My Blog

London Blockchain Conference – Recap Day 1

The first day of the conference focused on revenue generation with blockchain.

Welcome to the London Blockchain Conference – the biggest Bitcoin and blockchain event of the year. The conference is taking place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London from May 31 – June 2 2023 and aims to showcase the true potential of BSV blockchain.

This includes the various business applications including transparency, efficiency, performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. The conference will feature a business strategy and a technical stage over three days, with over 100 speakers and 24 hours of sessions and panel discussions planned.

The first day of the conference focused on revenue generation with blockchain. Data integrity, security and availability should be top of mind for every C-level executive, regardless of vertical, whether government or enterprise. Enter your ally – the BSV blockchain. Scaling blockchain technology can be leveraged to resolve complex business problems around transparency, efficiency, performance, scale and cost.

At Bitcoin Association, we recognise that the decision to adopt blockchain is based on how it solves real problems faced by organisations today. The best use cases are those that effectively solve these problems at a much lower operational cost while providing massive benefits upon adoption.

Below is a recap of every major technical panel discussion on day one.

Bringing enterprise to the blockchain, and vice versa

Ayre opened the London Blockchain Conference by discussing all of the benefits of BSV blockchain including its unbounded scaling capabilities, incredibly fast nano-payments and its aim to be fully regulatory compliant.

He added that the conference was aimed at bringing enterprises to blockchain and vice versa, with several entrepreneurs and businesses at the event geared to showing the utility and use case of the technology across a variety of sectors.

Ayre also noted that he expects the world is about to see the next stage of the Internet through the adoption of IPv6 and web3 and that blockchains such as BSV will act as a complementary technology in this sea change.

He highlighted recent successes such as the fact that BSV saw over 55 million transactions in a day and that with the introduction of Teranode, this will ultimately become over a billion a day and become truly unbounded. He also discussed the role of the Blockchain Association and the group’s role in acting as stewards and ensuring that the protocol cannot be changed – ‘even by God himself’.

Ayre closed his presentation by noting that the London Blockchain Conference is about finding solutions to data problems using blockchain, not just BSV, but that no other technology offers the same features of unbounded scaling, instant transactions and nano-payments.

Creating a social enterprise that is changing the world

Ager-Hanssen used his presentation to discuss his views on blockchain and how he sees the technology fundamentally changing the world over the next decade. He declared that nChain was aiming to create history and was gearing up to become a full-blown social impact movement.

He noted that the reason he is now the nChain Group CEO came about after a chance meeting with Dr Craig Wright. He added that while he was always interested in blockchain technology there was not a single blockchain that was truly interesting and was worth investing in – before now.

Ager-Hanssen noted that nChain is now ramping up investments in the blockchain sector, with between 20-30 significant investments in the previous quarter, with this figure set to double in the coming months. This forms part of the ultimate goal of creating new ‘unicorn’ and ‘decacorn’ companies in the sector, and a trillion-dollar industry and ecosystem.

‘No other blockchain can actually do what we do or replicate it. Scalability, efficiency and nano payments. We tried out every other blockchain and they don’t work,’ he said.

Ager-Hanssen said that his ultimate vision is so that no one across the world can touch a screen without interacting with this technology and that two to three billion people will be interacting with it within the next three years.

Understanding the impact of Web3 and the impact of transformative technology in the finance sector

Boe’s presentation focused on how blockchain is disrupting the traditional banking and finance sector. His presentation focused on four questions which banks and wealth managers should ask themselves right now:

  • What is Web3 and is it ​relevant?​
  • How will Web3 impact your business?
  • Should I be worried about the impacts of these new technologies?
  • What should I do to prepare for these new technologies?

‘Web3 brings trust ​to the Internet​, it democratises the ownership of digital ​assets ​and it allows for an open and censorship-resistant Internet​,’ he said.

Speaking specifically on digital assets, Boe noted that while the technology is still nascent, it is now reaching an inflexion point and that the average digital assets market cap was already sitting at around $1.8 trillion in 2021​. In the mid-term, he anticipates strong market growth after the tipping point at around the 4-8x market cap.

In the long term, he predicts multiple CBDCs and stablecoin ​use cases, while digital tokens and traditional securities co-exist​. He added that HSBC and Northern Trust estimate 5-10% of assets will be tokenised by 2030.

Powering a new world of streaming with NFTs and BSV blockchain

Kavanaugh began the panel discussion by highlighting that Hollywood has historically been risk-averse and therefore blockchain and NFT adoption in the space has been relatively slow. However, he noted that all it takes is one or two creators to begin making money in the space before everyone jumps on board.

Mugavero added that one of the benefits of the technology is reducing the complexity around Hollywood accounting and using features such as NFTs and smart contracts to ensure that people are paid more fairly and openly.

Earick said that an important part of driving this adoption is not ‘shoving the technology’ down people’s throats but rather showing its use case and keeping the technology more in the background.

He pointed to games and services such as Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft which have effectively already implemented their version of the metaverse and NFTs – but are focused more on servicing players in clever ways rather than drawing attention to the technology directly.

