Ian Khan at Money 20/20: ‘Too Much Confusion Over Blockchain’
November 6, 2018 by George Levy
Bitsonline’s George Levy had the opportunity to interview technology futurist Ian Khan at the 2018 Money 20/20 event in Las Vegas to discuss “Blockchain City”, a documentary that captures the rise of blockchain technology across cities worldwide. During the insightful exchange, the futurist shared all he had uncovered while filming the documentary, including the confusion he saw surrounding blockchain technology.
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The Future of Blockchain
Money 20/20 featured a range of tracks, including one appropriately called “Blockchain and Crypto”. Ian Khan, futurist and Chairperson for the Blockchain and Crypto track, discussed a new documentary he directed and produced called Blockchain City.
During the interview, Khan discussed how there is “too much confusion in the world” around bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and what blockchain does.
“Blockchain technology is useful for many things,” Khan explains. “In my humble opinion, cryptos are the last thing that they can be useful for.”
In the documentary, Khan travels around the world and met with a wide range of key representatives from government, multiple industries, and everyday people involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Ian Khan on Government Involvement in Blockchain
Khan explained that as part of the documentary, they interviewed some key governments “who are doing key work” in blockchain.
“We wanted to find out why they are investing so much money in blockchain technology,” Khan stated. “We ended up interviewing the government of Dubai. Their goal is to have 50 percent of their intergovernment transactions on blockchain technology by 2020 and 2021”.
He went on to explain, “What this does is create efficiency, eliminates paper. Imagine saving one, two, or five billion dollars a year in just things you could have automated a long time ago”.
Dubai was only one of the governments that they had the opportunity to meet with and interview. Other notables included the Netherlands, which is working with the United Nations, and Estonia, which has made great advances in the use of blockchain and identity management.
Bringing Transparency to the Electoral Process
Among the cases for blockchain use he described, Khan touched upon the use of blockchain during elections and how blockchain can help secure elections and make them more transparent.
“We interviewed Dolfi Müller who is the mayor of a small town in Switzerland called Zug,” he explained. “Zug is a place and a town and municipality that first experimented with blockchain-based voting rights and how voting could use blockchain… There is a huge challenge where entire countries are ruled by people who get voted into power because of fraud. All that could be eliminated and we finally could have a true democracy in so many different countries”.
What are your thoughts on blockchain technology? Do you agree with Ian Khan that it is a key element in a complete technological revolution that is set to change the world, or is it merely hype that will soon pass? Let us know in the comments section below.
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