Reflexiones sobre la importancia del conocimiento para aprovechar los desafios de la tecnología. Algunas preguntas sobre Blockchain y Bitcoin

1. Más allá de Bitcoin: Blockchain
Alejandra Labarca
Feb2018
Cuál es nuestro entendimiento de Bitcoin? Para muchos es la oportunidad de aumentar los ingresos
con una moneda más para diversificar el portfolio. La verdad es que el precio del Bitcoin evolucionó
de manera sorprendente en los últimos meses, razón que llamó la atención de los inversionistas.
Hoy la moneda va a la baja. Pero no solo eso, también es objeto de fuertes cuestionamientos de
parte de la prensa especializada. Principalmente, por noticias que hablan de su capacidad de ser
medio de pago en actividades ilegales, sin pagar impuestos y sin identificar quienes hacen las
transacciones. Ante esto las autoridades nacionales de muchos gobiernos han salido a defender a
sus ciudadanos con diversas regulaciones.
Pero conocemos las variables que afectan el valor del Bitcoin? Conocemos sus limitaciones y
potencialidades? Sabemos de aquellas economías que están abrazando la tecnología y diseñando
políticas para hacer de la moneda digital, una moneda de curso legal?
Hasta el momento, lo que los gobiernos y corporaciones han descubierto, es que más allá del Bitcoin,
existe una tecnología que se llama Blockchain y que permitiría optimizar procesos productivos,
reducir costos de transacción y dar transparencia y trazabilidad a cierta información crítica para dar
un salto en la productividad. Tal es el caso del retail, que puede garantizar fehacientemente que
ciertos productos provienen del origen anunciado; energía, que podría certificar el origen de
fuentes renovables de la energía que se utiliza; Gobiernos, que pueden reducir la burocracia y dar
transparencia a su gestión; Real Estate, que puede comercializar sus propiedades en el mundo
entero garantizando que lo que compra y vende efectivamente cumple los procedimientos
requeridos, en fracción de segundos y sin intermediarios. Esto ya está pasando, y en Chile tenemos
varios emprendimientos.
En todas estas industrias ya hay casos de uso probándose globalmente, por lo que Blockchain se ha
transformado en la esperanza de muchos de ser la tecnología que promete transformar el mundo.
La complejidad de estas nuevas tecnologías y su terminología, deja en evidencia la necesidad de
manejar más información, que la que hasta ahora estábamos acostumbrados, para tomar
decisiones. La urgencia con que se requiere empezar a tomar acción en todos los países para no
quedar rezagados, obliga a generar instancias para entregar información y construir masa crítica en
la sociedad chilena. Es hora de enfrentar la toma de decisiones basados en el conocimiento y testeo,
de modo de pasar a ser protagonistas de las innovaciones que nos regirán en los próximos años.
BIT2018, pondrá los temas sobre la mesa, para desde allí, comenzar a construir nuevas formas de
producir y vivir.

