Eggsplore (http://www.eggsplore.eu) invited me to talk about blockchain and financial institutions. Instead of a reversed pitch and the inevitable death by powerpoint, I decided to slightly alter my approach. Once upon a time... (in 2016 to be precise) Satoshi Nakamoto enters a Big Bank's innovation competition with this totally out of whack idea called "blockchain". She has to explain the idea to her colleagues and pitch it to her directors. I managed to get a hold of her slides and embedded these in this fairytale about distributed ledger technology and financial institutions. It's a fairytale so please keep in mind: some things/examples might be true, other fictional.

1. Why are financial institutions
investing in blockchain?
Koen Vingerhoets
@IthronKoen
All views are my own.

2. The fairytale of Satoshi Nakamoto, the Unicorn and the Big Bank.
“What if… Satoshi is a bank employee in 2016?”

3. Introducing S. NAKAMOTO : bank employee
And a rather anonymous Big Bank

4. Satoshi is full of ideas & knowledge… but who listens?
“Join our 2016 Idea Competition and fly to Silicon Valley!”

5. Satoshi joins the competition with her idea…
“Blockchain: a shared, resilient & protected ledger for anything”

6. Satoshi has to explain it often to her Big Bank colleagues
Both Business & IT are interested but… also involved.

7. Three key drivers of “blockchain”
- Cryptography science has made the
recording of tamper-proof data in a
chain of digital blocks possible;
- Game theory explains how trust in
others can be replaced mathematically
via multiple actors that force self-
interested rational behavior;
- Software engineering connects it all
over the internet to achieve scale.

8. The blockchain is, from a technical point of view,
 A unique, public and transparent distributed ledger
 That stores all transactions immutably and
 Permits predefined actions on data in those transactions
 In a cryptographically secured environment.

9. The blockchain is, from a business point of view,
 A shared platform
 On which parties who don’t know or trust each other
 Are able to collaborate with respect for privacy
 Without relying on a possibly corrupt administrator.

10. Satoshi gathers a team of believers
The “Blockchain” idea ends in the top 3!

11. Our brave Satoshi has to present “blockchain” …
… to the Big Bank’s Board of Directors!

13. Even in fairytales, people have to work…
Satoshi elaborates her idea in the early hours of the night.

14. The great day arrives… and this is what she said.
“Dear management, colleagues, I am Satoshi Nakamoto.”

15. Why? The customer experience!
- People buy a house, not a mortgage or
an insurance product (despite our
efforts to sell products)
- Then they have to visit a big bank to get
the money they need for the house of
their dreams.
- Then they need an insurance to protect
our money and the house of their
dreams.

16. How? Blockchain as catalyst.
- Efficiency gains in our own internal
and intra-bank processes : less
reconciliation, less (manual) checks,…
- New offerings for our customers,
exploring markets we didn’t enter
before
- Ecosystems to join or to build with a
shared ledger of secured, trusted data

17. What? Some blockchain ideas
- Efficiency
- Car Loan & Mortgage
- X-border X-currency realtime payment
- New offerings
- A Trade Finance for the SME market
- Store secured documents in a vault
- Ecosystems could be the most powerful
(side)effect of blockchain
- Ecosystems

18. But… Some challenges lie ahead!
- Collaboration between banks?
- Integration with legacy systems?
- It’s just an idea, we’ll have to learn the
possibilities of this nascent technology
- Extra security or disruptive tech?
- No clear regulations (yet)
- Why choose blockchain for FinTech?

19. And… what if we don’t?
Just imagine someone uses blockchain
- To exchange value over the internet
- Between unknown parties
- Without central regulation/steering

20. Satoshi Nakamoto
Bank Employee

22. How to pay for services?
How to insure goods?
We are still here!
What can our customers do?
What’s our efficiency gain?
The new fabric of trust.
Who is who on our systems?
Who to trust in misfortune?
Identity is the new money.
Logical steps for financial institutions in distributed ledger tech
IT research : scalability, resilience,…
Legal research : legal/compliance/risk, regulator,…

23. Three drivers for financial institutions
1. Efficiency gains (eg. Santander estimates $20 Bn / year)
2. New Business (eg. Digital Trade Chain wins EFMA award)
3. Ecosystems
Three drivers for blockchain ideation
1. Cryptography science
2. Gaming theory
3. Software engineering & internet
Three hurdles to tackle
1. Collaboration
2. Regulations
3. Integration

24. While I catch my breath now,
some people have to catch their breath
all their life.
With public speaking, I raise bitcoin to support
improving the daily lives of people with cystic fibrosis.
Open your BTC wallet on your smartphone, scan this code.
Or use 1JmSPfvJ751BYi7TVD8xXqWzPpGXqrW9Fj as recipient.
Proceeds go to Muco vzw (www.muco.be)
Thank you for your support and appreciation.
More info, questions or
remarks?
Koen.Vingerhoets@kbc.be
Twitter : @IthronKoen
Distributed Ledger Technology Adviser
@ KBC Bank & Insurance