The Blockchain Connect Association, a new Czech constitution & nbsp; Alliance & nbsp; formed in the spring of 2018 with partners including IBM, PwC and a fintech incubator in Prague for start-ups, revealed plans to contribute to the development of blockchain technologies in the "economic and public sphere" within the Czech Republic.
This is a country that this year together with Slovakia celebrates the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia.
The Alliance's big goal is to "significantly change" the Czech economy within the next three to five years using blockchain technology – also known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) – since the ; initiative p revises to accelerate the evolution of the blockchain in th e country.
The protagonists of the project say that it will be "an integral part of the implementation of cryptographic solutions" in all public and private sectors across the country, which has a population of around 10.5 million.
The Czech Republic is a country – together with neighboring Slovakia – that can boast many inventions and innovations over the years. The list & nbsp; it is long, but includes the ship's propeller (from a Slovakian) in a landlocked country, the "Priest of the radio", Jozef Murgaš, and another Slovak, whose patents would go to make up the basis for the invention of radio before Marconi.
Then there was Štefan Banič, who emigrated to America & nbsp; and & nbsp; built a parachute prototype in 1912 which was & nbsp; registered with the United States patent office.
On the Czech side, the sugar cube (or the first cube-shaped sweetener) was invented & nbsp; the small Bohemian city of Dačice near the Austrian border, & nbsp; by Jakub Kryštof Rad. & nbsp; And, let's not forget about the & nbsp; world & nbsp; first & nbsp; larger golden pilsner, Pilsner Urquell, & nbsp; has origin & nb sp: since 1842. Reflecting on this ingenuity, there is an old adage & nbsp; & nbsp; & # 39; Zlat & eacute; Cesk & eacute; & nbsp; ručičky & nbsp; & nbsp; & chytr eacute; česk & eacute; & nbsp; hlavičky & # 39 ;, which translated means & nbsp; "Czech gold hands and intelligent Czech heads."
Mitigating corruption, fraud & amp; Theft
Blockchain technology is touted by industry experts as potentially capable of significantly mitigating corruption, fraud and theft in various markets. IBM, for its part, has embarked on a path in recent years in the areas of gold and jewelery, logistics, shipping and digital identities that apply the technology from the HyperLedger project.
The founding members of the alliance include Adel, an accelerator of blockchain projects and innovation companies, consulting firm PwC, the IBM technology company, and Squire Patton Boggs a global law firm with services complete with a multidisciplinary team of over 1,500 lawyers in 20 countries.
Last December, Adel revealed plans to launch a one month crowdfunding exercise from 1 March 2017 through an initial money supply (ICO). The incubator is headed by a pair of fintech consultants based in Prague, with its ecosystem comprised of stakeholders, registered community members, staff from around the world, a project review committee and the Adel Board formed from his three co-founders.
At At the time, the incubator was to launch a website to support its initiative and aimed to develop, support and finance start-ups using blockchain technology based on the platform of & nbsp; Nxt & nbsp; . (Nxt was to provide a Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform).
The popularity of the blockchain came with the rapid expansion of the cryptocurrencies and the open ledger. This represents a decentralized database that tracks every single transaction or interaction between two parties. & Nbsp; In simplistic terms one could think of it as a huge Excel spreadsheet.
Traditional databases have a much wider scope. For this reason, Blockchain Connect has indicated that it will be & nbsp; "focus on the differentiation of cryptographic solutions".
Jan Lamser of Adel who describes the ambitions of the alliance, noted: & nbsp; "First of all, our goal is to educate the public and the private sectors on blockchain and cryptographic solutions.We want to take part in the digitalisation of the whole Czech society and show cases of practical use."
Jiř & iacute; Batěk Director of the Infrastructure division of IBM with headquarters in Prague and Business Unit Leader, Global Technology Services (Central Europe) at "Big Blue", added: "Our ambition is not just to locate our global solutions in the Czech environment, but also to find and support innovative local partners and allow their access to international markets. "
One of the advantages of blockchain is touted as the reduction of administration between companies and customers. As such, this technology offers a high level of security and supply chain transparency.
"In traditional business models, there are many entities that play different roles – they are not easily trusted and therefore require bilateral paper-based agreements – Blockchain can easily guarantee trust in a lean and digital sphere," & nbsp; declared Petr Ložek managing partner of the consulting firm PwC ČR and leader of technological consultancy at the company. [19659003] A possible obstacle to the global introduction of blockchain technology is seen as deriving from "insufficient motivation" of all stakeholders, it was underlined by the Association. And the question was how to deal with this.
As noted by Danica Šebestov & aacute; partner of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs: "For a good introduction to the blockchain [projects] it is necessary to work with all the stakeholders who want to take advantage of & nbsp; these solutions.This is our ambition: to find optimal crypto solutions that save money time and money for our customers. "
Simplified Logistics: Global Trade Aid
Blockchain Connect has identified a number of areas – & nbsp; real estate, financial services, automotive, healthcare and the food industry – as the most important sectors that will be able to "maximize the benefits" of blockchain and DLT.
For example, & nbsp; the alliance has focused on & nbsp; the logistics industry is "heavily burdened" by many parties who need to exchange paper documents. With the blockchain they may be able to simply share the same open book to settle transactions.
According to the study by the World Economic Forum "Enabling trade by evaluating growth opportunities 2013", international trade can potentially save up to 15% by reducing existing barriers
Similar benefits can also be found in food safety checks , in the verification of the quality of raw materials. And, in the real estate sector, negotiations between banks and land registration can take up to 70 days.
Using blockchain these settlements can be solved in a few days or with a "up to 95%" time saving, it was
In the automotive industry, for example, it was emphasized that an open ledger can prevent the tachometer from being tampered with. Likewise, counterfeit parts can easily be identified and tracked in cars, thus protecting the entire automotive supply chain.
Of course, like many partnerships and alliances in the blockchain and cryptocurrency spaces, it is one thing to promise so much. And, the industry has had the habit of promising and being delivered. & Nbsp; The proof of the pudding will surely come when concrete progress will actually be forged and excavated.
And, this is something that the industry must build trust is more than ever current. & nbsp; For now, this is a work in progress, although the goal of Blockchain Connect to "digitize" the Czech company to make accelerated changes to legislation is commendable. Furthermore, working with partners throughout the CEE region could potentially give impetus to ongoing procedures.
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Tags alliance amp blockchain combat connect Czech digitization fraud IBM partners units