Co-founder of Ethereum on IBM Blockchain

The co-founder of Ethereum does not seem impressed by the IBM blockchain.

The company has been among the companies that invest both the money and the power of the mind in blockchain, as evidenced by a series of announcements in the last months – in a disk to store patents related to the blockchain. In fact, IBM is linked to Mastercard for the second highest number of blockchain patents in 2017. The company said its blockchain platform has more than 400 customers, using Hyperledger Composer and Hyperledger Fabric. Among recent announcements, the company has agreed to use the database management blockchain.

However, co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who spoke with Quartz on the sidelines of Devcon4, is not enthusiastic about IBM's moves.

"I do not understand that deeply, but the detail that has come up is that they're saying," Hey, we own all the IPs and this is basically our platform, and you're following us. " this … it's absolutely not the point. "

IBM also revealed that it is working with Walmart to improve the supply chain of the food business of the latter.

"The potential value of tracking food on a blockchain is that you would get the QR codes printed on it [food] at every step [along] the way in which, as a consumer, you can scan the code and get confirmation about "here is where the material comes from." How can I verify if it complies with my moral values ​​or quality standards and so on, "Buterin explained." There is definitely something there, but regardless of whether any of the actors are doing it remotely, they are much less secure, "he added.

As for the industries where Buterin believes the blockchain is the most viable, he said: "Cryptocurrency and making international payments easier." All other ideas (be it self-sufficient products or identities), is clearly something that it still takes a long time to be worked out before you can see [whether it] it makes sense on a scale ".

"Going beyond the money, I think the value is the creation of a token and the immediate access to portfolios, multi-signature portfolios, decentralized exchanges and only to use it as a guarantee – all this infrastructure that you would not have access to if you had just created a currency and tried to run it from your server, "he said. "I feel that real utilities in space will begin to approach things that are more purely digital."