which basically how the countries function these days you would go to a lawyer to institution that takes care of the information of that kind and uh you would you will

depend from there that that in order to solve this also you have a middleman in the this way of using the technology the the data is public so you know the both sides can actually access to it and see the same thing uh I can now probably go on and talk how the computer like what are the notes how it's function but this is just a short short info in intro about uh the pluses of Technology uh so we know how we know how the internet work is connected we probably know what nodes are how that functions so I'll skip to that because most of the people here is is from this area now we come to the cryptocurrency in order for that entire ecosystem to

function we have to give something in like in in return so what are we giving to computers which are in the same networks or nodes we are giving them an exchange for the service in this how the first cryptocurrency uh was established it was originally as I said Bitcoin so there is also a few things to mention here like the the the the way how it works is it the proof of work proof of stake and Etc but I think it's something that's familiar to at least this audience so I'll not get into the those specific details uh there is one thing that always crosses my mind when we speak about when we speak about blockchain and it's it's it's it's usually like this I

heard I heard once the question how much ethereum do you have so I was like the ethereum is actually a technology and the eater is like the currency but people don't usually separate these two so the question is always how much at least for the like general public how much ethereums do you have this is the first step of realizing the people are not seeing this uh well whatever separated in in that terms that one is a currency and the second one is technology the technology part can be used in in a lot of areas while the currencies a digital currency and of any kind can be used for paying

for services and stuff like that so people usually don't separate these two and that's where you get the problem of perception which is the sum which is the the main thing that I actually want to focus on today what's the problem in perception the problem in perception comes when you these two are connected okay so one is Dependable on another and it's it's a good mechanism it's a good uh connection everything functions good until a point where you start separating the the view of today public opinion which is also kind of paradoxical if we speak about public public opinions on this topic I in the

first place mean about for example official government officials from any country perspective and that's the Paradox because if we are speaking about blockchain and boundaries in countries that's actually the Paradox because it should be not bounded anyway so I'll just I'll just put it like this we can look at the blockchain from the perspective of the technology uh the technology that can solve a lot of things that can affect a lot of things that's definitely going to change a lot of things how we look at the or how we perceive certain things today

but let's look at it from the standpoint of technology and and Science in some way then we have another then we have another uh look at no too early then we have another uh another part of the entire thing it's the cryptocurrency so that's probably a good way to make money out of the technology you are you are using and everything connected with it so these two perfectly work together the problem comes when the problem comes on the step number three this is I would refer it as cryptos camps but maybe we can just refer it to scams

how does it work and I'm speaking from a local perspective here when you mentioned blockchain and mentioned somebody earned money from something the perception is the same from point of view of typical montenegrian citizens so there were actually a few examples of bad examples of few schemes just schemes not even blockchain related but the marketing around these schemes were like was uh that you know it's it's crypto it's technology it's something new Innovative so you need to put your money in that now the basic question Here Comes would you put your money in

something that you don't even understand what it is and this is the main problem people don't understand usually what the the entire technology behind everything is they don't understand the the connection between the currency and Technology itself I'm speaking like in in other in other in other blockchains not just ethereum uh but they invest money into something they don't even know what what is So eventually they lose money or somebody get scammed or something bad happen and then the entire perception of this this technology is negative

so uh here comes the problem why okay so technology is unbounded it's unrelated to the countries which is the main goal nobody controls it there is no Global policeman but still in order to function within this ecosystem you need to function inside of the countries and in order to function inside of the countries you actually need to explain the system politicians government whoever what does this mean and this is especially hard due to the last thing that's on the screen the different scams which are most of the time not even connected with the blockchain whatsoever so you come to the government you

explain okay we have this new technology it's Innovative we can solve a lot of things I'm not even now speaking just about our country with General here actually people listen about new technologies which is which is good lately uh but you come and you explain this is the new Innovative technology we should do something about it you get the answer no it's just some digital money something that we don't understand you take it away from here and then it's stuck you cannot function properly within the that's that government that country system you cannot normally withdraw money you cannot make income out of that in the normal ways which are like stated in in every country different policy uh

