I’m sure that most of us recognize this
sound the dial-up server it took almost
20 years for that sound to become
mainstream and another five years before
we started buying books from this Amazon
website I hope you will both all agree
that both Amazon and I aged well since
1995 the Bitcoin blockchain will be ten
years old at the end of this year and
the etherium blockchain only three years
old yet I guess for most of us we’ve
only heard about this technology maybe
one or two years ago this is still very
young yet from Zook to Beijing and
Sydney to San Francisco blockchain
technology and the cryptocurrencies
running on them are all the rage more
than that it’s the IC OS or the initial
coin offerings the token generating
events the disruptive nature of this
technology the possible bubble all the
news that comes with it that is slowly
making its way into our conversations
our conferences and our boardrooms one
day it’s people telling us that crypto
currencies are a fraud or even worthless
and the next it is cities like Zeus in
Switzerland allowing their citizens to
pay government services using Bitcoin it
is the old world against the utopian
thinkers and everything in between this
narrative has all the elements that make
a powerful story and so we are reminded
of the advent of the Internet the
disruptive nature of that technology
it’s bubble and the inevitability of the
emergence of companies that forever
changed the way we live and work where
we first had the internet of information
we are now moving to the internet of
value but I’d like to have a raise of
hands who here knows what blockchain is
that’s a lot
who owns cryptocurrency also more than I
expected blockchain is the technology
that enables us to send money over the
internet directly to each other without
the use of a trusted third party like a
bank or a payment processor it is
essentially a very large database that
lives on hundreds maybe hundreds of
thousands of computers all over it’s
distributed and decentralized network
all over the world this database is open
for everyone and it’s on its network to
see everyone can see who owns what and
which transactions are being made albeit
in a cryptographic manner and because of
this cryptography used you cannot go
back and change this record so it is
immutable you cannot change it this
technology is radically changing how we
use money and how we send and store
money and digital assets because of its
many applications we can already
identify five areas where this will be
significantly useful in Curacao and in
other Caribbean islands we can improve
cross-border banking we can make
government spending more transparent we
can revolutionize the financial service
industry we can power Financial
Inclusion and we can create new digital
ecosystems it is reimagining the system
recreating the economy iterating and
experimenting and testing minimal viable
projects but it is also considering the
moonshot ideas not improving what we
already have
but leaping forward to a new way of
doing things the author of the business
blockchain William muga our recently
quoted a quote I think at a conference
and he said the Stone Age did not end
because of lack of stones it ended
because new technology came along and I
believe that we are in this transitional
phase again should we be worried about
Internet security and hacking yes should
we be concerned about how our data is
being used or misused absolutely will
our workforce need to adjust definitely
will we need an overhaul of our
education system to meet the needs of a
cryptographic and digital age
undoubtedly it’s change required right
now I believe so but cura cell is
working on this we have Bitcoin meetings
almost every month there is a
public-private partnership that is
working to create a regulatory
environment that is blockchain friendly
we have houses being bought and sold for
Bitcoin here and we have classes being
taught in the universities and in many
companies we are a blockchain friendly
country but we need to promote the ideas
that we can develop and innovate within
there are many nations competing to be
the blockchain jurisdiction at the
moment and in order for us to proceed we
need to foster these ideas what is
important for us to remember is that it
is not only the regulator’s or the
government that need to push this
forward it is we as business owners
entrepreneurs coders gamers students and
educators even Imagineers that need to
propel these ideas forward develop and
innovate we need to develop a curacao
and a Caribbean that is ready for an age
of virtual reality artificial
intelligence smart contracts flying
drones driverless cars and block chains
and cryptocurrencies
there is still a level playing field out
there but we need to have our skin in
the game so I challenge you I challenge
you not to let this change overcome us I
challenge you to take these
technological advances by the proverbial
horn and rise with them make them better
and more impactful than we could have
ever imagined I challenge you to be the
one who smashes that box and enables the
changes required both today and tomorrow
we can do this thank you [Applause]