Kavanaugh added that NFTs have been turned into a ‘dirty word’ because of the stigma attached to them due to bad actors historically. Because of this NFTs are likely to see significant adoption going forward but ‘under a different name’.

Using Bitcoin to Build a Business – The Unilateral Contract

Wright began the panel discussion by noting that economics exists outside of the world of technology and that blockchain does not automatically solve some of the issues in supply chains such as poor products or no delivery.

Instead, blockchain offers auditability and immutability – and by extension transparency. He added that while this will benefit most businesses it does not replace existing laws, regulations and contracts.

‘People think you can just change a protocol, but stable protocols enable people to build,’ he said.

Wright has often referred to his initial release of Bitcoin in 2008/9 as a unilateral contract. The ‘offer’ is for miners to validate Bitcoin blocks in return for a share of the Bitcoin block subsidy, plus transaction fees. As the unilateral offerer, they are obligated to make sure that happens. The contract itself, he says, is in the Bitcoin white paper and its original web page, which set out the rules.

Wright gave the example of four dogs which got lost and a person put out a contract for their return of $100 each. Depending on how many dogs are brought back, that person is then bound to pay $100 per dog returned. However, nobody can force the return of all the dogs and if this is the case, the contract remains unfulfilled.

Wright also used the presentation to give his view on nodes, the importance of the stability of the Bitcoin protocol, and how this will allow for unlimited scaling and transactions. He also discussed the roles of miners in these contracts and the legal role that they play.

How your business can leverage Bitcoin

Lee began his presentation by explaining how Bitcoin works as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. He added that cash is a value transfer instrument., and that this could be described as a new form of cash, which can be transferred instantly between parties in any part of the world at a very low cost.

‘This cash can be broken down into minuscule amounts​. Each of the 2.1 quadrillion base tokens can be used to represent something of higher value​ such as currency, vouchers, tickets, certificates​,’ he said.

Using this understanding of electronic cash as a basis, he noted that the key to leveraging Bitcoin is understanding how it is applied​. ‘The benefits of Bitcoin are realised more effectively as it is more deeply integrated into an application​. You can start small but also think big​.’

Lee pointed specifically to the security and privacy benefits which Bitcoin offers businesses and how it can replace processes currently handled by secure compute modules​.

‘​Most people think of Bitcoin as something you buy or sell​. Start thinking of Bitcoin as something you use to add value to services​.’

‘​Your customers don’t need to buy, own, hold or touch Bitcoin if that’s not part of your business model​. Think of Bitcoin as paper for receipts​. $0.0000005 worth can be used to represent items worth any amount.​’

Lee also gave businesses an overview of how to start working with Bitcoin. ‘The design strategy should be about looking to push functions down to the Bitcoin layer. The benefits become more apparent the more you push to the network​,’ he said.

How Bitcoin Association stewards the Bitcoin Protocol and empowers those who build upon it

Bitcoin Association has been granted stewardship of the Bitcoin protocol and is currently working on the implementation of technical means and operational processes to actively steward the system.

Murray began the presentation by outlining that its mission is to protect the protocol and empower builders. This includes a​ data protocol that is scalable, open to anyone globally, usable for micropayments, and traceable within existing legal structures, he said.

This is further expanded by the Association’s focus on four key pillars:

  • Stability​ – The original Bitcoin protocol has everything needed to sustain a vibrant, scalable network.​
  • Scalability​ – Bigger blocks are needed to support the increased diversity of transactions which businesses want to perform.​
  • Security​ – Deliver unprecedented commitment to quality assurance and professionalised engineering.​
  • Safe Instant Transactions​ – The BSV blockchain roadmap treats safe, instant transactions as a key priority.​

‘Murray also explained the plans to restore Satoshi’s Vision and the stewardship role. ‘BA has been granted stewardship of the Bitcoin Protocol by Dr Wright​. Being proper stewards ensures that the protocol remains set in stone,’ he said.

The second part of the presentation was delivered by Coxall who talked about the Bitcoin Association’s role in empowering builders. He explained that by a narrow definition, builders are people who process transactions on BSV blockchain – bringing value to the network. He cited the recent example of Vaionex which set a new record for BSV blockchain after it recorded over 85 million transactions in 24 hours.

Coxall added that the Association empowers builders by offering several tools and resources including SV Node, Teranode, LiteClient, IPv6, mAPI and ElectrumSV.

DXS – Empowering Retail Traders

Adams explained that the role of DXS is to be a trading platform that aims to genuinely empower retail traders. By comparison, other trading platforms make most of their money when retail traders lose.

‘Robinhood makes money by empowering large institutions at the expense of retail traders. They charge zero commissions but make $1 billion per year from payments for order flow,’ he said.

By comparison, DXS is a trading platform that is not incentivised ​to maximise retail trading losses. Because it operates on BSV blockchain, it is fully transparent, cannot be arbitrarily changed​ and is independent. It is also publicly auditable​, any compliant broker can connect​, and the value accrues to a non-profit​.

As part of the presentation, Adams also walked through the process of opening a trade on DXS, how the application has grown over the last two and a half years, and growth plans going forward.

Bigger is better…Why do a blockchain’s size and scalability matter?

