This week we look at the exciting journey from Bitcoin to enterprise Blockchain with Burak Yetiskin, a director at Deloitte in Switzerland.

Burak, a former cryptologist turned strategy consultant, has been working in consultancy for nine years now. His last three years have been spent working exclusively on DLT and blockchain technology within the financial services and insurance sectors at Deloitte.

Blockchain in two minutes

Simply put, blockchain is the underlying technology of Bitcoin, where Bitcoin was the first application of distributed ledger technology (DLT) used for transactions, in the form of the first decentralized cryptocurrency.

Following from the first deployment of blockchain technology and the success of the first Bitcoin transactions, the technology is being scaled into something much greater than previously imagined. What was originally created to underlie an online currency is becoming a complete distributed solution, revolutionising global business and trade. This revolution is paired with a change in perception, as blockchain developed from ‘the technology behind bitcoin’ into a distributed ledger solution allowing the immutable agreement of facts, statements or contracts in the business world.

What is Blockchain? CNBC explains the break-though technology from CNBC.

How did the banks and governments react to Bitcoin initially?

Due to Bitcoin’s lack of central authority, it was and partially still is perceived to represent a shadow finance world, where the participants are unbound by regulations such AML, CTF and KYC, meaning governments had reason to be fearful. China’s move to ban access to cryptocurrency exchanges in addition to ICOs until clear regulatory requirements are introduced exemplifies this scepticism, with hopes that the volatility of the market can be regulated and protection measurements can be put in place.

The small-scale adoption of cryptocurrency worldwide does not threaten established institutions and governments; however, they’re increasingly realising the potential of bitcoin and also the underlying technology. A recent speech from Chinese President Xi Jingping outlined the value of blockchain to modern technological advancement, with Chinese Central Television stating that “the value of blockchain is 10 times that of the internet” in a recent show. This represents a significant U-turn in their standpoint on the technology. They are not alone in embracing blockchain, with numerous Proof of Concepts and pilots built using blockchain or DLT inspired technologies (see Ep.8 – Building a Blockchain PoC/Pilot), with cases of usable money transfer and trade finance platforms emerging recently from huge institutions such as Santander and HSBC.

 

The Bitcoin ‘hype’ of Q3 2017 – what triggered it?

The hype was fuelled by extreme market volatility,