[Applause]
in the year 1315 a band of Swiss
peasants fought and won a very famous
battle against a professional army that
had been sent by the Habsburg King
Frederick if your Swiss you know what
I’m talking about this is the Battle of
more garden which took place in the
hills above the city of zu as we just
heard about two hours drive from here it
was a great victory think of it like the
Jedi versus the Death Star except that
the Swiss had long wooden stakes instead
of lightsabers but it was also part of
something bigger a struggle between two
political models on the one hand you had
Frederick top-down centralized
command and control Kings Empire’s
presidents for life on the other hand
you had the Swiss bottom-up
decentralized consensus driven
Republic’s and democracy well guess what
fast-forward 700 years and the area
around the city of zhuge is at the
center of a similar struggle taking
place today between centralized and
decentralized technologies and it’s all
been inspired by the invention of
blockchain now if you’re not familiar
with it
blockchain is the technology behind
Bitcoin the world’s first fully
decentralized viable digital cash
because blockchain uses cryptography
bitcoin is known as a cryptocurrency and
the Bitcoin industry I should say the
blockchain industry is known as crypto
when somebody asks me today what I do
for a living I say I’m in crypto now
blockchain as a technology is complex
but the idea behind it is fairly simple
at heart blockchain is just a database
but it’s a new kind traditional
databases are centralized somebody
gathers information and
in one place whoever owns the database
controls access to that information
blockchain is decentralized we all
upload our data into the blockchain and
everybody on the network shares the
exact same copy of the full database
it’s the technology that ensures that we
all agree on what is the correct
information that we all have the exact
same copy of that information and
importantly that none of us can cheat
thanks to encryption it’s possible to
upload information into a blockchain in
such a way that everybody knows it’s
there but nobody knows what’s in it
except the person who has the key to
that that person controls the access to
their own data this is a completely new
paradigm completely decentralized
absolutely trustworthy information
without a central authority and where
the user is in control of their own data
and I think it’s important because if
you have decentralized information you
can start to build a decentralized
civilization and that can get
interesting let me give you a couple of
quick examples as most of us know right
now we have a real problem with personal
data on the Internet
I like to call it a digital identity
crisis most of the really important
information about you about who you are
and what you’re allowed to do is
collected and stored in centralized
databases that are not under your
control your government has some of it
your bank has some of it Facebook has
most of it Amazon has it hackers and
spies have it the only person who
doesn’t have a complete overview and
control of your personal data is you
with blockchain we can turn this
paradigm around for example with
blockchain we can build decentralized
bottom-up digital identity platforms
where we maintain the key if somebody
wants our personal data they have to ask
us okay
another example in many parts of the
world today we’re seeing a kind of a
crisis of democracy a lot of people are
alienated from their governments and one
of the reasons I think is that we don’t
feel that our vote counts with
blockchain it’s possible to build
bottom-up decentralized voting systems
that are absolutely trustworthy imagine
if you could easily vote with your phone
on all of the most important issues
affecting your life and be 100% sure
that your vote was counted and that the
count was fair this is a new world now I
can give you many other examples of how
people want to use blockchain to
decentralize important economic social
and political structures and I can also
tell you that there are a lot of people
around the world already working on this
what I find fascinating is how much of
this work is taking place here in
Switzerland today the area around the
city of Zhu as well as Switzerland as a
whole is one of the most important
locations for blockchain technology so
important that it’s come to be known as
crypto valley let me give you an idea I
volunteer for something called the
crypto Valley Association we started the
association about a year ago and had 16
founding members today we have over 700
more money gets raised in zhuge for
blockchain projects than in almost any
other individual location in the world
some of the most important blockchain
foundations companies and projects are
based there and it seems like every day
people call us up and ask how can we
move in now they do this for many
reasons
Switzerland is definitely a good place
to start a blockchain business the
government is supportive taxes are low
the infrastructure is great there’s a
lot of know-how here
but there’s another reason as well many
people in the blockchain world feel an
affinity with the Swiss bottom-up
decentralized political model because it
tends to mirror the kinds of things that
they’re building themselves and I know
this among other things because they
tell me and if you look at it the
parallels are there I talked about this
crisis of personal data in Switzerland
we have some of the most stringent data
protection laws in the world and we have
a long tradition of deep respect for
personal privacy I talked about the
crisis of democracy in Switzerland we
have a functioning direct democracy if
you’re swiss you know we vote every
three months on almost every issue
whether it’s a huge national question
like should we have a universal basic
income or a local issue where do we
build the next school now don’t get me
wrong okay I’m not trying to tell you
that Switzerland is perfect and I’m
certainly not trying to tell you that
all Swiss are upstanding honest citizens
I’ve been here long enough to know
that’s not true and I’m also not trying
to tell you that we can cure all of
society’s ills with blockchain
we can’t it’s simply a tool but as a
half Swiss as someone who’s lived here
for 25 years and as someone who’s now
deeply involved in blockchain I’d like
to leave you with this whatever its
faults may be Switzerland is the most
decentralized healthy country in the
world and one of its most successful
people in the blockchain world can and
they do look at it as a model for how to
build a healthier more decentralized
society elsewhere so while Switzerland
may be a great place to do blockchain
business I also like to think of it as
blockchains spiritual home and
considering some of the things that are
going on in our world today I for one
find that a comforting thought thank you [Applause]
in the year 1315 a band of Swiss
