unic.ac.cy/iffunic.ac.cy/iff

10 years of crypto/blockchain:

what to expect in the next decade

Professor George M. GiaglisGeneral Director, Institute For the Future (IFF)

giaglis.g@unic.ac.cy

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IFF Activity timeline

2016First MSc graduatesLaunch Blockchain Research Center

2013

Bitcoin acceptance1st in the world

2014Launch blockchain MOOC & MSc degree

1st in the world40,000 MOOC students550 MSc students95 countries

2015

Publish MOOC certificates on the blockchain

1st in the world

2017Launch Institute For the Future (IFF)All UNIC Diplomas on the Blockchain

1st in the world

Decentralized 2017500+ attendees, 20 countries

2018

Launch block.coDecentralized 2018

1,200+ attendees, 39 countries

M4 competition100,000 datasets, 200+ research teams

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Leaders in blockchain education

#1 University of Nicosia#2 University of Cumbria

#3 Simon Fraser University#4 MIT

#5 New York University#6 Duke University

#7 McGill University#8 Pompeu Fabra University

#9 Imperial College

Source: Coindesk, 2015

#1 University of Nicosia#2 New York University#3 Stanford University

#4 Princeton#5 Duke University

Source: The Merkle, 2017

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Leaders in blockchain researchProject Budget Funding by Duration IFF role

INFINITECH € 21m EC (H2020) 3.25 years Partner

ABC € 17m Austrian govt 4 years Partner

EUNOMIA € 2.4m EC (H2020) 3 years Partner

BLOCKPOOL.EU € 1.5m EC (H2020) 2 years Partner

DLT4ALL € 1m EC (Erasmus+) 3 years Coordinator

Direct industry funding € 1m Ripple, trade.io, PumaPay, etc. 1-5 years Main/sole partner

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Decentralized 2019

www.decentralized.comEarly bird ticket deadline: 31 July

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Outline

A brief intro to crypto/blockchain

The first decade: Crypto/Blockchain 2009-2018

Milestones for the next decade

Local Admissions (EU)

Crypto/Blockchain

A brief intro

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A brave new world: Exponential technologies

8

Internet of Things Artificial Intelligence

Distributed Ledgers (Blockchain)

Robotics Augmented/Virtual Reality 3D Printing

Molecular nanotechnology New materials Energy storage

Autonomous Vehicles

Genetic engineering

Quantum computing

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Bitcoin: A first attempt at network money

Bitcoin is a private, decentralized, digital cryptocurrency

Private: Not issued by a sovereign

Decentralized: No issuing party; units are issued algorithmically

Digital: Fully electronic; no peg to other assets

Cryptocurrency: Anti-counterfeiting through cryptography

9

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Crypto-currency acceptance: major coins

10

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Blockchain (or DLT)

A blockchain is a ledger of transactions.

A shared, time-stamped, append-only, immutable, cryptographically-securedledger of transactions.

Shared: blockchains do not make much sense unless two or more parties (or systems) are involved.Time-stamped: transactions are stored in chronological order.Append-only: you can only add new transactions to a blockchain. Immutable: Once written, a transaction cannot be erased or altered.Cryptographically-secured: advanced cryptography enables all the above.

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So, why is this important?

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Not all blockchains are the same: DLT Taxonomy

13

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Types of blockchains

14

Local Admissions (EU)

The first decade

Crypto/Blockchain 2009-2018

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Timeline 2009-2018

2009 2011 2013 2015 2017

Bitcoin release Altcoin rush Crypto Graffiti Smart contracts ICOs

Decentralized money

Decentralized Internet

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BTC price in USD (all time, log scale)

Local Admissions (EU)

The next decade

Value creation 2019-2028

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How did the internet revolutionalize our world?

First, technology creates a new foundational infrastructure

• Internet democratizing exchange of information

Initially, we think about moving existing business to the new infrastructure

• From brick-and-mortar to B2B/B2C commerce

But, then two things happen:• First, disintermediation (creative destruction)

• Irrelevant players that won’t reinvent themselves get eliminated (or pivot)

• Then, cybermediation (new business models)• Which couldn’t have existed earlier • Think Instagram, Uber/Lyft, AirBnB, etc.

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How will crypto/blockchain revolutionalize our world?

First, technology creates a new foundational infrastructure

• Internet democratizing exchange of information

Initially, we think about moving existing businessto the new infrastructure

• From brick-and-mortar to B2B/B2C commerce

But, then two things happen:• First, disintermediation (creative destruction)

• Irrelevant players that won’t reinvent themselves get eliminated (or pivot)

• Then, cybermediation (new business models)• Which couldn’t have existed earlier •

First, technology creates a new foundational infrastructure

• Blockchain democratizing exchange of value/trust

Initially, we think about moving existing businessto the new infrastructure

• From e-commerce to blockchain-enabled commerce

But, then two things happen:• First, disintermediation (creative destruction)

• Irrelevant players that won’t reinvent themselves get eliminated (or pivot)

• Then, cybermediation (new business models)• Which couldn’t have existed earlier

TODAY

TOM

ORRO

W

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Disintermediation

Who becomes irrelevant with blockchain?

Who mediates consensus between untrusted parties?

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Toward shorter supply chains?

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Toward shorter supply chains?

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Cybermediation

What new business models can be implemented that were not possible before?

Why should ‘parties’ be confined to individuals or organizations?Might intelligent machines or objects also need to reach consensus with each other in the future?

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Internet of Things

IoT is the internet of physical devices embedded with sensors, software and connectivity.

30-50 billion such devices by 2020

First M:1 information technology in historyComputers 1:MMobiles 1:1Sensors M:1

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Artificial Intelligence

AI refers to computer science techniques that enable machines to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence

Visual perception, speech recognition, language translation, etc.

AI is whatever hasn’t been done by computers yet JAI in 1999: OCR, playing chess (narrow intelligence)AI in 2019: autonomous vehicles, robots (toward general intelligence)

AI is still largely immatureBut, progress has picked up speed (exponentially)Next frontier: From centralized to decentralized intelligence (edge computing)

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The future technology stackDLT

Smart contracts & digital money

enabling M2M commerce

AIIntelligent algorithms run on autonomous

machines at the edges of the network(mini-brains)

IoTA dense network of physical and virtual objects, each with

sensory and/or actuating capabilities

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Conclusion: The era of Decentralization

2009 2015 20xx 20xx 20xx

Decentralized money

Decentralized Internet

Decentralized organizations

Decentralized intelligence

Decentralized Internet of

Things