Spotlight on Blockchain

Blockchain’s Triumph in the EU Parliament

by Graham de Barra

To receive an invitation for a blockchain event in the EU Parliament feels a bit like your conservative uncle buying a Harley Davidson motorbike and a leather jacket — you’re pleasantly surprised to see a profound change in their archaic lifestyle, and yet you’re worried if they even know how to ride a motorbike at all. As an EU citizen and active human rights campaigner, I felt obligated to attend and help steer the Parliament in the right direction for this journey.

The workshop, entitled “Spotlight on Blockchain: a new generation of digital services”, was organised by the Greek Member of Parliament Eva Kaili in collaboration with the European Commission and EU Parliament’s Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA).

The significance of Greece leading the blockchain movement in the EU Parliament is symbolic of the etymological underpinning of the word politics itself, which is rooted in 5th Century BC Ancient Greece from the word polis with the creation of Western democracy. It is my personal belief that the political philosophical theories invented by the likes of Plato and Aristotle have never been truly realized in practice due to one common theme throughout history; and that is people’s desire for power.

Blockchain technology, for me, is the invention of social democracy minus centralized corruption.

Eva Kaili addressing the EU Parliament

At a single glance, Eva’s portfolio is enough to inspire the most corrupt person to do good. As the youngest candidate to ever stand in the Greek elections, Eva was elected in the Greek Parliament in 2009 under the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (POSAK) and went on to be elected as an MEP in 2014, representing a range of issues from cultural and educational affairs to being the Chair of the Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Eva first became aware of bitcoin in 2015 when members of Greeks’ Syriza Government considered exchanging the bank accounts of every citizen to bitcoin.

Eva holds a strong stance of anti-austerity, however for her this was not a complete solution to Greek’s financial crisis either. For her neither the proposals by the EU nor the Greek Government were adequate to solve Europe’s stringent austerity measures. This workshop was organized to invite the blockchain community to complete the picture for the benefit of all EU citizens.

Kicking Off with Controversy

The workshop kicked-off at 9am in atypical Parliament fashion. The room was over-crowded with people standing or sitting on the floor, most of whom were representatives of MEPs. The level of interest in blockchain exceeded all expectations.

The first panel was led by MEP Jakob von Weizsacker, who astonishingly declared that currencies are ponzi-schemes that centralized banks are merely trying to control. The gasp in the room was like an abrupt scratch of a vinyl record.

It would appear to me that currencies became ponzi-schemes when they were no longer backed by silver and gold, allowing the promoter of the ponzi-scheme to inflate the currency at their own will, leaving the scheme open to manipulation at the cost of people at the bottom of the pyramid (regular EU citizens).

This was the moment of realization for me that the Euro could be in violation of Irish law under the Pyramid Selling Act 1980, which reads:

“2. — (1) The promoter, or any of the promoters of, or a participant in, a scheme or a person acting on behalf of the promoter, or any of the promoters of, or a participant in, a scheme shall not induce or attempt to induce a person to become a participant in a scheme. 3. — (1) If any person who is a participant in a scheme or has applied or been invited to become a participant in a scheme — (a) makes any payment to or for the benefit of the promoter of or (if there is more than one) any of the promoters of, or a participant in, the scheme or a person acting on behalf of a promoter of, or a participant in, a scheme, and (b) is induced to make that payment by reason that the prospect is held out to him of receiving payments or other benefits in respect of the introduction of other persons who become participants in the scheme, any person to whom or for whose benefit that payment is made shall be guilty of an offence.”

Ireland and Greece had the highest deficient following the 2009 financial crash

Bitcoin on the other hand cannot incur hyper inflation because there is no central issuer of the coin and supply is controlled by pre-determined code. This decentralized process is known as mining and the supply from mining is halved every 4 years, with the next halving occurring in 2020.

According to Andreas Antolonopoulos, bitcoin is rare and cannot be infinitely copied which makes it a revolutionary digital invention and is more representative of currencies backed by scarce precious metals that does not rely on trusted centralized governance.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are therefore trustless.

Fiat money on the other hand is backed by the “full faith and credit” of the government, making it a trusted currency.

The cat is out of the bag on this one and for the first time before my eyes an inter-governmental panel did not even attempt to hide this revelation. The Chair answered his own question that the Parliament should not attempt to regulate blockchain technology “in order not to stifle innovation”.

It revealed to me that the EU Parliament know the game is up and are emitting signs that they want the help of the community because they are in too deep in this ponzi-scheme. It is an invitation to EU citizens to take back control over their own faith and move power away from centralized banks.

Solar energy at the heart of blockchain

Non-Financial Uses of Cryptocurrencies

The second panel of the day investigated non-financial applications of blockchain technology and was by far the more altruistic and intellectually stimulating panel of the two. As Eva introduced SolarCoin she excitedly declared that she setup her third ever wallet and is now a holder of the coin, which provides incentives for people to run solar panels by rewarding SolarCoin. Francois Sonnet is the co-founder of SolarCoin and he spoke about partnerships and interesting developments that are coming for the project.

The willingness of the EU Parliament to learn about blockchain technology demonstrates the tremendous progress the community has made in achieving mainstream adoption.

We can think of crypto currencies as symbols of value and users as the network.

The most interesting speaker for me was Lionel Dricot of Ploum, who spoke about Blockchain for Liquid Democracy. Liquid democracy can be described as the merging of direct democracy and representative democracy. It follows a project-based model where proposals are made to the network and voted on by citizens.

Representative democracy still exists in this model as it allows the transference of voting to a representative or subject matter expert. This allows for a politics based on ideas rather than careers. The application of liquid democracy on the blockchain ensures that voting is done fairly and securely without any risk of manipulation.

Opera Incubator are developing a process for decentralized liquid democracy using community masternodes and a decentralized fund, to allow local initiatives to be voted on and funded without any filter from a government or bank.

View from Opera Incubator, Europe’s blockchain incubator

If your cognitive brainwaves are firing off right now, then you stand on the right side of history and you are invited to use blockchain technology as a tool for emancipating the financial shackles that have been imposed on countries such as Greece and Ireland. If you do not see the signs of a new financial system on the horizon then you are likely either a banker or a politician and fearing the legitimacy of your own existence.

As Eva Kaili put it “If a bank does not think blockchain is in competition with fiat currency then they likely do not understand it”. If the latter, be assured that it is not too late to join the movement towards decentralizing power and do good for the citizens of the EU. We are a forgiving community and we hold no personal grudges. It is the system which is at fault.

Either way it is too late for us to turn back now and we will continue on the righteous path with or without you.