Bilans d’évènement

First session of Digitalks: Bitcoin, blockchains and smart contracts

On Wednesday the 7th of November, took place the first edition of « Digitalks », a platform created by the French-Czech Chamber of Commerce together with one of its board members, and Managing Director of StartupYard, Cédric Maloux.

The idea behind the creation of this platform is to present, analyse and debate about digital innovation. No need to be a digital nerd to come to our quarterly meetings, curiosity is more than enough.

Last Wednesday, the theme was « Bitcoin, blockchains, smart contracts ». The debate tackled topics such as benefits and drawbacks of cryptocurrencies, trust and regulations, innovation and business.

For Robert Gauci, CEO of Axa, cryptocurrencies are « much more than just a currency; it’s a mindset ». He adds « it involves rethinking the whole business model. The goal being moving complexity, that is currently in the hands of customers, to the machine; moving from a complex to a simple model for the customer. »

The financial and insurance sectors are highly regulated, and their core business is based on trust. Cryptocurrencies would have to be highly regulated, and a legal framework would have to be settled to even consider mass-adoption.

One of the panelists quoted Mojmír Hampl, Vice-Governor of the Czech National Bank by saying that « cryptocurrencies behave like commodities but do not fulfill the three functions of currency » {yet}.

Nobody can deny cryptocurrency is « a thing », but as Viktor Fischer – General Partner of Rockaway Blockchain – said, « Cryptocurrencies are the Internet in the 90s ». « There are still questions about volatility and scalability », « we still need to figure out what this technology can bring, before even talking about business ». Generoso Cogliano , Senior Manager at Accenture Consulting, ended the debate by summing up cryptocurrencies in four keywords : « New, complicated, controversial and fast ».

Let’s not forget Czech Republic is one of the most « connected » to the cryptocurrency countries, and was one of the early adopters of mining.

We had the chance to welcome great panelists from all horizons, that covered the whole scope with very specific points of view. Thank you very much!

• Viktor Fischer, General Partner, Rockaway Blockchain
• Robert Gauci, CEO Axa CZ&SK
• Dite Gashi, Co-Founder Blocknify
• Michal Vodrážka, Director, Payments Regulation and Financial Innovations Division at Czech National Bank
• Generoso Cogliano, Senior Manager at Accenture Consulting for Financial Services