Sep 29, 2017, 3:13 PM ETConference Presentation, Panel, Fireside Chat

The Blockchain: It's Not All About the Money

The Milken Institute hosted a panel on blockchain technology (distinguishing it from cryptocurrencies) and launched a non-monetary "Milk Coin" initiative for audience engagement.
The panel featured representatives from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Bitfury, Everledger, Accenture, and MetLife.
The moderator emphasized that the focus was on the underlying blockchain technology's ability to replace fragmented databases with shared, immutable ledgers.

Jamie Diamond (JPMorgan) previously stated he would fire employees for investing in Bitcoin solely on the basis of "stupidity," though the panel noted 900+ cryptocurrencies exist and ICOs are rising.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) adopted a new motto: "policymaking through experimentation" rather than waiting for long white paper consultations that may become obsolete.
MAS is training 150+ staff and industry participants and plans to publish proprietary code on GitHub to enable a true distributed payment system.
Regulators acknowledge that data nationalism remains a challenge; the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) is working to separate raw data (kept local) from insights (processed globally).
New legislation in several jurisdictions now requires companies with turnover over $100M or £30M to declare supply chain transparency, elevating the issue to the boardroom level.

MAS (Singapore): Completed a domestic payment pilot using blockchain with 10 banks to issue SGD-denominated digital currency; results available in a report with nearly 100,000 downloads.
MAS Interoperability: Currently replicating the payment model across Coda, R3, Ethereum, and Hyperledger to ensure cross-platform interoperability and solve netting anonymity.
MAS Timeline: Aims to publish results on anonymous netting by November and plans cross-border transfers and security settlement pilots next.
Bitfury (Georgia): Migrated the entire national land titling system to a blockchain (Exonym platform), moving from paper to unique SHA-256 hash codes for permanent, auditable records.
Everledger: Created "digital twins" for 1.68 million diamonds using IoT and blockchain to track provenance from mine to market, addressing the risk of synthetic stones and fraud.
Everledger Expansion: Plans to apply provenance tracking to fine wine, luxury goods, and art, citing a potential 30% value increase for certified authentic diamonds.
Accenture/ID2020 Alliance: Designed a digital identity system for 1.2 billion unbanked refugees based on four pillars: Personal, Portable, Private, and Persistent (Self-Sovereign).
MetLife: Piloting a "gestational diabetes insurance" product where a smart contract automatically pays out upon a medical trigger from a clinic, aiming to simplify insurance like a vending machine.

Core Mechanism: Blockchain replaces "messaging between databases" with a shared database where all participants agree on the state of the world under a set of rules.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs: MAS and others are exploring cryptographic methods to verify transaction validity without revealing the underlying data (e.g., proving solvency without showing specific transactions).
Anchoring Strategy: Private blockchains (for government/enterprise) are being anchored to public blockchains via timestamps and hashes to prevent tampering and provide an external verification layer.
Data Architecture: Accenture advocates leaving raw data at the source (e.g., library, tax authority) and storing only a persistent, decentralized identifier on the blockchain.
Re-architecture Requirement: Panelists warned that simply replicating legacy processes on blockchain is ineffective; systems must be re-architected (e.g., avoiding data overload on nodes).

Garbage In, Garbage Out: A consensus exists that blockchain cannot fix poor data quality; "crap data" entered remains "crap data" regardless of the ledger.
Human Factor: The ultimate security weakness remains key management and social engineering; if a user is coerced into surrendering private keys, the immutability offers no protection.
Quantum Computing: Panelists acknowledged that future quantum computers could theoretically break current blockchain cryptography, necessitating a shift to quantum-resistant encryption.
Corruption Risks: A "corrupt administrator" with high-level access to a private blockchain can still manipulate records, though linking to a public chain mitigates this.
Cost of Collateral: A significant debate arose that decentralized smart contracts may increase the cost of collateral because risk cannot be "socialized" and must be managed at the transaction level.
Privacy vs. Inclusion: Increased transparency solves inclusion for the unbanked but creates a risk of long-term exclusion if entities are scored/filtered based on granular public data.

Market Value: The diamond industry already assigns a premium to certified goods; blockchain aims to create futures markets and ETFs for alternative assets like art, wine, and diamonds.
Economic Efficiency: Digitized land titles in Georgia are projected to free up capital by reducing escrow times from months to seconds and eliminating title insurance costs.
IoT Convergence: The Internet of Things (IoT) is identified as a major winner, enabling automated, error-free machine-to-machine transactions and "digital twins" for physical assets (e.g., smart homes).
10-Year Vision: Experts predict a future where digital identity, asset ownership, and health records are fully represented on-chain, allowing for granular, user-controlled data sharing.
Industry Shift: The reconciliation business model of traditional banking and finance is expected to become obsolete as shared ledgers automate clearing and settlement.
Adoption Timeline: Significant consumer-facing applications are expected to appear within five years, with the technology becoming "transparent" to users (like the internet protocol) within a decade.