6th September 2018, TDA Berhad, Putrajaya
Jumping aboard the blockchain hype train—a buzzword that still baffles many is something that’s piquing wider interests among business and community members. The technology taking off globally offers many benefits and underpins the future trend of digital currency. Chief among the key benefits are increased transparency, minimised roles of intermediaries, reduced costs and faster transactions.
Naturally, almost every business and the vast majority of the community are looking into the new technology. At present however, the question that is on the back of everyone’s mind is how the technology can impact their day-to-day business operations.
To foster alignment on the technology adoption and challenges around it, MIGHT’s Blockchain Program Director, Ms. Mastura Ishak was recently invited by Technology Depository Agency (TDA Berhad) to share ideas and advice.
Attended by TDA Berhad’s employees, the session’s objective was to spread awareness on blockchain and its potential future applications. Meanwhile, TDA Berhad is currently focusing on Industrial Collaboration Program (ICP), of which blockchain is a technology that holds great potential to be a conduit to improve current business tools.
Citing a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers “PwC’s 2018 Global Blockchain Survey”, the technology is currently demonstrating wider acceptance by companies with 84 percent of most companies engaged in conversations regarding blockchain.
The sharing session provided a basis for ongoing dialogue among attending participants to form a better understanding of blockchain. In her view, Mastura explained how blockchain differed from bitcoin/ cryptocurrency.
At first, a vast majority of the participants seemed a little confused about the technology looking at it in the context of cyrptocurrency—and many among the participants divulged that they turned to YouTube for explanation.
Not surprisingly—there was thus a tendency to misunderstand the true potential of the technology as a result of rampant misleading information online. A survey by HSBC in 2017 found that 80% of those who had heard of blockchain did not understand it at all.
At present however, the public is crowded by cryptocurrency thinkers and scams. In Malaysia, there are many parties promoting scams and misleading advertisements under ‘bitcoin’ and ‘blockchain’ themes and they get away with it because of the lack of knowledge in this technical field. Therefore, it is important to develop a clear and well-informed perspective of the technology and its foundational implications.
In a nutshell, it is of great national importance for Malaysia’s diverse stakeholder groups to understand the new technology as part of the digital decentralisation trend taking hold in order to harness its potential and mitigate its risks.
