Many thanks to all those who came to visit our stand and sat in our Blockchain Demystified session at the World Congress of Credit Unions in Singapore.
The sense of comradery was empowering with a clear sense of common purpose with financial inclusion at it’s core.
Personally I really enjoyed Chris Skinners talk and his vision of the future, pointing at some ways that Credit Unions could adopt change for the better with new technology in the Blockchain and payments space. With so many big names now behind the Ethereum Alliance it really is very difficult to see how blockchain can fail. In the world of payments Alipay and WeChat pay continue to grow exponentially and are now moving into Europe.
What I found amazing was how open people were to the concept of using blockchain technology in their credit unions. Interestingly, one of the big draws was security. People clearly see the threat of cyber attacks on large centralised systems being an issue. Maybe it’s more of an issue for Credit Unions as they generally do not have the arsenal of defences that some of the larger players have to look after member assets. With a decentralised system it becomes far more difficult to attack and bring down.
The other more ‘traditional’ pain points, as aired by credit union representatives at our session, related to paperwork, and keeping up with regulations and compliance. The sense was that these burdens can prevent or delay them providing the solutions that enable them to compete more favourably with the banks and other financial services providers.
While blockchain technology does not provide a magic ‘silver bullet’ to remedy all ails it does provide some alternatives to some current dysfunctional and non value added practices.
These areas relate to cross border payments, payment visibility, security, keeping records that cannot be altered, regulatory compliant smart contracts for everything from loan agreements, deeds and savings accounts.
Summing up this was a truly great event, enriched by people with a common purpose from all over the globe. Already looking forward to next years event in the Bahamas!