The different usages of the blockchain — as the grid on which Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are running, as a platform to sell art, and as an administrative and transparent decision-making and voting technology —show that it is a political-economic response to the question: what needs to change? The undermining of existing financial formations can be found in anonymity, p-2-p networks and bottom-up initiatives that are made possible by this consensus-based protocol.

How can we generate trust in these types of technologies on a larger-scale — expanding outside the domain of the small, tech-savvy communities — without falling back on a centralized mediator like banks? What underlying structures, political and economic, does it tackle? What does the future hold for crypto-currencies and blockchain technology? Will they be co-opted by the big banks or will they form parallel exchange systems of trust and security?

Speakers: Primavera De Filippi, David Golumbia, Bruce Pon
Moderator: Eduard de Jong

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