peasants fought and won a very famous
battle against a professional army that
had been sent by the Habsburg King
Frederick if your Swiss you know what
I’m talking about this is the Battle of
more garden which took place in the
hills above the city of zu as we just
heard about two hours drive from here it
was a great victory think of it like the
Jedi versus the Death Star except that
the Swiss had long wooden stakes instead
of lightsabers but it was also part of
something bigger a struggle between two
political models on the one hand you had
Frederick top-down centralized
command and control Kings Empire’s
presidents for life on the other hand
you had the Swiss bottom-up
decentralized consensus driven
Republic’s and democracy well guess what
fast-forward 700 years and the area
around the city of zhuge is at the
center of a similar struggle taking
place today between centralized and
decentralized technologies and it’s all
been inspired by the invention of
blockchain now if you’re not familiar
with it
blockchain is the technology behind
Bitcoin the world’s first fully
decentralized viable digital cash
because blockchain uses cryptography
bitcoin is known as a cryptocurrency and
the Bitcoin industry I should say the
blockchain industry is known as crypto
when somebody asks me today what I do
for a living I say I’m in crypto now
blockchain as a technology is complex
but the idea behind it is fairly simple
at heart blockchain is just a database
but it’s a new kind traditional
databases are centralized somebody
gathers information and
in one place whoever owns the database
controls access to that information
blockchain is decentralized we all
upload our data into the blockchain and
everybody on the network shares the
exact same copy of the full database
it’s the technology that ensures that we
all agree on what is the correct
information that we all have the exact
same copy of that information and
importantly that none of us can cheat
thanks to encryption it’s possible to
upload information into a blockchain in
such a way that everybody knows it’s
there but nobody knows what’s in it
except the person who has the key to
that that person controls the access to
their own data this is a completely new
paradigm completely decentralized
absolutely trustworthy information
without a central authority and where
the user is in control of their own data
and I think it’s important because if
you have decentralized information you
can start to build a decentralized
civilization and that can get
interesting let me give you a couple of
quick examples as most of us know right
now we have a real problem with personal
data on the Internet
I like to call it a digital identity
crisis most of the really important
information about you about who you are
and what you’re allowed to do is
collected and stored in centralized
databases that are not under your
control your government has some of it
your bank has some of it Facebook has
most of it Amazon has it hackers and
spies have it the only person who
doesn’t have a complete overview and
control of your personal data is you
with blockchain we can turn this
paradigm around for example with
blockchain we can build decentralized
bottom-up digital identity platforms
where we maintain the key if somebody
wants our personal data they have to ask
us okay
another example in many parts of the
world today we’re seeing a kind of a
crisis of democracy a lot of people are
alienated from their governments and one
of the reasons I think is that we don’t
feel that our vote counts with
blockchain it’s possible to build
bottom-up decentralized voting systems
that are absolutely trustworthy imagine
if you could easily vote with your phone
on all of the most important issues
affecting your life and be 100% sure
that your vote was counted and that the
count was fair this is a new world now I
can give you many other examples of how
people want to use blockchain to
decentralize important economic social
and political structures and I can also
tell you that there are a lot of people
around the world already working on this
what I find fascinating is how much of
this work is taking place here in
Switzerland today the area around the
city of Zhu as well as Switzerland as a
whole is one of the most important
locations for blockchain technology so
important that it’s come to be known as
crypto valley let me give you an idea I
volunteer for something called the
crypto Valley Association we started the
association about a year ago and had 16
founding members today we have over 700
more money gets raised in zhuge for
blockchain projects than in almost any
other individual location in the world
some of the most important blockchain
foundations companies and projects are
based there and it seems like every day
people call us up and ask how can we
move in now they do this for many
reasons
Switzerland is definitely a good place
to start a blockchain business the
government is supportive taxes are low
the infrastructure is great there’s a
lot of know-how here
but there’s another reason as well many
people in the blockchain world feel an
affinity with the Swiss bottom-up
decentralized political model because it
tends to mirror the kinds of things that
they’re building themselves and I know
this among other things because they
tell me and if you look at it the
parallels are there I talked about this
crisis of personal data in Switzerland
we have some of the most stringent data
protection laws in the world and we have
a long tradition of deep respect for
personal privacy I talked about the
crisis of democracy in Switzerland we
have a functioning direct democracy if
you’re swiss you know we vote every
three months on almost every issue
whether it’s a huge national question
like should we have a universal basic
income or a local issue where do we
build the next school now don’t get me
wrong okay I’m not trying to tell you
that Switzerland is perfect and I’m
certainly not trying to tell you that
all Swiss are upstanding honest citizens
I’ve been here long enough to know
that’s not true and I’m also not trying
to tell you that we can cure all of
society’s ills with blockchain
we can’t it’s simply a tool but as a
half Swiss as someone who’s lived here
for 25 years and as someone who’s now
deeply involved in blockchain I’d like
to leave you with this whatever its
faults may be Switzerland is the most
decentralized healthy country in the
world and one of its most successful
people in the blockchain world can and
they do look at it as a model for how to
build a healthier more decentralized
society elsewhere so while Switzerland
may be a great place to do blockchain
business I also like to think of it as
blockchains spiritual home and
considering some of the things that are
going on in our world today I for one
find that a comforting thought thank you [Applause]
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