the Can revolutionize the Blockchain technology, the world trade? This issue, the Geneva-based world trade organization (World Trade Organization, WTO), is investigated in a recently published book. The Emmanuelle Ganne created book was on the occasion of a on the 27. November held Blockchain-Workshop published.
By Christopher clover
28. November 2018 share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn xing mail
the world trade organisation has been the subject of Blockchain on the screen, showed, at the latest, in October, in its World Trade Report 2018. Accordingly, the WTO is one of the Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger technologies to the „big four“ technologies that can change world trade significantly. What these changes might consist of, and WHO has, on 27. November a Blockchain-Workshop in Geneva held. On the occasion of the workshop, the WHO published a report with the title „Can the Blockchain revolutionize international trade?“.
The Report analyzed possible fields of application of technology in international trade. The focus is on the topics of paper-free trade, copyright issues, new services in the area of Finance and e-Commerce, as well as procurement management of governments. Author of the analysis is Emmanuelle Ganne, the Vice-President of the Allam Advisory Group. Of the nearly 150-page Report contains little that is New – a lot of statements of the variety „Would, could, should“. Ganne emphasizes the much-touted potential of the Blockchain technology, but also on the technical and regulatory hurdles that would have to take it.
main problems: interoperability and regulation
On the technical side, it was the lack of interoperability (and scalability) of block chains, the biggest obstacle to a full development of the potential of the technology:
„in Particular, technical solutions need to be developed, the Problem of the ‚digital island‘ to address and ensure that Blockchains can communicate with each other.“
in Addition, it lacks a global regulatory framework:
„The broad-based use of Blockchain requires a suitable legal framework that recognises the validity of Blockchain transactions, applicable law and liabilities, clarifies and regulates how data is accessed, and these can be used“,
notes Ganne. It will come to that ever, was, however, not certain. This is true especially for Permissionless block chains, in which there is a de facto (and de jure) is not a point of contact for regulatory authorities. An example: To whom should the German government to force the Bitcoin Protocol in a regulatory concept? . It is different, of course, with private or „Enterprise block chains“ which are, for example, the Hyper Ledger of IBM in the center. to take
these hurdles, required a close cooperation of all parties Involved:
„Given the potential of the Blockchain, companies, civil society organisations, Software developers, academics, governments and intergovernmental organizations should work in Hand to assess the practical and legal implications of the technology and to develop common solutions for the existing challenges.“
If this ambitious target is achieved, could the world trade to pull in ten to 15 years, a „radical“ change.
