Blockchain needs a reason to exist, says Boris Johnson • The Register
Former British Prime Minister BoJo has used one of his first speaking engagements since losing his job to appear at a blockchain conference in Singapore, where his expert opinion on the subject boiled down to a belief that the public must be convinced there is a reason for it exist.
The former prime minister and current member of parliament appeared in his trademark curled style at the International Symposium on Blockchain Advancements (ISBA) in Singapore on Friday, speaking on a range of topics including vaccines, the war on Ukraine, how Michelin star critics are alike . to North Korean dictators, and hot air balloon technology.
He finally proved that either he or his speechwriter had at least been briefed on what blockchain was by calling the technology’s pioneers “people who are at the forefront of a new and still infant technology whose possibilities the whole world is now struggling to assess.”
“Given the enormous controversy that already surrounds some use cases, and given all the delicacies and sensitivities, I’ll do my best to tiptoe through the minefield this afternoon, at the pace I’m known for,” Johnson said, referring to the current state to the cryptocurrency industry.
Johnson eventually touched on his theory that new technologies go through four stages of innovation. These stages include fear, skepticism about use cases, speculative mania followed by bursting a giant bubble, with the final stage, progress, rising from the rubble.
It became clear where Johnson felt blockchain currently sits in the cycle when he later told a moderator who repeatedly tried to bring him back on topic “You have to be able to convince people if the use cases are real.”
He admitted that blockchain seems to have “a lot of possibilities” and he could see that it “could somehow help companies.”
Johnson also waxed lyrical about the need for an open and free society first to foster such innovation.
“Innovation happens when people can say exactly what they think and meet whoever they choose and love whoever they choose and live their lives the way they want, provided of course they don’t harm others,” proclaimed the former tenant of Number 10 Downing Gate.
In the moderated Q&A session, BoJo offered his opinion on the turmoil surrounding blockchain’s use case in cryptocurrency, admitting that he had seen some “shocking headlines recently about this whole venture.”
“I think we’re going to need a way to hold people accountable,” the floppy-haired politician said, adding that if cryptocurrency is going to succeed, it needs trust and therefore needs to be “regulated.”
BoJo pointed out that when things go wrong, it’s ultimately the taxpayer who picks up the tab.
The MP also addressed social media, particularly Twitter, which he said was helping to drive polarisation, particularly in America.
“What I find about Twitter is … there’s something about it that polarizes opinion, everyone pulls into one camp or another. There’s something about the genre, the brevity required, that makes people tougher on claims, smarter, and it can become an aggressive environment,” the Brexiteer said.
Politicians confuse Twitter with advertising and end up in Twitter piles, said Boris, who said the social media site does not accurately reflect what is going on in the rest of the world.
“We will grow and adapt and learn to have thicker skins about it. These are all wonderful and new technologies and we need ways to do that without feeling beaten up,” he said.
The register wanted to illustrate this spectacular story with a picture of BoJo on stage, but was told that security forces would make a forcible intervention to prevent any attempt to do so. ®