but generally in in all of these systems you are pretty much stuck to do something regarding development and income so this is the base of the problem now if that's the base of a problem do we maybe have a solution for this uh put them all in jail yeah that would probably be good but can we put them all in jail no scammers will always exist and they will always do scams that's what they do that's what their let's say job is but what we can do and this is the main this should be the main focus in some period in the in the future we should educate

people what the technology behind it is if we understand the technology and use our cognitive abilities to think and separate people would not invest money in something they don't understand people would know to recognize okay this what I'm seeing as an ad for the some crypto asset is not crypto asset at all uh uh and could be able to just logically perceive what they are looking at this would bring us to the step where people who understand how everything is connected and how everything worked works could bypass all the negative perception and do good things about the technology

itself also the education generally education in digital area of of uh of citizens because in the end who creates the the the entire system of one country politicians who vote for politician citizens so in the end what we basically need to do is explain to the regular citizens what's the benefit of the technology uh uh just seconds sorry I hate seeing this guy behind I mean he should be behind the bars but I just don't like looking at him so in order to do so we would need to start to

a little bit put a bigger Accent on explaining to the regular people what's what's behind it how it's functioned what's the base what's the benefit what we can do about it with it and separate the bad influences uh since I'm originally I'm actually coming from the sphere of cyber security and lately as as as it was mentioned I'm into the gaming when we started speaking about gaming at least in this country there was a general perception of gaming that's what kids play and that's not so like it was the point to make something about it it's just what kids use but on that meeting and there were a few

officials on that meeting with me was a professional player and when we mentioned how much is his salary they were all like very interested at that point so in order for people to understand something is to catch what's interesting for them usually it's a financial area so if we explain the positive things that technology can bring in terms as as itself as a technology and correlate that to the financial benefits we can actually start to establish a little of ecosystem for these Technologies even here in Montenegro why because for the technology you don't need big infrastructure you don't need big buildings stadiums something like what you need in other areas hotels you need

basic laws and good way of of helping some ecosystem develop in this case that would be a blockchain ecosystem uh beside this there is also one thing that I mentioned even when this conference was I spoke with few professors who I respect highly and and think about their opinion care about their opinion they also had the perception like that's just digital money so I had little bit discussion and saying okay that's just one part of something a lot bigger and all the all the things that happened in this country

lately are like a year ago uh that was connected that was completely unrelated to the blockchain was somehow connected just through a media for example we have one of the biggest arrests in in crypto scams in Montenegro yeah but we also had few schemes that are totally unconnected with the blockchain and media related that to the blockchain so the entire perception of thing is is connected unfortunately in that way that people don't separate what's blockchain what's cryptocurrency and was simply plain World scam so I guess the the the main point what community should do and what we are

trying to do and we are trying always to get the new Innovative Technologies uh promote them and do something that the the new ecosystems develop which is always good for the economy such as montenegrine at least is to get a bigger focus on the the the behind scene what we can do with it what we can gain from it what we can use it for there is a lot of things you can use it for from I don't know uh as I said police medical records and Etc to voting in some on some topics and parts connected with it uh also to to say what are the benefits benefit in the financial terms and in the end educate people when well

enough to know to separate what's uh not like just cognitive thinking what's uh blockchain cryptocurrency and what's completely unrelated but it's trying to promote itself as such and actually this would be my conclusion I would just say we had few examples even even around us where you can see people who are not connected with with at least this thing trying to be perceived as such this is something we must pay attention to and hopefully that will not get the same as like for the nfts you know nft perception oh it's just a monkey picture

and now we perceive it as that if you pay a little bit more focus on that I hope in the near future Focus will be on developing new things based on Technologies technology and if you learn something from the factors surrounding it then it's a good thing but definitely a lot more people would and should be educated what are the benefits so I thank you for your attention and [Applause] [Music]