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Blockchain: we are missing essential influence

By now, the possibilities with blockchain technology are arising. And in a near future blockchain will regulate markets and economies all over the world. But according to Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, Roman Beck, we are missing out on essential influence on the development of blockchain, when being too careful experimenting with the potential of blockchain.

Written 20 July, 2018 14:55 by Ninna Gandrup

Blockchain has the power to transform almost every aspect of our lives. But as with all other new things, we are highly critical about using blockchain technology. According to Professor Roman Beck, we are too critical:

It is important that we determine whether and how we want to exercise influence and critical assessment as we are witnessing the emergence of the blockchain economy.
Roman Beck, Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen

- Combining blockchain with AI, robots, 3D printing, IoT and other technologies can change all aspects of our lives and thus we need to be skeptical, but there is also a potential to be at the forefront of development and have essential influence on how this technology takes off. Letting the unwanted scenarios guide us, we will not start experimenting with the technology and consequently other countries and companies will move forward ahead of us, whether we like it or not. It is important that we determine whether and how we want to exercise influence and critical assessment as we are witnessing the emergence of the blockchain economy.

Roman Beck

Roman Beck is Full Professor in within the BusinessIT department at IT University of Copenhagen. He is Head of the Technology, Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship (TIME) research group and Head of the European Blockchain Center. His research focuses on the role of IT service sourcing, services management, and services engineering with a special focus on IS outsourcing, social media, and virtualization. He is interested in institutional logics of organizations, organizational mindfulness, and awareness. Before joining ITU, Roman has been Assistant Professor and the E-Finance and Service Science Chair at Goethe University in Frankfurt between 2008 and 2013. Roman serves also as Senior Editor for the JITTA and the DATA BASE journal and as Associate Editor for MISQ and BISE and has published over 30 journal and 80 peer-reviewed conference articles in outlets such as MISQ, JIT, CAIS, I&M, IT&P, ICIS, among others.

Read more about Roman Beck here.

Blockchain may govern our society
Though we are yet to see the killer application that will rocket blockchain technology, there are already blockchain alternatives for many things – currency, internet of things, social media etc. However, it is when used in autonomous systems, blockchain has the potential to unfold groundbreaking.

- Combining blockchain and robotics you can have autonomous cars regulating traffic based on artificial intelligence in a system that coordinates everything seamlessly underneath. This will eliminate the need for traffic signs and traffic lights, as there will be minimal crashes and traffic jams, and an optimal use of both road network and working hours. Of course, the price for this efficiency is decreased freedom, as you would probably not be able to get faster from A to B without paying to occupy the left lane, says Roman Beck and adds that there are many application areas were blockchain as welfare and humanitarian technology can address societal and market allocation problems that go beyond just business models. Blockchain has a huge potential in managing and regulating etc. for managing refugees, for reduction of child trafficking, and for regulating overfishing in the south pacific.

it is necessary to have societal debates when introducing these systems, and it is in these debates, we can exercise essential influence and critical assessment on fundamental developments.
Roman Beck, Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen

- To govern, the technology needs guidelines on how to govern. Who will set these guiding principles, and what are their interests? The question is if we want these systems or if we still want to be able to interfere, thereby bringing back an element of risk, but also the feeling of staying in control. Blockchain development will introduce regulations that will affect markets, economies and society with consequences that are hard to predict, says Roman Beck and continues:

- Therefore, it is necessary to have societal debates when introducing these systems, and it is in these debates, we can exercise essential influence and critical assessment on fundamental developments. Without doubt, there will be all kinds of negative aspects that we have not been able to foresee, but the societal risks of not exploring the potentials of blockchain because of those potential risks are far greater, says Roman Beck.

Blockchain reshuffles the cards of how we coordinate and control value production in economics systems in a similar way and it will be interesting to see how blockchain technologies develop and regulated within the next few years.
Roman Beck, Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen

Blockchain is much more than technology
Currently interests of stability, liquidity, exchange etc. get to determine how we talk about solutions based on blockchain technology. When the National Bank publicly does not acknowledge cryptocurrency as a currency, it serves special interests of maintaining its legitimacy. Because blockchain solutions can have pervasive effects, they also have a big degree of alertness attached.

- Blockchain might be to centralized organizations what the French revolution was to the aristocracy. Before that, nobody thought that the masses could run a country, but after some fallbacks it has proven to be successful and the birth of modern democracies. Blockchain reshuffles the cards of how we coordinate and control value production in economics systems in a similar way and it will be interesting to see how blockchain technologies develop and regulated within the next few years.

Course: Blockchain

Roman Beck teaches this course on blockchain. The course focuses on educating participants in blockchain technology to develop conceptual as well as practical solutions and learn how to generate new theoretical insights based upon. The participants will learn how blockchain technology works and how it disrupts existing business models. They will gain insights into paradigmatic changes occurring from economic, organizational, and computer science viewpoints. As learning outcomes, the participants will receive computer science, information systems, and business knowledge in order to analyze existing business processes and their potential to convert them into blockchain-based solutions. In so doing, they will be able to co-create new blockchain-based economic systems.