2. Ahorros
Banca: Thanks to all its potentialities, blockchain technology has triggered much interest and has
given
rise to several initiatives to advance it, such as the Linux Foundations Hyperledger project [13],
the innovation hub blockchain and distributed ledger solutions by Hong Kong’s central bank [14],
the applications to move money across borders in real-time money using blockchain technology
by several banks for examples Santander, UniCredit, Goldman Sachs and Barclays [15], and
the initiative by BNP Paribas (Paris, France), the multinational bank, that is working on a blockchain
platform in order to enable retail investors to lend money to businesses via an instrument known
as a mini-bond [16]. A recent report by [7] estimated that blockchain based systems could bring a
potential cost savings of 70% on central finance reporting due to the more streamlined and
optimized
data quality, transparency and internal controls, of 50% on business operations, such as trade
support,
clearance and settlement, due to a more efficient and effective clearance and settlement process,
of
30–50% on compliance thanks to transparency and auditability of financial transactions, and of 50%
on
centralized operations due to more robust digital identities and mutualization of client data among
participants.
“At 0.75 million tonnes of CO2 produced per year, Bitcoin has 99.8% fewer emissions than
the banking system”.
DZ Bank AG is one of Germany’s largest financial service providers. It employs approximately
30,000 people worldwide, of whom 27,800 work in Germany, has more than 1000 cooperative banks
and 12,260 branches and over 30 million customers that attest to its importance (see work by [17]).
Since 2013, environmental data for all German offices (see report by [17]) have been collected.
In 2015, data highlighted an electricity consumption of 25,520,138 kilowatt hours (kWh), and a heating
consumption of 13,152,631 kWh in 2015. In 2015, a reduction in electricity consumption, leading to
the drop in CO2 emission, was registered thanks to the much better management of the electricity
generated by hydroelectric plants.
As regards the total CO2 emissions from electricity and heating, the water consumption,
and the volume of waste, including printer and copier paper consumption, envelopes, greeting
Future Internet 2017, 9, 25 6 of 20
cards, sympathy cards, toilet paper, electrical and toner lighting, and so on, �243,444 kilograms (kg),
91,109 cubic meters (m3), and 534,907 kg were generated, respectively.
Concerning the carbon footprint and costs of the whole US banking system, let us cite an article
by [18] entitled “Under the Microscope: The True Costs of Banking”. This article describes the results
of an analysis about the environmental impact of the world financial access points. The analysis,
developed by the CoolClimate Network at the University of California, Berkeley estimated an impact
expressed in million tonnes of CO2/year equal to 383.1 for bank branches, and equal to 3.2 for ATMs,

3. and an energy use expressed in GJ equal to 2.3 billion for bank branches, and equal to
Lifthrasir identifies four key areas in real estate where blockchain will have
a major impact. These include:
a.) disintermediation
b.) fraud prevention
c.) digital currency
d.) smart contracts
Building trust between counterparties in the Sharing Economy
: P2P lodging sites like Airbnb have already begun to transform the lodging industry by making a
public market in private housing. However, adoption may be limited by concerns about safety and
security (guests) and property damage (hosts). By enabling a secure, tamper-proof system for
managing digital credentials and reputation, we believe blockchain could help accelerate the
adoption of P2P lodging and generate
$3 - $9 billion in incremental revenue opportunity through 2020.
Transforming the US electricity industry by enabling distributed markets
: Today, consumers rely on power generated centrally by utilities. With the advent of rooftop solar
and high-capacity battery technology, individuals can potentially act as distributed power providers.
We think blockchain could be used to facilitate secure transactions of power between individuals
on a distributed network who do not have an existing relationship –
a $2.5 - $7 billion annual opportunity
.
Reducing transaction costs in underwriting title insurance
: Homeowners buying or re-financing property are subject to significant transaction costs, including
title insurance, where the title search process can be labor-intensive. Along with business

4. We profile 50 private and 10 public companies that are paving the way for real-world blockchain
applications (page 78) We quantify blockchain’s value proposition in seven different use cases and
find sizeable market opportunities. We summarize the potential for each use case on pages 6-7.
May 24, 2016 Profiles in Innovation Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research 5
process changes, blockchain could reduce title insurance premiums and
generate $2 - $4 billion in cost savings in the US
by reducing errors and manual effort. In emerging markets, land registration systems could help
reduce transaction and financing costs.
Streamlining clearing and settlement of cash securities
: Despite the relatively low transaction costs for securities such as equities, up to 10% of trades are
subject to various errors, leading to manual intervention and extending the time required to settle
trades. By applying blockchain to the clearing and settlement of cash securities – specifically,
equities, repo, and leveraged loans – we estimate the industry
could save $11 - $12 billion in fees, OpEx, and capital charges globally
by moving to a shorter, and potentially customized, settlement window. While we do not treat
other cases in detail in this report, blockchain could also potentially
eliminate significant additional costs
across FX, commodities, and OTC derivatives.
Improving efficiency in anti-money laundering (AML) and “know your customer” (KYC) compliance
: Storing account and payment information in a blockchain could standardize the data required for
an account, thereby improving data quality and reducing the number of falsely identified
“suspicious” transactions. A tamper-proof record could also ease the process of getting to know a
client and demonstrating compliance with AML regulations –
generating $3 - $5 billion in cost savings