The panel was moderated by John Jack Pitts, Co-Founder of SLictionary, who started the panel by asking E. Smitty why a blockchain’s size does matter. Smitty responded by referring to the daily transaction volume of the biggest blockchains, out of which the BSV blockchain is responsible for the most transactions. This showcases the utility of a scalable blockchain.

Prof Latif Ladid widened the perspective in the discussion by pointing out how pairing IPv6 and BSV blockchain could provide a better version of the Internet for everyone. Currently, platforms and Internet service providers sit on top of communication and data transfers and set the terms for using their products and services. Often, this results in a worse user experience in IPv4. Ladid remarked that currently, many users are just ‘tourists on the Internet.’

Wallace added that IPv6 and a scalable blockchain could represent an evolutionary jump for Internet users, making communication more equitable than before through true peer-to-peer connections. One of the features that IPv4 provides is fixed IP addresses, which allows Internet users to act more autonomously on the Internet. Together with blockchain technology, this enables users to act more sovereign about their user data. As data can be stored on the blockchain, it does not need to be shared with companies that gather data for profit.

For Michael Choi, the founder of the social network, MyFabula, scalability and big blocks matter, as they allow for a high number of transactions, which are needed for social media platforms. While MyFabula might still be at an early stage, Choi expects to have a wide user base in the future. His targeted users range from Baby Boomers to Gen Alphas.

LiteClient Toolbox – Modular Components for Simplified Payment Verification

Ryan began the panel discussion by detailing the LiteClient Toolbox and its key aims. The LiteClient Toolbox is a collection of modular components which enable the construction of SPV services today. Security, speed, scale, and stability are all achieved at low cost by enabling each entity to independently validate its own subset of transactions within the blockchain.

This was expanded upon by Kellenschwiler who noted that you do not need to run the node software to validate transactions – you only need the block headers, Merkle proofs, and the ability to check the state of UTXOs with miners. This dramatically reduces running costs because resource requirements will scale with your business volume, as opposed to the network volume as a whole.

Kramsky discussed how Amazon Web Services is using LiteClient, specifically its marketplace, due to its lightweight and cost-efficient nature, which speaks to businesses looking to optimise costs. He added that AWS follows a ‘shared responsibility model’ when it comes to the cloud and LiteClient also gives extra security in the cloud, which speaks to some of AWS’ core tenants.

Bitcoin: The Fundamentals of The Protocol & Basic Economics

In this session, Healey aimed to facilitate the onboarding of developers and help them start building on BSV blockchain through an introduction to his beginner-level course: Bitcoin Basics: Protocol and Design.

This course serves as an introduction to the Bitcoin protocol and its method of operation and is intended for beginners to Bitcoin. Some of the key focuses of Healey include how Bitcoin is a ledger, first and foremost; why Bitcoin shares core principles with triple-entry accounting; how coins and transactions are correlated, as well as their associated fees.

Those interested in learning more about the fundamentals of Bitcoin and its history are encouraged to sign up for the BSV Academy’s courses.

What to Consider When Developing a Wallet on Bitcoin

Zheming began the panel by discussing when exactly a business should consider developing a wallet on Bitcoin. He noted that while these companies always have the option to build their own wallets, it’s often far more efficient to use one of the wallets that already exist in the ecosystem.

This was reiterated by Gamaroff, who noted that there are several existing tools and wallets, such as those developed by TAAL and nChain. This means ‘the difficult part’ of developing a wallet today is more often about how to make it stand out and be competitive compared to existing offerings. Other topics included whether to build wallets for web/mobile-first, the importance of onboarding and exchanging to FIAT, and UX considerations.

The panel also discussed the importance of regulatory certainty in the space, both from the perspective of developers and from the perspective of users and reiterated the fact that BSV blockchain is pro-regulation.

The Florida Bitcoin Citadel presents: Bitcoin 101

Beginning this presentation, Wuckert Jr discussed the history of blockchain and detailed how Bitcoin has changed substantially since its inception. He also detailed how this has been restored to its original implementation as BSV blockchain.

He offered a full walkthrough of the history of Bitcoin, from how it was originally conceived in the white paper, how the idea was ultimately tainted by several bad actors, and ultimately how BSV aims to restore Satoshi’s original vision.

Simplifying Writing & Reading Transactions On-chain – For Both Applications & Miners

In this closing session, the panel looked at the tools that allow miners and applications to interact as efficiently as possible to enable seamless reading and writing on BSV blockchain.

An example of one such tool is WhatsOnChain, which provides real-time BBSV blockchain Explorer and enterprise-grade blockchain services.

Another important tool, ARC, allows applications to use a clearly defined interface that reliably validates transactions, provides clear feedback, a less complex submission path, and re-submit capability for transactions that were erroneously rejected or evicted by the node. ARC covers the basic service of a standardised transaction submission and will be available open-source for miners to adopt and build on.

Finally, JungleBus is a highly optimised, proprietary light node for BSV with a focus on ingesting mempool and on-chain data, indexing it for various specifications, and allowing clients (typically apps) to subscribe to sets and subsets of data while ignoring everything they don’t need from the rest of the blockchain.

Ryan Brothwell

, ,
, , ,