sound the dial-up server it took almost
20 years for that sound to become
mainstream and another five years before
we started buying books from this Amazon
website I hope you will both all agree
that both Amazon and I aged well since
1995 the Bitcoin blockchain will be ten
years old at the end of this year and
the etherium blockchain only three years
old yet I guess for most of us we’ve
only heard about this technology maybe
one or two years ago this is still very
young yet from Zook to Beijing and
Sydney to San Francisco blockchain
technology and the cryptocurrencies
running on them are all the rage more
than that it’s the IC OS or the initial
coin offerings the token generating
events the disruptive nature of this
technology the possible bubble all the
news that comes with it that is slowly
making its way into our conversations
our conferences and our boardrooms one
day it’s people telling us that crypto
currencies are a fraud or even worthless
and the next it is cities like Zeus in
Switzerland allowing their citizens to
pay government services using Bitcoin it
is the old world against the utopian
thinkers and everything in between this
narrative has all the elements that make
a powerful story and so we are reminded
of the advent of the Internet the
disruptive nature of that technology
it’s bubble and the inevitability of the
emergence of companies that forever
changed the way we live and work where
we first had the internet of information
we are now moving to the internet of
value but I’d like to have a raise of
hands who here knows what blockchain is
that’s a lot
who owns cryptocurrency also more than I
expected blockchain is the technology
that enables us to send money over the
internet directly to each other without
the use of a trusted third party like a
bank or a payment processor it is
essentially a very large database that
lives on hundreds maybe hundreds of
thousands of computers all over it’s
distributed and decentralized network
all over the world this database is open
for everyone and it’s on its network to
see everyone can see who owns what and
which transactions are being made albeit
in a cryptographic manner and because of
this cryptography used you cannot go
back and change this record so it is
immutable you cannot change it this
technology is radically changing how we
use money and how we send and store
money and digital assets because of its
many applications we can already
identify five areas where this will be
significantly useful in Curacao and in
other Caribbean islands we can improve
cross-border banking we can make
government spending more transparent we
can revolutionize the financial service
industry we can power Financial
Inclusion and we can create new digital
ecosystems it is reimagining the system
recreating the economy iterating and
experimenting and testing minimal viable
projects but it is also considering the
moonshot ideas not improving what we
already have
but leaping forward to a new way of
doing things the author of the business
blockchain William muga our recently
quoted a quote I think at a conference
and he said the Stone Age did not end
because of lack of stones it ended
because new technology came along and I
believe that we are in this transitional
phase again should we be worried about
Internet security and hacking yes should
we be concerned about how our data is
being used or misused absolutely will
our workforce need to adjust definitely
will we need an overhaul of our
education system to meet the needs of a
cryptographic and digital age
undoubtedly it’s change required right
now I believe so but cura cell is
working on this we have Bitcoin meetings
almost every month there is a
public-private partnership that is
working to create a regulatory
environment that is blockchain friendly
we have houses being bought and sold for
Bitcoin here and we have classes being
taught in the universities and in many
companies we are a blockchain friendly
country but we need to promote the ideas
that we can develop and innovate within
there are many nations competing to be
the blockchain jurisdiction at the
moment and in order for us to proceed we
need to foster these ideas what is
important for us to remember is that it
is not only the regulator’s or the
government that need to push this
forward it is we as business owners
entrepreneurs coders gamers students and
educators even Imagineers that need to
propel these ideas forward develop and
innovate we need to develop a curacao
and a Caribbean that is ready for an age
of virtual reality artificial
intelligence smart contracts flying
drones driverless cars and block chains
and cryptocurrencies
there is still a level playing field out
there but we need to have our skin in
the game so I challenge you I challenge
you not to let this change overcome us I
challenge you to take these
technological advances by the proverbial
horn and rise with them make them better
and more impactful than we could have
ever imagined I challenge you to be the
one who smashes that box and enables the
changes required both today and tomorrow
we can do this thank you [Applause]
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